Earth ChangesS


Question

Two rare sea turtles found on UK's shores 5,000 miles from home


The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:11 UTC
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© Wildlife Trust
One of two Kemp’s ridley turtles found in Cumbria and Merseyside, 5,000 miles from their home in the Gulf of Mexico.
Critically-endangered Kemp's ridley turtles were found in Cumbria and Merseyside, 5,000 miles from their home

Two rare sea turtles have washed ashore on beaches in the North West, some 5,000 miles from their home in the Gulf of Mexico.

The critically-endangered Kemp's ridley turtles were found in Cumbria and Merseyside, and it is feared that more could yet appear.

Rod Penrose, a Marine mammal expert, said that they could have been "cold-stunned" by a drop in ocean temperatures in the US, which would leave them unable to feed or swim against strong currents.

Rob Archer, who was walking with his girlfriend on Saturday when he found one of the turtles on Sefton Beach, near Formby, told the Liverpool Echo: "At first I thought it was a crab.

"It seemed in a stupor as if there wasn't much life left in it.
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Cloud Precipitation

Tornados kill 4 in Mississippi; 50 injured during severe storms in Deep South

Sean Breslin
Weather.com
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 08:25 UTC
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Severe weather swept across the South Tuesday, spawning at least five reported tornadoes that killed at least four people, injured at least 50 others and destroyed homes.

Mississippi was particularly hard hit. All four reported deaths took place in the state - two in Marion County and two in Jones County.

"If Tuesday's storm deaths prove to all have been caused by tornadoes, it will become the deadliest December tornado event in Mississippi since 38 died in the Vicksburg tornado of Dec. 5, 1953," said Nick Wiltgen, weather.com senior meteorologist.

In all, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center relayed a total of 69 storm reports across the Deep South on Tuesday. Most of those were wind damage reports, but there were 14 tornado reports as well. Keep in mind that those are just reports, not confirmed tornadoes, and the final tornado count is likely to be fewer than 14.
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Mississippi

Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency Tuesday for Marion and Jones counties, along with other parts of the state affected by severe weather.

At around 2:30 p.m. local time, strong circulation with a debris signature was spotted on radar moving toward the town of Columbia, in Marion County.

The reported tornado damaged businesses, flipped cars and toppled power lines onto U.S. 98, closing the road for several hours. Two people were killed, one in a trailer park, the other in a strip mall, the Associated Press reports.

Another two people were dead in the aftermath of severe weather in Jones County, according to Jones County Emergency Management Agency.

Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge said the two were killed when a mobile home was destroyed, WAFB-TV said.

Comment: For easy to understand science on the electric universe and the crazy weather we are having here on the planet, read Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

You can also listen to the SOTT editors interview the authors below:

SOTT Talk Radio show #70: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

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Snowflake

Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, Hawaii, under blizzard watch


HawaiiNewsNow
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 05:50 UTC
blizzard hawaii
© Ethan TweedieSnow on Mauna Kea - taken Oct. 14, 2014
The summit areas of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii have been placed under a Blizzard Watch from Tuesday morning through Wednesday afternoon.

The National Weather Service in Honolulu said low pressure developing near the islands could spread a band of deep moisture and layered clouds over the Big Island. If that happens, heavy snow and blizzard conditions are possible at summit areas about 12,000 feet.

A Blizzard Watch means there is a potential for falling and/or blowing snow with strong wind and extremely poor visibility, leading to whiteout conditions that will make travel very dangerous.

Comment: Are the global warming folks ready to give it up yet?

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Snowflake Cold

China's Yellow River Hukou Waterfall freezes in -12° Celsius temperatures

Kiran Moodley
Independent, UK
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 03:00 UTC
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© IndependentChina's recent cold snap as given some added icy glamour to an old landmark.
Tourists have been flocking to a section of China's Yellow River in far greater numbers recently as part of the Hukou Waterfall has frozen over in the incredibly cold weather.

With temperatures dropping to as low as -12° Celsius, part of China's second-largest waterfall has become a wall of ice, making it seem like someone has emptied the contents of a fire extinguisher over the entire scene.

The Hukou Waterfall is situated where the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi meet and it is roughly 66-ft high.

Located on China's Yellow River - the third-longest on the continent - the waterfall is hugely popular among tourists and the recent cold snap in the area has not deterred many visitors now keen to see the natural phenomenon in its new guise as an ice palace.

One tourist told reporters, "Ice is everywhere. Icicles on the waterfall; everywhere. I did not know the Yellow River could be frozen so it's surprising. I came here specifically for the stunning view of the Yellow River."

While some may be in a hurry to see "Hukou on ice", temperatures in the far west of China may drop even further. Two years ago, the mercury fell to -40° Celsius, so the waterfall could freeze over entirely by the onset of Spring.

Comment: Think the past winter was bad? Get ready for mini Ice Age

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Attention

Girl 'plays dead' to survive brutal black bear attack in Florida

Jill Reilly
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:40 UTC
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She was out walking her dog at 6pm when the bear suddenly appeared and tackled her. Pictured: Investigators at the scene of the attack
A 15-year-old girl who suffered horrific injuries after being attacked by a bear only survived because she remembered to 'play dead.'

Leah Reeder, 15, sustained deep bites and gouges to her legs, back, neck and face, after the attack on Sunday in Eastpoint, Franklin County, on Florida's panhandle.

She was out walking her dog at 6pm when the bear suddenly appeared and tackled her.

'I was listening to music and I heard my dog start barking. It was like a black blur,' she told Apalach Times from her hospital bed.

