Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

US: Hawaii Lightning Strikes Total 20,000...Again


A wicked storm that brought hail, waterspouts and torrential rain to the islands Monday night, also packed an electrical punch that rocked Oahu and Kauai.

Apparently lightning can strike twice.

"Yeah lightning can strike twice, it can strike 10-15 times in the same location," said Warning Coordinator Meteorologist Michael Cantin.

For the second time this year, Hawaii has experienced a spectacular electric show. In late February we saw nearly 21,000 lightning strikes in a five-hour window when a storm system stalled over Hawaii.

Monday night, Mother Nature was at it again.

"Each individual point represents a strike and what's kind of striking about this image right is here's the Big Island, Maui county, and then Oahu and Kauai are basically absorbed under the lightning strikes gives you an idea of how many we saw," said Cantin.

According to the Worldwide Lightning Detection system, the skies were busiest between 5 and 10 p.m.

"In total about 15,000 between that time period if you include that hour before from 4 p.m. it's almost 20,000," said Cantin.

Fish

U.S. DNR investigates large fish kill on Lake Du Bay

Wausau - The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is investigating a large fish kill on Lake Du Bay and the Stevens Point Flowage.

The kill involved mainly black crappie, 3 to 4 years old, and was reported to DNR fisheries staff on April 25.

DNR biologists and fisheries technicians determined that the cause appears to be a virus primarily affecting 3-year-old black crappie.

Cloud Lightning

US: Double waterspouts form off Hawaii shore

Two tall and skinny waterspouts appeared off the south shore of Oahu, Hawaii yesterday, as some of the bad weather that has lately assailed the U.S. mainland has now alighted on the Pacific island.

The Star Advertiser reports that the waterspouts appeared during a hail and lightning storm that had reportedly knocked out power for at least 60,000 East Honolulu and Windward Oahu residents Monday evening. The spouts lasted for about 12 minutes. Waterspouts can become twisters if they reach land, but are usually weak.

You can watch the video below:




Arrow Up

Canada: 2,000 homes flooded in southern Quebec

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© CBC NewsThousands of homes are affected by flooding south of Montreal.
Emergency officials in Quebec are closely watching water levels in the Champlain Lake and Richelieu River.

Several towns and villages in the Montérégie region have experienced flooding, evacuations and damages in recent weeks.

The weather forecast calls for heavy rain overnight, leaving emergency officials worried.

"We have 2,000 houses flooded right now, and we have more than 300 people evacuated, mostly in Henryville, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ste-Anne-de-Sabrevois," said Yvan Leroux, head of emergency preparedness for the region.

The Richelieu River could rise another 20 centimetres by Wednesday morning, he warned.

Evacuations are voluntary, and about half of residents in the area have refused to leave their homes.

Bizarro Earth

Tornado hits New Zealand's biggest city

At least two people have been killed and many others injured when a tornado ripped through Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.


Fish

55 Feet Long Unknown Fish Species Found in China

A 55 feet (16,7 meters) long fish has been found in the seashore of Guangdong, China. According to a local newspaper, the big fish weighs at least 10,000 pounds.

55,fish
According to a local newspaper, the big fish weighs at least 10,000 pounds.
Hwang, a 66-years-old fisherman living in the near area, said he has never seen anything like this in his whole life and that the fish was tied with ropes when it was first found.

Bad Guys

Rare Waterspout Spotted on Video Near Hawaii



A rare waterspout formed off the coast of Hawaii yesterday (May 2), and was caught in several pictures and videos.

Waterspouts, tornadoes that touch on water, are not themselves made of water; they are funnel clouds that shoot down from storm clouds. This "tornado on water" touched down over the ocean off Ala Moana, a district of Honolulu.

In areas where intense funnel clouds commonly form over water -- the Florida Keys and the Adriatic Sea are two examples -- waterspouts will frequently form along a line of developing thunderstorms.

That was the case yesterday, as an intense lightning storm with heavy rains knocked out power for 60,000 residents, according to the Hawaiian Reporter. The heavy rains soaked Honolulu and triggered a flash flood warning.

Bad Guys

US: Swarm of Tiny Earthquakes Stretches From Belfast to Bucksport

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© The Associated Press
Searsport, Maine - As many as 30 tiny earthquakes have been detected over the last few days in the area between Belfast and Bucksport, but geologists say there's no cause for alarm.

"Microquakes is what we call them," Henry Berry, a bedrock geologist with Maine Geological Survey, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. "Unless you were right there, you wouldn't notice them."

But plenty of people have been noticing, Searsport Police Chief Dick LaHaye said Tuesday afternoon, just minutes after he dispatched an officer to Savory Road, where a resident had called to inform authorities about another earthquake.

They've responded to calls about gunshots and shotgun blasts, calls from people who felt their feet vibrate along with the earth and calls about things falling off shelves - all of which were determined to be related to the earthquake, he said.

"We'll continue to investigate," LaHaye said. "There's obviously something going on. It's outside of the police purview at this point, but we'll continue to respond to any and all calls that come in."

The quakes have all measured less than 2 on the Richter magnitude scale, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Conservation. On that scale, the threshold at which damage can occur is magnitude 5.

Blackbox

Strange cosmic ray hotspots stalk southern skies

Cosmic rays crashing into the Earth over the South Pole appear to be coming from particular locations, rather than being distributed uniformly across the sky. Similar cosmic ray "hotspots" have been seen in the northern skies too, yet we know of no source close enough to produce this pattern.

"We don't know where they are coming from," says Stefan Westerhoff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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© NSF/B GudbjartssonIceCube uses detectors buried in Antarctic ice
Westerhoff and colleagues used the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole to create the most comprehensive map to date of the arrival direction of cosmic rays in the southern skies. IceCube detects muons produced by neutrinos striking ice, but it also detects muons created by cosmic rays hitting Earth's atmosphere. These cosmic ray muons can be used to figure out the direction of the original cosmic ray particle.

Cloud Lightning

US: Kentucky - More Heavy Rains, Flooding Concerns

Heavy rains have returned to the Bluegrass.

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© WTVQ
Lexington has been receiving the rains throughout the morning, and it will continue falling throughout the day.

Areas in Franklin, Woodford, and Scott counties are also seeing heavy rains bring causing big concerns for drivers as water is ponding on roadways.

As flooding intensifies in western Kentucky, the commonwealth has opened a Regional Emergency Coordination Center at the Benton Armory in Marshall County. The center assists local emergency response efforts, allowing local, state, and federal officials to coordinate broad emergency responses across the region. Governor Steve Beshear is planning to return to western Kentucky, where flooding has forced evacuations and National Guard troops
have been sent in to help.

Beshear was planning to visit Paducah, Hickman and Benton today. On Monday, officials said more than 100 troops were helping with evacuations in the cities of Ledbetter in Livingston County and Hickman in Fulton County. Smithland was also being evacuated. The lower Ohio River is expected to crest at 58 feet, three feet above an earlier prediction.