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More than 700 dead and 650,000 homes destroyed in Chinese floods


CNN
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:24 UTC
Image
© Xinhua
Soldiers transfer people trapped by flood water on a rubber boat in Guang'an, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on July 19, 2010.
Torrential flooding across much of the nation has left 701 dead and hundreds missing, China's vice minister of water resources said.

At least 347 people are missing, Liu Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

Ninety-percent of the casualties were caused by mountain floods, mudslides and landslides triggered by heavy downpours. About 645,500 houses had collapsed, he said.

More than 230 rivers were above warning levels; 25 of them saw their highest levels ever, he said.

More than 100 cities flooded, he said.

Liu cited torrential downpours between June 13 and June 27, and heavy rain on July 8 in southern China as particularly damaging.

"In southern China, the rainfall is 30 to 100 percent higher than the historical average," he said.
      Read More...
Meteor

Ice Crystals on the Rise: Stunning 'Sun Dog' Spotted from Bournemouth Beach, England


Daily Mail
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:24 UTC
sun dog halo ice crystals
© BN&PS
Bournemouth photographer Chris Skone-Roberts captured this amazing 'sun dog' hovering over the seaside town yesterday.
It looks like a giant eye gazing down from the heavens.

But the spectacular sight of the sun surrounded by a mysterious halo is known as a 'sun dog'.

The phenomenon, which had beachgoers in Bournemouth gazing at the sky yesterday, occurs when sunlight is refracted by hexagonal-shaped ice crystals in high and cirrus clouds - and is quite common.


Comment: It is interesting to note that a competing version of this story actually classifies this as a "rare phenomenon"


This picture was taken from Bournemouth beach in Dorset by photographer Chris Skone-Roberts.

The phenonemen is officially called a pathelia but is also known as a 'halo' or 'mock sun'.
      Read More...
Cow Skull

US: Kansas heat wave has killed 2,000 cattle

Bob Burgdorfer
Reuters
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:38 UTC
cow
© Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko
A cow looks out of its stall during an agricultural exhibition near the village of Liavonavichi, some 10 km (6 miles) north of the capital Minsk, June 10, 2010.

Chicago - The intense heat and humidity that blanketed central Kansas since late last week have killed more than 2,000 cattle and one state official called the heat-related losses the worst in his 17 years on the job.

However, conditions for the cattle improved somewhat on Tuesday as the humidity has decreased and the wind has picked up, state and feedlot sources said.

Kansas is the third largest cattle state with more than 2 million cattle in feedlots.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea: Earthquake Magnitude 6.3 - New Britain Region


USGS
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:47 UTC
Papua Earthquake_200710
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time:
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 19:18:23 UTC

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 05:18:23 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
5.917°S, 150.681°E

Depth:
35.9 km (22.3 miles)

Region:
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances:
70 km (45 miles) SE of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG

130 km (80 miles) ENE of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG

550 km (340 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2400 km (1490 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
      Read More...
Fish

Hundreds of dead penguins wash up on Brazil shores


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:16 UTC
Magellanic penguins
© AFP/File/Mauricio Lima
Magellanic penguins swim off the coast of Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Hundreds of dead penguins and other sea animals have washed up on Sao Paulo state's shores and scientists are investigating the causes, according to environment officials.
Hundreds of dead penguins and other sea animals have washed up on Sao Paulo state's shores and scientists are investigating the causes, environment officials told Folha Online news agency.

The Institute of Environment and Natural Resources said 530 penguins, numerous other sea birds, five dolphins and three giant sea turtles have been found in the coastal towns of Peruibe, Praia Grande and Itanhaem, with more likely on other nearby beaches.

Sao Paulo University biologists and a wildlife research center are looking into the possible reasons for the animal deaths, the institute said.

Praia Grande authorities have ruled out pollution, saying preliminary investigations point to starvation as the cause.

The most likely scenario for the penguin deaths is exhaustion and hunger during their long migration from the waters off Argentina's southern Patagonia region, said Andrea Maranho, a veterinarian for the Sea Animal Rehabilitation Center in Praia Grande.
      Read More...
Umbrella

India: Flood toll in Punjab and Haryana reaches 40


Sify News
Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:47 UTC
Image
© AP
Two more deaths due to floods were reported in Punjab's Mansa district Friday, taking the toll to 25, officials said. With this, the collective flood toll in Punjab and Haryana went up to 40.

