The ozone hole above the Antarctic has begun its annual expansion and will continue to grow significantly over the next four to six weeks, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on Thursday.In its latest Ozone Bulletin, the WMO says: "As is expected, the annually occurring ozone hole is again forming over Antarctica. The ozone hole is still small but will expand and deepen during the next 4 to 6 weeks."The Bulletin goes on to say that the hole above the Antarctic is "normal for this time of year."The ozone hole above the Antarctic appears each year as a result of a chemical reaction triggered by low temperatures.

Skin cancer

The ozone layer stretches from 10 kilometres to 50 kilometres above the Earth's surface. The gas provides a protective barrier against certain wavelengths of ultra-violent radiation from the Sun, which can cause skin cancer. On 13 August, a patch of low ozone concentration was detected near South America. By 16 August, this had covered much of Argentina and ground-based measurements of ozone in Buenos Aires indicate a 20 percent reduction compared to levels measured between 1964-76.The WMO says this may be partly due to the growing Antarctic hole, but may also be the result of meteorological conditions.Scientists believe that atmospheric ozone depletion will continue until ozone-destroying chemicals are reduced to pre-1970's levels - estimated to happen in about 2040.The announcement comes as world leaders meet in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss environmental issues at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Bertha reached tropical depression status again Wednesday as it moved back into the Gulf of Mexico and it is expected to take a general westward track near the Texas coast over the next 24 hours.

"All interests in the northwest Gulf of Mexico, primarily the Texas coast, should monitor the progress of this system," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association advised Wednesday.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Bertha's center was located near latitude 29.0 north, longitude 93.4 west or about 90 miles east-southeast of Galveston, Texas.

NOAA satellite images and radar data indicate Bertha is moving west-southwest at near 5 mph. Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph with higher gusts.

HURRICANE SEASON

CNN Specials - Forecast 2002

A crippling drought in Italy this summer has experts worried that the destruction of land in Southern Europe through "desertification" may be less gradual than previously thought. Experts are now worried that unless radical measures are taken, industrial farming and water waste could make parts of Europe look like the devastated area around Central Asia's Aral Sea.

Prague, 8 August 2002 (RFE/RL) -- When Pietro Laureano stands atop the rocky bluffs that overlook the swirling Ionian Sea and vast expanses of farmland in his southern Italian region of Puglia, he can hardly believe his eyes.

As one of the world's leading experts on "desertification," Laureano had long expected to see the picturesque area of Puglia gradually destroyed through industrial farming, poor water management, and extreme weather caused by global warming.

Years of studying desertification in Africa and the Mediterranean had convinced him that large swathes of Southern European countries like Italy, Spain, and Greece would one day resemble the devastated farmlands around Central Asia's disappearing Aral Sea -- perhaps the world's most dramatic example of desertification.

Laureano, 51, still believes he is right. But after this summer's drought -- the worst to hit southern Italy in 30 years, triggering rationing and protests -- he now thinks he was overly optimistic about the time such a process would take: "Twenty years ago, when we [experts] first rang the alarm bell about possible desertification in the Mediterranean area, I never thought I'd see what I have seen in the course of my life. I thought it would have taken a lot longer."

GELENDZHIK, Russia -- Rescue workers have found the bodies of 21 people killed by rushing water near the Black Sea coast, after some of Europe's worst flooding in decades turned rivers and streets into torrents.

By Friday evening the toll across central and eastern Europe was at least 26 dead, and several people were missing.

Sixteen of the dead in Russia were found in Shirokaya Balka near the city of Novorossiisk, according to Marina Ryklina, spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, The Associated Press reported.

Nearby, a girl's body was found in the village of Abrau-Dyurso. Four people have been found dead in a second village, Dyurso, since Thursday's torrential rains.

A tornado tore through Black Sea tourist spots as floods swept away homes and cars into the sea, according to the Reuters news agency.

SHIROKAYA BALKA, Russia -- Rescue crews are continuing to search Russia's Black Sea Coast for more victims of torrential floods that have claimed at least 51 lives across Europe.

In the Russian resort village of Shirokaya Balka, dozens of cars and two buses were washed into the sea when a wall of water came rushing down the mountain, destroying holiday homes, cafes and recreation halls.

