Earth ChangesS


Frog

It's raining iguanas after Florida cold snap

An unexpected cold snap this week sent thermometers plummeting in Florida and heat-hungry iguanas dropping from tree branches like autumn leaves, scientists and witnesses said.

Passersby in Bill Baggs and Crandon parks in Key Biscayne, south of Miami, were seen picking up the seemingly lifeless lizards from the ground beneath trees and setting them in the sun, where after a brief warm-up, most revived and scampered off into the bushes.

The cold-blooded lizard-with-a-mohawk's comfort level begins at 23 degrees Celsius (73 Fahrenheit) and it positively thrives at 35 C (95 F). But on Wednesday and Thursday, the mercury in south Florida dropped to 4-5 C (39-41 F).

Bizarro Earth

Australian climate changing, experts say

Australia experienced one of its hottest years on record in 2007, and climate experts have warned that the higher temperatures are likely a taste of things to come as weather patterns change.

The country has already kicked off 2008 with a spate of extreme weather -- several cities, including Perth and Melbourne, have suffered summer heatwaves, while bushfires have raged on the east and west coasts.

Meanwhile, heavy rain has caused flooding along the east coast, huge waves have forced the closure of Sydney beaches and Cyclone Helen has brought winds of up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) an hour to the northern city of Darwin.

Snowman

Russia struggles to stay warm in deepening winter freeze

Russian emergency services struggled to maintain the country's often creaky heating infrastructure on Saturday as temperatures in some of the coldest regions on Earth plunged to bone-chilling levels, officials said.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement it was providing emergency help in a village in the Siberian province of Yakutia where a fault in a main heating pipeline had left 11 apartment buildings, home to 175 people, without heat.

Outdoor temperatures in the village of Artyk had plunged to minus 54 degrees Celsius (minus 65 Fahrenheit) in recent days, according to the provincial newspaper Yasia.

Snowman

Br-r-r! Where did global warming go?

THE STARK headline appeared just over a year ago. "2007 to be 'warmest on record,' " BBC News reported on Jan. 4, 2007. Citing experts in the British government's Meteorological Office, the story announced that "the world is likely to experience the warmest year on record in 2007," surpassing the all-time high reached in 1998.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the planetary hot flash: Much of the planet grew bitterly cold.

Cloud Lightning

Ice slows cleanup in flooded Nev. town

FERNLEY, Nev. - Hundreds of homes sat in as much as 8 feet of water Sunday following a canal rupture as freezing temperatures hindered efforts to get the water to drain away.

As many as 400 homes were damaged when the canal's bank gave way following heavy rainfall produced by the West Coast storm system that had piled snow at least 5 feet deep in the Sierra Nevada and blacked out thousands of customers in three states. At least three deaths were blamed on the storm.

"In 10 minutes the entire back yard was completely flooded. It was just nothing but water," said Kristin Watson, whose home backs up to part of the canal. "We just sort of panicked because we knew we had to get out of there real quick."

Snowman

Heavy snow blankets Iran, blocks major roads

Heavy overnight snowfalls covered most parts of Iran on Sunday, leading to closure of schools and major roads and cancelled domestic flights.

Most of the Iranian cities, particularly those located in the northern parts of the country, were blanketed by non-stop snowfall which still continues.

Primary and secondary schools were closed in Tehran and most cities including in Qazvin where university classes were also cancelled due to heavy snow.

©AFP

Better Earth

Earthquake jolts Greece

Athens, Greece -- A powerful earthquake measured at magnitude 6.1 and centered about 75 miles southwest of Athens startled residents of southern Greece Sunday morning, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

©USGS

Better Earth

Two quakes rattle Canada's west coast

Two strong earthquakes shook the West Coast in the Queen Charlotte Islands region early this morning. There is no tsunami warning in effect for the area.

Cloud Lightning

More Than One Million Lose Power in California Storm



©AP Photo/Tony Avelar
Tree service worker Ramiro Bautista cuts the remaining tree that fell and on power lines that cut off service to homes in Felton, Calif., Friday, Jan. 4, 2008.

Sacramento, California - Howling winds, pelting rain and heavy snow pummeled California on Friday, toppling trees, flipping big rigs, cutting power to more than a million people and forcing evacuations in mudslide-prone areas.

Flights were grounded and highways closed in Northern California as gusts reached 80 mph during the second wave of an arctic storm that sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Forecasters expected the storm to dump as much as 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada by Sunday.

Cloud Lightning

California hunkers down for major storm

A fierce arctic storm pounded California on Friday, threatening to soak mudslide-prone canyons already charred by wildfires and to paralyze the mountains with deep snow.