Weather & Earth Science News

Downtown Los Angeles bakes at record 113 degrees and to make it worse, thousands of LA residents lose power during heatwave . It's been a bad year for landslides: Landslide buries 30 in north-west Colombia and ITN News have posted on youtube amazing footage of Colombian landslide . In Mexico, it was initially thought that up to a thousand people may have perished in another big landslide, however this morning there's the good news that fewer missing than first feared . Storm weakened levee holding in Wisconsin whilst in Minnesota, fishy and bizarre mark flood aftermath After Igor, Canadian officials warn repairs may take months with the military set to install temporary bridge in hurricane-torn town . Tropical storm is poised to strike Florida Keys, Miami, head for Carolinas In preparation for the coming winter, Hampshire snow review urges more gritting whilst in Devon Haldon Hill severe weather plan is launched for snow Bad news for the Highlands and those who love wil...

After a cool summer it's been a hot start to autumn in California and Southland heat will continue, weather service says and it's been similar across much of the rest of the US as autumn makes late showing, sheds records In Scotland, however, weather stations report big freeze - well, sort of. Not everywhere was so cold. Good to hear that there was a dusting of snow on the Cairngorms, as I had forecast there might be. In the wake of TS Matthew, heavy rains spark big floods over Central America Inventor creates 'submarine' to block typhoons In Canada, B.C. village of Port Alice hit by massive mudslide while elsewhere on Vancouver Island flood cleanup begins after heavy rains Mystery of disappearing Martian carbon dioxide solved? Egyptian desert expedition confirms spectacular meteorite impact And finally, the latest climate conspiracy to go viral on the internet (though originally reported in the Guardian back in June) is all about global cooling and the new world ...

Tropical Storm Matthew drenches Central America; thousands evacuated amid flooding fears and whilst Dominica has so far avoided any hurricanes, nonetheless Haiti storm 'kills five' and wrecks quake refugee camp Were floods in Pak caused by Siachen militarisation? - Pakistan's ambassador to the US has suggested so. According to official figures, this summer's Japan heatwave hills 170 - which actually doesn't sound very many at all compared with the thousands of deaths attributed to heatwaves in Europe in recent years. Although it seems this number is only those who died soon after arriving in hospital. South Korea has seen unusual weather in September - including early frosts and a heatwave. A big Australian dust storm could be weeks away

Whirlpool weather hits Scotland , or, as The Sun put it, the river's right up my street . As well as heavy persistent rain in Scotland there was a widespread scattering of big thunderstorms yesterday. Except around Evesham where it was dry all day .... as usual. It currently looks like rainfall this month could be less than 50% of average in the Vale, though for much of the country it'll go down as a wet month. And there are signs that autumn could be a wet one generally as well. Though I'm hoping to make a bit of money out of that through a competition being run by Walker's Crisps - £10 every time I pick a spot where it rains! Of course, the wetter it is, the easier it is to win! In the USA, D.C. area's summer weather named worst of the summer - not because it was cold and wet, but because of record heat and severe thunderstorms. In Britain that'd be classed the best summer weather of all time! In Delhi, with just over a week before the start of the ...

Earlier this week, Roger Pielke Sr posted a discussion about a new paper by Knox and Douglas on Recent Energy Balance of Earth . This was immediately picked up by some denialist blogs and completely mis-represented, leading to Roger having to make a clear and unequivocable statement on his blog, which I post here in full: The website Prison Planet has posted Paper: Global Cooling began in 2003 which refers to my weblog post below. I want to emphasize two issues here. First, the data does NOT support a conclusion that the global annual heat content has been declining. It shows a lack of statistically significant warming. Second, and an even more important issue, is that the Knox and Douglas study does NOT ”falsif[y] the entire anthropogenic global warming hypothesis.” Overstatements on all sides of this issue are what is preventing an effective scientific discourse on this subject. I can't agree more which Roger's last comment there. And I post this here as a salutary war...

It's been a week of wild weather as NZ storm continues its carnage with gales, snow and more to come . Hurricane Igor rips into Nfld., washing out roads, toppling trees and this morning the Igor clean-up starts in Newfoundland It just won't stop raining as a new tropical storm hits flood drenched Mexico Typhoon Fanapi kills 18 in southern China whilst Tropical Storm Malakas churns over western Pacific toward Japanese islands Rains continue to cause havoc in N India, 90 dead - and provide yet another threat to the beleagured Commonwealth Games due to start in a few days time. And record rain leaves 2 missing, drives thousands from homes in S Korea Rare Aussie plants sprout in rain In the Canadian Rockies, snow arrives on the last day of summer Is this the 'greenest' energy source of all? Central America taps volcanoes for electricity . Of course, Iceland's been doing that for decades. Windblow dust falls in high peaks, dampens Colorado River runoff Interesting ...

Bermuda bears brunt of Hurricane Igor - though the storm was probably not quite technically a Cat 1 hurricane as it passed close by the islands. Today, 'Very large' Hurricane Igor moves north of Bermuda . Meanwhile, Hurricane Karl weakens to storm in south-eastern Mexico - Karl was the first major Atlantic storm to make landfall this season - and in the far east, on Saturday Fanapi makes landfall in eastern Taiwan whilst today Taiwan cleans up as Typhoon Fanapi reaches China India floods kill 63 people in 2 days while flood threat again looms over Haryana , with Delhi also at risk. In NZ Southland prepares for next onslaught of snow And in Australia, torrential rain drenches Qld, cuts roads