A swarm of tornadoes tore through several counties in southern Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday, injuring at least 10 people and ripping apart hundreds of homes and other buildings, including parts of the University of Southern Mississippi, authorities said.

The Forrest County seat of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the adjacent town of Petal, both about 100 miles southeast of Jackson, the state capital, bore the brunt of storms that struck less than an hour before dark.

The tornado that plowed through the Hattiesburg area was believed to have reached three-quarters of a mile in diameter at times, said Anna Weber, a National Weather Service meteorologist.


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Every few million years or so, the Earth burps up a gargantuan volcano. These aren't like volcanoes in our lifetimes; these "super volcanoes" can erupt continuously for thousands of years. While they might be rare, you'd best look out when one hits. The ash and volcanic gases from these volcanoes can wipe out most living things over large parts of the planet. Michael Thorne, a seismologist at the University of Utah, has some clues about what causes these big eruptions. Thorne uses seismic waves to get a picture of what's going on about 1,800 miles beneath the Earth's surface, where the planet's core meets the outer mantle.

Think of the Earth as an avocado, and the pit is the core. The stuff you make guacamole with is the outer mantle. Thorne has been watching two enormous piles of rock that sit on the boundary between the core and the mantle. One pile is underneath the Pacific Ocean; the other under Africa. Scientists have known about them for 20 years, but Thorne saw something different. "I think this is the first study that might point to evidence that these piles are moving around," Thorne says.

Road and lift closures. Evacuations and residents confined to their homes. The storms that have brought over 7 meters of snow to the Pyrenees since the New Year don't seem to be putting a smile on ski resort director's faces. Quite the opposite in fact. Some are asking if they were not better off with last season's snow drought. Yesterday at Mourtis, a resort where skiers are more familiar with grass and mud, the piste bashers were running non-stop and the upper lifts have barely opened all week. The diesel bill is eye-watering.

Noël Lacaze, director at Peyragudes, says that avalanche control work has been non-stop. "We've already used 900 kg of explosives, we've never done that before, that's between 15,000 to 20,000 euros alone". Add to that overtime plus the work clearing roofs and roads as well as additional heating costs and Lacuze thinks snowmaking might be cheaper than dealing with the effects of too much snow. Last season at Barèges there were less than 10 PIDAs organized (general avalanche control days), this season they are already approaching 20. Bernard Malus, director of le Grand Tormalet (Barèges-la Mongie-pic du Midi) says that in recent season they've invested heavily in snow making not avalanche control infrastructure. "This winter has taught us we've got to put money into remote avalanche control systems, a more performant Gazex network, it will cost around 3 million euros". Lacaze says that the investment in advanced ski lifts over recent years in the Pyrenees has had an effect "chair lifts are not more fragile but the depart and arrival areas are more complex to clear and secure, with drag lifts things were easier".

A strong cold front triggering blizzard conditions across northern Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota is also triggering severe weather across the deep south today (Sunday, February 10, 2013). The Storm Prediction Center issued a slight risk for severe weather across Louisiana, southern Mississippi, and southern Alabama for a threat to see a few strong tornadoes, large hail, and strong winds.

During the evening hours, supercells developed across southern Mississippi and produced very distinct signatures on radar that would indicate strong rotation and possible tornadoes. One confirmed tornado struck the city of Hattiesburg, Mississippi around 5 p.m CST (22:00 UTC). There have been numerous reports of severe damage to buildings, structures, and what appears to be a direct hit through the University of Southern Mississippi.

In this post, we have included some images and videos that were posted via social media. It is still too early to know if any injuries or deaths occurred with this particular storm. Once we get more details, we will let you know.

Torrential rain has been causing havoc along the Pacific coast side of South America, with flooding causing the deaths of at least six people in Peru.

In the southern city of Arequipa, thousands of people were left without electricity and drinking water.

In Chile, some four million people were hit by cuts to water supply blamed on landslides in San Jose de Maipo, 30 miles (48 km) south east of Santiago.

The landslides contaminated two rivers supplying the capital's water plants.

Jane Goodall greets the audience by imitating a chimpanzee, then launches into an hour-long talk on her relationship with apes and how, from being a primatologist, she became an activist to protect them.

At 78, Goodall, who has 53 years of studying chimps behind her, is still criss-crossing the planet to raise the awareness of populations and their leaders on the fate of the apes and the need to protect the environment.

"I haven't been more than two or three weeks in one place at one time," for the past 25 years, she says.

It all started with a conference on chimpanzees that she attended in the US in the 1980s.

There were sessions on the ethics of chimps being used in medical research, habitat destruction and chimps caught in snares and the beginning of the bush meat trade.

"I went in as a scientist happily learning about chimpanzee behaviour... but I left that conference as an activist," she recounts.

This is fun to watch. It is a time lapse video of the Snowpocalypse in Hartford, CT. Clearly, you can see the posited global warming influences having an effect. /sarcasm

The U.S. Northeast started digging itself out on Sunday after a blizzard dumped up to 40 inches (1 meter) of snow with hurricane force winds, killing at least nine people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

New York City trucks plowed through residential streets, leaving hundreds, if not thousands, of motorists to dig their buried vehicles out from mountains of snow.

"I give up," Giovanni Marchenna, 52, of Manhattan said with a laugh.

"Looks like I'll be taking the subway to work until the snow melts," he added, noting he spent more than an hour shoveling snow.

Utility companies reported that some 350,000 customers were still without electricity across nine states after the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines. About 700,000 homes and businesses were without power at one point on Saturday.

Air traffic began to return to normal on Sunday after some 5,800 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to Flightaware, a flight tracking service.

Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and New York state's Long Island MacArthur Airport reopened on Sunday morning. Both had been closed on Saturday.

Contrary to a statement by President Juan Manuel Santos, eight people have been injured and more than a 100 houses have been damaged in an M7.0 earthquake that hit Colombia Saturday morning.

According to the country's disaster management unit, six people were injured in the El Charco municipality in Nariño, the department where the earthquake took place.

Additionally, the unit's director, Carlos Marquez, said that 143 houses were damaged.

The damages were reported as far as cities as Bogota, more than 500 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, where some buildings were left without windows or cracks appeared in walls.

Shortly before the official report on injuries and damages, Santos claimed there had been no injuries and the material damage was "marginal."

The earthquake was felt in neighboring countries like Ecuador and Peru.

The strong earthquake is the second in the region in half a year; in September last year, a M7.3 earthquake shook the city of Popayan.

A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds hammered the northeastern United States on Saturday, cutting power to 700,000 homes and businesses, shutting down travel and leaving at least five people dead.

The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic dumped more than 3 feet of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said.

Coastal blizzard and flood warnings were in effect, but Massachusetts and Connecticut lifted vehicle travel bans as the storm slowly moved eastward on Saturday afternoon.

Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates reaching 6 inches an hour.

"Even the plows are getting stuck," Harkins told local WTNH television.

The storm centered its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the highest snowfall total, 38 inches, in Milford, Connecticut.