Earth Changes
A pod of around 500 dolphins are caught on camera by the Japanese coastguard in one of the country's southern seas. Also captured is a pod of killer whales, which are thought to have been chasing the dolphins as prey. Officials believe there are at least 50,000 killer whales in the wild.
Source: ITN
Top U.S. corn and soybean producing state Iowa has received the most spring rainfall since records began 141 years ago, slowing crop plantings and threatening to reduce yields, an Iowa climatologist said on Friday.
Top U.S. corn and soybean producing state Iowa has received the most spring rainfall since records began 141 years ago, slowing crop plantings and threatening to reduce yields, an Iowa climatologist said on Friday.
"From March through May, which is our spring record keeping period, Iowa had received 17.48 inches of rain as of Thursday," Iowa State Climatologist, Harry Hillaker said. "There may be another 0.15 inch added to that today."
Hillaker said the old record of 15.36 inches was set in 1892 but rainfall seen from March through to May is the most since records began.
Hillaker said typical March-May rainfall in the state was 10.22 inches. "That would be normal and is based on rainfall received for the past 30 years," he said.
Excessive wet weather in the U.S. Midwest has slowed seedings of corn and soybeans, pushing corn plantings up to the end-of-May deadline that farmers can plant without suffering cutbacks in crop insurance coverage.
Top U.S. corn and soybean producing state Iowa has received the most spring rainfall since records began 141 years ago, slowing crop plantings and threatening to reduce yields, an Iowa climatologist said on Friday.
"From March through May, which is our spring record keeping period, Iowa had received 17.48 inches of rain as of Thursday," Iowa State Climatologist, Harry Hillaker said. "There may be another 0.15 inch added to that today."
Hillaker said the old record of 15.36 inches was set in 1892 but rainfall seen from March through to May is the most since records began.
Hillaker said typical March-May rainfall in the state was 10.22 inches. "That would be normal and is based on rainfall received for the past 30 years," he said.
Excessive wet weather in the U.S. Midwest has slowed seedings of corn and soybeans, pushing corn plantings up to the end-of-May deadline that farmers can plant without suffering cutbacks in crop insurance coverage.
DIA spokeswoman Laura Coale says 11 flights were diverted to Colorado Springs Airport, five went to Cheyenne Regional Airport and one was sent to Fort Collins-Loveland Airport between about 9:40 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Friday. She didn't know how many airlines were involved.
Coale says at one point, incoming flights were delayed by more than an hour and a half, while departing flights were delayed between half an hour and an hour.
National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Dankers says the peak wind gust between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. was 34 mph.
Winds shifted late Friday morning, allowing air traffic controllers to use more runways at DIA.
© James Baichtal, U.S. Forest Service
One of the newest volcanic vents discovered in Southeast Alaska is an underwater volcanic cone in Behm Canal near New Eddystone rock.
One of the newest volcanic vents discovered in Southeast Alaska is an underwater volcanic cone in Behm Canal near New Eddystone rock.
In the past three years, 12 new volcanoes have been discovered in Southeast Alaska, and 25 known volcanic vents and lava flows re-evaluated, thanks to dogged work by geologists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Forest Service. Sprinkled across hundreds of islands and fjords, most of the volcanic piles are tiny cones compared to the super-duper stratovolcanoes that parade off to the west, in the Aleutian Range.
But the Southeast's volcanoes are in a class by themselves, the researchers found. A chemical signature in the lava flows links them to a massive volcanic field in Canada. Unusual patterns in the lava also point to eruptions under, over and alongside glaciers, which could help scientists pinpoint the size of Alaska's mountain glaciers during past climate swings.
"It's giving us this serendipitous window on the history of climate in Southeast Alaska for the last 1 million years," said Susan Karl, a research geologist with the USGS in Anchorage and the project's leader.
© REUTERS/Bill Waugh
Storm chasers follow a large cloud lowering between Perkins, Oklahoma and Cushing May 30, 2013, as storm systems moved across the state.
Storm chasers follow a large cloud lowering between Perkins, Oklahoma and Cushing May 30, 2013, as storm systems moved across the state.
Storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas left an Arkansas county sheriff dead and at least one man missing in an attempted water rescue and at least five other people injured elsewhere, officials said.
"The atmosphere will become extremely unstable this afternoon, especially in Oklahoma, while winds in the atmosphere will be favorable for organized severe storms, including a few supercell thunderstorms," the National Weather Service said in an advisory.
The body of Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter was recovered early Friday, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Authorities continued to search for another person missing after Thursday night's rescue attempt along the Fourche La Fave River.
Another man died in Tull when a tree fell on his car during a possible tornado, said Pete Roberts, Grant County sheriff's office chief deputy.
Arkansas had numerous reports of damage from high winds, heavy rain and possible tornadoes. Entergy Arkansas reported more than 30,000 customers without power.
Emergency crews, especially in the southern part of the metropolitan area, responded to numerous reports of drivers stuck in high water after they drove into water-covered roads.
The drivers became stranded by the fast rising and swift moving waters.
The National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Mo., continued a flash flood warning for most of the Kansas City area until 11 a.m. Friday.
The warning is in effect for Johnson, northern Miami and southern Leavenworth County in Kansas and southwestern Lafayette, northwestern Johnson, southern Jackson and northern Cass counties in Missouri.
The National Weather Service said radar indicated at 6 a.m. Friday that thunderstorms with torrential rainfall was moving across the southern Kansas City metropolitan area.
© The EveningTelegraph, UK
A close-up of the mystery creature’s head.
A close-up of the mystery creature’s head.
Locals were left scratching their heads after the fearsome looking remains of the dead animal were found by a passing local on Easthaven beach.
Measuring between four and five feet long, the creatures's jaw is also filled with a set of sharp teeth.
Dozens of people have speculated online about what the mystery sea creature could be.
Some have suggested it could be a Conger Eel that has washed up, whereas others believe it could be a ling.
But some locals have pointed out that the grisly remains could be a shark or a pike.
More amusing suggestions even say it could be a dinosaur or the Loch Ness monster.
Update at 4:15 p.m. CDT Thursday: Severe storms are erupting from Wisconsin and Michigan to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Several tornadoes with damage and injuries have been reported in Arkansas. Tornado reports have also come out of Oklahoma. Follow the latest information in our live blog.
The threat of severe storms extends over a large area from North Texas northward into Wisconsin and Minnesota, including Minneapolis, Des Moines, Omaha, Wichita and Oklahoma City. The greatest threat for tornadoes will extend from northern Missouri southwestward into northeastern Oklahoma, including Kansas City, Springfield, Mo., and Tulsa, Okla.
The risk of strong to severe storms has expanded rapidly eastward late Thursday and includes Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis and Little Rock.
© Getty Images via @daylife
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech before a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol February 12, 2013 in Washington, DC.
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech before a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol February 12, 2013 in Washington, DC.
President Obama talks as if only he was reelected in 2012. He fails to recall that the entire House of Representatives was on the ballot with him. And the American people elected a majority of Republicans to the House, not to be a rubber stamp on anything Obama wants, but as a check on Obama excesses, which is what they serve as.
Obama cited as support for his threatened global warming regulatory jihad, "Yes, it's true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15." The fact is also, however, that years of decline from a peak in global temperatures, as occurred in 1998 due to the entirely natural El Nino effect that year, can also be among the warmest on record. (That global temperature record he is talking about only goes back about 125 years, most of which has been reflecting recovery of global temperatures from the "Little Ice Age" occurring roughly from 1350 to 1850.).
The dramatic mobile phone footage shows the funnel of the tornado tearing through an industrial area in Cavenago, around 27km from Milan on Wednesday morning
The video shot from the nearby A4 highway shows the swirling mass of air filling with debris.
"It's destroying all the roofs," a man off camera says.
"No it's not possible... this is really crazy... I've never seen anything like this."
Comment: Somebody should have been reading the Signs:
May 4th, 2013: Massive Italy tornado caught on tape, leaves trail of destruction
Comment: True, tornadoes in northern Italy are generally very rare, but in the last few years there have been many:
Tornado slams into Italian steel plant - video