Earth Changes
As a scientist who has studied the global warming issue extensively, I can say with high certainty that man's influence on global climate is at best minimal. The temperature data of the recent past does not support the theory of anthropogenic global warming.
CEDAR RAPIDS - Jeff Zogg, hydrologist at the National Weather Service office in Davenport, said one word, more than any other, describes what is happening now on the Cedar River - "historic."
At 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Zogg said the National Weather Service just bumped up its crest prediction for the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids from 21.2 feet to 22 feet.
The record crest in Cedar Rapids is 20 feet. The significant flood of 1993 only sent the river to 19.27 feet.
"Feel free to use this in your story," Zogg said. "This is a historic event. These are river stages we've never seen before."
Zogg said predicting the coming river crests was "extremely challenging" because the stages at some points along the river now are ones never observed before.
"We don't know exactly what will happen when water gets that high," he said. "We don't know for sure, and nobody knows for sure."
At 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Zogg said the National Weather Service just bumped up its crest prediction for the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids from 21.2 feet to 22 feet.
The record crest in Cedar Rapids is 20 feet. The significant flood of 1993 only sent the river to 19.27 feet.
|
| ©Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette |
| Richard Campbell of Cedar Rapids carries a pepper plant he rescued from his and his wife Barbara's garden at the Ellis Park community garden plots Monday in northwest Cedar Rapids. The couple pulled their tomato, pepper, watermelon and cucumber plants from their swamped plot. They also pulled out some radishes. Rising water of the Cedar River already has swamped many other gardens. The couple, who live in the nearby Time Check neighborhood, has had a garden at the park since the program's inception. |
"Feel free to use this in your story," Zogg said. "This is a historic event. These are river stages we've never seen before."
Zogg said predicting the coming river crests was "extremely challenging" because the stages at some points along the river now are ones never observed before.
"We don't know exactly what will happen when water gets that high," he said. "We don't know for sure, and nobody knows for sure."
The Royal Navy was carrying out live-firing exercises just hours before 26 dolphins died in the biggest mass stranding of the species in Britain, it has been claimed.
Marine experts trying to find out why the pod of dolphins tried to beach themselves on the shores of Percuil river, near Portscatho, Cornwall, say they could have been panicked by an "underwater disturbance".
The dolphins were found dead early on Monday morning.
Marine experts trying to find out why the pod of dolphins tried to beach themselves on the shores of Percuil river, near Portscatho, Cornwall, say they could have been panicked by an "underwater disturbance".
The dolphins were found dead early on Monday morning.
A two-year-old mud volcano that is still spewing huge volumes of boiling mud, has displaced more than 30,000 people and caused millions of dollars in damage on the island of Java was triggered by the drilling of a gas exploration well, an international team of scientists has concluded.
The most detailed scientific analysis to date of the mud volcano disproves the theory that an earthquake that happened two days before it erupted in East Java, Indonesia, was to blame.
The most detailed scientific analysis to date of the mud volcano disproves the theory that an earthquake that happened two days before it erupted in East Java, Indonesia, was to blame.
|
| ©Durham University |
| The main vent of the Lusi mud volcano taken within a few months of eruption. |
A line of powerful thunderstorms produced large hail and strong winds across central and eastern Kansas on Sunday night, damaging a correctional facility and dropping as much as 1 1-2 inches of rain in 30 minutes in Kansas City.
The storms popped up in central Kansas in the late afternoon and moved northeast toward Missouri, producing winds up to 80 mph and golf-ball sized hail in some areas, according to National Weather Service spotters.
The storms popped up in central Kansas in the late afternoon and moved northeast toward Missouri, producing winds up to 80 mph and golf-ball sized hail in some areas, according to National Weather Service spotters.
At least eight persons were killed and several others injured when they were struck by lightning during pre-monsoon thundershowers in three districts of West Bengal on Thursday.
Five persons, including two women, were killed in South 24 Parganas district on Thursday as showers accompanied by lightning lashed the district, official sources said.
A boy was killed and two others injured, one critically, as they were sleeping in their homes at Hakimpur in Joynagar area, the police said.
