Earth Changes
The sounds -- variously described as rattling pipes, clanging metal, thunder or firecrackers -- have continued on and off since early Sunday night in just one part of the small town of 4,600, located about 180 miles northeast of Madison.
Accompanying the sounds are vibrations that have shaken homes and household objects in the northeast corner of town, city manager Lisa Kuss said.
The sounds were loud enough Monday morning that a CNN journalist could hear them during a cell phone conversation with Kuss.
On March 20, a flood warning was in effect up and down the eastern sides of Texas and Oklahoma, including Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. The National Weather Service posted a flood warning for the double cities because of heavy rainfall over the last 36 hours. More isolated thunderstorms are expected to develop late afternoon and evening, generating more heavy rainfall, lightning and small hail.

The AIRS instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image that showed cloud top temperatures in the severe frontal system over Texas and Oklahoma on March 20 at 0753 UTC 34:53 am EST). The strongest thunderstorms, heaviest rainfall and coldest cloud top temperatures (around 220 Kelvin/ -63.6 F/-53.1 C) appear in purple.
City Administrator Lisa Kuss (KOOS) says it was mostly quiet Monday after a series of rumbles the night before until they started again around 8 p.m. She says they continued throughout night until about 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 18:02:48 UTC
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 12:02:48 PM at epicenter
Location:
16.662°N, 98.188°W
Depth:
17.5 km (10.9 miles)
Region:
OAXACA, MEXICO
Distances:
25 km (15 miles) E (95°) from Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico
42 km (26 miles) NNW (335°) from Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, Mexico
87 km (54 miles) SW (219°) from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico
162 km (101 miles) WSW (255°) from Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
186 km (115 miles) E (96°) from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
US - Severe weather hammered the Midwest and South from Minnesota to Texas including a tornado that touched down in San Antonio, where at least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Residents across this broad region were bracing for flooding Tuesday after the severe weather brought heavy rain and hail that is anticipated to continue for the next few days. With the storm system slowing significantly, tornadoes are becoming less likely but flash flooding becomes a major concern, forecasters said.
The slow-moving weather pattern will bring thunderstorms with heavy rain as it moves over the same area, according to the National Weather Service, which said that some locations will receive a foot of rain by midweek.
The NWS reported that the tornado touched down 25 miles southwest of San Antonio on Monday evening, and that parts of the city and surrounding areas were under a tornado warning. Although some were trapped inside their homes, no fatalities were reported by early Tuesday morning.
Tornado warnings across the San Antonio area were canceled around 11 p.m. Monday, according to ABC News affiliate KSAT. Crews began assessing damage to the area late Monday night.

This NOAA satellite image taken Monday, March 19, 2012 at 10:45 AM EDT shows dense cloud cover over much of the Plains as active weather ramps up across the region.
The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down Monday evening about 25 miles southwest of San Antonio. The twister damaged several homes, trapping some people inside their mobile homes, but no fatalities were reported, according to The San Antonio Express-News.
The fresh crop of storms comes after two tornadoes damaged homes and railcars in North Platte, Neb., on Sunday. The EF3 twister with winds up to 165 mph injured four people.
Flooding remains a serious concern across the affected areas.
Lifeguards believe the 20-year-old engineering student who was surfing at Nobby Beach may have been attacked by a small bull shark about 5.05pm. *
He suffered a deep wound to his lower left leg.
Gold Coast chief lifeguard Warren Young told brisbanetimes.com.au lifesavers were on the scene within minutes and were able to stem the bleeding, before ambulance paramedics arrived to take the man to Gold Coast Hospital.
One person was dug out alive from under 20ft of snow and taken to hospital after the snowslide yesterday near Tromsoe, on Norway's Arctic coast.
The six tourists, five Swiss and one French national, were part of a group of 12 people skiing in the area when the avalanche struck near Sorbmegaisa mountain, an area near the Lyngen fjord surrounded by high peaks and popular with off-piste skiers and snowboarders. The party had apparently reached the area by boat.
The avalanche was triggered about 1,100 metres up, according to police.
The victims were wearing avalanche transceivers which guided about 30 rescuers digging through the snow. Police and military helicopters were also sent to the site.
"It was a demanding search," said Tor Indrevold, of the local Red Cross team, adding rescuers were "digging down two storeys" of snow.

Storm clouds hover over the Sacramento Valley as seen from on top of Cantelow Hill in Yolo County looking east on Sunday.
By mid-afternoon Sunday, pea-sized hail was reported throughout the area - from Curtis Park to midtown to Rancho Cordova.
"We got hail here for about 10 minutes," Rancho Cordova Councilwman Linda Budge emailed The Bee. "Also thunder once. Temps dropped noticeably between noon and three."
And if you thought it was colder than usual, you were right. Sunday's daytime high of 55 was well below the normal temperature on March 18 of 67 degrees, the National Weather Service said.
This has been a week of incredibly warm weather across much of the country. Over 1,500 record high temperatures have been broken or tied the past seven days, and we're not done breaking records yet! Here's a quick roundup of the action so far:
Monday - According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), 138 daily high temperature records were tied or broken primarily in the Northeast and Midwest. This includes records set in New York City (71), Boston, Mass. (71) and Albany, N.Y. (69) that were more than 100 years old!
Tuesday - 218 daily high temperature records tied or broken in the Central and Northeast U.S, according to NCDC. Included were Concord, N.H. (71), Omaha, Neb. (81), Minneapolis, Minn. (67) and Sioux Falls, S.D. (79).









