Free Republic

From the “you can’t make this stuff up” department, comes this pronouncement from the guy who popularized the gas-guzzling CO2 belching Hummer military vehicle for his own LA commutes. His self-awareness must be zero. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday he is going to sue big oil companies for “first-degree murder.” During a live recording of a Politico podcast, Schwarzenegger said he was talking to several private law firms about taking on oil companies in court. The Hollywood actor compared oil to the tobacco industry, and said both are “knowingly killing people all over the world.” Schwarzenegger said the...

Jupiter is a big, complex, chaotic planet. It has long been known as the most dominant feature in our sun’s orbit, but it wasn’t until last May that the planet’s internal features began to be revealed. During a few close passes, NASA’s $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft collected data on the gas giant that revealed cyclones the size of Earth and a surprisingly strong magnetic field. Now, data collected by Juno have uncovered more never-before-seen features on its north and south poles. In a study published this week in the journal Nature, a team of scientists report bizarre geometric storms surrounding...

A teacher in New Jersey who was standing outside on bus duty was reportedly struck by lightning on Wednesday during a severe spat of “thundersnow.”The woman was on patrol at Manchester Township Middle School in Manchester Township when the rare weather phenomenon broke out in the region around 2:30 p.m., according to NBC 10. She had to be hospitalized, but was said to be in stable condition.

Because the snowstorm currently hitting the East Coast isn't enough, it's also bringing with it thundersnow. That weather phenomenon is exactly what it sounds like: a snowstorm that features thunder and lightning. Very, very frightening. "Thunderstorms accompanied by snow are usually of a different character than the 'normal' thunderstorm," Weather.com explained in 2015. "Thundersnow develops when the air is below freezing near the ground, and unlike most summer thunderstorms, it isn't near-ground air that rises all the way into the tall thunderstorm top. The instability is in only a shallow layer aloft. In thundersnow, the 'action' mainly takes place in...

Winter Storm Watch URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service New York NY 416 PM EST Mon Mar 5 2018 CTZ007-009-010-NJZ006-104>108-NYZ071>075-176-178-061100- /O.CON.KOKX.WS.A.0006.180307T0500Z-180308T1100Z/ Northern Middlesex-Southern Fairfield-Southern New Haven-Hudson- Eastern Bergen-Western Essex-Eastern Essex-Western Union- Eastern Union-Southern Westchester-New York (Manhattan)-Bronx- Richmond (Staten Island)-Kings (Brooklyn)-Northern Queens- Southern Queens- 416 PM EST Mon Mar 5 2018 ...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT... * WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Total snow accumulations of 5 to 10 inches are possible. * WHERE...Portions of northeast New Jersey, southern Connecticut and southeast New York. * WHEN...From late Tuesday night through late Wednesday...

Laura and Andrew Morris spent five hours building their impressive glacial abode On first glance it may look like the interior of the North Pole branch of Ikea, but this is actually the inside of an incredible party igloo that a couple from South Wales built - complete with electricity. Figuring that they should make the most of the snow drifts and the enforced time off work, Laura Morris and her husband Andrew, from Tredegar , made the most of the blizzard conditions by building this impressive glacial abode. Andrew set about building the party igloo, initially without the knowledge...

A CSX train derailed on a bridge over the Susquehanna River on Friday night, causing four empty rail cars to fall into the water below. The freight train headed to Richmond, Va., derailed between Cecil and Harford counties at about 8 p.m. Friday, CSX officials said in a statement. No injuries were reported, no hazardous materials were involved and there appears to be no environmental impact, officials said. Officials said the cause of the derailment remains under investigation, and could not say whether Friday’s strong winds caused the empty rail cars to come off the tracks.

That's what garages are for!!! Protect your vehicle from the weather!

The scared burglar ran straight from someone's home into a pond Police discovered a burglar face down in a pond after tracing his footsteps through the snow in Devon on Thursday night. A 93-year-old woman raised the alarm after she thought someone was in her home. The intruder was scared off by the noise but didn't get far after plummeting into a nearby pond that had been hidden by snow. Police didn't take long to track down the suspect - footprints in the heavy snowfall led right to where he was stricken. Marilyn Wedge, of alarm service PPP Taking Care,...

An avalanche prompted the closure of the Squaw Valley ski resort in Northern California Friday. The Placer County Sheriff's Department tweeted that it appears that all skiers and snowboarders had been accounted for. KCRA Reporter Tom Miller posted dramatic video of snowboarders and skiers digging out a man buried under snow.

