Earth Changes 2013 - Daily Updates

February 10, 2013 – BOSTON, MASS - The Northeast started digging itself out after a blizzard dumped up to 40 inches of snow with hurricane force winds, killing at least nine people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. By early Sunday, utility companies were reporting roughly 350,000 customers still without electricity across a nine-state region after the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines. About half a million had been down as of late Saturday. Air traffic began to return to normal Sunday after some 5,800 flights were canceled Friday and Saturday, according to Flightaware, a flight tracking service. Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and Long Island MacArthur Airport reopened on Sunday morning. Both were closed on Saturday. Boston’s Logan International Airport reopened late on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Rare travel bans in Connecticut and Massachusetts were lifted but roads throughout the region remained treacherous, according to state transportation departments. As the region recovered, another large winter storm building across the Northern Plains was expected to leave a foot of snow and bring high winds from Colorado to central Minnesota into Monday, the National Weather Service said. South Dakota was expected to be hardest hit, with winds reaching 50 miles per hour, creating white-out conditions. The storm was expected to reach parts of Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin. Friday and Saturday’s mammoth storm stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and covered several spots in the Northeast with more than 3 feet of snow. Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts took the brunt of the blizzard. Hamden, Connecticut, had 40 inches and nearby Milford 38 inches, the National Weather Service said. Amtrak said it planned to run a limited service between New York and Boston on Sunday and a regular Sunday schedule from New York to the state capital in Albany. However, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority and Connecticut Transit said service would remain suspended Sunday. Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins told WTNH television on Saturday snow had fallen at a rate of 6 inches an hour and even plows were getting stuck. The storm dropped 31.9 inches of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, the weather service said. Winds gusted to 83 miles per hour (134 km per hour) at Cuttyhunk, New York, and brought down trees across the region. The storm contributed to at least five deaths in Connecticut and two each in New York state and Boston, authorities said. A motorist in New Hampshire also died when he went off a road but authorities said his health may have been a factor in the crash. The two deaths in Boston were separate incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning in cars, an 11-year-old boy and a man in his early 20s. The boy had climbed into the family car to keep warm while his father cleared snow. The engine was running but the exhaust was blocked, said authorities. –Reuters


February 8, 2013 – SANTA CRUZ, ISLS – The deadly 8.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit the Solomon Islands days ago, struck along a subduction zone, the same geologic setting responsible for the world’s most powerful earthquakes. In a subduction zone, two of Earth’s tectonic plates meet and one slides beneath the other into the mantle, the deeper layer beneath the crust. The Solomon Islands sits above the collision between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of the magnitude-8.0 earthquake, the Australia plates dives beneath the Pacific plate toward the east-northeast at a geologically speedy 3.7 inches (94 millimeters) per year, according to the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The earthquake hit at a depth of 17.8 miles (28.7 kilometers) and was the second largest earthquake in the Solomon Islands region in almost 40 years, IRIS said in a statement. Several aftershocks followed; the largest measuring magnitude 6.6, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The tsunami generated by the quake, reported as 3 feet (0.9 meters) in height, hit villages on Santa Cruz Island, destroying structures and homes, according to news reports. A tsunami watch was issued for Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand, but not for the rest of the Pacific, according to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. Subduction zone quakes shove the seafloor in one sudden movement, which may generate a tsunami by pushing the ocean water above. However, depending on the depth and size of the earthquake, the actual seafloor surface may not move a significant amount, so a big earthquake doesn’t always produce a massive wave. For example, a magnitude-7.6 subduction zone earthquake in the Philippines in August 2012, which started deep in Earth’s crust, did not trigger a tsunami. There were dozens of earthquakes around the Solomon Islands in the month leading up to the massive 8.0 earthquake, the USGS reported. More than 40 magnitude-4.5 quakes shook the islands in the past week alone, and seven of those temblors were larger than a magnitude-6.0, the USGS said. –Discovery

Planet in crisis: “We are entering an era of increased planetary instability, brought on by a significant rise in the geothermal gradient, and subsequent magmatic fluid expansion within the planet’s interior. It will be a time, in which, we will see catastrophic and exponential increases in the number of natural disasters- most notably: earthquakes, storms, and volcanic eruptions. Yet, it is not the number of earthquakes that will strike the planet in the future that should most concern us. It will be the cluster eruption of mega-quakes, and their resonate aftermath, which will signal the planet has entered an intensified cataclysmic period of transition…these quakes will signal the secondary stage of Earth’s thermal acceleration, and should come to be viewed as signs of increasing disorder. Some of the quakes will strike as singular events; others will erupt in clusters, and some will strike some of the world’s most dangerous faults…this time will be marked by increased tectonic plate agitation, and an increase in the outbreak of the most powerful and destructive type of earthquakes, known as mega-thrust earthquakes.” –The Extinction Protocol, pp. 166,167,172 (2009)

A blizzard of potentially historic proportions threatened to strike the Northeast with a vengeance Friday, with up to two feet of snow forecast along the densely populated corridor from the New York City area to Boston and beyond.

