Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Dean roars toward Jamaica


AFP
Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:13 UTC
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Hurricane Dean bore down on Jamaica early Sunday amid concerns it could become "a potentially catastrophic" category five storm capable of causing death and widespread destruction.

Tourists fled resorts in the path of the storm and island residents battened down as the massive swell skirted the Dominican Republic and plowed towards Jamaica, the Caymans and the Mexican coast.
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Wine

Wine before its time alarms Italy

Christine Spolar
Chicago Tribune
Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:09 UTC
GROTTAFERRATA, Italy - Patrizia Filippi has no degree in meteorology or any idea how to calculate what scientists call extreme weather change. But the 43-year-old grape picker has been working this area's silky, volcanic soil for nearly three decades, and she knows what she sees:

This is an early harvest unlike anything that Italy, or any generation in her family, has experienced in memory.
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Bizarro Earth

Invasive Australian Jellyfish Sighted Outside Gulf Of Mexico


Science Daily
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:45 UTC
The invasive Australian jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata, first reported in great quantities in the Gulf of Mexico in 2000, has made a vigorous reappearance this summer in waters from southwestern Louisiana to Morehead City, North Carolina. Beachgoers and boaters are encouraged to report their sightings of these exotic jellies to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab's jellyfish website, Dockwatch.

©Dan Martin/Dauphin Island Sea Lab
The Australian spotted jellyfish can weigh up to 25 pounds.
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Cloud Lightning

Toronto Summer driest in 50 years

Curtis Rush
Toronto Star
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:28 UTC
This summer has been the driest in Toronto in almost 50 years, Environment Canada says.

And don't look for the situation to change anytime soon.

Many parts of Ontario, from Kitchener-Waterloo to York Region, are experiencing near-record droughts.

In Toronto, where we've had only 9.2 millimetres of rain since July 20, this summer has been the driest in almost 50 years, according to Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips.
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Magnify

Are B.C.'s bee colonies the latest to die off?

Alex Roslin
Georgia Strait
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:09 UTC


Jean-Marc Le Dorze is confounded by all the honeybees vanishing from his Mission apiary.
Kevin Statham photo.

What's happening to the bees? The fuzzy little honey-making critters are dying off like the dinosaurs, and no one knows why. In the U.S., according to a congressional report updated in June, up to 36 percent of 2.4 million bee colonies were wiped out last winter. Canadian beekeepers reported losses of one-third of this country's bees during the winter, including a 23-percent loss in British Columbia.
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Cloud Lightning

Tropical storm Erin blamed for 8 deaths in Texas


Xinhua
Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:40 UTC
At least eight deaths in southern U.S. state of Texas were blamed on tropical storm Erin which has brought at least 6 inches (15 cm) of rain to the state since Thursday,

One person was killed and another was hurt when a waterlogged roof collapsed at a Houston grocery store when Erin hit Texas Thursday, the Texas-based KPRC-TV reported on Friday.

©Josh Carrol
Flooded Houston. Thursday, August 16, 2007.
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Magnify

'New continent' and species discovered in Atlantic study


Census of Marine Life
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:29 UTC
A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a team of international researchers whose work will continue our understanding of life in the deepest oceans, and contribute to the global Census of Marine Life.

Exploring life in the North Atlantic Ocean at various depths of 800 to 3,500 metres, a team of 31 scientists are returning from a five-week scientific expedition which has surfaced a wealth of new information and insights, stunning images and marine life specimens, with one species thought to be new to science.
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Question

Deadly mine 'bump' was recorded as 'unnatural' seismic event


University of Utah
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:21 UTC
Magnitude 1.6 seismic waves indicate downward motion

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations recorded a magnitude-1.6 seismic event at the time of a Thursday, Aug. 16 "bump" that killed and injured rescuers at a Utah coal mine where six miners were trapped by an Aug. 6 collapse.

Seismic waves from the event at about 6:39 p.m. MDT Thursday indicate downward motion, consistent with further settling and collapse within the mountain where the Crandall Canyon mine is located.
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X

Flooding Traps 181 Chinese Miners

Joe McDonald
The Guardian
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:09 UTC
Floodwaters from heavy rains poured into two coal mines in a town in eastern China, leaving 181 miners trapped and feared dead, government officials and state media said Saturday.

There was no word on whether there was any sign of life in the mines or when rescuers might enter them. Two high-speed pumps reportedly were being rushed in to drain the flooded shafts.

A dike on the Wen river in Shandong province broke Friday afternoon, sending water gushing into a mine run by the Huayuan Mining Co. in the city of Xintai and trapping 172 miners, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Dean strengthens to deadly Category 4

Jim Loney
Reuters
Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:43 UTC
Hurricane Dean grew into a ferocious storm with winds over 135 mph (216 kph) on Friday after it smashed into the Caribbean islands, leveling banana plantations and setting off landslides before heading toward the oil and gas rigs of the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Dean was a Category 4 storm, the second-highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale and capable of widespread destruction.

©NOAA
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