Earth Changes 2013 - Daily Updates

July 24, 2013 – SEATTLE - A new study has found that heat waves are increasing in the western portions of the Pacific Northwest, but not the kind most people envision, with scorching hot days of temperatures reaching triple digits. These heat waves occur at night. Researchers documented 15 examples of “nighttime heat waves” from 1901 through 2009 and 10 of those have occurred since 1990. Five of them took place during a four-year period from 2006-09. And since the study was accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, another nighttime heat wave took place at the end of this June, the authors point out. “Most people are familiar with daytime heat waves, when the temperatures get into the 100s and stay there for a few days,” said Kathie Dello, deputy director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University and a co-author on the study. “A nighttime heat wave relates to how high the minimum temperature remains overnight. “Daytime events are usually influenced by down slope warming over the Cascade Mountains, while nighttime heat waves seem to be triggered by humidity,” said Dello, who is in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “Elevated low-level moisture at night tends to trap the heat in.” In their study, Dello and co-authors Karin Bumbaco and Nicholas Bond from the University of Washington defined heat waves as three consecutive days of temperatures at the warmest 1 percentile over the past century. Using that standard criterion, they documented 13 examples of daytime heat waves during the time period from 1901 to 2009. Only two of those occurred in the last 20 years.

In contrast, nighttime heat waves have been clustered over the past two decades, with what appears to be accelerating frequency. A warming climate suggests the problem may worsen, studies suggest. “If you look at nighttime temperatures in Oregon and compared them to say the Midwest, people there would laugh at the concept of a Pacific Northwest heat wave,” Dello said. “However, people in the Midwest are acclimated to the heat while in the Northwest, they are not. People in other regions of the country may also be more likely to have air conditioning in their homes. On occasion, daytime and nighttime heat waves coincide, Dello said, as happened in 2009 when temperatures in the Pacific Northwest set all-time records in Washington (including 103 degrees at SeaTac), and temperatures in Oregon surpassed 105 degrees in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and Medford. It was the second most-intense daytime heat wave in the last century, but lasted only three days by the 1 percentile definition. However, that same stretch of hot weather in 2009 results in a nighttime heat wave that extended eight days, by far the longest stretch since records were kept beginning in 1901. The latest nighttime heat wave began in late June of this year, and continued into early July, Dello said. “Like many nighttime heat waves, a large high-pressure ridge settled in over the Northwest, while at the same time, some monsoonal moisture was coming up from the Southwest,” she pointed out. “The high swept around and grabbed enough moisture to elevate the humidity and trap the warm air at night.” –Space Daily

July 25, 2013 – ARCTIC – The rapidly melting Arctic is an “economic time bomb” likely to cost the world at least $60 trillion, say researchers who have started to calculate the financial consequences of one of the world’s fastest changing climates. A record decline in Arctic sea ice has been widely seen as economically beneficial until now, as it opens up more shipping and drilling in a region thought to contain 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil. However, the Arctic’s pivotal role in regulating the oceans and climate means that as it melts it is likely to cause climatic changes that will damage crops, flood properties and wreck infrastructure around the world, according to research by academics at the UK’s University of Cambridge and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. This is likely to end up creating costs that will outstrip any benefits by three or more orders of magnitude, said Chris Hope of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. “People are calculating possible economic benefits in the billions of dollars and we’re talking about possible costs and damage and extra impacts in the order of tens of trillions of dollars,” he said. The Arctic has been warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the world for many years and the area of its sea ice, which melts and refreezes after every summer, has been declining by an amount almost equal to the size of the UK each year since 2001.

Last year, the summer ice shrank to its lowest point since satellite observations started in 1979, raising concerns about the impact on the climate. The effect the European researchers have focused on is the way warmer Arctic waters are expected to hasten thawing of the permafrost beneath the East Siberian Sea off northern Russia that is believed to contain vast deposits of methane. This is a greenhouse gas some 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, though it does not last as long in the atmosphere. There is much debate about how long it might take to release these methane deposits, and what impact it would eventually have. But some scientists say there is already evidence of large plumes of methane escaping and others fear this could happen fast enough to accelerate global warming and eventually speed up other changes such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which contains enough frozen water to push up global sea levels by 7 meters. That is why the group felt it was important to assess the possible economic impact of such changes, said Peter Wadhams, a professor of ocean physics at Cambridge who believes the Arctic sea ice could completely vanish in summers as early as 2015. –CNBC

Most important. This is a must watch.

