China Plans to Stop Weather from Raining on Olympic Parade
January 31 — Chinese meteorologists say they have had some success with experiments to try to guarantee that the opening of the Olympic Games in August is rain-free. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Climate Could Devastate Crops
January 31 — Climate change could cause severe crop losses in South Asia and southern Africa over the next 20 years, a study in the journal Science says. (BBC News)

Warmer Atlantic Explains Worse Hurricanes
January 30 — When the water in the hurricane breeding grounds of the Atlantic warms one degree in the dead of summer, overall hurricane activity jumps by half, according to a new study. (Associated Press)

The Land that Never Melts?
January 29 — Researchers have found that the ice caps on the northern plateau of Canada's Baffin Island have shrunk by more than half over the last 50 years, and say the caps could be entirely gone by mid-century. (New Scientist)

Cruising Antarctica to See a Planet in Peril
January 29 — The frozen wastes of Antarctica are attracting tourists who want a closer look at climate change, as layers of ice that have recorded 400,000 years of climate history are beginning to melt. (National Public Radio)

Surf Helps Scientists Predict Volcanic Eruptions
January 29 — The shock waves generated when ocean waves crash onto the shore can help reveal a build-up of molten rock, say researchers. (New Scientist)

Ancient Antarctic Lake Tapped for Study
January 28 — A four-man team of scientists is camped out on the ice of Lake Ellsworth, one of about 150 lakes buried deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet, hoping to find microbial life and records of Earth's past climate changes. (Discovery News)

Earth Entering New Geologic Epoch?
January 28 — The case for officially designating 1800 A.D. onward as the Anthropocene � the period when human effects begin to dominate the planet � is now being made by members of the Geological Society of London. (Discovery News)

Warming May Cut U.S. Hurricane Hits
January 22 — Global warming could reduce how many hurricanes hit the United States, according to a federal study that links warming waters to increased vertical wind shear that makes it hard for hurricanes to form, strengthen and stay alive. (Associated Press)

Giant Internal Waves Caught Breaking
January 22 — A 900-mile-long string of scientific instruments across a stretch of the open ocean has revealed the first evidence of giant internal waves partially "breaking" inside the oceans. (Discovery News)

Unmanned Aircraft Could Monitor Hurricanes
January 22 — Unmanned aircraft like those used by the U.S. military in Iraq will increasingly be used to monitor storms, a role currently performed by manned aircraft, weather officials said. (Reuters)

Antarctic Volcano May Still be Active
January 21 — A powerful volcano erupted under the ice sheet of West Antarctica around 2,000 years ago, causing a massive breach in the ice sheet, and scientists think the volcano might still be active today. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Wet Weather a Boon for Coral
January 18 — Scientists at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority say recent rainy conditions associated with the La Nina-impacted weather are causing below-average ocean temperatures, which is good news for coral. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Thick, Old Arctic Ice Nearly Gone
January 18 — A new study using satellite measurements of Arctic sea ice have revealed that thinner ice that's only two or three years old now accounts for 58 percent of the ice cover � up from 35 percent in the mid-1980s. (Discovery News)

Researchers Challenge Water Flow Model
January 18 — Some are challenging earlier ideas about how water naturally flows because the streams studied then were not "natural archetypes" but rather the artifacts of 18th and 19th century dam-building and deforestation. (The New York Times)

Mix of Factors Led to Record Arctic Ice Melt in 2007
January 16 — There's a lot of uncertainty about how quickly summertime ice will melt away entirely, with estimates ranging from 2013 to beyond 2100, but that uncertainty can be explained by the science behind the phenomenon of melting. (National Public Radio)

Ancient Tsunami Behind Huge Yellowstone Explosion
January 15 — Tsunami-like waves created by an earthquake may have triggered the world's largest known hydrothermal explosion some 13,000 years ago, a federal scientist says. (Associated Press)

