Earth Changes
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The lingering cool temperatures being experienced by much of North America has weather forecasters wondering if we are entering a new Little Ice Age - a reference to the prolonged period of cold weather that afflicted the world for centuries and didn't end until just prior to the American Civil War. From historical records, scientists have found a strong correlation between low sunspot activity and a cooling climate. At the end of May, an international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA released a new prediction for the next solar cycle: Solar Cycle 24 will be one of the weakest in recent memory.
Are we about to start a new Little Ice Age?
According to the
report, Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a sunspot count well below average. "If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. This does not mean that we won't feel the results of renewed solar storm activity here on Earth.
Approximately 50 miles across Cook Inlet, Mount Redoubt stands at a towering 9,000 feet; a steady trail of steam emanating from its peak. Though the last explosive spectacle occurred more than two months ago, the volcano has continued to erupt, going relatively unnoticed.
"As long as there's lava coming out, it's erupting," said Allison Payne, a geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory. "It's just doing it quietly."
Over 10,000 pigeons have died due to a suspected bacterial infection in the last one month in Singtam in East Sikkim, according to animal husbandry officials. The number of dead birds could be more since the figure was an estimate given to the officials by local residents, the officials said.
The officials who visited the spot earlier this month have ruled out bird flu but suspect that a bacterial infection caused the deaths. Samples taken from the dead birds were being tested. The residents of the town are worried that the infection could spread to poultry birds if not controlled quickly.
Many claimed that insects had come out when the carcasses were dipped in disinfectant.
It's a sight more commonly seen on the subcontinent, but a swirling tornado can be seen forming in the skies above Britain.
The dramatic image was captured by amateur photographer John Prescott near Bude, Cornwall, yesterday as the tip of the tornado comes close to making contact with the ground.
It comes as torrential downpours and thunderstorms battered Britain over the weekend, with parts of the country seeing two months of rain in half a day.
Parts of Britain will be deluged by almost a month's rainfall on Friday, as the abysmal summer weather shows no sign of letting up.
Met Office forecasters have warned that a storm rolling in from the Atlantic will soak South West England, Wales, the West Midlands, London and parts of the South East with more than 1.9in (50mm) of rain.
A spokesman said: "There will be no respite from the miserable summer weather just yet."
Heavy rain and gusting winds are expected, with forecasters predicting that some areas will suffer localised flooding.
South-west England and Wales will bear the brunt of the Friday storms with 50mph winds expected.
Britain is just a few showers away from recording a record wet summer, at the climax of the most remarkable period of broken weather records in the country's history. All of the smashed records are to do with temperature and rainfall - the two aspects of the climate most likely to be intensified by the advent of global warming.
While no specific event can be ascribed directly to climate change, the sequence of events is strongly suggestive of a climate that is now unmistakably altering before our eyes.
The saturated ground means any more downpours could cause huge volumes of water underground to burst out
Britain is facing a flooding timebomb this autumn and winter, with huge amounts of underground water stored up by incessant summer rain ready to burst out as floods the next time heavy rains return.
The Environment Agency is giving warning of "an enhanced flood risk" for England and Wales, although where and when any flooding strikes will depend on the weather patterns. Forecasters are predicting a wet autumn across much of Britain.
Torrential downpours which hit last week and left swathes of England and Wales under water were officially the worst in more than 200 years of record keeping, according to figures released by the Met Office Thursday.
Rainfall was more than double the seasonal average, with the early summer months of May to July witnessing 382.4 millimeters (15.06 inches) of rainwater, topping the previous record of 349.1 millimeters in 1789, said officials.
Deluges in 32 counties, covering the thousands of square miles stretching from Devon to Yorkshire, broke records dating back to 1914 by more than 25 millimeters, the meteorologists added.
© Victor R. Caivano/AP
Formosan termites swarm over a glass counter in a University of Florida entomology lab in March 1998.
If you've ever had to battle the tenacious termite, sweet revenge may be near.
A substance derived from glucose has been shown to weaken the insects' immune systems, making them vulnerable to infections from lethal microbes, a new study says.
The findings could give rise to a whole new class of safer pest-control treatments, the authors say.
"We wanted something environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and [that] does not play a toxic role," said study co-author Ram Sasisekharan, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
© Unknown
The Galeras volcano, located near the south Colombian city of Pasto erupted for the second time in 24 hours. The situation remains at red alert.
The Pasto Observatory of Vulcanology and Seismology recorded the latest eruption at 6:38am Monday morning. The previous eruption was at 7:18am Sunday morning.
The Conservatory announced that today's eruption was "explosive in nature".
The situation remains on red alert because authorities believe another eruption is "imminent" according to Terra.
Authorities called a red alert Sunday and ordered some 8,000 people living in the vicinity of the volcano to evacuate.
