MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: The El Nino Climate Pattern Is On Track To Be One Of The "WORST EVER" - United Nations!

A wooden boat is stranded on the riverbed of the Dawuhan Dam during drought season in Madiun, Indonesia's East Java province, on Oct. 5, 2015. 
Siswowidodo | Antara Foto | Reuters

November 18, 2015 - UNITED NATIONS - The El Nino climate pattern, which is expected to strengthen further through the end of the year, is on track to be one of the three strongest such patterns in almost 70 years, according to the United Nations weather agency.

Severe droughts and flooding are already underway in the tropics and subtropical regions of the world, and they bear all the marks of the pattern, said the head of the U.N. World Meteorological Organization at a news conference on Monday. The current El Nino is likely to be among the "worst ever," the U.N. said, though the organization pointed out that the world is better prepared for the fallout than in the past.

U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that 11 million children could suffer from hunger, disease and a lack of water in eastern and southern Africa due to the weather disruptions related to El Nino.
 

The U.N. World Food Program also estimated that 2.3 million people in Central America will need food aid, as a result of El Nino's effects on agriculture there.

Another report from the U.N. said "unusually heavy and widespread" rains in northwest Africa, and the area around the Horn of Africa and Yemen could trigger surges in locust populations. The wet conditions are ideal for the insects' breeding.

The pattern is also worsening an ongoing drought in Indonesia that is hindering authorities' efforts to fight the roughly 1,200 wildfires burning across the country.

While the pattern's link to global climate change is unclear, El Nino is "turning up the heat even further" on already record surface temperatures, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a news conference in Geneva.

"It's not entirely clear how El Nino interacts with the changing climate," said Jarraud. "Even before the onset of El Nino, global average surface temperatures had reached new records."

Leaders from around the world are scheduled to meet in Paris beginning on Nov. 30 to discuss commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

The WMO reported last week that greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2014. - CNBC.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Small Earthquake Reported Near Holliston, Boston - Numerous Accounts Of Explosion Or Buildings Shaking!

USGS earthquake location.

November 18, 2015 - MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES - A small earthquake was reported near Holliston, about 20 miles west of Boston Tuesday night.

The USGS says the magnitude 1.5 earthquake was reported at 8:19 p.m.

The Holliston Fire Department said there were numerous reports of towns in the region hearing an explosion or buildings shaking, but there are no reports of any damage.

Medway Police say they received about 50 calls around the time of the earthquake. “Initially it was folks heard a loud bang in the area, their homes shook, their buildings shook,” Medway Town Administrator Michael Boynton said.

John Ebel of the Weston Observatory says this earthquake was felt because it was centered in a populated area.

“Most of the earthquakes in eastern New England tend to be really shallow near the surface which makes them more likely to be felt,” Ebel says. “What they’re really hearing is the seismic waves that were in the earth, they come up to the surface and shake the earth like a loudspeaker.”

Numerous reports of towns in region hearing an explosion or buildings shaking. Early reports from USGS are of possible earthquake.

— Holliston Fire (@HollistonFD) November 18, 2015

WBZ-TV Meteorologist Eric Fisher says the small quakes are common in New England. - CBS.

Earthquakes in New England

People in New England, and in its geological extension southward through Long Island, have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from infrequent larger ones since colonial times. Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region every few decades, and smaller earthquakes are felt roughly twice a year. The Boston area was damaged three times within 28 years in the middle 1700's, and New York City was damaged in 1737 and 1884. The largest known New England earthquakes occurred in 1638 (magnitude 6.5) in Vermont or New Hampshire, and in 1755 (magnitude 5.8) offshore from Cape Ann northeast of Boston. The Cape Ann earthquake caused severe damage to the Boston waterfront. The most recent New England earthquake to cause moderate damage occurred in 1940 (magnitude 5.6) in central New Hampshire.

Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S., although less frequent than in the western U.S., are typically felt over a much broader region. East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. A magnitude 4.0 eastern U.S. earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 100 km (60 mi) from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. earthquake usually can be felt as far as 500 km (300 mi) from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage as far away as 40 km (25 mi).


Faults
Earthquakes everywhere occur on faults within bedrock, usually miles deep, although some New England earthquakes occur at shallower depths. Most of New England's and Long Island's bedrock was assembled as continents collided to form a supercontinent 500-300 million years ago, raising the northern Appalachian Mountains. The rest of the bedrock formed when the supercontinent rifted apart 200 million years ago to form what are now the northeastern U.S., the Atlantic Ocean, and Europe.

At well-studied plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault system in California, often scientists can determine the name of the specific fault that is responsible for an earthquake. In contrast, east of the Rocky Mountains this is rarely the case. New England and Long Island are far from the nearest plate boundaries, which are in the center of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. New England is laced with known faults but numerous smaller or deeply buried faults remain undetected. Even the known faults are poorly located at the depths of most earthquakes. Accordingly, few, if any, earthquakes in New England can be linked to named faults. It is difficult to determine if a known fault is still active and could slip and cause an earthquake. As in most other areas east of the Rockies, the best guide to earthquake hazards in New England and Long Island is the earthquakes themselves.

Felt (III) at Holliston and Medway. Also felt at Ashland, Franklin, Hopkinton, Medfield, Milford, Millis and Walpole.

For More Information

• Additional earthquake information for Massachusetts

- USGS.

DELUGE: "Unprecedented" Flooding Hits The Klang Valley In Malaysia - At Least 10 People Killed; Over 160,000 Displaced; Widespread Infrastructure Damage! [VIDEOS]

© Jason Tan/TODAY

November 18, 2015 - KLANG VALLEY, MALAYSIA - Flash floods that hit parts of the Klang Valley for the second time in two days saw water levels rising to unprecedented levels, causing damages to vehicles, loss of income for business and hazardous trips for those who need to move around.

Traders in the Seksyen 13 area within Shah Alam are not surprised the water level rose following heavy rain yesterday, but said it was the worst flooding in the area to date.

Khairudin Hamid, 59, has been working at the Proton showroom for the last six years and he has never seen the water rise so fast.

“The water was about a feet deep, and it seeped into my office space and the main showroom area. Some of the office equipment were damaged,” he said.

Khairudin said as he saw the water level start rising, he got his colleagues to move the cars on display to higher ground at the Shah Alam stadium parking lots.

