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Winds, fire, floods and quakes: Mother Nature's recent nutty run

Seth Borenstein
AP
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 18:52 UTC
hurricane damage
With four big hurricanes, a powerful earthquake and wildfires, it seems that nature recently has just gone nuts.

Some of these disasters, like Friday's earthquake in Mexico, are natural. Others may end up having a mix of natural and man-made ingredients after scientists examine them. We also always tend to look for patterns and order in chaos, even when they aren't there, psychologists say.

"Nature's gone crazy," mused Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private service Weather Underground. "Welcome to the future. Extreme weather like this is going to be occurring simultaneously more often because of global warming."


Comment: Global warming? - Still no warming for 17 years 9 months


A look at a rough few weeks in North America:
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Tornado1

Deserted Florida: Miami transforms into ghost town ahead of Hurricane Irma as seven million citizens are ordered to evacuate


RT
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 17:15 UTC
Florida coast
© Saul Loeb / AFP
A nearly-deserted beach after residents and visitors evacuated from Miami Beach, Florida, September 7, 2017, ahead of Hurricane Irma.
Eerie footage and images of southwest Florida reveal deserted beaches and cities in areas usually thronging with crowds as residents flee the region ahead of Hurricane Irma making US landfall.

Seven million citizens have now been ordered to evacuate and at least 51,000 people are staying in shelters in southeastern Florida, according to Florida emergency management officials.

The National Weather Service has warned residents that nowhere in the Florida Keys will be safe when Irma hits, while Florida Governor Rick Scott urged any hold-out citizens Friday night to leave immediately.

Looking at footage from the scene, it appears many have heeded the warnings, as bustling tourist hotspots like Miami seem all but abandoned.

Comment: See also:
Hurricane Irma: Florida declares State of Emergency as storm upgraded to Category 5 - UPDATES

Hurricane Irma crackles with lightning in satellite video

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Attention

Dead whale shark found in Tanza Bay, Philippines

Inoue Jaena
Rappler
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 18:07 UTC
dead whale shark
© Inoue Jaena/Rappler
Dead whale shark
A dead whale shark was found in the vicinity of Tanza Bay in Cavite province on Saturday, September 9.

Fishermen noticed the whale shark floating lifelessly. It was approximately 17 feet in length and 8 feet in diameter.

They decided to bring it to the Pandawan Fish Port in Rosario, Cavite to turn it over to the Coast Guard Station.

The Provincial Fisheries Office of Cavite is currently assessing the cause of death of the 3-year-old whale shark.

Known as 'gentle giants' of the ocean, whale sharks are the largest living fish species.

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Attention

Hunter attacked by bear in Sweden


The Local (Sweden)
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 17:49 UTC
The hunter was fine. The bear, not so much.

The hunter was fine. The bear, not so much.
A Swede's Saturday morning hunting expedition turned out a bit more exciting than expected.

The hunter was attacked by a bear just outside of Klövsjö in the western Sweden province of Jämtland, Expressen reported.

The hunter was able to shoot and kill the bear while under attack and escape unharmed.

The incident was reported to local officials at 7.37am.

"The bear was reportedly shot when it attacked a hunter. The hunter was unscathed. Police are on hand to investigate," the local police district wrote on its website.

Comment: Another incident occurred recently involving a hunter being charged by a brown bear, on that occasion in Alaska.

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Attention

Apocalyptic scenes from Mexico's earthquake; 3 days of mourning declared


RT
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 15:21 UTC
mexican earthquake 2017
© Jorge Luis Plata / Reuters
Residents walk past a building destroyed in an earthquake that struck off the southern coast of Mexico, in Juchitan, Mexico September 8, 2017.
The number of people killed by the 8.2-magnitude quake that hit the southern coast of Mexico late Thursday has risen to at least 61, with witnesses saying they cannot remember an earthquake this terrible. Three days of mourning have been declared.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said the quake was "the largest registered in our country in at least the past 100 years." He said in a televised address Friday night that at least 45 people were killed in Oaxaca, 12 in Chiapas, and four in Tabasco.

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Snowflake

Huge spring snow dump of 31 inches in 3 days at Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand


Scoop
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 13:24 UTC
Mt Ruapehu has experienced a huge snow dump

Mt Ruapehu has experienced a huge snow dump
Winter's back up the mountain

Mt Ruapehu's Turoa and Whakapapa ski fields are both blanketed in snow thanks to around 80cm of fresh snow fall over the last three days. Snow fell as low as Chateau Tongariro in Whakapapa Village & large snowdrifts have buried ski racks next to the Knoll Ridge cafe up at the Whakapapa Ski Area.