“Earth’s stability is collapsing…and one by one, the biospheric processes regulating life itself are going awry. These are early characteristics of climate shock and are indications that even more ominous changes are yet to unfold…areas of the Earth…will become increasingly inhospitable from the extremes of climate change. As incredible as it seems, we’re witnessing signs of epochal change-across the planet which are typically consigned to geological periods of planetary extinctions. The climate stability, we once knew, is gone forever.” –The Extinction Protocol

February 3, 2013 – AUSTRALIA - The Bureau of Meteorology said both the average mean temperature of 29.68 degrees Celsius (85.42 degrees Fahrenheit) and the average mean maximum temperature of 36.92 Celsius surpassed previous records set in January 1932. The nation’s central outback sweltered under a “dome” of heat for much of the month, with the Northern Territory posting its hottest mean temperature on record for January of 31.93 Celsius, the bureau said. “The heat-wave in the first half of January was exceptional in its extent and duration,” it said in a statement released Friday. “The national average maximum temperature on 7 January was the highest on record. Numerous stations set records for the most days in succession above 40 degrees Celsius, including Alice Springs (17 days) and Birdsville (31 days).” The bureau said a large number of weather stations set all-time record high temperatures during the heat-wave, including Sydney (45.8 Celsius on January 18) and Hobart (41.8 Celsius on January 4). The highest temperature recorded during the heat-wave was at Moomba in South Australia, which hit a scorching 49.6 Celsius on 12 January. The bureau said the heat-wave, which aided bushfires in the eastern states, was followed by extreme rainfall and flooding for some coastal areas of Queensland and New South Wales caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald. The rain caused extensive flooding in the Queensland towns of Bundaberg, where some houses were washed away and roads destroyed, and Gladstone among others. “Gladstone received 820 millimeters (32 inches) of rainfall in four days, which exceeded its previous record for a whole month, and more than the annual rainfall recorded in 2011 or 2012,” the bureau said. –Physics

February 22, 2013 – DES MOINES - As many as 30 million people living from Oklahoma to the Ohio Valley are in the path of a storm moving east out of California that could dump several inches of snow in some areas and freezing rain and sleet elsewhere in the next few days. According to the Weather Channel, the storm is caused by an “upper-level dip in the jet stream,” on Wednesday. Snow will also intensify and spread east in the Plains and Midwest Wednesday into Thursday. By that point, conditions will become favorable for a zone of freezing rain and sleet from Oklahoma and Kansas to the Ohio Valley and parts of the East. CNN reports that “the biggest threat of heavy snow lies in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, with the possibility of whiteout conditions in some places.” CNN says Chicago could get 4 inches of snow, St. Louis 2 inches, while New Orleans could get 2 to 6 inches of rain. -NPR

Roughly 300 kilometers (200 miles) inland from Australias east coast, a network of rivers runs along the border between Queensland and New South Wales. In early February 2013, after flooding affected other parts of Queensland, high waters reached this region, transforming the landscape in a matter of days. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra satellite captured the top image on February 4, 2013. For comparison, the top image shows relatively normal conditions observed on January 23, 2013.<br><br>These images use a combination of visible and infrared light to better distinguish between water and land. Water varies in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation is bright green and bare ground is earth-toned. Clouds are pale blue-green. The overall lighter color in the January 23 image may reflect drier conditions, but might simply result from a different angle of the satellite sensor. On January 23, the Weir River in southern Queensland was barely discernible. By February 4, the river had broken its banks and spread onto the surrounding floodplain, as had nearby rivers. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology warned of major river flooding in the region, including floods along the Weir and Macintyre Rivers.