“The area was still flooded when I left work at 8pm. My colleagues and I took three hours in the morning to clean the office,” he said.

Nurul Nadzirah Yusof, 23, who works in the Perodua showroom next door, had to walk home in knee-deep water which didn’t subside even at 8.30pm.

Cars along Jalan Wong Ah Fook, in front of JBCC (Photo: Candy Lee)

The situation in Section 13, Shah Alam, where water rose quickly on Tuesday evening following heavy rain. — Picture by Zuraneeza Zulkifli 

“In the afternoon, I helped a woman who was stuck in her car when the water level rose.”

“I had to thread through waist-high water at around 3pm to get to her car, which was half submerged then,” she said.

Rosli Ahmad, 38, who runs a snack stall, said he saw some of the cars slowly being submerged.

“I had to throw all my ingredients from yesterday as the water entered the food containers and into the gas piping as well.”

He said he suffered losses of over RM500 as he had to replace most of his equipment and ingredients.

Mohd Shaehrul Amin Zalizan, 22, who runs a chicken rice stall opposite the Section 13 Giant, said he was already used to the annual flooding in the area.

“In the three years I have been running my business here, the floods have happened at least twice a year,” he said.

Shaehrul said his lorry was damaged. “I am not sure how much the repairs will cost, but the food items that were worth almost RM700 were completely wasted,” he said.

Having only started work in the Seksyen 13 Giant since last Saturday, Muhamad Maliki Musa, 34, learned the hard way about his new surroundings.

Maliki, a brand merchandiser who parked his car at the open parking lot at 9am, found his car submerged in water in the open car park several hours later.

“I was having lunch when my friends told me about the flood. I ran as fast as I could, but by the time I reached my car, it was already half-submerged,” he said.

“I was only able to check on my car in the morning. I had to push my car to a higher spot, but everything inside was already soaking wet,” he said.


WATCH: Deadly flooding in Malaysia.

Maliki estimated the damages to his car to amount to around RM5,000.

Meanwhile, the basement section of the KPJ Selangor Specialist Hospital saw water level rose almost a foot. Its administrative manager, Abdul Rahaman Abdul Hamid, said the water rose quickly as it seeped in from the surrounding areas.

“Only the basement level was affected as water flowed in from the streets and the construction site of our new outpatient clinic. The construction site may have caused the clogging that led to the overflow of water,” he said.

Rahaman said the water started rising from about 2pm, and he notified the Section 15 Fire and Rescue Department to be on standby.

“Rescue personnel then came and pumped the water into one of our monsoon drains, which channel the water to the public drains,” he said.

Businesses in Kelana Jaya were disrupted after the downpour. Lau Seng Yip, the 75-year-old owner of New Yew Seng Seafood restaurant in Kelana Jaya, said waters begun rising in his shop at 1.30pm.

“It was during lunchtime so many of my customers had to eat quickly and run to higher grounds because water rose so fast.”

Zaitun Ahmad, 53, whose shop was not affected said although she did not face any losses. She said the flooding was hazard to road users.

“SMK Kelana Jaya is right opposite this area so school children uses this road to walk back home. If the water currents are strong and levels are high, they will also face danger.” - MMO.

 

PLANETARY TREMORS: Second Earthquake In Two Days Hits Lefkada, Greece!

USGS earthquake location.

November 18, 2015 - GREECE - A second earthquake in two days has struck off the coast of Greece early this morning.

Today's quake, 32km west-south-west of Nidri, on the island of Lefkada, registered as a 4.7 magnitude.

This was smaller than the one which struck off the same island yesterday, in which at least two people have been killed.

The US Geological Survey said the second quake occurred at around 5:18am UTC.

While aftershocks are common, and usually weaker than the original earthquake, the group warned there was sometimes a higher risk of damage because of any residual impact on buildings from the original quake. it also warned of possible tsunamis.

There are no reports currently of any injuries. - City A.M..

 

ICE AGE NOW: Alaska Endures Bitter Temperatures Of Minus 24 - And It's Only November!

November 18, 2015 - ALASKA - It's only November and Alaska has been plunged into a deep chill, with frostbite-inducing temperatures dipping as low as 24 below zero early Monday.

Fairbanks was subjected to bitter temperatures of minus 22 degrees Sunday and was forecast to endure almost as bad on Monday night, according to forecasters.

"With these sorts of temperatures, people are at risk of frostbite within a minute of stepping outside, if not less time than that," according to Kevin Roth, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel. "You've got to be bundled up from head to toe with no exposed skin. With this kind of cold, you walk outside and it really takes your breath away if you're not used to it."

Temperatures were about 20 degrees below average but were some way off record lows, Roth said, adding the state was not expected to go above zero until Thursday.

Gets even colder over Alaska by Wed morning. Keep eye out for minus 50 below zero °F readings. Bit chilly. pic.twitter.com/ptWhQcRsra

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) November 16, 2015

In the small community of Bettles — which has a population of just 12, according to the last census — the temperature was minus 24 early Monday, according to The National Weather Service. - NBC.

 

PLANETARY TREMORS: Rare Earthquake Strikes Western Sweden!

November 18, 2015 - SWEDEN - A mini earthquake struck western Sweden on Tueday night, causing jitters in the town of Halmstad, but no damage or injuries.

Residents in the town, south of Gothenburg, reported feeling the earthquake at around 7.15pm.

"The floor started shaking and the neighbours' dog barked," Camilla Rowan told Swedish newspaper the Gothenburg Post.

"My son called me and asked what was going on. It was only a few seconds," she added.

Others turned to social media to describe their experiences.

Writing on the Facebook page of regional newspaper Hallands-Posten, Mats Svenäng said: "Heard a loud noise. It sounded like there was a heavy truck."

Malin Öberg, who lives six kilometres outside of Halmstad, commented that she initially thought the vibrations were coming from her boiler or that blasts were taking place in a nearby quarry. After stepping on to her patio she said she felt a "silent rumble".

Seismologists told Hallands-Posten that the epicentre of the earthquake was 15km east of Halmstad and that it had reached a magnitude of 2.2 or 2.3 on the Richter scale.

The scale, which measures the intensity of quakes, starts at zero, with those classified as below 4.0 rarely causing damage.

Earthquakes are rare in Sweden, although Halmstad has previous experience of the jitters. In August 2012 a slightly stronger quake was widely felt by locals, with many reporting objects smashing within their homes.

