STRANGE SKYFALLS
Snake from the sky, earliest evidence of death by meteor, and a surprising reason for Scotland’s wet weather...
SNAKE FROM ON HIGH
On 8 June, a snake fell from the sky, landing near a dog walker. Chris Tredwell was shocked to see the reptile drop from a crow’s beak while out walking his dogs in Hartsholme Country Park, Lincoln. Initially mistaking it for a “yard-long” rope before seeing it land “within 12 inches” of him, Mr Tredwell identified it as a grass snake.
A spokesperson from Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust said grass snakes are a common sight in the county’s parks, gardens and countryside, adding that “crows will eat anything they can get hold of.”
Wildlife enthusiast Mr Tredwell, 75, said it was “quite rare to see one, never mind having it nearly drop on you. It’s certainly the biggest one I’ve seen and it’s the biggest one I’ve had dropped on me. I don’t know who was most shocked – the snake or me. When it landed, it was a bit stunned.” One of his dogs took a curious sniff before being put off by the snake’s forked tongue. The snake retreated into nearby bushes. BBC News, 18 June 2020.
EARLY METEOR STRIKE
Turkish researchers believe they have uncovered the earliest known evidence for a meteorite
strike having caused a death. Documents found in the Turkish State Archives describe a fireball being seen in August 1888, followed by several objects falling over a 10-minute period, suggesting that a large meteor had exploded and fragmented high in the atmosphere. One of the smaller meteorites is reported to have killed one man and paralysed another when it smashed into a hilltop in a region now in Iraq. As well as the human casualties, nearby crops and fields were seriously damaged according to letters found in the archives written by local officials after the event. One of these letters supposedly contained a sample of the meteorite, but it has yet to be found. The reason why these accounts had been overlooked for so long is probably that were written in Ottoman Turkish, the official language of the Ottoman Empire at the time (employing a complex alphabet based on Persian Arabic), whereas ordinary people generally spoke traditional Turkish. sciencemag.org, 22 Apr; popularmechanics.com, 27 Apr 2020.
SCOTLAND’S HARD RAIN
Radiation from nuclear weapons tests by the USA and USSR during the Cold War made Scotland wetter than usual, according to a new report by Reading University researchers. Even though test detonations were carried out thousands of miles away, there was still an appreciable effect on its rainfall. Scottish weather records show that on days between 1962 and 1964 when test fallout led to higher levels of radioactive material in the atmosphere, Scotland suffered appreciably worse weather. Clouds were thicker, and on average there was 24 per cent more rain per downpour. Detonations in the Nevada Desert and on Pacific and Arctic islands lifted radioactive pollution into the stratosphere, which, as it dispersed, ionised water droplets, increasing their charge. It has long been thought that electric charge can affect the size of water droplets in clouds; now the Reading researchers are suggesting the phenomenon could be used to combat the effects of climate change. “The concept that you can inject droplets with an electrical charge could be used to address rainfall shortages in desert areas,” said the report’s co-author Graeme Marlton, but added: “We obviously want to steer well away from using nuclear bombs”. Times, 14 May 2020.