Bottlenose body count since Jan. 1 hits 30 Monday
Biologists removed three more dead bottlenose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon Monday, bringing this year's total lagoon bottlenose body count to at least 30.
Staff from Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute performed onsite examinations of the three dolphins: two of them in Merritt Island and one in Rockledge.
At least 30 dolphins have died in the lagoon since Jan. 1, all but a few in Brevard, most near Merritt Island. That's more than twice what would be expected, based on the death rate during the past decade.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration already has declared the 100 or so manatee deaths in the lagoon since mid-2012 an Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Event. The declaration triggers NOAA's own formal investigation. The federal agency is examining whether the dolphin and manatee deaths might be connected.
While the manatees die quickly, the dolphins show signs of a drawn-out syndrome. Most are found very thin, with enlarged spleens.
As many as 300 brown pelicans also have died in the lagoon region since February, maybe more. Those tested were negative for botulism and other common causes of bird death. They come in with heavy parasite counts.
About half the dolphins studied in the lagoon in the past decade suffer from some form of chronic infectious disease, suggesting compromised immune systems.
Researchers find levels of mercury - a potent neurotoxin - in the skin and blood of lagoon dolphins that are higher than in any other dolphins that have been studied. They also find high incidence of tumors, heart problems, cancer, stomach ulcers, skin lesions, genital herpes and other emerging ailments previously thought rare in dolphins.
Dolphins captured near Merritt Island, especially, test in poor health.
Researchers have pointed to water tainted by treated sewage and runoff as the possible cause.
Earth Changes
Britain's coast was shrouded in mist for the Bank Holiday weekend due to warm air clashing with an unusually cool sea because of the cold spring.
Temperatures up to 22C meant thousands flocked to beaches around the South and South West Coasts.
But they were greeted with a strange sea mist.
The "haar" or "sea fret", as it is known, is caused by warm air condensing over the cold sea and creating a fog. It is typical for this time of year but more pronounced than usual as the air is so warm and the sea is so cold following the coolest April for 24 years and the coldest March for 100 years.
The sea fog was worse over the south coast and south west as the wind was blowing the fog onto land. Today (Tues) the hear is more likely to settle over the north and east, where it is more common, as the wind changes direction.
Calum Maccoll, forecaster at the Met Office, said the sea was unusually cold.
"The sea temperature is 9C, it should be in the double figures but the cold March has brought it right down.
"As it takes a long time to warm up it is colder than it normally would be at this time of year, and as mild air is passing over the surface, mist is being created."
© James Boardman
A sea mist descends rolls on to Brighton beach in East Sussex
A sea mist descends rolls on to Brighton beach in East Sussex
Temperatures up to 22C meant thousands flocked to beaches around the South and South West Coasts.
But they were greeted with a strange sea mist.
The "haar" or "sea fret", as it is known, is caused by warm air condensing over the cold sea and creating a fog. It is typical for this time of year but more pronounced than usual as the air is so warm and the sea is so cold following the coolest April for 24 years and the coldest March for 100 years.
The sea fog was worse over the south coast and south west as the wind was blowing the fog onto land. Today (Tues) the hear is more likely to settle over the north and east, where it is more common, as the wind changes direction.
Calum Maccoll, forecaster at the Met Office, said the sea was unusually cold.
"The sea temperature is 9C, it should be in the double figures but the cold March has brought it right down.
"As it takes a long time to warm up it is colder than it normally would be at this time of year, and as mild air is passing over the surface, mist is being created."
St. Paul, Minn. (WCCO) - The spring weather brought with it something pretty unsightly near St. Paul. Hundreds of fish recently died in Beaver Lake, and many of them ended up all along the shoreline.
Fish kills are not unusual this time of year, but this one has Ramsey County officials worried. The fish died even though there is an aeration system in Beaver Lake.
Ruth Klabunde walks her dogs around the lake about three times a week. The first thing she noticed was the smell.
"This is a really fun little lake to walk around," Klabunde said. "And the stench was kind of bad."
And then Klabunde says she saw the source.
"This whole little bay area here was thick with dead fish," she said.
When the ice finally went out on Beaver Lake a week and a half ago, it left behind schools upon schools of dead fish.
It's estimated that more than 7,000 pounds of dead fish - mostly catfish, sunfish and bass - have been taken out of Beaver Lake. But what caused this unusually large fish kill is still a mystery.
Beaver Lake has an aeration pump that can be turned on when oxygen levels get low. Ramsey County turned the pump on in February, but it only reaches a small part of the lake.
Update time = Tue May 7 9:00:02 MDT 2013
Magnitude 2.9 2013/05/07 07:22:33 44.583N 110.976W 9.5 14 km ( 8 mi) SE of West Yellowstone, MT
Here are the 30 most recent earthquakes and all M>3 earthquakes on this map...
Magnitude 2.9 2013/05/07 07:22:33 44.583N 110.976W 9.5 14 km ( 8 mi) SE of West Yellowstone, MT
One of the Philippines' most active volcanoes spewed huge rocks and ash after daybreak Tuesday, killing at least five climbers and trapping more than a dozen others near the crater in its first eruption in three years, officials said. Rescue teams and helicopters were sent to Mayon volcano in the central Philippines to bring out the dead. At least seven were injured from a group of about 20 mountaineers who were caught by surprise by the sudden eruption, Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda said. Clouds have cleared over the volcano, which was quiet later in the morning. The climbers who died were struck by huge rocks, guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network by cell phone from a camp near the crater. They included a German, an Austrian and a Filipino.
