Spain has been struck by unseasonal weather which has seen snow falling across the country.

Extreme weather warnings are in place in 18 provinces, with small roads blocked as temperatures continue to hover around freezing.

Simon McCoy reports.

A number of severe thunderstorms have moved across much of the South, prompting warnings across several states.

The onslaught of storms have dumped more than seven inches in some areas and flood warnings were still in effect around Houston, Texas until Sunday morning.

According to local affiliates quarter-size hail and winds up to 60 mph were reported in South Texas.

The stretch of bad weather extended all the way to Tennessee, where a number of stray animals were 'on the loose.'

The Fayette Country Animal Rescue was damaged by the storm sending an unknown number of animals into the area near Interstate 40.

Currently there are no reports of any deaths or injuries from the storms.

Genetic engineering (GE) of our food supply amounts to a massive science experiment being performed on mankind, without consent or full disclosure. Although the biotech industry continues to claim GE products are safe, the truth is that no one knows what the long-term effects will be, because no one has done the necessary studies.

The loudest proponents of GE are the ones who stand to profit the most, and they don't seem terribly concerned about the human or environmental costs.

What do we know for certain? We know genetic engineering is riddled with unpredictable effects... so we should expect the unexpected.

You may not realize that this reckless genetic experimentation is not limited to your food supply. Besides being used to create drugs and "Frankenfish," they've also created vaccine-containing bananas, goats that produce spider silk in their milk, venomous cabbage, chemotherapy chicken eggs, and even glow-in-the-dark cats.¹

As creepy as some of these things are, the application that may have the greatest potential for global disaster are GE trees created to serve the desires of the paper industry.

Deforestation is already an enormous problem, and the last thing we need is to further stress our precious native forests and the flora and fauna that depend on them.

The documentary featured above discusses how GE trees may adversely impact ecological systems on a grand scale, with potentially catastrophic effects. A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees is hosted by Dr. David Suzuki,² an award-winning geneticist and author of 52 books. (article continues below video)

Poaching on an "industrial" scale has slashed the elephant population in the countries of central Africa by nearly two-thirds, a group of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said on Friday.

"A recent study shows that the population of forest elephants has dropped by almost two-thirds or 62 percent in the past 10 years, victims of large-scale ivory poaching," the group of eight NGOs said in a statement.

"The situation is dramatic and worrying. It's very dangerous," Jerome Mokoko, assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, told reporters at a news conference in Brazzaville.

"Nearly 5,000 elephants have been lost in the northern zone of Congo between 2009 and 2011," said Mokoko.

He added there were 80,000 elephants in the Central African Republic just 30 years ago but their number has been reduced to just a few thousand.

"The Democratic Republic of Congo alone is home to 70 percent of the elephant population of central Africa. But now there are only between 7,000 and 10,000 elephants in the DRC," Mokoko said.

Local wildlife officials have determined an estimated one to two hundred dead robins and other similar bird species that have been found in the area died of starvation due to the recent snowstorms.

It is unclear whether the birds were resident birds of the area or early migrators that were traveling through the area and were caught in the recent snowstorms.

"It's not uncommon in robin populations to have a wide up and down, it's actually rather typical," said District Wildlife Manager Mike Crosby. "Nature always persists." The robin population should have no problem recovering from the incident, he said.

It is believed the recent snowfall covered the bird's food source and caused the birds to starve.

Robins survive mostly on insects, Crosby said. And due to the snow they were not able to get to the ground to retrieve food to keep up with their energy demands and subsequently starved to death.

Whatever is killing manatees and pelicans northern Indian River Lagoon remains unknown, but apparently wildlife along the Treasure Coast won't become victims.

Since July and 2012, a total of 220 manatees have died in the lagoon in Brevard County, about 100 of them under mysterious circumstances; and since February, between 250 and 300 dead pelicans have been found in the same area.

Thomas R. "Tom" Reinert, a research administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told members of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program Advisory Board on Wednesday that researchers have been stumped in their efforts to find the cause - or causes.

Asked if the mysterious deaths could migrate south into the lagoon along the Treasure Coast, Reinert replied, "I can't answer that. The cases seem to be localized, with the zone in Brevard County from Sebastian to Titusville being where the deaths are concentrated. And it appears it will remain that way."

In March alone, Reinert said, 56 sea cows died from unknown causes in Brevard County, where the annual manatee death count from all causes averages 111.

Event Time
2013-04-26 06:53:28 UTC
2013-04-25 18:53:28 UTC-12:00 at epicenter

Location
28.736°S 178.916°W depth=349.0km (216.9mi)

Nearby Cities
115km (71mi) WNW of Raoul Island, New Zealand
921km (572mi) SSW of Nuku'alofa, Tonga
1003km (623mi) NE of Whangarei, New Zealand
1072km (666mi) NE of North Shore, New Zealand
1077km (669mi) NE of Auckland, New Zealand

Technical Details

Temperature change in perspective

The UK Met Office long term Central England Temperature record has kept a continuous and consistent data set since the 1660s. It appears to be reliable and to have maintained its quality. It has not been adjusted as have so many other official temperature record.

Although the CET record covers only a small part of the northern hemisphere, it has shown a consistent rise since the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850 at a rate of about +0.45°C/century or about +0.67°C in the last 150 years. This rise accords well with other temperature records.

However since the year 2000, diminishing solar activity in solar cycle 24 (moving back towards little ice age patterns) appears to be having a real effect.

The death toll from the latest devastating floods in northern Afghan following heavy rains in the area has climbed to 20 people, local officials say.

Zabihullah Akhtari, an official at Balkh governor's office, said on Thursday that nearly 2,000 households have been affected in the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif - located over 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Kabul - and three nearby towns.

He added that eight people were killed in Sholgara district, seven in Kishindih, four in Charkint and one in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Major river flooding this week

Many tributaries of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers are forecast to reach, surpass or remain at major flood stage over the next several days. As of late Monday afternoon, more than 150 gauges were in flood stage across the USA, almost all of them in the upper Midwest.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 150 gauges were in flood stage across the USA, almost all of them in the upper Midwest.