Sweden's most powerful earthquake in history was in 1904 when an area by the Koster islands, off the west coast, was hit by an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the scale.

Last year, a quake of 4.4 was measured in central Sweden. - The Local.

 

PLANETARY TREMORS: Very Strong Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake Strikes Southwest Of Dadali, Solomon Islands - No Tsunami Expected! [MAPS + TECTONIC SUMMARY]

USGS earthquake location.

November 18, 2015 - SOLOMON ISLANDS - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has struck the Solomon Islands, seismologists say.The earthquake, which struck at 5:31 a.m. local time on Thursday, was centered about 119 kilometers (74 miles) southwest of Dadali, or 176 kilometers (109 miles) west-northwest of the capital Honiara. It struck about 10.8 kilometers (6.7 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The earthquake was centered in the ocean, but close to several islands where tremors could be widely felt. It was not immediately known whether the early morning earthquake had caused any damage or casualties.

USGS shakemap intensity.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which initially measured the earthquake at 7.0, said there was no threat of a Pacific-wide tsunami. "Based on earthquake information and historic tsunami records the earthquake was not sufficient to generate a tsunami," the center said.

Computer models from the USGS estimated that some 615,000 residents on nearby islands may have felt Thursday's earthquake, including some 19,000 people who may have felt moderate to strong shaking. - BNO News.

Seismotectonics of the New Guinea Region and Vicinity

The Australia-Pacific plate boundary is over 4000 km long on the northern margin, from the Sunda (Java) trench in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east. The eastern section is over 2300 km long, extending west from northeast of the Australian continent and the Coral Sea until it intersects the east coast of Papua New Guinea. The boundary is dominated by the general northward subduction of the Australia plate.

Along the South Solomon trench, the Australia plate converges with the Pacific plate at a rate of approximately 95 mm/yr towards the east-northeast. Seismicity along the trench is dominantly related to subduction tectonics and large earthquakes are common: there have been 13 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded since 1900. On April 1, 2007, a M8.1 interplate megathrust earthquake occurred at the western end of the trench, generating a tsunami and killing at least 40 people. This was the third M8.1 megathrust event associated with this subduction zone in the past century; the other two occurred in 1939 and 1977.

Further east at the New Britain trench, the relative motions of several microplates surrounding the Australia-Pacific boundary, including north-south oriented seafloor spreading in the Woodlark Basin south of the Solomon Islands, maintain the general northward subduction of Australia-affiliated lithosphere beneath Pacific-affiliated lithosphere. Most of the large and great earthquakes east of New Guinea are related to this subduction; such earthquakes are particularly concentrated at the cusp of the trench south of New Ireland. 33 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900, including three shallow thrust fault M8.1 events in 1906, 1919, and 2007.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

The western end of the Australia-Pacific plate boundary is perhaps the most complex portion of this boundary, extending 2000 km from Indonesia and the Banda Sea to eastern New Guinea. The boundary is dominantly convergent along an arc-continent collision segment spanning the width of New Guinea, but the regions near the edges of the impinging Australia continental margin also include relatively short segments of extensional, strike-slip and convergent deformation. The dominant convergence is accommodated by shortening and uplift across a 250-350 km-wide band of northern New Guinea, as well as by slow southward-verging subduction of the Pacific plate north of New Guinea at the New Guinea trench. Here, the Australia-Pacific plate relative velocity is approximately 110 mm/yr towards the northeast, leading to the 2-8 mm/yr uplift of the New Guinea Highlands.

Whereas the northern band of deformation is relatively diffuse east of the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border, in western New Guinea there are at least two small (less than 100,000 km²) blocks of relatively undeformed lithosphere. The westernmost of these is the Birds Head Peninsula microplate in Indonesia's West Papua province, bounded on the south by the Seram trench. The Seram trench was originally interpreted as an extreme bend in the Sunda subduction zone, but is now thought to represent a southward-verging subduction zone between Birds Head and the Banda Sea.

There have been 22 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded in the New Guinea region since 1900. The dominant earthquake mechanisms are thrust and strike slip, associated with the arc-continent collision and the relative motions between numerous local microplates. The largest earthquake in the region was a M8.2 shallow thrust fault event in the northern Papua province of Indonesia that killed 166 people in 1996.

The western portion of the northern Australia plate boundary extends approximately 4800 km from New Guinea to Sumatra and primarily separates Australia from the Eurasia plate, including the Sunda block. This portion is dominantly convergent and includes subduction at the Sunda (Java) trench, and a young arc-continent collision.

In the east, this boundary extends from the Kai Islands to Sumba along the Timor trough, offset from the Sunda trench by 250 km south of Sumba. Contrary to earlier tectonic models in which this trough was interpreted as a subduction feature continuous with the Sunda subduction zone, it is now thought to represent a subsiding deformational feature related to the collision of the Australia plate continental margin and the volcanic arc of the Eurasia plate, initiating in the last 5-8 Myr. Before collision began, the Sunda subduction zone extended eastward to at least the Kai Islands, evidenced by the presence of a northward-dipping zone of seismicity beneath Timor Leste. A more detailed examination of the seismic zone along it's eastern segment reveals a gap in intermediate depth seismicity under Timor and seismic mechanisms that indicate an eastward propagating tear in the descending slab as the negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere detaches from positively buoyant continental lithosphere. On the surface, GPS measurements indicate that the region around Timor is currently no longer connected to the Eurasia plate, but instead is moving at nearly the same velocity as the Australia plate, another consequence of collision.

Large earthquakes in eastern Indonesia occur frequently but interplate megathrust events related to subduction are rare; this is likely due to the disconnection of the descending oceanic slab from the continental margin. There have been 9 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded from the Kai Islands to Sumba since 1900. The largest was the great Banda Sea earthquake of 1938 (M8.5) an intermediate depth thrust faulting event that did not cause significant loss of life.

More information on regional seismicity and tectonics

- USGS.

 

NEW WORLD DISORDER: Societal Collapse And Civilizations Unraveling - President Francois Hollande Says "FRANCE IS AT WAR" After ISIS Attack On Paris; ISIS Threatens United States That It Could Be Next!

November 18, 2015 - PARIS, FRANCE - Declaring that "France is at war," President Francois Hollande on Monday proposed sweeping new laws and more spending on public safety in response to Friday's terror attacks in Paris -- promising to eradicate terrorism, but not at the expense of his country's freedom.

