The BIG ONE Watch: Two quakes rattle San Jose area

LATEST EARTH CHANGES WITHIN...

A shallow magnitude 4.0 earthquake was reported Tuesday evening nine miles from San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 10:32 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 5.6 miles.
According to the USGS, the epicenter was four miles from East Foothills, five miles from Alum Rock, nine miles from Milpitas and 82 miles from Sacramento.

It was followed a few minutes later by a 2.0 quake.
In the past 10 days, there have been two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby.
This information comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and this post was created by an algorithm written by the author.

Lake-effect snowstorm hammers Erie, Pennsylvania shattering at least one all-time Pennsylvania snowstorm record and city records

A stationary lake-effect snowband off Lake Erie dumped an incredible 34 inches of snow at Erie Airport on Christmas Day alone, quadrupling their previous record snowiest Christmas Day – 8.1 inches in 2002 – as well as smashing their all-time snowiest single day on record by over a foot – 20 inches on Nov. 11, 1956.
That heavy snow continued into Tuesday, bringing their storm total since 7 p.m. EST Christmas Eve to an incredible 56.5 inches of snow – just over 4.5 feet – in 42 hours.
This prolific event shattered all previous multi-day snowfall records in Erie dating to 1893, according to the National Weather Service office in Cleveland, including:

Two-day snowfall: 26.7 inches (Nov. 24-25, 1950; the “Great Appalachian Storm”)
Three-day snowfall: 30.2 inches (Dec. 29-31, 2002)
Seven-day snowfall: 39.8 inches (Dec. 27, 2001 – Jan. 2, 2002)
13-day snowfall: 52.8 inches (Dec. 31, 1998 – Jan. 12, 1999)

That’s not a misprint. Erie picked up more snow in less than 36 hours in this event than their previous 13-day snowstorm record.
Needless to say, the 92 inches of snow so far in December is the city’s snowiest single month on record, crushing the previous record of 66.9 inches in December 1989.

This wasn’t just a snowstorm record for the city, however.

According to the National Weather Service office in Cleveland, Erie also shattered the previous Pennsylvania state two-day snowstorm record of 44 inches set in Morgantown from March 20-21, 1958.
This northwest Pennsylvania city of just under 100,000 is used to heavy lake-effect snow, and is one of America’s snowiest cities, averaging 101 inches of snow a year.
However, picking up roughly the average December and January snowfall – 57.1 inches – in just over a day is something long-time residents have never seen before.
Put another way, Erie picked up more snow in this event than the yearly average snowfall in the following cities:

Minneapolis/St. Paul: 53.4 inches
Boston: 43.5 inches
Chicago: 37.1 inches

Meanwhile, a dangerous Arctic cold blast is to last into the first week of January 2018 in the Plains, Midwest and East. The extreme cold front is approaching the Midwest and Northeast and a severe cold protocol weather was activated in Connecticut Tuesday. Wind chills are expected to drop up to 30 degrees below zero. Although the outbreak may not break many daily records, this could be the coldest air of the season so far for some. Subzero temperatures are expected near the Canadian border.