Climate

Hurricane Henriette pounds Mexico
Hurricane Henriette roared toward farming states in mainland Mexico on Wednesday, threatening heavy rain and winds for large corn and tomato crops after pummeling the Pacific beach resort of Los Cabos. >> Read the Full Article
Flood warnings issued as typhoon nears Tokyo
A typhoon was approaching Tokyo on Thursday, forcing train and ferry cancellations and sparking fears of flooding, landslides and high winds in and around the Japanese capital. >> Read the Full Article
Felix kills 38 in Nicaragua; survivors wash ashore
Soldiers searched for more bodies on Thursday after Hurricane Felix killed 38 people in Nicaragua, while 52 members of a group of Miskito Indians washed ashore alive in neighboring Honduras. Dozens were still missing after Felix tore into Nicaragua's swampy Caribbean coast late on Tuesday, destroying thousands of flimsy homes and making tracks through barely developed jungle areas even less passable than normal. >> Read the Full Article
APEC rift opens over climate change debate
Leaders at an Asia-Pacific summit appeared deadlocked on Thursday over what their "Sydney declaration" on climate change and cutting greenhouse gas emissions should say. China's President Hu Jintao gave only qualified support to Australia's initiative on climate change, while some developing nations criticized Australian and U.S. moves to put climate change at the top of the agenda of the APEC gathering in Sydney. >> Read the Full Article
Hurricane Henriette Bears Down On Mainland Mexico
LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Henriette roared toward farming states in mainland Mexico on Wednesday, threatening heavy rain and winds for large corn and tomato crops after pummeling the Pacific beach resort of Los Cabos. Henriette, a relatively weak Category 1 storm that killed seven people including a foreign tourist on its route up the Pacific coast, swept into the Gulf of California with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. Large waves were expected to batter the coastal states of Sonora and Sinaloa, where a storm last year ripped through the tomato crop, pushing up prices blamed for a brief inflation spike. >> Read the Full Article
Expert warns of tsunami risk in Bay of Bengal
Powerful earthquakes could rock the Bay of Bengal, triggering tsunamis that would inundate Myanmar, Bangladesh and possibly India, an Australian geologist has warned. It was known that the risk of another large quake off Indonesia's central Sumatra was high, but a large subduction zone in the Bay of Bengal along the coasts of Myanmar and Bangladesh appeared to have been forgotten, Phil Cummins of Geoscience Australia wrote in a letter in the latest issue of the journal Nature. >> Read the Full Article
Scientists Say Global Warming To Hit Africa Hardest
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Africa will suffer the most if the world fails to reduce global warming, with parts of the impoverished continent becoming uncultivable or uninhabitable, top British government scientists said on Wednesday. In a presentation in Pretoria, David King, the British government's chief scientific adviser, warned climate change, if unchecked, would lead to worsening drought in Africa as well as flooding along much of its coastline. He said an additional 70 million Africans could be at risk of hunger by the 2080s as a result of continued global warming -- temperatures in Africa have risen by about 0.7 degrees Celsius during the last century. >> Read the Full Article
Hurricane Henriette Approaches Mainland Mexico
LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Henriette roared toward farming states in mainland Mexico on Wednesday, threatening heavy rain and winds for large corn and tomato crops after pummeling the Pacific beach resort of Los Cabos. Henriette, a relatively weak Category 1 storm that killed seven people including a foreign tourist on its route up the Pacific coast, swept into the Gulf of California with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. Large waves were expected to batter the coastal states of Sonora and Sinaloa, where a storm last year ripped through the tomato crop, pushing up prices blamed for a brief inflation spike. >> Read the Full Article
North Carolina Drought Worsens, Lowest Streamflows In More Than 110 Years
North Carolina - August was a hot, dry month in North Carolina bringing record lows to many of the state's rivers and streams and worsening the drought conditions. The lowest average August streamflow in 110 years of record was recorded on the Tar River at Tarboro. The lowest average August streamflow on record was measured at 12 other monitoring stations in the state, with 9 of those sites located in central North Carolina, 2 sites in the coastal plain, and 2 sites in the mountains. All of these sites have at least 35 years of record, and most of the sites have more than 50 years of record. >> Read the Full Article
Calif. Heat Wave Blamed for 14 Deaths
Scorching heat that has gripped Southern California for more than a week is responsible for at least 14 deaths, authorities said Tuesday. Temperatures were down slightly Tuesday as the heat wave entered its eighth day, with a high of 101 degrees reported in Los Angeles. >> Read the Full Article