Earth Changes

'Rare' circumhorizontal arc seen over Michigan

Bill Steffen
WOOD TV
Sun, 07 Aug 2016 13:12 UTC

This awesome pictures comes from Heather Chatfield, who was driving south on US 127 north of Jackson. This is not a rainbow, it's a very rare circumhorizontal arc. The ribbon of color is caused by sunlight hitting the ice crystals in cirrus clouds. To get a circumhorizontal arc, the sun has to be higher than 58 degrees above the horizon - so here in the mid latitudes, it's only possible in the late spring to mid-summer during the middle of the day.

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.

Lightning bolt strikes train causing large explosion in Elektrogorsk, Russia

Keyan Milanian
Daily Mirror
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 13:08 UTC

© CEN
Passengers can be seen running for their lives after the bolt struck struck overhead powerlines seconds before a fire breaks out on the roof

The incredible moment a lightning bolt zapped a train have been captured on camera.

Passengers can be seen running for their lives after the bolt struck struck overhead powerlines seconds before a fire breaks out on the roof.

The amateur footage of the incident in the ironically named western Russian town of Elektrogorsk - named after its own power station - shows several passengers climbing out of the train and running away.

The train had come to a halt just outside the town's station and witnesses said they saw smoke starting to billow out from the roof of one of the carriages.

Pilot fire grows to 7 square miles, some evacuations ordered in San Bernardino County, California

firetracker.scpr.org
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 05:36 UTC

Firefighters try to prevent the Pilot Fire from burning over Highway 173 Sunday night, Aug. 7. (Stuart Palley/KPCC)

A wildfire in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles grew to about 7 square miles overnight and prompted officials to issue evacuation orders in some communities.

The Pilot Fire, which started Sunday afternoon, was about 5 percent contained early Monday. It was burning in the San Bernardino Mountains between Lake Arrowhead and Silverwood Lake.

At least 400 firefighters were working to cut lines on the fire.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Lyn Sieliet told KPCC the strategy is to keep the fire from pushing northeast toward homes.

"They're using multiple aircraft to try and get a line around the fire, get ahead of it to keep it from going into the homes in the Hesperia area," Sieliet said.

Comment: Information map.

SOTT Earth Changes Summary - July 2016: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

Sott.net
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 22:13 UTC

July 2016 was a crazy month in more ways than one. A global spike in terror attacks and people going postal was apparently mirrored by Mother Nature. Among the extreme weather events and trends in environmental upheaval last month, we observed:

A destructive tornado outbreak in South Africa (where it's winter-time)
Hail the size of golf-balls falling in - of all places - Colombia and Brazil
Intense electrical storms everywhere, with lightning strikes continuing to pick people off in alarming numbers
Deluges of rain washing away cars and people everywhere from Mexico City to Berlin to Maryland
Devastating flooding across swathes of China, India and Nepal
Multiple destructive waterspouts coming ashore in Cuba
Animals, both wild and captive, attacking and killing people
An enormous meteor fragmenting from horizon to horizon over the US Southwest

These were just some of the signs in July 2016:

Two climbers freeze to death in August on the Matterhorn

Andrea Vogt
The Telegraph (UK)
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 20:27 UTC

Matterhorn

The two British climbers who frozen to death on the Matterhorn may have been trying a second attempt to summit the peak when a massive storm trapped them on a perilous, narrow snowfield in the dead of night.

Based on information from other climbers who encountered the pair on the southwest ridge of the 4,478-metre mountain, rescuers believe the two men had tried and failed to summit the day before and were trying a second time, but turned back too late.

When a helicopter rescue was finally possible 36 hours later, Finance Police Rescue Marshall Massimiliano Giovannini found Peter Rumble and Dennis Robinson buried under a snowdrift, unresponsive and lying on top of one another. Italian authorities said the two men, both age 67, were close friends and resided in France.

