MONUMENTAL DELUGE: The Latest Reports Of High Tides, Heavy Rainfall, Flash Floods, Sea Level Rise, Widespread Flooding, And Catastrophic Storms - Floods Hit Santiago, Chile Cutting Water Service To MILLIONS; 23 Killed By Flooding In Afghanistan; Malawi Declares "STATE OF EMERGENCY" As Flooding Kills Dozens; Flooding Hits North Island, New Zealand With More Heavy Rainfall On Way! [PHOTOS + VIDEOS]

Floods in Santiago. © Claudio Orrego

April 17, 2016 - EARTH - The following list constitutes the latest reports of high tides, heavy rainfall, flash floods, widespread flooding, sea level rise and catastrophic storms.

Floods hit Santiago, Chile cutting water service to millions

Heavy rains have caused severe flooding and cut water service to millions of people in Chile's capital, Santiago.

Authorities say the Rio Mapocho flooded several districts of the city and landslides killed at least one person. Seven others are missing and people along the Costanera Center shopping center were being evacuated Sunday.

Floods in Santiago. © Agencia Uno

City officials say water service was cut to at least 3 million people due to contamination caused by the flooding. They've urged residents to limit water use until the problem is past.

Electricity also was cut to tens of thousands of people in the Chilean capital on Sunday.


WATCH: Widespread flooding in Chile.

23 killed by flooding in Afghanistan

At least 23 people were killed as heavy rainfall and floods hit Afghanistan's Badghis province on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Based on the reports we have received so far, 23 people, including women and children, have been confirmed dead due to downpour and flooding in Jawand, Balamurghab and Abkamari districts," a police official told Xinhua news agency.

An Afghan man tries to get out of flood water after a heavy rain in Samangan province, northern Afghanistan, April 17, 2016.

Afghan men push a car trapped in flood water after a heavy rain in Samangan province, northern Afghanistan, April 17, 2016.

Afghan men wade through flood water after a heavy rain in Samangan province, northern Afghanistan, April 17, 2016.

Rainstorm and flooding hit several parts of Afghanistan, including the capital city Kabul, on Saturday night and parts of the country were still receiving heavy rain.

Malawi declares "State of Emergency" as flooding kills dozens

Floods in Malawi

Ten days of persistent rains in the north of Malawi have killed dozens, injured others while destroying over 1000 houses and affecting about 17,000 families.

The impact of the rain has made President Peter Mutharika to declare a state of emergency as local authorities call for help.

The disaster has wreaked havoc on the densely populated country, where most people survive on subsistence farming. Crops of maize have been destroyed, villages wiped out, homes swept away and livestock killed.
Ethel Khosa, is one of the survivors, but unfortunately she lost two of her children and her home. "It all started yesterday late in the evening when we were sleeping. Suddenly, the house collapsed on us," she said.

"We call all religious organizations to come and support the people in a situation of lack, at the level of housing and other basic products which can help," said Patricia Kaliyati, Malawi Minister of information.

Many of those forced from their homes have taken refuge in schools, disrupting education for around 350,000 pupils. Unicef is providing tents so that the schools can set up temporary learning spaces while still offering accommodation to families at night.


WATCH: Malawi declares "State of Emergency" as floods kill dozens.

Flooding hits North Island, New Zealand with more heavy rain on way

Coromandel residents told how they were caught out by fast-rising floodwater after the heavens opened on Sunday.

Cars have been left stranded on flooded roads and homes are water-logged after the North Island was drenched in rain.
Many fences are down as farmers wait for the morning to see if livestock in flooded paddocks have made it through the night.

Tellic Evans from White Star Honey at Colville at the northern end of the Coromandel Peninsula said 174ml of rain fell on her farm on Sunday.

A severe weather watch was upgraded to a warning at 6.30pm on Sunday, she said but by then it was too late. "It' had already hit us by then," Evans said.

"We've got stock that are up to their bellies in water because we didn't move them to high enough ground because we thought it wasn't going to rain that much."

Paddocks and fences are damaged, neighbours closer to the foreshore have already lost stock and a number of homes, including her own, are surrounded by flood water

The Colville School is also affected.

The Coromandel Peninsula and parts of west Auckland bore the brunt of the heavy downpour.

Flooding in Colville, in the Coromandel, on Sunday.  THAMES VALLEY CIVIL DEFENCE

Heavy rain in the Coromandel drenches paddocks. © TELLIC EVANS

The rain stopped at about 9pm and Evans hoped to see flood water recede with the low tide.

But she won't be able to do anything for her animals until dawn on Monday.

"We couldn't get to them because they were surrounded. It's like, leave them and hope we don't lose them."