February 23, 2013 – GEORGIA – It will be a messy weekend in the Northeast and the Deep South as the massive weather system that walloped 20 states with a snowstorm rolls off towards the Atlantic Ocean. A winter storm is expected to deposit up to 10 inches of snow in isolated pockets of western Massachusetts, and 6 inches to a foot in parts of southern Vermont and New Hampshire, and central Maine. This is not the same storm that blanketed the Great Plains, said CNN Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, although it is part of the same overall system that spans the country from north to south. It will be much less intense, he said, and it should not affect the places hardest hit by the blizzard that plastered the Northeast two weeks ago, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. Boston will likely see a slushy mix of rain and snow that could lead to downed branches and power lines, Javaheri said. Rain will continue to soak the eastern United States from Washington, D.C., on down, especially Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. “Across the Southeast, some of the rainfall totals are going to be staggering,” said CNN Meteorologist Karen McGinnis. Parts of the central Southeast should get 4 — 6 inches of rainfall. The outgoing system will have made its mark on virtually the entire country from the southwest corner of California to central Maine, leaving its deepest imprint on Kansas. Wichita saw its second-highest storm snowfall total on record with 14.2 inches over two days, the National Weather Service said. The town of Russell in the state’s middle lay under a 22 inch layer of white by the time the storm roared by. Missouri was not far behind, with accumulations of around a foot in some places. The snow set a record at Kansas City International Airport, with 9 inches falling in a single day. The old record was 5.1 inches set in 2010. Some businesses and universities shut down Thursday as state officials urged residents to stay off the roads. The white blanket emptied the streets of Kansas City. –CNN

everal hours of heavy rain and a thunderstorm in the Greek capital Athens have flooded roads and homes, caused traffic jams and disrupted the train and tram network. "It was one of the worst thunderstorms we have ever had in the greater Athens area [since 1961],"

About 800,000 square miles in 18 states were under some form of watch or warning Wednesday related to a major storm pouring out of California and into the Central Plains and the Midwest. - (Reuters) - A major winter storm pounded the Great Plains on Thursday as it headed east from the Rocky Mountains, dumping 10 inches of snow on Kansas after blanketing parts of Arizona. Ice storm warnings were in effect for parts of northern Arkansas. The massive storm was expected to spawn thunderstorms and rain on its southern edge from eastern Texas to Georgia, the forecaster said. Winds from the storm gusted as high as 74 miles an hour (119 km per hour) at San Augustin Pass in New Mexico and 72 mph at El Paso, Texas.

Read more: http://www.kitv.com/news/national/60-million-in-path-of-winter-storm/-/8905418/19013410/-/13hu73w/-/index.html#ixzz2LYM6Nx4P

Climate Change Update (25 February 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CJpFjRnCsg


Climate Change Update (27 February 2013) "A ticking time bomb"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K375e7sypM


Love Always
mudra

A natural winter phenomenon on the shores of Lake Michigan is grabbing the attention of people here in northern Michigan and across the entire country. Right now, there are hundreds ice balls or boulders piled along the shores of Lake Michigan at Good Harbor Bay, which is part of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.

March 2, 2013 – CHINA - Beijing residents were urged to stay indoors Thursday as pollution levels soared before a sandstorm brought further misery to China’s capital. A thick blanket of smog covered large swathes of the country in the morning, causing residents to once again dig out face-masks as China’s grueling winter of pollution continues. The noxious haze saw the US embassy’s air quality index reading for Beijing hit 516 at 6am, signaling air quality worse than the highest classification of “hazardous.” Those who ventured out in mid-morning were confronted with swirling clouds of dust, which the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said had been blown in from Inner Mongolia. “We would hope that everyone stays indoors as much as possible and that people carry out appropriate measures for protection,” the agency said in a posting on its verified account on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. State broadcaster China Central Television showed images of tree branches being blown onto Beijing’s streets, and the newsreader urged residents to keep windows closed because of the risk of windows being blown out and showering pedestrians with glass. The weather was also the subject of resigned discussion on China’s Internet message boards, which attracted widespread anger in previous bouts of heavy smog. “We have gone from toxic pollution to dust pollution,” said one poster on Sina Weibo. “We lead a really varied life in Beijing.” Many parts of China have endured repeated episodes of toxic air in recent weeks, sparking demands for government action from both netizens and state media. Air quality improved during the day, with the US Embassy index reaching 168 at 1pm.

A natural winter phenomenon on the shores of Lake Michigan is grabbing the attention of people here in northern Michigan and across the entire country. Right now, there are hundreds ice balls or boulders piled along the shores of Lake Michigan at Good Harbor Bay, which is part of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.


