SUPER-SYMPATHETIC SOLAR FLARE: What are the odds? This morning, April 23rd (0330 UT), NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory watched four regions on the sun separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometers explode almost simultaneously. Play the movie and pay attention to the circled areas:

The quadruple blast included three sunspots (small circles) and a magnetic filament (big circle), all erupting within minutes of one another. (The filament eruption is more obvious in this 304 Å movie.) Their combined X-ray output added up to category M3.6.

Events like this are called "sympathetic solar flares"--pairs of explosions that occur almost simultaneously in widely-spaced active regions. Long ago, researchers assumed the eruptions were just freak coincidence, but a 2002 study proved otherwise. Some sunspots are linked by nearly-invisible magnetic loops in the sun's corona. Instabilities can rapidly travel from one to another, creating a chain reaction of explosions.

Today's sympathetic flare was not a simple pair but a complex quartet covering much of the sun's Earth-facing hemisphere. This makes it "super-sympathetic." It is reminiscent of the Great Eruption of August 1, 2010, which included more than a dozen shock waves, flares, and filament eruptions spanning 180 degrees of solar longitude.

Will any of the debris hit Earth? SOHO coronagraph images of the blast are now available, but the results are unclear Many faint overlapping CMEs can be seen leaving the sun in the hours after the quadruple eruption. If any are heading our way (a big IF), they would arrive on or about April 26th.

👽 Martian landscapes

A severe sandstorm has hit eastern Libya. Lack of visibility and poor weather conditions closed airports, government offices and schools.

A huge sandstorm from the Sahara Desert is reported to have affected other countries. In photos 3 and 4, for example Greece.

The United States Geological Survey recently reported that seven earthquakes hit our region in five days. Our region sits over the New Madrid Seismic Zone, meaning we get a lot of earthquakes.

The United States Geological Survey reported several earthquakes in our area, including a 2.3-magnitude earthquake north of Woodlawn on April 18th.

Although this may sound scary, experts at SIU say small earthquakes happen a few times a week.

"They're just reminders. The area is still seismically active; it's geologically dynamic," Harvey Henson, Director of the STEM Education Research Center at SIUC.

Henson says that these earthquakes aren't concerning and are a good reminder that our area is at the intersection of three seismic zones: the Wabash Valley, New Madrid, and St. Genevieve seismic zones.

"These areas have some complex geologic structures and faulting systems beneath the soil and into the bedrock all the way down through the crust of this part of the central United States. This area has been seismically active for quite some time," Henson said.

Henson said microseismic events or very small earthquakes happen very often.

"They don't cause any damage. You know, you have to get above three to four in magnitude and be right on top of the epicenter, the location of that earthquake release, to have any significant or noticeable damage," Henson said.

Henson says that very small earthquakes aren't concerning.

"So it's a good reminder for people living in the area that this is a potential threat we should know more about," Henson says. "Large earthquakes have happened in the area."

One resident from Goreville said they experienced many earthquakes when they lived in California. Robert Pruitt says he remembers the earthquake from Encino.

"The one that comes to mind is when Encino was the epicenter, the interstates collapsed. My brother missed it by a mere minute," Pruitt says. "Otherwise, he would've been a fatality. But it was rough, especially for the people right down in the middle of Encino."

Pruitt says being in an earthquake was like being in a battle zone.

Guangzhou City in China’s Guangdong Province witnessed a remarkable event on April 20 as lightning struck the metropolis’ famous Canton Tower six times. State media said the tower’s innovative lightning protection system actively redirects lightning underground, ensuring the safety of people and structures.

Over 100,000 people have been evacuated due to heavy rain and fatal floods in southern China, with the government issuing its highest-level rainstorm warning for the affected area on Tuesday. Torrential rains have lashed Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that state media said could be of the sort only “seen around once a century”.

A brush fire broke out at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge Monday afternoon.

This comes just six days after the initial fire, which was caused by a lightning strike to a dead cottonwood tree on Tuesday.

Mutual aid from Missouri Valley and Modale in Iowa, as well as Blair and Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, were called to the refuge.

The Times-News will have more information as it becomes available.

Explosions made Oklahoma City metro residents ask, "What's going on?"

Shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Oklahoma City police said they had to get rid of some old explosives that they found at a home and needed to dispose.

| MORE | Could you hear loud booms in the OKC metro Wednesday night? Police explain what they were

"I heard what sounded like an explosion in the distance," Craig Dickinson said. "I thought, 'Well, that was interesting.'"

In a video from a Midwest City resident's home, you can hear five different explosions. Those booms were something people living in the area said they were concerned by.

