WEATHER ANOMALIES: EXTREME, WILD AND DESTRUCTIVE SANTA ANA WINDS: Thousands Without Power Throughout Several American States - The Most Powerful Winds to Hit California in Ten Years! UPDATE: Strong Winds Keep 400,000 Without Power!

The fiercest Santa Ana winds in a decade swept through Southern California Wednesday night, knocking down trees and causing extensive power outages and scattered flight delays.

High wind warnings were also issued for Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Arizona, and early Thursday winds of over 90 mph in Utah overturned semi-trailer rigs and left 30,000 homes and businesses without power, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. In southern California, nearly 200,000 customers were without power Thursday morning, Southern California Edison told KABC-TV, while the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water said 87,000 customers were in the dark. The San Gabriel Valley was especially hard-hit by the outages, and the Pasadena area was strewn with downed trees. The storm—carrying winds of up to 60 mph in LA and up to 140 mph in the mountains-- is expected to peak on the West Coast Thursday and continue through Friday. The National Weather Service warned that winds as high as 80 mph are expected in higher-elevation areas near LA Thursday. Heavy snow hit the Rockies, the Weather Service said, and the storm system is heading for the Midwest and the Mississippi Valley this weekend. The Weather Service said there was a "significant fire threat" in southern California," and officials in the LA area said they were worried. "When you get 60, 70, 80 mile-an-hour winds, if a fire were to get established, because the brush is still dry even though we had some rain recently, it's going to be very difficult to stop," Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Savage told KABC.

At Los Angeles International Airport, power failed Wednesday night for about an hour, stranding waiting passengers in the dark. More than 20 inbound flights had to be diverted because of debris blowing around on the runways, KABC TV reported. By Thursday morning, aircraft were landing again. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told the Associated Press that he was "cautiously optimistic the worst wind conditions are behind us—for now." Trees fell on freeways, on a gas station in Pasadena, and in front yards. In Van Nuys, a homeowner told KABC that he thought it was an earthquake at first when a huge tree fell over in front of his home. "All of a sudden I heard this huge rumbling sound and then the ground actually shook bad, and I wasn't sure if it was an earthquake or what was going on, and so I ran out to the front of the house and here is this 150-foot tree...I mean thank God it didn't fall toward our house," said the homeowner, Chris Drury. Several school districts announced shutdowns Thursday in the San Gabriel area, though schools in the LA Unified district were open. The Santa Ana winds are a fall phenomenon on the West Coast—triggered when dry winds blow west from the desert and squeeze through the mountains. - ABC News.

WATCH: ABC News coverage of the Santa Ana winds.

UPDATE: Strong Winds Keep 400,000 Without Power!

Severe winds and fallen trees slowed power restoration to 400,000 customers as abnormally high Santa Ana winds blasted the Los Angeles area a third day Friday. The winds, gusting around 60 mph, were forecast to continue through midday in Los Angeles and Ventura counties after reaching 97 mph Thursday, the National Weather Service said. In many cities, schools were expected to be canceled for a second day Friday due to the fierce winds, which gusted to more than 80 mph overnight. It was unclear whether Los Angeles' 4,310-acre Griffith Park, at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, would be reopened after being closed Thursday out of fear the strong, dry winds would whip up fires. Los Angeles County declared a state of emergency Thursday and officials urged residents to stay off the roads, for fear of being crushed by branches and debris. Many motorists ignored pleas and battled gridlock caused by broken traffic signals and blowing debris, the Los Angeles Times reported. The storm, which produced some of the strongest wind gusts in the region in more than a decade, was caused by a highly unusual weather system. In some places, winds suddenly shifted from 10 mph or 20 mph to more than 80 mph, making trees, power lines and roofs vulnerable, the Times said.


A fallen tree sliced through an apartment building in Pasadena, forcing 40 residents to evacuate. Pasadena City officials said at least 40 buildings were so badly damaged they would have to be torn down. The desert winds, notorious for fanning regional wildfires, annually push their way west through Southern California and northern Baja California in late fall and winter. But this time, a clockwise high-pressure system parked over Northern California and the Great Basin was near a counter-clockwise low-pressure system hovering over Arizona. The blustery conditions extended across the Southwest, including Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. In some places, wind gusts topped 100 mph. Bill Edwards, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.com, said the difference in pressure between the two systems -- high pressure to the north and low to the east -- added force to the winds. "In some places we've seen gusts over hurricane force, which for the Southwest part of the country is not something that usually happens," Edwards said. "This is a one-every-10-years kind of thing." Wind speeds were expected to start dropping Friday. - UPI.

WATCH: Raw Video - Strong winds wreck havoc in west.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: MASS FISH DIE-OFF AND STRANDING - Fifth Dead Dolphin in a Week Found in Mississippi Gulf, 603 Stranded In Less Than Two Years?!

The discovery of dead dolphins is a rarity in November, he said.

A stranded dolphin found alive in the marsh near Fort Morgan, Alabama continues to improve, said Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies at Gulfport.

