Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Hurricane Season Forecast to Be Above Average

Hurricanes
© NOAAHurricanes Karl, Igor and Julia (from left to right on Sept. 16) were part of the onslaught of Atlantic storms last hurricane season (2010).

Start preparing now: This year's hurricane season is expected to be an active one.

On the heels of an already violent tornado season and other wild April weather, the 2011 hurricane season may see 12 to 18 named storms and six to 10 hurricanes, an above-average season.

That's the forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released today (May 19) for the Atlantic basin, which includes the East Coast, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. If the forecast is anything like last year's, it should be taken very seriously.

"If you live along the Gulf Coast or live along the Atlantic Coast, you've had your notice," said Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "It's going to be an above-average season."

The 2010 season was one of the busiest ever, with 12 hurricanes in the Atlantic - the second-highest number on record, tied with 1969 - and 19 named storms (which include tropical storms and hurricanes) - a tie with 1887 and 1995 as the third-busiest on record. The 2010 forecast called for 17 named storms and 10 hurricanes.

An average Atlantic season produces 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes. The busiest season on record remains 2005, which saw 28 named storms, including Hurricane Katrina. Five of last year's hurricanes reached major hurricane status (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength).

Frog

Plant, Animal Extinction Rates Exaggerated

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A projected wave of extinctions of plant and animal species this century may have been overestimated because the most widely used scientific method can exaggerate losses by more than 160 percent, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The scientists said that habitat destruction by humans is driving animal and plant species toward extinction at just half the pace as previously believed.

They attribute the overestimation to flaws in the most popular scientific method, which exaggerated the projected losses by more than 160 percent.

Bizarro Earth

US: Sleet and snow make spring feel like winter in Flagstaff AZ

A frigid spring storm blew through Northern Arizona on Wednesday, bringing a mix of rain, sleet and wet snow.

High temperatures are typically around 70 degrees this time of year, but the high for Wednesday was 43 and came at 1:30 a.m. Temperatures hovered around freezing for much of the day.
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© Dave Smith
"It's a bit on the unusual side, but not unprecedented," said Ken Daniel, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "It's an unusually strong and cold system coming down from the Northwest, and it's bringing in some moisture as it moves across the state."

No road closures were reported, but blowing dust and icy pavement made driving hazardous, with accidents clogging Interstates 40 and 17. Winds gusting over 40 mph whipped up dust along I-40 between Flagstaff and Winslow and forced the Arizona Department of Public Safety to escort cars along a five-mile stretch.

Bizarro Earth

Is Extreme Weather The New Normal?

Severe Weather
© redOrbit

How do intense droughts and extreme flooding coexist together? Welcome to the "New Normal" of regional weather fueled by changes in global climate, Reuters reports.

"It's a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University explained.

Catastrophic rainstorms and tornado activity in the United States has coincided with prolonged drought, sometimes in the same region, she said, noting that West Texas has seen a record-setting dry period over the last several years, even as there have been two 100-year rain events.

"We are used to certain conditions and there's a lot going on these days that is not what we're used to, that is outside our current frame of reference," Hayhoe said on a conference call with other experts, organized by the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists.

Hayhoe, other scientists, civic planners and a manager at the giant Swiss Re reinsurance firm pin the cause on human-influenced climate change as the primary factor for more extreme weather. Although climate change cannot be blamed for any specific weather event, Hayhoe said a background of climate change had an impact on every rainstorm, heat wave or cold snap.

"What we're seeing is the new normal is constantly evolving," said Nikhil da Victoria Lobo of Swiss Re's Global Partnerships team. "Globally what we're seeing is more volatility ... there's certainly a lot more integrated risk exposure."

