Category Archives: Earth Stuff

News of Earth Changes, climate shifts, weather anomalies, volcanoes, etc

Easter Island Heads Have Bodies

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http://www.eisp.org/3879/

The Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) is a private research program and archive created by Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Principle Investigator and EISP founder and director, with Cristián Arévalo Pakarati, Rapa Nui artist and co-director of EISP.  The profound and immediate need for conservation actions on the moai became apparent over the course of more than 20 years of subjective observation and field experience acquired by us during our island-wide archaeological survey, which was conducted in association with our Chilean and Rapa Nui colleagues.

The Easter Island Statue Project office is located at 225 Arizona Avenue, Studio 500, Santa Monica, CA, 90401. The EISP field office is located at the Mana Gallery, Petero Atamu s/n, Hanga Roa, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile.

Via Seeker401

Strange Sounds Heard Round the World

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MYSTERIOUS SOUNDS REPORTED AROUND THE WORLD

Analysis by Benjamin Radford
Wed Feb 8, 2012 04:20 PM ET 

Noise-mystery

People around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories.

One blogger wrote, “either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a full-scale alien invasion?”

So, what are people hearing (and recording)?

Natural Explanations

The explanations are almost as varied as the sounds themselves. There’s not a single blanket explanation for all the mysterious sounds, though many have been identified. For example there’s the recent “midnight roar”reported in Malaysia:

 

According to a Borneo Post report, the “Sky Roar” had been heard over Kota Samarahan from around 2am or 3am till dawn on both days. Terrified residents, the report added, described the noises as a “loud hushing” or “snoring” sound. The sounds were also recorded that night, and were later uploaded on YouTube. The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation has a very simple explanation – it was created by an oil palm factory testing their boiler pressure on Jan 11 and Jan 12.

 

In other cases the strange sound is still being researched; last week the Canadian government was asked to investigate a low-frequency hum that has intermittently plagued citizens in Windsor, Ontario for months. (If the conspiracy theorists are right, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper may soon get an unofficial visit from Men in Black-type agents warning him not to investigate.)

There are a few things to keep in mind about these strange, ambient sounds; for one thing, there is virtually no place on the planet where noise pollution is not a problem. We live in a constant sea of background noise, most of it unnoticed until we start paying attention to all the sounds and focusing on them.

Sources of indoor sounds are nearly endless, from faintly ticking clocks to air conditioning to bubbling aerators in fish tanks. Outside the problem is far worse, with noise generated by countless sources including traffic; airplanes (seen and unseen); radios; lawnmowers and snowblowers; trains; highways; and high-tension lines. Then there are the many industrial sources of noise and vibrations, including power plants and any factories with large machines such as auto assembly plants and printing presses.

Some complain that the promise of green energy offered by large wind turbines comes at a cost: a low, rumbling, rhythmic whoosh or groan that travels through the air and earth, sometimes for miles. Furthermore, the earth itself generates a natural, constant hum (though it’s typically far below the threshold of human hearing). Scientists believe the hum is created by ocean waves crashing over continental shelves, which creates vibrations that travel throughout the world.

Hoaxes

In some cases, the “mysterious sound” videos have been revealed as hoaxes. For example, a college student in Edmonton, Canada, posted a video of mysterious sounds which got nearly 140,000 views on YouTube before she admitted it was fake. She told a local newspaper, “I made the video by taking out my iPhone and merely video recorded my balcony view while holding my laptop right behind it, while my laptop played the Conklin YouTube video in the background. Took less than a minute to do this…. I made the video to show my friends and family how easy it was (literally less than five minutes of my life to make the video and upload it) to make something like that, and how they shouldn’t believe everything they see online, and should especially not get fearful.”

Mysterious sounds are nothing new, of course. The most famous mystery sound in the world is probably the Taos Hum, a low-frequency rumble heard by some residents in Taos, New Mexico since the early 1990s. Not everyone hears it, but the earwitnesses who do variously describe it as sounding like a running refrigerator or a buzzing bee. Researchers have been unable to pinpoint the source of the sound — or even confirm that the hearers are indeed perceiving a specific, identifiable sound.

While the public may assume that locating a sound is easy, it’s not. Identifying the source of a sound is very difficult in urban areas where concrete, glass, and buildings can reflect, change, and amplify sound waves from ordinary sources. Of course it’s more fun to think that the mysterious sounds are part of an alien invasion or secret military experiment than machinery at a local sewage plant.

http://news.discovery.com/human/mysterious-sounds-reported-around-the-world-120208.html

 

There are other explanations.  Check out the podcast on Lind Moulton Howe’s EARTHFILES:

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1939&category=Environment

And from DUTCHSINSE youtube channel, there is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ2ZcmMxehk

 

Dr. Jeff Masters on Climatic Warming

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Posted by: JeffMasters, 2:53 PM GMT on February 10, 2012 +30
Last week, I blogged about how wintertime minimum temperatures in the U.S. have risen so much in recent decades, that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had to update their Plant Hardiness Zone Map for gardeners for the first time since 1990. The Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. I got to looking at the new zone map for Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I live, and saw how we’ve shifted one 5-degree Fahrenheit half-zone warmer. Ann Arbor used to be in Zone 5, but is now solidly in the warmer Zone 6. This got me to wondering, what sort of plants in Zone 6, until now rare or unknown in Ann Arbor, might migrate northwards in coming decades into the city? Then, with a sudden chill, I contemplated a truly awful possibility: The Ohio Buckeye Tree.


Figure 1. Comparison of the 1990 and 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Maps. Image credit: USDA and Arbor Day Foundation.

Buckeyes in Ann Arbor? The Horror!
For those of you unfamiliar the the buckeye tree, it is the emblem of Ohio State University. The Buckeyes of Ohio State have one of the most fierce rivalries in sports with that “school up north”, the University of Michigan. As someone who spent twelve years of my life as a student at the University of Michigan, the thought of Buckeye trees in Ann Arbor is not one I care to contemplate. But the USDA Forest Service has published a Climate Change Tree Atlas which predicts that the Ohio Buckeye Tree can be expected to march northwards and infest Ann Arbor with a warming climate. I can only sadly predict that to stem the invasion, non-ecologically-minded University of Michigan students will unleash genetically engineered wolverines that eat buckeye seeds.


Figure 2. Potential changes in the mean center of distribution of the Ohio Buckeye tree. The green oval shows the current center of the range of the Buckeye Tree, well to the south of Ann Arbor. In a scenario where humans emit relatively low amounts of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide (light blue oval), the Buckeye Tree edges into Southern Michigan, and marches into Ann Arbor under the medium and high scenarios for emissions (other ovals.) Image credit: USDA Forest Service Climate Change Tree Atlas.

Libyan snowstorm triggered major Saharan dust storm
On February 6, a rare snow storm hit North Africa, bringing 2 – 3 inches of snow to Tripoli, Libya. It was the first snow in Tripoli since at least 2005, and may be the heaviest snow the Libyan capital has seen since February 6, 1956. The storm responsible for the North African snow also had strong winds that kicked up a tremendous amount of dust over Algeria during the week. This dust became suspended in a flow of air moving to the southwest, and is now over the Atlantic Ocean.


Figure 3. Dust storm on February 7, 2012, off the coast of West Africa, spawned by a storm that brought snow to North Africa on February 6. Note the beautiful vorticies shed by the Cape Verde Islands, showing that the air is flowing northeast to southwest. The red squares mark where fires are burning in West Africa. Image credit: NASA.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and I’ll be back Monday with a new post.

Jeff Masters

Earthquake Lists — USA by State

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Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell have created a page for cataloging Earthquakes in the US.

Link:   http://earthquake-report.com/2012/02/10/united-states-real-time-earthquake-lists-for-each-of-the-50-us-states/

These guys do an amazing job of  reporting earthquakes and keeping things current relative to seismic events.  Take a look:

United States real-time earthquake lists for each of the 50 US States

Last update

February 10, 2012 at 5:43 pm by By 

This page has been created to find out in real-time if an earthquake has been noticed by seismographs in or near the state you are living.

We have started to fill our database in January 2012. On top of the USGS notifications, we are also showing the earthquake details as published by other seismological sources in the world (only for the stronger earthquakes).  We list all earthquakes greater than  M 2.5 (as this is in average the level that people might feel an earthquake).
We hope that you will describe what you have felt, if an earthquake strikes near you. Your experience is of great interest to the scientific community as a whole.

Alabama Florida  Kentucky Missouri  North Carolina Tennessee
Alaska Georgia Louisiana Montana  North Dakota Texas
Arizona  Hawaii Maine Nebraska  Ohio Utah
Arkansas  Idaho  Maryland Nevada  Oklahoma Vermont
California Illinois Massachusetts New Hampshire Oregon Virginia
Colorado Indiana Michigan New Jersey  Pennsylvania Washington 
Connecticut Iowa Minnesota New Mexico  Rhode Island West Virginia
Delaware Kansas  Mississipi  New York South Carolina Wisconsin 
South Dakota  Wyoming 

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/02/10/united-states-real-time-earthquake-lists-for-each-of-the-50-us-states/

Earthquake near Honshu, Japan

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Strong shallow earthquake near Sado Island, Honshu, Japan

Last update: February 8, 2012 at 2:15 pm by By 

Earthquake overview : At 21:01 (09:01 PM) a strpng shallow earthquake occurred close to the coast of Sado Island, Honshu, Japan

Coastal village on Sado Island close to the epicenter – courtesy KatyGoat

Update 14:03 UTC
Fire Department of Japan has reported in his third report that as far as 2 hours after the earthquake,  no damage has been detected in the villages or cities and that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station has not been damaged neither.

Update 13:44 UTC
The strongest earthquake we could trace at Sado Island was a M 6.6 earthquake which occurred at December 9, 1802.

Update 13:34 UTC
Japan seismological agency, JMA is reporting a 5+ intensity, considered by Earthquake-report.com as moderately dangerous for damage.
5+    Sado-shi Aikawa-sanchome and Sado-shi Kawaharada-hommachi*
5-    Sado-shi Ogimachi*, Sado-shi Hamochi-hongo* and Sado-shi Akadomari*
4    Sado-shi Iwayaguchi*, Sado-shi Ryotsu-minato*, Sado-shi Matsugasaki*, Sado-shi Chigusa*, Sado-shi Niibo-uryuya*, Sado-shi Mano-shimmachi*, Sado-shi Ryotsu-shisho* and Sado-shi Aikawa-sakaemachi*
Japan seismological intensity values are scaled from 0 to 7. 5+ JMA can be compared with 7 MMI (very strong shaking).

Sado Island earthquake – Intensity map courtesy JMA Japan

Update 13:32 UTC
Sado Province was a province of Japan until 1871; since then, it has been a part of Niigata Prefecture. It was sometimes called Sashū or Toshū. It lies on the eponymous Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata Prefecture (or in the past, Echigo Province).
Sado was famous for the silver and gold mined on the island. In the Kamakura Period, the province was granted to the Honma clan from Honshū, and they continued to dominate Sado until 1589, when Uesugi Kagekatsu of Echigo Province took over the island. The Tokugawa shoguns later made Sado a personal fief after Sekigahara, and assumed direct control of its mines.
Since 2004 Sado city has comprised the entire island.
Its rich history and relaxed rural atmosphere make Sado one of the major tourist destinations in Niigata Prefecture. The island has several temples and historical ruins, and offers possibilities for various outdoor activities, as well as fresh local food.
Sado is famous as the major breeding area for the Japanese Crested Ibis. The last known Japan-born Japanese Crested Ibis died in captivity in 2003 on the island. Currently, birds from China are being bred in a captive program in a facility in Niibo area. The Ibis, Toki in Japanese, is a major symbol of the Island and can be found on several tourist items. There are plans to release Ibis in the wild at the end of 2008. (source Wikipedia)

Update 13:31 UTC
The Island area does not seem to be particularly dangerous, although moderate earthquakes are fairly common.

The strong shallow and thus moderately dangerous earthquake occurred almost below Sado Island, an island approx. 50 km from the western Honshu coast.

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : 5.7
UTC Time : Wednesday, February 08, 2012 at 12:01:37 UTC
Local time at epicenter :  Wednesday, February 08, 2012 at 09:01:37 PM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km
Geo-location(s) :
10 km from Sawazakihana Light (Sado Island)
38 km SW Ryotsu (pop 16,359)
72 km NW Nagaoka (pop 195,318)

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/02/08/strong-shallow-earthquake-near-sado-island-honshu-japan/

2/8 El Hierro Update

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El Hierro Volcano : Yellow-Red alert – Joke Volta images of tonight’s Smoking Lava Balloons

Last update: February 8, 2012 at 11:29 pm by By 

This is the most recent El Hierro Volcano eruption report

Update 08/02 – 23:18 UTC

Remember our update from 17:56 yesterday, when somebody of CAP told Joke that he had seen much stronger activity than usual in the Jacuzzi. ER reader Sissel has recorded the webcam at that time. The 4 minutes video shows the more intense activity. The activity occurred when we lived through 5 minutes of the most powerful HT since many days. The graph can  be seen at the end of the recording.

Update 08/02 – 21:11 UTC
For the interested people : Etna is erupting right now ! (Thank you Nataly for telling us)
http://www.guide-etna.com/webcam/

Update 08/02 – 20:33 UTC
– There have been 3 more earthquakes while harmonic tremor its continuing at minimum levels:
08/02/2012    18:38      Depth 14 km        M 1.3    W EL PINAR
08/02/2012    18:51       Depth 12 km        M 1.3    W FRONTERA
08/02/2012    19:18       Depth 12 km        M 1.3    W FRONTERA

Update 08/02 – 20:32 UTC
– When Pam and New wrote us “SLS”, we immediately forwarded the message to Joke who was on her way to El Pinar. She asked the bus driver to stop, got a lift from a friendly person to Montana Naos, took some pictures and hitchhiked again towards El Pinar.  These are Jokes pictures.

Update 08/02 – 16:39 UTC
– Just after writing about the calm day, ER readers Pam and New notified us of Smoking Lava Stones.

Update 08/02 – 16:23 UTC
– A calm day at El Hierro with few spectacular events but with the very beautiful pictures of Joke Volta.
– only 1 new earthquake since the last update, but a medium powerful one which can well be seen on the IGN HT graph.
08/02/2012    15:35     Depth 12 km     M 2.2    SW EL PINAR

Update 08/02 – 10:21 UTC
– Very minor harmonic tremor all night and morning so far, a little increase in HT at 03:05 for about an hour.
– Jacuzzi activity was very much present all night long in a very sensitive webcam seting. We enjoy this setting for maximum observation at night.
– 5 earthquakes so far today!
08/02/2012    00:42      Depth 14 km        M 1.3    W EL PINAR
08/02/2012    00:43      Depth 12 km        M 1.3    SW FRONTERA
08/02/2012    02:52      Depth 11 km        M 1.4    W EL PINAR
08/02/2012    06:12      Depth 14 km        M 0.8    SW EL PINAR
08/02/2012    07:33      Depth 20 km        M 1.4    SW EL PINAR