At the same time, ISIS threatened the United States that it could be next.

"I swear to God, as we struck France in its stronghold Paris, we will strike America in its stronghold, Washington," an ISIS fighter declared in a video released Monday.

The speech, and ISIS' latest threat, came as police scoured France and Belgium in a hunt for suspects in Friday's brutal attacks, which left at least 129 dead and 352 wounded.

Hollande calls for new laws

In a rare speech to a joint session of parliament, Hollande urged lawmakers to approve a three-month extension of the nation's state of emergency, new laws that would allow authorities to strip the citizenship from French-born terrorists and provisions making it easier to deport suspected terrorists.

He also proposed adding 5,000 positions to the country's national paramilitary police force and said he would not propose cuts in the nation's defense spending until at least 2019.

He said France would intensify its attacks on ISIS and called for a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the worldwide threat posed by the group.

"We are not committed to a war of civilizations, because these assassins don't represent any civilization," Hollande said. "We are in a war against terrorism, jihadism, which threatens the whole world."

"Terrorism will not destroy France, because France will destroy it," Hollande said.


WATCH: President Hollande - "We are at war."

Raids across France

French police carried out raids around the country overnight into Monday, bringing to 150 the number of raids under the country's state of emergency since Friday.

A rocket launcher and bulletproof vest were among the items authorities seized, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. The interior minister said he had ordered that 104 people be put under house arrest since the attacks.

In Belgium, authorities arrested seven people in weekend raids. Five of them have been released, according to Jean-Pascal Thoreau of Belgium's federal prosecutor's office.

As details emerge about the seven terrorists killed in the attacks, an international manhunt is underway for Salah Abdeslam, who has already managed to slip through the fingers of authorities at least once.

Suspect at large described as dangerous

Abdeslam is a 26-year-old French citizen who was born in Belgium, French police said in a public request for information, warning that he is dangerous and should not be approached. Belgium has issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Hours after the attacks, he was driving in the direction of the Belgian border when police stopped and questioned him, a source close to the investigation into the Paris attacks said.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that police hadn't yet linked him to the Paris attacks when they stopped him and two other people in a black Volkswagen Golf. When Belgian police stopped the car later Saturday, Abdeslam was no longer in it. Now, his whereabouts are unknown.

Investigators haven't said much about how they believe Abdeslam is tied to the shootings and bombings that targeted people at restaurants, bars, a concert venue and a sports stadium.

One of his brothers was a suspect killed in the attacks, Thoreau said. Another brother was arrested by Belgian police but later released.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that Abdeslam rented the black Volkswagen Polo that was found outside the Bataclan concert hall where three attackers massacred at least 89 people before blowing themselves up or being shot by police.

Car found with weapons inside

Le Monde reported that Salah Abdeslam's older brother, Ibrahim, was the suicide bomber whose explosives detonated at a cafe on boulevard Voltaire in eastern Paris during the wave of attacks on the city. The Paris prosecutor's office has identified that attacker as a 31-year-old French citizen but hasn't disclosed his name.

According to Le Monde, Ibrahim Abdeslam rented the black Seat car that authorities say was used in the string of deadly attacks on restaurants and bars on Friday. But it's not yet clear whether he was in the vehicle at the time of the attacks, the newspaper said.

The Seat was found abandoned in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil with three Kalashnikov automatic rifles inside, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported Sunday.

Another brother, Mohammed Abdeslam, spoke to CNN affiliate BFMTV after his release from custody, saying his parents were in shock.

"My family and I are affected by what happened. We found out by TV just like many of you," he said.

"We did not think for a moment that one of our brothers was related to these attacks."

French officials believe that six of the people directly involved in the attacks had spent time in Syria, BFMTV reported Monday.

Two prominent ISIS members, Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Salim Benghalem, may have been involved in planning or masterminding the Paris attacks, a source close to the ongoing investigation tells CNN. Both have been involved in multiple terrorist plots in recent years and are believed to be in Syria or Iraq.

Syrian passport holder linked to refugee flow

Attention is also heavily focused on a Syrian passport found near the body of one of the three Stade de France bombers. The passport and a registration document for refugee status issued by Greek authorities led officials to a troubling conclusion, according to a French senator: The bomber was among a group of Syrian refugees who arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3.

The senator, who was briefed by France's interior minister, told CNN that the man was carrying the passport and also a registration document for refugee status by Greek authorities. The fingerprints of the passport holder taken by Greek authorities match those of the terrorist who blew himself up at the Stade de France, the senator said.

The Paris prosecutor's office on Monday confirmed the link, saying the passport bearing the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, a 25-year-old from Idlib, still needs to be verified.

The possible tie between one of the Paris attackers and the refugees from the Syrian war flocking to Europe this year has intensified concerns about how to handle the influx of people.

European politicians who've been speaking out against the rush of migrants are already pointing to the attacks as another reason to close their countries' borders. And governors in at least 24 U.S. states have said they won't accept Syrian refugees in light of the Paris attacks.

Attack raises concerns internationally

In Britain, authorities said they would increase security for Tuesday's soccer match between England and France. And in Washington, transit police stepped up patrols to safeguard the city's mass transit system.

More patrols, more dogs and random explosives screenings were introduced, along with unseen countermeasures meant to prevent an attack, the Metro Transit Police Department said.

The Department of Homeland Safety said it had no "specific credible information of an attack on the U.S. homeland."

CIA Director John Brennan said he would be surprised if the group doesn't have additional attacks in preparation.

"I would anticipate this is not the only operation they have in the pipeline," he said. "I do believe this is something we will have to deal with for quite some time."

City on edge

On Monday, Parisians tried to return to school and work in a city scarred by its second major terror attack this year. In January, terrorists stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12.

At one intersection, police who arrived to direct traffic Monday were met by worried pedestrians asking "Is anything happening?"

At a Paris school, a father said, "It's difficult to let them go off to school and for us to return to work, for everyone. We're all just going to have to look out for one another."

Patrick Klugman, the city's deputy mayor, told CNN the evidence police have found in raids reveals a pattern.

"In every attack we had so far in the past, we find a lot of heavy war material not used. So we know that it's easy to find weapons in France, in Belgium, to commit attacks. And we know that they have the capacity to cause major damage," he said. "They did on Friday and probably they can again. That's why intelligence is so important." - CNN.

