Weather forecasters admit the finer details of the approaching storm have them at a loss.
The advances of science, multimillion-dollar technology and computer modelling allow them to say the shape and timing of the system is becoming clearer, but they cannot pinpoint the location of the worst of the expected rain, snow and gales.
MetService severe-weather forecaster Allister Gorman said there was no doubt a big low-pressure system would cover New Zealand from Sunday.
Earth Changes
A rare white kangaroo was seen near Mount Burr just after dawn on Monday.
It is believed to have been an albino and was spotted at 6.45am.
The kangaroo was seen near the junction of the Millicent-Mount Burr Road and the road leading to the Mount Burr golf course.
This area is well known for having a high density of kangaroos and they are often seen at dawn and dusk.
The sighting was by made by two workmen who were traveling to Millicent in a vehicle.
It is believed to have been an albino and was spotted at 6.45am.
The kangaroo was seen near the junction of the Millicent-Mount Burr Road and the road leading to the Mount Burr golf course.
This area is well known for having a high density of kangaroos and they are often seen at dawn and dusk.
The sighting was by made by two workmen who were traveling to Millicent in a vehicle.
© Unknown
A bird-eating spider found at a Bowen business
A bird-eating spider found at a Bowen business
For about six weeks, residents have reported seeing huge bird-eating spiders crawling around their backyards and gardens.
Amalgamated Pest Control Bowen pest technician Audy Geiszler took this incredible photo of one of the spiders he caught wandering across the garden of a restaurant near the town's centre.
Mr Geiszler estimated its body alone was 5cm long, a specimen declared 'especially large' by the Queensland Museum. Most grow to be the size of a man's hand.
Selected excerpts from UN IPCC scientist's recent testimony.
IPCC reviewer and climate researcher and chemist Dr. Vincent Gray of New Zealand is an expert reviewer on every single draft of the IPCC reports going back to 1990 and author of The Greenhouse Delusion: A Critique of "Climate Change 2001. Dr. Gray's research is featured on page 155 of the 2009 edition of the 255-page "U.S. Senate Minority Report Update: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims"
Below are selected excerpts of his testimony before New Zealand's Committee for the Emissions Trading Scheme Review May 5, 2009:
I am an experienced research chemist, with a PhD from Cambridge 1946, and a long research career in the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand and China. I have over 100 scientific publications, many of them on climate science, which I have studied intensively for the past 18 years.
I have been an Expert Reviewer for the IPCC Reports since the beginning in 1990.I submitted 1,898 comments to the last (fourth) Working Group I (Science) Report.
I was recently invited to the Beijing Climate Center as a Visiting Scholar and I recently lectured to a Conference in New York.
I have reluctantly concluded, after detailed study of the evidence presented by the IPCC, that there are no convincing scientific arguments to support the claim that increases in greenhouse gases are harmful to the climate. [...]
IPCC reviewer and climate researcher and chemist Dr. Vincent Gray of New Zealand is an expert reviewer on every single draft of the IPCC reports going back to 1990 and author of The Greenhouse Delusion: A Critique of "Climate Change 2001. Dr. Gray's research is featured on page 155 of the 2009 edition of the 255-page "U.S. Senate Minority Report Update: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims"
Below are selected excerpts of his testimony before New Zealand's Committee for the Emissions Trading Scheme Review May 5, 2009:
I am an experienced research chemist, with a PhD from Cambridge 1946, and a long research career in the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand and China. I have over 100 scientific publications, many of them on climate science, which I have studied intensively for the past 18 years.
I have been an Expert Reviewer for the IPCC Reports since the beginning in 1990.I submitted 1,898 comments to the last (fourth) Working Group I (Science) Report.
I was recently invited to the Beijing Climate Center as a Visiting Scholar and I recently lectured to a Conference in New York.
I have reluctantly concluded, after detailed study of the evidence presented by the IPCC, that there are no convincing scientific arguments to support the claim that increases in greenhouse gases are harmful to the climate. [...]
The fear of anthropogenic global warming is based almost entirely upon computerized climate model simulations of how the global atmosphere will respond to slowly increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. There are now over 20 models being tracked by the IPCC, and they project levels of warming ranging from pretty significant to catastrophic by late in this century. The following graph shows an example of those models' forecasts based upon assumed increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide this century.
While there is considerable spread among the models, it can be seen that all of them now produce levels of global warming that can not be ignored.
But what is the basis for such large amounts of warming? Is it because we know CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and so increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 will cause warming? NO!...virtually everyone now agrees that the direct warming effect from extra CO2 is relatively small - too small to be of much practical concern.
© Dr. Roy Spencer
While there is considerable spread among the models, it can be seen that all of them now produce levels of global warming that can not be ignored.
But what is the basis for such large amounts of warming? Is it because we know CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and so increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 will cause warming? NO!...virtually everyone now agrees that the direct warming effect from extra CO2 is relatively small - too small to be of much practical concern.
Highlighting a "vast underestimation" of Madagascar's natural riches, up to 221 new species of amphibians have been found on the island country, including the frog Boophis ulftunni, pictured. The find nearly doubles the number of known amphibians in Madagascar, a new study says.
© Raphael Quinet/Creative Commons
The situation of bears in the Iberian Peninsula is critical.
The situation of bears in the Iberian Peninsula is critical.
The non-invasive analysis of 146 samples has allowed for the identification of 39 bears in the western sub-population, and 9 in the eastern one, so as to show the genetic structure of the population. In order to obtain the individual genotypes of the bears, scientists have employed 18 micro-satellite markers in a joint fashion, and a sex marker with high-class genetic technology.
© Dean Grubbs
Sharks and other large predatory fish become rare on Caribbean reefs near large human populations.
Sharks and other large predatory fish become rare on Caribbean reefs near large human populations.
While other scientists working in the Caribbean have observed the declines of large predators for decades, the comprehensive work by Stallings documents the ominous patterns in far more detail at a much greater geographic scale than any other research to date.
"Seeing evidence of this ecological and economic travesty played out across the entire Caribbean is truly sobering," said Associate Professor John Bruno of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who served as the PLoS One academic editor for Stallings' new paper.
On Sunday, a significant windstorm called a derecho, swept across 5 states, knocking down trees and power lines across the South.
Southeast Texas, Central Louisiana, South Mississippi, South and parts of Central Alabama, and North Central Georgia all were affected.
A derecho is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line, usually taking the form of a bow echo.
Southeast Texas, Central Louisiana, South Mississippi, South and parts of Central Alabama, and North Central Georgia all were affected.
© Jacksonville Examiner
Sao Paulo - Floods and mudslides from months of heavy rains in northern Brazil have driven more than 186,000 from their homes, killed at least 19 people and cut off shipments from a huge Amazon iron mine, officials said Tuesday.
Television footage showed the rooftops of houses poking out of inundated towns and people using boats to move around in their cities. Mudslides swamped homes and forced residents to move in with relatives and pack into emergency shelters.
Television footage showed the rooftops of houses poking out of inundated towns and people using boats to move around in their cities. Mudslides swamped homes and forced residents to move in with relatives and pack into emergency shelters.
