The drought-shrunken Great Salt Lake could be back at its typical level in as few as two or three years, experts say, as the U.S. Geological Survey automated gauge has recorded its level at about 4,195.5 feet above sea level for the past three weeks. (Associated Press)
With a month of widespread flooding from Maine to Maryland, it should come as no surprise that it was the wettest October on record in 15 cities throughout the Northeast, Cornell University meteorologists reported. (Associated Press)
Hurricane forecasting and research improvements -- including a new "hurricane hunter'' airplane -- are part of a proposal to provide an additional $55 million this fiscal year for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Associated Press)
This year's horrid hurricane season has scientists associated with the military wondering about ways to improve predictions -- and even control storms. (Space.com)
Several small earthquakes, the strongest measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, were recorded on the southern slope of Sicily's Mount Etna, though no casualties were reported. (AFP)
Hurricane Beta swirled onto Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast, ripping off roofs, toppling trees and flooding low neighborhoods before weakening to a tropical storm. (Associated Press)
Hurricane Beta, the 13th hurricane this year - more than any Atlantic season on record - battered the mountainous Caribbean island of Providencia, ripping roofs off wooden homes. (LiveScience.com)
When jellyfish vanish, it's usually cause for celebration, but their disappearance from Jellyfish Lake in Palau, Micronesia, could act as an early warning of severe weather events caused by El Niño and La Niña. (New Scientist)
Scientists from the University of Melbourne will use state-of-the-art technology to monitor emissions of greenhouse gases as part of a major research project on Western Australia's south coast. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Scientists say they still don't know how to protect the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon without disrupting water and power production upstream. (Associated Press)
The Mediterranean basin and the Alps could be the most affected by climate change brought about by global warming in the 21st century, according to scientific research. (AFP)
A system for cutting pollution by deicing aircraft with infrared rays rather than chemicals will be tested at Oslo's airport, officials said. (Associated Press)
Mexico's Caribbean coastline took a beating from Hurricane Wilma, but the resort area's islands bore the brunt of the storm, with extensive damage to reefs and white-sand beaches. (Associated Press)
The death of about 110 stranded whales in the southern Australian state of Tasmania was probably caused by the animals becoming disoriented in confusing coastal waters, officials said. (Reuters)
Six beavers from Bavaria were released in western England in a second attempt to restore a species that has been extinct in the country since the 12th century. (Associated Press)
A population of endangered green sea turtles is in danger of being wiped out on the Puerto Rican island of Culebra because of a tumor-causing illness, environmental officials said. (Associated Press)
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as heavy rains lashed southern India for the third straight day, triggering floods, an official said. (AFP)
Coastal villages set behind mangrove forests in southeast India suffered much less damage in the Asian tsunami than places without the protection of trees, a new study reports. (Associated Press)
Plantation diaries and Royal Navy ship logs, along with newspaper clippings and history books, are proving valuable to researchers looking to create a history of Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast hurricanes that goes back as far as the American Revolution. (LiveScience.com)
Four Caribbean countries will receive new Doppler weather radar systems next year under a program funded by the European Union, an official said. (Associated Press)
International scientists are mapping out a plan for a network of marine parks to save the world's oceans from fish stock depletion and growing pollution. (Reuters)
A new NASA-funded study looking at some of the world's dustiest areas shows that heavy downpours can eventually lead to more dust being released into the atmosphere. (Space Daily)
An early nor'easter fed by Hurricane Wilma dumped heavy rain and up to 20 inches of wet snow from New England to West Virginia, knocking out power to tens of thousands. (Associated Press)
A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos Islands erupted for the third straight day, but experts said it didn't threaten villagers on the island or the super-sized tortoises that gave the remote archipelago its name. (Associated Press)
Nearly half of the world's coral reefs may be lost in the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them against the threat of climate change, according to a new report by the World Conservation Union. (Associated Press)
State officials want more testing to try to uncover the cause of massive fish kills on the Shenandoah River that have devastated its adult smallmouth bass fishery. (Associated Press)
Using data from rocks more than 165 million years old, a new study finds that dinosaurs intentionally swam out to sea to hunt fish. (Discovery.com)
Australia, a frequent target of criticism from environmentalists for refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, received the World Wildlife Fund's top accolade for its efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef. (AFP)
