The California winter has been a tough one on South Dakota beekeepers like Richard Adee.
Last fall he sent 155 semitrailer trucks to California loaded with hives containing bees fit and ready to pollinate the almond crop.
"We lost 40% of the hives we sent there. We sent 70,000 out and lost 28,000," said Adee, whose Adee Honey Farms in Bruce is considered the largest beekeeping operation in the nation.
"I would say overall the losses of South Dakota bees - from what I've heard - from what they started in the spring of '07 until they came out of the almonds is at least 50%. It's not good."
Now, in preparation for the honey-making season in South Dakota, he's working to get back to full strength from a mystery called colony collapse disorder.
Earth Changes
Earthquake Details
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| ©Nevada Seismological Laboratory |
| Latest 'aftershock' map showing the original 6.0 quake which occurred on February 21, 2008 and the most recent 'aftershock'. |
Earthquake measuring 4.4 points on the Richter scale rocked the Kamchatka Peninsula in the area of the Tilichiki and Korf settlements. There have been no casualties or destruction, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's main department for the Kamchatka territory told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Rain in March? Figures of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) suggest that it is extremely unusual. The state recorded 86.4 millimetres rainfall during the week ending March 26, 5,760 % more than weekly rainfall that is typical of this month.
Spain's government on Friday unveiled new measures to relieve the impact of the driest winter in memory, including diverting water between regions to ensure supplies to 2.5 million people in the parched southeast.
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| ©Unknown |
You wouldn't know it but a large volcano eruption is taking place in New Zealand. It's not visible because Monowai is completely underwater - north of the Kermadec Islands, and is about 1500 metres deep.
The volcano is belching steam and ash 7 kilometers high. Rock falls were seen on the slopes.
Another volcano - Karymsky located 140 km north from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - started eruption on Kamchatka. For one day seismologists have detected nearly 100 separate shocks.
Another volcano - Karymsky located 140 km north from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - started eruption on Kamchatka. For one day seismologists have detected nearly 100 separate shocks.
The American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world, according to a new analysis of the most recent federal government temperature figures. The news is especially bad for some of the nation's fastest growing cities, which receive water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The average temperature rise in the Southwest's largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions.
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| ©iStockphoto/Eric Foltz |
| Colorado River, Utah. The West's most pronounced temperature increase is in the Colorado River basin, which has warmed more than twice as much as the global average, with effects that put at risk a major water supply. |
Austria's glaciers retreated more than 22 metres (24 yards) on average last year, in the biggest shrinking for five years, the country's Alpine Club said Saturday.
"All glaciers experienced melting and retreated... an average of 22.2 metres" in the 2006-2007 period, the Alpine Club said, citing measurements of 93 glaciers by its specialists who blamed milder than normal temperatures.
The record was on the Weisssee Ferner glacier in the Oetztal range of southwest Austria, which shrank 96.5 metres, while two more glaciers in the south retreated by 87 and 84 metres respectively.
"All glaciers experienced melting and retreated... an average of 22.2 metres" in the 2006-2007 period, the Alpine Club said, citing measurements of 93 glaciers by its specialists who blamed milder than normal temperatures.
The record was on the Weisssee Ferner glacier in the Oetztal range of southwest Austria, which shrank 96.5 metres, while two more glaciers in the south retreated by 87 and 84 metres respectively.
A 6.5-magnitude earthquake which struck Sumatra in Indonesia early today was felt in Penang, the Malaysian Meteorological Department said.
