Earth ChangesS

Life Preserver

Cargo Ship's Fuel Fouls San Francisco Bay Area Beaches

SAN FRANCISCO - An oil spill fouled miles of fragile coastline Thursday, sending environmentalists scrambling to save tarred marine life and leaving local officials questioning the Coast Guard's response to the ship collision that triggered the slick.

Cloud Lightning

North Sea storm closes oil platforms, Europe's largest port

A storm in the North Sea forced the closure Thursday of oil platforms off the Norwegian coast as well as Europe's largest port as British forecasters warned of the worst swells in 20 years.

Authorities in Rotterdam announced they planned to close the giant barrier that guards access to the Dutch port for the first time since its construction in the 1990s, shutting off sea traffic until at least 0500 GMT on Friday.

©MAGELLAN Geographix

The Netherlands also stepped up surveillance of all the seawalls along its coast for the first time since 1976. One third of the Dutch land mass is below sea level.

Cloud Lightning

UK: Tidal surge puts east coast in 'extreme danger'

Thousands of people have been told to be ready to leave their homes as a tidal surge threatens to batter the east coast, bringing "extreme danger to life and property".

©Telegraph

X

'Mini-Tsunami' Wipes Out Mexican Town

Survivors saw relatives swept away by huge waves or buried by debris after a landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called a "mini-tsunami" that wiped a hamlet off the map and left at least 16 people missing.

©Alfredo Estrella, AFP / Getty Images
A helicopter pilot surveys the damage to San Juan Grijalva in the Mexican state of Chiapas Monday after a landslide. The area is already reeling from last week's floods.

Cloud Lightning

UK: North Sea Tidal Surge Flood Warning, "extreme danger to life and property"



©Getty Images
Residents have been warned to watch the weather and tides

A tidal surge in the North Sea has sparked severe flood warnings and evacuations on England's east coast.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has held an emergency Cobra committee meeting and the Environment Agency has warned of "extreme danger to life and property".

Attention

Wind Patterns Spur Fla. Red Tide Blooms

Harmful red tide blooms along Florida's west coast in the fall are spurred when seasonal changes in wind patterns move nutrients east from the Mississippi River, scientists reported Wednesday.

Cloud Lightning

Record heat continues in Arizona, but why are temps so hot?

After the warmest summer on record since records were first recorded in 1895, we're moving into to fall with record temperatures as well. Monday, we broke our old record of 92 in 1980 at Phoenix Sky Harbor with a high of 93. A strong area of high pressure will continue to dominate our weather for the rest of the work week, therefore, near, or above record high temps will continue. There is relief in the forecast, by the weekend, as a Pacific storm will bring cooler temps and a chance of rain for parts of the state.


Cloud Lightning

Floods hit Somalia, thousands flee

Hundreds of families were fleeing their homes in Somalia's southern region of Lower Shabelle, where floods swept villages and destroyed crops, residents and witnesses said Tuesday.

Local elder Abdi Omar Hirabe said floods engulfed the villages of War Gedow, Malable and Dolo Dhere, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of the war-torn capital Mogadishu.

©Unknown

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Anak Krakatau Volcano Spews Red-hot Lava Flares

The Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait today began to spew red-hot lava flares 500 to 700 metres into the sky from its southern crater. The volcano has been showing signs of increased activity for the past 15 days.

Cloud Lightning

Tropical storm Noel causes heavy losses in Cuba

Tropical storm Noel has caused heavy losses in many Cuban provinces, the Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) newspaper said Tuesday.

More than 40,000 people are living in emergency shelters in the Cuban province of Granma as a result of the torrential rain that came with the storm. In the worst-hit town of Rio Cauto, 20,400 residents, or 40 percent of the population, have been evacuated to the cities of Bayamo and Manzanillo after the Cauto, the largest river in the country, burst its banks.