"On the second boom, after that, I turned to my wife and asked her if she had heard it," Dickinson said. "She turned to me and says, 'Can you step outside and see if you see or hear anything?' I was just looking to see if I saw any smoke or anything on the horizon. I didn't see anything."

Scary Lightning Strike and Loud thunder in Guangchang, Jiangxi China ⛈️⚡⛈️⚡😳

When conditions are right, we can enjoy watching the Northern Lights, but forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) are busy focusing on the impacts these solar storms have on our society.

Located in Boulder, Colorado, the SWPC monitors the sun for impactful space weather that could disrupt systems on our planet.

Coronal mass ejections are explosive plasma eruptions from the Sun’s outer atmosphere and if directed at Earth, they can not only result in a viewing opportunity for the aurora but also impact our infrastructure and technology.

The Space Weather Prediction Center constantly communicates with industries that could be affected.

“Whether it’s the power grid which can be dramatically impacted by an extreme space weather event, to the point of potential collapse, that’s the main federal government concern there,” said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center.” Satellites, operating them properly. Astronaut health, aviation can be harmed by radiation exposure due to extreme space weather events of a certain type. GPS, actually, which is important to North Dakota. A lot of the combines and things are used in precision GPS to navigate and be within accuracy of inches when they’re working on their crops. That can be dramatically off the mark when it comes to an extreme space weather event as well.”

The intensity of solar storms is placed on a scale from one to five. When activity reaches G3, the SWPC calls coordinators responsible for most of North America’s power grid to allow them to mitigate potential problems.

The Kenya Red Cross has mobilized tactical teams to aid in search and rescue efforts in various parts of Nairobi affected by Saturday's heavy rainfall.

Households along the Ngong River bore the brunt as the river overflowed, causing significant damage to properties. Red Cross teams are conducting needs assessments in these areas to provide assistance.

"Last night's downpour has severely impacted hundreds of households along the Ngong River. The situation is dire, with water encroaching onto properties," the Red Cross warned.

The Red Cross said it was closely monitoring other affected areas, including Fuata Nyayo, Kibra, Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Kayole Soweto, Lavington, and Kawangware.

Sunspot complex AR3638-47 has been in a almost-constant state of eruption for days. This animation from earlier today shows multiple jets of plasma shooting into space in only a few hours:

Since last week, dozens of these jets have flown away from the sunspot group. All of them have missed Earth. The magnetic structure of the sunspot complex is guiding debris to the south--just far enough to miss our planet when the resulting CMEs pass nearby.

An exception might be on the way. One of the jets emitted on April 22nd *might* have an Earth-directed component. ETA: April 26th. Stay tuned

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Severe thunderstorms swept through our area on Saturday evening, bringing an abrupt end to the summer-like weather.
MORE: Downed tree caused by storm damages woman’s roof, car in west Charlotte

In York County, the storms resulted in various sizes of hail, fallen trees blocking roads, and property damage.
RELATED COVERAGE: Man escapes to safety after wind knocks tree down onto home
Trent Faris, the Public Information Officer for the York County Sheriff’s Office, shared multiple photos of the large hail on X, formerly Twitter. Some hailstones were almost the same size as quarters.

An evacuation alert is in effect for some living near the Burgess Creek wildfire, one of 118 active wildfires in B.C. In Alberta, there are 66 active wildfires, with an evacuation alert issued for Saprae Creek Estates in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

When conditions are right, we can enjoy watching the Northern Lights, but forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) are busy focusing on the impacts these solar storms have on our society.

Located in Boulder, Colorado, the SWPC monitors the sun for impactful space weather that could disrupt systems on our planet.

Coronal mass ejections are explosive plasma eruptions from the Sun’s outer atmosphere and if direct

"CO2 is not a bad gas," says Valentina Zharkova, a professor at the Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. On the contrary, she points out, every garden centre uses it in its greenhouses to make plants lush and green. "We actually have a CO2 deficit in the world, and it's three to four times less than the plants would like," she notes, adding that the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere has been at much higher levels throughout our planet's history than it is now.

In fact, over the last 140 million years, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has been steadily decreasing and only now slightly starting to rise. It is currently around 420 parts per million (ppm), or 0.042%. 140 million years ago, it was estimated at 2,500 ppm (0.25%), or about six times higher. And it also meant a greener and more biodiverse world. If CO2 were to fall below 150 ppm (0.015%), it would already mean the extinction of vegetation and all other life. We came close to that during the last glacial maximum when it was at 182 ppm (0.018%).

Zharkova says that the fact that CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now increasing is a good thing. "We don't need to remove CO2 because we would actually need more of it. It's food for plants to produce oxygen for us. The people who say CO2 is bad are obviously not very well educated at university or wherever they studied. Only uneducated people can come up with such absurd talk that CO2 should be removed from the air," says Zharkova.