Rescue services have pulled 44 bodies, including 25 women and two toddlers, out of floodwaters in towns in the Novorossiisk region along the Baltic coastline during the past few days, while 1,500 people have been evacuated.

But few places have been left unscathed across central and eastern Europe with property destroyed, scores missing and thousands of residents homeless.

Europe's worst flooding in decades has turned rivers and streets turned into torrents.

Even summer holiday destinations such as Spain and Italy have been hit by the torrential downpours and fierce winds with harvests threatened with ruin.

Venice is under threat of flooding after the sea level around the city rose by 90 centimetres (35 inches) above average.

Other countries hit by the downpours have been the Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and the Ukraine.

Most of the bodies of the Russian dead were found in Shirokaya Balka in the area of Novorossiisk, on the Baltic coast. The death toll included two campers and a young girl in the nearby village of Abrau-Dyurso.

Floodwaters washed away homes and bridges inland as well as brought down telephone lines and submerged railway tracks.

"I helped recover and carry five corpses," a resident was reported by Reuters as telling ORT television. "I've lived in Novorossiisk for 40 years and I have never seen anything like this."

Seven villages were cut off in southern Russia and about 600 residents were left homeless after the second series of storms in two months. More than 100 people died in July.

The area has received about a month's equivalent of rain in the past 24 hours.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered government departments on Saturday to do more to help the victims of the flooding.

"Although it is summer, relaxation is out of the question," Putin said during a meeting in the Kremlin, Interfax news agency was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

"Help must be extended ... Epidemics must be prevented and people must be supported."

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has been dispatched to the area where he is receiving reports on the rescue and clean-up efforts, AP quoted Interfax news agency as saying.

SHIROKAYA BALKA, Russia -- Torrential rain continues to sweep across Europe causing havoc and the loss of dozens of lives.

Property and crops have been destroyed, residents have been made homeless and tourists have been left stranded in usually sun-drenched tourist resorts.

Rescue workers in the worst affected region, the Black Sea coast of Russia, have retrieved 49 bodies so far, but the death toll is recorded at 58, mainly tourists. The overall death toll across Europe is 65.

An Emergencies Ministry spokesman said the worst of the danger had passed and that weather conditions were now improving.

"According to our forecasts, the main threat has passed," Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Emergencies Minister Yuri Vorobyev as telling Russian President Vladimir Putin at a special meeting in the Kremlin

But heavy downpours continue across Europe from England to Ukraine. Europe's worst flooding in decades has turned rivers and streets into torrents.

CAMP SPRINGS, Maryland (CNN) -- An extraordinary drought and near-record warm temperatures stretched across the United States in July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.

NOAA's monthly drought assessment placed 49 percent of the contiguous United States in "moderate to severe" drought conditions -- due in part to the fifth-warmest July on record.

Extreme drought conditions persisted across a huge swath of the West, from San Diego north to Montana, and east to Lincoln, Nebraska. Another extreme drought zone spread across the Southeast, from middle Georgia north to Delaware, while a third, smaller extreme drought zone gripped the lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

For six U.S. states -- the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia in the east; Colorado and Wyoming in the west -- July wrapped up the driest August-to-July year in their history.

DRESDEN, Germany (CNN) -- Central Dresden was being evacuated late Thursday amid fears that a wave might wash over the city after a dam break downstream.

All efforts to save the historic buildings in the city were abandoned, said officials, who expect flooding to reach a peak by 1 a.m. Friday (7 p.m. EDT).

The level of the swollen River Elbe is already well above the predicted peak, and although the dam that broke is downstream of the city, officials expect a rebounding wave to sweep into Dresden. The river has reached heights not seen since 1845.

The latest danger from the flooding which has devastated whole areas of Europe and killed more than 100 came as a state of emergency was announced in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

Soldiers reinforced flood barriers along the Danube amid concern that the worst of the floods will not arrive until Friday when water levels could reach their highest since 1500 [...]

Several residents fought against the forced evacuation, hoping to save some of their belongings. - "Rainfall is becoming more intense," says Prof. Phil Jones of the Climactic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, a prominent European meteorological institution. "This is not a [natural] cycle."