13-year-old boy killed by lightning strike in Hovit, Armenia

Armen Press
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 19:10 UTC

13-year-old boy has died in lightning strike in Hovit village of Shirak province, head of the village Avetik Seropyan informed "Armenpress".

"The incident took place on August 5 in the administrative territory of the village at 17:15 when the boy Robert Avagyan was returning home with his cousin. 300-400 meters have left for returning home, and the incident occurred", Avetik Seropyan said.

He said the boy has been taken to hospital, but it was already late.

The child's funeral will take place on August 9.

An underrated killer: Lightning in 2016 has already taken a deadly toll across the U.S

Leigh Morgan
AL.com
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 18:56 UTC

There have been 22 deaths in 2016 caused by lightning, including two in Alabama.

Thunderstorms are a part of life in Alabama in the summertime.

While they can provide a temporary cooldown from sweltering temperatures — they can also bring a danger that is often overlooked: lightning.

There have been 22 deaths from lightning in 2016, the most recent on Friday on Florida's Okaloosa Island.

In comparison, there have been 12 deaths this year from tornadoes.

Florida leads the nation with a total of six deaths from lightning. Next is Louisiana with four. Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina have two each. Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia have one apiece.

Lightning ignites 9 new fires in Boise National Forest, Idaho

Karen Lehr
kivitv.com
Sun, 07 Aug 2016 18:36 UTC

Fire crews in the Boise National Forest are now working on nine new lightning-caused fires, as lightning cells moved through the area Sunday afternoon.

Very little rain occurred with the lightning event. Most of the new fires are small (under 2 acres) and approximately 50 percent of these are staffed, according to a press release from the Boise National Forest.

These new start fires are being fought with a variety of crews, engines, helicopters and air tankers.

Four of the fires are in the Boiling Springs area, about 15 miles north of Garden Valley in Valley County. Another is about 1-mile north of Sage Hen Reservoir and the fourth is about 3 miles northeast of Silver Creek Hot Springs area. These are also in Valley County.

Juvenile humpback whale dies after stranding in Seattle, Washington

Christine Clarridge
The Seattle Times
Sun, 07 Aug 2016 17:10 UTC

From left, Jeff Hogan of Killer Whale Tales, Jessie Huggins of Cascadia Research Collective and Kaddee Lawrence of Marine Science and Technology at Highline College, try to keep a humpback whale hydrated after it stranded itself just south of the Fauntler

© Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times
From left, Jeff Hogan of Killer Whale Tales, Jessie Huggins of Cascadia Research Collective and Kaddee Lawrence of Marine Science and Technology at Highline College, try to keep a humpback whale hydrated after it stranded itself just south of the Fauntleroy ferry dock Sunday.

Hundreds of people flocked to the Fauntleroy ferry terminal in West Seattle on Sunday morning to watch the dramatic — and ultimately heartbreaking — attempt to save a juvenile humpback whale that became stranded just 20 feet from shore.

Angela Wood and Michael Sughrue raced from Renton when they learned from the Orca Network that the approximately 30-foot marine mammal was in trouble. Both sat on a log looking out toward the water and cried silently after learning that efforts to save the cetacean had failed.

"We feel we lost a king of this planet," said Sughrue.

"It's devastating," said Wood.

10 people killed as widespread flooding hits Karachi, Pakistan

Al Jazeera
Sun, 07 Aug 2016 15:05 UTC

The flooding has left 45 percent of Karachi without power

At least 10 people have been killed after torrential rain lashed Karachi.

Fifty-six millimetres of rain was reported in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of the city on Saturday, which was enough to bring traffic to a standstill and cause widespread flooding.

Most of the people who died were killed by electrocution or were crushed when walls or buildings collapsed on them, according to reports by the AP news agency.

The inundation left 45 percent of the city without power. In turn, the lack of electricity affected the pumping stations, disrupting the water supply to the city.

Other parts of the Sindh province have also seen torrential rain in the last few days. Thatta was hit by 116mm of rain in three days, and Hyderabad was swamped when 77mm of rain fell in just one day.