February 26, 2013 – HAWAII – The burst of winter weather on Mauna Kea over the weekend has apparently come to an end. Snowfalls were replaced by freezing rain and high winds on Hawaii Island summits today and temperatures are expected to rise above freezing Tuesday and Wednesday. “With more sunshine and warmer temperature, I would expect what’s left of the snow will melt pretty quickly over the next couple of days,” said Robert Ballard, a forecaster with the National Weather Service Honolulu office. Forecasters issued a high wind watch for the summits above 8,000 feet starting Tuesday morning through 6 a.m. Wednesday. Winds of 45 mph with gusts over 60 mph may blow over the summits, Ballard said. A wind advisory is also in effect for parts of Maui County and Hawaii Island through late Tuesday night because of strong trade winds. Forecasters expect sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph, with gusts over 50 mph that could bring down tree branches, cause power outages and make driving difficult. The advisory includes Manele, Lanai City, Kahului, Haleakala National Park above 6,000 feet, south Point, Pahala, Hilo, Volcano, Honokaa, Kamuela and Waikoloa. The winds shouldn’t be as strong on Oahu and Kauai, where forecasters predict 15 to 30 mph winds, with higher gusts up to 50 mph in a few areas. –Star Advisor http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20130225_Mauna_Kea_snow_expected_to_melt_as_winds_pick_up.html


February 26, 2013 – TEXAS - A strong winter storm blowing through the Texas Panhandle has lead to road closures and blizzard conditions in the area, where as many as 100 motorists are stranded between Amarillo and Lubbock. Trooper David Hawthorne of the Texas Department of Public Safety in Amarillo said National Guard troops are helping state troopers and local deputies and police find and help motorists stranded in whiteout conditions. Numerous major Texas Panhandle highways were closed for the night as sub-freezing temperatures froze ice and compacted snow on the pavement. The Texas Department of Transportation website showed most major routes in the region were closed. The National Weather Service said as many as 100 motorists on Interstate 27 between Amarillo and Lubbock found themselves stalled in whiteout conditions in the worst of the storm, Monday. The American Red Cross set up two shelters for stranded motorists. Red Cross spokeswoman Martha Riddlesburger says about 50 stranded Interstate 27 motorists sought shelter at its shelter in Tulia, about 50 miles south of Amarillo. Red Cross spokesman Steven Pair says 45 motorists stranded on Interstate 40 sought refuge in a shelter in Groom, 45 miles east of Amarillo. As of 7 p.m., the heaviest snowfall in Texas was recorded in Amarillo with 19 inches of snow, 16 inches in Fritch, 15 inches in Pampa and 14 inches in Booker. In Oklahoma, 15 inches was recorded in Woodward and 11 inches in Shattuck. While snowfall is expected to taper off by Monday afternoon, wind gusts of up to 35 mph will remain a hazard, said Sarah Johnson, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Amarillo, Texas, office. The strong storm is expected to bring cooler temperatures and a wintery mix to DFW Monday evening with possible wind gusts of 75 miles an hour. Whiteouts were also reported in Oklahoma, where as of 10 a.m. Central time, the state had closed all highways in six counties — Ellis, Harper, Woodward, Beaver, Texas and Cimarron — until further notice. –NBCDWF, CNN

Climate Change Update (05 March 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC2UBjAYwxM


Love Always
mudra

March 7, 2013 – INDIA - Millions of people in western India are suffering their worst drought in more than four decades, with critics blaming official ineptitude and corruption for exacerbating the natural water shortage. Central areas of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, are facing a water shortage worse than the severe drought in 1972, the state’s chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told AFP. “In recorded history, the reservoirs have never been so low in central Maharashtra,” he said. “With every passing day the reservoirs are drying up.” Chavan blamed the crisis on two successive poor monsoons, although others say a public policy failure is also responsible. Nearly 2,000 tanker trucks are being used to transport drinking water to the needy, while hundreds of cattle camps have been set up to keep livestock alive until the monsoon, which usually arrives in June. “With every passing day, the tankers have to travel a greater distance. It’s a huge logistical issue,” Chavan said. The chief minister’s office could not put an exact figure on the population in the 10,000 villages affected, but said it ran into millions. Christopher Moses runs a charitable hospital in Jalna, one of the worst-affected districts. He said many people had lost their livelihoods as companies shut down and farmers’ crops wither. “This is a famine. Villagers have nothing to eat, they are scraping literally the bottom of their pot,” Moses told AFP by telephone from Jalna. “Water-related diseases are on the up, starvation will start coming up, malnutrition will start coming up now,” he said. He said the crisis may force him to shut down parts of his Jalna Mission Hospital for the first time in its 117-year history. It has not yet seen any emergency water supplies from the government. With nearly three-quarters of Indians dependent on rural incomes, the yearly monsoon is a lifeline — especially given that about two-thirds of farmland is not irrigated and depends entirely on rain. The 1972 drought led to a massive shortage of food grains and prices of all commodities rocketed, forcing India’s government to increase imports, while another widespread drought in 2009 also inflated prices and hardship. While last year’s monsoon picked up late in western parts of India, low rainfall in the crucial month of June led to water deficiency throughout the season, according to Medha Khole at the India Meteorological Department. Chavan warned there would a “very serious problem” if the rains fail this year. –Space Daily