While in the United States the scientific community is split between those who believe unnatural climate change is occurring and those who don't, in Europe experts tend to agree in the view that the global climate is undergoing massive changes and that human activities and industry play a large role. - Already, the flooding is reviving European calls for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, which would set limits on the industrial emissions believed to cause global warming. Ratified by many European countries, the treaty was rejected by President Bush last year. - "This is a terrifying,," says fireman Martin Fucik, resting briefly between rescue efforts. "This flood is unnatural. We have had floods every year for the past eight years.

That was bad, but it was nothing compared to this."

So far this year, nearly 1,000 people have been killed in storms and flooding in China. China's northern provinces, in contrast, are suffering a severe drought, threatening millions of farmers and large areas of crops.

The child was walking with his family near the popular beauty spot the Giant's Causeway, when he and an older brother were caught by the wave and fell into the sea.

The older boy was rescued by the children's father and uncle, but an air and sea rescue operation did not locate the younger child for an hour.

Three lifeboats and two RAF helicopters were scrambled to search for the boy.

He was eventually found by one of the helicopter crews but was dead on arrival after being airlifted to Coleraine Hospital.

All three survivors were said to be suffering severe shock and were detained in hospital.

Eight children and an adult have escaped serious injury when they were swept into the sea by a large wave off the coast of County Antrim. The incident happened at the Giant's Causeway on Thursday. - The children's uncle, Ian Humphrey, said the wave was of "freak proportions". "It came in, hit the rocks, broke on the rocks, but carried on over the rocks and came in over our heads and flattened everybody."

Phanfone was moving north quickly from its position about 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Tokyo, and with winds gusting at up to 145 km/h (90 mph).

The typhoon was supposed to lash Tokyo sometime on Monday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

Already, four people have reportedly disappeared off the coast of Kanagawa prefecture, west of the capital, in extremely rough seas.

The weather warnings did not stop surfers from trying to take advantage of the waves the typhoon's winds were pushing ahead of it [...] According to the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Phanfone is causing waves within its storm area as high as 8.5 metres.

August 17. 2002 - Floods and landslides in Vietnam have killed at least four people this week and forced soldiers to evacuate about 22,000, with waters forecast to rise to dangerous levels, officials said Saturday. - But in China's province of Yunnan, which borders Ha Giang and Lao Cai to the south, casualties are higher, with 28 dead and 39 missing in landslides this week.

TEREZIN, Czech Republic -- Disease, illness and chemical pollution are emerging as the new threats facing Europe as the worst floods in living memory begin to recede.

More than 100 people have perished in storms and flooding in Germany, Austria, Russia and the Czech republic in recent weeks.

But residents now face possible disease as they return to their homes to find piles of decaying household waste and debris from shops and restaurants.

Many sewage treatment plants have also been forced to shut down and others have flooded. Czech newspapers are running articles on how to disinfect clothes and dispose of potentially tainted food.

CNN's Michael Holmes, reporting from Grimma, Germany, said the focus had now moved from the damage caused by floods to the task of clearing up the debris and detrius. (On The Scene)

People had been warned not to touch the waters because of the threat of hepatitis, Holmes said, adding the size and scale of the damage as the water level dropped has been described as "breathtaking."

In Dresden, where water levels rose five-fold to more than 30 foot (10 metres) in the worst flood on record, authorities said they were aware of disease dangers.

"We're offering hepatitis vaccinations and urging people not to touch food after they've been working around the water," Irina Duevel, spokeswoman for the environment ministry in the state of Saxony, told Reuters.

But Duevel added the danger of an epidemic was limited and "we don't want to cause panic."

About 20,000 cleanup workers in the Czech Republic are being offered hepatitis vaccinations, health official Michael Vit told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

"Meat is decaying at all the butcher shops and the area, hygienically, is in a catastrophic state," Igor Nemec, the mayor of the capital Prague, said.

Czech and German environment ministers are due to tour the flooded Spolana chemical plant in Neratovice, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Prague, later on Tuesday amid fears it could still pose an environmental threat after leaking poisonous chlorine gas last week.

"They want to see right at the source how it looks, whether the fears are founded or not," Czech Environment Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Sulova said.

