Sheets of rain, floods and hail left a path of destruction all over the world, and the northern hemisphere still got snow in June.

The unbelievable amount of precipitation during the past months can be explained with the increasing amount of charged particles in upper layers of the atmosphere.

When meteors and meteorites pass through our lower atmosphere, or when our planet goes trough a comet dust stream, charged particles accumulate between the ionosphere and the surface of the earth causing storms to intensify, clouds to grow and more rain to fall. Wildfires and volcanic eruptions, for example, also contribute to this accumulation of particles.

At the same time, rain can conduct the accumulated electrical charge of the ionosphere to the ground, which increases the occurrence of other electrical phenomena, as tornadoes, hurricanes and plasma formations.

The accumulation of charged aerosols and increasingly colder temperatures in upper layers of the atmosphere - caused by the current solar minimum - can also be responsible of the increasing amount of hail and unseasonable snow around the world.

Charged particles influence weather much more than has been appreciated.

Heavy rain and raging floods took the life of hundreds and affected millions in south China, and destroyed 1,470 houses and 3 bridges in Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. Heavy floods also hit Assam, India leaving 16 dead and over 253,000 affected.

While Romania got its second coldest day in June, Montana got more than 1 foot of snow and southeast Wyoming got 6 inches... just at the beginning of summer.

Siberia got a share of extreme weather this month, from tornadoes to floods and extreme temperature swings.

A 7.5-magnitude earthquake rattled large swaths of southern and central Mexico, killing at least five people. No major damage was reported.

Locusts continued to ravage Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina and the Middle East, with no sign that they'll be gone soon.

All that and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for June 2020:

This meteor overflew the south of Spain on 2020 July 3 at about 3:49 local time (equivalent to 1:49 universal time). It was generated by a rock from a comet that hit the atmosphere at around 69,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 87 km over the province of Seville, and ended at a height of around 52 km. The total length travelled by the meteoroid in the atmosphere was of about 67 km.

The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, which is being conducted by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN). The event was spotted from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, Calar Alto (Almería), La Sagra (Granada) and Sierra Nevada (Granada).

The source of a loud bang or explosion that was heard around the Aspen area early Friday morning remains a mystery as officials from different agencies have not been able to track down where it originated.

Fire and police officials checked around looking for a source of the sound early in the morning and could not locate anything that might be the source, an Aspen Police and Fire Department official said Friday morning. They thought it might have been a transformer of some kind because it was louder than a gunshot.

A Holy Cross Energy spokesperson said they were not aware of any transformer damage or a disruption of service Friday morning in the Aspen area.

Many people reported hearing the loud sound echoing in the upper valley. Police and fire officials said it was not the Smuggler Mine cannon that is shot off on Fourth of July at 6 a.m. each year by the owners.

A bright meteor crossed the sky above Tokyo early Thursday, with many people saying they heard it explode.

Social media came alive after the 2:30 a.m. sightings, with many people saying they heard a large bang. Some said they mistook the sound for noise made by neighbors.

"I thought a person living (in the condo) above knocked down a shelf," wrote one Twitter user, while another said, "I thought my child sleeping on the second floor fell out of bed."

Others witnessed the sky suddenly light up.

A simulation of how substances essential for living creatures were formed on Earth reinforces the theory that life started after meteorites rained down on the planet.

Living organisms are said to have emerged on Earth 4 billion years ago. A large number of meteorites are believed to have bombarded the planet 200 million years before and after the birth of life.

"Materials needed for the start of life may have been generated over long periods, offering a chance for life to appear," said Yoshihiro Furukawa, an associate professor of geochemistry at Tohoku University.

Furukawa and his colleagues primarily from the university put carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water and iron in a container to reproduce conditions of primordial times. The vessel was then struck with a piece of metal to simulate the impact from a meteorite.

The ongoing night-time video surveillance of the night sky called "CAMS" has discovered a meteor shower caused by yet another unknown long-period comet that passed close to Earth's orbit in a past return. SETI Institute meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens reports that this shower was briefly seen on June 10 by southern hemisphere networks of the CAMS project in New Zealand, Namibia and Chile (see the map for June 10 at this project website.
The meteoroid stream is unusual in that its orbit is nearly exactly perpendicular to the plane of the planets, having an inclination of 90.2 +/- 1.0 degrees. The shower has received the name "chi Phoenicids" and has been added as number 1036 to the list of meteor shower names maintained by the International Astronomical Union. A telegram announcing the discovery (CBET 4798) was issued today.

The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received 22 reports (event 2967-2020) about a meteor fireball seen over AR, KS, MO, OK and TX on Friday, June 19th 2020 around 05:36 UT.

Paul M Smith was recording storms over Kansas when he captured the likely bolide (meteor brighter than the planet Venus) illuminating the night sky.

A meteorite-like object fell from the sky in Rajasthan's Sanchore town on Friday morning. The object resulted in a one-foot-deep crater and created an explosive sound that was heard up to two kilometers away. The unidentified object is currently with the police and under investigation.

According to locals, an explosive sound was heard when the object fell from the sky. The fall and the sound resulted in panic in the area.

The object was emitting heat even three hours after it crashed leading many to believe it may explode. As a result, the administration advised locals to stay away. After it cooled down, it was put in a jar. According to the police, the object will be investigated by experts.

"There was a massive sound in the morning when the object fell from the sky -- it was as if an airplane had crashed. However, no one could spot what had fallen. It was only after sometime that the object was noticed in a one-foot-deep pit in the ground. It had fallen about 100 metres from my house. We immediately informed local authorities," says Ajmal Devasi, a local.

Mangal Singh, Information Bureau Inspector, Jalore district, said, "After we received information about the unidentified object, department officials reached the spot. The unidentified object was found to be three kilometers heavy and was very hot. Investigation is underway."

Three bright meteor fireballs were recorded within 90 minutes over Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico on June 16th 2020, facing slightly NW between the hours of 04:40 UTC and 06:08 UTC (12:40 and 2:08 am).

CBET 4796 & MPEC 2020-L46, issued on 2020, June 12, announce the independent discovery of a comet (magnitude ~19) of an apparently asteroidal object made on CCD images taken with the 0.68-m Schmidt telescope of the Catalina Sky Survey (on May 25, 28, and 29) and the 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program (on June 7). Then on June 8, R. Weryk reported the linkage of all of these tracklets, suggesting it might possibly be a comet based upon the astrometry. The object has been found to show cometary appearance subsequently by numerous CCD astrometrists at other observing sites after the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage. The new comet has been designated C/2020 K8 (CATALINA-ATLAS).
We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 29 unfiltered exposures, 60 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, June 09.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse irregular coma about 10" in diameter (Observers E. Guido, M. Rocchetto, E. Bryssinck, M. Fulle, G. Milani, C. Nassef, G. Savini).

Stacking of 24 unfiltered exposures, 57 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, June 10.4 from U69 (iTelescope, Auberry California) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse coma about 15" in diameter slightly elongated toward PA 358 (Observers A. Valvasori, E. Guido).

Our confirmation images (click here for a bigger version)