Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Florida: December Coldest on Record for Tampa Bay Area

Image
© Willie J. Allen Jr. / TimesDecember freezes killed about 75 percent of the tropical fish, including these tiger barbs found Monday, at Oak Ridge Fish Hatchery in Plant City.
It's official, Tampa Bay: December 2010 was the coldest December in recorded history.

Overall, the average daily temperature, the high and the low divided by two, was about 10 degrees below the norm for the month.

Tampa set a new record low at 53.2 degrees, besting the previous record of 54.5 degrees in 1935. It was even colder than January 2010's record-breaking cold snap.

St. Petersburg's 56.3 degrees beat a record of 56.9, also from 1935.

In Hernando County, Brooksville set a record at 52 degrees. The previous low was 54.1 in 1935.

St. Leo, in Pasco County, also set a record at 51.6 degrees, breaking the previous low of 52.1 in 1935.

Several areas throughout west-central and southwest Florida also set record lows.

Comment: Arctic Oscillation? "La Nina"? Or another sign of the weakening Gulf Stream?

Ice Age Now! Damaged Gulf Stream affects Jet Stream - Lord Stirling


Radar

Second earthquake in a fortnight hits the North of England

Image
© UK Daily Mail
Earthquake measured 3.6 on the Richter scale - People living near the epicentre describe a 'rumbling' noise

The second earthquake in a fortnight rocked the North of England last night.

People near the epicentre in Ripon, in North Yorkshire, reported hearing what they described as an 'explosion' or a 'rumbling' when the quake hit.

It measured 3.6 on the Richter scale and experts estimate the tremor happened four miles below ground level.

Just a fortnight ago Coniston, in Cumbria, was struck by tremors measuring 3.5.

Last night's earthquake happened just after 9pm and caused worried people to run from their homes to safety.

It was felt across Cumbria, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.

Chris Allinson, 17, was watching television with his family in Ripon when the quake rattled their home.

The A-level student, who is studying at Giggleswick School, said: 'I heard a loud rumbling like the sound of a big tractor passing the house outside.

'Things started shaking and the dogs started barking. It got louder and louder and I jumped up to get outside.

'Then there was just this rush of sound like a snowdrift falling from a tiled roof, and after that, silence. We stood outside and stared at each other.'

Bizarro Earth

Death Toll in Philippine Landslides and Flooding Rises to 13

The death toll from landslides and floods triggered by days of heavy rains in the Philippines has risen to 13 after rescuers found more bodies, officials said Tuesday.

Civil defense administrator Benito Ramos said nearly 13,000 people have sought shelter in schools and gymnasiums turned into evacuation centers in 12 provinces on the country's eastern seaboard.

The dead include six children, three of them dug from a wall of mud that buried their homes Sunday as they slept in the central Philippines' St. Bernard township. The town in Southern Leyte province had one of the country's worst disasters in 2006 when a mudslide buried the entire village of Guinsaugon, with more than 1,000 people killed.

President Benigno Aquino III ordered an investigation into why deaths again occurred in St. Bernard, a town known prone to landslides. He also ordered the quick evacuation of residents in areas susceptible to landslides and flood "to reduce the risk that these communities are facing."

Ramos said of the 13 dead, eight died of drowning while the rest were killed in landslides. One person missing in Southern Leyte, he added.

Cloud Lightning

More than 200,000 displaced by Australian Floods

The flood area in Eastern Australia is larger than the state of Texas.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Arrow Down

US Sees Massive Drop in Bumblebees: Study

bumblebee
© AFP
Weakened by inbreeding and disease, bumble bees have died off at an astonishing rate over the past 20 years, with some US populations diving more than 90 percent, according to a new study.

The findings are of concern because bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops such as tomatoes, peppers and berries, said the findings of a three-year study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Similar declines have also been seen in Europe and Asia, said Sydney Cameron, of the Department of Entomology and Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, the main author of the study.

"The decline of bumble bees in the US is associated with two things we were able to study: the pathogen Nosema bombi and a decline in genetic diversity. But we are not saying Nosema is the cause. We don't know," said Cameron. "It's just an association. There may be other causes."