March 9, 2013 – MICHIGAN - An island has sprung up off the coast of Lake Michigan and this one isn’t made of dirt. ‘It was just a bunch of blocks piled on top of each other and they were welded together with the wind and snow,” Outdoor enthusiast Josh Baker explained. Over the weekend, Baker and his family stumbled across this giant island floating in Lake Michigan outside of the small town of Good Hart. Sunday, he decided to climb the jagged, 15-foot ice mountain. Once he made it to the top, he noticed the structure was different on the other side. “The side facing the lake was almost sheer, it was pretty neat. So the side I was on was all jumbled and the opposite side was just sheer down to the water,” Baker said. Good Hart General Store Owner Jim Sutherland says this sight is not a new one, but he says it has been many years since he has seen one this big. “This year we have been fortunate enough to have cold weather, lots of wind, and combined it builds ice into ice caves, ice mountains,” Sutherland said. He says Mother Nature has probably been building this ice island for around 6 to 8 weeks. “The wind combined with the movement of water, vertically and horizontally, a whole motion of the lake as it moves towards the mountains of ice,” Sutherland explained. That mountain of ice left Josh Baker with a camera full of memories and a unique sight to share with northern Michigan. “I’ve never seen anything that concentrated. You will see blocks stacked against one another on the shoreline but this was so tall, so huge,” Sutherland said. –Up North Live


March 9, 2013 – PHILIPPINES – The death toll in the landslide that marred operations in a geothermal power plant in Leyte last week, rose to 14, following the recovery of five bodies Wednesday, and another one early Thursday morning. Alberto Ignacio Jr., geothermal projects division vice president of construction firm First Balfour, said the four bodies were retrieved Wednesday morning buried in the ground along the road where they were building a pipe shelter at the time of the landslide. Ignacio identified the first four bodies recovered on Wednesday as those of Salvador Lascañas Jr., Alfredo Arabis, Romeo Yazar and Danilo Mabuti. The fifth body later recovered in the day and a sixth early morning Thursday were identified as Salvador Yabana and Jorden Salcedo. “We are extending full assistance to the family for funeral/burial expenses. We have also assigned staff to be with the families as we did for the rest who were earlier recovered,” Ignacio said in a text message to GMA News Online. The landslide occurred at Pad 403 of the Upper Mahiao Geothermal Project in Leyte last Friday. “Yung ginagawa kasi sa pipe shelter sa road 403 and 409, there’s a section on the pipeline along the road na nagka-landslide,” Ignacio told GMA News Online in a phone interview. The plant’s operator Energy Development Corp. (EDC) suspected that an earthquake last Feb. 27 and two weeks of rain may have triggered the landslide Friday morning, which initially claimed five lives. First Balfour is the contractor for one of the civil works in the province. “The Emergency Response Team and all available personnel, as well as company resources and equipment, have already been mobilized,” the company said in a statement. The EDC accident is the second landslide to claim lives in the country this year. –GMA

Thousands of villages in western India are suffering their worst drought for 40 years. Satara, a remote area in the Maharastra state, has always been a drought prone region, but this time the situation is worse because the monsoon rains have also failed. Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri reports from Satara, which has not had a government water supply for decades