It has been too hot in Poland for weeks now with very little rain. the temperatures in the mid 30 C.

August 5, 2013 – NEAR GOODLAND, Kan. — A mysterious, massive hole in the earth is attracting visitors to western Kansas. Geologists and engineers are still trying to determine how and why the ground gave way in this particular spot south of Goodland in the middle of someone’s pasture. “Man had nothing to do with this. This is a God thing,” said Larry Townsend, Wallace County Sheriff. “There’s no oil well around here. There are no irrigation wells anywhere near. This is something that just happened.” The sink hole is about 200 feet across and 90 feet deep. Some people have let their curiosity overtake their caution and have hiked down into the cavity, but the sheriff warns that hiking into it is a bad idea because they don’t know what’s under it and if it will further collapse. –Fox 4KC

August 5, 2013 – SIBERIA - Having an official task to draw up a geological map of the region, a young geologist ended up running into something so unique, outstanding and mysterious that it would still puzzle scientists more than six decades later – the Patomskiy Crater. A host of theories have been put forward in the intervening years: that the crater was created by an ancient civilization, or by prisoners at a top secret Stalin labor camp, or by volcanic activity, or by a meteorite, or by an underground hydrogen explosion, or by a UFO. And even more tantalizing: by two UFOs. Stories have been handed down by native people – who knew about the ‘cursed crater’ long before Kolpakov revealed it to the outside world. Among these accounts, were warnings that this ‘Devil’s Place’ was dangerous to humans. Questions remain unanswered about a phenomenon that has been called ‘The Most Mysterious Place in Russia.’ For example, why don’t trees grow on the side of the cone-like structure? Radiation levels are low now, but there is evidence they were once very high: why? In August 1949, when Kolpakov reached the very north of Irkutsk region, local Yakut people told him a story about an ‘evil’ place, hidden in the woods. They called it the Fire Eagle Nest, and according to them even the deer didn’t dare to go close to it. Locals told a lot of legends about it, warning people would suddenly start feeling unwell or even disappear, some to be found dead later, some never to be found. As recently as 2005, indeed, the head of a mission to the crater died suddenly within several kilometers of it. Legends didn’t scare Kolpakov back in 1949 but what he witnessed in a distance when he climbed up the hill was shocking.

What pushed up this massive mountain of rocks from the earth? ‘When I first saw the crater I thought that I’d gone crazy because of the heat,’ he noted. ‘And indeed a perfectly shaped mount of a size of a 25-storey building with a chopped off top sitting in the middle of the woods was quite an unexpected discovery. Since the discovery of this mysterious place, later named Patomskiy crater, scientists came up with widely differing theories of its origin: among them, an unknown underground explosion to the fall from space of a mysterious super dense substance unknown to man. Or even the UFO. But not a single one of these theories could fully explain the anomalies of the crater and the processes that still go on inside it. Later, other scientists, namely the geologist Alexander Portnov, came to the same conclusion, arguing that it could easily be former by a piece of space rock that sliced off the famous Tunguska meteoroid that exploded over Krasnoyarsk region, to the west of Patomskiy Crater, in 1908. Another early explanation was that the crater had volcanic origin. The shape superficially suggested this. Amateurs looking at it might see this as a probable theory. They may yet be right. “My NTV quote was a while ago, and since that time we’ve made a number of experiments and analyses that showed that most likely it is a volcano. Yes, the only one like this on this territory,” he said. “It is not a typical lava volcano, but just at some point gas exploded there.” Of course, there are many strange things still about the crater. There is no unified, definite consensus yet about it. Together with geomorphologists we have decided that it is the most likely version.

The strange thing that doesn’t fit the theory, however, is that if it was a gas explosion, it would not have raised the temperature. And there for a while the process of surface heating was certainly going on, there was an increased temperature level. ‘So the hypothesis is quite approximate still, but I do think that geomorphologists opinion is the most correct of all, that it is a gas volcano. “It also shows the typical ways of rising for the gas volcano – when gas keeps gathering inside the chamber, then there is an explosion that rises the ground, and gas starts gathering again. Then another explosion, and again the ground rises.” Alexander Pospeev, a doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, insists the explanation is more prosaic, and less extra-terrestrial. “Even now, the origin of the crater is not discovered, but we can say for sure that it has the earthly origin,” he stated. “It could be caused by the underground release of some fluids such as hydrogen. Maybe some other fluid, that’s what we do not know exactly. But studies have now shown that there is no object like the fragments of an asteroid or some metal object under the crater, as has been suggested.” –Siberian Times

bobhardee wrote:Most important.  This is a must watch.