To monitor changing environmental conditions in the Arctic more closely, international scientists have launched a scientific field assault in the region. (Christian Science Monitor)
Extra aid for Africa approved by the Group of Eight industrial nations could be canceled out by global warming, a senior scientist has warned. (BBC)
Biological activity in some Arctic lakes has ratcheted up dramatically over the past 150 years as a result of global warming, according to a new study. (LiveScience.com)
African governments and donors launched an ambitious plan to fight desertification, which causes chronic food shortages and threatens to drive millions from their homes in coming decades. (Reuters)
A volcano has begun to erupt on one of the Galapagos Islands known for its diverse flora and fauna, including the archipelago's famed giant tortoises, park officials said. (Associated Press)
Tropical Storm Alpha drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains, sending rivers crashing over their banks, washing away homes and threatening to set off deadly flooding and mudslides. (Associated Press)
Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida, threatening residents with 110-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast. (Associated Press)
Four people were killed and two were missing after Hurricane Wilma erased beaches and flooded luxury hotels up to the third floor in Mexico's famous Yucatan resorts, officials said. (AFP)
A tropical depression over the Caribbean Sea gathered strength and was named Tropical Storm Alpha, making this year's Atlantic hurricane season the most active on record, U.S. forecasters said. (AFP)
Reports of cougars, sometimes called mountain lions, have increased in the Midwest in recent years, and a nationwide effort is searching for evidence of more in middle America, where the big cats thrived generations ago. (Associated Press)
A puzzling shift in glacial cycles that occurred 950,000 years ago could be partially explained by changing greenhouse gas levels. (New Scientist)
The fourth powerful earthquake in a week rocked the western Turkish city of Izmir, causing two deaths and keeping terrified residents on the edge. (AFP)
Marine scientists are to drop a camera onto the Great Barrier Reef in a new experiment to monitor sea temperatures and water quality after the wet season on Davies Reef, off Townsville. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
While casting a nervous eye at Hurricane Wilma, federal and state officials reported that the latest pollution data in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina indicated for the first time that the Mississippi Delta was again a safe place to swim. (Associated Press)
Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico's resort-studded Mayan Riviera with torrential rains and shrieking winds, filling the streets with water, as thousands of stranded tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and emergency shelters. (Associated Press)
Governments need to stop assuming that death and destruction from natural disasters are inevitable and work more closely with scientists on ways to minimize the damage, a leading scientific group said. (Associated Press)
Windmills, one of the Netherlands' trademarks, may go idle because of less wind as a result of climate change, Dutch scientists predict. (Reuters)
The Canadian government and some U.S. researchers say there's no way to stop an Asian beetle from steadily spreading to attack and kill all 10 billion ash trees in the United States and Canada. (Associated Press)
The Florida panther--one of the world's most endangered animals--is being shortchanged by established science, according to a team of experts. (National Geographic News)
In a season that has included three Category 5 hurricanes for the first time on record in the Atlantic Basin, scientists are beginning to wonder if their rating system is adequate. (LiveScience.com)
Using a suite of computers models, forecasters predict Hurricane Wilma would meander a few days in the Gulf of Mexico and then race across southwest Florida or the Keys, but her slower-than-expected movement is puzzling forecasters. (Associated Press)
The Formosan subterranean termite is a pest so formidable that even a hurricane can't bring it down, worrying entomologists along the Gulf Coast. (ABC News)
Deadly epidemics, ruined crops, and the extinction of some of Africa's legendary wildlife are some of the potential consequences of global warming that could be devastating to the world's poorest continent. (Associated Press)
Loss of trees in the Brazilian rain forest is much worse than had been thought, according to a new study. (Associated Press)
Greenland's ice cap has thickened slightly in recent years despite wide predictions of a thaw triggered by global warming, a team of scientists said. (Reuters)
Freed by warming, waters once locked beneath ice are gnawing at coastal settlements around the Arctic Circle, and in Bykovsky, a village of 457 on Russia's northeast coast, the shoreline is collapsing. (The New York Times)
A landslide that killed 10 people and destroyed some 30 homes in La Conchita, Calif., in January was part of a much larger slide that dates back to prehistoric times, according to a new study. (LiveScience.com)
Hurricane Wilma doesn't stop making history: It is the strongest, most intense Atlantic hurricane in terms of barometric pressure and the most rapidly strengthening on record. (Associated Press)
An alarming rise in temperature in the Southern Ocean threatens seals, whales and penguins as well as krill, which play a crucial role in the food chain. (BBC)