March 4, 2013 – EARTH – This is proving a freakish year for weather, but Japan is having an odder time of it than most. The country has had a record winter for snow, and northern Japan is currently coated by unprecedented volumes of the white stuff – more than five meters at higher altitudes, with houses turned into igloos and roads into snow tunnels. In the Hakkoda Mountains the depth of snow has been measured at 5.61 meters – a record for Japan. Even lower down, in the city of Aomori, snow is standing at almost 1.5 meters and bulldozers have to work round the clock. This has also been a record year for snow in parts of Russia – a couple of weeks ago snow piles of more than five meters caused gridlock in Moscow – and Switzerland, too, has been experiencing dramatic snowfalls, with depths of up to three meters. These snowfalls, especially those in northern Japan, are remarkable by any standards. But they still fall well short of the all-time record-breakers. Tamarack in California claims the record for the deepest snow ever recorded: 11.5 meters on 11 March 1911. That was clearly some year in the Sierra Nevada, as Tamarack also recorded the largest snowfall in a single month in the US: almost 10 meters. -Guardian

Texas blizzard breaks 120 year old record: The blizzard that hammered the nation’s midsection broke a 120-year-old record in Amarillo for one-day snowfall in February with 19.1 inches. The blizzard was accompanied by fierce winds in excess of 75 mph. National Weather Service meteorologist Krissy Scotten in Amarillo says the snowfall total Monday bested a record set Feb. 16, 1893, when 19 inches fell. -Abqjournal

Roads in India buried under 100 ft (30 m) of snow: Ahead of them stands a 100-foot-tall wall of snow and they are slowly cutting their way through the mass to connect this Himachal Pradesh hill resort to landlocked Lahaul Valley in the Himalayan slopes. They are the dedicated men of General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF), a wing of the Border Roads Organization, working to reopen for traffic the snow-marooned Rohtang Pass located at 3,978 meters in the Pir Panjal mountain range, 51 km from here. Snow-clearing work started March 1 and it will take the men two months to reopen the 115-km road stretch between Manali and Keylong towns, Col. Yogesh Nair, commander of the 38 Task Force of GREF here, told IANS. Rohtang Pass is the gateway to Keylong from Manali in Kullu district, but it remains off-limits from the rest of the country for over five months due to heavy snow deposits on the road. This time, Rohtang shut down in mid-December and since then, people of the Lahaul region have been holed up in their region. Nair said there was record snowfall in the region this season and the snow-clearing operation was a herculean task. “The road stretch near Rohtang Pass is under 100 to 120 feet of snow. Unusually high. It normally experiences 70 to 80 feet of snow. We will try to reopen the Manali-Keylong highway by April-end,” he said. Every year, after winter, GREF opens the Manali-Rohtang-Keylong highway by deploying more than 250 personnel and laborers. The highway is also strategically important as it further connects to the forward areas of Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region along the borders with China and Pakistan. “Our men are working in Arctic-like conditions where chances of snowstorms and avalanches still loom large. Last year, our laborers were caught in a snowstorm but were evacuated safely,” he said. The effort of GREF working in snowy and harsh climatic conditions is commendable since a sudden drop in temperature, even in summer, can trigger winter-like conditions. Oxygen near the Rohtang Pass is minimal and high velocity winds blow every afternoon. GREF has provided special uniforms to workers which weigh around five kg while the weight of a pair of shoes is two kg. Anti-glare sunglasses and gloves are also part of their uniform. With the help of global positioning system, engineers locate the road beneath the hill of the snow. After a bulldozer clears off the major snow, labourers manually clear the remaining snow with shovels. Residents of two dozen small and scattered villages with a population of over 20,000 in the Lahaul valley are eagerly awaiting restoration of the road traffic. A government-run helicopter, which also operates once a week between district headquarters Keylong and Manali, is the only mode of transportation for them these days. “Since late last December, we have been cut off from the rest of the world. We are awaiting reopening of roads,” Mohan Bodh, a resident of Chokhang village in Lahaul, told IANS. –Daijiworld

Canada sees record February snowfall: Toronto broke a snowfall record for Feb. 27, according to Environment Canada. At Pearson International Airport, 12.4 centimeters of the heavy wet snow covered the ground, breaking the record of 7.1 centimeters set in 1967. The slush is still flooding some city streets. City officials are asking homeowners to stop shoveling the slushy snow onto the road as it’s blocking the catch basins. According to a report in the Toronto Sun, the city said the cost to clean up Wednesday’s slushy mess is around $2.5-million. -680News


Water Scarcity: journalist Charles Fishman spoke about global water scarcity and how the U.S. is facing a record drought this summer. 2012 saw the worst drought in 60 or 70 years in America, with some $35 billion worth of damage to agriculture. "That's the equivalent of a Superstorm Sandy every single month for a year in terms of a damage," he commented, adding that currently almost the entire country west of the Mississippi River is having drought conditions, though it is not receiving much media attention. Fishman began his research in Australia, a country that had an unbroken drought that lasted 10 years. "That drought, which just ended two years ago, remade the entire country...the economics...and the water system; and every major city in Australia built desalination plants," he detailed.

