While TV audiences were distracted by the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the farcical build-up to the US presidential election, the relentless pace of increasing extreme weather events around the world continued in August. Among the trends in environmental upheaval last month, we observed...
A record-breaking number of tornadoes in the US for August
Another '1-in-1,000-year flood event', this time in Louisiana
A destructive earthquake in central Italy
The fastest comet ever recorded
Lots more lightning deaths, including an entire herd of reindeer in southern Norway
Three massive sinkholes opening up to swallow (and kill) people in China
Intense storms hitting many world capitals, including record rainfalls in Macedonia and Moscow
Raging wildfires across the western Mediterranean and western US
July 2016 was a crazy month in more ways than one. A global spike in terror attacks and people going postal was apparently mirrored by Mother Nature. Among the extreme weather events and trends in environmental upheaval last month, we observed:
A destructive tornado outbreak in South Africa (where it's winter-time)
Hail the size of golf-balls falling in - of all places - Colombia and Brazil
Intense electrical storms everywhere, with lightning strikes continuing to pick people off in alarming numbers
Deluges of rain washing away cars and people everywhere from Mexico City to Berlin to Maryland
Devastating flooding across swathes of China, India and Nepal
Multiple destructive waterspouts coming ashore in Cuba
Animals, both wild and captive, attacking and killing people
An enormous meteor fragmenting from horizon to horizon over the US Southwest
Multiple tornadoes in Germany, rivers of ice in Italy, flash-flooding in Greece, simultaneous record rainfall in England, Germany and France can all mean only one thing: it's summertime in Europe!
Yes indeed, it's summertime in the northern hemisphere, but not as we once knew it. The pace of increasing climate chaos continued relentlessly all over the world last month: China recorded its most destructive tornado in living memory, another 'once-in-a-millenium' flood hit the US Mid-Atlantic states, and intense storms battered capitals from Accra to Kuala Lumpur to Warsaw.
These were (just some of) the signs of the times in June 2016...
More and more people are starting to notice that something unusual is going on with the weather (and the planet as a whole). While vaguely acknowledging that all these extreme weather events occurring simultaneously points to their being somehow connected, mainstream media reporting about this, however, remains mired in complete absurdity. CNN, for example, recently reported that "[2016 was] the second year in a row Texas has been hit by one-in-500-year floods."
Last month, more volcanoes erupted during one week than would typically erupt during an entire year in the 20th century. Hailstones the size of tennis balls fell across southeast Asia, while the Indian subcontinent roasted in a record-breaking heatwave for the second year running. Europe experienced record-late snowfall in many places, followed by tornado outbreaks, devastating flash-floods and hailstorms that required snowploughs to clear streets. Wildfires raged across vast expanses of sub-Arctic regions, notably in central Canada, where the population of an entire city was forced to flee.
Month after month, the rain falls harder, the winds blow stronger, and the meteors come closer. Devastated homes can't be rebuilt fast enough before the next waves of natural disasters hit. The leaders of the free world, while waging more wars, plundering more resources, and causing ever more death and suffering, are telling us we've never had it so good.
Based on this snapshot of global environmental upheaval in May 2016, Mother Nature apparently begs to differ...
Devastating earthquakes, flash-floods occurring with increasing regularity in most every region of Earth, Spring snowfalls, hailstones the size of baseballs, tornadoes in the Middle East, wildfires raging in northern latitudes, meteors exploding in the atmosphere, and residential/industrial buildings exploding all over the place...
The Powers That Be tell us that that is all due to 'man-made global warming', and that the environmental chaos can be arrested or mitigated by implementing their judicious solutions.
But is that the real story here? How can paying carbon taxes or 'going green', for example, stop the cosmos from sending increasing numbers of meteor fireballs our way?
In the space of 24 hours last month, two major earthquakes on either side of the Pacific Ring of Fire killed several hundred people. The quake in Ecuador was followed by extreme rainfall, while the quake in southern Japan was followed by hundreds of tremors - and foam; lots of bizarre, white foam of unknown origin.
Here is just a selection of 'the signs' in April 2016, signs that the planet/cosmos/Living System is gearing up for a major 'reset'...
Record heavy spring snowfalls, destructive tornado outbreaks, planes falling out of the sky, catastrophic flooding on every continent, metallic 'sky sounds' heard in diverse locations, multiple meteor fireball sightings, mass animal deaths, sinkholes swallowing moving vehicles... These were just some of the signs of the times in March 2016...
Sinkholes swallowing cars and people, meteor fireballs raining down, and volcanoes erupting all over the place - for the shortest month of the year, February 2016 sure was eventful...
Last month, there were many spectacular volcanic eruptions in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Japan. Elsewhere, the Earth literally opened up to kill a man in Arizona, while a giant fissure swallowed a river in southern Mexico. Major earthquakes included a 6.4 magnitude tremor in Taiwan that toppled buildings and killed 33 people, while another strong quake (5.9M) struck Christchurch, New Zealand, which is still rebuilding after a devastating earthquake struck the South Island city in February 2011.