Thanks Bob. Excellent and well worth listening to. I suspect we are in for some massive earth changes sooner then later.

Pigs burn in huge lightning storm
Published: 7 Aug 2013

Massive storms hit east and southern Germany on Tuesday night causing widespread damage. The lightning also hit a farm killing 250 piglets.


The piglets died after fork lightning struck the Feldkirchen pig sty in Bavaria setting it on fire. In Regensburg lightning hit an apartment block and in Oberisling a tree hit a power line, causing sparks to fly.

In the upper Pflaz region in Bavaria, emergency services received 130 calls related to the weather. In Königstein a driver had to swerve violently to dodge a fallen tree in the road, damaging the vehicle. On the A3 motorway a Porsche hit the crash barrier – the driver was not hurt but the car was badly damaged.

Despite huge storms hitting the Erzgbirge and Chemnitz area of the eastern state of Saxony, a police spokesman said the region had escaped serious damage. A lightning bolt hit a home in Chemnitz, but the family were not in.

Emergency services had their work cut out in Berlin, where they were called out 247 times before 1am. “It was a colourful mix,” a fire service spokesman said, referring to the nature of the calls. “Flooded cellars needed to be pumped, fallen trees cleared and roads drained.” He added that there were no injuries.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20130807-51257.html

Love Always
mudra

Thousands of San Francisco residents were briefly left in the dark after the power went out in a series of outages across The City early Wednesday.
August 7, 2013

A PG&E representative confirmed a “large outage” in San Francisco to SFBay around 12:45 a.m. but made no further details available. A message left for a spokesperson was not returned.

@SF311 – The City’s official Twitter account for citizen complaints — tweeted nearly 38,000 people were left without electricity in 31 separate outages that hit around midnight.

More at SFBay: http://sfbay.ca/2013/08/07/san-francisco-power-outage-darkens-38000/#ixzz2bJUFOQCk

Love Always
mudra

August 5, 2013 – DETROIT - A massive cloud of black dust that swept across the Detroit River into Windsor, Canada this week has been linked to piles of petroleum coke, a by-product of tar sands oil illegally stored in Detroit by Koch Carbon. Though much has already been said of the tar sands oil industry, which is currently experiencing a boom and has spurred several high profile pipeline expansions across the US, the accumulation of the petroleum coke, commonly referred to as pet coke, along the Detroit riverfront went largely unnoticed until this week. A dust cloud which flew over Detroit and into Windsor this week was found to carry elevated traces of lead, sulfur, zinc and vanadium, which is possibly cancer-causing in humans in prolonged or elevated exposure, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a France-based organization. The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US has not yet classified whether vanadium is carcinogenic. Last Saturday evening Windsor resident Randy Emerson managed to capture a video of the thick black dust moving along the city’s waterfront. “Is that the pet coke?” Emerson, who captured the scene on his cellphone, asked his wife. “Oh my God,” he concluded. “Yep — that’s pet coke.”

In May the New York Times profiled the Detroit dumping grounds of pet coke at an industrial site owned by Koch Carbon, a company controlled by wealthy industrialists Charles and David Koch, which sells the high-sulfur, high-carbon by-product overseas in China and India where it serves as a cheaper, dirtier alternative to coal. There is also strong demand for the by-product in Latin America, where it is used in cement-making kilns. The refining process known as coking releases oil from tar sands, and leaves petroleum coke as its by-product. According to the Times Canada currently has 79.8 million tons of pet coke stockpiled, most of which is dumped into open pits and ponds in Alberta, and the rest is simply piled up. Marathon Petroleum’s refining plant in Detroit is currently processing some 28,000 barrels a day of tar sands oil, and the increase of oil sands into the US, including transportation through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, will also bring more of the coking processing and waste product to the US. Coke is an ingredient in steel making  and the production of aluminum, though according to a petroleum coke analyst at Roskill Information Services cited by the Times high sulfur content in this particular type of pet coke make it virtually unusable for those purposes. “Here’s a little bit of Alberta,” said Brian Masse, a Windsor’s parliament members in May. “For those that thought they were immune from the oil sands and the consequences of them, we’re now seeing up front and center that we’re not.” According to Lorne Stockman, the author behind a recent study on petroleum coke, the waste is “the dirtiest residue from the dirtiest oil on earth.” –RT News

