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At Least 6 Killed as Strong Storms, Tornadoes Slam Midwest, Southeast

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At least six people were killed Wednesday and at least two others were reported missing as a storm system forecasters called “particularly dangerous” swept across the heartland.

Officials confirmed that three people, including a 7-year-old boy, were killed in Mississippi, where multiple tornadoes were reported. An 18-year-old Arkansas woman was killed when a tree blew over onto a house and crashed into her bedroom.

In Tennessee, the state’s Department of Health confirmed that a man and a woman were killed in severe storms in Perry County, southwest of Nashville, but had no further details. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency says the county has reported debris across roads and some communications issues.

In Benton County, Miss., where two deaths occurred and at least two people were missing, crews were searching each house and in wooded areas to make sure residents were accounted for. Police there said several homes were blown off their foundations.

A 7-year-old boy died in Holly Springs, Mississippi, when the storm picked up and tossed the car he was riding in, officials said. Marshall County Coroner James Anderson says the boy’s relatives in the car with him were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. (Read more from “At Least 6 Killed as Strong Storms, Tornadoes Slam Midwest, Southeast” HERE)

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Decade Long Ice Age Predicted as Sun ‘Hibernates’

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A team of European researchers have unveiled a scientific model showing that the Earth is likely to experience a “mini ice age” from 2030 to 2040 as a result of decreased solar activity.

Their findings will infuriate environmental campaigners who argue by 2030 we could be facing increased sea levels and flooding due to glacial melt at the poles.

However, at the National Astronomy Meeting in Wales, Northumbria University professor Valentina Zharkova said fluctuations an 11-year cycle of solar activity the sun goes through would be responsible for a freeze, the like of which has not been experienced since the 1600s . . .

Professor Zharkova said two magnetic waves will cancel each other out in about 2030, leading to a drop in sun spots and solar flares of about 60 per cent.

Sunspots are dark concentrations of magnetic field flux on the surface that reduce surface temperature in that area, while solar flares are burst of radiation and solar energy that fire out across the solar system, but the Earth’s atmosphere protects us from the otherwise devastating effects. (Read more from “Decade Long Ice Age Predicted as Sun ‘Hibernates'” HERE)

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Strange Earthquakes Strike Across the United States

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Alabama Earthquakes Stun Residents And Geologists Alike

By Weather.com. Early one morning last November, Jim Sterling was frightened when the ground began shaking outside his 156-year-old antebellum home in Alabama. . .”I heard a boom and felt the shaking,” Sterling said. “It really upset me.”

Since that day, more than a dozen weak earthquakes have shaken western Alabama’s Greene County. Geologists are now working to find out what has caused this swarm over the last seven months, in an area of the South that’s used to large tornadoes but not light tremors.

“It is interesting that recently there has been more activity there than in the last four decades,” said Sandy Ebersole, an earthquake expert with the Geological Survey of Alabama.

Records from the U.S. Geological Survey show the first of 14 earthquakes occurred on Nov. 20, when a magnitude 3.8 earthquake was recorded about 10 miles northwest of the community of Eutaw. The second occurred in mid-December, followed by another in January and three within a few hours of each other on Feb. 19.

The tremors have continued ever since, with the most recent occurring June 6, when a magnitude 3.0 quake rattled the area. All the tremors have been weaker than the initial jolt in November, and Ebersole said some have been too slight for residents to detect. (Read more from “Strange Earthquakes Strike Across the United States” HERE)

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Mysterious Quake Hits Wyoming, One of the Deepest in History

By Matt Walker. A mysterious earthquake that struck the centre of the US was one of the deepest earthquakes of its type ever recorded, say scientists.

The quake, known as the Wind River Earthquake, struck the state of Wyoming in 2013 with a magnitude of 4.7 Mw (Moment magnitude scale). . .

The Wind River area of Wyoming is usually quiet, seismically speaking. In the past 60 years since records have been collected, few earthquakes in the region have been recorded with magnitudes of 4 Mw, while just one surpassed 5 Mw. . .

[T]he region is also tectonically quiet – that is, there is little movement in the Earth’s tectonic plates below the site. The nearest tectonic movement occurs 200 km away to the northwest, at the so-called Yellowstone Hotspot, an area that produces volcanic activity across the states of Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming. . .

Now scientists have evidence that the Wind River earthquake actually occurred deeper within the Earth, in its mantle, rather than within the Earth’s crust.

