Earth ChangesS


Igloo

US: Snow, Ice to Create Travel Trouble in the Upper Midwest

Snow-covered roads Upper Midwest 2010
© Harold Y., AccuWeather.comSnow-covered roadways will be common across the Upper Midwest today into tonight. Photo taken in Seattle, Wash.
The Upper Midwest will become one of the nation's worst regions for Thanksgiving travelers to pass through today due to an invasion of snow and ice. The snow will continue to create slick roadways from far eastern Montana to the western shores of Lake Superior today. The snow will fall intermittently throughout the day over North Dakota, eastern South Dakota and neighboring parts of Canada.

This afternoon and evening is when the snow will create the most adverse conditions for motorists in Minneapolis and Duluth. airline passengers should prepare for substantial delays. As the snow continues into tonight, as much as 6 inches will accumulate from northern North Dakota to places in the vicinity of western Lake Superior. International Falls, Minnesota, lies within this zone.

Gusty winds will worsen the situation for travelers today by whipping the snow around, leading to reduced visibility. The strongest winds will blast the northern High Plains, where high temperatures will be held to the teens and single digits. These winds will create dangerous blizzard conditions at times. While a substantial amount of new snow will not fall today, the winds will have no trouble blowing and drifting the snow left by recent storm systems.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 5 inches of snow remained on the ground in Rapid City, South Dakota

Igloo

Canada: Record Cold Plunges British Columbia Into Deep Freeze

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© CBCSnow caused traffic chaos and institutional closures in Victoria Monday
Weather system brings snow, power outages and unseasonably chilly temperatures

A blast of Arctic air is barrelling down on the West Coast of B.C., threatening to break low temperature records that have stood for 25 years. The low is expected to dip to -10 C in the Vancouver area and -4 C in Victoria - the "warm" spot for the province. The overnight low in the far northeast at Fort St. John is forecast at -30 C and in Prince George, in the central Interior, -26 C.

The lowest recorded temperature in Vancouver for this date is -12.9 C, set in 1985. Tuesday's forecast high of -6 C should smash the record for the coldest daytime high for Nov. 23 of -1 C, also set in 1985. The weather system brought more strong winds Monday night, knocking out power to more than 20,000 homes in the Fraser Valley. The outages were located mostly in Chilliwack, Abbotsford and Langley. Hydro crews were expected to have the power back on sometime overnight.

The freezing weather system also dumped snow on the streets of Victoria and shut down some ferry routes between the islands. Police in Victoria asked people to keep their vehicles off the street after a dump of snow made some routes impassable and led to a rash of traffic accidents. Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for southern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast as road conditions are expected to worsen. That prompted many businesses like Gateway Property Management to close for the day so their staff could avoid the afternoon rush hour, according to manager Nathan Enns.

"If the snow stops in the next hour then ... it's sort of a non-issue. But if it keeps going, it's going to be a messy, convoluted rush hour going home this afternoon," said Enns. In Victoria, the city urged drivers to stay out of their vehicles in order to give public works crews time to clear major arteries. A dozen smaller streets in the city are closed, in order to clear motor vehicle accidents, police said.

Igloo

US: Northwest Freezes as Rare Blizzard Roars Through

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© AP Photo/Elaine ThompsonU.S. Army Spc. Ron Washington checks his watch as he stands on the Alaskan Way Viaduct after walking from his Humvee to check on the gridlock on the highway Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, in Seattle. Drivers were stuck for hours throughout the Puget Sound region, as Washington state was hit by its first significant snowfall of the season, with several inches on the ground in Spokane and just enough snow in the Puget Sound area to make traffic a mess. More snow was forecast along with extreme cold in parts of Eastern Washington down to 19 below zero overnight in some spots near Spokane, with winds of up to 25 mph driving the wind chill even lower.
Seattle, Washington - A vicious storm struck the Pacific Northwest and other western states at the start of the holiday travel season, dumping heavy snow on roads, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people and causing a cargo plane to overshoot its runway in Seattle.

At least three deaths in Washington state have been blamed on the storm, including a man struck and killed outside his car Monday night on snowy Interstate 5 in Tacoma. Washington State Patrol Trooper Brandy Kessler said it wasn't clear whether the man was chaining up his car or pushing it when he was hit.

A man's body was found along the Willamette River waterfront in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday. Police were trying to determine whether the death was weather related.

Blowing snow, slick roads and temperatures in the mid-20s turned the Monday evening commute in the Puget Sound region into an hours-long crawl - for those who made it home. Some commuters gave up after being stuck for five hours or more and returned to their offices, or just left their cars at the side of the road.

Black Cat

Why Brainy Tail-Wagging Top Dogs Can Teach Aloof Cats a Thing or Two

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© CorbisTop dog: Scientists claim pet dogs are smarter than cats because friendly social mammals need more intelligence than solitary, aloof ones
Looking down on the world - and especially those tail-wagging dimwits known as dogs - may seem like the natural order of things for cats.

No longer. For scientists yesterday claimed pet dogs are smarter than their feline counterparts.

The reason, they claim, is that dogs evolved bigger brains because friendly, social mammals need more grey matter than solitary, aloof ones.

The findings, which are bound to divide pet owners around the world, come from a study into the brain size of more than 500 species of living and fossilised mammals.

The researchers at Oxford University charted the evolution of mammal brains over the last 60million years - from a few million years after the dinosaurs became extinct to the modern day.

They discovered that there is a strong link between the size of a brain relative to an animal's body and how sociable that creature is.

Sociable mammals such as whales, dogs, dolphins and humans tend to have much larger brains compared to their bodies. Solitary species - such as tigers, domestic cats and rhinos - have less grey matter, the scientists found.

Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea: Earthquake Magnitude 6.1 - 23 Nov 2010

Papua Quake_231110
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 09:01:06 UTC

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 07:01:06 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
6.021°S, 148.957°E

Depth
66.2 km (41.1 miles) set by location program

Region
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances
70 km (40 miles) WNW of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG

140 km (85 miles) WSW of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG

430 km (265 miles) NNE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2415 km (1500 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Radar

Department of Defence Tries to Uncover Secret of Flying Snakes

DOD tries to uncover secret of flying snakes

An unusual breed of Asian snakes can glide long distances in the air, and the Department of Defense is funding research at Virginia Tech to find out why.

Most animals that glide do so with fixed wings or a wing-like part. But not the "flying snakes" of Southeast Asia, India and southern China - at least five members of the genus Chrysopelea.

As video of the reptiles show, they undulate from side to side, in almost an air-slithering, to create an aerodynamic system. It allows them to travel from the top of the biggest trees in the region (almost 200 feet high) to a spot about 780 feet away from the tree's trunk.

Attention

Strong Earthquake Hits Near Eastern Taiwan Coast

Strong Earthquake Hits Near Eastern Taiwan Coast; No Damage Reported

Officials say a strong earthquake has struck near the eastern coast of Taiwan. No casualties or damage have been reported.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau says the earthquake hit Sunday evening and was centered 13 miles (22 kilometers) from Hualien county, and about 85 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of Taipei. It says the quake registered magnitude 6.1, while the U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 5.6.

Earthquakes frequently hit Taiwan but most are minor and cause little or no damage.

Igloo

Jet Stream Gone Haywire! "Significant" Snow Falls for Europe Predicted by Mid-Week

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© North News & Pictures LtdTwo young boys enjoying one of the first snow falls of winter in Teesdale, County Durham. Forecasters are predicting a plunge in temperatures and more significant snowfalls across much of the country
Britain is set to shiver in temperatures as low as minus ten this week with 'significant' snow falls hitting the country, the Met Office warn.

The last time the mercury plummeted this low was in March - at the summit of a Scottish mountain.

The north and the east of the country are in line for heavy snow, although forecasters say this could spread across Britain as we head to the weekend.

For the start of the week temperatures will be average, with daytime highs of seven or eight Celsius.

But as December nears this will fall, with a north easterly wind battering the coast and bringing showers with it.

Rural parts of the country could see overnight temperatures as low a -10C, said Met Office forecast Alex Fox.

He said: 'The last time temperatures reached that low was on the night of the 9th and 10th of March this year at the top of Braemar, a mountain in Scotland that's 1,000ft above sea level.

That gives us an idea of how cold things are going to get.

Comment: Looks like Europe is in for trouble weather-wise. Next weekend, freezing temps, snow and maybe even storms at the same time. The Jet stream appears to have stopped or broken down over Europe. Check out this image:

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You see the UK and Ireland, Northern France, Germany etc. and Scandinavia in the bottom center? Usually the Jet stream goes straight across Northern Europe acting as a buffer against the freezing Arctic weather. But now it has looped down over Spain with another arm over North Africa. Apparently that has never happened before.

Here's an image from the US earlier this year:

June 2009 North America jet stream
© AccuWeather
It's the same deal, "chilly air forced southward" because of a distortion in the normal flow of the Jet stream. Thing is, that happened over North America in June, it's happening over Europe in winter.

Here's an article with a video explaining what happened in India, Russia and China this year as a result of a similar strange break down/up of the Jet Stream (ignore the 'global warming' nonsense).

Russian Drought, Pakistan Floods, Chinese Landslides All Linked To Bizarre Jet Stream Change


Alarm Clock

Moderate quake hits Indonesia

A moderate 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra today, the US Geological Survey(USGS) said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake hit at 4.55 am (7.55am AEDT today) 95 kilometres east-southeast of the city of Padangsidempuan in North Sumatra at a relatively deep 213km, USGS said.

Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 3.9 - Arkansas

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© USGS
Date-Time:
Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 19:06:35 UTC

Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 01:06:35 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
35.319°N, 92.303°W

Depth:
4.5 km (2.8 miles)

Region:
ARKANSAS

Distances:
3 km (2 miles) ESE (102°) from Guy, AR

10 km (6 miles) SW (228°) from Quitman, AR

11 km (7 miles) E (89°) from Twin Groves, AR

29 km (18 miles) NNE (28°) from Conway, AR

65 km (40 miles) N (2°) from Little Rock, AR

411 km (255 miles) SSW (207°) from St. Louis, MO