Published on Jul 27, 2013 - Storm blowing through Detroit/ Windsor area blows a huge cloud of petcoke dust over the river from Detroit pile to Windsor




July 25, 2013 – TEXAS – On July 14, a low pressure system that started in the Eastern United States retrograded under a ridge of high pressure to the north over the last couple of days. This storm system moved from east to west, which is extremely unusual for this hemisphere. We’ve seen these move east to west for a short period of time, but this one will make it to Southern California by the time it weakens. The upper level system is known as an easterly wave; however I’d like to call it a super easterly wave based on the distance it is going to travel. This particular system will have traveled from one side of the country to the other once it has stopped moving west, diving from there into Mexico, gathering up monsoonal moisture to be put into Nevada and Southern California later in the week into next week. Rainfall estimations across parts of Central Texas could be over 2-4″ of rain, with more rain (above 6+” possible in parts of South-Central Texas. Severe storms, including tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds will be possible from Texas, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona through the next few days. –The Weather Space

August 8, 2013 – NAMBIA – A severe drought that sparked a state of emergency in Namibia has left 400,000 people facing hunger, the government said. The government has been criticized for failing to do enough to provide relief to people during the worst dry spell to hit the country in decades. But the chairman of the Disaster Risk Management Committee defended the government’s performance as he announced the new figure late Tuesday. “We are trying to do the best we can to make sure that the food goes to the intended people. So far so good,” he said. Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, and only two percent of land receives sufficient rainfall to grow crops. The southern African country has seen several droughts in the recent decades. The number of people at risk from hunger has risen from 300,000 in May, when President Hifikepunye Pohamba declared a state of emergency. In May, the government started handing out maize meal bags to rural areas in a central part of the country and authorities are appealing for international support. Unicef says more than 778,000 people including 109,000 children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition. The organization says it needs about $22 million (about 17,000 euros) to support those people. The dry spell has destroyed grazing land and raised concerns about the country’s spectacular wildlife, which attracts vital tourist income. –Space Daily

August 10, 2013 - Dozens of Black Birds Mysteriously Fall Dead
“Like Raindrops” in Winnipeg, Canada.

–“There was probably … almost up to the thousand birds
in the trees, and then I was looking up and one fell right in front of me.”

- Tanya Lee Viner, North End Winnipeg eyewitness, August 7, 2013

–“No toxins have been found in these birds, according to our
Winnipeg Humane Society who have done some preliminary investigative
tests on the birds. The day before, I had noticed a loud, almost mechanical
droning sound coming from the sky above. There was no plane in view
and suddenly the strange, droning noise stopped - not like a flying plane.”

- North End Winnipeg resident, August 10, 2013


One of “hundreds of black birds falling dead” on Wednesday,
August 7, 2013, at 10:30 AM in Winnipeg, Canada's
North End. Image © 2013 by CBC.ca.
On Wednesday, August 7, 2013, at 7:30 to 8 AM local time, people in the north end of Winnipeg, Canada between the Dufferin Industrial complex and Turtle Island Recreation Center reported to CBC-TV that “hundreds of black birds — possibly grackles — were flocking in a 'bizarre manner' atop vehicles, in the trees and near businesses.” Then beginning at 10:30 AM, employees at a nearby community services agency said they saw dozens of birds falling from the sky “like raindrops.” Conservation officers and the Winnipeg Humane Society picked up many dead and still living birds for examination, autopsies and analyses. So far, no one is speculating about what killed all the birds. See: CBC.ca.

Large Explosion at Sakurajima Dusts Kagoshima with Ash

   By Erik Klemetti
   08.18.13

Sakurajima is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet — it produces hundreds of ash-laden explosions each year. Normally, these eruptions are small, reaching only a few hundred meters above the restless Showa crater. Occasionally, large explosions occur and this weekend, Sakurajima produced one of its largest explosions in decades (possibly the largest since the VEI 4 eruption in 1914; see video above). The eruption plume (see below) from Sunday’s eruption reached 5 km (~16,500 feet) and ash from the eruption spread across nearby Kagoshima (the host of the recent IAVCEI Scientific Assembly), causing some limited visibility and train delays due to the ash fall in the city only 8 km from the summit of Sakurajima. The ash was enough to prompt people to wear dust masks to prevent breathing the hazard volcanic glass shards — remember, volcanic ash is really just pieces of volcanic glass that are shattered by the explosive expansion of bubbles in an erupting magma.

