Volcanoes
"Spectacular!" Mount Sakurajima, Japan, ejects ash and smoke 4,000 meters in the air. (Time lapse footage)
Mount Sakurajima erupted in a fiery spectacle early on Nov. 14, belching out a massive column of smoke rising more than 4,000 meters in the air.
The eruption occurred at around 12:45 a.m. at the mountain's Minamidake summit vent.
This is the first time that the active volcano in southern Kyushu has spewed smoke of 4,000 meters or higher since an eruption on July 16.
It marked a third such eruption this year.
Major quakes
Three powerful major quakes this morning bring the weeks total to 7 as The Pacific Ring shakes: Year total overtakes 2017
USGS
An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 reduced to mag 6:2 by USGS, struck east of a provincial capital in the Solomon Islands on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said.
It preceded two earlier major quakes, a mag 6.2 struck the southern East Pacific Rise and a mag 6.4 struck the South Sandwich Islands region.
The three major quakes bring the November total to 9 and the 7th of this week, the year total has now overtaken 2017 with 115 major quakes which are 4 more than the entire total of 2017.
Extreme Weather
It's the biggest snowstorm ever in New York in November: Last ten years see's massive increase in Northeast snow storms
Commuters crowd the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. By 5:30 p.m. Thursday, officials were advising people to take trains or ferries instead of buses. Credit John Taggart for The New York Times
It's the biggest snowstorm ever in New York in November.
The season's first snowstorm isn't leaving enough room in the sky for planes.
By noon Thursday, 564 national flights had been cancelled as the east coast prepared for a wet and wild storm that weather.com predicts will bring up to 3 inches of snow in parts of the city, followed by rain.
Hurricanes and cyclones
Tropical storm on Sunday-Super Typhoon Yutu by Wednesday: Most intense storm to ever strike the Northern Mariana Islands (NASA)
Super Typhoon Yutu made landfall across Tinian and Saipan on Wednesday, dealing a catastrophic blow of damaging winds and torrential rainfall to both islands.
Yutu quickly strengthened from a tropical depression on Sunday into a super typhoon by Wednesday as it became the strongest tropical cyclone so far this year. Yutu will bring the continued risk for flooding, damaging winds and dangerous seas to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands into Thursday as the cyclone moves to the west.
A direct strike with winds over 240 km/h (150 mph) on Saipan and Tinian likely caused extensive damage to structures, downed trees and caused power outages.
Spaceweather
As a Siberian city endures temperatures of -50 C, (-58 deg F) NASA claim whole global temperature about to plummet in a matter of months
As California burns and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere prepare for winter after a record-breaking warm summer spare a thought for residents of Krasnoyarsk Siberia who are already enduring temperatures of -50 C, (-58 deg F)
And according to NASA spokesman, temperatures for the whole globe could be about to plummet as our sun is entering one of the deepest Solar Minima of the Space Age.
Sunspots have been absent for most of 2018 and Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding, says Dr Phillips, editor of spaceweather.com.
"Spectacular!" Mount Sakurajima, Japan, ejects ash and smoke 4,000 meters in the air. (Time lapse footage)
The eruption occurred at around 12:45 a.m. at the mountain's Minamidake summit vent.
This is the first time that the active volcano in southern Kyushu has spewed smoke of 4,000 meters or higher since an eruption on July 16.
It marked a third such eruption this year.
Major quakes
Three powerful major quakes this morning bring the weeks total to 7 as The Pacific Ring shakes: Year total overtakes 2017
An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 reduced to mag 6:2 by USGS, struck east of a provincial capital in the Solomon Islands on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said.
It preceded two earlier major quakes, a mag 6.2 struck the southern East Pacific Rise and a mag 6.4 struck the South Sandwich Islands region.
The three major quakes bring the November total to 9 and the 7th of this week, the year total has now overtaken 2017 with 115 major quakes which are 4 more than the entire total of 2017.
It's the biggest snowstorm ever in New York in November: Last ten years see's massive increase in Northeast snow storms
It's the biggest snowstorm ever in New York in November.
The season's first snowstorm isn't leaving enough room in the sky for planes.
By noon Thursday, 564 national flights had been cancelled as the east coast prepared for a wet and wild storm that weather.com predicts will bring up to 3 inches of snow in parts of the city, followed by rain.