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Palette

Italian earthquakes raise concern over safety of Michelangelo's David

Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 23:27 UTC
michelangelo david
More than 250 tremors have been rattling Florence and the Chianti region since Friday, raising concerns over the safety of Michelangelo's David.

According to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the two major shocks that hit the wine-growing region measured 3.8. and 4.1 on the Richter scale, while several others reached 3.0 to 3.5, scaring people but leaving no one injured.

Minor tremors are continuing at the moment, sparking alarm over the national art treasure, with the focus on Michelangelo's statue of David. Earlier this year, experts found David at risk of crumbling down under its own weight because of tiny fractures in its ankles.

Comment: More than 30 earthquake tremors hit Italy's Chianti region

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Question

500 crows found dead in Indian village

Gurbax Puri, Anirudh Gupta
The Tribune (India)
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:54 UTC
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Nearly 500 crows have been found dead in the past four days at Baghiari village near Tarn Taran, which is close to a bird sanctuary at Sarai Amanat Khan. With bird flu causing deaths of geese at Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh, senior officials of the Animal Husbandry Department have responded quickly to take preventive measures in the area. The district administration is also on alert.

"The reasons for the birds' deaths could be the use of pesticide in fields, contaminated water or the cold wave. However, we have sent the carcasses of birds to Regional Diagnostic Laboratory in Jalandhar to know the exact cause of the deaths," said Dr Raminder Monga, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry Department. He added that it would take six days to know the reason for such a high bird mortality," said Dr Monga. Deputy Commissioner Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal met officials of various departments and constituted response teams. Amarinder Singh Tiwana, a PCS officer, has been made the point person to coordinate with all teams. Dhaliwal urged people in the area to stay alert and do not panic.
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Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China

Stuart Winter
Daily Express, UK
Sun, 21 Dec 2014 14:51 UTC
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© GettyPhotographers were awestruck by the sighting of a European robin in the Temple of Heaven
Appearances on greetings cards, wrapping paper and festive tree baubles are one thing but the notion of a cheery redbreast preening in front of hundreds of assembled cameras does sound a little incongruous.

Take a peek at this week's photo and while the robin looks very much like your common-orgarden favourite, the way it was pictured in all its flame-toned glory has become the talk of the birdwatching world.

However this delightful individual has been holding court in Beijing's Temple of Heaven Park, creating the kind of scenes reminiscent of a rarity arrival on the Isles of Scilly or the north Norfolk coast.

How this robin arrived in the Chinese capital thousands of miles from its European home is open to conjecture. There is increasing evidence that small populations of migratory birds often take a "left-hand turn" and fly in the reverse direction in autumn as a survival technique against a possible disaster on their normal wintering ranges.

Comment: See also: Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK

Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada

As well as these articles (which could have some relevance as to possible explanations for these odd migrations): Animal Magnetism: How the magnetic field influences animal navigation

Earth's magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster now

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Snowflake

Excessive snow removed from ski slopes in Norway

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 14:33 UTC
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Too much snow around the ski lifts.

20 Dec 2014 - "During the last two days we've got more snow than we had in the last two years together," says a victorious Vegar Sårheim. "I had never believed we would experience this."

Late Saturday night he worked together with the trail crew in Breimsbygda Ski Centre Utvikfjellet feverishly removing the snow around the ski lifts.

We face the greatest challenges around the lifts, because for security reasons there must be two feet clearance. So we need shoveling away large amounts of snow, says Sårheim. - We have received about 1.5 meters of snow in a short period of time. And the forecast until Christmas is that there will come much more. So once we have cleared away this snow, we will face a fantastic Christmas.

Sårheim sees the humor in that slopes actually need to remove snow. - Yes, this I had never imagined that I would experience that.

Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link
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Sun

US: Chicago on track to break sunshine shortage record

Lizzie Schiffman Tufano
DNAinfo.com
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:04 UTC
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If the thought of entering another Chicago winter isn't depressing enough, meteorologists say the city is on track to have one of the gloomiest Decembers in its history.

There has been no direct sunshine recorded in Chicago for 15 days this month, according to Frank Wachowski, who mans the official North West Side Midway Airport sunlight observatory.

Since Dec. 12, the city has seen only 33 minutes of sunshine, which peeked through the clouds Thursday.

That puts December 2014 on track to break the record for darkest December since 1975, when the National Weather Service recorded 19 percent sun exposure. As of Monday, Wachowski had recorded 16 percent sun exposure this month.

The record for darkest month ever in Chicago was November 1985, when sunlight hit the city for 16 percent of the month.

Percentages are determined by dividing the total number of hours between sunrise and sunset by the minutes of exposed sunshine recorded with monitoring equipment, Wachowski said.

Wachowski, 77, is a retired meteorologist, but since 1980 he has recorded sunshine data with official transistor sensors mounted atop his home in southwest suburban Burbank. He set up his home operation after the National Weather Service abandoned sunshine monitoring in the early 1980s, allowing him to keep the equipment and monitor data independently.

Wachowski said that in part, the lack of snowfall could be to blame. If a snowstorm blows through Chicago, the tightly packed cloud cover might dissipate. In the meantime, the clouds have been locked between a layer of cold air close to the ground with warmer air above the clouds.

Comment: It's probably going to get a lot darker and gloomier with the what is what is coming our way. See:

The virtues of Vitamin D: It's time we saw the light

Got Melatonin? Melatonin improves mood in winter depression

Teaching the neurons to meditate

Read More...