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Alaska's largest city eyes snow record

Rachel D'oro
Associated Press
Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:33 UTC
elk,snow
© AP Photo/Rachel D'Oro
In this Thursday, March 15, 2012, photo, a juvenile moose is dwarfed by deep snow in Anchorage, Alaska. The state's largest city is 3.3 inches away from breaking its record snowfall of 132.6 inches that was set in the winter of 1954-55.
Anchorage, Alaska -- A near-record snowfall this winter has buried Anchorage neighborhoods, turning streets into snow-walled canyons and even collapsing some roofs.

But some residents are hoping for more, at least another 3.3 inches. Then they could say they made it through the winter when the nearly 60-year record of 132.6 inches was broken.

"I want it destroyed," resident Melissa Blair said. "I want to see another foot and knock that record out of the park."
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Evil Rays

Mysterious rumbles bring down an old barn

Jack Knox
Times Colonist
Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:10 UTC
Image
© Supplied photo
Mysterious "rumbles" are blamed for the colapse of Sharon Hanslipês barn in Otter Point on Friday March 16, 2012.
(British Columbia, Canada) Life is full of mysteries: why hot water freezes faster than cold, how they built the pyramids, why anyone listens to Rush Limbaugh.

And now, or perhaps still, The Rumbles.

Three times Thursday morning, an unexplained phenomenon rattled windows, dishes and nerves from Langford to Otter Point, even knocking down an old barn.

It sounded like sustained thunder, or God bowling. Some feared it was an earthquake, others suspected blasting, while still others thought it was bad choices from the '60s coming home to roost.

"It's still pretty much of a mystery," said Otter Point's Sharon Hanslip on Friday.

The episodes came at 9: 30 a.m, 10 and 11, the last the most intense. "It shook the house and brought down the barn."
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Bizarro Earth

Monarch Butterfly Numbers Take a Hit

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:24 UTC
Monarch Butterflies
© naturepl.com /Ingo Arndt / WWF
A cloud of monarch butterflies flutters above the overwintering colony in Mexico.

Monarch butterflies have taken a hit this year, according to researchers who monitor the colorful insects' numbers at their traditional overwintering grounds in a forest in central Mexico.

This winter's surviving population covers only about 7 acres (2.89 hectares), almost a third less than the area the butterflies covered in the 2010-2011 season.

Each winter, the world's monarchs gather in a single swath of evergreen forest in Michoacán, Mexico, to spend the cooler months clustered together in a state of torpor, blanketing the trees by the thousands.

This so-called "supergeneration" flies from its birthplace, in the northern United States and Canada, to the same patch of Mexican forest, year after year.

The announcement from researchers with WWF and Mexico's National Commission for Natural Protected Areas appears to confirm the fears of some biologists, who said it was likely that scalding temperatures and extreme droughts affecting Texas and other parts of the United States in 2011 would take a toll on the butterflies.
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Bizarro Earth

'Horizontal Tornado' Captured By Amateur Videographer

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:23 UTC
Roll Cloud
© Daniel Blake Fitzhugh
Mississippi resident Daniel Blake Fitzhugh caught this image of a roll cloud on camera near Richland, Miss.

New images of a weird weather phenomenon known as a roll cloud have surfaced from Richland, Miss.

The images, taken on a camera phone by Mississippi resident Daniel Blake Fitzhugh, reveal a seemingly endless roll cloud, or arcus cloud, a low cloud formation that forms over the sea or at the edges of thunderstorms. Fitzhugh sent in an image and video of the cloud to LiveScience after seeing an earlier report of a roll cloud off the coast of Brazil.

Fitzhugh told LiveScience he captured the video and image of a roll cloud in 2010 in Richland, a town on the outskirts of Jackson, Miss.

"It had been cloudy and windy all day," Fitzhugh wrote in an email. "I was heading north and the cloud was going west to east. I noticed it and was extremely surprised! I had never seen anything like it before."