Spring has officially sprung, but winter still seems to be present in a part of the north of the country. The heavy snowfalls have continued with high intensity even during today's day where, in addition to the problems they bring to traffic, they also offer stunning views.

The snow covered the city of Puka today, where it is reported that the rains that started in the early hours of the morning and continue even now, have brought the thickness of the snow up to 25 centimeters. So far there are no problems in this area.

Snow is also reported to be present on the Bogë-Theth axis, where snowplows have come out and are working on its full opening. Currently, vehicles are driven with winter tires.

Heavy rainfalls and flooding of local rivers have so far claimed the lives of at least eight people in Sistan-Baluchestan, dealing a heavy blow to the infrastructure of the southeastern Iranian province.

According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, the flooding resulted in the collapse of a loader and the deaths of three employees of Iran’s Railway company in Khash to Iranshahr road.

Meanwhile, Majid Mohebbi, the director general of Sistan-Baluchestan’s Crisis Management Department, said that heavy rains and flooding caused the closure of 45 rural roads, 12 sub-roads and one main road in the south of the province.

We have reports of the disconnection of telecommunications in 60 villages of Zarabad, Konarak and Chabahar towns due to a problem in their optical fiber, Mohebbi said, further adding that the amount of rainfall in the last two days in the province has “exceeded the forecast.”

Winter conditions in April: Snow, hail, black ice and heavy rain caused numerous accidents in traffic on Saturday. For this Sunday, the German Weather Service (DWD) announced heavy snowfall in the low mountain ranges - and also warned of black ice. In Bavaria in particular, there could be traffic disruptions and the risk of tree damage due to the high snow loads. In the Free State it could snow heavily in the morning, especially in the north and in the Alps, even down to lower altitudes.

In East Westphalia-Lippe, a number of trees snapped under the weight of snow on Sunday night. As the police reported, this created around 20 danger spots. Local fire brigade helpers removed the fallen trees and cleared the streets. In Extertal and Leopoldshöhe, drivers drove their vehicles off the road in snow and slippery conditions and ended up in a ditch. Nobody got hurt. In the early hours of the morning, several centimeters of snow had fallen in parts of Ostwestfalen-Lippe, and even ten centimeters in Horn-Bad Meinberg, a police spokesman said.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – At least two strong earthquakes struck Taiwan early Tuesday morning, just weeks after one of the strongest quakes in the country’s history killed several people.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurred at 2:26 a.m. local time (2:26 p.m. ET Monday) just off the eastern shore of the island nation, about 17 miles south of Hualien City, at a depth of about 6.7 miles. The second, a magnitude 6, happened about 6 minutes later along the eastern shore, about 8 miles south-southwest of Hualien City, at about the same depth.

Residents in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong are on high alert for flooding, with authorities forecasting water flows in a major river to hit "once-in-100-year" levels on Monday morning.

The provincial flood and disaster prevention department said on Sunday afternoon that floodwaters in the Bei River, a southern tributary of the Pearl River, were expected to peak at 37.3 metres (122 feet) by 1am, or about 5.8 metres above the warning line.

Warning levels had already been exceeded at 20 monitoring stations along the waterway by Saturday evening.

Northern and western Guangdong have been battered by intense rainstorms since Friday, breaking rainfall records for April in many places.

The cities of Qingyuan, Shaoguan, Huizhou and capital Guangzhou have been particularly hard hit, prompting flood alerts and rainstorm warnings for three days in a row.

MILL CREEK, Ill. -- Seven earthquakes have hit the region in the past five days. This includes two in southern Illinois and four in southeast Missouri.

The latest quake the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported was on April 22 at 3:52 a.m. just west of Mill Creek, Illinois. This was a 2.1 magnitude quake at a depth of 12.7 km.

Here is the list of the previous quakes since April 18 in our area, according to the USGS.

April 21, 10:33 a.m. - 2.4 magnitude east of Matthews, Mo. - 4.7 km depth
April 20, 1:54 a.m. - 2.0 magnitude east of Marston, Mo. - 8.2 km depth
April 19, 8:32 a.m. - 1.4 magnitude west of Howardville, Mo. - 7.5 km depth
April 19, 7:55 a.m. - 1.2 magnitude west of Howardville, Mo. - 7.6 km depth
April 18, 8:05 p.m. - 2.3 magnitude northwest of Woodlawn, Ill. - 19.2 km depth
April 18, 6:03 p.m. - 1.6 magnitude east of Marston, Mo. - 8.4 km depth

Since January 1, 2024, the USGS has reported 70 earthquakes ranging around the New Madrid fault line.

April 22, 2024

The bright green comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, also known as the “devil” and “mother of dragons,” will reach peak visibility soon. Here’s how to spot it.