Elsewhere, one car had to be rescued while driving through water in Albert St, Coromandel, while the nearby town of Colville was flooded.

Fire Service shift manager Daniel Nicholson said a driver was trying to get through a "small river of water" in Coromandel at 4.50pm.

They were trapped in their car as they attempted to get to higher ground but were eventually freed, he said.

Fire crews also responded to floods in Colville at 5.30pm.

MetService had warned of heavy rain in Northland brought upon by a trough of low pressure moving southeast from the subtropics.

In Auckland there were consistent showers during the day, with several flooded houses west of the city.

A loungeroom in a Ranui home was flooded, while a basement of a house in Titirangi was flooded, requiring portable pumps to get water out, Nicholson said.

MetService warned more wet weather was on its way for Sunday night, with rainfall of 50mm to 80mm expected to fall on the Coromandel up until 9pm.



- Daily Mail | Odisha Sun Times | Africa News | Stuff.

EXTREME WEATHER: Major Hail Storm In Assam, India - Hailstones Damaged Airplane With 103 Passengers Aboard!

The aircraft sustained some damage to its nose.

April 17, 2016 - INDIA - A Drukair aircraft with 103 passengers aboard was damaged after flying through hail while on approach to Guwahati airport in India yesterday.

The flight, KB 140, which was on the way to Bangkok via Guwahati, landed safely.

A press release issued by the national airline stated that the weather condition at Guwahati was forecast to be good in terms of visibility and with only light showers occurring.

The pilots were in the process of circumnavigating to avoid thunderstorms en route to Guwahati when they encountered hailstones. "On the approach of flight KB 140, the pilots unexpectedly encountered severe hail stones at the proximity of thunderstorm, though on very rare occasions thunderstorms produce hail stones," a press release from the airline stated.

Damage to the aircraft is currently being assessed the airline said, while adding that it will be back in operation as soon as possible.

An image of the aircraft uploaded onto social media shows that the aircraft's nose has been punctured by the hailstones.

As a result of the incident, flights have been rescheduled.

The airline issued the press release in response to "various speculations in public".

The aircraft is currently grounded for technical reasons at Guwahati airport. A relief flight was operated to carry passengers bound for Bangkok. - Kuensel.

 

SOLAR WATCH: Strong M6.7 Solar Flare Erupts From The Sunspot 2529 - Temporarily Disrupting Radio Communications! [VIDEO]

Surprise! Quiet sunspot AR2529 isn't so quiet, after all. The heart-shaped active region erupted on April 17th, producing a strong M6.7-class solar flare.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash.

April 17, 2016 - SPACE - While they make for stunning images, solar flares could also disturb the atmospheric layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of a mid-level solar flare at 8:29 p.m. EDT last April 17. A loop of solar material was seen emanating off the sun’s right limb.


WATCH: STRONG M6.7 Solar Flare - April 17, 2016.

An awe-inducing solar event, solar flares are potent bursts of energy radiating from the surface of the sun. Once these intense energy beams hit Earth, they can interact with the planetary magnetic field and atmosphere, producing lights at the north and south poles.

It is yet to be known exactly what causes these flares, but it has been proposed that the process of magnetic reconnection occurs and converts magnetic energy into light. This prevailing theory obtained evidence in the form of high-resolution images of an eruption in 2015, the most detailed image seen of the formation of these events.

A pulse of UV radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere. This, in turn, disrupted shortwave radio communications over the daylit side of our planet.
Mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators around the Pacific Ocean may have noticed fading signals at frequencies below ~15 MHz.
The NOAA blackout map shows the frequencies and territories affected.

This recent flare led to “moderate radio blackouts” during its peak. Such blackouts only take place during the course of a solar flare, which means they have already subsided and are no longer a cause for worry. They are also unlikely to have a major impact on the planet.

The Space Weather Prediction Center defines a radio blackout as the lack of capability to communicate on high-frequency bands in the 5 to 35 MHz spectral range. Lower frequency radio communications, though, may also be substantially affected during radio blackouts.

Here’s how it happens. X-rays and extreme UV light from solar flares ionize the planet’s atmosphere, causing the sun-facing ionosphere to be enhanced, which then blocks radio signals normally reflected off this atmospheric layer. When radio waves are successfully reflected off the ionosphere, long-distance radio communication pushes through – thus no radio blackout occurs.

This flare is classified as an M6.7 class flare, where flares of this class are one-tenth the size of the most intense ones dubbed as the X-class flares. The number pertains to its strength, where an M2 is twice the intensity of M1, and so on.

Credit: SDO/HMI

The flare hailed from Active Region 2529, an area of intricate magnetic activity on the sun. The active region sported a sunspot over the last few days, changing in size and shape as it gradually made its way across the sun’s surface over the last week and a half.

The sunspot, which rotated out of earthly view over the sun’s right side by April 20, was large enough to be seen from the ground without being magnified, and even at some point big enough that nearly five Earth-sized planets could fit inside. A study of this phenomenon helps scientists better probe what leads sunspots to erupt alongside solar flares at times.

Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on April 19. Credit: SDO/AIA.

“Ever since a solar flare was first detected by Carrington and Hodgson in 1859, this spectacular phenomenon of solar activity has been a subject of intense research and has served as a natural laboratory for understanding the physical processes of transient energy release throughout the universe,” writes Ju Jing, a physics researcher out of New Jersey institute of Technology, in her recent paper.

She says, for instance, that large, ground-based telescopes can possibly measure these solar features “down to their fundamental spatial scale,” which can be coupled with theoretical models to fully understand how solar phenomena impact Earth.

- Tech Times | Space Weather.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: "I've Lived Here All Of My Life And I've Never Seen It" - Boiling River Near Yellowstone National Park Raises Concerns As Earthquake Activity Increases!

April 17, 2016 - YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, UNITED STATES - The Shoshone River, near Yellowstone National Park, suddenly and without warning started boiling, changed color and began to emit a sulfuric odor on March 25. Nearby witnesses wondered if they were "all going to die." The current consensus among geologists and other experts is that a portion of the Shoshone River began to boil, located near Cody, Wyoming, and a new Yellowstone vent has opened up.

As Mysterious Universe reports, the boiling river near Yellowstone runs just east of Yellowstone National Park. It is close enough to the park and super volcano to be a "canary in a coal mine" as it relates to unusual geothermic events. The event was initially recorded by Dewey Vanderhoff, a photographer who spotted the Shoshone River near Yellowstone boiling and noted other bizarre features in the river.

"I've lived here all of my life and I've never seen it. It was pretty impressive. The river right there is a really dark green. With a polarizing filter it really popped out. [It bubbled like] like jets in a Jacuzzi."

Boiling River Near Yellowstone National Park Heats Worries - https://t.co/PVCQi17tm8 pic.twitter.com/5igfmzZlUF

— Mysterious Universe (@mysteriousuniv) April 14, 2016

The Shoshone River near Yellowstone was also emitting a noxious, sulfuric odor, and the stretch of river that was boiling "like jets in a Jacuzzi" was a dark green color.


WATCH: Boiling To Life - Vents Opening Around Yellowstone.

This isn't the first time in recorded history that the Shoshone River near Yellowstone has displayed unusual geological activity, most likely related to its proximity to the national park and caldera. Back in the days of Lewis and Clark, an explorer named John Colter, visited the area. The explorer, also a member of Lewis and Clark's epic expedition, trekked to the area in 1807 and wrote about what he saw. The Shoshone River, near Yellowstone, was known then as the Stinkingwater River, and according to John Colter, when he visited the portion of the river near Yellowstone, he encountered geysers, hot springs and the trademark sulfur-smell of a volcanic river.

The area is also home to sinkholes, geyser cones, and even abandoned sulfur mines.

Despite the descriptions penned by John Colter in 1807, in the interim two centuries, the Shoshone River near Yellowstone has become all but devoid of geothermal activities. According to Jason Burkhardt, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist, the Shoshone River near Yellowstone is currently experiencing a "lull" in geothermal activity.

"We're kind of in a lull compared to when John Colter was in this area. There was substantially more geothermal activity that was occurring back then."

Or at least it was, until March 25, when the Shoshone River near Yellowstone began to boil and emit the tell-tale smell of volcanic activity. The river near Yellowstone national park boiled for four days before the activity abruptly ceased.

The boiling of the Shoshone River for four days in March wasn't the only recent geothermal event in the river to pique the attention of geologists. Recent activity in and around the area of the river near Yellowstone has reportedly released enough hydrogen sulfide into the water to create a dead zone spanning one and a half miles. The stretch of river is now completely devoid of fish due to what Burkhardt referred to as a "chemical barrier," which is blocking fish from entering.

Some believe this to be a very bad sign.

For now, the boiling in the river near Yellowstone has ceased. However, earthquake activity in and around the Yellowstone supervolcano is reportedly increasing.

It's difficult to say whether or not the recent boiling of the river near Yellowstone is an indication of something concerning or just, as geologists claim to believe, another of many vents related to the caldera doing what they do, as they've always done. Much of our current understanding of the Yellowstone supervolcano has come to light over the last century, and new information and data is being compiled and poured over daily.

Only time will tell whether or not the boiling in the Shoshone River near Yellowstone National Park is part of a bigger trend of geologic change in the region.

- Inquisitr.