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Wed, 13 Oct 2021
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Seismograph

Strong shallow 6.5 magnitude earthquake hits the Atlantic Ocean near the South Sandwich Islands

The epicenter of Tuesday's earthquake

The epicenter of Tuesday's earthquake
A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 has struck the South Atlantic Ocean near the South Sandwich Islands, seismologists say, just days after the region was struck by a similar earthquake. There is no threat of a tsunami.

The earthquake happened at 3:54 p.m. on Tuesday and was centered about 56 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Montagu Island, which is part of a British overseas territory that is known as South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The earthquake was initially measured at 6.7, but the magnitude was later downgraded to 6.5, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It said the earthquake struck about 47 kilometers (29 miles) below the seabed, making it a shallow earthquake.

Snowflake

New documentary uses walrus 'tragedy porn' to shore up climate change myth

suicidal walrus
A recent Netflix 'Our Planet' program with David Attenborough delivering a disturbing message of doom about walruses falling off a cliff to their deaths because of climate change is contrived nonsense on par with the bogus National Geographic starving polar bear video of 2017. The walruses shown in this Netflix film were almost certainly driven over the cliff by polar bears during a well-publicized incident in 2017, not because they were "confused by a combination of shrinking ice cover and their own poor eyesight".

Apologies for neglecting to add, h/t to Charles the Moderator from WUWT!

UPDATE 8 April 2019: Falling off cliffs is not a new phenomenon. Here is video of US Fish and Wildlife officials in 1994 trying to explain a situation where walruses are falling even without the impetus from polar bears, at Cape Pierce in the southern Bering Sea (a haulout for adult males during the ice-free season). Explanation? Overcrowding (too many walruses)! h/t to Mark Sullivan.

Snowflake

Spring snowfall leaves one dead, thousands without electricity in Finland

File photo

File photo
An unusual spring snowfall swept across the central part of Finland from Monday to Tuesday, leaving one person dead in a traffic accident and about 8,000 households without electricity.

The Finnish Metthat it measured 18 cm of snow at its Tikkakoski weather station in central Finland.

The snowfall was the heaviest on Monday evening -- over 4 mm of precipitation per hour. A general rule of thumb in meteorology is that one millimeter of measured precipitation equals one centimeter of snow.

Snowfall across the area made driving conditions hazardous, causing several road traffic accidents. One person died Tuesday morning in a collision between a car and a delivery lorry in Jyvaskyla.


Snowflake

Spring snow falls in New England, U.S. Midwest prepares for blizzard

Spring snow falls in New England
© Denis Balibouse
Spring snow falls in New England
New England states enjoying the first signs of spring were hit with a wintry blast of snow on Monday and parts of the U.S. Midwest prepared for a blizzard.

The snow storm in New England brought more than 2 inches (5 cm) of snow to Portland, Maine, and up to half a foot fell in inland areas of the state and parts of neighboring New Hampshire, said meteorologist Brian Hurley of the federal Weather Prediction Center.

Some places in New England can expect to receive up to 10 inches (25 cm) of additional snow by Wednesday, when the storm will drift out into the Atlantic Ocean, Hurley said.

The wintry weather in New England was not blustery enough to count as a blizzard, meteorologists said, but a stronger storm was forming over the Midwest, taking shape as a blizzard that will strike on Tuesday night.


Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Rare Arctic falcons spotted in southern Newfoundland, Canada

Gyrfalcon
© Bruce Mactavish
Gyrfalcon
A St. John's man is the envy of the local birdwatching community for being at the right place at the right time.

Bruce Mactavish, an avid birdwatcher, captured some spectacular shots of a white gyrfalcon at Cape Spear on the weekend.

The white bird-of-prey is the largest of the falcons, and native to the high Arctic. It is rarely seen as far south as the Avalon Peninsula.

Mactavish's photos are being widely shared within the birdwatching community.

Attention

US Midwest braces for yet another major storm

WINTER STORM
© Scott Olson / Getty Images
It's been less than a month since a bomb cyclone hovered over parts of the Midwest, dumping a mix of snow, sleet, and rain on the region. The system wreaked havoc on people, animals, infrastructure, and destroyed over $440 million in crops in Nebraska alone. Now, a similar weather event is headed that way again.

Wyoming and Colorado will get a healthy coating of snow in the mountains tonight and tomorrow, but the storm won't get really worked up until it moves into the central portion of the country midweek.

Forecasters aren't yet sure if we can call this storm bomb cyclone 2.0, but it will bring snow, high winds, and possibly thunderstorms to the Plains and Upper Midwest starting on Wednesday. Winter storm watches are in effect in six states. Folks in the High Plains, Northern Plains, and upper Midwest are bracing for what could amount to more than 6 inches of snow, though models show the heaviest band of snow potentially delivering upwards of 30 inches in some places.

While the snowstorm itself is certainly cause for concern, it's the snowmelt that will occur after the system dissipates that's truly troubling for a region still struggling to recover from the March deluge.

Cloud Precipitation

Hail up to softball size smashes cars in Texas

This was the hail in Flo
© Chase Lee
This was the hail in Flo
Hail the size of softballs and suspected tornadoes caused extensive damage in parts of Texas.

Spring severe weather season is well underway across the U.S. South, with 125 tornadoes already reported this year across the country. In addition to generating some possible tornado sightings, Saturday's storms across Texas also produced some massive hail. Hailstones up to softball size resulted in some dramatic images of both the storms themselves and the damage they caused, including the battered car featured in the video.


Snowflake

Spring snowfall closes mountain roads in Portugal

snow road
Access to the central highlands of Serra da Estrela has been cut today (Friday) following snow and adverse weather conditions.

The local rescue operations centre told Lusa that at around 9am on Friday morning there were road closures between Piornos/Torre, Torre/Lagoa Comprida, Lagoa Comprida/Loriga and Lagoa Comprida/Cruzamento do Sabugueiro.

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) is forecasting "periods of very cloudy sky with showers that may fall as hail and snow above 800/1,000 metres in the north and centre of the country ".


Cloud Precipitation

Five dead after flooding in Accra, Ghana

flood
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has confirmed five deaths after Accra got flooded Sunday night.

Speaking on Morning Starr, the Greater Accra Regional Director of NADMO, Archibald Cobbinah said the incident involves a woman and her child, two men and one other who was electrocuted.

The police have conveyed the bodies to the morgue.

Parts of Accra got flooded, especially the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and its environs leaving most roads unusable.

Mr. Cobbinah told Morning Starr host Francis Abban on Monday there is a need for drastic change in the habit of citizens who litter indiscriminately.


Cloud Precipitation

Severe hailstorm lasting an hour destroys crops in Trongsa and Yangtse, Bhutan

Hailstorm destroys crops
A severe hailstorm on Tuesday, that lasted for about an hour, covered Changrey and Drakteng in white.

The storm destroyed all the chili saplings, buckwheat, cardamom, maize, potatoes and oranges in the area. The farm road in the area was also affected. Every household in Changrey cultivated acres of chili and buckwheat.

With chili -the main source of cash for the people- destroyed, citizens are worried about the coming year. The municipal administration and other relevant agencies were all informed about the disaster.