Earth Changes
As summer starts, half the nation is either abnormally dry or in outright drought from prolonged lack of rain that could lead to water shortages, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly index of conditions.
The sun chairs set out in Tynset in Hedmark County were covered in snow on Thursday morning.
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©Mali Hagen Røe |
Recently used summer furniture covered by snow. |
"This is extreme. We are after all in the middle of June, and it is especially remarkable given the high temperatures we have just had. I cannot remember similar cases," Øyvind Johnsen at the Meteorologist Institute told Aftenposten.no.
Either way, weather is the reason for this year's unprecedented decline and it's going to take long periods of above-average precipitation to get things back to normal, insists David Fay, Canadian member of the International Lake Superior Board of Control.
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©Michael Purvis |
Low water levels are visible at Point Des Chenes, northwest of the Sault, where Lake Superior has receded far from the beach this year. |
Shallow docks have been left high and dry this year and swimmers have been forced to walk further to get wet, as Lake Superior dropped to 53 centimetres below normal for the beginning of June and 40 centimetres below last year's level. That's just 10 centimetres higher than the record low, recorded in 1926.
Record rains over the last couple of years produced record plant growth, allowing the rodent population to flourish. More rodents means more food for snakes.
54-year-old Dennis Vandenbos of Lander, Wyoming was walking near the Jackson Lake Lodge when he surprised a female grizzly and her three cubs feeding on a freshly killed elk carcass.
Dubai airport's meteorology department told AFP Thursday that snow fell over the Al-Jees mountain range in Ras al-Khaimah, which is the most northerly member of the UAE federation.
The storm left a blanket of snow on the ground, something residents had never seen in their lives before. Aside from this unexplained snowfall on this tropical land, Somalia has experienced very strange weather in the past few months.
One claim threatens massive storms thrashing our communities. Such a threat was an easy sell in 2005 as Katrina was blamed for nearly destroying New Orleans in a hurricane season that seemed without end. Surely it could not be denied that climate change Armageddon was upon us.