"Rainfall amounts in northeastern Illinois already have established this as the wettest August and wettest summer since regional records began in 1895," says Jim Angel, state climatologist, of the Illinois State Water Survey, a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "As of the morning of Aug. 24, rainfall for northeastern Illinois -- including those counties from Boone to LaSalle and eastward -- averaged 11.32 inches, 8.10 inches above normal, and beating the 1987 record of 11.02 inches. Totals for June-August thus far in this area averaged 20.02 inches, 8.91 inches above normal, and beating the 1972 record of 19.26 inches.

The weather has been fickle this month and will continue that way. It had been scorching for some time when on Monday the weather suddenly changed. Torrential downpours lasted 10 to 20 minutes in many regions including Seoul and Cheolwon, Gangwon Province, with rain stopping and starting repeatedly. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) on Monday said similar showers with thunder and lightening are expected in Chungcheong Province and southern parts of Korea on Tuesday.

Two major reasons are cited for the unexpected weather changes. A hot and humid North Pacific anticyclone collided with cold air from China and that made air above Korean peninsular unstable, causing the fickle weather, the KMA said. Experts also pointed to an abnormal cloud belt that formed in the air above the Korean Peninsula.

©Unknown

Satellite picture of sky in East Asia by Japanese weather satellite NTSAT. The ordinary east-west cloud belt is seen in the picture taken on Aug. 27, while clouds are stretched north-south in the picture on Aug. 14.

Peru's Natural Resources Institute (INRENA) has reported that since the earthquake which struck Peru's southern coast and devastated most of the Ica Region, 60 percent of the sea lion population, which lived on Paracas Bay, has disappeared.

Representative for INRENA Protected Areas, Luis Alfaro, told Peru's Andina News Agency, "We can only see 50 sea lions where there used to be 150."

©LivinginPeru.com

Paracas National Reserve sea lions.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's Kuril Islands, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake occurred 110 miles (177 kilometers) southwest of Severokurilsk in the Kuril Islands - 1,210 miles (1,950 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo - on Tuesday at 1:16 p.m. local time, the survey's National Earthquake Information Center said.

Ralph Adams, a structural and civil engineer, said that the building collapse at Arch Cot, Brittons X Road, St Michael, was bound to happen at some point.

Adams, who was on the scene offering advice from Sunday, said the neighbourhood knew about the existence of a cave and still allowed people to build on it.

©NationNews.com

An aerial shot showing the extent of Sunday's cave-in and the surrounding district including nearby construction.

They were once among the most common sights and sounds of the countryside.

But decades of intensive farming, chemical pollution and habitat loss have taken their toll on some of our bestloved wildlife.

From today, the cuckoo, hedgehog and house sparrow join the official 'priority' list of the UK's most threatened animals.

©Unknown

Cuckoos are among birds threatened

According to the Government, more than 1,000 plants and animals are under threat from extinction or serious decline - twice the number on the last major conservation list published a decade ago.

Hot spots across Southeastern Europe from 21 to 26 August have been detected with instruments aboard ESA satellites, which have been continuously surveying fires burning across the Earth's surface for a decade.

©ESA

Hot spots across Southeastern Europe from 21 to 26 August have been detected with instruments aboard ESA satellites, which have been continuously surveying fires burning across the Earth's surface for a decade. Working like thermometers in the sky, the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) on ESA's ERS-2 satellite and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) on ESA's Envisat satellite measure thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces.

Working like thermometers in the sky, the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) on ESA's ERS-2 satellite and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) on ESA's Envisat satellite measure thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces.

At least 23 people died over the past 24 hours in some of the worst floods to hit north India, the country's media said Monday.

The death toll in a month of flooding in the state of Bihar has exceeded 500.

Overflowing rivers have engulfed almost 10,000 villages, home to 20.5 million people in 20 administrative districts of the state. Material damages are estimated at $108 million, with thousands of hectares of crops destroyed and many people left with no food.

Scientists drilling more than 2 miles deep into the San Andreas Fault have discovered underground patches of talc, nature's softest known mineral, that could help explain the absence of sharp earthquakes where the fault is "creeping."

The surprising result of what one expert calls "a literally groundbreaking project" adds a new understanding to the strange behavior of the infamous fault's 90-mile segment between Parkfield in southern Monterey County and San Juan Bautista in San Benito County.

Students at the Chouteau Elementary and Middle School were evacuated to buses Friday afternoon when a burning odor was discovered in a classroom during the thunderstorm.

Principal Steve Boone said he doesn't know for sure if lightning was the culprit, but he suspects lightning struck the building.

During the storm, Boone said despite a loud boom was heard over the normal thunder claps. Immediately following the boom, a burning plastic odor was smelled in a middle school classroom.