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Bizarro Earth

Kamchatka's Karymsky volcano unleashes 3100 meter ash cloud- aviation alert code orange


The Extinction Protocol
Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:08 UTC
Karymsky volcano, erupting in Kamchatka, alert level has been raised to a Code Orange threat to aviation, although all routes on the peninsula are stretched so that the planes do not appear in the action zone of active volcanoes. The height of gases and ash that accompanies the eruption has reached three thousand one hundred meters above sea level. Lava has been detected oozing from the slopes of volcano.
Image
© Flickr.com/robnunn/cc-by-nc
The volcano poses no danger to the localities. The Karymsky volcanic summit, with a height of 1536 meters, is one of the most active volcanoes in Kamchatka. Its latest eruptive phase began in January 1996 and continues today.
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Bizarro Earth

5.9 magnitude earthquake sparks mall stampede in Philippines, causes some damage, hurting 23


The Washington Post
Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:30 UTC
Image
© USGS
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Friday, causing minor damage and a mall stampede that left at least 23 people injured, officials said. Most of the injured were sent home after being treated for minor cuts. Two people who were crushed remained in hospital for observation, said George Tremedal, a hospital doctor.

The quake was centered 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) off Dinagat Island near southeastern Surigao del Norte province, said Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology chief Renato Solidum. No tsunami alert was raised. "It was very strong. You could really feel it. You could see the vehicles moving. I could not control my body as it was moving," said Albert Lancin, a city health official.

Surigao del Norte Gov. Sol Matugas said 20 people had been hurt in a stampede at a mall packed with shoppers in the provincial capital, Surigao City.
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Fish

Whale and Dolphin Strandings in Ireland On the Rise in 2012


AFLOAT.ie
Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:28 UTC
Image
© Irish Whale and Dolphin Group
The rate of cetacean strandings on the Irish coast remains unusually high, according to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).

The group's Cetacean Stranding Scheme recorded 162 strandings in 2011 which, while numbers do vary from year to year, was 25-30 more than anticipated.

And already this year the numbers are up on last year's 'inexplicable' records for the first quarter.

Some 21 strandings were reported to the IWDG in January alone - the highest ever number recorded for that month, well above the average of 13.

February's figures are even more worrying, with 30 strandings reported this year compared to a five-year average of 11.4.
      Read More...
Binoculars

Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano unleashes 9 low-level emissions


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:01 UTC
Image
The National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) reported that in the last hours, the volcano Popocatepetl has expelled nine low-intensity exhalations accompanied by emissions of water vapor and gas, and sometimes small amounts of ash.

The Ministry of the Interior reported that the monitoring parameters remain without important changes. He explained that at night, a glow was observed in the crater of the volcano and that for now; there has been a constant emission of steam and gas.

He said the advisory code remains yellow in color phase 2 and the likelihood of prevailing moderate exhalations, some with ash emissions, and sporadic bursts of low to moderate probability of emission of incandescent fragments could be expected within walking distance of the crater.

Cenapred called for authorities to maintain the safety radius of 12 kilometers around the volcano. Civil Protection has been urged to hold preventive procedures in place, according to their operational plans and that people should keep advised by the latest news bulletins.
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Cloud Lightning

Washington state dust storm


The Guardian
Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:18 UTC
A severe dust storm sweeps through Washington state, causing five vehicles to crash on a major road 160 miles south-east of Seattle. State officials closed the road for five hours. One man was taken to hospital for treatment, according to Washington state police

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Evil Rays

Scientists detect unusual seismic signals from tornado


Terra Daily / SPX
Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:15 UTC
Image
© Unknown
An Indiana University geophysical experiment detected unusual seismic signals associated with tornadoes that struck regions across the Midwest last week - information that may have value for meteorologists studying the atmospheric activity that precedes tornado disasters. The experiment by IU researchers involves deployment of more than 100 state-of-the-art digital seismographs in a broad swath of the U.S. midcontinent. One of the twisters that struck southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois on Feb. 29 passed through the seismic detection array.

"In examining the seismograms, we recorded unusual seismic signals on three of our stations in southern Illinois," said Michael Hamburger, professor in the department of geological sciences at IU Bloomington and one of the researchers conducting the experiment. "The seismograms show a strong, low-frequency pulse beginning around 4:45 a.m. on Feb. 29. Our preliminary interpretation, based on other seismic records of tornadoes, suggests that we were recording not the tornado itself, but a large atmospheric pressure transient related to the large thunderstorms that spawned the tornadoes."
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