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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Cloud Lightning

Ferocious storm closes wettest April ever in UK

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The return of the floods: The River Severn turns Tewkesbury Abbey into a virtual island after days of heavy rain in an unwelcome reminder of the devastating floods of 2007
It is the wettest April on record, the Met Office says - and the rain is set to continue.

Despite the drought and the hosepipe ban, much of England and Wales was braced for flooding today as further heavy rain continued to wreak havoc across the country.

And, as if Britons needed confirmation of just how wet it has been, newly-released figures show the month so far has seen 'well above' average rainfall across the UK, with 97mm recorded - 140 per cent of the long-term monthly average.

Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, which was devastated by flooding in July 2007, was on alert with the Environment Agency setting up an incident room there along with two others in the Midlands and another in the Wessex area.

Stretches of the Severn were at risk of bursting their banks following weather which will be an unwelcome reminder of Tewkesbury's flash floods in 2007, which claimed the lives of three people and left 350,000 people in the county without a supply of clean drinking water.

Bizarro Earth

Nicaragua Monitors Microseismic Activity Increase in Volcano

Masaya Volcano
© Prensa Latina
Nicaraguan Experts reported Sunday more seismic activity at Masaya volcano, about 20 kilometers south of Managua, with an increase in expulsions of sulfur gases, which keeps the disaster warning system in high alert.

According to the report, a crack in the main crater causes higher emissions and a sound similar to a jet engine.

Specialists of the National System for Prevention, Mitigation and Attention to Disasters (SINAPRED) and the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER), told the press that they detected this unusual behavior several days ago, but for now there is no reason for alarm.

The INETER geophysics director, Angelica Munoz, told the site El 19 Digital they monitor Masaya's situation closely because of rising emissions and temperature above the normal range.

Technical teams assess the seismic tremor, but there is no emergency declared and the gates of Masaya Volcano National Park remain open to the public, said the director of INETER, Jorge Castro, and the executive secretary of SINAPRED, Guillermo Gonzalez.

Bizarro Earth

East and West coast of Canada hit with inexplicable earthquake swarms "Sounds like dynamite exploding."

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck about 200 kilometres west of Vancouver Island on Friday morning but there were no reports of it being felt by island residents. This was the largest quake in a small swarm of earthquakes off the coast of Vancouver. The quake struck around 1:36 a.m. PT, according to the Natural Resources Canada. Earthquakes of that size are common in the area and experts say they do not indicate a large earthquake is more likely. The U.S. Geological Service reported three quakes of similar magnitude in the area over the past five days, and there have been several more reported in recent months.


Bizarro Earth

4.1 magnitude earthquake jolts Southern California

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© USGS
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake rattled Southern California on Saturday morning, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. The temblor struck at 8:07 a.m. near Devore, about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The quake was felt across the region, in San Bernardino County, the San Gabriel Valley and the city of Los Angeles. Residents around Devore reported a sharp jolt, though there were no reports of problems.

Bizarro Earth

Deep 6.7 magnitude earthquake hits Tonga trench in the Pacific

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© USGS
A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Tonga Trench at a depth of 129.4 km (80.4 miles). The earthquake was too deep to generate a tsunami. The epicenter of the undersea quake was 2266 km (1408 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand. The Tonga Trench is a convergent plate boundary in the South Pacific. The trench lies at the northern end of the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone, an active subduction zone where the Pacific Plate is being subducted below the Tonga Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate.

Cloud Lightning

Colorado Tornadoes Cause Widespread Damage

Colorado lightning
© Josh Myers
Finger Lightning near the Aurora Reservoir
People in southeast Colorado are cleaning up damage after up to five tornadoes struck early Friday morning.

All of the tornadoes were southeast of Lamar. The National Weather Service says preliminary findings indicate five tornadoes touched down. Two were in Prowers County, two in Kiowa County and one in Bent County.

Nuke

Jellyfish-Like Organisms Shut Down California Power Plant

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© Getty Images
The workers of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant received a very slimy surprise this week when they discovered hoards of jellyfish-like creatures clinging to the structure, leading to the shutdown of the plant.

The organisms, called salp, are small sea creatures with a consistency similar to jellyfish.

The influx of salp was discovered as part of the plant's routine monitoring system, according to Tom Cuddy, the senior manager of external and nuclear communications for the plant's operator, Pacific Gas & Electric.

"We then made the conservative decision to ramp down the affected unit to 20 percent and continued to monitor the situation," Cuddy said. "When the problem continued, we made another conservative decision that it would be safest to curtail the power of the unit."

The salp were clogging the traveling screens in the intake structure, which are meant to keep marine life out and to keep the unit cool.

Comment: It's not the first or second time something like this has happened. And we, at SOTT, wonder what exactly is going on.
Jellyfish Invasions Force Shutdowns at 3 Separate Nuclear Plants
Attack of the jellyfish: Sea creatures shut down ANOTHER power station amid claims population surge is due to climate change
Jellyfish threaten Israeli power plant
Jellyfish shut down British nuclear reactor


Cloud Lightning

Flash Floods Wreak Havoc in Kenya, Seven Children Drowned in National Park

kenya flood
© KIPLANG'AT KIRUI
A man in Narok town tries save his chair from floods.
Weeks after the long rains season started, Kenyans are feeling its effect as floods wreak havoc in most parts of the country. A church retreat turned tragic when seven youths drowned because of flooding at Hell's Gate National Park in Naivasha.

Already the floods-prone area of Budalangi has received floods alert after River Nzoia broke its banks. In Kisumu, heavy rains rendered hundreds homeless and destroyed a key road linking the city to Kisii town.

Cloud Lightning

Baseball Sized Hail Reported in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Viewers in Sevier County are reporting large hail stones, some as big as golf balls and baseballs, pounded the area Thursday afternoon.


Dispatchers reported they had received reports of vehicles being damaged in the Gatlinburg area. The area hardest hit was near the Food City, where firefighters said some of the hail was as large as baseballs. There were several reports of broken windows.

Cloud Lightning

Golf ball-sized Hail Storm in South Carolina

Lightning strike
© Nathan Gray, Anderson Independent Mail
Lightning strikes near New Prospect Church Road and West Whitner Street during a thunderstorm Thursday morning.
Lightning and hail were reported in several parts of Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties on Thursday and forecasters expect a few scattered storms today.

Hail as big as golf balls was reported in the Townville area, along with smaller hail in Powdersville and Williamston, among other parts of the three counties.

"There's been some reports of Ping-Pong ball-sized hail and half-dollar-sized hail across the area," said National Weather Service meteorologist Doug Outlaw, based at the Greenville-Spartanburg airport.