A lot of spectacular meteor fireballs were caught on camera last month. On just one day, February 6th, there were 3 notable meteor events: NASA recorded a massive overhead explosion in the South Atlantic Ocean; a second meteor shook homes when it exploded over Denmark and sent meteorites to the ground; and a third meteor did likewise in southern India, killing a man who had the misfortune of becoming the first official case of 'death-by-meteor'. The bolide that exploded over the South Atlantic was the largest to hit the planet since the Chelyabinsk event, almost three years to the day.
Those strange 'sky sounds' were heard in North America last month, notably in the US Northeast and Quebec. Deluges brought flash-flooding to Mauritius, Fiji was flattened by its strongest ever storm, Peru was hit by devastating mudslides, and there were heavy snowfalls in parts of the US and Pakistan. Ottawa, Canada received its biggest single-day snowfall in over 100 years.
An increasingly erratic Jet Stream coupled with a record-strong El Nino brought weather extremes to the US, with the US Southwest experiencing a record heatwave for this time of year, the US Northeast experiencing record cold temperatures mid-month, and the US South experiencing both unseasonal tornado outbreaks and blizzards. In what appears to be an increasing trend, sea life continues washing ashore in droves on beaches around the world. We also have several clips of animals going on the rampage, including the somewhat symbolic sight of a bear attacking people in Turkey.
These were the signs of the times in February 2016...
The flooding of the great Mississippi River Basin in early January - which followed record-breaking rainfall over the New Year - was unprecedented for wintertime. The only similar event was the Great Flood of 1937, but back then just one tributary - the Ohio River - flooded. Last month saw the Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas and Meramec Rivers - and the Mississippi itself - all burst their banks, flooding parts of Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. There are no records in US history of such happening before. In addition, the rivers crested at all-time record heights in a number of places.
The US Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions flipped from experiencing their warmest ever temperatures for December and early January... to being buried under a record-breaking 3-day blizzard that killed 55 people. The North American cold wave extended as far south as Veracruz, southern Mexico, which is experiencing its "coldest winter in history." At the same time, a powerful cold wave in East Asia extended as far south as central Vietnam, where snow fell for the first time ever. An unusual cold wave also extended deep into the Middle East, where hail turned the Arabian Desert white and snow reached as far south as Kuwait (another first!).
A year of astonishing weather events and devastating natural disasters came to a dramatic end last month, ruining Christmas celebrations for many. Unusual atmospheric conditions and a severely looping northern jet stream brought record warmth to the Arctic and Western Europe, where back-to-back storms pummeled the UK, Ireland and Norway with record-breaking rainfall and hurricane-force winds. A similar situation developed on the opposite side of the globe, where, for the second year running, the most intense North Pacific storm ever recorded slammed into Alaska and brought intense flooding to the US Northwest.
December 2015 was a 'tale of two USAs', with the western half generally experiencing record cold, record snowfall, and ice storms, while the eastern states experienced record warmth, fatal tornado outbreaks and record flooding. Incredibly, it was warmer on Christmas Day in Boston and New York City than it was on July 4th. Severe flooding affected all continents, with over 100,000 people displaced in the capital of Congo, Kinshasa; another 160,000 displaced in central Latin America; and 300 killed by 'the worst flooding in over a century' in southern India.
There were also multiple volcanic eruptions last month, spectacular meteor fireball sightings, gaping sinkholes swallowing homes, and localized storms of such intensity that falling hail turned streets into rivers of ice in northern Argentina, while tornadoes touched down in New Zealand. The animal kingdom is also feeling the effects of global upheaval: mass fish kills continue apace; enormous whales continue washing up on sea shores; and, for the second time in 5 months, a giant squid was filmed coming up to the surface... Does something stir in the deep?
These were the signs of the times in December 2015.
November 2015 was another month of extreme weather events, with several major tornado outbreaks in the US causing widespread damage from Iowa to Texas. These devastating storm systems brought record early (and record amounts of) snow to many places, with Chicago experiencing its snowiest November in "more than 100 years." Further south, Oklahoma went from experiencing - in the space of two weeks - raging wildfires to ice-storms. Elsewhere, northern China saw record cold temperatures and Japan saw its heaviest November snowfalls in over 60 years.
In the southern hemisphere, 'summer' storms dropped giant hailstones that turned streets in northern Argentina into rivers of ice, while an enormous multi-vortex tornado destroyed over a thousand homes in Brazil. The October deluges that washed away cars and homes across the Middle East continued throughout November, with Qatar receiving more than its entire annual rainfall average in just one day. Parts of Israel, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen were also inundated with unprecedented rainfall. For the second month running, intense hailstorms led to ice flowing through the Arabian Desert.
The spate of meteor fireballs seen around the world in late October continued into November, with a spectacular sighting in Bangkok, Thailand - the city's second such event in two months. In this month's SOTT Summary video, we also have footage of meteor fireballs visiting Ireland and South Africa twice; another one that rattled windows after it exploded above Saskatchewan, Canada; and don't miss the one that literally screamed over New Mexico...
Comment: View part 1 here:
SOTT Earth Changes Summary - January 2016: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs