Blue Goo Falls From Sky Into British Man’s Yard
The mysterious spheres of jelly are “not meteorological” in nature. The whole thing smacks of a 90s Nickelodeon game show gone horribly awry. Via BBC:
A man in Dorset has been left mystified after tiny blue spheres fell from the sky into his garden. Steve Hornsby said [they] came raining down late on Thursday afternoon during a hail storm.
He found about a dozen of the balls in his garden. He said: “[They're] difficult to pick up, I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar.” The Met Office said the jelly-like substance was “not meteorological”.
Mr Hornsby, a former aircraft engineer, said: “The sky went a really dark yellow colour…As I walked outside to go to the garage there was an instant hail storm for a few seconds and I thought, ‘what’s that in the grass’?”
Walking around his garden he found many more blue spheres were scattered across…
Heat Wave Due To “Exceptionally Strong” Air Mass
Photos: Alex E. Proimos
Today has been the coolest day all week in the Northeast of the US. The Midwest, Northeast and Southern parts of the country have been experiencing consecutive days of high temperatures and humidity which have contributed to many deaths throughout the country. What is the cause of this cantankerous heat and is it an indication of future affects of global warming? The National Geographic reports:
A stubborn high-pressure system is the culprit behind the dangerously high heat wave that’s been baking much of the U.S., experts say.
The high-pressure system—a large area of dense air—is being held in place by upper-level winds known as the jet stream. Within the system, dense air sinks and becomes warmer, and since warm air can hold more moisture than cooler air, there’s also very high humidity. (Learn more about Earth’s atmosphere.)
Stationary high-pressure systems aren’t unusual during the summer, according to Eli Jacks, a meteorologist…
New Little Ice Age In Store Next Decade?
The Telegraph says we may enter a short mini-Ice Age in the next decade due to low solar activity. Consider it Mother Nature giving us a temporary reprieve from global warming so that we have time to set things right:
Sunspot activity, which follows an 11-year cycle, is due to peak in 2013 after which it will start to wane slightly. But astronomers think the next upswing will be less intensive than normal, or could fail to happen at all. That could affect weather on Earth because low solar activity has been linked to low global temperatures in the past.
Three studies, presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s solar physics division, all point towards declining sunspot activity into the next decade.
Between 1645 and 1715 almost no sunspots were observed, a solar period which came to be called the Maunder Minimum. During those decades Europe suffered frequent unusually harsh winters, and…
Iranian President Ahmadinejad Accuses The West of Weather Control
Reports Agence France-Presse via the Raw Story:
TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday accused Western countries of devising plans to “cause drought” in the Islamic republic, as he inaugurated a dam in a central province.
“Western countries have designed plans to cause drought in certain areas of the world, including Iran,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in the central city of Arak in Markazi province.
“According to reports on climate, whose accuracy has been verified, European countries are using special equipment to force clouds to dump” their water on their continent, he said.
By doing so, “they prevent rain clouds from reaching regional countries, including Iran,” Ahmadinejad charged. Iran has experienced several droughts in recent years.
Qatar To Use Remote-Controlled Clouds By 2022 World Cup
Of course, due to dangerous levels of pollution and radiation, by 2022 we will venture outdoors only for very brief periods. BLDG BLOG reveals the sky-architecture of the future:
“Artificial clouds” driven by solar-powered engines might be deployed at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to help keep the stadiums from overheating. Each cloud, as a short video hosted over at the BBC explains, “is constructed from an advanced, lightweight, and strong carbon-fiber material.”
The interior of the cloud is injected with helium gas to make it float. The cloud hovers like a helicopter and is remotely controlled. In this way, the cloud hovers over the football ground, shielding it from direct sunlight and providing a favorable climatic environment. The cloud is also programmed to continuously change its shielding position according to the prevailing east-to-west path of the sun.
After all, I suppose it makes sense that the next step in temporary event architecture will…
Scottish Schoolchildren Hit By Rain Of Worms
A bizarre incident in Scotland as a school briefly was trapped beneath deluge of worms falling from the sky. The Scotsman reports:
A PE class had to run for cover as it started raining worms.