Another dead dolphin, the fifth in the past week, was found at Waveland on Monday, he said. "They are all about the same age, which is the group of animals that would have been born earlier this year in February and March," Solangi said. "They were less than a year old and still dependent on their mothers." All the dead dolphins were about 5½-feet long, he said. "These animals move in the wintertime," Solangi said. "They move toward the south of the barrier islands because of the water temperature and the food has moved toward the south." The discovery of dead dolphins is a rarity in November, he said. The live dolphin, found Friday, is recovering in a quarantine tank at the facility. "It is orientating itself," Solangi said.

The green circles indicate where stranded dolphins have been found along the Gulf Coast since
February 2010, and the pink circles indicate where they have been found in the past week.
The squares indicate other beached species.

The survivor, named Chance by its Alabama rescuers, has been the subject of a battery of tests, he said. "This was the second time," he said. "The first time when we got him it was a pretty quick deal. We wanted to get him stable. Today we did a battery of tests so that we could send them out." The survivor and dead dolphins are part of an ongoing series of strandings that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has classified as an "Unusual Mortality Event" in the northern Gulf of Mexico that began February 2010. NOAA's Office of Protected Resources updated its stranding count Tuesday to 603. The Nov. 20 total had been 596. "I think from the scientific perspective we are very intrigued that this might give us more information than would be got from dead animals," Solangi said of the survivor. "Things have improved with this animal," he said. - Gulf Live.

WORLD WAR III: The Orchestrated Thesis/Antithesis and Synthesis of the Iranian Problem - Rumors of an Imminent and Monumental Middle East Conflict and the Return of a Messianic Entity?!

"What we call chaos is just patterns we haven't recognized. What we call random is just patterns we cant decipher." - Chuck Palahniuk.

The provocative rhetoric between the players on the orchestrated Middle East chessboard continues, as the serious threat of the growing conflict between America, Israel, Iran, Russia and China, plunging the planet into a third world war escalates. This concrescence of release language around cataclysmic events, return of a messianic entity, extraterrestrial invasion/disclosure and a Golden Age is coalescing around the Hegelian dialectic of order out of chaos from false flag events like terrorism and world wars. A Israeli-Iranian war and a possible wider Middle East war would not only fulfill President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fervent prayer for the return of the Hidden Imam, the Mahdi, but the implementation of the Magi's grand plan for a New World Order of the Ages.

We have already seen the manifestation of the previous World Wars, the Cold War and the 9/11 Attacks/War on Terrorism. Therefore it is not hard to envision the full realization of Werner Von Braun's warning about the last card, especially given the extraterrestrial narrative in our popular culture and considering the global wait for a planetary government lead by a returning Savior. Christianity awaits Christ, Islam expects the Imam Mahdi, Buddhism is waiting for the Maitreya Buddha, Hinduism anticipates the Kalki Avatar, the Jews are looking for their Messiah, the Mayans prophesied about the return of Quetzalcoatl, and so-called New Agers long to see their Cosmic Christ. In recent speeches, Ahmadinejad repeatedly prayed for the hasty return of the Mahdi, the messianic figure. Ahmadinejad even declared that he is willing to create the conditions necessary for the arrival of the Mahdi. He believes that his mission in life will be to play a vital role in ushering in the new age of the Mahdi, "...pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance..."

Certainly, the following headlines, runs parallel with this path. Here, two stories indicates that Iran is becoming a nuclear threat and developing low-flying cruise missiles.

While Europe remains preoccupied with its own slow-motion crisis and other global powers continue to be mesmerised by the bizarre spectacle of European officials' efforts to rescue the euro (and thus the global financial system), clouds of war are massing over Iran once more. For years, Iran has been pursuing both a nuclear program and the development of long-range missiles, which points to only one conclusion: the country's leaders are intent on building nuclear weapons, or at least on reaching the technological threshold beyond which only a single political decision is required to achieve that end. - The Australian.

Iran is developing an advanced low-flying cruise missile that could potentially carry a non-conventional warhead, Arieh Herzog, director of the Defense Ministry's Homa Missile Defense Agency, said on Wednesday... "The Iranians are developing a capability that within several years, they will have cruise missiles that can fly at low altitudes and carry non-conventional warheads," Herzog said. - Jerusalem Post.

Author Michael Burleigh, writing in the Daily Mail, a news outfit out of Britain is declaring that Iran is a rabid rogue state that could tip the world into a new dark age.