Hurricanes and cyclones
Tropical storm on Sunday-Super Typhoon Yutu by Wednesday: Most intense storm to ever strike the Northern Mariana Islands (NASA)
Yutu quickly strengthened from a tropical depression on Sunday into a super typhoon by Wednesday as it became the strongest tropical cyclone so far this year. Yutu will bring the continued risk for flooding, damaging winds and dangerous seas to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands into Thursday as the cyclone moves to the west.
A direct strike with winds over 240 km/h (150 mph) on Saipan and Tinian likely caused extensive damage to structures, downed trees and caused power outages.
Spaceweather
As a Siberian city endures temperatures of -50 C, (-58 deg F) NASA claim whole global temperature about to plummet in a matter of months
And according to NASA spokesman, temperatures for the whole globe could be about to plummet as our sun is entering one of the deepest Solar Minima of the Space Age.
Sunspots have been absent for most of 2018 and Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding, says Dr Phillips, editor of spaceweather.com.
Man-made-disasters
"Food insecurity" the creepy buzz phrase by the elite used to describe 60 million people suffering famine caused by Muslims killing Muslims
A famine, or "Food insecurity" (the creepy buzz phrase used by the elite) has been ongoing in Yemen which started during the Yemeni Civil War.
Over 17 million of Yemen's population are at risk; over 3.3 million children and pregnant or lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition.
Over 100,000 of the affected children are in Al Hudaydah Governorate, with the city of Al Hudaydah worst affected area of the province.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the famine in Yemen will soon reach "biblical proportions".
Climate Change
"We are facing a +3-4°C world and will condemn us to an uninhabitable planet" Oakland is 3rd California city to declare a Climate Emergency
Oakland's vote marks growing regional momentum and a movement of cities to treat global warming as the emergency it is.
Oakland joins Berkeley and Richmond in launching an emergency-speed Climate Mobilization and Just Transition effort.
This means that the City will...
Disease
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is of "grave concern" as death toll soars to 209
In a dire warning, the WHO said the current outbreak is expected to last for another six months.
A map released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows nine areas in the DRC affected by the Ebola virus.
Animal Die-offs
Imagine if the human population fell by 60% Wildlife populations have declined by 67% in less than 50 years! The Living Planet Report 2018
That would be like emptying the America's, Europe, Africa, Oceania and China of people
Back in February, The Big Wobble posted a frightening warning...Tipping point breached! The monarch butterfly has a 95% decline since 1980's in North America: Two-thirds of ALL animals and insects extinct in 2 years
In just two years’ time, the World will have lost two-thirds of all wild animals.
This amazing statistic from The Living Planet Index goes on: The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.
Environment
Brutal deadly knife crime epidemic has London in a grip of fear: More than 39,000 knife attacks in just six months; homicide 25% increase
That makes two attacks this morning, five this week...and more than 39,000 in just six months. Quietly, a brutal, deadly knife attack epidemic is overwhelming residents and police forces throughout the United Kingdom.
Of the five people stabbed this week, the youngest was 15-year-old Jay Hughes, who was attacked outside a chicken shop in broad daylight.
Wildfires
CALIFORNIA INFERNO TOLL RISES TO 63: 600+ MISSING: 12,000 buildings have been destroyed: Wildfires choking the state
The number of people missing in northern California's devastating wildfire has leapt to more than 600, and seven more bodies have been found, according to local authorities.
The missing persons' list has doubled since earlier on Thursday.
The Camp Fire, the state's deadliest and most destructive blaze, has killed at least 63 people. Nearly 12,000 buildings have been destroyed.
According to Reuters, thousands of additional structures are still threatened as firefighters, many from distant states, laboured to contain and suppress the flames.
Photo of the day
Picture of the day: Very tame Blackbird lays two beautiful blue eggs just 1 meter above our dining table
Earlier this month we noticed a female Blackbird hanging around under our conservatory in the back garden.
She was incredibly tame and totally unfazed by being around humans and we soon realised she was building a nest just 1 meter above our dining table, see picture below.
She soon delivered two beautiful blue eggs.
She stayed with us for a week or so sitting in her nest while we all went about our business and she was obviously very comfortable living among us.
Unfortunately one morning we came downstairs to see our lady friend in her nest with broken eggshells and behaving in a distressed manner, we think the nest was attacked by Magpies earlier that morning.
She is still to be found in our garden however and she is still very tame.