Teacher David Crichton was leading a group of pupils playing football at Galashiels Academy when dozens of the invertebrates began plummeting from the sky. The 22 second-year boys had to abandon their lesson.Mr. Crichton said the children had just completed their warm-up when they began to hear “soft thudding” on the ground. The class then looked to the cloudless sky – and saw worms falling on to them.
The teacher scooped up handfuls of the worms that had fallen from the sky as proof they had landed on his class. Mr. Crichton said he and his colleagues eventually found about 120 worms after checking the artificial football pitch and tennis courts.
Showers of worms falling from the heavens have been…
Scientists Find First Evidence Climate Affects Tectonic Plate Movement
Via Discover:
Geologists have known for years that tectonic plates affect climate patterns. Now they say that the opposite is also true, finding that intensifying climate events can move tectonic plates. Using models based on known monsoonal and plate movement patterns, geologists say that the Indian Plate has accelerated by about 20% over the past 10 million years. “The significance of this finding lies in recognising for the first time that long-term climate changes have the potential to act as a force and influence the motion of tectonic plates,” Australian National University researcher Giampiero Iaffaldano told COSMOS.
The researchers plugged information from research on monsoonal patterns and the Indian Plate’s movement into a model, which indicated that the monsoonal erosion that has battered the eastern Himalaya Mountains for the past 10 million years erodes enough material to account for the plate’s counter-clockwise rotation. By gradually shaving off rocks from the eastern flank and…
Earth Getting Mysteriously Windier
Mason Inman writes on National Geographic:
The world has gotten stormier over the past two decades — and the reason is a mystery, a new study says.
In the past 20 years, winds have picked up around 5 percent on average.
Extremely strong winds caused by storms have increased even faster, jumping 10 percent over 20 years, according to the new analysis of global satellite data.
The study, the first to look at wind speeds across such a large swath of the planet, bolsters some earlier findings, according to study leader Ian Young, of the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.
“Some regional studies had found similar results, so we suspected there may be an increasing trend,” Young said.
Japan Nuclear Radiation Likely To Reach California
The likes of Matt Drudge and Alex Jones have been banging the drum to create fear among U.S. citizens that radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster will reach North America. Now Neil Katz poses the same question for a mainstream outlet, CBS News. The conclusion he posts is:
“As for America, experts say for now we are in the clear. ‘It is true that radiation emanating from Japan is moving across the Pacific and it’s feasible that one could detect those radiation levels in California,’ says [Dr. Cham] Dallas. ‘But it’s certain that it wouldn’t be dangerous.’”
Do any disinformation readers have expertise in radiation safety issues? Can we be so certain that there is no danger as Dr. Dallas suggests? Please post your thoughts in the comments.
Here’s some more of Katz’s story:
As conditions worsen at four nuclear reactors in Japan, many here and abroad are worried about the health risks of radiation.
What…
Abu Dhabi Now Creating ‘Man-Made Rainstorms’ Regularly
Abu Dhabi now controls its weather with giant ionizers, the Telegraph reports:
A secret £7 million weather project in Abu Dhabi has resulted in dozens of man-made rainstorms, according to reports.
Scientists employed by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE and leader of Abu Dhabi, successfully created more than 50 rainstorms in the state’s Al Ain region last year, mostly in July and August when there is virtually no rain at all. It is believed to be the first time the system has produced rain from clear skies.
They have been using giant ionizers, shaped like giant lampshades, to generate fields of negatively charged particles, which create cloud formation.
In a company video, seen by The Sunday Times, Helmut Fluhrer, the founder of Metro Systems International, the Swiss company in charge of the project, said: “We are currently operating our innovative rainfall enhancement technology, Weathertec, in the region of Al Ain…
Thunderstorms Generate Antimatter Beams
Antimatter Cloud (NASA)
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists are reporting that they have seen antimatter beams emitted from thunderstorms. Jonathan Palmer has the story at BBC News:
A space telescope has accidentally spotted thunderstorms on Earth producing beams of antimatter.
Such storms have long been known to give rise to fleeting sparks of light called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. But results from the Fermi telescope show they also give out streams of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons.