Update 07/02 – 23:55 UTC
2 new earthquakes are making it a total of 10 today.
07/02/2012    22:57     Depth 11 km        M 1.8     SW FRONTERA 
07/02/2012    23:30     Depth 12 km        M 1.7     SW FRONTERA

Update 07/02 – 23:02 UTC
– the current high sensitive webcam image shows the action in the jacuzzi. Hard to say what the light effects are (waves or hot material).  That will be a question for CAP for Joke tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
– Harmonic tremor has been minimal for many hours again, but the eruption is still going on.
– 2 new earthquakes that make it a total of 8 today
07/02/2012    20:20     Depth 13 km        M 1.0    SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012    22:25     Depth 10 km        M 1.2    S EL PINAR
– Readers like Julian have seen the Ramon Margalef continuing his bathymetry mission after dark.
– Images Joke Volta from today February 7 2012

Update 07/02 – 19:30 UTC
ER reader Julian writes in our comment section : In an interview with Ramon Ortiz (Volcanologist of CSIC) in local newspaper Canarias7, Mr. Ortiz says that according to past experiences, the eruptive process is finishing. The new HT increase of the last couple of days are the normal evolution to a new phase.
He says that two different possibilities are: 1- that this process ends in few days and/or a new eruption is going on in another location.
He says that right now there are two different eruptions. The one in Las Calmas, and another one elsewhere which we may never know where it is, beacuse of the depth in the north area.
(ER : the supposedly second vent in the north has been a fierce debate among scientists from the very beginning).  We refer to some updates we wrote during the weeks after the coloring of the sea).

Update 07/02 – 17:56 UTC
– A CAP scientists who met Joke in El Pinar a few hours ago said to her that he has seen an extraordinary jacuzzi around noon UTC today. He was quiet fascinated about it.
– We are also fascinated about the strange harmonic tremor we see today. A lot of powerful starts gradually winding down, again and again. Now it is calm again, but we cannot remind having seen the same pattern since a long time. It may be very wise to follow HT the following hours in combination with the webcam.

Update 07/02 – 15:08 UTC
– 2 new earthquakes:
07/02/2012    13:31      Depth 12 km        M 1.4     SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012    13:58     Depth 10 km        M 1.6     SW FRONTERA

Update 07/02 – 13:55 UTC
– The Ramón Margalef IEO Oceanographic vessel is back in town. He is making a new bathymetry session enabling IEO to measure the depth of the vent and to make new maps of the submarine cones. Meanwhile the local Canary Island press is quoting local volcanologists who are saying that IEO is not sharing the submarine research details with other (scientific) partners. It will at least take 2 to 3 days to get a new depth figure.
– 4 earthquakes so far today
07/02/2012    02:21      Depth 11 km        M 1.0     SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012    10:29      Depth 15 km        M 1.4     SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012    10:55      Depth 14 km        M 1.3     SW FRONTERA
07/02/2012    11:37      Depth 13 km        M 2.3     SW EL PINAR
 – Harmonic tremor started to grow gradually after 03:00 as Ursula said in the comments (she lives in Australia and is looking at the HT graph and webcam while most Europeans sleep), winding down just before noon. Very suddenly everything restarted forcefully at 13:32 UTC, although nothing more than degassing can be seen at the surface.

Harmonic tremor from midnight UTC until 13:40 UTC – image courtesy IGN

Image Joke Volta

Update 06/02 – 23:55 UTC
– Joke Volta pictures of February 6, 2012. No SLS today.

Update 06/02 – 23:24 UTC
– INVOLCAN has just published two high definition videos of today’s flight. We can see how they measured gas levels and took thermal images, which would be useful if they made public. There is a strong degassing, blue stain, that can be observed.


– Second video shows the green stain in La Restinga port.

– Eruption webcam is showing a good view the stain even now that is dark. A near full moon illuminates the sea enough for the camera to capture an image. Also, the webcam was cleaned today for better image quality.