The flood situation remained grim in Sardulgarh area of the district with several acres inundated and various villages submerged. Rescue work was on and the army and paramilitary forces were assisting the district administration in the relief operation.

'Over 9,000 acres of agriculture land has been inundated and several villages are submerged in water in the Sardulgarh area. Floods have damaged 19,452 houses in the district,' Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul told IANS.

'Flood water entered five more villages, namely Mirpur Kalan, Mirpur Khurd, Bhagwanpur Hingnan, Alipur and Bern, since Thursday,' he said, adding though the water level has receded at some places, the situation is still grim.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Mystery of Britain's Vanishing Kestrels as Population Drops 20% Since the 1990s

David Derbyshire
The Daily Mail
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:30 UTC
Image
© Alamy
Sad: There has been a 36 per cent fall in numbers of Kestrel last year
One of the country's most familiar birds of prey is vanishing at an alarming rate, experts warned yesterday.

They say numbers of kestrels, which are often seen hovering over the verges of major roads, fell by more than a third last year.

The mysterious disappearance of thousands of birds in one year follows a steady decline - the kestrel population has dropped by around 20 per cent since the mid-1990s.

Bird experts are baffled by the recent fall, but suspect the hard winter combined with their vanishing rural habitat has taken its toll.
      Read More...
Newspaper

Hundreds Rescued from Overheated Trains in Germany

Verena Schmitt-Roschmann
The Associated Press
Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:35 UTC
A grueling heat wave shut down the air conditioning in three high-tech trains in Germany, leaving dozens of passengers near collapse trapped in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), authorities said Sunday.

At least 52 people needed medical treatment and about 1,000 people had to switch trains, the national railway system, Deutsche Bahn, said.

All three modern ICE trains - whose windows do not open - were headed west from Berlin on Saturday, Deutsche Bahn spokesman Juergen Kornmann said. While two lost their air conditioning fairly close to a station and could be emptied quickly, a third heated up some distance before reaching the city of Bielefeld.

Kornmann said eight people suffering from heat exhaustion needed to be hospitalized in Bielefeld and another 44 needed medical treatment.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Thousands Evacuated as Storm Batters Vietnam

Ho Binh Minh
Reuters
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:56 UTC
Image
© Reuters/VNA
A car drives past a wave caused by Typhoon Conson in Vietnam's northern Hai Phong city July 17, 2010.
Vietnamese troops evacuated thousands of people from their homes in the north of the country Sunday due to threats of flash flooding and landslides, as the death toll from Typhoon Conson rose to more than 70.

Typhoon Conson was downgraded to a tropical storm as it hit northern Vietnam late Saturday after battering the Philippines and the southern Chinese island of Hainan over the past week.

State-run Voice of Vietnam radio said the army had sent 3,500 soldiers to help evacuate people in coastal provinces, and others were being moved from dangerous areas in four mountainous provinces due to the threat of flooding.

The region lies far from Vietnam's Mekong Delta food basket in the south, which supplies 90 percent of rice for exports.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Photos Show Dramatic Shrinking of Mount Everest Glaciers

Louise Gray
The Telegraph
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:42 UTC
Image
© David Breashears/Agence France-Presse
The 2007 photograph taken by David Breashears of the Rongbuk Glacier taken from the same place as Mallory's 1921 photograph
Glaciers on Mount Everest are shrinking, according to startling new photographs.

The two pictures show an "alarming" retreat in ice over more than 80 years.

The first was taken in 1921 by British mountaineer George Mallory, who later died trying to conquer Everest.

The Asia Society commissioned the same picture to be taken of the main Rongbuk glacier on the northern slope of Mount Everest in Tibet in 2007.

The new picture by mountaineer David Breashears show that the glacier is shrunk and withered.

Comment: The 'recent' photo is from 2007. Here is a report on the growing glaciers in the Himalaya from 2009:

Himalayan Glaciers Are Actually Growing

World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown

      Read More...
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