The surprise result was presented by researchers at the American Astronomical Society meeting in the US.
It deepens a mystery about terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs — sparks of light that are estimated to occur 500 times a day in thunderstorms on Earth. They are a complex interplay of light and matter whose origin is poorly understood.
Thunderstorms are known to create tremendously high electric fields — evidenced by lightning strikes. Electrons in storm…
Watch A Blizzard Collapse the Roof of A Football Stadium (Video)
It was the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota where the Vikings were due to play this week. I guess even Mother Nature really wants Vikings quarterback Brett Favre (who’s been in the news for non-football reasons) to retire:
This Image Is Not a Photoshop Trick
I can believe it’s real but can’t believe it’s stable. C’mon Russian town, where’s your Dept. of Public Works to take care of this stuff? From English Russia via Gizmodo, Jesus Diaz, writes:
This is not a Photoshop. It’s not an optical trick. And it’s not an illustration. It’s just a simply great photo taken near the Linevo village, in the Volgograd region of Russia. A wild firestorm went through the village and its surroundings, destroying 80 houses. Nobody knows what was the origin, but at least the phone lines are still working.
Fire Tornado Strikes In Brazil
Last week one of the rarest and more horrifying weather phenomena occurred in Brazil: a “fire tornado.” Created by extreme drought conditions, the whirling tower of flames raged outside of the city of Aracatuba, scorching dry earth and bringing traffic to a halt, before disappearing.
Zeus Strikes Parthenon With Lightning Bolt
OK, the headline’s a little over the top, but what a photo, from the Daily Mail/AP:
It looks like a narrow escape for one of mankind’s most ancient symbols.
A bolt of lightning illuminates the sky around the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple, high on the Acropolis during a heavy rainfall in Athens early this morning.
Fortunately, the temple is believed to have escaped any damage.
[story continues in the Daily Mail/AP]
Lightning Strikes Three Chicago Skyscrapers At the Same Time
Beware City of Chicago! The end is near. From Craig Shimala on Vimeo:
Light Rain: Lasers Could Trigger Downpours on Demand
From the Daily Mail:
People in drought-stricken countries could one day create rain clouds on demand thanks to laser technology. Physicists have discovered that firing short laser bursts into the air can trigger the formation of water droplets. The breakthrough technique could help stimulate rainfall in the future.
Scientist Jerome Kasparian and his team from the University of Geneva wanted to find a more environmentally friendly alternative to cloud seeding. This 50-year-old process attempts to artificially induce showers. A red laser pulse ionises the air and triggers the condensation of water droplets to create a cloud, which is illuminated by a green laser
Rockets carrying silver iodide particles are scattered in the sky. The particles act as ‘condensation nuclei’ around which water drops can form. Dr Kasparian said cloud seeding is not an efficient method despite decades of development. He added: ‘There are also worries about how safe adding silver iodide particles into…
Australian Town Hit by Raining Fish
Now this is biblical, but it does happen from time to time. Check out the video below from the BBC documentary series Supernatural which explains the phenomenon. Simon Crisp writes on Asylum:
For residents of a small Australian town, their usually mundane conversations about the weather have just become a whole lot more interesting.
That’s because in the outback town of Lajamanu it’s started raining fish. Yes, fish. Hundreds of them, falling from the sky. Over the past two days the town’s 660 residents have been bombarded with small white fish which have been falling like rain.
Locals say the fish, mostly spangled perch, have even been alive as they hit the floor. Lucky it wasn’t crocodiles then. Meteorologists believe the fish where sucked up by a tornado — which passed over a river some 300 miles away — before being carried through the sky at 40,000 to 50,000 feet.
Bill Nye: Climate Change Skeptics “Unpatriotic”
Most children of the nineties have fuzzy memories of Emmy-winning scientist Bill Nye the Science Guy, creator and host of a beloved educational television program of the same name that was [is?] shown in middle school science classes across the nation.
On Wednesday, Nye got tough when he appeared on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, stating twice that climate change deniers are “unpatriotic.”
For young adult climate skeptics, it must hurt to have a childhood icon emerge ghostlike from the past to call you anti-American.