– Another earthquake since our last update
06/02/2012    21:43    Depth 15 km    M 1.7     W EL PINAR

Update 06/02 – 21:50 UTC
– One more earthquake since last update:
06/02/2012    18:04    Depth 11 km    M 1.7

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/

Negros – Cebu Philippines Earthquake

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Earthquake Negros – Cebu, Philippines – 43 killed, among them 29 due to landslides and 10 by collapsed buildings.

Last update: February 6, 2012 at 3:26 pm by By 

Earthquake overview : an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 occurred in the very highly populated region of Central Visayas in Philippines. The nearest populated places are: Ayungon (20km), Tayasan (12km), Cantaup (16km), Jimalalud (6km), La Libertad (7km), Apanangon (6km), Guihulngan (15km), Villegas (15km). The closest civilian airport is Bacolod (73km).

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : M 6.8
UTC Time : Monday, February 06, 2012 at 03:49:16 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Monday, February 06, 2012 at 11:49:16 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) :  46.6 km
Geo-location(s) :
72 km (44 miles) N of Dumaguete, Negros, Philippines
74 km (45 miles) WNW of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines
80 km (49 miles) WSW of Cebu, Cebu, Philippines

Update 14:42 UTC : Damage report issued at 05:00 PM (17:00) local time by the Philippine authorities. more damage may be expected the coming hours.

Update: 40 killed and many missing with 100 injured due to earthquake induced landslides. The death toll is expected to continue to rise.

Update: 13 have been killed and many are missing following this earthquake. Landslides and aftershocks including a m6.2 in the last hour are making conditions difficult for rescuers.

Update:  5 have been killed and at least 29 missing. more news to follow.

Update : GMA report in mixed Tagalog / English language about the situation in the Philippines after the earthquake.

Update 07:23 UTC : The NDRRMC said both damage to property and aftershocks are expected from the quake, whose epicenter was traced to 5 km northwest of Tayasan, Negros Oriental.

Update 06:23 UTC : Not much more news than the 1 child killed has come from the authorities. Local tsunami alerts have been put out in the Visayas region – Alert Level 2 – stay away from the coast due to unusual waves.

 

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/02/06/very-strong-earthquake-close-to-la-libertad-negros/

Dr. Jeff Masters on Snow, Temps, Weather Anomalies

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Posted by: JeffMasters, 4:06 PM GMT on February 03, 2012 +21
Brutal winter cold continues over most of Europe, where at least 200 people have died in a cold wave that began January 26. Hardest hit has been Ukraine, where the temperature bottomed out at -17°F (-27°C) at the capital of Kyivthis morning. It was the second coldest day of the cold wave, behind the -28°C reading of February 2. These temperatures are the coldest winter weather in six years in Ukraine, and at least 101 deaths are being blamed on the cold there. Also hard-hit has been Poland, where 37 people, most of them homeless, have died from the cold. Rome, Italy experienced a rare snowfall today, only its second day with snow during the past fifteen years. Very cold temperatures 10 – 20°C below average will continue for another seven days in Europe before gradually moderating late next week.


Figure 1. Departure of temperature from average as analyzed by the GFS model, for February 2, 2012. Remarkably cold air was present over Europe and western Alaska, while very warm air was over central North America and Siberia. This image is being generated experimentally by wunderground, and will be regularly available on our web site in the future.