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 struck northeastern Japan, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and while the temblor shook buildings in Tokyo and nearby areas, there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. (Associated Press)
A long-term study aimed at predicting earthquakes has ended in a sad failure, according to a new report. (AFP)
Antarctica is melting, adding to the inexorable rise in global sea levels, endangering millions of lives and whole economies, leading scientists say. (Reuters)
World scientists are aiming to spell out in graphic detail the threat of flooding faced by millions of people from America to Asia as global warming melts the polar ice caps. (Reuters)
Global warming is taking a toll on coral reefs off east Africa, which will likely be killed off in a few decades if sea surface temperatures continue to rise, a leading researcher warned. (Reuters)
The Puget Sound region is feeling the impact of climate change from flooding to warmer waters and things could be getting worse, according to a report by University of Washington researchers. (Associated Press)
Warming trends could cause more water shortages in New Mexico, a climatologist predicts and experts point to carbon dioxide emissions as the primary cause of global warming. (Associated Press)
Extreme weather events -- including heat waves, floods and drought -- are likely to become more common over the next century in the United States because of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by Purdue University researchers. (The Washington Post)
Europe's first space mission to the planet Venus will shed new light on the greenhouse effect here on Earth, scientists said. (The Independent, UK)
Depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica, caused by emissions of industrial chemicals, seems to have peaked, indicating that global environmental pacts are working, U.N. scientists said. (Reuters)
Rainfall over parts of Africa's Sahel appears to be rising but its greening could prove a mixed blessing if the population surges as a result and drought follows, a leading ecologist said. (Reuters)
New climate simulations from NASA show that under the warmer global temperatures of the 20th century, water vapor in the atmosphere took longer than normal to fall out of the sky fall as rain, snow and other precipitation. (Scientific American)
Emergency and utility crews across the Northeast worked to repair the damage caused by several days of rain and floods, but strong winds continued to cause problems. (Associated Press)
A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Cayman Islands as a tropical depression moved through the Atlantic on a path that could threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast later this week as a hurricane, forecasters said. (Associated Press)
A worsening drought in the Amazon basin has prompted Brazil to extend an emergency across the region. (BBC)
Satellite observations and arrival times of the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunamis on the shores of India are revealing that there were two places that the ocean floor surged to create the killer waves. (Discovery.com)
Worldwide, it was the warmest September on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. (Associated Press)
New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be the hottest year on record, continuing a 25-year trend of rising global temperatures. (The Washington Post)
Large earthquakes have long been suspected -- but rarely convicted -- of triggering lesser quakes near and far, and now a theory is starting to explain how they do it. (Discovery.com)
The San Francisco Bay area has a 1 percent chance of a magnitude-7 or greater earthquake every year and a 25 percent chance that one will occur within two decades, according to a new computer forecast. (LiveScience.com)
Regions near both of Earth's poles will experience more intense storms of rain and snow during the 21st Century as the planet warms, according to a new study. (LiveScience.com)
The manatees that grazed in Lake Pontchartrain before Hurricane Katrina haven't been seen since, but eight dolphins were leaping in the lake this week. (Associated Press)
An invasive plant that could overrun wetlands such as Potter Marsh and block salmon runs on the Kenai Peninsula has been found growing wild in Anchorage for the first time. (Associated Press)
Agriculture officials plan to quarantine fruits and vegetables in up to 80 square miles of San Jose after finding two Mediterranean fruit flies -- pests that don't pose a threat to humans but can ruin crops. (Associated Press)
A symbol of the Western mountains, the Aspen tree is rapidly disappearing from the landscape at a rate not previously seen. (NPR)
California condors are expected to return soon to the skies over San Diego County, nearly a century after they disappeared, as some of the birds released in Mexico three years ago have made exploratory flights and will soon cross the border. (Associated Press)
Heavy rain burst a river bank and flooded towns on the border between Scotland and England as well as in Wales, with emergency services called to the worst affected areas, officials said. (AFP)
Deforestation and logging do not increase the risk of major floods, according to a new report. (BBC)
Government forecasters predicted a warmer-than-normal winter, offering hope to much of the Midwest and West as concern grows about the rising costs of heating during cold weather. (Associated Press)
Monitoring stations set up to detect atomic explosions could help predict the path of a tsunami, research shows. (BBC)
