State and county officials in northern Nevada have declared a state of emergency as a wind-whipped wildfire in Reno has destroyed more than 20 homes and forced the evacuation of thousands.

"It's tough man, it's tough," Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez told the Reno Gazette-Journal on Friday. "The winds are not helping us at all."

A mid-November cold snap seems to have caught even seasoned Fairbanksans off guard.

"I don't think anybody was really expecting this," 43-year-old Shawn Ross, a lifelong Fairbanksan, said. "This came out of the blue."

For the second time in three days, Fairbanks set a new low temperature record on Thursday. A temperature of 41 degrees below zero - the first 40 below temperature of the season - was recorded at Fairbanks International Airport at 6:29 a.m., according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. That broke the old record of 39 below set in 1969.

The cold air settling in the flatlands has concentrated air pollution. The Fairbanks North Star Borough issued air quality advisories on Wednesday and Thursday because particulate matter was above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standards and rated as unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Fairbanks set a new record of 35 below on Tuesday and the temperature bottomed out at 39 below on Wednesday, two degrees shy of the record.

Thursday's record low of 41 below marked the sixth earliest 40-below temperature recorded by the National Weather Service in Fairbanks since 1904. The earliest it's ever hit 40 below in Fairbanks was Nov. 5, 1907, when it hit 41 below.

Date-Time
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 07:51:27 UTC

Friday, November 18, 2011 at 07:51:27 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
37.558°S, 179.311°E

Depth
26.8 km (16.7 miles)

Region
OFF EAST COAST OF THE NORTH ISLAND, N.Z.

Distances
158 km (98 miles) NE of Gisborne, New Zealand

269 km (167 miles) ENE of Rotorua, New Zealand

405 km (251 miles) ESE of Auckland, New Zealand

561 km (348 miles) NE of WELLINGTON, New Zealand

'I've been a meteorologist for 30 years, and I've never seen a year like 2011'

Top international climate scientists and disaster experts meeting in Africa have a sharp message for the world's political leaders: Get ready for more dangerous and unpredictable weather caused by global warming.

They're calling for preparations that they say will save lives and money.

The experts fear that without preparedness, crazy weather extremes may overwhelm some locations, making them uninhabitable.

The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a new special report on global warming and extreme weather Friday after meeting in Uganda.

This is the first time the group of scientists has focused on the dangers of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, droughts and storms.

Those are more dangerous than gradual increases in the world's average temperature.

The Washington Post reported that the report said there was at least a 66 percent chance that climate extremes had been changed because of carbon emissions produced by fossil fuels and other human activity.

Top international climate scientists and disaster experts meeting in Africa had a sharp message Friday for the world's political leaders: Get ready for more dangerous and "unprecedented extreme weather" caused by global warming.

Making preparations, they say, will save lives and money.

These experts fear that without preparedness, crazy weather extremes may overwhelm some locations, making some places unlivable.

The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a new special report on global warming and extreme weather after meeting in Kampala, Uganda. This is the first time the group of scientists has focused on the dangers of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, droughts and storms. Those are more dangerous than gradual increases in the world's average temperature.

"We need to be worried," said one of the study's lead authors, Maarten van Aalst, director of the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre in the Netherlands. "And our response needs to anticipate disasters and reduce risk before they happen rather than wait until after they happen and clean up afterward. ... Risk has already increased dramatically."

Date-Time:
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 22:08:15 UTC
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 12:08:15 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
38.664°N, 43.099°E

Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles)

Region:
EASTERN TURKEY

Distances:
30 km (18 miles) NW of Van, Turkey

117 km (72 miles) S of Agri (Karakose), Turkey

133 km (82 miles) NNW of Hakkari, Turkey

896 km (556 miles) E of ANKARA, Turkey

The Pacific Northwest sits atop an earthquake zone that's nearly a mirror image of the deep fault that ruptured the sea floor off Japan in March, killing thousands.

Scientists are looking for volunteers in Portland to help track earthquakes by having a seismograph placed in their home or business in a citizen science project called NetQuakes. The U.S. Geological Survey says it's trying to build networks with more dense and uniformly spaced seismographs in select urban areas to provide better measurements of ground motion during earthquakes:

These measurements improve our ability to make rapid post-earthquake assessments of expected damage and contribute to the continuing development of engineering standards for construction.

NetQuakes seismographs send data over the Internet to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Seattle is already well covered. Now it's Portland's turn.

Date-Time:
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 13:09:00 UTC
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 05:09:00 AM at epicenter

Location:
48.469°N, 119.607°W

Depth:
11.9 km (7.4 miles) set by location program

Region:
WASHINGTON

Distances:
8 km (5 miles) WSW (243°) from Riverside, WA

9 km (6 miles) NW (317°) from Omak, WA

12 km (7 miles) N (350°) from Okanogan, WA

186 km (115 miles) WNW (299°) from Spokane, WA

223 km (139 miles) ENE (64°) from Seattle, WA

Date-Time:
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 04:34:07 UTC
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 04:34:07 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
37.586°S, 179.292°E

Depth:
20.1 km (12.5 miles)

Region:
OFF EAST COAST OF THE NORTH ISLAND, N.Z.

Distances:
163 km (101 miles) NE of Gisborne, New Zealand

274 km (170 miles) ENE of Rotorua, New Zealand

409 km (254 miles) ESE of Auckland, New Zealand

565 km (351 miles) NE of WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Over the last 7 days, several solar flares and CMEs (coronal mass ejections) have set off from the Sun as part of Cycle 24 continues towards its apex or maximum. My research over the last 13 years, have pointed to the Sun as the main cause of cyclical natural disasters.

Since the publishing of my two books: Solar Rain: The Earth Changes Have Begun and Global Warming: A Convenient Disguise, the world's leading scientific bodies - such as NASA, NOAA and ESA have come on-board supporting my 1998 "Equation."

Beginning yesterday, six US states were hit with 'extreme weather' in the form of tornadoes, straight-line winds, micro-burst, and wind shears. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama S. Carolina, N. Carolina and Georgia suffered at least six deaths, numerous injuries, and severely damaged buildings.