Fishman argued that all water problems are local, as well as the solutions, many of which take a number of years to implement or to see full benefits from. He cited the city of Orlando, Florida as coming up with an innovative re-use program 25 years ago. Their wastewater treatment plants cleaned water almost to drinking standards, and then the county designated that this water must be used for all outdoor watering. 25 years later, the population of Orlando is double what it was, but they don't use a single gallon more of potable water than they did when the population was half the size, he noted.

Carol wrote:

[flash(425,350)]
Freezing hell: Hundreds of drivers stranded overnight as snow causes nightmare on roads

HUNDREDS of drivers were left stranded in their vehicles overnight in bitter conditions after snow bought traffic to a standstill accross the UK.Motorists were stuck for hours in the freezing cold in long tailbacks as ice and snow made roads across much of the South East impassable. There were reports of drivers stuck for more than 10 hours in queues of up to 30 miles long as police, snow ploughs and gritting lorries battled to treat the roads. Emergency Red Cross teams were sent to help hundreds of motorists stranded in heavy snow on roads in Sussex for up to 10 hours. As temperatures plunged to as low as -3C (27F), many motorists abandoned their vehiclesfor service stations."It was like driving through some sort of apocalypse because there are just cars everywhere and a few times we have had to swerve through cars that are just abandoned," one exhausted driver explained.

Hi Carol

hmmm, you posted this in Feb 2011, with an update from yesterday..
I was there, caught up in this.. luckily I believe no-one died as a result. It sure was scary for a while. Like being caught up in a movie, complete with groups of impatient young people wanting to walk the journey to the nearest train station that had no running trains... kinda reminiscent of "The day after tomorrow".

Thank you for the first hand account e-monkey. I'm glad everyone was safe. Sometimes I think these events are a good thing when it comes to waking people up and expanding their awareness of just how fragile life on this planet can be.


HUNDREDS of drivers were left stranded in their vehicles overnight in bitter conditions after snow bought traffic to a standstill accross the UK.Motorists were stuck for hours in the freezing cold in long tailbacks as ice and snow made roads across much of the South East impassable. There were reports of drivers stuck for more than 10 hours in queues of up to 30 miles long as police, snow ploughs and gritting lorries battled to treat the roads. Emergency Red Cross teams were sent to help hundreds of motorists stranded in heavy snow on roads in Sussex for up to 10 hours. As temperatures plunged to as low as -3C (27F), many motorists abandoned their vehiclesfor service stations."It was like driving through some sort of apocalypse because there are just cars everywhere and a few times we have had to swerve through cars that are just abandoned," one exhausted driver explained.

http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-dead-fish-in-rio-de-janeiro-2013-3#ixzz2NroftfWA


See Link...
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As below so above; As above so below

I see stuff like this and think it is so tragic. Yet immediately the throught comes to mind to gather those dead fish and use them for fertilizer. Bury them in areas where farming is done to help enrich the soil.

March 19, 2013 – PLANET – The planet is currently reeling from a dense spectrum of moderate to light tremors, which have struck along major tectonic plate boundaries over the last 18 hours. As a precursor to this seismic dynamism; we have seen elevated activity at many of the world’s volcanoes, including hotspots in Hawaii, Etna, and the Canary Islands. The latest spat of seismic activity across the globe has every indication of being a precursor to a major seismic stress release, which I have forecasted since last week. This event could be hours, or even days away. The window of elevated hazard risk, at present, extends through March 23, and is annunciated by the spring equinox. –TEP