The "Movement for the Establishment of the Temple" announced the establishment of an ultra-orthodox kollel on the Temple Mount, and promised each student 100 NIS for each day of study, but it turns out that the initiative is not taking off - mainly due to the police's harassment of the heads of the organization and the kollel. The movement does not say desperate, and promises to "prevent my actions The scoundrel and harassment of the police"

The police prevented the secretary of the "Movement for the Establishment of the Temple" Rabbi Yosef Elboim from entering the Temple Mount for two weeks, after in recent weeks the movement expanded its activities and tried to establish an ultra-orthodox "kollel" at the site.

Last week, while Rabbi Elboim was leading a group of about 40 travelers on the Temple Mount, it became clear to him that the police were preventing him from entering the compound.

The police explained this week that the reason for the ban is the intention of the members of the movement to establish a school for secondary education on the Temple Mount, and as a result, the violent riots on the Temple Mount may resume.

In the ad published by the organization a few weeks ago, it was stated that the students who will study in the kollel on the Temple Mount will be rewarded with 50 shekels per day.

Following the harassment, the Movement for the Establishment of the Temple announced that "following the acts of scum and harassment by the Temple Mount Police, the price for a day of study at the ultra-orthodox kollel has risen to 100 NIS per day, a boy as a blessing."

The movement promised that in the coming days the ascent to the mountain would resume, and among other things, the ultra-orthodox kollel would be established.

It should be noted that on many occasions the elders of Israel emphasized that the ascension to the Temple Mount is absolutely forbidden. Last year, before the inauguration of the restored "Hahorba" synagogue, a message was issued from the house of Maran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef stressing that the ascent to the mountain is prohibited.

Last year, during a visit by the President of the country, Shimon Peres, to the Sukkah of Maran HaGrish Elyashiv, the HaGrish chose to raise the issue of the riots in the Temple Mount area. Peres emphasized to Maran Posak Hador that this is a real danger to lives and events that could lead to bloodshed.

Peres even asked Maran HaGrish to give renewed validity to the ban on going up to the Temple Mount. Maran pointed out to him and said, "The public knows the opinion of the Halacha and knows that going up to the Temple Mount is prohibited by default

The suspects, ages 13 to 21, were arrested by detectives, in possession of goats that were hidden and intended to be used as sacrifices on the Temple Mount. The police warned: "We will not allow extremists and criminals of any kind to violate the existing practice on the Temple Mount and the holy places."

13 suspects aged 13-21 were arrested today (Monday) on suspicion of planning to sacrifice goats on the Temple Mount as sacrifices for Passover. The arrests were made after YMR detectives operating in Jerusalem identified suspects who carried goats in bags and even hid them in a baby carriage.

After the arrest, the suspects were transferred for further investigation by the police and the captured animals were transferred for veterinary treatment. The attempts to sacrifice Passover victims were carried out against the background of publications distributed in recent days, with the aim of encouraging extremist elements to implement the ancient custom, which is against the law.
A goat found in the suspect's vehicle
A goat found in the suspect's vehicle Photo: Police spokeswoman
The police said: "The Israel Police is working in Jerusalem and in the other sectors with all the security agencies, on the overt and covert level, against any person who tries to break the order and act contrary to the law and the practice that exists in the holy places in the city of Jerusalem. We call on the public not to give a platform or expression to extreme fringes who try or call for a break the order and the law. The existing practice on the Temple Mount and in the other holy places in the city of Jerusalem will be preserved and will continue to be preserved at all times, and we will not allow extremists and criminals of any kind to violate it

An earthquake shook parts of Lake Township on Sunday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center.

The USGS says the quake happened at 8:12 p.m. and was centered just south of Toledo Executive Airport, formerly Metcalf Field.

According to Lake Township Fire, there were no reports of any damage to the area.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is in town training Volusia County Emergency personnel with its Integrated Emergency Management Course (IEMC).

Firefighters, police officers, and emergency personnel are all meeting at the Emergency Operations Center in Daytona Beach to undergo this training.

The four-day training focuses on the county's ability to respond if a building were to collapse.

"It allows us to pull city officials, county officials, state and even federal officials together to work through some of the potential issues that we may have with such a scenario," said Clint Mecham, the Volusia County emergency management director. "So we can do it in a low-stress learning environment rather than having to do it for real for the first time."

During the first two days, emergency responders ran through some exercises. On Wednesday, they had a functional exercise truly testing the county's ability to respond to a condo collapse.

They all split into groups, and each group assumed the roles assigned to their real-life positions. They're each developing a game plan, whether for where to set up a media staging area or how to save those left.

FEMA's James Greenshields said they've been working with the city for over a year on this course to make sure it's tailored to the county's needs.