The Rivers Elbe and Vltava, which flow through towns and cities -- including Prague and Dresden -- are lined with factories dating back to the communist-era, when environmental standards were rarely taken into consideration during construction.

The town of Wittenberg near Berlin is also home to a complex of chemical plants.

Officials say potentially dangerous chemicals have been cleared from the area or stored safely above ground, but residents and environmental groups have expressed fears of a spill or water contamination.

Following the floods, about 740 kilometres of streets have been destroyed and 180 bridges need to be rebuilt. Some towns like Grimma looked as if they had been bombed, Holmes said. (Map of affected areas)

The German government has promised $500 million in immediate aid, $6.9 billion over the long term. The European Union is chipping in with $5 billion and German racing driver Michael Schumacher has offered $1 million of his own money. (Germany delays tax cuts)

The government also announced after an emergency Cabinet meeting that it will delay tax cuts worth $6.9 billion, due to take effect in 2003, to help pay for reconstruction. (Crisis may aid Schroeder)

German authorities reported three more deaths on Monday, bringing the Europe-wide toll to at least 109.

The massive cleanup and rebuilding operation is expected to cost about 20 billion euros ($20 billion) across Europe.

Floodwaters also swamped a cemetery where 10,000 Holocaust victims are buried in the Czech Republic, creating a vast, stinking lake at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt.

"It's horrible," Jan Munk, the director of the Terezin memorial, told The Associated Press, adding that it may take many months to restore the site.

Pluto could be experiencing a warming trend on the surface and a cooling trend in the atmosphere, according to planetary scientists.

Astronomers made the deduction based on observations of a recent stellar eclipse when Pluto passed in front of the light of star P126A. When the planet eclipsed another star in 1998, the starlight went out quickly. During the July event, the light dimmed slowly as Pluto passed in front.

By studying the starlight, scientists estimated the density, pressure and temperature of Pluto's atmosphere. "In the last 14 years, one or more changes have occurred," said Marc Buie of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. "Pluto's atmosphere is undergoing global cooling, while other data indicates that the surface seems to be getting slightly warmer. "Change is inevitable as Pluto moves away from the sun, but what we're seeing is more complex than expected," said Buie, who with James Elliot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported the findings last week.

Pluto has a highly eccentric orbit and is heading away from the sun to the most distant point in its travels. Astronomers theorize that during such times Pluto's atmosphere freezes over for more than a century. The scientists will be able to get more data when Pluto passes in front of another star Tuesday. Such star eclipses or occultations are taking place more frequently because Pluto is moving in line with the main band of the Milky Way, where stars are more commonplace.

Researchers say Arctic route could thaw in next decade

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rapid melting of the Arctic ice pack may turn a cherished sailor's myth into reality. The Northwest Passage, the legendary shipping shortcut from the Atlantic to the Pacific, could be ice-free in as few as 10 years, many predict.

A well-documented continuing Arctic thaw is reducing polar ice, a change that is likely to have profound effects on commerce, ecology and native cultures, according to author Richard Kerr, writing in the journal Science.

The fabled route runs below Iceland and Greenland, through the Arctic archipelago in northern Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

An ice-free Northwest Passage would let ships traveling between Europe and Asia shave more than 4,000 miles off the route through the Panama Canal and would allow ships to avoid the occasional delays and the passage fees of the canal.

In addition, many of the largest container and tanker ships cannot fit in the 88-year-old canal, forcing shippers to use smaller vessels or to take the even longer, more treacherous route around South America's Cape Horn.

But the potential windfall for shippers could threaten native cultures and Arctic wildlife.

The combination of declining ice and dramatically increased ship traffic could alter the feeding habits of fish, seals and polar bears, further threatening the traditional way of life of the Inuit communities that depend on ice-bound Arctic creatures for their survival.

The specter of an Exxon Valdez-like oil spill also raises concern throughout the region, Kerr wrote.

Shipping experts caution the passage probably would be safe for shipping traffic only in the summer, and ships using the Arctic route would need substantial investment in reinforced hulls to survive ice collisions or entrapment.

Kerr cited the work of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, which predicts that in as little as a decade ships would find ice-free passage in the summer months.

More conservative climate models show the Northwest Passage opening before the year 2080 at the latest.

