Earth Changes
Heavy rainfall this week across the Balkans has caused rivers to rise dangerously in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, flooding some areas and threatening flood defenses elsewhere.
Floods were also reported in Kosovo and Albania, where high waters soaked agricultural land, blocked roads and caused temporary power outages.
In northern Albania, the local power company had to open sluices and release water from bulging reservoirs, flooding nearby areas for a third time in as many months.
In northern Kosovo, authorities said parts of the town of Mitrovica have been flooded, forcing people to evacuate their homes.

Children carry containers to fetch drinking water along a road during a cold winter day in the Yaftali Sufla district of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan on January 18, 2023
The ministry said on Wednesday that 70 people and 70,000 cattle have died in the past week.
For the last two weeks, many provinces in Afghanistan have been witnessing exceptionally cold weather, with the central region of Ghor recording the lowest reading of -33C (-27F) over the weekend.
This is a disconnection event: A piece of Comet ZTF's tail has been pinched off and is being carried away by the solar wind.
Blame space weather. CMEs hitting comets can cause magnetic reconnection in comet tails, sometimes ripping them off entirely. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft watched this happen to Comet Encke in April 2007: movie.
This month, multiple CMEs have swept past Comet ZTF as a result of surging solar activity. One of them is responsible for the disconnection event.
Soon, we'll get a better look. Comet ZTF is approaching Earth for a close encounter (0.28 AU) on Feb. 1st. Between now and then, the comet's brightness will cross the threshold of naked-eye visibility, possibly peaking at magnitude +5. CME effects will be increasingly visible as the comet approaches. Stay tuned!

Bearizona keepers report that the park has received more than 28 inches of snow at the wildlife park!
The Flagstaff Airport measured 14.8 inches on Sunday, smashing the previous record of 8.9 inches that held for 45 years. As snow continued to fall, accumulation eventually reached 30 inches at the airport by Tuesday morning.
The last time Flagstaff saw a storm of this magnitude was in late January 2021 when officials measured a 33.2-inch snowfall.
The areas impacted by the storm were expansive, said meteorologist Benjamin Peterson, including most areas at elevation above 5,500 feet, stretching from the northern rim of the Grand Canyon east to the White Mountains.

In this June 15, 2014, file photo released by the U.S. Geological Survey, a polar bear dries off after taking a swim in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska. A polar bear has attacked and killed two people in a remote village in western Alaska, according to state troopers who said they received the report of the attack on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2023, in Wales, on the western tip of the Seward Peninsula.
Alaska State Troopers said they received the report of the attack at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in Wales, on the western tip of the Seward Peninsula, KTUU reported.
"Initial reports indicate that a polar bear had entered the community and had chased multiple residents," troopers wrote.
"The bear fatally attacked an adult female and juvenile male."
Police spokesperson Capt Aafje Botma said the incident happened at about 4pm at a house in Dorp Street.
"Initial investigation indicates that the man was walking in the street when the dogs allegedly escaped through a hole in the fence of their yard and attacked him. The dogs bit him on his throat and he died on the scene," Botma said.
She said police were busy with the investigation and awaiting the post mortem results.
The dogs were removed by the Kimberley SPCA.
Comment: Further details of the other 8 attacks:
- Man killed in dog attack in Bloemhofm, South Africa - 9th such fatality for the country within 10 weeks
- Woman dies after being mauled by two pit bulls in Limpopo, South Africa - 7th such fatality for the country within 7 weeks
- Man mauled to death by dogs in Durban, South Africa - 6th such fatality in the country in 4 weeks
- Pit bull mauls man to death in South Africa - 5th such fatality within 3 weeks
- Yet another death due to dog attack in South Africa - 4th in 2 weeks
- Toddler mauled to death in another pit bull attack in South Africa - 3rd such fatality in 10 days
- Another child attacked and killed by a pit bull in the Free State, South Africa
- Eight-year-old boy mauled to death by neighbour's pit bull in Bloemfontein, South Africa
According to the National Park Service, the 20-foot-long humpback whale was found on the beach on the morning of Jan. 16 in the Maryland Oversand Vehicle Area. The area is currently closed so the whale can be handled safely.
Staff with the NPS contacted the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Stranding Response Team, and in partnership with the National Aquarium, a necropsy is planned for Tuesday. At the time, there were no obvious signs as to the cause of death.
Officials said heavy machinery will help move the whale to the upper part of the beach, then after the necropsy is performed, it will be moved to the dunes to dry before burial.
Visitors are asked to keep their distance and keep any dogs on a leash. Officials are warning that the carcass will smell for a while but should not be an issue more than 50 yards from the location.
Several flights and trains were running late due to low visibility, reported news agency ANI.
"Several flights scheduled to depart from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) were delayed due to fog, ANI quoted airport authority as saying.
The Sadarjung observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, recorded a minimum temperature of 2.6 degrees Celsius. It was 2.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday and 1.4 degrees on Monday.
The Indonesian geophysics agency said that the epicentre of the earthquake's was about 40 miles deep, 88 miles southeast of the small town of Melonguane in the North Sulawesi province.
It is unclear if there have been any deaths or injuries. One local in the regional capital of Manado told Reuters that they had felt the earthquake very strongly for several seconds, and people had run out of buildings, but that no property damage was visiblel.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that there was a risk that the earthquake could cause tsunami waves within 300 kilometres of the epicentre, Reuters reported.
But the Indonesian agency said there was no risk of tsunamis.
A 7.5 earthquake hit Sulawesi in 2018 with devastating effect. The tremor and the tsunami that followed killed more than 4,000 people.
Comment: See also: