Earth Changes

Freak heatwave kills 4, hospitalizes 1,600 in Japan last week

ShanghaiDaily.com
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 00:00 UTC

Emergency services rushed more than 1600 people to hospital suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion due to a week of unseasonably hot weather through June 1, Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday.

According to the agency, temperatures in some areas in Japan soared to above 35 degrees Celsius, with the heatwave causing a preliminary total of 1,637 people to be rushed to hospital, with four of them dying from their symptoms.

The figure for those taken to hospitals by ambulance was some seven times higher than for the same time a year earlier, the agency said, with the worst cases seen as the mercury spiked on May 31 and June 1.

Wrong place, wrong time: Dead Arctic beluga whale washes up on a Scottish beach

Courney Cameron
The Scotsman
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 09:05 UTC

The discovery of the carcass of a dead Arctic beluga whale on a Scottish beach could plug a 200-year research gap for National Museums Scotland.

The NMS was contacted to identify the rotting remains washed up on Lunan beach, north of Arbroath.

DNA samples were sent off along with the mammal's skull and teeth and experts were thrilled with the results.

The whale is only the second specimen of beluga the museum has received - and the last one dates back to a stranding in the Firth of Forth in 1815.

Zena Timmons, assistant curator of vertebrates at NMS, helped to identify the animal after it was found by volunteers from the Keilor Trust and members of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme. She said: "Staff from the Natural Sciences department at National Museums Scotland identified a specimen washed up at Lunan Bay as a beluga whale.

Signs of change: Video round-up of extreme weather and seismic activity in May 2014

HawkkeyDavis
YouTube
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 08:59 UTC

Record flooding in the Balkans last month

Large scale disasters continue to strike with regularity, causing catastrophic damage to multiple areas around the globe, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Rare, strange, unusually extreme and 'biblical' weather conditions have taken place the past week or so. Also included are some dramatically breathtaking weather events caught on video last month.

Thanks for watching and stay safe! Have a plan in order!

Wrong place, wrong time: Rare Arctic Ross's Gull seen in Devon, UK

Charlie Flemming
parrotletsuk.typepad.com
Thu, 29 May 2014 08:36 UTC

I was late rising this morning and when the phone rang and rang and then rang again I wa quite certain that there must be a special bird about. I was right, Dave Stone excitedly told me that there was a Ross's Gull at Bowling Green Marsh. Ross's Gull is an extreme rarity here in Devon and this one is in fact the first record for the Exe Estuary and one of just a handful ever recorded in the county. I dont particularly like these "twitches" being a a bit of a contradiction to what I like about about wildlife watching but if you want to see really rare birds then needs must.

Ross's Gull is a small gull which is an Arctic breeder and named after a Naval Officer, James Ross. It is a true bird of the far north and breeds in the north of Siberia and the North American continent in Northern Canada. When it has finished breeding it then flies even further north. Quite how this one came to be here in the South West of the UK is one of those mysteries that can never be solved. This lonely individual is a young, non-breeding bird in it's second year. I was expecting to see a much more attractively marked bird and have to confess to some disappointment in this regard. The legs are fleshy red and the beak is delicate and solidly black. The tail is distinctive in flight being wedge shaped with a noticeable blackish band on the end. As a young bird it has black markings on the wings reminiscent of a LIttle Gull. Adult birds lack these markings but in the summer and in breeding plumage, have a noticeable black band around the neck and also have a pinkish suffusion on the breast. This bird was feeding on small flying insects around one of the pools on Bowling Green Marsh which is apparently typical behaviour.

Huge 16ft wide sinkhole uncovered by highways engineers in Somerset, UK

Charlotte Wareing
Daily Mirror, UK
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 08:04 UTC

Sinking: A gaping chasm measuring 16ft wide in Somerset

The road workers were expecting to find a small dent in one of Somerset's roads but were instead faced with a real sinking feeling

Road workers got more than they bargained for when the pothole they were sent to inspect turned out to be a gaping chasm 11ft deep.

The giant sinkhole - which measured 16ft wide, was found by workers at Somerset County Council.

The huge pit was so deep it needed 200 tonnes of stone to fill it before draining and resurfacing works could take place.

Harvey Siggs, cabinet member for highways at Somerset County Council, said it was unclear what caused the massive hole.

Albuquerque grasshopper swarms so dense they show up on radar

Dina Abou Salem
ABC News
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 15:11 UTC

© National Weather Service
Grasshopper infestation is so dense around Albuquerque, N.M., they show up on weather radar like rain.

The worst grasshopper infestation in 20 years has become so thick around Albuquerque, N.M., that the airborne bugs are showing up on weather radar, officials said today.

"Albuquerque has not seen these levels of grasshoppers since the early-mid 1990′s," said John R. Garlisch, extension agent at Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service.

The National Weather Service said the air is so dense with the bugs that they appear on its radar like rain.

"We have actually been noticing the insects on radar since about Memorial Day," said NWS spokesman David Craft. "We have noticed the greatest impact on the radar during the evening, but they are noticeable at other times of the day, too."

"It is a nuisance to people because they fly into people's faces while walking, running, and biking. They are hopping into people's homes and garages, they splatter the windshield and car grill while driving, and they will eat people's plants," Garlisch said.

Lake Superior breaks record with ice still around

Cody Matz
Fox9.com
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 13:13 UTC

It is now the month of June and there is still ice hovering on the southern shores of Lake Superior making it now the latest this much ice has been on the lake this late in the season. The last time ice was around this late into the year was back in 2003 when the frozen water finally melted on May 29th. Here is what the shores of northern Michigan looked like on Saturday...

Ice has all collected on the southern end of the lake and can be seen by satellite image... this one taken this past Thursday

Eight killed, two missing as storm hits Odisha, India

The Indian Express
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 15:04 UTC

At least eight persons were killed and two others went missing in separate incidents of boat capsize and other mishaps, when a severe northwester hit Jharsuguda and Bargarh districts of western Odisha early on Sunday morning.

While seven persons were killed, including five in four boat mishaps in the Hirakud reservoir on the river Mahanadi, in Jharsuguda district, a woman died in a boat tragedy in Bargarh district, sources in the Special Relief Commissioner's (SRC) office said.

The body of Purnima Mallick (45) was fished out of the reservoir at Pudubagh, while Tejraj Kalo (65) and his son Bibhuti Kalo (35) died after their boat capsized in Hirakud at Khebra, they said.

Hurricane force winds in China force rescue of 100 people from highway

The Telegraph
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 14:14 UTC

Footage emerges of firefighters battling against gale force winds to rescue over 100 people stranded on a highway during a hurricane in China

A hurricane hit northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Saturday, leaving over 100 people stranded on a highway.

The gale force winds also created a sandstorm, with visibility dropping to less than seven feet.

Iran sandstorm kills at least four in Tehran

BBC
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 12:41 UTC

A powerful sandstorm has hit Iran's capital, Tehran, killing at least four people and injuring about 30.

At its peak, the storm brought winds of up to 110km/hour (70mph), knocking over trees and damaging windows.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC the sky turned orange from thick dust brought on by the storm. Such strong storms are unusual in Tehran, correspondents say.

The storm caused power cuts and traffic accidents from poor visibility as dust and sand engulfed parts of the capital.