Colorado Springs - At least four major wildfires fueled by hot, gusty weather burned along the front of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado on Tuesday, destroying a handful of large houses and chasing people from hundreds of homes.

Thick smoke plumes visible for miles billowed from fires near Colorado Springs, in southern Colorado, and in Rocky Mountain National Park to the north.

A wildfire in a heavily wooded residential area northeast of Colorado Springs led to the mandatory evacuations of more than 1,000 homes, including some worth more than $1 million, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said.

Video from a helicopter showed several large homes engulfed in flames. About eight homes had burned, Maketa said, but he had no exact number because the fire was moving so quickly across the parched forest.

"Right now the firefighters are more focused on fighting fires, drawing lines. And law enforcement, to be very honest, is scrambling to get people out of there as well as do searches," Maketa said. He said firefighters have shifted from evacuation mode to search-and-rescue mode.

Military officials said a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the Colorado Army National Guard and three helicopters from Fort Carson were helping firefighters. Another National Guard helicopter was on standby for search and rescue.

The area is not far from last summer's devastating Waldo Canyon Fire that destroyed 346 homes and killed two.

Astronomers in the Netherlands have discovered a world where the sun is square. It is Earth. On June 6th Jan Koeman was watching the sunset from Lauwersoog, and this is what he saw:
"The sunset was a very weird one," says Koeman. "Inversions in the atmosphere gave it some very odd shapes."

The National Weather Service was tracking a so-called derecho weather pattern in the Midwest on Tuesday that could spawn severe windstorms in major metropolitan areas with gusts as strong as 100 mph. Derecho windstorms occur once every year or two across the central and northeastern U.S. in a band from Texas to New England. They pack hazardous winds of at least 75 mph or more and maintain their intensity for hours as they sweep across vast distances.
In some cases a derecho will spawn tornados and accompany storms that produce hail the size of golf balls. The current pattern could affect larger metropolitan areas in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in the next two days, said Bill Bunting, a meteorologist in the agency's storm prediction center in Norman, Okla.

"We tend to be careful using the D word, but yes, a derecho is possible," Bunting said.

The weather service was predicting a chance of storm activity beginning in southern Montana and northeastern Wyoming on Tuesday afternoon. It was expected to sweep eastward, with a 30 percent chance of severe wind activity in a rectangle covering parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.

"Thirty percent is pretty high in the world of predicting severe weather," said Paul Collar, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sullivan, Wis.

The storms could generate straight-line wind gusts of 70 mph or more. That's enough to rip shingles off a roof, knock down trees and even tip over semi-trailers. They could also cause flights to be delayed or canceled, said Collar, who added that commercial airlines have on-board navigation that allows pilots to navigate around the worst weather.

Thousands of people left their homes in eastern Germany on Sunday as a dam burst on the swollen River Elbe and swathes of farmland were flooded in an attempt to spare towns, with meteorologists forecasting more rain. In Magdeburg, one of the oldest cities in eastern Germany and a regional capital, some 23,000 people were asked to evacuate as water levels in the Elbe rose to a record 7.48 meters, around 5 meters above normal and surpassing the level reached in devastating floods in 2002.
"We helped yesterday to carry sandbags to secure the town. The mood is very depressed and frightened because many people have to leave their homes," said resident Liane Nagen.

There have been at least a dozen deaths as a result of floods that have hit Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic over the past week.

Officials said more than 8,000 people were evacuated by bus from towns and villages around Aken, south of Magdeburg. Some took their pets or farm animals with them.

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As rain swelled the banks of local rivers, creeks, and streams over the latter half of this past week, residents of North Carolina looked to dry out this weekend from the persistent rains and threats of severe weather brought along by the first named storm of the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Tropical Storm Andrea.

Tropical Storm Andrea was a quick-forming storm, pulling itself together in the eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico midway through the week and moving to assault the residents of the eastern seaboard as it moved northward. After soaking rains, heavy winds, and tornadoes battered parts of Florida, Andrea quickly picked up ground speed and moved quickly across the eastern coast of Georgia late Thursday evening, moving north to flood the Carolinas with a light, consistent rain, intermixed with bouts of absolute downpours.