That rampaging mob of ‘students’ storming the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, lobbing petrol bombs, ransacking the building, burning the Union Jack and threatening to hold hostage terrified members of staff inside the compound, was a deeply worrying spectacle for those of us who have studied the Iranian regime over the years. The mayhem followed a vote in Iran’s parliament to downgrade diplomatic relations with Britain - a response to the tough new financial sanctions imposed by London last week over Iran’s nuclear programme, after the International Atomic Energy Authority warned that Iran is getting ever closer to building a bomb. These protesters were clearly orchestrated by the Iranian regime, for the mayhem could never have taken place without sanction in a country where secret police stalk the streets, torture is endemic, criminals are executed in public and foreign embassies are closely guarded and monitored. Far from being students, many of the thugs involved were elite members of Iran’s paramilitary Basiji brigades, a hard-core volunteer outfit under the control of the country’s Revolutionary Guards, who answer to the country’s top cleric, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei... What we are witnessing is a desperate and sclerotic regime which feels increasingly cornered and is lashing out - not that Iran is any the less dangerous for that. The Iranians have threatened dire consequences if such an attack took place, including firing long-range ballistic missiles, thought to be more accurate than the Scud missiles Saddam Hussein launched against Israel during the first Gulf War. They are also likely to retaliate against any neighbouring state that allows Israel to fly through their airspace towards Iran, including Turkey and Iraq. They may risk attacking U.S. forces stationed in Iraq or the nearby Gulf states, sucking the U.S. directly into the conflict. Significantly, only the U.S. military has the necessary firepower to deal with Iran’s formidable military machine. If the U.S. was dragged in, Iran would not only engineer conflagration in the Middle East. It has also threatened to cut off oil supplies from the region by unleashing Chinese Silkworm missiles or suicide-bomber boats against tankers in the Straits of Hormuz, the world’s vital oil lifeline. Industry experts calculate this would instantly send the price of oil soaring three times its present price to $300 or more a barrel - which would be even more catastrophic for our ailing economies than the unresolved eurozone crisis.

As a result of this "rampaging mob," Britain has ordered a closure of the Iran embassy in London.

Britain said on Wednesday it had ordered the immediate closure of Iran's embassy in London and had closed its own embassy in Tehran after it was stormed by protesters. "The Iranian charge (d'affaires) in London is being informed now that we require the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and that all Iranian diplomatic staff must leave the United Kingdom within the next 48 hours," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament. "We have now closed the British embassy in Tehran. We have decided to evacuate all our staff and as of the last few minutes, the last of our UK-based staff have now left Iran," he said. Hague also announced that Iranian ambassadors had been summoned in countries across Europe to receive strong protests over the storming of the British embassy. - Telegraph.

A move that is not going down well with the Iranian regime, who have lashed out at the "Little Satan," and promised that the United Kingdom will suffer consequences of envoy's expulsion.

For Iran, Britain is the "Little Satan", second only as an irritant to the "Great Satan" of the United States. But the events of the past few days - namely the ransacking of the British embassy - have shown that Britain is now the number one target when it comes to the country's fury at the West. Diplomatic relations that were already chilly at best are now in the deep freeze. The spark was ostensibly the UK's decision to impose stringent sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme. But the consequences for Iran - more international condemnation, anger and probably more sanctions - may only serve to make life more difficult for the Iranian regime. Which is why many analysts believe an internal power struggle may be the real explanation for the latest spat. Protesters set fire to a Union Jack flag outside British Embassy in Iran. Iran's Guardian Council, which approved a parliamentary bill to downgrade diplomatic ties with the UK, is dominated by hardline conservative clerics. The move led to the apparently orchestrated attacks on the British Embassy and a residential compound. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - hardly a moderate himself - is left with the fallout of what seems to have been a show of strength from his rivals for power. - Sky News.

Iran said Britain's decision to close the Iranian embassy in London was "hasty" and that it would lead to further retaliation: "The foreign ministry spokesman ... described the move as ... hasty and added that naturally the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran would take further appropriate action regarding the issue," Tehran's state TV reported. - Ynetnews.

This promise is looking really close to becoming a reality, as the London Times is quoting  Israel intelligence officials as saying that recent satellite images show this week's reported blast in Isfahan was 'no accident.'

A mysterious blast which reportedly rocked Isfahan in western Iran on Monday damaged a key nuclear facility in the city, the Times of London reported on Wednesday. On Monday, Haaretz cited Iranian media as reporting that an explosion was heard near Isfahan, home to a uranium conversion plant operational since 2004. According to reports by the semi-official Fars news agency, frightened residents called the fire department after the blast, forcing the city authorities to admit there had been an explosion. Residents reported that their windows shook from the explosion's force. At first, Iranian officials denied the reports, with the governor of Isfahan later alleging that the blast was caused by an accident that had occurred during a nearby military drill. However, a report in the Times on Wednesday alleged that the blast had not been a military accident, and that the city's nuclear facility was damaged. The report quotes Israeli intelligence officials who based their conclusion on updated satellite images showing smoke billowing from the direction of the conversion plant. According to the Israeli sources, there was "no doubt" that the blast had damaged the nuclear facility, and that the explosion was not an "accident." - Haaretz.

Whether it was an accident from a military drill or nuclear test, or attack from an external source, Ahmadinejad is obviously in high preparations for war, especially given the increasing possibilities that Israel will carry out a secret strike.