 

DISASTER IMPACT: "Unprecedented" Tornado Outbreak Spawns Twisters, Hail, Heavy Rainfall And Flooding In Several American States - Damage To Houses, Cars, Trees; Hundreds Of Thousands Without Power; Major Gas Leaks! [PHOTOS]

TORNADO OUTBREAK-- 36 tornadoes reported in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas...where this pic from @skewy11 was taken.
Twitter: Chris Bradley

November 18, 2015 - UNITED STATES - A rash of tornadoes struck a swath of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska Monday, causing damage in at least three of those states as a severe weather outbreak began across the central and southern Plains. Flooding was reported in Missouri and Arkansas Tuesday as the storms marched east.

On Tuesday, local National Weather Service offices confirmed 16 tornadoes in Texas, Kansas and Nebraska. A number of tornadoes reported during the outbreak have yet to be confirmed, and severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes estimates that a total of 28 tornadoes struck the four-state region.

The storms also brought strong non-tornadic winds to some areas, and in Texas and Oklahoma combined, some 47,000 customers woke up without power Tuesday morning. So far, there have been no injuries reported from these storms.

Severe damage is seen in Hickory Creek, Texas Tuesday morning, near Corinth off of I-35. (Jared Christopher / weather.com) 

Screen grab from Jenny’s camera of a truly incredible shot tonight in the Panhandle. #txwx #tornado
Twitter: Texas Storm Chasers

Many of the storm reports were large HAIL in TX panhandle/western KS. This photo from Pampa, TX by Misty Harris
Twitter: Ginger Zee

Severe damage is seen in Hickory Creek, Texas Tuesday morning, near Corinth off of I-35. (Jared Christopher / weather.com) 

Storm damage in Perry, Oklahoma. http://www.news9.com  #okwx
Twitter: News 9

At least seven tornadoes have struck the Texas Panhandle, leaving many damaged businesses and customers without power. Taken in Denton, Texas Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015.
(Jared Christopher / weather.com)  

A tornado spotted on Nov. 16 between Groom, Pampa, and Codman, Texas. (Roger Hill, Silver Lining Tours) 

The damaging storms are developing on the warm side of Winter Storm Ajax, which brought blizzard conditions to the High Plains.

It's important to note that although the Storm Prediction Center listed 38 reports of tornadoes Monday, some of these reports may be duplicates or non-tornadic wind damage. The National Weather Service will investigate each tornado report in the coming days to determine whether the damage was caused by tornadoes or just straight-line winds.

Here is a roundup of damage reports and other storm-related impacts.

Arkansas

Nearly 15,000 customers were without power Tuesday afternoon in Arkansas as the storms began to fire up, the Associated Press said. Garland County had the highest number of outages, the report added.

There were also reports of wind damage coming in early Tuesday afternoon. Trees were brought down in Hempstead County, and cabins were damaged along Lake Hamilton Drive in Garland County, the AP also reported.

The Hot Springs City Hall building was also damaged Tuesday afternoon, the Sentinel-Record reported via the AP.

Street flooding was reported in North Little Rock, Conway and Vilonia Tuesday.

Texas

The National Weather Service in Amarillo confirmed eight Monday tornadoes in storm survey data released Tuesday.

Two tornadoes, both rated EF3, struck near Pampa. The twisters came from a pair of supercell thunderstorms that also dropped an EF2 tornado near Groom, Texas.

The National Weather Service said one of the Pampa tornadoes caused unspecified "major damage" as well as gas leaks and downed power lines on the south side of Pampa. Amarillo television station KAMR said via Twitter that two Gray County Sheriff deputies were sickened by the gas leak.

"We believe that they were just exposed to a natural gas leak," Gray County Chief Deputy Steven White said in an interview with The Weather Channel. "They reported a chemical smell which could've possibly been an oil additive, but we believe the actual hazard they were exposed to was a natural gas leak."

According to Gray County Emergency Coordinator Sandi Martin, chemical spills and gas leaks were contained after the Halliburton plant in Pampa was leveled in the storm. Nobody was inside the building at the time it was destroyed, ABC Amarillo reported. There were no injuries reported from this incident, KAMR-TV said.

"The Halliburton plant was a near total loss, and I know we've completely lost two residences in the county," White added. 

More than 1,000 Xcel Energy customers remained without power in the panhandle Tuesday morning.

A BNSF Railway train was derailed after a major storm in Roberts County, according to KVII-TV. Officials say the storm pushed the train off its tracks near Miami. Downed power lines in the area initially prevented emergency crews from reaching the scene of the accident. 

Two tornadoes struck outside Perryton, followed by three more near Booker, Texas. Both communities are in the far northern part of the Panhandle near the Oklahoma border.

Large hail also affected parts of the Texas Panhandle. The tornadic thunderstorms in the Pampa area dropped golfball-size hail on the south side of Pampa. There were a few other reports of hail to the size of golfballs in rural areas of the Texas Panhandle.

The storms moved into the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday morning – an area that has had its wettest year to-date. The nasty weather blew the roof off a building south of Weatherford around 2:45 a.m. The storms then moved into Tarrant County, including Fort Worth, where power line flashes were reported due to high winds in the city.

In Keller, north of Fort Worth, the National Weather Service confirmed a brief EF0 tornado touched down for about one minute during the wee hours of Tuesday morning. A second confirmed tornado struck the Hickory Creek and Corinth areas of Denton County; NWS rated it an EF1.

Emergency management officials said the storms overturned a tractor trailer in a parking lot near Lewisville, just northwest of Dallas, trapping the occupant. WFAA.com said there was widespread tree damage in one Hurst neighborhood. Several other towns in the area reported similar damage.

Power utility Oncor said some 44,000 customers were without power as of 4:40 a.m. CST Tuesday.

Oklahoma

At least three tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma; two of them moved into the state from Texas.

As noted above, a tornado that touched down in the far northern part of the Texas Panhandle then crossed into the Oklahoma Panhandle shortly before 7:30 p.m. CST south of Elmwood in Beaver County, according to spotter reports relayed by the National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas.

Another tornado moved into Oklahoma from Texas about two hours later. Spotters saw the tornado 8 miles southwest of Slapout in Beaver County at 9:29 p.m. CST.

