Summer may have only just started after weeks of rain - but fruit falling from trees suggest autumn is already here.
Experts believe the unpredictable weather may lead to the shortest summer on record for fruit growers.
The warm early spring and recent deluges are the factors behind berries in hedgerows and mushrooms springing up in the fields.
Earth Changes
More than one million people have been evacuated or stranded as rivers in northeastern India and Bangladesh rose to alarming levels and submerged vast swathes of countryside, officials said Monday.
In India's Assam state, the army helped shift an estimated 800,000 people as the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries -- swollen by monsoon rains -- breached their embankments late Sunday.
A further 300,000 people further downstream in Bangladesh were displaced or marooned, most of them for the second time in as many months, officials said.
In India's Assam state, the army helped shift an estimated 800,000 people as the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries -- swollen by monsoon rains -- breached their embankments late Sunday.
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| ©Reuters |
A further 300,000 people further downstream in Bangladesh were displaced or marooned, most of them for the second time in as many months, officials said.
Heavy rains claimed lives and triggered flood alerts in the Lower Silesia region of south-western Poland Friday as emergency crews scrambled to sandbag low-lying areas to ward off rising river waters. A man working on road construction is believed to have drowned Friday after being swept away by the waters of the Sola river swollen by heavy rain in southern Poland, according to Poland's TVN24 news channel.
Two earthquakes rocked parts of Indonesia's Java Island early Monday, injuring at least four people and damaging buildings, officials said.
Wijanto, an official at Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta, said the first quake with a magnitude of 4.9 occurred at 1:36 a.m., while the second one with a magnitude of 4.5 hit at 6:31 a.m.
Wijanto, an official at Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta, said the first quake with a magnitude of 4.9 occurred at 1:36 a.m., while the second one with a magnitude of 4.5 hit at 6:31 a.m.
A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit near the west coast of Colombia on Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but local authorities said there were no immediate reports of serious damage.
Officials in coastal Narino province said they had no news of damaged buildings or injuries, but they were still contacting remote rural areas. Residents told local radio the shock knocked out electricity in some areas.
Officials in coastal Narino province said they had no news of damaged buildings or injuries, but they were still contacting remote rural areas. Residents told local radio the shock knocked out electricity in some areas.
Oceanic planetary waves, just an inch or two high at the surface but thousands of feet deep and hundreds of miles apart, sweep slowly but steadily across Earth's oceans: a surfer who caught one in Acapulco would take four years to wash up on a Chinese beach. The waves are speeding up, though, thanks to global warming, and as they do, they could affect weather patterns around the world.
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| ©Paulo Cipollini, Southampton Oceanography Centre |
| Schematic of a typical oceanic planetary wave traveling westward with horizontal scale of about 500 kilometers and with vertical amplitude at the sea surface of about 10 centimeters. Such waves have a major effect on the large-scale ocean circulation and thus on weather and climate. |
Large swathes of Bangladesh were underwater again on Sunday after heavy rains, adding to the misery of millions hit by flooding that has killed more than 830 people since late July.
Weather officials said that nearly 20 of the country's 64 districts were flooded after three days of rain swelled major rivers flowing through India into Bangladesh.
Weather officials said that nearly 20 of the country's 64 districts were flooded after three days of rain swelled major rivers flowing through India into Bangladesh.
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| ©AFP |
| A Bangladeshi woman uses a raft to cross a flooded field in Sirajgonj district of Bangladesh. |
DAKAR, Senegal - Renewed fighting Saturday inside a national park in Congo that is home to endangered mountain gorillas forced rangers to flee for the second time in less than a week, conservationists said.
The clashes between fighters loyal to warlord Laurent Nkunda and government soldiers took place in Virunga National Park, where some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas live on the slopes of a volcanic mountain range that straddles Congo's border with Rwanda and Uganda, the international conservation group WildlifeDirect said.
The clashes between fighters loyal to warlord Laurent Nkunda and government soldiers took place in Virunga National Park, where some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas live on the slopes of a volcanic mountain range that straddles Congo's border with Rwanda and Uganda, the international conservation group WildlifeDirect said.
A moderate earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County in far Northern California early Saturday morning.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.4 quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 20 miles west of Petrolia and 40 miles southwest of Eureka.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.4 quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 20 miles west of Petrolia and 40 miles southwest of Eureka.
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| ©USGS |
Millions of people along the coasts of Myanmar (Burma), Bangladesh, and India may be at risk of suffering a catastrophic tsunami-generating earthquake, according to a new study.
The northern Bay of Bengal could be pummeled by a temblor as massive as the one that sent devastating tsunamis into Indonesia and other Indian Ocean countries in December 2004, the research suggests.
The northern Bay of Bengal could be pummeled by a temblor as massive as the one that sent devastating tsunamis into Indonesia and other Indian Ocean countries in December 2004, the research suggests.