The top US military officer told Reuters on Wednesday he did not know whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it decided to take military action against Iran. General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also acknowledged differences in perspective between the United States and Israel over the best way to handle Iran and its nuclear program. He said the United States was convinced that sanctions and diplomatic pressure was the right path to take on Iran, along with "the stated intent not to take any options off the table" - language that leaves open the possibility of future military action. "I'm not sure the Israelis share our assessment of that. And because they don't and because to them this is an existential threat, I think probably that it's fair to say that our expectations are different right now," Dempsey said in an interview as he flew to Washington from London. Asked whether he was talking about the differences between Israeli and US expectations over sanctions, or differences in perspective about the future course of events, Dempsey said: "All of the above." He did not elaborate. He also did not disclose whether he believed Israel was prepared to strike Iran... There has been concern that if world powers cannot nudge Iran into serious nuclear negotiations, then Israel, which feels threatened by Iranian nuclear aspirations, will attack. Asked directly whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it chose to go forward with military action, Dempsey replied flatly: "I don't know." - Jerusalem Post.

Of course, the dark horse in all of this mix is China and what cards they will play as oppose to or in agreement with either America or Russia. Certainly, the following video should give some indication as to what position the Chinese government will take. Observe the these words:

 Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor from the Chinese National Defense University, said China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War... Professor Xia Ming: "Zhang Zhaozhong said that not hesitating to fight a third world war would be entirely for domestic political needs...." And don't forget Russia, which recently said it is preparing to retaliate against NATO and has put radar stations on combat alert: "Russia is another ally of Iran, with similar policy to that of China. Toward Iran."

WATCH: NTDTV analysis of the burgeoning crisis.

A grand plan is at work here. It seems that what we are looking at is, the final orchestration of the plans within the Hegelian Dialectic to bring forth  unprecedented chaos and to ultimately herald in under the guise of peace, the disclosure of the extraterrestrial presence as our saviors.

MASS TREE DIE-OFF: Washington State Scrambles to Fight Massive Tree Die-Offs - An Area Covering Nearly 3 Million Acres?!

So many pine, fir and spruce trees in the Northwest are riddled with bugs and disease that major tree die-offs are expected to rip through a third of Eastern Washington forests - an area covering nearly 3 million acres - in the next 15 years, according to new state projections.

Because Washington's forests are deteriorating so quickly, the state commissioner of public lands last week said he'll appoint an emergency panel of scientists and foresters to seek ways to stabilize or reverse the decline. The problem is largely centered on tree-killing scourges such as the mountain pine beetle, which is spreading rapidly and getting into ever higher-elevation trees such as the troubled whitebark pine. The number of acres of trees damaged in the past decade by diseases such as blister rust and invasions of western spruce budworm and bark beetles is more than twice what it was in the 1990s - and three times greater than in the 1980s. That dramatic increase has state officials eager to avoid becoming the next Colorado or British Columbia, both of which have seen millions of acres of forest wiped out in recent years by insects. "If you don't get started doing something soon, it will quickly overwhelm your capacity to respond," said Aaron Everett, state forester with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). "I'm certainly not going to sit by and watch it happen here without doing anything."

Few ecologists are eager to just let nature take its course. That could expose the region to potentially catastrophic wildfires, upend wildlife migration corridors and alter forest hydrology, which determines when and how much water is available to all-important river systems. But solutions may prove complex, expensive, politically difficult or elusive. That's because the most significant weapon available to combat forest decay is logging. Each type of forest and mix of trees responds differently to particular types of timber harvest. And experts disagree over whether cutting down and thinning out trees will always curb the spread of bugs in some of the hardest-hit forests. "I come from an agency with a strong conservation background, and through time I have come to the conclusion that thinning forests to increase resilience in the face of changing conditions is sometimes a necessity," said Nate Stephenson, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in California. "If you've got a forest that's so crowded that the trees are so stressed, sometimes you can reduce the probability of an outbreak by thinning."

But University of Washington professor Jerry Franklin, the old-growth expert whose research helped end most federal-land clearcutting in the Northwest in the 1990s, said that was less true in the lodgepole pine stands most affected by bark beetles. "There's not much evidence you can control an outbreak of beetles in lodgepole," he said. "We need to be real honest about what we can do. You can cut in front of it, and take away the potential host, but that's not going to help what you leave standing." The situation has been decades in the making. Since land managers suppressed wildfires for so long, many trees in Eastern Washington's dry forests are the same age, about a century old. That means they're weak and susceptible to natural diseases and bug infestations - but there aren't young, healthy trees around to stop or slow the annihilation. At the same time, federal biologists say, warming temperatures have allowed deadly bugs to reproduce faster, survive through winters and reach trees at higher elevations. That's how hundreds of thousands of whitebark pine trees, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently determined belong on the endangered species list, wound up infested by pine beetles.