read on and watch video :  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/large-explosion-at-sakurajima-dusts-kagoshima-with-ash/

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mudra

August 13, 2013 – CLERMONT, Fla.  — An official at the Florida resort where a villa was partially swallowed into the ground says it doesn’t appear the sinkhole on the site is growing. Summer Bay Resort President Paul Caldwell told reporters during a news conference Tuesday that engineers examined the 100-foot sinkhole at Clermont resort and determined there’s no reason to believe it will grow. Caldwell says the resort remains open, but with three buildings still unoccupied. The resort is taking claims from guests staying in the collapsed building. Guests from two adjacent buildings that also were evacuated are being allowed in with escorts to retrieve possessions. On Monday, about a third of one 24-unit villa collapsed. Affected guests were evacuated, and no injuries were reported. The three-story villa was reported as a total loss. The first sign of trouble came about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Security guard Richard Shanley had just started his shift, and he heard what sounded like shouting from a building. A guest flagged him down to report that a window had blown out. Shanley reported it to management, and another window popped. The resort’s staff decided to evacuate the villa. Shanley said the building seemed to sink by 10 to 20 inches and banisters began to fall off the building as he ran up and down three floors trying to wake up guests. One couple with a baby on the third floor couldn’t get their door open and had to break a window to get out, he said. “It’s a scary situation,” said Shanley, who guests credited with saving lives by knocking on doors to awaken them. Inside, they heard what sounded like thunder and then the storm of water, as if it were a storm. Evacuation took about 10 to 15 minutes, according to staff and witnesses. Amy Jedele heard screams coming from one of the adjacent buildings around 10:30 p.m., and several minutes later, the sounds of sirens. She and her fiance, Darren Gade, went outside. “That’s when you could hear the pops and the metal, the concrete and the glass breaking,” she said. –Weather




August 12, 2013 – PHILIPPINES – The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year triggered landslides and floods on Monday, disrupting power and communication links to leave one man dead and 13 fishermen missing, weather and disaster officials said. Typhoon Utor, packing winds of 150 km per hour (93 mph) near its center and gusts of up to 185 kmph, regained strength as it moved out of northern Luzon island towards the South China Sea, headed west-northwest at 19 kmph, the officials said. The coastal town of Casiguran in Aurora province, 343 km northeast of the capital Manila, suffered the worst damage, after the typhoon set off landslides that blocked its only access road. “About 90 percent of our agriculture was destroyed or damaged, particularly rice and corn crops and coconut plantations,” Aurora governor Gerardo Noveras told ANC television, adding that the full extent of damage was still unknown. “We have restored power and communications in some towns, and we’re ready to deliver relief goods to affected families.” But Casiguran and another coastal town were still isolated, he said. Television showed images of devastation ranging from uprooted trees and fallen lamp-posts to tangled power lines and flattened houses. Most mountain roads were blocked by boulders and loosened soil. By Tuesday, the typhoon, the twelfth tropical cyclone this year, will have crossed Philippine borders and head for southern China, officials said. The national disaster agency said a man clearing a clogged drain was killed when a landslide buried him in mountainous Benguet province, while 13 fishermen in the coastal provinces of Pangasinan and Camarines Sur were reported missing. Police are also checking reports of three missing fishing boats, with 25 men aboard. But 9 fishermen earlier reported missing on the central island of Catanduanes have all been accounted for, disaster officials said. Schools in the capital and most parts of Luzon were closed while two local carriers suspended 18 domestic flights. Sea travel halted and commuter buses were stalled. About 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year, often bringing death and destruction. A state of national calamity was declared last December after typhoon Bopha killed more than 700 people in the resource-rich south, but most storms make landfall further north. –Reuters

