By Nicky Phillips 29 August 2011 A THICK blanket of grass spanning the width of Australia will pose a significant bushfire threat this season, experts say. While the record-breaking rains that fell across the eastern states earlier this year replenished drought-depleted soil, they also spurred large amounts of vegetation growth, particularly grass, the likes of […]
By Julio Godoy26 August 2011 Paris (IPS) — The severe drought in the Horn of Africa, which has caused the death of at least 30,000 children and is affecting some 12 million people, especially in Somalia, is a direct consequence of weather phenomena associated with climate change and global warming, environmental scientists say. “The present […]
Relative sea level trends (millimeters/year) along the U.S. East Coast. The rate of annual sea level rise measured at Sewells Point in Norfolk is the highest of all stations along the U.S. East Coast at nearly 4.5 millimeters per year. Trends are shown for Key West, Florida; Mayport, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Sewells Point, Virginia; […]
By Ed Ballard 19 August 2011 Emma Summerfield returned home on a rainy November evening in 2009 to find her vacuum cleaner afloat on a rising tide in her cellar. Hours later, her 18th century mill-house in Cumbria, northern England, was six feet deep in water. When the water receded, it left rooms wrecked, walls […]
Caption by Holli Riebeek11 August 2011 More of the United States was in exceptional drought in July 2011 than in any other month in the past 12 years, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The worst of the drought is spread across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Louisiana. […]
By Jane Sutton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman17 August 2011 MIAMI (Reuters) – The United States has already tied its yearly record for billion-dollar weather disasters and the cumulative tab from floods, tornadoes and heat waves has hit $35 billion, the National Weather Service said on Wednesday. And it’s only August, with the bulk of the […]
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY; with Elizabeth Weise16 August 2011 In Chula Vista, Calif., new waterfront buildings will be required to have higher foundations because of an expected rise in sea levels. In Chicago, where flooding is predicted to worsen, residents can get rebates for putting rain barrels, compost bins and native plants in their […]
By Barbara Goldberg; Additional reporting by Dave Warner; Editing by Jerry Norton 15 August 2011 NEW YORK (Reuters) – An unstoppable conveyor belt of rain drenched the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic on Monday, adding to record-breaking precipitation that triggered flood watches and a local state of emergency at the start of the workweek. Severe weather in […]
By Timothy McDonald13 August 2011 The Queensland and Federal Government’s first report card on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef has found pesticides used in agriculture are causing significant problems for the reef. The report says some farmers need to be more careful with their chemicals, finding that nearly one-quarter of horticulture producers and […]
By John R. Platt13 August 2011 More dugongs (Dugong dugon) have died in Australia this year than in all of 2010. At least 90 of the marine mammals, close relatives of manatees, have starved to death off the coast of Queensland after floods destroyed the area’s sea grass, the dugong’s main source of food. Another […]