The potent combination helped drive the number of acres of damaged forest in Washington in 2009 to 1.9 million, the highest level in 40 years. "I've traveled quite a bit lately in Eastern Washington, and there's hardly anywhere you can go where you don't see problems," said David Peterson, a biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Research Station. "I think it's going to continue." Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, a Democrat, called the trend alarming, and decided last week to initiate the first step of the state's forest health "hazard warning." He is soliciting letters of interest from scientists and foresters based on a selection criteria set by the Legislature. He will appoint a panel in December. That panel will debate options to reinvigorate forests, likely focusing on various types of timber harvest. "It's not that anyone's objective is to thin every acre of Eastern Washington forest," said Everett, the state forester. "This is about ID'ing where that might be appropriate." In some cases, such as along Highway 97 between Interstate 90 and Leavenworth, Chelan County, an area hard hit by spruce budworm, even Franklin at UW suspects thinning out grand firs and leaving more resistant ponderosa pine and larches could help reduce the spread of infestations.

"I am a strong advocate of active management, and I could see doing restoration-type thinning there," Franklin said. But he also pointed out that some of those areas are home to threatened northern spotted owls. "While some of us have argued that by trying to maintain large contiguous blocks of that habitat either fires or insects or both are going to get it, you still run up against a real resistance from environmentalists," Franklin said. Peterson, meanwhile, said areas thick with mountain pine beetles may pose a different challenge. There, many smaller-diameter trees would need to be removed to provide more light and water to larger, healthier, bug-resistant trees. But to be effective, "we'd need to take action very quickly and over a significantly large area, before we get massive outbreaks," Peterson said. "And we're used to focusing on small events on small time scales." Finding ways to resolve these conflicts, Everett said, is why DNR will be bringing together experts. "If there are matters in dispute, we'll ask our scientists to make recommendations," he said. - McClatchy.

MYSTERY: Symbols of an Alien Sky, Man-Made or Natural Phenomena - The Latest UFO Sightings And Aerial Anomalies Around The World?!

Here are several of the latest unidentified flying objects (UFOs) seen recently across the globe.

These bright objects were seen and recorded hovering in the night sky above Lakewood in Denver, Colorado on Monday, the 28th of November, 2011.

WATCH: Unknown lights hovering above Denver, Colorado.

This bright disc-shaped object was seen and recorded over Oakland in California on Tuesday, the 22nd of November, 2011. The user who uploaded this footage onto Youtube, claimed, that this was filmed by a woman and a young boy while traveling in a vehicle.

WATCH: UFO chased in Oakland.

These unknown lights were recorded in the night sky above Bergen, Fyllingsdalen in Norway in November 2011.

WATCH: UFO activity over Norway.

The following is a stabilized video of UFO activity, in the skies over Koktebel in Crimea, Ukraine on the 19th of September, 2011.

WATCH: UFO over Koktebel.

These unknown lights were seen and recorded in the skies over Maspeth in New York on Sunday, the 27th of November, 2011.

WATCH: UFO activity over Maspeth, New York.

Four fast objects in formation were recorded over Bangkok in Thailand on Saturday, the 26th of November, 2011.

WATCH: Fleet of fast UFOs over Bangkok, Thailand.

Laredo, Texas, hosted its first-ever UFO conference on November 5th, which was a smashing success. The meeting was attended by close to a 1,000 eager participants. Here is a report from Noe Torres, one of the conference speakers.

WATCH: Report on the Laredo UFO Conference 2011.

This bright UFO was recorded over Popocatepetl, an active volcano in Mexico on the 19th of November, 2011.

WATCH: UFO over Popocatepetl, Mexico.

Unknown lights were seen and filmed in the night sky above Adelaide in Australia on Wednesday, the 30th of November, 2011.

WATCH: Unknown lights over Adelaide, Australia.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Huge Sinkhole Swallows Up Head of Tractor-Trailer at Sheetz in Bethlehem!

Part of a tractor-trailer was swallowed by a sinkhole about 8 o'clock this morning in the parking lot of the Sheetz mini-market in the 3200 block of Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem.

No one was hurt, but the driver, Joe Lech, was in the truck when the sinkhole opened. "The ground shook once. The ground shook twice," Lech said. "It was like an earthquake." The gas pumps at the market have been closed and the store remains open. Schoenersville Road and City Line Road remain open. The truck is from JL Transportation Co. Inc. in Larksville, Pa. Lech said he was hauling soda from a plant on City Line Road. He had just picked up the load and pulled into Sheetz.

"I stop for coffee and smokes," Lech said. "I do this everyday." He said in his 31 years of driving a truck, he's never dropped into a sinkhole. "It's unique," Lech said. "I've never had an experience like this." Firefighters and tow truck operators are working to move the semi and began pumping out the truck's fuel tanks at 10:30 this morning. Police said the truck would need to be unloaded before wreckers could right it and haul it away. Police estimated the depth of the sinkhole at 10 to 12 feet. Lech said the rescue effort would take all day. "It's gonna be an all-day affair," he said. - Le High Valley Live.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: 2011 - A Year of Extreme Weather, and the 10th-Hottest on Record!

