Extreme weather events, such as the heavy rains that recently flooded the Mississippi River and the tornadoes that ripped through an unprecendented 300 mile swath in Alabama, are extremely likely to occur more frequently in the future.

This is prompting local governments to prepare for the impact of climate change, according to scientists and adaptation experts participating in a telephone press conference held yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Date-Time:
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 20:15:23 UTC

Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 11:15:23 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
39.115°N, 29.124°E

Depth:
4.6 km (2.9 miles) (poorly constrained)

Region:
WESTERN TURKEY

Distances:
53 km (32 miles) NNW of Usak, Turkey

82 km (50 miles) WSW of Kutahya, Turkey

120 km (74 miles) S of Bursa, Turkey

332 km (206 miles) WSW of ANKARA, Turkey

From California to England to India, people have periodically reported a fishy form of precipitation: small animals, such as fish, frogs, and snakes have occasionally fallen unexpectedly from the sky, sometimes miles away from water. Waterspouts whirling over lakes or oceans can suck water and whatever is in it up into the clouds above them. The strong winds of these storm clouds can carry their flopping cargo long distances before dumping them on unsuspecting people below.

For centuries, people have reported an electrical oddity invading their homes, usually during thunderstorms. Balls of light, ranging from the size of a golfball to a football, occasionally float through the air during storms, undoubtedly surprising anyone they happen to encounter. Known as ball lightning, they have no smell and emit no heat and little sound. They generally disappear with a ?pop? when they encounter something electrical, like a television, though they occasionally explode more violently, sometimes starting fires. These glowing spheres not only mystify those who happen to encounter them, but scientists as well?as yet, there is no prevailing explanation for how ball lightning forms.

Showers of blood falling from the sky may sound like something out of a Hollywood horror film, but such scarlet-tinted rains have been reported since ancient Roman times. Though they often horrified the people they fell upon, these rains were not actually blood?they were caused by dust or sand blown into the atmosphere and carried long distances by strong winds, eventually mixing with rain clouds and coloring the rain. In Europe, these red rains are usually dyed by dust carried across the continent from Saharan sand storms. (Other colored rains have also been spotted and seem to be caused by similar sources: pollens can create a startling yellow rain, dust from coal mines and ominous black rain, and some dusts a milky white rain.)

Start preparing now: This year's hurricane season is expected to be an active one.

On the heels of an already violent tornado season and other wild April weather, the 2011 hurricane season may see 12 to 18 named storms and six to 10 hurricanes, an above-average season.

That's the forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released today (May 19) for the Atlantic basin, which includes the East Coast, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. If the forecast is anything like last year's, it should be taken very seriously.

"If you live along the Gulf Coast or live along the Atlantic Coast, you've had your notice," said Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "It's going to be an above-average season."

The 2010 season was one of the busiest ever, with 12 hurricanes in the Atlantic - the second-highest number on record, tied with 1969 - and 19 named storms (which include tropical storms and hurricanes) - a tie with 1887 and 1995 as the third-busiest on record. The 2010 forecast called for 17 named storms and 10 hurricanes.

An average Atlantic season produces 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes. The busiest season on record remains 2005, which saw 28 named storms, including Hurricane Katrina. Five of last year's hurricanes reached major hurricane status (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength).

A projected wave of extinctions of plant and animal species this century may have been overestimated because the most widely used scientific method can exaggerate losses by more than 160 percent, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The scientists said that habitat destruction by humans is driving animal and plant species toward extinction at just half the pace as previously believed.

They attribute the overestimation to flaws in the most popular scientific method, which exaggerated the projected losses by more than 160 percent.

A frigid spring storm blew through Northern Arizona on Wednesday, bringing a mix of rain, sleet and wet snow.

High temperatures are typically around 70 degrees this time of year, but the high for Wednesday was 43 and came at 1:30 a.m. Temperatures hovered around freezing for much of the day.
"It's a bit on the unusual side, but not unprecedented," said Ken Daniel, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "It's an unusually strong and cold system coming down from the Northwest, and it's bringing in some moisture as it moves across the state."

No road closures were reported, but blowing dust and icy pavement made driving hazardous, with accidents clogging Interstates 40 and 17. Winds gusting over 40 mph whipped up dust along I-40 between Flagstaff and Winslow and forced the Arizona Department of Public Safety to escort cars along a five-mile stretch.

How do intense droughts and extreme flooding coexist together? Welcome to the "New Normal" of regional weather fueled by changes in global climate, Reuters reports.

"It's a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University explained.

Catastrophic rainstorms and tornado activity in the United States has coincided with prolonged drought, sometimes in the same region, she said, noting that West Texas has seen a record-setting dry period over the last several years, even as there have been two 100-year rain events.

"We are used to certain conditions and there's a lot going on these days that is not what we're used to, that is outside our current frame of reference," Hayhoe said on a conference call with other experts, organized by the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists.

Hayhoe, other scientists, civic planners and a manager at the giant Swiss Re reinsurance firm pin the cause on human-influenced climate change as the primary factor for more extreme weather. Although climate change cannot be blamed for any specific weather event, Hayhoe said a background of climate change had an impact on every rainstorm, heat wave or cold snap.

"What we're seeing is the new normal is constantly evolving," said Nikhil da Victoria Lobo of Swiss Re's Global Partnerships team. "Globally what we're seeing is more volatility ... there's certainly a lot more integrated risk exposure."

Acapulco,- So far in the month of May, 60 tremors have been registered in Guerrero, mostly in the Richter range of 3 or 4. Monday afternoon a tremor of 4.3 was felt and an earlier one of 5.5 was registered on May 5 with the same epicenter, in the municipality of Ometepec, in the Costa Chica, to the east and south of Acapulco. More than one-third of the tremors taking place in this month in Guerrero have had their origin in the Costa Chica.

Five tremor epicenters have occurred within the municipality of Acapulco since May 1, all of them between 3 and 4 on the Richter scale. The tremors felt in Guerrero in the first two weeks of May is double the number registered for the same period last year.

New Delhi: At least 56 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar when severe duststorm, accompanied by rain and thundershowers, lashed some parts of the states on Wednesday evening, according to All India Radio.

In Uttar Pradesh, at least 30 people were killed in cyclonic storm that hit several districts of eastern UP. Eight people were killed in Siddhartha Nagar, seven in Jaunpur, five each in Varanasi, Bhadohi and Ambekarnagar.

According to AIR, high-velocity wind and scattered rain is still occurring at some places in Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Basti divisions.

Weeks of relentless rain have destabilized a massive section of hillside in the Adrian's Acres neighborhood in Keene Valley, which sits on the slopes of Porter Mountain.

Town and state officials say an area roughly a half-mile wide has begun to shift, slumping downward several inches each day.

One vacation home has already been condemned, and one other house evacuated. At least four more homes are threatened.

Brian Mann was on Porter Mountain yesterday and has our story.