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Igloo

Upper Midwest struck by unusual autumn tornadoes, snowstorm

Greg McCune
Toronto Sun
Sat, 05 Oct 2013 13:59 UTC
Chicago
Unusual Storm
© Reuters/Kristina Barker/Rapid City Journal
Dustin Dunn (L) and Matthew Wenzel, both students at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City, walk along Canyon Lake Boulevard in Rapid City, South Dakota, October 4, 2013.
- The upper Midwest was recovering on Saturday from an unusual autumn wallop from a fierce snowstorm that trapped dozens of people in vehicles in western South Dakota and a swarm of tornadoes that left at least 15 people injured in rural Nebraska and Iowa.

More than 80 motorists remained stranded in western South Dakota after a blizzard rolled out of the Rocky Mountains and dumped up to three feet of snow on parts of the Northern Plains.

"Our priority right now is to get those people to a warm location," said Alexa White, spokeswoman for the Rapid City-Pennington County Emergency Management Office in South Dakota. "Many of them are out of gas in their vehicles."

To the east, emergency responders combed through debris in Iowa and Nebraska after 18 reports of tornadoes touching down overnight, including some cutting a swath as wide as a mile.

Fifteen people were injured in Wayne, Nebraska, including one man who suffered broken bones when his pickup truck was hit by a tornado, according to Nebraska emergency management spokeswoman Jodie Fawl.

Fawl said the twister did millions of dollars of damage - pummelling a local airplane hanger, farm implement supply businesses and several homes.
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Rainbow

Breathtaking night sky: Aurora Borealis over Minnesota


beforeitsnews.com
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 19:41 UTC

This spectacular show of bright red, green, white, purple and orange was captured over Saint Cloud, Minnesota, 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of the state's most populous urban areas, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

It began shortly before midnight and lasted through dawn.

Auroras are visible along the earth's poles and are the result of highly charged particles in the solar wind colliding with atoms from earth's atmosphere.

The colors depend on the altitude and the gas involved in the collision.


Comment:
ScienceDaily

Sep. 29, 2012 - The sun erupted with a wide, Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) on Sept. 27, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. EDT. CMEs are a phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later, affecting electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models estimate that the CME is traveling at around 700 miles per second and will reach Earth on Sept. 29.
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Bizarro Earth

Moo times two: Calf born with two heads


KCEN TV
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:36 UTC
Two Headed Calf
© Courtesy WPTZ Vermont
A newly born two-headed calf is calling a Whiting, Vermont dairy farm home.

"It just was something different for us today," said dairy owner Kirstin Quesnel. "Just like with humans we have some abnormalities with animals and animal births and this just happened to be one of them."

The condition, called polycephaly, is extremely rare. The calf was supposed to be a twin, but the egg inside the mother failed to split.

"We had a vet take a look at her earlier today to check all of her signs, and she seems to be doing very well," Quesnel said.

The calf spent much of Wednesday sleeping and getting her photo taken. She is also trying to walk, but her neck is not strong enough to carry the weight of two heads.

Otherwise, she's perfectly healthy, but without a name.

"Call it a miracle or call it unique, call it whatever you will, we were just blessed with this and we'll see where it goes from here."
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Snowflake Cold

Norway's wheat production impacted by Climate Change

David Archibald
wattsupwiththat.com
Sat, 05 Oct 2013 00:00 UTC
A correspondent in Oslo writes:
"The official view in Norway is in contrast to what the people experience because of cooling weather: Late spring gives flooding and avalanches when late snow-melting in the mountains. Water pipes freeze because of early and deep frost in the winter. Insect populations down 40% in 5 years because of cool and wet summers. This of cause is bad for pollination of fruit and berries. The grain harvest in Norway this summer is down 18% from average the last 5 years, despite increase in area and better seeds. But officially it is getting warmer."
Some of those observations are anecdotal but some facts can be checked - Norwegian wheat production for example. The following figure shows Norwegian wheat production from 1960. Wheat production is off 48% from its peak:
Image
© Unknown
      Read More...
Snowflake

Storm brings snow, tornadoes to Great Plains

Dirk Lammers
Associated Press
Sat, 05 Oct 2013 02:23 UTC
Rapid City
© Steve McEnroe
Brenda Nolting, of Rapid City, S.D., rolls her cart to her car after stocking up on necessities Friday, Oct. 4, 2013 at a local supermarket in Rapid City. An early snow storm has swept through Wyoming and western South Dakota, dropping more than a foot of snow in places.
Sioux Falls, SD - A storm system that buried parts of Wyoming and South Dakota in heavy, wet snow on Friday also brought powerful thunderstorms packing tornadoes to the Great Plains.

A storm dumped at least 33 inches of snow in a part of South Dakota's scenic Black Hills, National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Helgeson said Friday afternoon. Later in the day, thunderstorms rolled across the Plains, and witnesses reported seeing tornadoes in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. There were no reports of deaths from any of the tornadoes.

Earlier in the day, snow was blamed for the deaths of three people who were killed in a traffic accident on snow-slicked U.S. 20 in northeast Nebraska.

Forecasters said the cold front would eventually combine with other storms to make for a wild, and probably very wet, weekend for much of the central U.S. and Southeast.

Some of the greatest damage from tornadoes seemed to be in Wayne, Neb., a town of 9,600 where witnesses said at least four homes were destroyed. Mayor Ken Chamberlain said all of the residents in town were accounted for, but the storm caused millions of dollars in damage to an area that includes businesses and the city's softball complex.
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Bizarro Earth

The swallows are dying: 'This type of mortality event is unprecedented'


KATU.com
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 15:38 UTC
Swallow
© Wikimedia Commons
File photo of a Violet-green Swallow.
Salem, Oregon - The stormy weather we had recently didn't just knock down some trees and power lines, it also took a toll on one of the state's bird populations.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has received a number of calls about dead and dying Barn and Violet-green Swallows, with reports coming in from the Port of Saint Helens to as far south as Junction City.