The last 15 years have been the hottest on record and included all 10 of the warmest years, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization announced Tuesday as 20,000 delegates from more than 190 countries met in South Africa to try to hash out a way forward to halt climate change.

This year so far has tied as the 10th-hottest year since records began in 1850, and is the warmest year while the La Nina phenomenon was present, a period when ocean temperatures are cooler, according to the organization's annual report on the global climate. "Our science is solid and it proves unequivocally that the world is warming and that this warming is due to human activities," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the WMO, in a statement. Greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise and the world is fast approaching a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees to 2.4 degrees Celsius, Jarraud said. World leaders have agreed in the past on the need for action to keep the rise in temperature beneath the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) that scientists say represents a safe level. But there is pessimism about whether the ongoing conference in the city of Durban -- a gathering known as COP 17, the 17th conference of parties to the  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -- can negotiate an extension to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the only treaty with binding reductions in greenhouse emissions, which expires next year.

If the temperature rises more than 2 degrees Celsius, the world would see irreversible changes leading to mass extinctions and other catastrophic events, according to scientists. The La Nina phenomenon this year has been associated with extreme weather across the globe, according to the agency: Drought in East Africa led to tens of thousands of people dying of starvation. There were droughts in the southern United States and Pacific region, catastrophic flooding in Thailand and Asia, southern Africa and eastern Australia, and one of the most active tornado seasons on record. Surface temperatures were higher than average in most parts of the world and were 4 degrees Celsius higher than average in northern Russia during much of the winter. Sea ice in the Arctic ocean was at its second lowest level on record. - LA Times.

THE AGE OF OBAMA: The End of America - Large Payouts From Natural Disasters Could Lead to Auto Insurance Rate Increases!

From earthquakes, fire and floods to tornadoes and tropical storms, the natural disasters that hit the American nation this year broke records for the billions of dollars in damage they wreaked.

And while catastrophic weather events cost many consumers their homes, cars and businesses, damaged property can be replaced - provided it is insured. But for the insurance providers who must make good on those policies, weather-related catastrophes translated into billions of dollars in losses for which there is no reimbursement. Insurers are in the business of calculating risk, and with storms and other severe weather taking ever-greater bites out of company profits, experts say it is only logical to expect insurers to seek an increase in revenues to keep pace with skyrocketing catastrophe losses. Homeowner policies in areas at risk to hurricanes and other disasters have already seen significant rate increases in recent years, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Now some experts say auto insurers may soon try to recoup some of their losses in the form of higher premiums. "This year has been particularly expensive for auto insurance companies," says Cesar Diaz, a veteran agent and http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/ founder. "Natural disasters have hit residents of many regions extremely hard, and many of those losses are passed on to their coverage providers. A lot of people these days are wondering how much is car insurance going to cost them next year or two years from now?"

Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute (III), says losses differ among coverage providers depending on their exposure in storm-struck areas. Those storms have cost insurers dearly. Disasters in the first six months of 2011 inflicted $17.3 billion in insured losses, a 162 percent increase from the same period last year. That caused after-tax net income for auto, home and business insurers during the first half of the year to fall to $4.8 billion from more than three times that amount in 2010. According to a report from ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, overall profitability for those companies plummeted from 6.4 percent to 1.7 percent - the lowest for the first half of any year since ISO began quarterly recordkeeping a quarter-century ago. And those figures do not take into account the havoc wreaked by weather-related catastrophes since then - including flooding in the Midwest, wildfires in Texas and Tropical Storm Irene - caused billions of dollars more in damage.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states that economic damages caused by catastrophes are already approaching $50 billion this year, thanks to 10 major disasters that each caused $1 billion or more in losses. They include: * Tropical Storm Irene, which swept along the East Coast from Aug. 20 to 29, inflicting more than $7.3 billion in economic costs in states from North Carolina to Vermont. * Flooding in the upper Midwest in summer that breached Missouri River levees, inundated thousands of homes and caused an estimated $2 billion in losses. * Drought, heat wave and wildfires in Texas and other states that caused an estimated $10 billion in damages, with losses expected to continue to grow.

Industry experts say insurers can expect to foot the bill for more damages before the year is out, as colder weather brings the threat of winter storms that cause cars to crash, roofs to collapse and other damages. III predicts that an unexpected snow storm that struck the East Coast on the final weekend of October - the third catastrophe to hit that region in as many months - will lead to thousands more claims from auto and homeowner policyholders. Insured losses from winter storms last year totaled $2.6 billion, according to a report issued in January by Munich Re, and III says winter storms caused $25 billion in private-sector insurer payouts from 1990 to 2009. "Snow and ice storms are the third-largest cause of U.S. catastrophe losses, behind only hurricanes and tornadoes," says Worters, who points out that winter doesn't even officially begin this year until Dec. 21. While auto insurers may be looking to hike premiums in order to counteract record-setting catastrophe losses, Worters points out that they must get the approval of regulators before they can legally implement rate increases in any state. "Insurers for some time have recognized that rates in many ... states do not match the risk," Worters says, "and frequency and severity trends have to be included in the rate-making process." - JS Online.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Raw Video - Ecuador Volcano Prompts Evacuations!