September 17, 2013 – MEXICO – Authorities scrambled to rescue people stranded in flooded homes in Mexico’s resort of Acapulco Monday after twin storms slammed opposite coasts in a rare one-two punch that has killed 34 people. Hurricane Ingrid weakened to tropical storm strength as it made landfall on the northeastern coast in the morning while the Pacific coast reeled from the remnants of Tropical Storm Manuel, which dissipated after striking on Sunday. Thousands of people were evacuated as the two storms set off landslides and floods that damaged bridges, roads and homes. The last time the country was hit by two tropical storms in the span of 24 hours was in 1958, officials said. Never before has it been struck by a hurricane and another storm at the same time. “More than two-thirds of the national territory has been affected,” Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told a news conference. At least 12 people died when a landslide hit a bus and workers removing earth that had previously fallen on a road in the eastern state of Veracruz, a civil protection official said after federal officials reported 22 deaths elsewhere. At least 15 people have died in the southwestern state of Guerrero where Acapulco is situated, said national civil protection Chief Luis Felipe Puente. Six more people died in the central states of Hidalgo and Puebla and one in the southern state of Oaxaca. Guerrero state officials reported six deaths in a road accident, but Puente did not include them in his account. Around 50 towns were affected in Guerrero, with some 238,000 people seeing various levels of damage to their homes, Puente said, adding that dozens of shelters had opened for some 20,000 people. The highway linking Acapulco to Mexico City was closed due to landslides while the resort’s airport was shut down, with some 100 people stranded on the terminal’s second floor. Authorities hoped to reopen both later Monday.


With waters rising as high as three feet (one meter) in some neighborhoods, soldiers used boats to pluck around 100 people who took refuge on upper floors or the roofs of homes. The flooding brought out crocodiles, complicating the rescue work, officials said, while Manuel’s remnants were still producing rain. Those rescued were taken to an auditorium that was converted into a shelter. At least 11 deaths were reported in Acapulco, including a family of six whose home was crushed by a landslide. “There’s no power and we are surrounded by water,” said Carlos Alvarez, who lives near a neighborhood where around 50 two-level homes were flooded. Residents used inflatable boats to evacuate around 40 people stuck on roofs, he said, complaining that neither helicopters nor troops guarding the area were not helping. Authorities are working to create an air lift in the town of Pie de la Cuesta to transport people, state Governor Angel Aguirre told Televisa television. Some 2,500 tourists were stranded at the Fairmont Hotel, according to employees there. In the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, hundreds of people were evacuated as Ingrid made landfall near the town of La Pesca and its maximum sustained winds slowed to 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour as it moved inland, according to the US National Hurricane Center. “We have to be very alert in the northern states. It just started raining and the damage will be seen in the next few hours,” said National Water Commission head David Korenfeld. Several communities were cut off by rising waters in Tamaulipas, while authorities rescued two power company workers whose truck was dragged away by a swollen river. –Space Daily

September 17, 2013 – UKRAINE – Two people were killed after heavy rains hit southern Ukraine’s Odessa region over the weekend, a local official said Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua. The ensuing floods drowned some 4,000 farm animals and poultry, and destroyed or severely damaged more than 450 houses, causing an estimated loss of 21 million U.S. dollars, an official of the press service of Odessa regional administration told Xinhua. Around 600 residents have been evacuated in central Odessa, the worst-hit region. -APA

September 17, 2013 – JAPAN - The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it dumped more than 1,000 tons of polluted water into the sea after a typhoon raked the facility. Typhoon Man-yi smashed into Japan on Monday, bringing with it heavy rain that caused flooding in some parts of the country, including the ancient city of Kyoto. The rain also lashed near the broken plant run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), swamping enclosure walls around clusters of water tanks containing toxic water that was used to cool broken reactors. Some of the tanks were earlier found to be leaking contaminated water. “Workers measured the radioactive levels of the water collected in the enclosure walls, pumping it back into tanks when the levels were high,” said a TEPCO official. “Once finding it was mostly rain water they released it from the enclosure, because there is a limit on how much water we can store.” The utility said about 1,130 tons of water with low levels of radiation — below the 30 becquerels of strontium per liter safety limit imposed by Japanese authorities — were released into the ground. But the company also said at one site where water was found contaminated beyond the safety limit workers could not start the water pump quick enough in the torrential rain, and toxic water had leaked from the enclosure for several minutes. Strontium is a potentially cancer-causing substance that accumulates in bones if consumed. Thousands of tons of water that was poured on the reactors to tame meltdowns is being stored in temporary tanks at the plant, and TEPCO has so far revealed no clear plan for it. The problem has been worsened by leaks in some of those tanks that are believed to have seeped into groundwater and run out to sea. Separately, around 300 tons of mildly contaminated groundwater is entering the ocean every day having passed under the reactors, TEPCO says. -SBS