Northeast Winters Warming Fast
January 13 — A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees, snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average. (Associated Press)

Ice Sheets Existed During Global Heat Wave
January 12 — Sheets of ice existed during very hot periods of Earth's history when there were alligators living in the Arctic, a new international study has found. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Antarctic Trips to Boost Research
January 10 — Australia's Federal Environment Minister says that the first successful return passenger flight between Australia and Antarctica will significantly boost research on the icy continent. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

As Arctic Ice Melts, South Pole Ice Grows
January 10 — Over the past 20 years, southern sea ice has expanded, in contrast to the Arctic's decline, and researchers want to understand why. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Desert Mystery Has Electrifying Answer
January 10 — Scientists have discovered that sweeping sands across deserts are blown by more than just wind, as powerful electric fields spring up near the desert floor and propel sand grains into the air. (Live Science)

Humans Blamed in Coral Reef Disappearance
January 9 — A new study singles out human settlement, especially coastal development and agriculture, as the main culprit in the decline of the world's coral reefs � more so than warming sea waters and acidification linked to global warming. (Agence France-Presse)

Deep Sea Vents: Hot, Wet, Weird
January 9 — Marine seismologists looking at a site in the East Pacific say they have gained insights into the unique plumbing system of hydrothermal vents, putting forth a new idea about how water travels below the ocean floor. (Agence France-Presse)

2007 was Another Warm Year for USA
January 9 — 2007 was the 10th-warmest year in the U.S. since records began in 1895, with an annual average temperature of 54.2 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center. (USA Today)

Deep Sea Corals Under Scrutiny
January 8 — Australian and American scientists will use an unmanned submersible pod to study live and fossilized deep-ocean corals south of Tasmania. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

'No Clear Trend' In Forest Loss
January 8 — Data on tropical forest cover is so poor that we do not know if the forests are declining, a study has found. (BBC News)

Placing Blame for Corals' Demise
January 7 — Climate change and overfishing, rather than pollution, are primarily responsible for killing off coral reefs in the Caribbean, according to a new study. (Washington Post)

Climate researcher tackles New Guinea glaciers
January 5 — Despite the 5,000 years that great tongues of ice have spread over the 3-mile-high slopes of Puncak Jaya in the most remote reaches of the tropical island of New Guinea � those glaciers now melting. (Associated Press)

Baby Mammoth Could Shed Light on Warming
January 4 — Frozen in much the state it died some 37,500 years ago, a Siberian baby mammoth undergoing tests in Japan could finally explain why the beasts were driven to extinction, and shed light on climate change. (Associated Press)

Reason for Earthquake Season Revealed
January 4 — A new study of GPS and satellite data has connected the increase in earthquake activity to the monsoon season that drenches the region each summer. (Live Science)

2007 'Second Warmest Year' in UK
January 3 — Last year was the second warmest on record in the United Kingdom, according to figures released by the Met Office in Exeter, United Kingdom. (BBC News)

Nature and Man Jointly Cook Arctic
January 2 — A natural and cyclical increase in the amount of energy in the atmosphere that moves from south to north around the Arctic Circle and man-made global warming serve as a one-two punch that is pushing the Arctic over the edge, two new studies suggest. (Associated Press)

Shifting Layers Over Arctic Blamed for Ice Melt
January 2 — The dramatic loss of the Arctic ice cap may have been triggered by changes in Arctic atmospheric circulation that have brought in heat and moisture, which has produced low clouds that absorb heat. (Discovery News)

Warming Autumns May Hinder Plants' Climate-Cooling Role
January 2 — As Earth warms and seasons shift, plants and soil may become less efficient at keeping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, a new study suggests. (National Geographic News)

"Oddball" Weather Events Add to Record-Breaking 2007
January 1 — It was a record year for all-time weather records, including temperatures that shot past previous highs on 263 occasions in the U.S. alone and a tornado in Brooklyn. (National Geographic News)

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