Their measurements suggest the earthquake occurred at a depth of 75 km.
In the local area, known as the Wyoming Craton, the Earth’s crust is no deeper than 40-50 km, forming part of the cold, stable lithosphere that underlies much of North America. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Texas Floods 2015: After Devastation, Houston Churches Turn to God for Support

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Photo Credit: International Business Times As Houston was ravaged by floods starting last weekend and continuing through Saturday night, church members here sprang into action. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention sent 50 volunteers out to deliver food, Houston’s First Baptist Church donated money to disaster relief and Riceville Mount Olive prepared for increased applications to its benevolence fund from which members can request financial aid for rent or bills.

“That’s part of what we believe a church is supposed to do, is assist,” said Deacon Reginald Fields of Riceville Mount Olive. “It’s one of the foundations of Christianity to help those that cannot help themselves.” Speaking slowly from an office inside the church, he continued: “Jesus Christ came and gave his ultimate that we might have and because of him, we feel an obligation to do the same. We realize we can’t do it on the same scale he did, but we’re called to do it.”

In an arena a few miles away, superstar the Rev. Joel Osteen aimed to inspire the thousands who attended Sunday service at Lakewood Church, the nation’s largest. Between rambunctious band performances and colorful light shows, Osteen solemnly preached about the purpose of pain. He urged churchgoers to believe in God’s higher purpose and said God would look out for them.

“We just pray for Your comfort for their families,” he prayed out loud on stage, eyes closed. “We pray that You will help those who have lost and they will recover all.”

During the rain, drivers on Texas highways were forced to abandon their cars to floodwaters. Police pulled bodies from bayous amid mandatory evacuations. Rescue boats capsized in the surging water. Family members were reported missing. (Read more from “Texas Floods 2015: After Devastation, Houston Churches Turn to God for Support” HERE)

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San Andreas Ready to Blow – in Theaters AND in Real Life

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Admit it, there’s nothing more fun than sitting in a dark theatre, munching on a bucket of buttery popcorn, and watching the Earth get demolished. In the latest round of catastrophic flicks, California is destroyed as the famous San Andreas Fault unleashes unimaginable (and unrealistic) devastation across the state.

The new film, San Andreas, depicts the rupture of an unknown fault near the Hoover Dam in Nevada, which gets the destructive ball rolling by setting off powerful earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault. And although earthquakes are nothing new to Californians, and pose serious threats along the famous fault, Hollywood has once again thrown caution (and science) to the wind in order to feed our catastrophic needs.

The San Andreas Fault is a very real hazard. At almost 800 miles long, the fault marks the boundary where the North American plate meets the Pacific plate. And it’s the movement of these plates against each other that causes the powerful quakes characteristic to the region.

A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the inevitability of just such a quake, which is predicted to hit within the next couple of decades.

“The new likelihoods are due to the inclusion of possible multi-fault ruptures, where earthquakes are no longer confined to separate, individual faults, but can occasionally rupture multiple faults simultaneously,” lead author of the study and USGS scientist, Ned Field says. “This is a significant advancement in terms of representing a broader range of earthquakes throughout California’s complex fault system.” (Read more from “San Andreas Ready to Blow – in Theaters and in Real Life” HERE)

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Severe Storms Speed Across Texas and Oklahoma

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At least two tornadoes touched down late Tuesday as a series of severe storms caused damage and flooding in parts of north Texas and southern Oklahoma.

One tornado touched down in Mineral Wells, Texas, about 80 miles west of Dallas, at approximately 7 p.m. local time Tuesday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but a police dispatcher told the paper that the twister had caused the collapse of an abandoned bank building, damaged two churches, and torn the roof off a government building.

A second tornado was reported to have passed through the town at approximately 7:45 p.m. local time, but that was not immediately confirmed by the National Weather Service.

Earlier Tuesday, a tornado touched town in the town of Giddings, Texas, approximately 55 miles east of Austin. The city’s emergency manager told the Star-Telegram that storm damaged some farm outbuildings and the roof of a Ramada Inn. One man who was a guest at the hotel was reported injured when debris blew in through a window and struck him in the head. He was taken to a hospital in San Marcos for treatment of head lacerations.

Storm systems across the southern Plans had brought heavy rain and flooding to the region over most of the day Tuesday. In West Texas, San Angelo Regional Airport was closed after the terminal became flooded. In the city of Abilene, firefighters blamed lighting for a fire that destroyed a home in that city. (Read more from “Severe Storms Speed Across Texas and Oklahoma” HERE)

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Alaska’s Famous Ice Road Closed Due to Extreme Flooding

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Photo Credit: international Business Times Traffic along Alaska’s famous Dalton Highway has stalled at a time when hundreds of truckers would typically be transporting critical supplies to the state’s northern oil fields. The highway known as the Ice Road in the popular History channel series “Ice Road Truckers” is the only overland route to these lucrative operations, but the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities closed a stretch of the road this week due to extreme flooding. The road is covered by up to 2 feet of water in places and the agency expects it will remain closed for four days to a week.