September 16, 2013 – JAPAN - Workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have braced for a powerful incoming typhoon. Japan is struggling and failing to keep radiation leaks from the facility, crippled by the 2011 quake and tsunami, under control. Typhoon Man-Yi hit southern Japan on Monday morning, bringing heavy rains and strong winds and sparking fears that it might further deteriorate the situation at Fukushima. Workers at the site are using large weights to try and prevent cranes used to move debris from toppling over from the wind, reports Japanese broadcaster NHK. They also attached ropes to external piping and pumps, which are used to pump cooling water to and from the reactors. Staff members have increased patrols ahead of the storm to make sure that radiation-contaminated water doesn’t overflow from storage tanks. At least one overflow has already been discovered. The typhoon has been increasing in size and strength as it traveled over the Pacific, with wind speeds rising to as much as 162kph. Man-Yi is the 18th typhoon to hit Japan this season and is one of the strongest so far, leading officials to issue warnings of possible floods and landslides to citizens in different parts of the country. In three prefectures – Kyoto, Fukui and Shiga – the national Meteorological Agency forecaster issued highest level emergency alert. Railways in central Japan have suspended services in response to the typhoon’s arrival. About 800,000 residential buildings were without electricity in western and central Japan and 300,000 were told to evacuate ahead of the storm. The Fukushima plant remains a source of much concern, as Japanese authorities and operator TEPCO have so far failed to prevent leakage of radioactive water used to keep reactors under control into the environment. The disaster triggered a wave of rejection of nuclear power both in Japan and in some other countries. Japan is soon to become a nuclear-free nation after shutting down its only operational reactor on September 15. This however is expected to be temporary situation, with facilities going back online after passing safety checks and winning approval from municipal authorities. -RT

September 16, 2013 – COLORADO – Forecasters in Colorado are warning residents near Denver to brace for torrential overnight rains, as raging flood waters roar through the region and cloud cover hampers helicopter rescue efforts. Days of heavy rains and flooding have turned the state’s Rocky Mountain foothills into high risk zones, with dozens of washed out roads and bridges turning entire communities into disaster areas short on supplies and services. At least four people were known dead by late Sunday, with two others officially missing and presumed dead. Authorities say about 500 people were unaccounted for Sunday, while cautioning that some may be unable to communicate with loved ones while stranded and awaiting rescue. Rocky Mountain rescue management officials say as many as 1,000 people were awaiting rescue north of Denver, in an area that includes the hard-hit mountain community of Estes Park. But all airlifts were grounded Sunday because of new rains and poor visibility. Local news outlets say 50 bridges linking rural communities have been destroyed or damaged, and warn of a growing threat from mudslides and rockslides as roads crumble. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, speaking to reporters Saturday, said authorities were only beginning to understand the scope of the crisis. President Barack Obama has declared Colorado a major disaster zone and ordered federal help to boost state and local recovery efforts. Helicopters have plucked hundreds of people from inundated homes. One helicopter carrying Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper on a tour of the region made two stops to pick up residents waving to be rescued on Saturday. -VOA

September 25, 2013 – BANGKOK - Floods triggered by heavy rains claimed at least nine lives in Thailand this month and affected up to 1.5mn people, officials said yesterday. Flooding was reported in 23 of the kingdom’s 77 provinces, the Disaster Prevention and Relief Department said. Nine people have drowned over the past week in the north-eastern provinces of Surin and Sisakhet, it said. The meteorological department has forecast heavy rains for the remainder of the month, especially in the northern provinces. “The overall picture in the north-east has improved,” said Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, who is in charge of water management. He warned people living on the banks of the Chao Phraya River to expect some flooding as authorities were pumping water into the main waterway to reduce flooding in the central plains. Authorities said the country is not in danger of being inundated by another massive flood, similar to the 2011 disaster. Much of the central plains and parts of Bangkok were flooded two years ago, forcing six large industrial estates and hundreds of factories to close for several months. The 2011 floods left 813 dead and caused an estimated 1.4tn baht ($45.2bn) in damages, according to World Bank estimates. Heavy monsoon rains exacerbated by Typhoon Usagi have pounded parts of Vietnam and Cambodia killing at least 36 people, authorities said yesterday, with many swept to their deaths in floods.
Despite not being directly hit by Usagi—the world’s most powerful storm this year—parts of Southeast Asia have seen a worsening of their annual rainy season as the typhoon barrelled through the Philippines and China in recent days. Central and southern Vietnam have been hit by bad weather since early last week, inundating fields and villages, with 24 dead and six missing, according to a 10-day update from the country’s flood and storm control department. In Cambodia, officials said low pressure from the typhoon caused heavy rains, swelling the Mekong River with floods sweeping across several provinces. At least 12 people, including six children under six years old, have died in the deluge, said Keo Vy of the National Disaster Management Committee. Typhoon Usagi killed at least two people in the Philippines and some 25 people in southern China as it swept across the region over the weekend. Strong winds and torrential rain lashed the Chinese coast after making landfall in Guangdong province northeast of Hong Kong on Sunday evening. As the typhoon bore down on Hong Kong, operators shut down one of the world’s busiest sea ports and nearly 450 flights were either cancelled or delayed on Sunday. At least 18 further deaths have been reported in the Philippines in monsoon rains worsened by the typhoon, which also unleashed landslides and power outages across southern Taiwan at the weekend as it ploughed through the Luzon Strait with ferocious winds and heavy downpours. –Gulf Times