Bizarro Earth

Frequency of Tremors on the Rise in Guerrero

Acapulco,- So far in the month of May, 60 tremors have been registered in Guerrero, mostly in the Richter range of 3 or 4. Monday afternoon a tremor of 4.3 was felt and an earlier one of 5.5 was registered on May 5 with the same epicenter, in the municipality of Ometepec, in the Costa Chica, to the east and south of Acapulco. More than one-third of the tremors taking place in this month in Guerrero have had their origin in the Costa Chica.

Five tremor epicenters have occurred within the municipality of Acapulco since May 1, all of them between 3 and 4 on the Richter scale. The tremors felt in Guerrero in the first two weeks of May is double the number registered for the same period last year.

Cloud Lightning

India: Thunder, duststorms claim 56 lives in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar

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© PTIWomen cover their faces during a dust storm in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. A similar dust storm lashed Ghazipur district killing 10 people.
New Delhi: At least 56 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar when severe duststorm, accompanied by rain and thundershowers, lashed some parts of the states on Wednesday evening, according to All India Radio.

In Uttar Pradesh, at least 30 people were killed in cyclonic storm that hit several districts of eastern UP. Eight people were killed in Siddhartha Nagar, seven in Jaunpur, five each in Varanasi, Bhadohi and Ambekarnagar.

According to AIR, high-velocity wind and scattered rain is still occurring at some places in Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Basti divisions.

Cloud Lightning

US: Rainstorms trigger Slide in Keene Valley, New York Threatening Homes

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© Brian MannThis home's foundation has been wrecked by shifting earth
Weeks of relentless rain have destabilized a massive section of hillside in the Adrian's Acres neighborhood in Keene Valley, which sits on the slopes of Porter Mountain.

Town and state officials say an area roughly a half-mile wide has begun to shift, slumping downward several inches each day.

One vacation home has already been condemned, and one other house evacuated. At least four more homes are threatened.

Brian Mann was on Porter Mountain yesterday and has our story.

Cow Skull

More Than 1 Million Feral Camels are taking Over the Australian Outback

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© Obliot, Flickr, CC
Not Your Typical Invasive Species

Single-humped dromedary camels were brought to Australia mainly from India in the 19th century. They transported people and equipment in the outback, but when rail and roads came, the camels were let loose, "creating the world's only population of wild camels". It is now estimated that more than 1 million camels are spread over 3.3 million square kilometers (±1.3 million square miles), and they are causing a lot of damage to the local ecosystems.

Bizarro Earth

U.S.: Dead sharks found in Redwood Shores were suffering from internal bleeding, necropsy shows

dead, leopard,shark
© CBSA dead leopard shark found near the Redwood City Lagoon

Officials have completed a necropsy on one of the dozens of leopard sharks found dead in Redwood Shores last month but aren't any closer to pinpointing the cause of the sudden die-off.

The necropsy performed by a California Department of Fish and Game pathologist found "inflammation, bleeding, and lesions in the brain, and hemorrhaging from the skin near vents." Bleeding was also detected around the female shark's internal organs.

Additional tests, such as a bacterial study and microscopic tissue analysis, may provide an answer, according to a statement released by Redwood City. Results could be available by the end of the week.

Bizarro Earth

Seismic Shift? As Bahamas Sink, One Island Mysteriously Rises

The Bahamas.
© NASA Earth ObservatoryThe Bahamas.

All the islands in the Bahamas were thought to be slowly sinking, but now scientists find one quirky isle going against the crowd.

This anomaly suggests the area may be less seismically stable than previously thought.

Scientists focused on the small island of Mayaguana in the southeast Bahamas, which measures about 33 by 7 miles (53 by 12 kilometers). They noticed shallow banks of rocks called marine carbonates above ground that are usually present dozens of feet below the surface on the other Bahamian islands. These deposits are about 39 feet (12 meters) thick, span more than 17 million years of geologic history, and are only found on the isle's northern coast.

The unusual placement on these rocks gave researchers insights into the tectonic processes going on below the Caribbean.

"It took us about three years to process all the data and come up with a coherent story," said researcher Pascal Kindler, a geologist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.