March 16, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND - Authorities in Wellington, New Zealand, have issued an outright ban on outdoor water use as a worsening drought has siphoned the available supply to less than half of normal level and prompted the government to declare the worst water shortage in 30 years. New Zealand’s capital, home to more than 200,000 people, has just 19 days’ supply of water left in its reservoirs, the APNZ news service reported. “The water supply situation is now approaching extreme,” the Greater Wellington Regional Council said in a statement on its website, adding that it is also asking residents to cut indoor water use “to help us avoid a crisis.” Wellington hasn’t seen a significant rain since Feb. 4, and while a storm is forecast for this weekend, it will have no real impact on the water supply, authorities said. All of the North Island, which holds most of the country’s population, has been declared a drought zone. Auckland on Thursday issued an outdoor fire ban. The Wellington City Council said urgent action had to be taken to ensure that homes and businesses had sufficient water. “Water levels in our local rivers — the source of our water supply — are extremely low and dropping,” the council said in a statement. “A significant reduction in demand for water will extend the number of days that back-up storage will last, so it’s important to save water now.” The drought has had a major impact on farmers, who estimate that it has so far cost them $820 million in lost export earnings, The Associated Press reported, adding that the damage is rising daily as they reduce their herds, which in turn reduces milk production. “We are beginning to see a decline in milk production — in fact, a sharp decline in some areas — and farmers are considering slaughtering capital stock, which will result in lower future production and reduced revenue,” New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English said Tuesday during a Parliament meeting. “It’s very hard to remember when the last rainfall was,” dairy farmer John Rose told the AP, adding that he had sent more than 100 of his cows to slaughter in recent weeks as the drought turned pastures brown and dry. He said the move was necessary to make sure his remaining 550 cows had enough to eat — a challenge even as he mixes in palm kernels with their feed to try to stretch it. Like most farmers, he’s concerned about the future, as are some government officials. Even if the current drought eases soon, the long-term picture isn’t rosy, according to climate scientists. The government’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research predicts that farmers in the southern part of the North Island, the area around Wellington, will spend up to 10 percent more time per year in drought by the middle of the century. -MSNBC

Locust swarms continue to plague Middle East: The Ministry of Agriculture is tracking another locust swarm arriving at Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. In addition, a small swarm was spotted at Nahal Lavan in the Negev. The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement, “We will be seeing locust on a daily basis in the foreseeable future but gladly we have the situation under control due to readiness and hard work.” -Ynet

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES AND LINKS ARE AT http://iceagenow.info

Northeast Italy crippled by snow and ice
by ROBERT on MARCH 28, 2013
Schools in the northeastern city of Trieste and surrounding area remained closed

Canada almost 100 percent snow-covered
by ROBERT on MARCH 28, 2013
Remember it is almost April, not mid-January!

Winter not over yet in Slovakia
by ROBERT on MARCH 28, 2013 · LEAVE A COMMENT
Record low temperatures just three days before the beginning of spring.

We’ve got the COLDEST MARCH SINCE 1883 in Germany! says reader
by ROBERT on MARCH 27, 2013
It’s official: this March in northeastern Germany is the coldest in 130 years, and could be the coldest since records began.

Thousands of animals feared dead in snow drifts – Video
by ROBERT on MARCH 26, 2013
Farmers fear that thousands of sheep and cattle have died in the thick snow that has hit the UK in recent days – buried alive in Wales, Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Military helicopter delivers food to snowbound livestock in Northern Ireland
by ROBERT on MARCH 26, 2013
The RAF Chinook helicopter made food drops to thousands of stranded animals.

Illinois – Springfield digs out from record-setting snowfall
by ROBERT on MARCH 26, 2013
Sunday’s snowfall obliterated the record for the highest snow total on March 24,

Hamburg Germany – All-time March snowfall record
by ROBERT on MARCH 25, 2013
“This weather is for the March truly extraordinary,”

Kiev again under state of emergency due to very heavy snowfall
by ROBERT on MARCH 25, 2013
Over 2,000 trucks were trapped in snow near Kiev, the capital of Ukraine,

Heavy snow causes chaos in western Ukraine
by ROBERT on MARCH 25, 2013
Heavy snow, sleet and powerful winds brought down power lines in 64 villages across six regions.

UK’s coldest spring since 1963 claims 5,000 lives
by ROBERT on MARCH 24, 2013
Campaigners warn weather could prove deadly for thousands more.

Heavy snow for Saint Louis
by ROBERT on MARCH 24, 2013 ·
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

Germany – Coldest spring on record
“Since records began it has never been so cold at the end of March in Brandenburg,”

Major winter storm to pound Colorado, Kansas and the Ohio Valley
Temperatures 10-30 degrees colder than average through March.

Snow blocking many roads around Belfast
“Approaching 10pm in Belfast and the snow is still coming down,” says reader.