Four villages on slopes of a volcano in Ecuador have been told to evacuate. The volcano has been erupting all week.

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed red-hot rock and ash Tuesday as officials upgraded their eruption warning level to orange and some at-risk communities began evacuations. The 5,029-meter (16,500-foot) volcano in the country's central Andes, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of the capital Quito, has been active since 1999 but its thermal activity has steadily increased since Sunday, sending pyroclastic boulders into the air and cascading down from the summit. Good weather prevailed on Monday night, allowing scientists to observe "the continuous output of incandescent material," the Geophysical Institute said in its latest report. "This activity was characterized by the expulsion of incandescent boulders, rising more than 300 meters above the crater and rolling down all sides of the volcano."

The increased activity prompted authorities to raise the alert level from yellow to orange, just below the highest alert level or red, in the impact zone which includes several communities on the volcano's slopes, according to the National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR). Authorities have inspected and prepared shelters ahead of possible evacuation orders, while the military and police were being told to coordinate efforts in the area, SNGR said. "Given the level of alert, populations located in risk areas such as Cusua, Juive, Palictahua and Manzano voluntarily evacuated to safer locations," the relief agency said Monday. The Geophysical Institute on Tuesday recommended people leave high-risk areas "because the current eruption process began abruptly and has generated several pyroclastic flows that have affected the upper flanks of the volcano." Several communities in the shadow of Tungurahua, including the tourist town of Banos with 15,000 people, were forced to evacuate during the volcano's violent eruption in 1999. Residents could only return to their homes one year later. A red alert was declared last December when Tungurahua -- which means "Throat of Fire" in the indigenous Quechua language -- reactivated, prompting a temporary evacuation of residents and tourists. - AFP.

WATCH: Ecuador volcano spews fiery rocks, warnings issued.

WEATHER ANOMALIES: "Once a Decade" Santa Ana Wind Event for California?! UPDATE: High Winds Cause Chaos at LA Airport!

All the ingredients are coming together for a severe Santa Ana wind event to unfold across Southern California tonight into Thursday with other areas in the Southwest also facing potentially damaging winds.

"A once a decade type wind storm," is how AccuWeather.com Western Expert Meteorologist Ken Clark is describing the impending Santa Ana winds. The populated Santa Ana wind-prone areas will endure gusts to 70 mph, while the highest gusts on the neighboring mountaintops will range from 80 to 100 mph. The strongest winds will howl late tonight into Thursday morning. "Winds of this magnitude will cause damage [to trees and structures] and widespread travel and power disruptions," warned Clark. "High-profile vehicles will be forced to not travel and even traveling in cars in the wind-prone areas will be dangerous" because powerful crosswinds can easily overturn trucks and campers and severely tug on smaller vehicles.


Bodily harm may not only result from falling trees and branches, but also as loose lawn items and Christmas decorations get tossed around and turn into what Clark describes as "airborne missiles." Despite declaring that this will be a "chilly Santa Ana event," AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski cautions that the wildfire danger should not be taken lightly. "Dry air often accompanies Santa Ana events and makes the fuel, such as dry brush, more ready to burn. Any fires that get started and are not extinguished quickly could be whipped into a frenzy by the strong winds." It is not just Southern California bracing for potentially damaging winds. San Francisco, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and other locations from Utah to California and far western Arizona will also be threatened. According to World Weather Expert Jim Andrews, "The Wasatch Range will experience especially powerful east to northeast winds in this situation from late tonight into Thursday evening." The setup in the Wasatch is known as a bora.


The fierce winds will progress from north to south across the Southwest into tonight, then will continue to howl into Thursday. In addition to damage, the winds could lead to flight delays. Motorists traveling through the deserts could also be faced with reduced visibility from blowing dust. There are two advantages to this wind event--dense fog will finally clear the San Joaquin Valley today and the same storm kicking up the wind will bring welcome snow to the ski resorts of the Four Corners region tonight into Friday. Friday is also when the wind event throughout the Southwest will ease, but yet another (though likely not as strong) may follow this weekend. - Accu Weather.

WATCH: Damaging Santa Ana Wind Event.

UPDATE: High Winds Cause Chaos at LA Airport!

Winds, including gusts of 97 mph, raced through Southern California, knocking out electric power and disrupting operations at Los Angeles International Airport. Power was off in some terminals and debris was scattered over runways at LAX Wednesday night. The weather delayed many travelers, with at least 20 flights diverted to other airports and others circling the airport waiting for the wind to die down, the Los Angeles Times reported. The 97 mph gust was recorded north of Los Angeles in the Angeles National Forest, the newspaper said. Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said gusts were 40 knots or more, creating dangerous crosswinds as pilots attempted to land.

