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Fire

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

Evacuations Ordered

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.


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

comet meteor US southwest july 2016
© Sott.net
Enormous meteor fireball - possibly a comet fragment - disintegrates over the US Southwest, 27 July 2016
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:


Ice Cube

Two climbers freeze to death in August on the Matterhorn

Matterhorn

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.

Cloud Lightning

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

Lightning
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.

Cloud Lightning

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

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

Fire

Lightning ignites 9 new fires in Boise National Forest, Idaho

Wildfire
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.

Attention

Juvenile humpback whale dies after stranding in Seattle, Washington

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.



Cloud Precipitation

10 people killed as widespread flooding hits Karachi, Pakistan

The flooding has left 45 percent of Karachi without power
© Rehan Khan/EPA
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.



Cloud Lightning

Lightning claims two more lives in Bihar, India; death toll mounts to 82

Lightning
© MGN Online
A man and his daughter were killed when lightning struck them at Kelabari under Ismailpur police station area in Bhagalpur district today, taking the toll to 82 in the state this monsoon.

Police said here that one Ramvilas Mandal, a native of Kelabari village and her daughter Nikita Kumari died when lightning struck them during heavy downpour. Both were returning home from their field after completing agrarian work when the incident took place.

With the death of two, the toll has reached 82 in this Monsoon. Altogether 80 people lost their lives to lightning in different parts of the state earlier.

Cloud Precipitation

Update: Hurricane Earl death toll in Mexico rises to 39

Mexico landslides

The community of Coscomatepec, Veracruz, in eastern Mexico was among many towns and villages hit by landslides.
As Tropical Storm Javier formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Sunday, the death toll from the remnants of Hurricane Earl grew to 39.

Earl, which was briefly a hurricane before hitting Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, dumped rain and triggered deadly landslides across parts of eastern Mexico, The Associated Press reported.

The governor of the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, said Sunday that 11 people had died in landslides in the towns of Cocomatepec, Tequila and Huayacocotla. Officials in the central state of Puebla also reported at least one death in a landslide in the mountain town of Xaltepec.

Authorities were still searching the area for residents who were reported missing, according to a statement from the state government.

At least 28 people died in multiple mudslides in the mountainous north of Puebla state, National Civil Protection Coordinator Luis Felipe Puente said in an interview with ForoTV. He said 25 of the dead were in various parts of the township of Huaucinango and three were in Tlaola.


Comment: Six dead as Tropical Storm Earl triggers landslides in Veracruz, Mexico