Meanwhile, a snow drought for the U.S.
In the U.S., it’s been the opposite story, with temperatures 10 – 15°F above average continuing this week over much of the nation. January 2012 is in the weather record books as the 3rd least-snowy January for the contiguous U.S. since snow records began in 1966, and December 2011 ranked as the 11th least snowy December on record. With no major snow storms in the offing over at least the next ten days, it’s looking probable that the non-winter of 2011 – 2012 will set numerous record-low seasonal snowfall totals. The National Weather Service sends out a daily “Weather and Almanac” product for several hundred major U.S. cities that we make available on wunderground. I went through yesterday’s statistics for those cities that reported measurable snow this winter. Only nine cities out of 166 major U.S. cities in the lower 48 states reported above-average snowfall as of February 1; 157 cities received below-average snowfall. The big winner in the snow sweepstakes has been Alaska, which is boasting 8 of the top 10 locations for heaviest snowfall this winter. While the 27.75 feet of snow that has fallen on Valdez has gotten a lot of attention, more remarkable is the 18.8 feet of snow Yakutat has received. That’s more than 12.5 feet above what they usually have by this time of year.

The big losers in the snow stats for this winter are the cities along the lake effect snow belts on the Great Lakes. Most notably, Syracuse, New York is nearly four feet of snow below average for this time of year. Perhaps more exceptional is Williston, North Dakota, which has received just 1.8″ of snow this winter–more than two feet below their average for February 1.

Have a super weekend, everyone, and I’ll be back Monday with a new post.

Jeff Masters

Phillipine Sea Strong Earthquake

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Strong earthquake 60 km out in the Philippine Sea, Samar, Philippines

Last update: February 4, 2012 at 3:14 pm by By 

M 5.9      2012/02/04 13:09     Depth 19.0 km      SAMAR, PHILIPPINES

09:09:29 PM at epicenter
Very strong earthquake 60 km out in the Philippine Sea
140 km from Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines
Reported intensities by Phivolcs, the Philippines seismological agency
Intensity IV – Gamay, Northern Samar
Intensity III – Palo, Leyte; Tacloban,Leyte; San Policarpo, E. Samar; Dolosa, Leyte; Catbalogan, Samar; Oras E. Samar
Update 15:14 UTC  : 4 aftershocks so far, among these aftershocks 1 of M 5.0
PHIVOLCS Satellite map of the greater epicenter area

M 5.8      2012/02/04 07:40      Depth 10.1 km     TONGA
08:40:13 PM at epicenter
Strong earthquake with an epicenter approx. 50 km from the Hai-apai group.
140 km (86 miles) ENE of NUKU`ALOFA, Tonga
Satellite map of the greater epicenter area (see below)

Label info : M = magnitude, D = depth (km), Time = UTC

from:   http://earthquake-report.com/2012/02/04/earthquakes-list-february-4-2012/

Blazing Texas Fireball

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TEXAS FIREBALL: After nightfall on Feb. 1st, a spectacular fireball appeared in the skies of eastern Texas and Oklahoma. As is often the case for unexpected night-sky phenomena, few pictures are available. The best so far comes from a police dash-board camera in the small town of Little River-Academy, TX:

Eye-witness Daryn Morran reports: “At approximately 756pm CST, over Abilene, Texas, I saw an object falling from the sky much brighter and long-lasting than anything I’ve seen. [The fireball] lasted close to 8 secs before completely burning out. At first, it was bright white, and then started slowing down and getting brighter. Then it exploded like a firecracker artillery shell into several pieces, flickered a few more times and then slowly burned out… awesome!!!”

Another observer in Coppell, Texas, reported a “double boom heard at 8:00:30 CST. [The object appeared to be] 1/2 the size of the waxing moon, and broke into two major chucks with many smaller pieces. It had a ‘white plasma’ (sun-colored) look with a long golden tail.” (This report was relayed by NWS meteorologist Joe Harrris in Frt Worth.)

According to Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, this was probably a natural object–a small asteroid about the size of a car or bus–not a decaying satellite or other manmade space debris. The fireball, which disintegrated in the general vicinity of Dallas-Fort Worth, was bright enough to be seen on NASA cameras located in New Mexico more than 500 miles away. “It was about as bright as the full Moon (astronomical magnitude -13),” estimates Cooke, who is still analyzing data and sighting reports in hopes of calculating the object’s orbit. He might yet figure out where the Texas fireball came from

fr/spaceweather.com