By Laura Legere, staff Writer3 August 2012 Pennsylvania’s heaviest downpours have gotten wetter and more frequent in the last six decades, according to a report released Thursday by PennEnvironment [pdf]. Between 1948 and 2011, the state has seen a 52 percent increase in the number of “extreme” storms – those that are among the largest […]
RALEIGH, 2 August 2012 (AP) – North Carolina lawmakers have temporarily banned using a science panel’s recommendation to plan for rising sea levels, after the governor decided Thursday not to veto the measure. The measure has been lampooned by comedians and has drawn the ire of environmentalists. It blocks the state from adopting any rate […]
By MARC SANTORA4 August 2012 Firefighters in Oklahoma struggled on Saturday to contain at least a dozen wildfires that have burned more than 80,000 acres near Oklahoma City. Fueled by searing temperatures and whipped by high winds, the fires forced hundreds of people to flee and had burned dozens of homes by late Friday. Oklahoma […]
By KEN MILLER, Associated Press2 Aug 2012 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – More than 64 temperature records were broken in Oklahoma during a scorching July, and additional ones fell across the state Wednesday on the first day of August, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The National Weather Service reported that Guthrie, about 30 miles […]
By COREY WILLIAMS 3 August 2012 DETROIT – From the street, the two decomposing bodies were nearly invisible, concealed in an overgrown lot alongside worn-out car tires and a moldy sofa. The teenagers had been shot, stripped to their underwear and left on a deserted block. They were just the latest victims of foul play […]
By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk 1 August 2012 Drought, wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves are becoming normal in America because of climate change, Congress was told on Wednesday in the first hearing on climate science in more than two years. In a predictably contentious hearing, the Senate’s environment and public works committee heard from […]
By JENNIFER MEDINA29 July 2012 OASIS, California – Signs of once grandiose dreams dot the shoreline of the Salton Sea, dried up like the dead fish that bob ashore from time to time. This lake, the largest in California, was once supposed to be the Riviera of the West, a playground for stars like Frank […]
By MATTHEW L. WALD and JOHN SCHWARTZ25 July 2012 WASHINGTON – From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation’s infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms. On a single day this month here, a US Airways regional […]
By Bob Burgdorfer, with additional reporting by Jonathan Leff and Brian Winter; Editing by Peter Bohan and Leslie Gevirtz1 August 2012 CHICAGO (Reuters) – Alarm grew over the unrelenting Midwest drought on Tuesday, as one of the top corporate leaders in agriculture warned that the government must act quickly to reduce the amount of corn […]
By CARRIE ANTLFINGER30 July 2012 MILWAUKEE – State and county fairs in the sweltering and drought-stricken Midwest may see some skinnier pigs and smaller squash this year. The dozen pigs Greg Marzahl and his 15-year-old daughter are bringing to the Wisconsin State Fair are smaller than those he’d normally show. Marzahl, who had three grand […]