Around the same time, spotters reported a tornado 4 miles east of May after the pair of storms that had earlier produced tornadoes near Pampa, Texas, merged into a single supercell. There were additional tornado sightings from this cell in Harper County just southwest of Selman before it moved into Kansas.

Storms organized into a squall line west of Interstate 35 late Monday evening. As the line charged eastward, it produced a wind gust of 99 mph just east of Interstate 35 in Red Rock at 1:55 a.m. CST Tuesday. The website of power utility OG&E showed nearly 900 customers without power in nearby Billings shortly after the storms tore through.

As of 4:50 a.m. CST, nearly 7,000 OG&E customers lacked electricity; the Billings outage remained unresolved.

Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported about 500 customers without power just before 5 a.m. CST, mostly in northeast Oklahoma.

Kansas

A tornado that moved from Ensign to Howell Monday night was given a preliminary rating of EF2, the National Weather Service's Dodge City office said Tuesday.

The National Weather Service in Goodland confirmed six tornadoes in its area of responsibility. The office said they were the first documented tornadoes in northwest Kansas since reliable tornado records began in 1950.

In an unusual twist, the Goodland office said it would not go out in the field to survey the tornadoes in part because Winter Storm Ajax was bringing dangerous driving conditions to the region. The weather service also said many unpaved roads leading to tornado damage sites were nearly impassible because rain had made them muddy.

NWS Goodland used photos and media reports to assess the tornadoes' intensities. Two of the six northwest Kansas tornadoes were rated EF1, and the others EF0. One of the EF1 tornadoes struck areas near Grainfield, Kansas, along Interstate 70. That tornado damaged roofs, broke windows, destroyed sheds and downed power lines and trees along its path, which stretched 17 miles from Grainfield to near Tasco.

Several tornadoes also struck southwest Kansas. The National Weather Service in Dodge City has not yet finalized survey results or confirmations of those tornadoes, but it did post photos and preliminary intensity ratings to its Twitter feed Tuesday.

According NWS Dodge City, a storm chaser observed a tornado south of Ulysses just before 4 p.m. CST Monday. Local schools held their students until the system passed through. 

“The coast is clear and everyone was sent home, safe and sound. District coordinated with local emergency management officials, who determined the severe threat was over,” said superintendent of Ulysses Public Schools Dave Younger. No injuries or substantial damage were reported.

Emergency management reported a tornado 11 miles north of Pierceville in Finney County at 5:19 p.m. CST.

Just before 6 p.m. CST a large tornado was also reported near Kismet, and debris was reported in the air near Hayne, according to the National Weather Service in Dodge City. A residence and several hog farms were damaged outside of Kismet, where the tornado was estimated at a quarter-mile wide by a storm chaser.

The NWS rated this tornado EF3 in its preliminary survey of the damage left behind.

KAMR-TV in Amarillo said a hog farm and mobile home in Seward County were destroyed by the tornado. A roof was ripped off of a house and a separate garage was damaged in the same area. The families affected were able to take shelter, and no injuries were reported.

At 6:29 p.m., the National Weather Service said "a large tornado continues and is very well defined from observers" 8 miles north-northwest of Missler from the same cell that produced the tornado near Kismet. It is not immediately clear whether the tornado had been on the ground continuously since hitting the Kismet area.

A tornado was reported by a spotter at 6:44 p.m. just west of Ransom, Kansas. National Weather Service radar detected a tornado debris signature in the area. That tornado knocked down 17 or 18 power poles near Arnold, Kansas, and was later spotted north of Cedar Bluff around 7 p.m.

In southwest Kansas, a tornado damaged a barn near Montezuma at 6:45 p.m. It may have been the same tornado later blamed for damaging a residence near Howell in Ford County. Between those damage incidents, the twister was spotted by law enforcement just north of Ensign at 7:06 p.m. CST.

At 7:39 p.m. CST, law enforcement and a firefighting unit reported two "rope" tornadoes in rural Hodgeman County about 11 miles east of Kalvesta.

A tornado that was spotted in Harper County, Oklahoma, crossed the state line and damaged two homes in rural Comanche County, Kansas, around 10:20 p.m., according to law enforcement reports relayed by the National Weather Service in Dodge City.

There were several reports of golfball-size hail across western Kansas, according to NWS reports. Hail up to 2 inches in diameter, slightly larger than golf balls, cracked a vehicle's windshield north of Pierceville.

Nebraska

The National Weather Service in Hastings said a spotter reported a tornado 5 miles southwest of Stamford in rural Furnas County at 7:51 p.m. CST.

The agency later confirmed it as an EF1 tornado, saying it damaged trees, power poles, signs, a barn and small farm machinery. The tornado began its journey just south of the state line in Norton County, Kansas.

Farther east, severe thunderstorm produced winds strong enough to damage trees on a golf course near Wahoo, according to the National Weather Service in Omaha.

Missouri

Flooding was reported at numerous low water crossings across the Ozarks of southern Missouri, according to reports from the National Weather Service in Springfield.

Louisiana

Storms brought flash flooding to the Shreveport area during the day Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Despite several tornado watches and warnings Tuesday, there were no reports of any tornadoes in Louisiana as of 3:30 a.m. CST Wednesday.

Mississippi

The National Weather Service posted several reports of suspected tornado damage in east-central Mississippi in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Most of the reports came from Scott, Winston and Leake counties and mainly involved tree damage. However, some minor structural damage was reported in rural Leake County.

Tennessee

Gusty winds ahead of the squall line downed several large trees in the Memphis area Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

- Weather.

EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT: "Climate Chaos" - Humanity's Future In The Balancce At United Nations Climate Summit?!

Terror-hit Paris will be hosting world leaders for a crunch climate summit from November 30 to December 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure)

November 18, 2015 - PARIS, FRANCE - In two weeks' time, world leaders gather for a crunch climate summit in terror-hit Paris to determine what kind of future awaits humankind.

Security fears threaten to overshadow the conference to be launched by some 120 heads of state after a coordinated spree of attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers killed 129 people in the French capital.

But US President Barack Obama has stood firm in his resolve to attend the November 30 opening, and France insists it won't bend a knee to terrorism by postponing the event.

After all, the stakes are high.

Will we succeed in containing greenhouse gas emissions altering Earth's climate? Or will we overshoot the critical warming level beyond which science says our planet could become inhospitable to humans?

