Blog Posts

A natural occurrence that will become more and more prevalent in the upcoming months is a mudslide. Mudslides are also called landslides, mud flows, and flow slides.

The cause of this event is heavy rains, melted snow and ice, over-topping, and high levels of flooded ground water interacting with the stability of the upper layers of soil and greenery by essentially creating a slurry of the soil and allowing gravity to do its thing.

The consistency of the mudslide can vary from predominantly watery to thick debris filled mud, all dependent on the conditions afforded to this natural disaster. Due to the fact that an overabundance of water acts as the catalyst of the event, the onslaught behaves as if it were simply flood waters, with no concern for what it takes along with it.

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Flooding due to heavy rains in the Deep South has brought on many different trying situations such as flash floods, mudslides, landslides, bodies of water overflowing, and the trials don’t stop there.

On Tennessee’s Highway 70N in Hawkins County, a large and devastating landslide occurred early Thursday evening, taking out both lanes of the road. Two vehicles were involved in the slide as the road collapsed, and one person was transported immediately to a nearby hospital for care. Voluntary evacuations of nearby homes was advised, though not required.

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Winter weather won’t let up on Chicago, Illinois, as they experienced a series of booms referred to as Frost Quakes.

Frost Quakes (also known as Ice Quakes or Cryoseism) are defined by Wikipedia as a “seismic event that may be caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen soil or rock saturated with water or ice.” As moisture drains down into the ground, eventually freezing may occur causing it to expand under cold temperatures. Once the stress builds up, it is relieved explosively with a loud series of booming noises. There is another type of cryoseism which is a not tectonic seismic and is caused by sudden glacial movements. The saturated ground freezes rapidly when temperatures fall rapidly and the ground shifts, relocating and even splitting open rocks while putting stress on the now hardened soil, which causes loud noises and isolated damage.

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The Polar Vortex we’ve been experiencing here in the Midwest continues to hold tightly and provide the coldest weather endured since 1927! This historic cold snap has now forced thousands of flights to be grounded for safety, schools and universities as well as businesses have been closed, and even the post office has refused to deliver mail in this weather in parts of eight states until the temperatures warm up. This is certainly a dangerous weather system being faced!

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Moderate to heavy snow is expected with Winter Storm Jayden. Unlike this storms predecessors, Winter Storms Gia, Harper, and Indra, Jayden will bring along a massive cold front that will stretch across the affected area and make it dangerous to be outdoors for long periods of time.

From the Plains to Midwest and on to the Eastern/Northeastern Coast early on next week, accumulations of snow accompanied by strong winds are expected. This will cause not only dangerous road conditions, but also small wind-swept ground flurries. While it may not be snowing, strong low winds of up to 25mph will likely cause white-out and blizzard-like conditions. Snow is even possible in the southern parts of the country as the Storm System moves its way east.

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