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Korea: Global Warming Blamed for Record Tropical Nights


Chosun.com
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:40 UTC


©Chosun
Children splash in a fountain in front of the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju at the end of July when the rainy season was over and the heat wave beginning.

The nation saw more sleepless "tropical nights" this summer than ever, when nighttime temperatures stayed above 25 degrees Celsius. There were twice as many of them this summer as in the average year. In August alone, the frequency of tropical nights was four times higher than ever before. Meteorologists cite global warming and the "heat island" effect as the main culprits.
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Info

Fewer copperheads at mountaintop meet

Julie Stewart
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:19 UTC
The mysterious nighttime meetings of snakes on an Ozark hilltop have taken a puzzling new turn.

For the past two summers, dozens of Southern copperhead snakes have appeared beneath a cedar tree at Chuck Miller's rugged mountaintop home in Marion County. Like clockwork, the snakes arrived suddenly around 8 p. m., stayed for an hour or so, and then disappeared.

But things are different this summer. Instead of making their first appearance in mid-July, as they did in 2005 and 2006, the snakes began showing up in August. And their numbers are down significantly.
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Cloud Lightning

After devastating fires, heavy rains in Greece now raise fears of flooding


AP
Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:14 UTC
A massive cleanup, reconstruction and anti-flood effort was being launched Monday for fire-stricken parts of southern Greece as one fire front continued to burn while others abated, officials said.

After months of successive heat waves, heavy rainstorms flooded parts of northern Greece on Sunday. Rain and cooler weather were expected to move south early this week, helping firefighters extinguish any remaining blazes and prevent the possibility of smoldering fires rekindling. However, officials also fear that heavy rains could hamper relief efforts and lead to flooding.
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Cloud Lightning

California Heat Wave Causes Power Shortages, Extreme Weather Grips State


Associated Press
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:58 UTC
With temperatures expected to be well above 100 degrees again Sunday, California officials were appealing to residents to turn down their air conditioners and hold off on using major appliances until after dark.

The blistering heat wave blanketing California continued to place tremendous strain on the power grid, as some 2,600 homes and businesses in Los Angeles remained without power Saturday after overloaded circuits knocked out power to thousands last week.

Around the state, dozens of cooling centers have been opened in parks, libraries, senior centers and county fairgrounds.
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Info

Sudden oak death spreading in California


AP
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:11 UTC
The number of trees infected with sudden oak death in California is increasing, and the disease has reached epidemic levels along the coast, researchers say.

The oak-killing pathogen is firmly established in 14 counties - including Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo and Alameda - and the number of infected trees in these counties is escalating, University of California researchers reported Friday.
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Question

Chupacabra? Has a mythical beast turned up in Texas?

Elyzabeth White
Associated Press
Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:57 UTC
Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.
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Cloud Lightning

More than 130,000 hit by floods in West Africa


Reuters
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 09:30 UTC
Heavy flooding after torrential rains has affected more than 130,000 people in seven West African countries, with impoverished Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritanian worst hit, the United Nations said on Saturday.

More than 30,000 people have been stricken in both Mali and Mauritania, with some 20,000 affected in landlocked Burkina Faso since the flooding began in July, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on its Web site.
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Info

Coming Next Week: Colony Collapse Disorder Breakthrough

Kim Flottum
the daily green
Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:10 UTC
The first break in the CCD mystery is about to be released.

Researchers at Penn State, the USDA and Columbia University have had a research paper accepted by Science magazine that outlines the first published information on a possible cause of Colony Collapse Disorder ... commonly known as CCD. But Science and for the most part the researchers are being tight-lipped about what's in that paper. The secrecy surrounding this research has been extraordinary and some of the activities of the researchers has left us scratching our heads.
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Cloud Lightning

Felix becomes Category 5 hurricane

MARGARET WEVER
AP
Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:07 UTC
ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Hurricane Felix rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm Sunday and churned its way into the open waters of the Caribbean Sea after toppling trees and flooding some homes on a cluster of Dutch islands.

Felix was packing winds of up to 165 mph as it headed west, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was projected to skirt Honduras' coastline on Tuesday before slamming into Belize on Wednesday.

©AP Photo/Pedro Diaz
Water floods a street after the heavy rains of Hurricane Felix passed over Oranjestad, Aruba, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007.
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Bizarro Earth

Southland, California Rattled By 4.7 Earthquake


CBS2.com
Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:01 UTC
A magnitude 4.7 earthquake -- centered under the Santa Ana mountain range -- shook southern California at 10:29 Sunday morning.

Geologists confirmed preliminary automated reports that the earthquake's epicenter was eight miles west-northwest of the Riverside County city of Lake Elsinore and about 50 miles southwest of the Los Angeles Civic Center.

©USGS
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