6th September - Today's News: British Summer End on a High

Summer ended in Britain yesterday with the temperature hitting 30.2c at Writtle in Essex making it the hottest September day for 7 years (although it nearly as warm in October 2011).  Earlier in the day though, fog was implicit in a 130 vehicle pile-up on Sheppey.  Today we have proper rain, for the first time in ages .....

And are we really being threatened by 'plague of wasps'?  Well I haven't seen one since I killed a Queen back in the spring ....
 
Southern California's heat wave continues

Tropical Storm Gabrielle downgraded to depression as it brings heavy rain to Puerto Rico

Storm rips off roofs in eastern Japan whilst 7,000 residents in western Japan warned to evacuate due to Typhoon Toraji

In Patna, India, record rain floods roads

In China, cloud seeding popular during hottest summer - how effective it was is another matter

And in the Russian far east, siege humour as locals rename their flooded city Komsomolsk-in-Amur with worst still to come

Yet more research suggesting that global warming has increased risk of record heat

And BAMS report: extreme weather events on 2012 from a climate perspective


Scientists call for overhaul of UN 'blockbuster' climate reports

Overgrazing turning parts of Mongolia Steppe into desert - where will the woolly mammoths go if we ever clone them?!!!

Scientists confirm existence of largest single volcano on Earth in the Pacific - its the size of the British Isles ..... but probably hasn't erupted for 140my

Meanwhile, a smaller volcanic sleeping giant opens North Korean co-operation - so supervolcanoes are good for something!

Massive storm reveal water deep within Saturn's atmosphere

And blue light obersavtions indicate water-rich atmosphere of super-Earth Gilese 1214b