Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Farm worries mount as drought expands across Minnesota

Minnesota is dry and getting drier.

A band of severe drought now extends from the southwestern corner of the state, through the Twin Cities, up to the northeastern tip. The only part of Minnesota that isn't short on rain is a portion of the northwest, an updated map released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center shows.

Bizarro Earth

3.2-magnitude quake shakes Kilauea as lava still flows

Hawaii - A magnitude-3.2 earthquake shook the lower east rift zone of Kilauea this morning at 8:59 a.m., but it isn't clear if the quake will have any effect on the ongoing eruption.

The earthquake was centered beneath Pu'ulena crater at a depth of about two miles, according to an update from the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Cloud Lightning

3-day stretch of heat, humidity kills 1,200 cattle in South Dakota

More than 1,200 cattle died during a three-day blast of heat and humidity in northeast South Dakota, ranchers, feedlot owners and authorities reported, though the weather was expected to ease Thursday.

The high Wednesday in Aberdeen was 96, at least the third straight day the city's temperature was in the 90s. The heat index, which is related to humidity, hit 109.

Video

Floods and fires across Europe captured from space

Highlighting the extreme weather conditions hitting Europe, space sensors aboard ESA's Envisat satellite have detected the worst floodwaters to hit Britain for 60 years and deadly fires raging through southern Europe.

Heavy rains caused the River Thames to burst its banks on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes in Britain's university city of Oxford. The flooding across England and Wales has left tens of thousands without electricity and water.

The Environment Agency still has three severe flood warnings in place - two on the Thames around Oxford and one on the Ock River near Oxfordshire. In areas where flooding is beginning to recede, sanitation officials are warning of health risks posed by stagnant waters.

Bizarro Earth

Peru cold snap kills 70 children

At least 70 children have died during a spell of freezing weather in the Andean regions of Peru, officials have said.

Question

Earthquake "Swarm" Strikes Africa, Puzzles Experts

The tremors began on July 12, so faint that they were barely noticed. A week later, a couple of good jolts sent people fleeing their offices in downtown Nairobi. Then the tremors were gone.

Scientists are still unsure about what exactly caused this "earthquake swarm" - a cluster of relatively mild shakes spaced out over several days in Kenya and Tanzania. The quakes - one of which reached magnitude 5.9 - caused little damage but spread fear that a big quake was imminent.

Cloud Lightning

Record temperatures, rainfall baste Northern California coast

Record temperatures and rain are basting the northern coast of California, a region known for brisk ocean breezes and chilly nights all year long.

In Crescent City, a coastal town just south of the Oregon border, the mercury dipped to 60 degrees early Monday morning - 3 degrees higher than the previous overnight low-temperature record, which stood for 15 years. The overnight record is also known as the "maximum minimum."

Cloud Lightning

Disastrous cold snap in Peru

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action) is releasing 50,000 euros for the victims of the devastating cold snap in the Andean regions of Peru. The money will provide warm clothing, medicine, food and blankets for around 6,000 people within the week.

©IFRC
Shaded areas show where emergencies have been declared.



South America is experiencing unusually low temperatures, even for the winter season in the southern hemisphere. The result is snowfall -exceptional for this time of year - of up to 50cm. "The people here are resilient. They even wear sandals in winter," explains Jeanette Weller, Welthungerhilfe's Regional Director in Lima. "But they can't cope with temperatures like this."

Bizarro Earth

Cricket Invasion Hits Texas

Many parts of Texas are under siege by crickets. They congregate on patios, slip into stairwells -- and, if they're crunched underfoot, they make the fanciest surroundings smell like a bait shop.

©KWTX.com

Magnify

Nevada among states with biggest temperature increases

Nevada is among the states with the most dramatic increase in average temperatures the last 30 years, according to a new study that examines the impact of global warming across the country.

The average temperature in Reno from June through August last year was 75.6 degrees, almost 7 degrees above the 30-year average, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group reported. The gap was the biggest measured nationally.

Comment: People can make their own choices. If you really believe Greenhouse Gases are responsible for all the warming then cut back on your consumption now. To think that you can continue with your present lifestyle and cutback on CO2 without making any sacrifices is wishful thinking. In the meantime, here's some food for thought. Every Ice Age has been preceded by accelerated warming. As written in a previous SOTT focus, The Younger Dryas Impact Event and the Cycles of Cosmic Catastrophes - Climate Scientists Awakening:
Just a quick look at the bottom plot from the wiki site (reproduced below) shows that if recent warm periods (or interglacials) are a guide, then we may soon slip into another glacial period and that whatever brings it about is due right about now as at least four cycles coincide to bring down global temperatures a few notches. The hype about global warming, (which preceded every glacial cycle for the past million years), is just mere distraction by comparison, because the bigger surprise is yet to come.