The injured included foreigners and Filipino guides. Some were in critical condition, said the chief of the national disaster agency, Eduardo del Rosario. Jesalva said he was in the group that spent the night on the picturesque mountain, known for its almost-perfect cone, when the volcano rumbled back to life early in the morning and rocks "as big as a living room" came raining down on them. He rushed back to the base camp to call for help.
The injured included foreigners and Filipino guides. Some were in critical condition, said the chief of the national disaster agency, Eduardo del Rosario. Jesalva said he was in the group that spent the night on the picturesque mountain, known for its almost-perfect cone, when the volcano rumbled back to life early in the morning and rocks "as big as a living room" came raining down on them. He rushed back to the base camp to call for help.
Tens of millions of the insects are preparing to inflict a 17-yearly noisy hell on people living along America's East Coast.
A cicada dries it wings on a tree branch in 2004Colossal numbers of cicadas - quietly growing underground since 1996 - are about to emerge along much of the US East Coast to begin an orgy of passionate singing and mating.
Billions of so-called 17-year periodical cicadas, with their distinctive black bodies, buggy red eyes, and orange-veined wings will begin to settle along a roughly 900-mile stretch from northern Georgia to upstate New York.
The good news is they do not sting or bite, and are not harmful to crops.
But the eerie, cacophonous mating music they produce has simultaneously amazed and infuriated people for centuries.
In central Connecticut, particularly dense concentrations of so-called Brood II cicadas, named Magicicada septendecim, should arrive in late May or June this year as soon as the soil temperature exceeds 18C (64F).
Chris Maier, entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, said the first scientific recording of Brood II specimens was in 1843.
A cicada dries it wings on a tree branch in 2004
Billions of so-called 17-year periodical cicadas, with their distinctive black bodies, buggy red eyes, and orange-veined wings will begin to settle along a roughly 900-mile stretch from northern Georgia to upstate New York.
The good news is they do not sting or bite, and are not harmful to crops.
But the eerie, cacophonous mating music they produce has simultaneously amazed and infuriated people for centuries.
In central Connecticut, particularly dense concentrations of so-called Brood II cicadas, named Magicicada septendecim, should arrive in late May or June this year as soon as the soil temperature exceeds 18C (64F).
Chris Maier, entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, said the first scientific recording of Brood II specimens was in 1843.
© AFP
A flooded car park in Neuilly-les-Dijon where the Ouche river bursts its banks after days of heavy rain.
A flooded car park in Neuilly-les-Dijon where the Ouche river bursts its banks after days of heavy rain.
Some residents of Dijon were ordered out of their homes to escape the rising waters of the Ouche river, which overflowed its banks, after a month's worth of rain poured down over 12 hours.
Dijon firefighters had to rescue three people trapped in a car, and ferry service in Lyon was suspended because the water in the Saone river had risen to the point the boats could not pass under bridges, Radio France Internationale said.
Flood alerts in seven departments were lifted Saturday, however the downpour was expected to continue in other parts of France.
© USGS
2013-05-06 03:13:42 UTC
2013-05-05 21:13:42 UTC-06:00 at epicenter
Location:
42.608°N 111.947°W depth=11.3km (7.0mi)
Nearby Cities:
28km (17mi) W of Soda Springs, Idaho
50km (31mi) SE of Pocatello, Idaho
54km (34mi) SE of Chubbuck, Idaho
72km (45mi) SSE of Blackfoot, Idaho
205km (127mi) N of Salt Lake City, Utah
Technical data
The storm will continue to drop accumulating snow through Friday morning and reaching even more unlikely locations over the Plains, Midwest and the South before it is all said and done.
Omaha, Neb., Mason City, Iowa, and Rochester, Minn., are but only several cities that have been clobbered by their biggest May snowfall on record. In many cases in the major cities in the Plains, those records date back to the 1800s.
While snow is not unheard of away from the Rockies and northern tier states during May, it is the amount of snow and the extent of that snow that is so unusual. Snowstorms during May in the Midwest are typically highly localized.
Minneapolis/St. Paul managed to avoid the heaviest snow from this storm. However, areas less than 50 miles to the southeast of the Twin Cities received between 6 and 12 inches of snow Wednesday night into Thursday. As much as 18 inches fell on part of southeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin.
© Alaska Volcano Observatory
John Power is a seismologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory. He writes in an email that the explosions were "similar in size to what we have seen over the past several years," although he notes that it is unusual to have three in a row.
Power says satellite imagery and a webcam in the nearby village of Nikolski show that the volcano is continuing to emit small amounts of gas, ash and steam, with plumes rising to 15,000 feet. There's no real-time monitoring network on the volcano.
Cleveland lies on a major international flight path, and in light of the explosions the Observatory has raised the aviation alert level from yellow to orange. They warn that there is the possibility of sudden explosions reaching above 20,000 feet, but so far there have been no reported disturbances to air travel.
Cleveland is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutians, erupting roughly two dozen times in 2012. It's last major eruptive period was in 2001, when the volcano sent ash clouds up to 39,000 feet.
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Large meteor explodes in Wyoming sky