He added that the decline is "huge and recent," having taken place in the last two decades.

Bizarro Earth

Japan Is on High Alert as a Virus Infiltrates Bird-Heavy Regions

Japan Bird Sanctuary
© Kyodo/Reuters
Japanese bird sanctuaries, poultry farms and zoos went on high alert last month after several species of migratory birds in different regions were found dead of what appeared to be H5N1 avian influenza.

The virus frightened flu specialists when it resurfaced in Hong Kong in 2003 and quickly spread throughout Asia and along bird migratory routes to Europe and Africa. It has not mutated to spread among humans, though it still kills them occasionally - Egypt reported its 38th death last month.

According to articles in the Japanese press gathered by ProMED, which monitors disease outbreaks, a hooded crane was found dead of H5N1 on the Izumi Plain in Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan. The plain is Japan's largest wild crane wintering site, and the prefecture is the nation's top poultry-raising area.

Alarm Clock

US: Hundreds of dead blackbirds found in Louisiana

dead birds
© Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Labarre - Around 500 dead blackbirds and starlings have been found in Pointe Coupee Parish, according to state wildlife officials. The birds were spotted lying in roads and ditches near Labarre Elementary School. The community is between Morganza and New Roads on Highway 10.

Scientists from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have been sent out to collect samples, which will be sent for testing to the University of Georgia and National Wildlife Center in Wisconsin.

This comes after about 5,000 blackbirds and swallows were found dead around Beebe, Ark. on New Year's Eve. Dr. Jim LaCour with LDWF said he's not sure the two incidents are connected.

"It's not common, (but) we do see a few die-offs for various reasons," said LaCour. "Yes, we need to look into it, we need to be a little alarmed, but it's not out of the scope of things to have a die-off."

Info

Auroras and Meteors

"Wow!" exclaims Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway. "Tonight Earth's upper atmosphere got hit full force both by the solar wind, producing some amazing coronas in purple and green, and every now and then by a fragment from shattered comet 2003 EH1, source of the Quadrantid meteor shower." He took this picture using his Nikon D3:

Aurora and Meteor
© Fredrik Broms
"Bitter cold weather here in northern Norway made the photo-session a bit shorter than I hoped--indeed, my lens was completely covered in ice crystals--but I managed to catch some of the beauty of this cold night," says Broms.

Browse the links below for more snapshots of the first auroras and the first meteor shower of the New Year.

Eye 2

Australian floods: Residents facing plague of deadly snakes as waters rise

Image
© EPAAn aerial image showing properties hit by floodwaters in Emerald, Queensland
Australians whose homes have been inundated with floodwater in the state of Queensland are now facing the threat of deadly snakes as the reptiles move into dry buildings to avoid the rising waters.

Extra snakebite antivenom, including brown snake antivenom, has been airlifted into the city of Rockhampton, one of the worst-hit parts of the state.

Health officials have warned residents to be on the look out for dangerous snakes, spiders and even crocodiles that have been forced out of their natural habitats and onto higher ground by the natural disaster.

Barry Moessinger, who lives in a low-lying part of Rockhampton, said he had spotted about 15 snakes each day over the past week.

"There's heaps of them," he told the Australian newspaper.

"We had a plague of mice, a lot of frogs, so we knew the snakes would come."

Black Cat

Sensitivity to Change: Even Healthy Cats Act Sick When Their Routine Is Disrupted

Image
© UnknownTony Buffington
A cat regularly vomiting hairballs or refusing to eat probably isn't being finicky or otherwise "cat-like," despite what conventional wisdom might say. There is a good chance that the cat is acting sick because of the stress caused by changes in its environment, new research suggests.

Healthy cats were just as likely as chronically ill cats to refuse food, vomit frequently and leave waste outside their litter box in response to changes in their routine, according to the Ohio State University study. Veterinary clinicians refer to these acts as sickness behaviors.

The researchers documented sickness behaviors in healthy cats and in cats with feline interstitial cystitis, a chronic illness characterized by recurring discomfort or pain in the bladder and often both an urgent and frequent need to urinate.