The answer will be determined by what emerges from the November 30-December 11 haggle.

The conference represents the first bid for a truly universal climate rescue pact since the chaotic 2009 summit in Copenhagen ended in bitter disappointment.

Much has changed since then: evidence has accumulated for the planetary perils we face; low-carbon technology has become cheaper and more readily available; and political, business and public pressure for a future powered by renewable energy has gained momentum.

The carcass of a dead cow lies in the Black Umfolozi River, dry from the effects of a severe drought north of Durban, South Africa on November 9, 2015
(AFP Photo/Mujahid Safodien)

At the same time, the window of opportunity for action has narrowed.

Just last week, Britain's weather office said Earth has already heated by about 1 C -- halfway to the UN target of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

The World Meteorological Organization says greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2014.

"We have a dramatic increase in the extreme weather events connected to climate," former US vice president and Nobel-awarded climate activist Al Gore told AFP last week.

"We're seeing sea level rise (to) now flood the streets of many cities during high tides. We're seeing refugee crises that have multiple causes, but we know they are made worse by, for example, the historic climate-related drought in Syria.

"There is a need, for multiple reasons, to stabilise the climate and stop disrupting it."

- Who pays? -

The urgency may be in clearer focus, but the same political divisions which thwarted negotiations in Copenhagen still course through the 195-nation climate forum.

For the most part, the talks pit rich nations against developing ones, and the core dispute has remained unaltered for two decades: who should do what to limit the damage, and who should pay?

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image shows the sea surface temperature for the month of October 2015,
where the orange-red colours are above normal temperatures and indicative of El Niño (AFP Photo/)

Developing countries place the onus for emission curbs on rich nations historically responsible for polluting the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions.

But developed countries, led by the United States, insist that emerging giants such as China and India, the world's number one and four carbon emitters respectively, should do their part.

Another argument is about money.

Poor nations say they need help to finance the costly shift to renewable energy, and to shore up their defences against climate change-induced superstorms, drought and land-gobbling sea level rise.

The Paris agreement will replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2020 and committed only advanced economies to cutting greenhouse gases. It notably excluded the United States, the world's second-biggest carbon emitter, which refused to ratify it.

The Paris Conference of Parties (COP21) is tasked with producing a deal committing all the world's nations to action starting in 2020.

About 160 countries have already filed voluntary carbon-curbing pledges to underpin the future pact, but scientists say the aggregate effect falls far short, and Earth is on course for warming of about 3 C, or more.

Scientists say 2 C is the threshold beyond which humankind will struggle to adapt to massive crop failures, water shortages, killer storms, disease spread and wars over dwindling resources.

- We can't fail -

The Paris conference was meant to be preceded by a mass rally in the city on November 29 to prod political leaders into action, but security concerns mean that is now at risk.

The conference itself will gather some 40,000 delegates, journalists, observers and exhibitors, and France has said security forces will focus their attention there.

There will be more than a hundred speeches at the start of the summit, with some political star power set to grab the world's attention.

Coral reefs, such as these in the lagoon of the Toau atoll, near Tahiti in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia, are dying as water temperatures increase
(AFP Photo/Gregory Boissy)

China's Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi of India and Russia's Vladimir Putin had all confirmed their attendance prior to the November 13 Paris attacks.

After the opening, rank-and-file diplomats will have a week to produce a draft of the deal to be finalised and signed by environment ministers.

As it stands, the 55-page blueprint negotiated over the last six years is little more than a wish list of individual nations -- many of them contradictory -- for dealing with the challenge at hand.

Many fear this may be our last stab at producing a negotiated plan for ensuring Earth remains hospitable to humans.Japanese climate negotiator Aya Hoshida told AFP: "If we fail... it will be very difficult to create the same type of momentum and a sense of urgency to adopt this agreement." - Yahoo.

 

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Massive Bomb Blast In Yola, Nigeria - 32 People Killed, 80 Others Wounded!

Security personnel rush towards the site of a car bomb explosion near a stadium in the northeastern Nigerian city of Gombe.© Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters

November 18, 2015 - NIGERIA - At least 32 people were killed and 80 wounded after an explosive device went off at a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Yola, humanitarian agencies say.

“Thirty-two people were killed and 80 have been injured,” Reuters quoted a Red Cross official as saying., Another official from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Sa'ad Bello, later confirmed the same numbers of casualties.

It is still unclear who is responsible for the blast, but the armed group Boko Haram has carried out attacks on Yola in the past, including suicide bomber attacks and other bombings.

The blast was reported at around 8 pm local time.

“The explosion happened in the midst of a large crowd because the area houses a livestock market, an open-air eatery and a mosque,” AFP quoted Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano as saying. “Our main preoccupation now is to save the injured.”

ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram claims responsibility for Nigeria’s deadly suicide bombings http://on.rt.com/6t39 
Twitter: RT

241 women & children freed from ‘terrorist camp,’ 43 potential #BokoHaram militants arrested http://on.rt.com/6s3m 
Twitter: RT

3 'underage girl' suicide bombers kill 13 during Eid celebrations in Nigeria http://www.rt.com/news/line/ 
Twitter: RT

One witness described the horrific aftermath of the scene: “The ground near my shop was covered with dead bodies. I helped to load 32 dead bodies into five vehicles,” witness Alhaji Ahmed told Reuters.

Another local said there were up to eight ambulances on the scene attending to the victims.

The suspected perpetrators, Boko Haram, have pledged allegiance to Islamic State and killed thousands of people in the northeastern part of the country during the last six years. The militant group is fighting for a state that would strictly adhere to Sharia law.

The last time Boko Haram militants attacked northeastern Nigeria was in late October, when separate explosions in Yola and Maiduguri killed at least 37 people. Fighters from the group have been targeting public places, such as places of worship, local markets, and bus stations.

In the past, the extremist group has claimed responsibility for attacks in neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009, and since then has killed at least 17,000 people and left another 2.5 million homeless. - RT.

 

INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Plane Crashes Over Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, New Mexico - Three People Killed!

Model of a Cessna C182.

November 18, 2015 - NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES - The search for a missing plane in the Sandia Mountains is over, but the effort to figure out what went wrong is just beginning.

New Mexico State Police found three bodies in the wreckage of a small airplane Tuesday afternoon, near the Sandia Crest ski area. There were no survivors.