A middle-aged woman was killed and seven persons injured in lightning strikes at Gazipur and Ramsharanpur in Kulpi area of the district, the police said.
Five persons, including two women, were killed in South 24 Parganas district on Thursday as showers accompanied by lightning lashed the district, official sources said.
A boy was killed and two others injured, one critically, as they were sleeping in their homes at Hakimpur in Joynagar area, the police said.
A middle-aged woman was killed and seven persons injured in lightning strikes at Gazipur and Ramsharanpur in Kulpi area of the district, the police said.
In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.
Engineers kept watch over this rain-deluged state's dams Tuesday after a major collapse nearly emptied Lake Delton in a torrent that washed away houses and a highway.
The Lake Delton breach was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that threatened the survival of the tiny Wisconsin town of Gays Mills and displaced thousands of Indiana residents. The stormy weather was blamed for 15 deaths in the Midwest and elsewhere.
An engineering assessment team from the Wisconsin National Guard headed to Lake Delton to determine what was needed to repair the gaping hole that let water from the 267-acre lake carve a new channel to the Wisconsin River on Monday.
Other crews were going to dams throughout the southern and western part of the state to assess damage. They also were monitoring several dams that were seeping or in danger of failing, state Emergency Management spokeswoman Jessica Iverson said.
The Lake Delton breach was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that threatened the survival of the tiny Wisconsin town of Gays Mills and displaced thousands of Indiana residents. The stormy weather was blamed for 15 deaths in the Midwest and elsewhere.
An engineering assessment team from the Wisconsin National Guard headed to Lake Delton to determine what was needed to repair the gaping hole that let water from the 267-acre lake carve a new channel to the Wisconsin River on Monday.
Other crews were going to dams throughout the southern and western part of the state to assess damage. They also were monitoring several dams that were seeping or in danger of failing, state Emergency Management spokeswoman Jessica Iverson said.
|
| ©AP Photo/Andy Manis |
| People look at two houses that fell into an emptied Lake Delton Tuesday, June 10, 2008, in Lake Delton, Wis., after the 267-acre lake drained Monday. The Lake Delton breach was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that also threatened the survival of the tiny Wisconsin town of Gays Mills and displaced thousands of Indiana residents. |
|
| ©2008 WRAL.com/AP |
| A satellite shows the distribution of smoke from a fire in an eastern North Carolina wildlife refugee just before midnight on June 7, 2008. (Photo courtesy of Modis Today) |
COLUMBIA, N.C. - Fire crews on Monday continued building containment lines around a massive wildfire burning in a sparsely inhabited rural area of eastern North Carolina.
North Carolina Division of Forestry spokesman Bill Swartley said plans for firefighters also include pumping water onto smoldering peat fires burning in the ground.
BEIJING -- A huge volume of water Tuesday surged from a lake created by China's massive earthquake, safely plunging downstream through an area where hundreds of thousands had been braced for disaster, officials said.
The mammoth effort to drain Tangjiashan lake -- where floodwaters behind a landslide had threatened to burst through the wall of rubble to submerge low-lying towns -- was declared a success by officials who said the crisis was over.
But with the risk of man-made drainage channels collapsing under pressure from the water charging through them, there was still a danger of sudden tidal waves.
The official Xinhua news agency reported late Tuesday that a crest of flood water, carrying with it trees, TVs, refrigerators and the bodies of earthquake victims, had surged safely past the city of Mianyang in southwestern Sichuan province.
The mammoth effort to drain Tangjiashan lake -- where floodwaters behind a landslide had threatened to burst through the wall of rubble to submerge low-lying towns -- was declared a success by officials who said the crisis was over.
But with the risk of man-made drainage channels collapsing under pressure from the water charging through them, there was still a danger of sudden tidal waves.
The official Xinhua news agency reported late Tuesday that a crest of flood water, carrying with it trees, TVs, refrigerators and the bodies of earthquake victims, had surged safely past the city of Mianyang in southwestern Sichuan province.
|
| ©AP |
| An engineer prepares to fire a missile to blast boulders in a man-made spillways in Tangjiashan, China. |
Comment: Please read here for more reading on the facts and fictions of Global Warming.