As the displaced residents of the Oklahoma City suburbs came to terms with the devastation around them Monday night pundits were already speculating that the tornado was one of the worst to ever hit the US, a dubious distinction for the newly homeless.

The most destructive twister struck Ellington, Missouri at approximately 1:01 pm on March 18, 1925.The Great Tri-State Tornado traveled through Missouri before entering Illinois and finally dissipating in rural Indiana more than three hours after the vortex was first spotted.

At least 695 people were killed in the Tri-State tornado with another 2,027 injured and $16.5 million in damage (over $1.4 billion in today's dollars). The tornado registered as an F5, the highest possible on the Fujita scale. Unfortunately, like Monday's tragedy in Oklahoma, areas with schools were the worst hit, with nine in all being demolished.

Cicadas have begun to surface across the East Coast of the U.S.

So far the majority of sightings have been in Virginia and other southern states

Further north the weather has been too cool but the emergence of Brood II emergence isn't expected to be too far away

The cicadas invasion of the East Coast has begun, with the insects spotted everywhere from Virginia to Massachusetts.

The infestation, named Brood II by scientists, has not been seen since 1996. Before that it last appeared in 1979.

So far the majority of sightings have been in Virginia and other southern states, where some people have found hundreds in their backyards accompanied by the insects' loud chorus call.
Further north the weather has been too cool in the likes of New England and New York for a full-blown Brood II emergence, but it isn't expected to be too far away.

Cicadas are expected to emerge from the ground in the billions in the next couple of weeks as soil temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

An increase in seismicity since 26 April triggered VSI to rise the alert status from 2 to 3 on a scale of 1-4 (from "Waspada," "watch" to Siaga," alert). For the moment, only degassing has been observed as surface activity. A similar increase in seismic activity was observed in Oct 2012, when the alert was raised as well and then reduced again in November. The last eruption at the volcano occurred in 2009. - Volcano Discovery

At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Turrialba Volcano, located east of the province of Cartago, began to spew gas and ash from two crater openings, the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) reported. By 8:30 a.m. a significant amount of volcanic material was released from the two openings of volcano, "which may indicate that these materials come from deep areas," Ovsicori said. "It is uncertain what will happen.
Volcanologists are heading to the site to evaluate the activity," the statement said. Experts said Tuesday's activity is "normal for an active volcano such as Turrialba," but they recommended all nearby communities remain vigilant in coming hours. The released material fell into grasslands and communities in the canton of Turrialba and reached some three kilometers west of the crater. The trail of gases and ash can be seen from various locations in the provinces of Cartago, San José, Heredia and Limón. Public access to the volcano area was closed last year due to the activity. The Turrialba Volcano also emitted material in 2007, 2010 and 2012. The last eruptions of the volcano were in 1884. - Tico Times

It's a shocking decline. In the past 20 years, caribou numbers have dropped by about 95% in the southern region of the island

A survey by the territory of Nunavut in northeastern Canada conducted in 2012 and released last Thursday, confirms what elders and hunters have been saying, that it's getting much harder to find caribou there.

Estimates from the early 1990's put the herd number between 60-thousand to 180 thousand.

This recent survey, announced by Nunavut's environment minister, James Arreak, is the first comprehensive count of the animals. Elders, hunters and communities have expressed The survey report is called "Estimating the Abundance of South Baffin Caribou.

Wales - A group of Herbrandston residents have reached breaking point after a 'torturous' mystery noise made life in the village a 'living hell'.

Jane and Steve Ingram said life at their quiet Herbrandston home became unbearable when a low, drowning noise started keeping them awake at night.

Jane, who began to hear the drone back in 2009, said she hasn't had a full night's sleep in years and has even considered moving house.

She said: "At first it was a noise similar to a car engine running. I would get up in the middle of the night to see if there was a car out there, and there never was.

"And when I put my head on the pillow, I hear big machines drilling underground. It's torturous."

Over the last few years the noise has been described as a constant humming, a low drone, or vibration, which goes on and off throughout the night.

The couple thought the noise was emanating from one of the two oil refineries or LNG facilities on their doorstep, and last August they contacted Port Health and the Environment Agency, which launched an investigation.

Although the investigation detected low frequency noise at 63 Herz (42decibels), its source remained a mystery.

Five people died when a 10 metre (33 feet) wide sinkhole opened up at the gates of an industrial estate in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boom town neighbouring Hong Kong, local authorities said Tuesday.

The Shenzhen Longgang district government said on its verified page on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that five people had died and added that it was investigating the incident.

The sinkhole formed just outside the Huamao Industrial Park in Shenzhen on Monday evening, at a time when many factory workers would have been changing shifts, according to the website of Beijing-based newspaper the Guangming Daily.

Of course the politically correct verbiage is "climate change."

Between the 13th and 11th centuries BCE, most Greek Bronze Age Palatial centers were destroyed and/or abandoned throughout the Near East and Aegean, says this paper by Brandon L. Drake

A sharp increase in Northern Hemisphere temperatures preceded the wide-spread systems collapse, while a sharp decrease in temperatures occurred during their abandonment. (Neither of which, I am sure - the increase or the decrease - were caused by humans.)

Mediterranean Sea surface temperatures cooled rapidly during the Late Bronze Age, limiting freshwater flux into the atmosphere and thus reducing precipitation over land, says Drake, of the Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.

This cooling and ensuing aridity could have affected areas that were dependent upon high levels of agricultural productivity. The resulting crop declines would have made higher-density populations unsustainable.

Indeed, studies of data from the Mediterranean indicate that the Early Iron Age was more arid than the preceding Bronze Age. The prolonged arid conditions - a centuries-long megadrought, if you will - lasted until the Roman Warm Period.

Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of homes, schools and a hospital in an Oklahoma town hit by a powerful tornado, and officials lowered the death toll from the storm to 24, including nine children.

The 2-mile (3-km) wide tornado tore through Moore outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, trapping victims beneath the rubble, wiping out entire neighborhoods and tossing vehicles about as if they were toys.

Seven of the nine children who were killed died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit, but many more survived unhurt.
"They literally were lifting walls up and kids were coming out," Oklahoma State Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said. "They pulled kids out from under cinder blocks without a scratch on them."

The Oklahoma state medical examiner's office said 24 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, down from the 51 they had reported earlier. The earlier number likely reflected some double-counted deaths, said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer for the medical examiner.

"There was a lot of chaos," she said.

Additional Images - a collection of photos from photographers who were in the Oklahoma City area on Monday and Tuesday.