Officials spent the evening working on getting the bodies to the medical examiner for identification. Authorities said the passengers were from the north Texas region.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the single-engine Cessna C182 took off from Kickapoo Airport in Wichita Falls, Texas, headed to Double Eagle Airport in Albuquerque.

Three people were on board when the FAA lost contact with the plane early Monday afternoon, about 20 miles east of Albuquerque.

State police said there was no indication the plane was ever in distress.

NMSP teams, with help from Bernalillo and Sandoval County sheriff's deputies, searched for the wreckage, which was eventually spotted from a helicopter. Ground crews had a rough time reaching the spot of the crash.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

This type of investigation can take more than a year to complete, according to the FAA. - KOAT.

 

EXTREME WEATHER: Storm Barney Batters Britain - Over 80mph Gusts And Crippling Floods Topple Trees, Close Roads And Halts Transport Networks!

Storm Barney is battering Britain. © GETTY•MAGICSEAWEED

November 18, 2015 - BRITAIN - Gusts of 80mph threatened to topple trees, close roads and bridges and cripple transport networks while heavy rain threatened further flooding. Another furious storm system is about to rip in from the Atlantic on Wednesday whipping up 80mph gales and torrential downpours.

Swathes of the country are on heightened flood alert as rivers continue to swell amid forecasts of more heavy showers. A twist in the "atrocious" weather at the weekend will see a bitter Arctic blast trigger sub-zero temperatures and snow.

A double-whammy of misery will see torrential downpours clash with freezing northerly winds sparking warnings to expect blizzards. Wintry showers are forecast widely by the weekend with a dusting of white possible even to low ground in the south.

Scotland and the north will take the brunt of the winter blast as temperatures plummet to -6C (21F) allowing several centimetres of snow to settle. The Met Office has severe weather warnings in place for wind and rain into the early hours of Wednesday.

It said the worst of the battering was due last night (Tuesday) with southern, western and central regions braced to take the brunt. Spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said: "There are more gales likely on Wednesday across parts of the country and it will be chilly in the north. "Thursday remains unsettled and thins we head towards the weekend it is getting much colder with the risk of hail, thunder and snow.

"There will be a big dip in temperatures with snow likely over high ground but there is the chance of wintry showers to lower levels."

Exposed coastal areas of Wales are experiencing gale force winds

Barney is the second named storm of the season following Abigail last week in a joint Met Office, Met Eireann initiative to 'name our storms'. As the unsettled weather continues Cumbria, Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire remain on flood alert with heavy rain set to last through the week.

AccuWeather Meteorologist Eric Leister tonight warned Wales and the south west to batten down the hatches for a windy night. He said: "Barney will be a fast-moving storm, bringing locally strong winds to southern Ireland and the southern UK continuing into Tuesday night.

"Winds will gust to 75 mph (120 km/h) in the areas hit hardest, including Cardiff, Plymouth and Bristol through Tuesday night.

"Winds to this speed can down tree limbs, cause power outages and result in minor to moderate coastal flooding, especially at high tide.

"Right on the heels of Barney, the next storm will bring another round of gusty winds and rainfall to similar areas on Wednesday"

Leon Brown forecaster for The Weather Channel UK, said after a wet and windy week Britain's weather is about to turn wintry.

He said: "Wednesday will be another blustery day too with fresh to strong winds and rain across the north spreading south and east, and then a lot of showers following.

"It is another wet day across the southern half of the UK on Thursday and the far south on Friday while the north starts to turn colder.

"Moderate snowfalls are expected across central Scotland on Friday before an area of sleet and snow moved southwards across northern England to the Midlands and East Anglia by Saturday morning giving a few centimetres over hills." - Express.

 

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: "Unprecedented" Tornado Outbreak - As MORE THAN 20 Touch Down Across Western Kansas!

November 18, 2015 - KANSAS, UNITED STATES - Nearly two dozen tornadoes were reported around Kansas on Monday afternoon and evening, part of a rare November outbreak that spanned three states in Tornado Alley.

The outbreak was the latest on record for northwest Kansas and so many tornadoes touched down in southwest Kansas that a weather official called it "unprecedented" for that part of the state in November.

A total of 41 tornadoes were reported in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Significant damage occurred near Pampa, Texas, and lesser damage was reported elsewhere.

Kansas logged 22 tornado reports in western sections of the state - many of them touching down after sunset.

"Those are the scary ones," said Jaclyn Ritzman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita. "Those are the ones you don't want to see happen" because of the potential for residents to be caught unaware.

The actual number of tornadoes may differ from the initial reports, weather officials say, because the totals may include multiple reports of the same tornado from different locations.

© NOAA

Nevertheless, the outbreak was unusual.

"Our historian assured me that this event was unprecedented in recorded history for southwest Kansas," Larry Ruthi, meteorologist-in-charge of the Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service.

That office will be sending two teams out on Tuesday to survey damage in the region. Two homes and three outbuildings - including a full shed - were damaged several miles east and southeast of Buttermilk in Comanche County. Tornadoes damaged a house and hog farms in Seward County and a house in Ford County.

At least two tornadoes touched down in northwest Kansas on Monday night, shattering the previous record for the latest tornado of the year in the region. The previous record was set nearly 100 years ago, when a large tornado touched down on the morning of Nov. 4, 1922, in Yuma County, Colo.

"We definitely have confirmation about damage here," said Dave Floyd, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service branch in Goodland. "We know we've got at least two tornadoes, if not three."

Damage was reported in Grainfield in Gove County. Numerous trees and sheds were destroyed, windows were blown out and power lines were knocked down, according to storm reports gathered by the National Weather Service.

Officials said I-70 was closed for a short time next to Grainfield after the tornado crossed the interstate, leaving debris behind.


WATCH: Tornadoes rip through the U.S. south.

Several cars of a BNSF Railway freight train derailed in the Texas Panhandle during tornadoes that left two people slightly injured Monday night.

The Roberts County Sheriff's Office says four cars derailed Monday night near Miami. That's about 20 miles from Pampa, where the National Weather Service reports at least five tornadoes touched down in a rural area.

BNSF spokesman Joe Faust on Tuesday blamed tornadoes for the derailment of four empty cars around 7:30 p.m. Monday. Faust says the two crew members on board were not harmed. He says the 87-car train was headed to Amarillo from Wellington, Kansas. - The Wichita Eagle.