Russia is currently in the grips of an extremely strong heat wave. City and town residents are suffocating from the sweltering heat. For example, it is about 30 degrees in Moscow with prospects of the thermometer going up in the next few days. The heat wave situation is aggravated by wild fires producing clods of poisonous smoke. The wood rich Siberian taiga near Krasnoyarsk is fighting 83 fires on the territory of 12.130 hectares. As for rural Russia, that only last year was the world's third-biggest grain producer, it suffers colossal damages. It threats to destroy a significant part of the crops. If last year's harvest amounted to 94 million tons, this year it is a predicted at 80 to 85 million. Given the situation, earlier in July the Agriculture Ministry had to revise its harvest predictions.

The ayu, or sweetfish, is a summer delicacy in Japan. Usually coated in salt and grilled over a charcoal fire, the fish is known for its refreshingly sweet taste and is consumed widely by Japanese people every year.

While a typical specimen is similar to a small trout in appearance, an ayu with translucent scales was discovered at a fishery in Gifu prefecture late last month.

We think the issue here isn't why this happened, but how on earth were they able to spot the little guy...

The 15 centimeter see-through ayu was found among a batch of 300,000 fish. While the scales aren't completely transparent, you can still the general shape and color of the fish's innards and skeleton.

The staff at the fishery are puzzled as to why the mutation occurred, pointing out that they have not once changed cultivation methods in their 40 years of operation.

Typhoon Saola looks like a monster tropical cyclone in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite today, July 30. Although Saola's center is over 300 nautical miles (368 miles/592 km) south-southeast of Taiwan, it stretches over the north and central Philippines and has triggered a number of warnings throughout the country.

A unique social division among a population of bottlenose dolphins in Australia's Moreton Bay has ended, according to a new study.

The dolphins lived as two distinct groups that rarely interacted, one of which foraged on trawler bycatch.

But scientists think that a ban on fishing boats from key areas has brought the two groups together.

They believe these socially flexible mammals have united to hunt for new food sources.

The findings are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The Moreton Bay dolphins were thought to be the only recorded example of a single population that consisted of groups not associating with each other.

The split was dubbed "the parting of the pods".

But since the study that discovered the rift, trawlers have been banned from designated areas of the bay leading to a 50% reduction in the fishing effort.

A key area of the bay to the south, where the social split was first observed by a previous study, has been protected.

Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica have triggered floods that have forced evacuations and may be responsible for at least one death, relief workers said Sunday. Four people are missing, down from eight earlier, according to Freddy Roman, a spokesman for the local Red Cross.

The government has declared a "yellow alert" in various parts of Cartago, a central province where one person was reported dead, said Roman. The person was rescued after a landslide, but died on the way to the hospital from injuries and heart failure, he said. A yellow alert is also in effect for parts of Limon, an eastern province. More than 1,500 people have taken refuge at shelters and others are waiting to be rescued, according to the Red Cross.

"We have reports of people trapped in their houses that have been flooded by overflow from the Chirripo River, also of several communities that are isolated in other parts of Limon," said Guillermo Arroyo, director of operations of the Costa Rican Red Cross.

Dry and hot weather in the U.S. Midwest for the next week or two will further erode crop conditions, trimming this year's corn and soybean crop production, an agricultural meteorologist forecast Monday.

"It looks like a continued trend of below-average precipitation in the Midwest for the next week to 10 days," said John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring.

Temperatures this week will warm into the upper 80s to low 90s degrees Fahrenheit, with only a few light showers in the east on Monday and some rainfall later in the week, he said.

"There are no widespread soaking rains in sight. Thursday and Friday there could be scattered showers, and by the weekend from 0.30 to 0.80 inch with coverage of about 75 to 80 percent," Dee said. "There won't be as much stress as recently, but crops will continue to deteriorate."

There were mixed signals for the weather early next week, with some weather models showing some rain but others indicating that the dryness would continue.

A second cloud of yellow in less than a week overwhelmed suburban Phoenix on Sunday, mixing with torrential rains and gusty winds that wreaked havoc on midday traffic in the area. The thick wall of dust, known as a haboob, which is Arabic for 'strong wind,' was seen making its way through the town of Laveen about eight miles southwest of downtown Phoenix. The greater Phoenix area and northwest and north central Pinal County were under a dust storm warning that expired at 7pm on Sunday.

Additional photos

It doesn't happen very often, but Colorado had a rare mountain tornado touchdown near Mt. Evans. Saturday afternoon at 2:51 pm. Thunderstorms strengthening over the mountains west of Denver were strong enough to produce a weak, short-lived twister. The National Weather Service has analyzed pictures from the area and confirms that it was a bona fide tornado.

Typically, these types of storms can produce what are known as cold air funnels. Which are not tornadoes but do develop from cold air pooling in the upper levels of a thunderstorm. And with differing temperatures at altitude wind shear can cause a funnel-shaped cloud to drop from a thunderstorm. These funnels tend to be very weak and almost never touch the ground.

But in this situation the air entering the bottom of this Mount Evans storm was warm enough to produce a tornado touchdown. The National Weather Service is estimating this to be the second highest tornado ever recorded in the United States. The spot where the touchdown occurred to be roughly at 11,900 feet.

It is estimated that the highest recorded tornado in the U.S. happened in 2004. On July 7 of that year, at 12,000 feet a hiker took a picture of a tornado in Sequoia National Park in California.

© SNN Local News


Sadie Muniz and her children, 2-year-old Isabella Muniz and 10-year-old Julien Guevara, outside their Sarasota home that was damaged by lightning.

"I heard the crash and immediately thought it was a bomb," Donald Sheeler of Sarasota said.

His next-door neighbor, Renee Peterson, instead thought a plane crashed.

But the loud boom and the sound of shattering glass they both heard came from something more ordinary than a bomb or a plane crash.

A lightning bolt struck a house in the 100 block of North Jefferson Avenue the night of June 22, leaving its occupants temporarily homeless.

Sadie Muniz was with her husband, Javier, and two children, 2-year-old Isabella and 10-year-old Julien, when lightning struck an electrical box outside their home.

"I was so scared," Julien said. "I ran down the hall to find a place to hide, and my dad told me to go to the other room."

Muniz describes herself as being "in shock" from the blast. "I had no clue what happened," she said. "I was shaking so bad, I couldn't figure out how to use my phone."

The fire department was on the scene within three minutes. Six fire trucks lined the street as firemen went through the house with thermal readers to make sure the walls were not producing heat.

After deeming the house uninhabitable, firemen then connected the Muniz family with the Red Cross for emergency assistance.

Florida Power & Light had to shut power off from the main line.

Three windows popped from their frames without breaking, but four others shattered completely along with a sliding glass door.

Electrical sockets blew out of the walls. Black marks cover the electrical panel. And in the Florida room, where most of the damage occurred, a wall under one of the windows tore open.

The Red Cross paid for the family to stay at a hotel for six nights. Resurrection House moved them to a different hotel, where they may stay until Friday.

After Friday, the family does not know what they will do. Still, Muniz feels grateful.

Date-Time
Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 12:22:15 UTC

Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 07:22:15 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
14.339°N, 92.364°W

Depth
35.5 km (22.1 miles)

Region
OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO

Distances
26 km (16 miles) SW of Ocos, Guatemala

28 km (17 miles) SSW of Suchiate, Mexico

43 km (26 miles) SSW of Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala

63 km (39 miles) S of Tapachula, Mexico