Red tide, which has beachgoers complaining of allergy-like symptoms while causing fish kills and closing oyster harvesting areas, remains scattered across the Florida Panhandle, state officials said. (Associated Press)
Anchorage residents could see a cloud of steam last weekend from a volcano 75 miles away -- one of three Alaskan volcanoes showing signs of unrest. (Reuters)
Authorities declared part of the Amazon River a disaster area after a drought left the levels of parts of the river too low for navigation, officials said. (Associated Press)
Chemicals in New Orleans floodwater from residential neighborhoods posed little risk to people but may be a long-term hazard to wildlife in Lake Pontchartrain, a new study says. (Associated Press)
Louisiana health officials say a feared post-hurricane increase in cases of deadly West Nile virus has not occurred despite reporting 30 new cases of the disease in the past week. (Reuters)
Vince, the 20th named tropical storm in the Atlantic this year, is the first storm of its type to reach Spain in recorded history, the National Hurricane Center said. (AFP)
The death toll from devastating mudslides in Guatemala topped 2,000, as rescuers called off their search for hundreds of people buried for six days under solidifying mud. (AFP)
As Hurricane Charley came ashore on the southwest coast of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane in August 2004, it changed the look of North Captiva Island, according to a joint study by the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (Science Daily)
Scientists offered a tip to city planners around the world: prepare your culverts for global warming as climate models predict more frequent downpours in the future. (LiveScience.com)
Some of the strongest evidence yet of a direct link between tropical warmth and higher levels of greenhouse gases is found in past climate records, U.S. researchers say. (Forbes)
A 71-acre section of 450 million-year-old rock in Vermont that is believed to be part of the world's oldest coral reef, will be preserved and opened to the public, officials announced. (Associated Press)
Reaching 10,000 feet into the Pacific Ocean, marine geologists have snatched rare volcanic rocks off the sea floor, bringing to the surface chemicals direct from the Earth's interior. (San Diego Union Tribune)
The longleaf pine, which once covered tens of millions of acres across the Southeast, is in danger of disappearing in parts of South Carolina, says a forest conservationist with the Clemson Extension Service. (Associated Press)
A team of German and Indonesian scientists will set sail for Sumatra Island to install a tsunami warning system in the region worst hit by last year's Asian killer wave. (Associated Press)
Tropical Storm Vince weakened but did not break up over the cooler water of the far eastern Atlantic and was expected to make landfall along the southern coast of Portugal or southwestern Spain. (Associated Press)
Residents assessed the damage wrought by the weekend's deadly floods across the Northeast, but the swollen rivers barely had a chance to recede as more rain was forecast. (Associated Press)
High temperatures were the underlying cause of a massive die-off of pinyon pines in the recent Southwest drought, a research team reported. (Associated Press)
Pakistan said nearly 20,000 people died in an earthquake it called the biggest tragedy in its history. (AFP)
The area stretching across Pakistan into India and Afghanistan is a hotbed for seismic activity that erupts each time the Indian subcontinent slams into Asia, but it's the shallow faults that make these temblors so deadly. (Associated Press)
Hundreds of people remained trapped inside what may become a massive mud tomb in a scenic lake region of Guatemala, four days after Tropical Storm Stan unleashed a devastating mudslide. (AFP)
Hurricane Vince formed in the far eastern Atlantic, but the storm did not immediately threaten land, forecasters said. (Associated Press)
Much of the city flooded not because water rushed over the tops of levees, but because two of the storm barriers that ring New Orleans actually shifted and then collapsed, a team of independent engineers said. (Associated Press)
Dozens of Mayan Indians used hand tools to dig through hardening mud, searching for bodies under a landslide that swallowed a Guatemalan neighborhood and pushed the region-wide death toll from a week of pounding rains to 617. (Associated Press)
The world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, is 12 feet shorter than previously thought, Chinese scientists who measured the peak earlier this year said. (Associated Press)
A European Space Agency satellite that was to have collected data on polar ice broke up in flight after being launched on a converted ballistic missile, a Russian space agency official said. (Associated Press)
Too much rain and high water caused a drop in wading bird nests this year in the Florida Everglades and other nearby areas, according to the South Florida Wading Bird Report. (Associated Press)
The alligators have fled and the tall, green marsh grasses are brown from salt water, but the coastal Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge's resilient natural defenses may have prevented a catastrophe in the area ravaged by Hurricane Rita. (Reuters)
Government hurricane specialists said they are investigating whether Hurricane Katrina was actually a Category 3 storm, not a 4, when it struck the Gulf Coast. (Associated Press)
Devastating Tropical Storm Stan has killed at least 278 people in Central America and Mexico after lashing the region for days with relentless rain, authorities said. (AFP)
Brazil has adopted emergency measures to deal with one of the Amazon region's worst droughts in decades. (BBC)