It's estimated that thousands of the birds have died this past week. Groups of 10 to 200 have been reported dead in barns and other structures and, according to ODFW, the deaths appear to be in greater numbers near rivers and standing water.

"This type of mortality event is unprecedented and considered a rare and unusual event," said Colin Gillin, ODFW State Wildlife Veterinarian. "The effect on bird populations is unknown."

What happened to the birds? Experts are blaming the recent heavy rains and high winds, which they believe prevented the swallows from getting food. When the birds were examined by a lab at Oregon State University, the swallows were thin and it was obvious they had not eaten recently.

Swallows feed on insects and when the weather gets bad, it has an effect on the young and weaker birds because they suddenly become unable to take in enough food to meet their energy requirements.

Sick or dead wildlife can be reported to the ODFW Health Lab at (866) 968-2600. Keep in mind that only licensed wildlife rehabilitators may treat sick or injured wildlife.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.4 - 114km SE of Amsterdam Island


US Geological Survey
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:55 UTC
Amsterdam Island Quake_041013
© USGS
Event Time
2013-10-04 17:26:14 UTC
2013-10-04 22:26:14 UTC+05:00 at epicenter

Location
38.555°S 78.448°E depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
114km (71mi) SE of Amsterdam Island,
2543km (1580mi) SSE of Ile Rodrigues, Mauritius
2831km (1759mi) SE of Mahebourg, Mauritius
2833km (1760mi) SE of Plaine Magnien, Mauritius
2866km (1781mi) SE of Port Louis, Mauritius

Technical Details
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Evacuations ordered as Tropical Storm Karen nears U.S. coast

Kathy Finn
Yahoo News
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:12 UTC
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas south of New Orleans on Friday as a weakened Tropical Storm Karen closed in on the Louisiana coast after disrupting U.S. energy output in the Gulf of Mexico. Karen's top winds were holding at 50 mph (85 kph), down from 65 mph (105 kph) a day earlier, and National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami said the storm looked less likely to strengthen into a hurricane.
Image
Oil output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico had been cut in half as oil and gas firms shut platforms and evacuated some workers in preparation for the storm, which could still strengthen before landfall. The Gulf accounts for about 19 percent of U.S. oil production and 6 percent of natural gas output.

The mayor of Grand Isle, Louisiana, clamped a mandatory evacuation on the popular vacation and fishing destination on a barrier island south of New Orleans. Evacuations were also ordered in Lafourche Parish in the south, and residents in much of Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, were told to be out of their homes before nightfall.

The Sand Dollar Motel and Marina on Grand Isle was a frenzy of activity on Friday as boaters scrambled to get their vessels to higher ground and marina employees secured the premises. "It's already pouring here and the wind is real strong," said marina owner Susan Gaspard, who added that squalls had been hitting all morning.

Karen's projected path shifted slightly westward and it was expected to move ashore over Louisiana on Saturday night and into Mississippi on Sunday.
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Snowflake Cold

A snapshot from the Black Hills blizzard - South Dakota

Molly Golden
Yahoo News
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:07 UTC
When the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Black Hills of South Dakota region on Thursday afternoon, many of my friends and I shrugged it off. Seeing a bit of October snow in the Black Hills is certainly not unheard of, but no one believed it would be the major weather event that news outlets predicted.

Boy, were we wrong. We woke up Friday to heavy, blowing snowfall in Rapid City. Treacherous road conditions shut down schools, clinics, and part of Interstate 90. Up to 5,000 residents are without power in Rapid City, according to the Rapid City Journal. Widespread power outages are also being reported in Custer, Deadwood, Spearfish and Sturgis. More than a foot of snowfall is predicted in the region before the blizzard warning ends Saturday at 9 a.m.

Luckily, my husband and I have power, although our lights are flickering, and I hear tree branches, weighted from the heavy snow, cracking and crashing down as I write.

We're snuggling in today with a pot of coffee, blankets, and each other -- since I work from home and his office is closed due to the blizzard. We're just hoping that this October blizzard is a fluke -- otherwise, it's going to be a very long winter in South Dakota.

Here are photos from Friday morning:
Image
Additional images
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Snowflake Cold

"Unseasonably" intense fall snow storm hits U.S. upper Midwest - up to 3 feet of snow and high winds expected

Dirk Lammers
Associated Press
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:03 UTC
Powerful storms crawled into the Midwest on Friday, dumping heavy snow in South Dakota, spawning a tornado in Nebraska and threatening dangerous thunderstorms from Oklahoma to Wisconsin.

A foot of snow had fallen in western South Dakota's scenic Black Hills by early Friday, bringing blizzard conditions that shuttered roadways and even canceled a polka bar crawl in an Old West tourist town. Residents were bracing for as much as 3 feet of snow, along with wind gusts of up to 70 mph, from an unseasonably intense fall snow storm.
Image
© State of Wyoming
Traffic cam from I-80 in Wyoming
The typically bustling Pilot Travel Center just west of Rapid City was like a ghost town Friday morning, as drivers were likely heeding forecasters' warnings to stay off the roads, said store general manager John Barton.

The blowing snow was picking up outside the truck stop along Interstate 90, which was closed for about 30 miles thanks to a storm gaining strength as it moved in from Colorado and Wyoming. Conditions were expected to deteriorate throughout the day.
      Read More...
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