Recent NASA airborne measurements and a new review of space-based measurements of the thickness of Earth's polar ice sheets concludes they are changing much more rapidly than previously believed, with unknown consequences for global sea levels and Earth's climate.

       Large sectors of ice in southeast Greenland, the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula are changing rapidly by processes not yet well understood, said researchers Dr. Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Dr. Robert Thomas of EG&G Services at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. Their study, published this week in the journal Science, reviews progress in measuring changes in ice sheet thickness based upon technical advances and observations made over the past decade.

       "Earth's polar ice sheets are changing over relatively short time scales, that is, decades versus thousands of years," Rignot said. Thomas added that today's more precise, widespread measurements tell us rapid changes are common. "These observations run counter to much accepted wisdom about ice sheets, which, lacking modern observational capabilities, was largely based on 'steady-state' assumptions," Thomas said.

       "Remote sensing is allowing researchers to look at polar processes on continental scales and in greater detail than before," said Dr. Waleed Abdalati, Cryospheric Program manager, NASA Headquarters, Washington D.C. "Closer examination using even broader advanced remote sensing techniques, including NASA's upcoming Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and Europe's planned Cryosat mission--combined with widespread interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, ice thickness surveys and ground-based measurements--will enable us to estimate ice sheet mass balance for Greenland and Antarctica even more precisely."

       Rignot said understanding how polar ice sheets evolve is vital to society. "The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets together hold enough ice to raise sea level by 70 meters (230 feet)," he said. "Even a small imbalance between snowfall and discharge of ice and melt water from ice sheets into the ocean could be a major contributor to the current sea level rise rate of 1.8 millimeters (0.07 inches) a year and impact ocean circulation and climate. During past periods of rapid deglaciation, ice sheet melting raised sea level orders of magnitude faster than today. This is the real threat of the ice sheets."

       Rignot and Thomas' review summarizes current progress for two methods of measuring changes in ice sheet thickness: the mass budget method, which compares losses by melting and ice discharge with total net input from snow accumulation; and measuring elevation changes over time. These methods use various space remote sensing resources, such as laser and radar altimetry, the Global Positioning System and InSAR.

       The review reports Greenland's ice sheet is losing 50 cubic kilometers (12 cubic miles) of mass a year due to rapid thinning near its coasts. That's enough to raise sea level 0.13 millimeters (0.005 inches) annually. "Rapid coastal thinning cannot be explained by a few warm summers and is attributed to a dynamic ice sheet response," Rignot said. "A possible contributor to the observed trend is increased lubrication from additional surface melt water reaching glacier beds through crevasses and moulins."

       Rignot says the mass balance in Antarctica is much harder to calculate because the ice sheet is far larger, more remote and not well covered by existing key satellites. The researchers calculated net ice gains or losses for 33 Antarctic glaciers, including 25 of the 30 largest ice producers.

       The West Antarctic ice sheet was found to be thickening in the west, thinning rapidly in the north, and probably losing mass overall by roughly 65 cubic kilometers (roughly 15.5 cubic miles) a year, enough to raise sea level by about 0.16 millimeters (0.006 inches) a year. InSAR observations show several major glaciers that are accelerating and contributing to sea level rise. Radar altimetry shows ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea Embayment are rapidly thinning, possibly in reaction to a warmer ocean, as suggested by recent oceanographic data. Melting of ice shelf bottoms is far larger than expected here due to intrusion of warm water on the continental shelf, implying a larger interplay of ice and ocean in ice sheet evolution.

       Rignot said little is known about the mass balance of Antarctic Peninsula mountain glaciers, which receive a quarter of Antarctica's snow accumulation. The peninsula has warmed 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past 50 years, causing rapid thinning, enhanced melting and rapid disintegration of its ice shelves. The peninsula is a unique laboratory to determine whether retreating ice shelves can induce faster ice sheet flow and raise global sea level, a hypothesis formulated decades ago but still disputed. Recent results show large glacier acceleration in response to ice shelf collapse. If ice shelves do buttress glaciers, the Antarctic ice sheet's contribution to sea level rise could be much larger in the future than previously believed.

       Illustrations related to this study may be viewed at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/antarctica