"We are trying to shoehorn a four-runway operation on to two runways, and add into that mix periodic strong crosswinds that prevent aircraft from taking off or landing, and you have a pretty interesting evening," Gregor said. Two runways were closed because of debris. In some of the darkened terminals travelers used cellphones as emergency flashlights. The Times said more than 25,000 customers in the region were without electrical service early Thursday. The wind put an AM news radio station, KNX, off the air for a time. Traffic lights in parts of the city were out. Forecasters said Southern California would experience high winds through Friday. - UPI.

EXTREME WEATHER: Texas Drought Killing Christmas Trees!

Christmas trees are the latest victims of the historic drought that has been gripping Texas and neighboring Oklahoma for more than a year.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the drought has killed thousands of trees throughout both states. The trees have either not had enough water or been scorched by wildfires. The effects will be felt this Christmas by families having a more difficult time following traditions of cutting down their own tree. The AP reported that many farmers are planning on importing trees from North Carolina. Financially, the drought is devastating for Texas' Christmas tree farmers. The loss of young trees is an especially big hit. Texas has had its driest summer and driest January-through-August period ever on record this year. As of mid-November, 60 percent of the state remained in an exceptional drought, the worst category according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. All of Texas was experiencing abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions.

The drought was largely responsible for creating the worst wildfire situation in the state's history back in April and additional massive, destructive fires over the summer. Meanwhile, the extraordinary drought that has been gripping Oklahoma is among the state's worst on record. Since records began in 1921, the last 365 days have been the driest one-year period statewide for Oklahoma. Since November 2010, the statewide rainfall total has been 23.88 inches, leaving a deficit of 12.81 inches, according to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. "The severe lack of rain has greatly impacted Oklahoma's growing season, claiming countless acres of crops and produce," stated AccuWeather.com meteorologist Mark Miller. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, exceptional drought conditions still exist in the panhandle and western Oklahoma. "Despite recent rains, drought is forecast to persist through the coming months," Miller added. The AccuWeather.com Winter 2011-2012 Forecast has details on what is expected in Texas and Oklahoma. - Accu Weather.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Five Dead, 30 Missing in Indonesia Landslide!

Rescuers on Indonesia's Nias island were struggling Thursday to reach a village hit by a landslide that left at least five dead and 30 missing, an official said.

Three days of heavy rains triggered the landslide in the district of Majo Kampung Barije Wednesday, burying at least 37 houses in a 115-family village. "Up until now, five people have been pulled out from the mud by locals, and 30 people from the village are still missing," local disaster management agency official Robertna Mendeva told AFP. "Rescuers, including the military and police, are having difficulty reaching the village, as the bridge linking (to) the village collapsed. The water currents are very strong and it's still raining," he said. The five bodies were recovered by locals from a neighbouring village, Mendeva said.

Nias, a popular island for surf tourism, sits about 120 kilometres - or a 10-hour ferry ride - off the western coast of Sumatra. The island was devastated in 2004 by the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 300 people and caused serious damage to infrastructure, displacing around 10,000 people from their homes. It was hit again in 2005 by an earthquake in which over 1,500 people died. Landslides are common in Indonesia during the wet season, particularly in heavily deforested mountainous areas. A landslide and flash floods in May, triggered by heavy rain, killed 17 people and inundated four villages on Indonesia's Java island. At least 148 people were killed when flash floods smashed through Teluk Wondama district in West Papua province late last year. - Asia One.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Turkey Geological Anomalies - Magnitude 5 Quake Hits Eastern Turkey, Causes Panic in Already Devastated Quake Zone!

A strong earthquake with 5.0 magnitude on the Richter scale jolted the province of Van in Turkey, on Wednesday without causing casualties.

File photo of people being rescued following an earthquake on October 23, 2011.

Turkey’s Kandilli observatory says a magnitude-5.0 quake has shaken eastern Turkey — a region already devastated by two powerful tremors. It says the quake hit early Wednesday and its epicenter was in the village of Kurubas near the city of Van. Authorities say the latest quake did not cause any serious damage but terrified residents rushed out of tents and buildings in panic. Mustafa Berktas, head physician of a state hospital in Van, says there is minimal damage at the hospital but patients will be moved into a field hospital and others in serious condition will be flown to nearby cities. A magnitude-7.2 quake and a magnitude-5.7 quake in October flattened some 2,000 buildings, killing 644 people in Van, the provincial capital of a half a million. - Washington Post.

A magnitude-5 quake which hit the Van area after midnight has lead to panic among the people. A large number of people who jumped from balconies out of fear and panic were injured. Some of the hospitals in the Education and Research Hospital in Van were also transferred to other hospitals in the neighbouring provinces. No loss of lives or property was reported from the quake ,according to initial reports. The latests tremor is reported to have centered in the village of Kurubash. Panic dominated the city for a while after the quake ,which was acutely felt in several other cities and towns in the region. Many of the residents of the city assembled in tea houses to shake off their anxiety. - News.Az