Earth Changes
Social media lit up with images of the colourful skies. Several residents in southwestern Ontario managed to snap photos of the circumhorizontal arc. It was visible from many places, including the town of Laselle, Windsor and Amherstburg.
"It's actually an ice halo formed by ice crystals in cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere," says Dayna Vettese, The Weather Network manager of meteorological briefing. "The reason why this doesn't look like a halo is because the arc is so large it looks like it's almost parallel to the horizon. These occur when the sun is very high in the sky. As the sunlight passes through the existing ice crystals, the sun ray is split into its individual colours giving it the rainbow effect."
The conditions have to be "just right" for the arcs to appear, Vettese adds.
"The sun must be 58 degree elevation or higher, and there must be cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere with a certain type of ice crystal for this to form."
Meanwhile, after severe storms slammed Nova Scotia, prompting Environment Canada to issue a tornado watch for Sydney and Cape Breton County, a stunning double rainbow formed.
Emergency services found several people hurt on the ground following the blast that left the property in Ashton-under-Lyne collapsed at both the front and back. Three people have suffered serious injuries and seven others were left with minor wounds following the explosion during the early hours of Tuesday.
Aerial images showed a large pile of bricks strewn in front of the house, as rooms were left exposed with furniture visible from the road. The roof of at least one other property appeared to be badly damaged. The cause of the explosion, at around 5am, is currently unconfirmed.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service deployed six engines to the scene. Gas and electricity supplies were turned off at the house and four neighbouring properties. Rescue crews described how the explosion had caused the property to collapse at the front and back.
This included Hong Kong's 18th highest occurrence of cloud-to-ground lightning detected in a hour since records began in 2005, as heavy rain pelted down after a week of sweltering temperatures.
According to Li Yuet-sim, acting senior scientific officer of the Observatory, cloud-to-ground lightning was recorded 4,884 times between 11am and 1.59pm.
A total of 3,242 instances of cloud-to-ground lightning were detected between noon and 12.59pm, which is the 18th highest in an hour since records began, Li said.
She added that the highest was about 13,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in an hour, recorded on September 9, 2010.
An amber rainstorm warning signal was issued between 12.30pm and 1.30pm, while a thunderstorm warning was in force 11.00am to 3.30pm.
Police rushed to cordon off the popular surf beach in Dalmore after fumes could be smelt coming from The Transocean Winner rig, reports The Mirror.
There is a risk that the structure, which is carrying 280 metric tonnes of diesel, could be damaged and leak its cargo into the sea.
The drilling rig became detached from the Alp Forward tug boat during severe weather conditions overnight.
HM Coastguard said: "The Maritime & Coastguard Agency's counter pollution branch and the SOSREP have both been monitoring the situation since yesterday evening and the local authority, police and Marine Scotland have all been kept informed."
According to former crew members the Transocean Winner carried out its last project at the end of July and was on its way to Malta to be broken into scrap, reports The Mirror.

Hundreds of small seismic events have occurred in an area near Pothole Glacier.
Hundreds of small seismic events have been registered in the area since June 11, with almost 100 of the recordings exceeding magnitude 2.
"That catches our attention," says West, "because magnitude 2 is big enough that you're being recorded, you can see that signal a few hundred kilometers away."
The three possible sources of these seismic events, according to West, are standard earthquake activity, volcanic activity or glacial activity. "The patterns of all these little events didn't fit the pattern of a classic earthquake swarm driven by stresses, tectonic pressures in the region," says West. The Alaska Earthquake Center worked with the Alaska Volcano Observatory and largely ruled out volcanic activity. That left glaciers as the most likely explanation.
"I have to be clear, there is no smoking gun right now about exactly what these are," West says. "The hypothesis of least astonishment I think is that they are probably coming from one of the glaciers in that area."
Of the four, Ajit Das (18) and his grandfather Mahendra Das(58) died at Gabgaon village under Chandipur police station while Basanti Singh (12) died at Ganeswarpur under Remuna block.
Jaleswar police said one Jogeswar Jena in Mahisamunda village under Jaleswar Block also died in a lightning strike.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.
Source: Press Trust of India
Gayatri (60), Doodnath (65) and Ramjanm Rajak were killed after being hit by lightning in different parts of Ballia district yesterday, police said.
Sawayajpur recorded 5 cm of rainfall followed by Babatpur and Shahjahanpur (4 cm each), Misrikh, Turtipar and Bhatpurawaghat (3 cm each), the regional meteorological department said.
Heavy rain is likely at isolated places in western part of the state and thundershowers may occur at few other places tomorrow, it said.

Footage shows more than a tonne of fish lining more than a mile of coastline of the Sea of Azov
Footage shows more than a tonne of fish lining more than a mile of coastline of the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine's Crimea
Alarmed residents from the nearby village of Shchelkine complained of the putrid smell as the 10,000 fish decayed on the seashore.
Representatives of the Federal Agency for Fishery and the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage inspected the coastline.
A spokesperson for the Federal Agency for Fishery said: "This happened as a result of unusually high water temperatures resulting in a sudden decrease of oxygen in the water.
Theoretically, today it's possible only from 12:30 pm to 3:10 pm (solar noon is around 1:50 pm now). In Grand Rapids, it would be possible from April 18 to August 23 - after that the sun never gets above 58 degrees at solar noon. The ice crystals have to be in the right spot, the clouds have to be the right thickness and the reflection has to be pointed at the photographer. Many people go a lifetime without seeing a circumhorizontal arc. This picture was taken at 12:53 pm.
Here's a pic. from Carrie Delong Campbell in Corunna showing a little streak of color. The clouds are at two different levels. The higher cirrus clouds are producing the circumhorizontal arc. The lower cumulus clouds are below.
















Comment: The fire service seems to be denigrating a selfless act. Rescuing a fellow human being from being burned alive or dying from smoke inhalation is not an 'issue'. How ignorant.