More pest species are becoming resistant to the most popular type of genetically-modified, insect-repellent crops, but not in areas where farmers follow expert advice, a study said on Monday.

The paper delves into a key aspect of so-called Bt corn and cotton -- plants that carry a gene to make them exude a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, which is toxic to insects.

Publishing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, US and French researchers analysed the findings of 77 studies from eight countries on five continents that reported on data from field monitors.

Of 13 major pest species examined, five were resistant by 2011, compared with only one in 2005, they found. The benchmark was resistance among more than 50 percent of insects in a location.

Of the five species, three were cotton pests and two were corn pests.

Three of the five cases of resistance were in the United States, which accounts for roughly half of Bt crop plantings, while the others were in South Africa and India.

As the Indonesian Volcanological Survey (VSI) specified in its latest bulletin, parts of the active lava dome of the volcano have recently (early June) grown higher than the northern crater rim, where it is cut by a valley extending to the northern feet of the stratovolcano. Therefore, potential continued growth of the dome poses the risk of rockfalls and pyroclastic flows reach the northern flanks, where a number of villages are located, namely Pasilulu and Talen. In addition, VSI scientists have detected an increase of seismicity and degassing since early May. This includes volcanic tremor from growing lava dome and deeper earthquakes, possibly related to new magma rising, and the occurrence of notable sulfur smell.

Ibu's activity has been characterized by the slow building of a new lava dome inside the breached summit crater since 1999. While present growth rate is still slow, and no or little incandescence is observed at the moment, the new seismic activity could herald a phase of more vigorous activity in the near future. In that scenario, the occurrence of dangerous landslides and pyroclastic flows would be likely and the northern slopes of the volcano should be considered a high risk zone. - Volcano Discovery

A weak eruptive activity has started from the volcano. Since last night, weak ash emissions have appeared from the central cone of the caldera of the volcano. The new activity is accompanied by a persistent steam plume and increasing volcanic tremor. So far there seem to be no lava flows or other significant eruptive processes. The new ash emissions are very diluted and reach about 200-300 m height. They were first observed on the Aviation camera of Perryville from last night at around 17-18h local time. AVO who has not yet reported about the ash confirmed to Blog Culture Volcan that the plume indeed contains very small amounts of ash, which pose no problems to aviation (for now). The volcano last erupted in 2008. - Volcano Discovery

A natural phenomenon more common for America, a tornado, has hit the South of France shocking locals and holidaymakers on the Côte d'Azur, the Mediterranean coastline. As thousands in Central Europe are struggling to cope with devastating floods which have already claimed the lives of at least 21 people, a tornado ripped through the French Riviera on Sunday morning. The violently rotating column of air and water formed off the coast not far from popular resort towns of Cannes and Nice. The phenomenon was observed from the Cagnes-sur-Mer commune in southeastern France, rising off to Villeneuve-Loubet and Antibes, reports Nicematin.com. So far, no damage or injury has been reported. The incident is being widely discussed on social networking services where users - some of them freaked out others rather thrilled - share videos and photos of the "tornado." "OMG there was a mini tornado in my town today. In Nice!" tweeted user nicknamed Sachamallow. "There's been a tornado in Cannes. I bet the end of the world is approaching! we're all gonna die you, will see," noted @Amaandarine. - RT

Indiana Department of Transportation officials say they anticipated sinkholes along I-69 and are working to fill them.

As I-69 construction continues in Monroe County, crews are encountering a number of sinkholes.

The state department of transportation says it is not unexpected given all the karst features in the area. But residents are worried about the impact of the construction on the environment.

Bulldozers and land movers are working to clear a path through southern Monroe County that will eventually become part of I-69.

This phase of the construction is the most challenging because of the karst topography. The construction is exposing large caverns, some 30 feet deep and 15 feet across.