Earlier this spring, the Dalton was closed for a week when overflow from the Sagavanirktok River froze on the roadway in thick layers of ice. On an average day, at least 100 truckers travel the corridor — it runs more than 400 miles from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay — to supply more than a dozen companies including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP that operate at nearby oil fields. (Read more from “Alaska’s Famous Ice Road Closed Due to Extreme Flooding” HERE)

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“Global Warming” in Retreat: Four More Cities in the U.S. Set All-Time Record Weather Lows

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Photo Credit: The Weather Channel By Chris Dolce and Nick Wiltgen. Hundreds of daily record lows and at least three all-time record lows have been set as a frigid air mass with a connection to Siberia grips the central and eastern United States with dangerously cold conditions. Friday morning has brought the most widespread and intense cold of the winter to many areas, sending temperatures into the 30s below zero as far south as Kentucky.

Lynchburg, Virginia, plummeted to 11 below zero Friday morning, setting a new all-time record low for any day of the year. The previous record was 10 below zero on Jan. 21, 1985, and Feb. 5, 1996. Impressively, Lynchburg’s temperature records go all the way back to 1893.

Flint, Michigan, tied its all-time record low of 25 below zero, originally set Jan. 18, 1976. Weather records in Flint began in 1921.

Earlier this week Erie, Pennsylvania, had tied its all-time record low when it reached 18 below zero Monday. That tied the record set Jan. 19, 1994. Not far away, Jamestown, New York, set an all-time record low of 31 below zero Tuesday, though its records only go back to 1960.

At least 72 daily record lows have been set Friday morning from Connecticut to Florida to as far west as Indiana, including major cities such as New York, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Detroit and Cincinnati. (Read more about the all-time record weather lows HERE)

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‘Ice Volcano’ Forms in New York

By Associated Press. The arctic conditions have turned a fountain at a state park in western New York into a five-story-tall “ice volcano.”

The pressure-fed fountain is in a pond near the Glen Iris Inn at Letchworth State Park, which straddles the Wyoming-Livingston county line 40 miles south of Rochester. Days of subzero temperatures have formed a solid cone of ice several feet thick with water still spouting out of the top. (Read more from this story HERE)

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2015 Blizzard Will Add to Snowiest Decade on the East Coast

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Photo Credit: Climate Depot By Marc Morano. The monster 2015 blizzard will be adding to what is already the snowiest decade on the East Coast.

“Assuming this storm gets ranked by NOAA as one of the high impact (population affected by snowstorm) snowstorms (likely since the November storm was), we will have had 14 major impact storms this decade (only half over) beating out the 10 in the 1960s and 2000s,” Joseph D’Aleo, CCM (Certified Consulting Meteorologist), told Climate Depot on Monday.

“Watch for widespread sub-zero cold next week if the European models are right (all the way to North Carolina and including DC area),” D’Aleo, the co-chief Meteorologist with Weatherbell Analytics, added. (Read more about the snowiest decade on the East Coast HERE)

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New York City Mayor Warns: Don’t Underestimate This Storm

By Ashley Fantz and Ed Payne. This is no ordinary snow storm, weather experts say.

The National Weather Service is using terms such as “life-threatening” and “historic” to describe the system ready to spread across the Northeast.

The storm could dump up to 3 feet of snow in Boston and New York before it ends Tuesday, along with freezing rain and strong wind gusts possibly reaching hurricane level.

Blizzard and winter storm warnings are up from New Jersey through Maine and into Canada . . .

“I want everyone to understand that we are facing — most likely — one of the largest snowstorms in the history of this city,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Brace for Potentially Historic Snowstorms Northeast

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The Northeast is bracing for a crippling snowstorm that the National Weather Service called “potentially historic” and could dump 2 to 3 feet of snow from northern New Jersey to Connecticut.

“This could be a storm the likes of which we have never seen before,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Sunday.

During the news conference De Blasio held up a list of the city’s top 10 snowstorms and said this one could land at the top of a list that goes back to 1827. “Don’t underestimate this storm. Prepare for the worst,” he said as he urged residents to plan to leave work early Monday.

A blizzard warning was issued for New York and Boston and the National Weather Service said the storm could bring heavy snow and powerful winds starting Monday and into Tuesday.

“Commuters should consider working from home on Monday if possible to avoid disruptions from likely road and public transportation closures,” Governor Cuomo said in a statement. “New York State is taking all necessary precautions to prepare for this storm, and I urge residents to put safety first and plan ahead to protect themselves and others throughout the duration of this snowstorm.” (Read more about the potentially historic snowstorms northeast HERE)

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