Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 26 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Question

Noctilucent clouds almost completely missing over Antarctica

Something strange is happening 50 miles above Antarctica. Or rather, not happening. Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which normally blanket the frozen continent in December, are almost completely missing. These images from NASA's AIM spacecraft compare Christmas Eve 2019 with Christmas Eve 2020:

Noctilucent Clouds
© NASA
"The comparison really is astounding," says Cora Randall of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "Noctilucent cloud frequencies are close to zero this year."

NLCs are Earth's highest clouds. They form when summertime wisps of water vapor rise up from the poles to the edge of space. Water crystallizing around specks of meteor dust 83 km (~50 miles) above Earth's surface creates beautiful electric-blue structures, typically visible from November to February in the south, and May to August in the north.

Cloud Precipitation

Evacuations after floods and landslides in Madeira, Portugal - up to 6 inches of rain in 24 hours

Floods and landslide damages in Madeira, Portugal, after a storm on 25 December 2020.
© Government of Madeira
Floods and landslide damages in Madeira, Portugal, after a storm on 25 December 2020.
A storm brought strong winds and heavy rain to parts of the Portuguese island of Madeira on 25 December.

Flooding and landslides were reported in the municipality of São Vicente. Local media reported 20 people were evacuated in Ponta Delgada and 7 in Boaventura. One house was destroyed and several others severely damaged. Dozens of roads were closed, leaving some areas isolated, and power lines were downed leaving many residents without electricity.

Several areas recorded more than 100mm of rain in 24 hours to 25 December, with the highest total seen in Porto Moniz which recorded 161 mm of rain.


Snowflake

Record snowfall in New York State - many towns had over 20 inches of snowfall in a day

snow
"Western New York's Christmas present this year was a White Christmas, and then some," according to wgrz.com.

As of 10 p.m. Saturday, December 26 ( with two more hours left in the day), many towns had reported more than 20 inches(50.8 centimeters) snowfall in one day.

Those towns included Elma Center, Eden, Cheektowaga, Clarence, Lackawanna and Hamburg, to name a few.

Also, 18.4 inches of snow fell at the Buffalo Airport on Saturday, making for a new one-day snowfall record for December 26.



Thanks to Clay Olson for this link.

Comment: 24 hours earlier on Christmas Day: Hamburg in Western New York hit with 18 inches of snow in roughly 24 hours, several places over 10 inches


Attention

Volcano erupts on southwestern Japan island, alert level raised

Mt. Otake on Suwanose Island

Mt. Otake on Suwanose Island
A volcano on a southwestern Japan island erupted early Monday, the weather agency said, warning of the potential for big rocks being hurled into the air within about a 2-kilometer radius of the crater.

The eruption occurred at the crater of Mt. Otake on Suwanose Island of Kagoshima Prefecture at 2:48 a.m., prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to raise the volcanic activity alert level by one notch to 3 on a scale of 5, meaning that people should not approach the crater. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Following the eruption, the Japanese government set up a liaison office at the prime minister's office to gather information.


Seismograph

Very shallow M5.2 earthquake hits Croatia, buildings damaged

Croatia earthquake map
© EMSC
This is the second powerful earthquake to rock the Balkan country this year. A 6.0-magnitude tremor earlier killed one, wounded several dozen others, destroyed multiple buildings in Zagreb, and left part of the capital without power.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, a tremor has hit 49 km southeast of the Croatian capital of Zagreb, with the epicentre located at a depth of 2 kilometres. So far, there are no official reports about any casualties or damage caused by the quake.


Seismograph

Shallow M6.8 earthquake strikes off Chile, no tsunami risk

earthquake graph
© Phil McCarten / Reuters
An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck off the coast of south-central Chile on Sunday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, but Chilean officials immediately discarded the risk of a tsunami.

There were no initial reports of damage immediately following the quake.

The strong tremor took place at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), EMSC said, and about 163 km (100 miles) west-northwest of Valdivia in the Pacific Ocean.

Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; writing by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Richard Chang

Cloud Precipitation

Severe storm and floods in Saudi Arabia

flood
Scary storm hits Saudi Arabia! And the desert turns into rivers!


Ice Cube

Icy roads wreak havoc as cars skid out of control in Ankara, Turkey

SKID
Icy road conditions caused havoc in Turkey's capital of Ankara Thursday, December 24, with many drivers losing control of their vehicles and skidding down the roads.

Video filmed by a 13-year-old student Defne Menekse, showed at least several vehicles skidding off an icy downhill and colliding with each other.

At least seven cars were damaged, but no injuries have been reported.

Source: Reuters


Doberman

'Ferocious animal' attacks children, spreads panic among residents in Upper Egypt

A videograb shows the animal attacking children.

A videograb shows the animal attacking children.
A video has gone viral on Egyptian social media showed a ferocious animal attack on a group of children in a village in Qena Governorate in Upper Egypt.

The Qena Security Directorate announced that it had received information that at least 10 people had been injured as a result of an attack by an animal which the local call "Al-Salwa" in one of the areas in Qena.

The predator bites people, causing panic in the area.


Attention

Monkey sneaks into home and viciously attacks 5-month-old baby in Malaysia

ATTACK
A wild monkey recently snuck into a family home in Johor Bahru and attacked a five-month-old baby

According to Kosmo! the incident took place around 11am on Sunday, 20 December.

The mother, 42-year-old Siti Nur Asikin Sulaiman, said that she was in the kitchen when she suddenly heard her baby let out a cry from the master bedroom. A monkey had entered the room through a window and attacked the child.

"My daughter suddenly screamed and cried. I rushed to the room to get her and was shocked to see a wild monkey on top of her back," she said.