RSS Feed
Archive for February 8th, 2013
Drought to Last Through April; Southwest May Improve
Posted by Climate Central: Daniel Yawitz on February 8th, 2013
Climate Central: Large storms brought some short-term relief to drought-afflicted areas over the past week, and allowed the footprint of the national drought to shrink slightly. However, while similar rainstorms are forecast to continue during the coming weeks, there is only slight potential for drought recovery for the rest of the season.
A new seasonal drought outlook calls for the U.S. drought to persist or develop even more in the areas that have suffered the most from low precipitation over the past year...
Posted in 
Growing University Highlights Connecticut’s Water Woes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 8th, 2013
National Public Radio: Lack of water supply isn't just an issue in hot spots like Texas, Colorado and the Mississippi; it has also become a problem in the Northeast, where rivers are drying out in the summers and infrastructure developments are competing more for resources.
One of the area's biggest public universities, the University of Connecticut, needs more water. But plans to obtain it are generating controversy in a region where the availability of water is becoming more and more unpredictable.
The Water Source...
Boston Blizzard: Northeast Snowed In As ‘Nemo’ Barrels Through
Posted by Associated Press: Jay Lindsay on February 8th, 2013
Associated Press: A massive storm packing hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions is sweeping through the Northeast, dumping nearly 2 feet of snow on New England and knocking out power to more than a half a million customers.
More than 23 inches of snow had fallen in parts of central Connecticut by early Saturday, and more than 21 inches covered Randolph in southeastern Massachusetts.
The National Weather Service says up to 3 feet of snow is expected in Boston, threatening the city's 2003 record of 27.6...
Could Nemo Inspire More Dubious Climate Change Coverage?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 8th, 2013
Mother Jones: Weather forecasts predict that Snowstorm Nemo will be highly unusual in its intensity-the worst blizzard the Northeast has seen in ages. Already, thousands of flights have been canceled and people are scrambling to stock up on emergency supplies. So it might seem like now would be the perfect opportunity for the media to sound the alarm about the connection between climate change and extreme weather. But a new study finds that exactly the opposite is true: When it gets cold out, some prominent newspaper...
Northeast Blizzard Warnings Posted As Region Braces For Up To Several Feet Of Snow
Posted by Associated Press: Jay Lindsay on February 8th, 2013
Associated Press: A storm that forecasters warned could be a blizzard for the history books, with a potential for up to 3 feet of snow, clobbered the New York-to-Boston corridor on Friday, grounding flights and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers across the Northeast.
By Friday evening, more than 14 inches of snow had fallen in Belmont, Mass., just northwest of Boston, and more than 13 inches covered parts of northeastern Connecticut. Throughout the Northeast, about 350,000 homes and businesses...
A young Briton with a lot on his plate – to stop the world wasting food
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 8th, 2013
Telegraph: In 10 days' time, 500 ministers, top bureaucrats, UN officials, pressure group leaders and associated hangers-on will sit down to a banquet in Nairobi. Nothing unusual about that, you may say. It's par for the course at international conferences, the sort of thing that gets some on the Right grumbling about waste, and some on the Left mumbling about taking food from the mouths of the poor.
But this one will be different. Every scrap served at the gala dinner at the Global Ministerial Environment...
Amazon river ecosystems being rapidly degraded, but remain neglected by conservation efforts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 8th, 2013
Mongabay: The world's largest river system is being rapidly degraded and imperiled by dams, mining, overfishing, and deforestation, warns a study published last week by an international team of scientists.
Writing in the journal Conservation Letters, researchers led by Leandro Castello, a research associate at the Woods Hole Research Center, catalog the litany of threats facing the Amazon river and its tributaries. They note that existing terrestrial protected areas may not be enough to protect river ecosystems...
Study Highlights Amazing Biodiversity Of Philippines
Posted by redOrbit: April Flowers on February 8th, 2013
RedOrbit: A recent study of the amphibians and reptiles of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, located in the northeast region of the Philippine island of Luzon, revealed more than 100 species that add to the unique biodiversity of the region. Currently, more than 150 species round out Luzon’s herpetological niche, with a total of 49 amphibians. Of those, 44 are native to the island and 32 endemic to the region. The reptile count is even higher, with 106 native species, of which 76 are unique to the region. ...
Climate Change And The Blizzard: Nor’easters More Fierce With Global Warming, Scientists Say
Posted by Huffington Post: Lynne Peeples on February 8th, 2013
Huffington Post: Climate change may or may not have helped generate the nor'easter lashing the East Coast this weekend. Such storms happen with some regularity, after all. But the amount of snow the storm called "Nemo" ultimately dumps, and the extent of flood damage it leaves in its wake, may well have ties to global warming, climate scientists suggested.
Michael Mann, a climatologist who directs the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, compared a major storm like Nemo -- or Hurricane...
Blizzard of 2013 Brings Another Threat: Coastal Flooding
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on February 8th, 2013
Climate Central: While the blizzard bearing down on New England has understandbly brought national attention to what could be record snowfall, the storm brings another dangerous threat to the region: coastal flooding.
The blizzard of 2013 may cause major coastal flooding along the Massachusetts coastline from a storm surge as high as 5 feet and waves greater than 30 feet tall. The storm also arrives just days after a report warned of the region's growing vulnerability to such storm-surge events. The report, by...