7th February - Today's News: Deadly Taiwan Earthquake Topples Hotel

Currently believed to be four dead, more than 170 missing as damaging Taiwan earthquake topples hotel

 There's travel chaos in France as snow blankets Paris - and we even had a light flurry or two of snow in Evesham yesterday ....  Meawhile in frozen Sweden: Temperatures dip below zero everywhere

And in Japan, 1,400 cars remain stranded after heavy snow

Yesterday, Meteogroup officially took over the BBC weather forecasts, online and on TV.  And for a change, most people seem to be happy!   BBC Weather redesign - viewers hail 'Scotland's return'

 whilst Phil Evans in Exeter explains about the BBC and Met Office: an enduring partnership. 

Sea floor uplift after last ice age causes methane release in the Arctic today

A new study show that there was no volcanic winter in East Africa from ancient Toba eruption

 - although ice cores do nontheless still indicate a drastic drop in temps there in the immediate aftermath. 

Did surface life evolve on Mars? Newly published research casts increased doubt - however, possibilities for subsurface life may be more promising

And reduced energy from the sun might occur by mid-century: Now scientists know by how much - and far from instigating a catastrophic ice age (and some have been predicting for decades) it will only just slow global warming ....  Assuming they are right.