Climate chaos

The climate in Nelson, on the top of the South Island of New Zealand has changed and basically there is nothing that can be done.

Nelson residents ask council for more help in flood prevention

Fed-up residents in Nelson want the council to do more to fix flooding problems in the city centre

Simply spectacular photo of an intense CG lightning over Korčula, Croatia yesterday!

UK: Torrential rain and flash flooding cause travel chaos

BBC,

28 July, 2014

Homes were evacuated and people left stranded in their cars as lightning, hail, heavy rain and flash flooding hit east and south-east England.

The freak weather brought roads and railway services to a standstill in parts of Sussex, Essex and London.

More than half the average total rain for England in July fell in an hour in some areas, the Met Office said.

London Fire Brigade said it had to help people trapped in their carsacross the capital.

Network Rail said most train services were returning to normal following earlier delays and cancellations caused by flooding and an electricity substation being struck by lightning.

However, services to Brighton are not stopping at Worthing because of flooding in the station subwa

In London, the Metropolitan Line is running with severe delays because of flooding.

Flights to and from Gatwick Airport were also delayed by the weather.

The town of Great Dunmow in Essex was inundated by 43mm (1.7in) of rain within an hour, while residents in Isfield, Sussex, were hit with 37mm (1.5in) of rain.

A road in the village of Thaxted, Essex collapsed and several homes were left flooded. Five people in the village were taken to safety by fire crews.

In north-west London, two women had to be rescued from a car stranded in flash floods outside South Ruislip station.

London Fire Brigade said it had to deal with two stranded cars on Eastcote Road in Harro

At one stage six cars were stuck in floodwater in Uxbridge, west London, according to the AA's Special Operations Response Team.

Fifty properties were also flooded on Bedford Road in Ruislip.

Jamie Davis, 17, of Ickenham, west London said the downpours, with flashing lightning and loud thunderclaps, began at 09.00 BST and lasted for at least 45 minutes.

A lightning bolt strikes the sea off Hove seafront

"My back garden is completely flooded. The drains are bubbling up and we can't flush the toilet," he said.

In Sussex, Southern Water said torrential rain had caused sewers to be "overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water".

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service received about 300 calls within a few hours, while a further 60 calls were passed on to Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service as part of emergency resilience arrangements.

It said its crews had dealt with a large number of weather-related emergency calls which had included flooding, lightning strikes "and false alarms caused by the weather".

Sussex residents said the storm there started at 05:30 BST with hailstorms particularly heavy in the region.

The hailstorm was so fierce it left ice on roads and pavements across Sussex

The A40 near Hillingdon Station, west London, looked more like a river after the deluge

Writing on Twitter, Laurence Hill said: "Used to be roads. Now rivers of hail. Never seen anything like it."

Brighton and Hove Police posted: "Localised flooding in Hove and Portslade, some roads not passable. Please do not enter flood water on foot or in cars."

PC Andy Huggett, of Sussex Police, said: "Heavy rain after a long warm spell invariably leads to slippery roads and drivers need to immediately adjust to the new conditions.

"Along with the surface conditions, there are the added hazards of very heavy rain, flash flooding and poor visibility and it is essential that drivers make allowances."

"City Clean are working with East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service to clear roadside gullies.

Cars were stranded in flash floods in Portslade in Brighton

"The refuse and recycling service is operating normally but might be a bit slower due to the weather," a spokesman said.

The council said its offices in Kings House had been closed due to flooding in the basement which was threatening some of the main electrical panels.

It said staff had relocated to other buildings, and there would be some disruption to services.

River in China mysteriously 

turns blood-red overnight

by The Extinction Protocol

July 2014 – CHINA – Baffled locals who used to boast that they had one of the healthiest rivers in China because there were no factories along its banks were baffled when within the space of an hour the river turned a deep, dark red. Clear plastic bottles dipped into the water at Xinmeizhou village in Cangnan County in eastern China’s Zhejiang province quickly filled up with the red-colored liquid which had a strange smell, according to villagers. Local Na Wan said, “A few people that were up and about at 5 a.m. said that everything was normal but then suddenly within the space of a few minutes the water started turning darker and eventually was completely red. The really weird thing is that we have always been able to catch fish and you can even drink the water because it’s just normally so good. Nobody has any idea how it could have ended up being polluted because there are no factories that dump anything in the water here.” Environmental experts were on the scene taking samples of the water and said that they suspected it was discharged from a dye factory even though there was none in the area. One expert said, “We suspect that maybe somebody drove here to dump stuff. We are looking further upstream to try and find out where the source was of this pollution.” – SPLOID

Northern California 

neighborhoods inundated by 

rattlesnakes due to drought

by The Extinction Protocol

July 2014 – SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Rattlesnakes are moving closer to homes in Northern California, and one expert thinks the state’s drought is to blame, CBS Sacramento reports. Len Ramirez says this is one of the busiest years his rattlesnake removal business has seen in nearly three decades. And the year is only halfway done. “We’ve made four calls today, and tonight I don’t know how many I’m going to make, but it’s going to be a long evening,” he said Friday. A room where he keeps the rattlesnakes he catches before releasing them into the wild is evidence of how busy he’s been. “We’ve removed 72 rattlesnakes this week,” he said. Drought conditions have kept the calls coming in from people spooked by snakes that are way too close for comfort. “For a lot of homeowners just moving in from the Bay Area, a first-time encounter with a rattlesnake is very scary,” Ramirez said.

More snakes are coming closer to homes; something he says is likely because of the drought. People aren’t watering as much, so there isn’t water all over the ground away from homes. That leads rodents closer to homes in search of water, and snakes that eat rodents follow. Ramirez warns pets could be at risk if they accidentally sniff a spot a rattlesnake calls home. He also recommends keeping garage doors closed. –CBS News

When I saw this I thought immediately of Mike Ruppert, who was a native of Venice Beach

Deadly Venice Beach 

lightning strike kills one and 

injures 13 during California 

storm

One man died and at least 13 people were injured in a lightning strike during a rare thunderstorm at Venice Beach in Los Angeles

Lightning struck 13 people at a popular beach in Los Angeles in the US and another man golfing on Catalina Island, leaving two critically injured as rare summer thunderstorms swept through southern California on Sunday.

A 15-year-old was among those hit by lightning at Venice Beach around 2:30pm.