Earth Changes
Communities along the edge of the Alberta Rockies were walloped with the first snowfall of the season Wednesday.
After periods of drizzling rain, snow began falling over sections of the Icefields Parkway mid-morning.
Between five and 10 millimetres of precipitation is expected to fall in Jasper throughout the day, according to the latest forecast from Environment Canada.
The Hinton area has also been buried in a small dump of wet snow. Photographs posted to social media suggest that area highways were slick.

A dead northern fulmar was found near Shishmaref on Aug. 13. Hundreds of dead birds have been found on the Western and Northwestern coasts of Alaska and in Bering Sea islands this year.
The dead birds are mostly northern fulmars and short-tailed shearwaters, species that migrate long distances to spend summers in waters off Alaska and other northern regions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported. Also in the mix are some kittiwakes, murres and auklets, the federal agency said.
The cause is being investigated. Necropsies so far show that the birds are emaciated — with no food in their stomachs or intestines and little or no fat on their bodies.
"Right now, we know that they are starving to death and can't hold their heads above water, and they're drowning," said Ken Stenek, a teacher in Shishmaref and volunteer in a program that monitors seabirds.
The precise toll is unclear. Fish and Wildlife said in its bulletin about 800 dead birds had been found since early August, but surveys are continuing and the known toll appears to be mounting — and experts caution that birds washing ashore represent only a small fraction of the dead.
The video, filmed in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China's southwestern Qinghai Province on September 7, shows mud and grass being churned up in a process known as solifluction phenomenon.
It happens because permafrost is impermeable to water - any soil on top of it may become waterlogged and slide downslope due to gravity.
Several families and a farm were affected by the incident.
The farm has had to relocate.
It was the second grizzly attack in the region in a week.
Andrea Jones of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department says the latest attack occurred on Saturday on a private ranch north of Gardiner.
Jones says the victim and two companions were near a cow carcass when the bear attacked and bit the legs and back of the victim. The bear fled when her companions deployed bear spray.
Jones says the victim is being treated for injuries that aren't considered life-threatening.
No names or other details were released.
On Sept. 4, a hunter was mauled by a grizzly in the same region. That attack also was stopped by bear spray.
Source: The Associated Press
"The summer has been cold. That has been said many times this year. But the summer has actually been more 'lacking in sun' and 'full of rain'.
Denmark has, in other words, had an average summer in 2017 - not least when compared to what we have been used to in the last decade.
But how far back do we have to go to find a worse summer? Climatologist Mikael Scharling has looked into it.
The Temperature says nothing
"When we look at the temperature - and we have had to hear a lot about it - then it is only two years ago, that we had an even colder summer. This year the average was 15,4°C. In 2015 it was down to 15,2°C".
The average temperature doesn't necessarily say much of interest about the summer. Two completely different versions of the season can produce the same result.
"A summer with few clouds typically has colder nights and warmer days. A cloudy summer on the contrary lukewarm nights and cooler days. Both parts can result in for instance 15,4°C, but the two summers will be experienced quite differently", explains Mikael Scharling."
Ricky Pettit told us the dead animal had been washed up yesterday evening.
But he said it had disappeared this morning:
"It was probably about eight to ten feet long.
"Fairly big, but I wouldn't say it was a fully-grown one, because having looked online it looked like it could have been a Mink whale."
"We stopped, turned round and had a look.
"Couldn't make out from the bridge what it was, so went and had a closer look and turned out it was this little whale dead on the side of the river."
But, this week nature attacked.
"All of a sudden I felt something on my back and it was a squirrel," Gary Prechter said. "I grabbed it and I flung it down on the lane and it turned around and came back at me. It attached itself to my ankle and started biting me and scratching me and I tried to get it off as best I could."
Prechter is one of at least four people who've had violent encounters with Lake Vista neighborhood squirrels in recent days.
The pastor at St. Pius Catholic Church confirms two women were attacked in his parking lot after Sunday mass.
While Laxmi Majhi (35) and her sister-in-law Bhagabati Majhi (20) at Baruamunda village under Komna police limits in Nuapada district were killed due to lightning strikes one died another injured in Banta block of Bhadark.
Among other deaths, two persons- one each from Bada Barahampur in Kholar panchayat under Delang block and Pubasasan village under Pipili in Puri district were killed due to lightning.
Similarly, a man was killed his wife sustained injuries at Sosa Sankatapali villager under Anandapur of Keonjhar district.
Previously, lightning strikes were not taken as seriously as today. Lightning strikes are often associated with cumulonimbus clouds, which are dense tower-shaped clouds at the origin of thunderstorms and atmospheric instability. These clouds are capable of producing lightning and other dangerous weather, such as tornadoes, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.
Cumulonimbus clouds are the main source of lightning strikes. In the past few years, lightning strikes used to happen at the end and beginning of the monsoons. This year, cumulonimbus clouds remained for the whole rainy season due to irregular raining, said U Kyaw Moe Oo, associate director general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.
The floods congested at least four major intersections in Malabon City alone, GMA 7 news program "24 Oras" reported on Tuesday.
Among them flooded intersections were Governor Pascual Avenue corner Maria Clara Streets, Maya Maya corner Pampano Street, and the intersection of Tonsuya and Sitio 6 in Katmon.
Rain poured heavily in Malabon around 2 p.m., and a waist-high flood rose within the next hour, particularly along Samson Road.
With PUV's unable to ply their routes, commuters had no choice but to wade through the flooding.
Comment: According to site Floodlist nearly 20 inches of rain fell within 24 hours: Philippines - Tropical Storm Dumps 500mm of Rain in 24 Hours













Comment: Details of the earlier attack here.