Earth ChangesS


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Hurricane injures five, causes $86,000 in damage in east Russia

Damage from a hurricane that left five people, including an eight-year-old child, injured in Russia's Far East, has been assessed at 2.25 million rubles ($86,000), a local emergencies ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

The hurricane hit the Amur Region late Monday. Wind gusts of up to 28 meters (90 feet) per second uprooted trees, blocking roads, tore off roofs and downed transmission lines.

Over a thousand people and 125 vehicles are involved in relief operations. Some 140,000 people still remain without electricity. Power supplies are expected to be resumed later in the day, although some private households will get electricity only by the end of the week.

Bulb

Cockroaches Can Learn -- Like Dogs and Humans

Cockroaches have a memory and can be taught to salivate in response to neutral stimuli in the way that Pavlov's dogs would do when the famed Russian doctor rang his bell, Japanese researchers found.

Such "conditioning" can only take place when there is memory and learning, and this salivating response had only previously been proven in humans and dogs.

Now, cockroaches appear to have that aptitude too.

Writing in the latest edition of the online journal Public Library of Science, the researchers said they hoped to learn more about the human brain by exploring what goes on in the simpler brain of the cockroach. (Article is freely available on http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000529)

Cloud Lightning

Whistler Reports Second Snowiest Winter On Record, BC Canada

Snow sports continue on its glaciers for a few more weeks, but Whistler Blackcomb has reported its 2006-7 season concluded on June 3rd and that it was the world famous resort's second snowiest on record, receiving an accumulative snowfall of 1,416cm (46 feet).

Bomb

Flashback NASA launches GOES-N weather satellite

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After months of delay, NASA on Wednesday launched a weather satellite that will allow forecasters to better pinpoint severe storms and investigate world climate change.

Question

Hurricane satellite could fail anytime

An aging weather satellite crucial to accurate predictions on the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any moment and plans to launch a replacement have been pushed back seven years to 2016.

Comment: Coincidence?

Red Flag

North American Birds Moving North As A Result Of Climate Change

A new study in Conservation Biology analyzed the breeding ranges of North American birds over a 26-year period. The results show that the ranges have shifted northward; coinciding with a period of increasing global temperatures. These results were similar to those found in studies conducted in Great Britain, showing the worldwide extent of these distributional changes.

"Our results add to an increasing body of scientific research documenting the effects of global climate change," says study author Alan Hitch, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University. "It also raises questions about whether moving north could be detrimental to some species."

Cloud Lightning

Up to eleven inches of rain, flooding in southwest Nebraska

Up to eleven inches of rain has lead to flooding in parts of southwest Nebraska. A flash Flood warning is in effect this for the area. Last night, the National Weather Service says storms dropped six inches or more of rain across Perkins and Chase counties. The service says the highest rain amount came just west of Champion, at nine-point-seven-three inches and over eleven inches was reported near Imperial. Extensive flooding has been reported in Imperial, Champion and Lamar. Officials say U-S Highway Six west of Imperial is under two feet of water, and many county roads in western Chase County are washed out. Frenchman Creek is also overflowing the dam at Champion.

Cloud Lightning

Flood may be third highest on record - Missouri

Steve Henson knew it was raining hard, but when the water rose to within two feet of his house west of Waco on Monday, he decided that he and his expectant wife would head for higher ground.

"I did not want her to go into labor and we wouldn't be able to get out," he said. "There was so much rain, I could not believe it."

©Roger Nomer
Water threatens to overtake a stalled car in Joplin, Missouri

Bizarro Earth

Series of Quakes Hit near Mammoth Lake California

A 3.0 magnitude earthquake hit early Tuesday morning near Mammoth Lakes. It's one in a series of quakes since early in the morning.

People from Madera and Fresno have been calling the Action Newsroom Tuesday morning to report feeling the shaking.
The US Geological Survey says there have been 12 quakes since midnight. The strongest was a 4.9 magnitude quake.

Cloud Lightning

Torrential rain causes flooding and chaos in North Ireland

Torrential rain caused massive flooding across Northern Ireland today as days of Mediterranean style weather ended in thunder storms causing traffic chaos.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said it was inundated with more than 200 emergency calls in a 90-minute period as the province was the North was engulfed by the deluge.