If you ever find yourself hanging out on Antarctica's Danger Islands, we hope you like penguins. There's a lot of them there. A previously unknown "mega-colony" of Adelie penguins have been found on the islands, which sit on Antarctica's northern tip. More than 1.5 million of the birds were found in 2015 during a survey of the area, according to a report in the journal Scientific Reports.

SYRACUSE (WSYR-TV) - Thursday Daytime: The weather over central New York through sunset Thursday will be dry with no travel issues. Some sun could mix in with the clouds during the middle of the day but regardless temperatures will remain above normal. Syracuse could approach 50 degrees. Thursday Evening: Precipitation will move into central New York from the southwest during the first part of the night. Early in the evening rain (perhaps mixing with snow) will move across the Finger Lakes. Rain should move into the Syracuse area at or just before midnight. Thursday Overnight: As one storm over Pennsylvania...

Thousands of residents in a Southern California county where 21 people died from mudslides in January were advised on Wednesday to leave their homes, ahead of a rainstorm that officials said could again trigger a cascade of mud and rocks. The warning, which is one step below a mandatory order, affects about 30,000 people in Santa Barbara County, said Kelly Hoover, a spokeswoman for the county sheriff's office. "If at any time people feel threatened, take immediate action. Do not wait for a notification," the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office said in a written statement. The latest warning covers areas...

http://www.krem.com/news/local/northwest/new-drone-video-shows-rattlesnake-ridge-crack/511609865

Don’t be surprised if the mountains all around us look a little whiter tomorrow morning. A winter storm moving across the state brought some rain to valley areas and the chance of snow as low as 3,500 feet overnight Tuesday. There is a chance of 1 to 2 inches of snow in Sierra Vista and 3 or 4 inches for Bisbee. Carl Cerniglia, with the National Weather Service in Tucson, said the bulk of the precipitation would fall between 8 p.m. Tuesday night and 7 or 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. There’s only a chance of scattered storms past the early...

ROME (AFP) - A blast of Siberian weather dubbed "The Beast from the East" sent temperatures plunging across much of Europe early on Tuesday (Feb 27) as commuters braced themselves for another day of travel chaos. Freezing temperatures have claimed at least 10 lives across the continent in the last three days with particularly acute fears for rough sleepers and the eldery during the bitterly cold snap.SNOW IN THE MEDITERRANEAN In Poland, where at least four people have died of exposure since Saturday, temperatures dropped overnight to minus 12 deg Celsius while parts of Lithuania, which has had three deaths,...

Any time it snows in Britain, there's always national uproar. While Brits are used to cold weather, unlike those living in truly icy regions, they're usually just used to weeks of drizzle and a slightly nippy wind. But snow? Snow is another matter altogether. And, true to form, as the 'Beast From The East' heads our way, it seems the British public are starting to get more than just a little bit concerned, and are reportedly cleaning out supermarket shelves in a panic-buying frenzy. According to the Sun, customers at a Tesco Extra branch in Gillingham, Kent, have reported seeing...

SURPRISING FINDS The surprises began almost as soon as a camera was lowered into the first borehole, around December 1. The undersides of ice shelves are usually smooth due to gradual melting. But as the camera passed through the bottom of the hole, it showed the underside of the ice adorned with a glittering layer of flat ice crystals—like a jumble of snowflakes—evidence that in this particular place, sea water is actually freezing onto the base of the ice instead of melting it. “It blew our minds,” says Christina Hulbe, a glaciologist from the University of Otago in New Zealand,...

MATTAWAN, Mich. — Sandbags were holding back floodwaters in parts of Michigan as a storm system moved across several Midwest and Great Plains states on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain, snow and ice to the region. The weather has already been blamed for hundreds of car crashes and several fatalities, including the deaths of four people in a crash along a slippery interstate in Nebraska.

"Save Tuvalu, save the world" was the battle cry at the 2015 climate conference in Peru.  The prime minister of that tiny Pacific island nation begged the conference to keep his country from "disappearing." Independent: Enele Spoaga arrived in Brussels on Monday to call on [E.U.] leaders for support ahead of the next [U.N.] climate change summit in Paris in December. The group of islands, home to just 10,000 people, is under direct threat by rising sea levels due to climate change as it is no more than 4m above sea level at its highest level. "If this island disappears...