The Turoa & Whakapapa operations teams have been working hard in blizzard conditions over the last few days, clearing snow and de-icing lift facilities.

Mt Ruapehu Marketing Manager Matt McIvor says, "We've had heavy snowfall to increase our snow bases which should make for epic skiing and snowboarding this spring season, which for us goes right until late October. While our new snowmaking machines are doing a superb job, a helping hand by Mother Nature is always welcomed."

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Cloud Lightning

New Zealand blasted by 2200 lightning strikes in 24 hours


Stuff
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 13:09 UTC
The country's been thrashed by lightning as unstable weather takes hold.
© METSERVICE
The country's been thrashed by lightning as unstable weather takes hold.
New Zealand has been hit by lightning more than 2200 times over 24 hours, with the West Coast of the South Island bearing the brunt of the strikes.

MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said from 6.15pm on Friday to 7.20pm on Saturday, the country was blasted by 2206 lightning strikes as unstable weather took hold.

Most of those strikes had occurred offshore.

In the 24-hour period, Auckland had been hit nine times, the Bay of Plenty was hit 20 times and Westland was hit 163 times, McInnes said.
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Irma crackles with lightning in satellite video

Mike Wall
SPACE.com
Fri, 08 Sep 2017 09:38 UTC
irma

Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma looks like a gigantic electrified beast in an amazing new video captured by an Earth-observing satellite.

The video, which is composed of imagery taken by the GOES-16 satellite, shows countless lightning storms crackling within Hurricane Irma day and night as the monster storm churns its way toward Florida.

The movie condenses more than 80 hours of observations — beginning Monday (Sept. 4) at about 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) — into 49 jaw-dropping seconds.

"Of interest in this loop is the lightning within Hurricane Irma itself, particularly around the eye of the storm," officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates GOES-16 along with NASA, said in a description of the video.

"Hurricanes don't often exhibit a great deal of lightning, because their winds are mostly horizontal, not vertical," the officials added. "So, the vertical churning within storms that generates lightning doesn't normally happen."

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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Jose strengthens to become an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm

Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 09:05 UTC
Hurricane Jose strengthened to an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm

Hurricane Jose strengthened to an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 150mph. This image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Katia (left), Hurricane Irma (center), and Hurricane Jose (right) on Thursday in the Atlantic Ocean
Hurricane Jose strengthened to an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 155mph.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm was 265 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands at a rapid 18mph.

With winds picking up speed quickly, forecasters fear the storm may be on the brink of reaching Category 5 strength.

Jose is expected to pass near or east of the northeastern Leeward Islands on Saturday and is currently threatening several islands that were seriously damaged by Hurricane Irma.
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Arrow Up

Geothermal heat forms giant holes in Iceland's largest glacier

Geir Finnsson
Iceland Review
Mon, 04 Sep 2017 11:25 UTC
Hole in Iceland glacier
© Screenshot from RÚV.
This newly formed hole shows land that's been buried under ice for hundreds, or even thousands of years.
Over 400 meter (1312 feet) wide holes have formed in Vatnajökull, Iceland's largest glacier. RÚV reports. This is near the Bárðarbunga area, which had a volcanic eruption between 2014 and 2015.

According to geologist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, the entire Bárðabunga landscape changed after the eruption, with increased geothermal heat that has melted away a hundred meters of thick, glacial ice, forming these calderas.

In fact, this marks the first time in hundreds or even thousands of years that the ground beneath the glacier can be seen. Magnús Tumi warns that this increases the chances of a glacial outburst flood, although nothing can be confirmed as of yet.

Seismic activity in Bárðarbunga has been high for the past years, due to its last eruption. Magnús Tumi says the area needs to be carefully watched in order to watch out for any more calderas that might trigger a glacial outburst flood.


Comment: This year in Iceland an earthquake swarm was detected near the active Bárðarbunga volcano, a great odour of sulphur rose from Múlakvísl river and a geophysicist claims four of Iceland's volcanoes are priming to erupt - Katla, Hekla, Bárðarbunga, and Grímsvötn.

Meanwhile in Greenland mysterious plumes of steam were recorded rising from a glacier while very unusual wildfires burned which may be another sign of powerful geothermal activity from below. See also:

SOTT Exclusive: The growing threat of underground fires and explosions

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