Earth ChangesS


Magic Wand

Gifted research parrot Alex found dead

A gifted parrot that could count to six, identify colors and even express frustration with repetitive scientific trials has died after 30 years of helping researchers better understand the avian brain.

©Alex Foundation

Cloud Lightning

Farmers in Virginia and Maryland Growing Desperate For Rain

St. Mary's County farmer Tommy Bowles has been pumping water to his pumpkin patch and corn maze to prepare for pre-Halloween crowds. But he can't afford to irrigate all his crops, and the corn, soybeans and wheat are suffering in the heat and bone-dry soil.

"This is about the worst drought I've seen since I've been in farming -- and I've been farming for 33 years," Bowles, 52, said. "We just haven't really had any rain at all."

Cloud Lightning

15 dead in Nepal floods, landslides

Landslides and floods triggered by torrential rains in Nepal have killed at least 15 people in the last three days, officials said Sunday.

"Five bodies were recovered Sunday morning after they were swept away by a flooding river in Rautahat late Saturday," local official Durga Prasad Bhandari told AFP from Rautahat district, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Kathmandu.

Cloud Lightning

Record-breaking rainfall pounds Oklahoma City

Heavy rainfall pounded south Oklahoma City early Monday, causing flash flooding and shattering an 82-year-old daily rainfall record in less than one hour.

By 8:30 a.m. Monday, 6.28 inches of rain had fallen at Will Rogers World Airport since midnight, including 2.73 inches between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. The previous record for rainfall in a 24-hour period at the site was 2.4 inches in 1925.

Cloud Lightning

Freak snow in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic

After an unusually warm summer, Europe saw autumn coming directly with a massive snow fall. In Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, people were taken by surprise on Thursday morning, waking to see mountains covered in snow.

Cloud Lightning

Flash floods strike Northern Thailand

The worst floods of the year caught the people of Loei and Phetchabun off guard while they slept yesterday.

Pre-dawn forest run-off from Huai Dong Thip and Huai Nam Pung in the mountains of Loei's Dan Sai district roared into Nam Pung village at 3am yesterday, destroying three houses.

©The Nation
Villagers look at the spot where three houses used to stand near Dong Thip River in Loei's Dan Sai district.

One house with a family of three was swept away. Local officials retrieved the body of Somyupin Seechamuk seven kilometres from a broken bridge and later found her 10-year-old son's body, but her husband was still missing.

Cloud Lightning

The amazing pictures that show autumn has come early in the UK

After a dreary summer of endless showers and muddy fields, autumn has arrived early with a welcome flourish of red and yellow.

Although the season does not traditionally start until the equinox in another fortnight, some trees have already taken on a warm, coppery hue.

And with experts forecasting a relatively dry autumn with below average wind, the leaves are likely stay on long enough for people to enjoy them.

©SWNS
Four-year-old Ameilia Mykinley kicks her way through the leaves on her way to school with mum Louise.

Bizarro Earth

Flashback Harvest time in UK as 'confused' fruit think it's autumn

Summer may have only just started after weeks of rain - but fruit falling from trees suggest autumn is already here.

Experts believe the unpredictable weather may lead to the shortest summer on record for fruit growers.

The warm early spring and recent deluges are the factors behind berries in hedgerows and mushrooms springing up in the fields.

Cloud Lightning

Over one million hit by fresh floods in India, Bangladesh

More than one million people have been evacuated or stranded as rivers in northeastern India and Bangladesh rose to alarming levels and submerged vast swathes of countryside, officials said Monday.

In India's Assam state, the army helped shift an estimated 800,000 people as the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries -- swollen by monsoon rains -- breached their embankments late Sunday.

©Reuters

A further 300,000 people further downstream in Bangladesh were displaced or marooned, most of them for the second time in as many months, officials said.

Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains trigger flood alerts, claim lives, in Poland

Heavy rains claimed lives and triggered flood alerts in the Lower Silesia region of south-western Poland Friday as emergency crews scrambled to sandbag low-lying areas to ward off rising river waters. A man working on road construction is believed to have drowned Friday after being swept away by the waters of the Sola river swollen by heavy rain in southern Poland, according to Poland's TVN24 news channel.