Andrew Collins says:

Witnessed on 28 sep 2013 the brightest ever meteor tonight careering low through the skies of eastern Italy.
It was separately orange and white, was no more than 5,000-10,000 feet up and seemed so close
I thought at first it was a steadily moving aircraft.
After a few seconds I realised what I was seeing and called out to AN Catja and her mother,
who were facing in the opposite direction.
The white and orange lights then vanished to leave behind a much smaller,
deep orange glow that continued its west-northwest to east-southeast trajectory
towards the direction of Bucchianico and Arielli.
I reckon it was in view for around five seconds; the time being approximately 9pm.
Location was between the town of Chieti and the Pescara province.
I am putting this sighting on record just in case others witnessed the event, and they surely will have done.
The closest I can came to comparing it is this picture of the Russian meteor from February,
although the one I saw had no tail and shone in two distinct colours (arguably fragments moving close together).

First storms of the season...I'm expecting many more....Farmer's Almanac predicts a chilly, cold and snowy winter. This is the second storm this weekend.



Damaging winds batter B.C. South Coast Sunday night

Ferries cancelled Sunday afternoon as powerful storm rolls in


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/damaging-winds-batter-b-c-south-coast-sunday-night-1.1872622

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As it is above; so it is below

September 30, 2013 – CHINA - Seventy-four people are missing after three Chinese fishing boats sank in the South China Sea amid stormy weather caused by a typhoon, state media reported Monday. The vessels, from the southern province of Guangdong, foundered Sunday afternoon as they battled gales about 330 kilometers from the Chinese island of Hainan, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing maritime authorities. The storm, Typhoon Wutip, is forecast to make landfall in central Vietnam later Monday. As of Monday noon, rescuers had retrieved 14 survivors, though rescue operations have been hampered by strong gales and rough seas, sources with the Hainan maritime search and rescue center told Xinhua. The sources added that a total of five fishing boats with 171 crew aboard had been caught in the storm. Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping urged local authorities to do their utmost to find the missing or stranded and minimize casualties, state media reported. Xi also ordered the armed forces and central government departments to help in the rescue effort. –CNN

The calendar may have just turned to October; however, Winter Storm Atlas has already wrung out over a foot of snow to parts of the northern Rockies and snow even at lower elevations. hrough early Saturday, more heavy, wet snow and even blizzard conditions are possible as the area of snow spreads east. Let's get into the forecast details.

Timeline
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INTERACTIVE RADAR SNOW LAST 24 HOURS
Rain, Snow Forecast

Friday: Heavy, wet snow will persist in much of Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota, far south-central and southeast Montana, the mountains of northern Colorado and northeast Utah. Rain will change to wet snow in parts of western Nebraska, lower elevations of western South Dakota and southwest North Dakota. Strong winds may produce blizzard conditions, at times, in eastern Wyoming, western Nebraska and western South Dakota.

Friday night: Wet snow will continue in northwest Nebraska, lower elevations of western and central South Dakota, southwest North Dakota and far southeast Montana. Reduced visibility thanks to strong north to northwest winds can be expected as well. Snow tapers to flurries or light snow showers over most of Wyoming (except the far east). Snow ends in Colorado and Utah.

Saturday: Wet snow may persist in parts of the Dakotas and northern Nebraska. Clearing skies but chilly temperatures over the Rockies and adjacent foothills.