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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Shallow magnitude 5.2 earthquake strikes off Crete, Greece

MAP GREECE
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Crete in Greece on Saturday the United States Geological Survey reported.

The quake's epicenter was located 63 miles (100 km) west southwest of Chania, Crete. It was very shallow, with a depth of 5.6 miles (9 km).

Source: Reuters

Cloud Lightning

Update: Lightning strikes kill 40, injure 35 within a record day in Odisha, India

Representational Image
© Patrika
Representational image
As many as 40 people were killed while 35 others were left injured due to lightning strikes in Odisha, police said on 30 July.

According to media reports, eight deaths were reported from Bhadrak district, followed by seven casualties in Balasore district and five in Khurda.

Special Relief Commissioner Pradipta Mohapatra said they had received reports of several deaths due to lightning.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his condolences and directed the Special Relief Commissioner to provide ex-gratia as per the State relief code.

Lightning claims over 300 lives in Odisha every year. While 396 people were killed in 2015-16, 308 casualties were reported in 2014-15, followed by 372 in 2013-14, 294 in 2012-13 and 359 in 2011-12.

Comment: Additionally, via this website these fatalities represent the highest one day total for the state:
This is the highest number of deaths due to lightning strikes in one day in the state, according to India's state-run broadcaster, All India Radio (AIR).



Cloud Precipitation

Pakistan: 27 dead as flash flood hit bus carrying wedding party

Pakistan wedding party flash flood
© AFP
The fateful pickup van which was swept away in a flash flood, killing the wedding guests.
A flash flood triggered by monsoon rains swept away a pick-up truck carrying 30 wedding guests in Khyber Agency on Saturday, killing all but three of them.

Twenty-one among the dead were females with 18 of them children. Three more women and two other men died in the accident. All the victims were closely related, most of them from the same family. It was unclear whether the bride and groom were also travelling in the same wagon.

The bodies of the victims were retrieved from the stream by locals and rescuers and shifted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Landi Kotal. The vehicle was also recovered.

Khyber Agency Political Agent Khalid Mehmood told The Express Tribune the accident took place at around 6:30am in the Sra Shaga area of Zakakhel Bazaar, Landi Kotal.

The pickup truck was travelling on a path along a rainwater stream when a surge of water hit the vehicle. The wagon slipped into the stream and was washed away in the flash flood. "There were no warning signs as most of these nullah's have been dormant for long," Mehmood said.

Cloud Precipitation

Hailstorm dumps up to baseball-sized hail on west Cheyenne, Wyoming

Baseball-sized hail
© Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Baseball-sized hail
The second hail storm in as many days whipped through Laramie County this afternoon, this time targeting Cheyenne in the midst of its Frontier Days festivities.

According to the National Weather Service office in Cheyenne, the supercell thunderstorm moved in from the north-northwest and cut almost directly south across the western portion of town, including Frontier Park and Little America Hotel and Resort.

Hail sizes ranged from dime-sized on the outskirts of town to golf ball-sized around Frontier Park, with reports of baseball-sized hail in the vicinity of Interstate 25 and Missile Drive and Little America.

Laramie County Emergency Management is unaware of any major injuries from the hail, but there has been plenty of damage to vehicles and trees, as well as some buildings, though none as severe as what was sustained Wednesday 45 miles east of town in Pine Bluffs.



Cloud Precipitation

Hailstorm delivers tennis ball-size ice to Colorado Springs

A large mound of ice is blocking a car ten hours after a strong hail storm hit Colorado Springs.

A large mound of ice is blocking a car ten hours after a strong hail storm hit Colorado Springs.
Snow in July? Not quite.

The city of Colorado Springs witnessed a downpour of aggressive hail that persisted for hours, damaging cars and homes and forcing locals to join forces to remove heaping mounds of ice.

Resident Krystal Taylor told CNN the hail started Thursday afternoon and was strongest around 11 p.m.

"Being in our house, all we could hear were these loud smacks all around our home from (this) tennis-ball size hail being thrown at our house from above," she said. "It was loud crashing all around the house. Lightning, thunder and hail can be a scary mix."

Locals headed outside to alleviate the storm's effects, once it was safe.

"Our neighbors shoveled and worked together to get the hail out of the streets so people in the neighborhood could drive safely," Taylor said. "Despite the storm, it was heartwarming to have nearly the entire neighborhood working together. Without question people were opening their garages and bringing shovels out to help."





Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill at least 25 people in Odisha, India

Lightning
According to leading TV channel of Odisha OTV, at least 25 people were killed and 35 others injured in lightning strikes during a thunderstorm in several places in Odisha today.

As per the report, deaths were reported from Khurda, Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Kendrapara and Jajpur districts.

Several trees were uprooted, houses were thatched and electricity disrupted due to heavy rain in coastal belt of Odisha.

Cloud Lightning

Study blames climate change for stormy weather threatening US military installations on East and Gulf Coast

Military
© U.S. Navy / Reuters
Sea-level rise, tidal flooding, and frequent storms associated with climate change will impact top US military installations along the East and Gulf Coast, according to a new report, putting them at risk for major land loss in the decades ahead.

An analysis of 18 major US military installations — including bases, training or testing areas, infrastructure storage, and housing of military personnel — found that by 2050, projections of moderate sea-level rise could mean that most of the installations will receive more than 10 times the amount of flooding currently experienced.

Based on moderate projections, all but two of the installations analyzed would experience more than 100 floods per year in low-lying areas by 2050, the report, conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), stated.

Comment: We ain't seen nothin' yet!


Smiley

Mother nature flashes a smile as Hawaii volcano appears to show off a red hot grin and glowing eyes when molten lava reaches the ocean

Kilauea volcano in Hawaii

The Kilauea volcano in Hawaii has erupted, however the volcano appears to be 'smiling' when seen from the air.
A photographer captured incredible footage of a Hawaiian volcano's lava flow 'smiling' as it reached the Pacific Ocean.

The aerial video shows Kilauea's lava reaching the coast as it flowed down its slopes in the rugged Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on earlier this week.

The video which was taken by Paradise Helicopters show the volcano appear to form a giant smiley face as it pumps out lava into the sea.

Bizarro Earth

First alligator-related death in South Carolina history recorded - victim was 90-year-old woman

alligator kills woman
© File/Leroy Burnell/Staff
Alligator responsible for death of woman who was reported missing from a senior facility in West Ashley was found in a nearby retention pond Wednesday. Authorities continue to look into her death.
A 90-year-old woman's death this week is the first alligator-related fatality in state history, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Bonnie Walker was reported missing Wednesday morning from Brookdale Charleston, the West Ashley assisted-living facility where she was a resident. Her body was found in a retention pond behind the property a few hours later.

The Charleston County Coroner's Office ruled her death accidental. The cause was "multiple sharp and blunt force injuries" consistent with those made by an alligator. Robert McCullough, a spokesman for DNR, confirmed Friday afternoon that the case was the first time an alligator-related incident in the state had turned fatal.

"It's the first one as far as we've been keeping records," he said.

Agency staff completed a necropsy on the alligator and confirmed it was involved in Walker's death. They turned it over to the coroner's office.

"The injuries are consistent with those which could be inflicted by an alligator and our investigation has confirmed that an alligator was involved in the decedent's death," said Coroner Rae Wooten.

Investigators believe Walker slipped and fell down a steep embankment and landed in the water, attracting the alligator's attention.

She was reported missing from the Brookdale Charleston on Charlie Hall Boulevard around 7:40 a.m. Wednesday. Police divers recovered her body from the pond shortly before 11 a.m.

Cloud Precipitation

Yangtze river floods in China as seen from space

Yangtze River basin, China, 28 July 2016.
© NASA
Yangtze River basin, China, 28 July 2016.
NASA has released striking images showing China's Yangtze River basin floods from space.

High levels of rainfall began in June this year. By July 5, flooding and associated mudslides had affected 11 provinces, destroyed 40,000 homes, ruined more than 1.5 million hectares of crops, and killed 128 people.

Another burst of heavy rain arrived from the southeast when cyclone Nepartak made landfall in Fuijan province in mid-July. The storm destroyed tens of thousands of homes and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. Meanwhile, weather systems arriving from the west continued to march across the Yangtze River Basin extending and exacerbating the flooding. By the end of July, provinces in northeastern China had been hit with widespread and destructive flooding.

Yangtze River basin, China, 27 March 2016.
© NASA
Yangtze River basin, China, 27 March 2016.