By the year 2050, warmer temperatures in the western United States could fuel a doubling in the number of bad air days this time of year, according to a new study. (LiveScience.com)
Foreign algae and sea creatures have invaded New Zealand's rivers and harbors where they are threatening the nation's seafood and tourism industries, officials said. (Associated Press)
The Golden Toad has already paid the ultimate price of extinction and other species are expected to follow suit as the world warms, according to a new published report. (Reuters)
NASA exobiology researchers confirmed Earth's oceans were once rich in sulfides that would prevent advanced life forms, such as fish and mammals, from thriving. (Science Daily)
The head of the Army Corps of Engineers said that the flood defenses for New Orleans should be restored by June to the level where they were when Hurricane Katrina struck and overpowered them. (Associated Press)
Tropical Storm Tammy turned subdivisions into lagoons and soaked some areas of the Southeast with more than 4 inches of rain before weakening to a tropical depression. (Associated Press)
Indonesia will establish a tsunami warning system in its most earthquake-prone region by the end of 2005, a government scientist said. (Associated Press)
Officials will fit as many as 20 mountain lions with tracking collars near Tucson and Payson in a study that aims to better understand how the animals and people can coexist. (Associated Press)
Scientists have come up with a bit of trickery in their effort to restore parts of tropical forests that were "slashed and burned" to make way for agriculture and later abandoned. (Associated Press)
Named Nicole, in honor of shark-admiring actress Nicole Kidman, a white shark made a 6,900-mile round trip in just nine months, which is faster than any known marine traveler, said scientists. (Discovery.com)
The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite could be used to keep tabs on the state of the oceans' coral reefs, Australian researchers say. (The Register)
With two months left in the Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters warn that another devastating storm could hit the U.S. this year and that some of the conditions that sent Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slamming into the Gulf Coast appear to still be in place. (Associated Press)
Tons of household chemicals that were once stored safely in garages, bathrooms and kitchen cabinets along the Gulf Coast pose a potential environmental threat after being scattered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (CNN)
Water levels along Peru's stretch of the Amazon River have fallen to 35-year lows following a series of recent hurricanes along U.S. and Mexican coasts and years of deforestation in the Amazon jungle, Peru's National Meteorological Service said. (Reuters)
The death toll from Typhoon Longwang in China climbed to 15 people and dozens of military students were still missing, media reported. (Reuters)
Bedrock under the Amazon River falls about 3 inches every year during seasonal flooding and then rebounds as the river carries less water. (LiveScience.com)
A $40 billion plan to hurricane-proof the Louisiana coast has ignited a battle over how best to prevent a repeat of this year's double flooding of New Orleans. (Associated Press)
Thousands of people across Portugal and Spain donned protective eyeglasses to watch a rare and spectacular type of eclipse. (Associated Press)
Fly populations in Britain could soar this century because of climate change, according to a new study. (BBC)
Restoring vanished prairies that once looked like an endless inland grass sea covering the U.S. Midwest requires backbreaking work to clear brush, collect and spread seeds and, most importantly, set fires. (Reuters)
Hurricane Otis weakened to a tropical storm and headed north toward an unpopulated stretch of the Baja California Peninsula, while tropical storm Stan crossed the Yucatan peninsula, apparently heading for open Gulf waters. (Associated Press)
Typhoon Longwang struck China's southeastern coast, Chinese state media said, after the cyclone churned across Taiwan, leaving one dead and dozens injured. (AFP)
More than a foot of rain fell in northeast Kansas, prompting flash floods that left residents stranded in their homes and cars and forced officials to close roads under three feet of water. (Associated Press)
Authorities evacuated hundreds of people living on the slopes of a volcano in western El Savador after it spat large rocks and ash from its crater during an early morning explosion. (Reuters)
The rapid sinking of the Louisiana coast may have lowered New Orleans' levees and contributed to their failure after Hurricane Katrina, resulting in the city's catastrophic flooding, engineers and other experts say. (Los Angeles Times)
Some experts say the United States can expect to be pummeled by more mega-catastrophes over the next 20 or 30 years in a nasty conspiracy of unfavorable weather patterns and changing demographics. (Associated Press)
Hurricane Otis' outer bands lashed the coast of western Mexico as the storm crawled toward the Baja California peninsula, forcing hundreds of families to evacuate their homes. (Associated Press)
More than 800 firefighters battled 10 blazes that burned out of control in central and northern Portugal as scorching temperatures returned to the drought-hit country. (Reuters)
The ship with all the gadgets and underwater rovers was stationed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but for the first time the scientists directing the expedition were not on board: they sat in rooms thousands of miles away. (Associated Press)