Photo Essay: Spectacular Waterfalls of the World

Where water meets gravity, it's hard to look away. Come see for yourself.

Snow expected from Mississippi to Maine; Florida inspects storm damage

(CNN) -- A quick-hitting storm is expected to coat most of the Northeast and parts of the South with snow Wednesday, forecasters said.

In Florida, the National Weather Service has dispatched survey teams to investigate damage caused by storms that moved across the state Tuesday evening. They found that a tornado near Boca Raton had snapped and uprooted trees, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said.

A tornado near Alva, Florida, destroyed and damaged six mobile homes, and straight-line winds between 60 and 90 mph damaged several homes near Groveland, Florida, Morris said.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, 90 mph straight-line winds damaged a gas station and injured one person, Morris said.

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings and advisories that stretched from Maine to northern Mississippi.

Yes, again -- forecast calls for up to a foot of snow

Light snow dusted much of the region today, a prelude to a bigger storm arriving Wednesday, a nor'easter that, according to forecasters, could dump 8 to 12 inches of snow on some areas of Massachusetts.

The National Weather Service warned that the coastal storm could drop more than 6 inches of snow in Western, Central, and Northeastern Massachusetts, including Boston; drop 4 to 8 inches on the Cape and islands; and drop 8 to 12 inches on Southeastern Massachusetts.

The snow is expected to begin late afternoon or early evening. On the Cape and islands, it's expected to begin as rain, then change to snow by late Wednesday night.

Forecasters warned of slippery roads on Wednesday night. In Southeastern Massachusetts and on the Cape and islands, they said, the heavy wet snow may bring down tree limbs and power lines.

The unpleasant weather news comes as the state is emerging from a bitter cold snap -- the temperature, which had dipped to 2 below zero on Sunday night, rose to 30 by midafternoon at Logan International Airport -- and with the state already far ahead of the average in terms of snowfall for the year.

Meanwhile, Accuweather.com, the private forecasting service said today that persistent cold is expected through at least the middle of February across much of the eastern part of the country. The colder-than-normal weather could break in late February, but cold and storms could return from mid- to late March into April, the service said.

The New York Times reports today that the cold weather has been caused by the weakening of a pattern of atmospheric circulation that normally keeps cold air penned farther north. The weakening has allowed tongues of cold air to move south, while warm air moves north.

Is the Surging Yellowstone Caldera -the World's Largest Supervolcano- Poised to Erupt?

With some 80% of airports in Europe shut down last summer due to the lingering ash cloud created by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, we thought it would pay to take an updated look at the possibility of the world's most massive volcano -the Yellowstone Plateau- erupting and the potential consequences. Recent earthquakes on the west side of Yellowstone caldera were part of the intense January/February 2010 earthquake swarm of ~2,350 earthquakes.



Yellowstone National Park's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago. The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. The supervolcano has recently caused miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report beginning in 2004, which saw the ground above the caldera rise upward at rates as high as 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) a year.Is it poised for yet a fourth major explosion?

Some 600,000 years ago there was a colossal cauldron of magma, a supervolcano, that exploded with such violence that it left an ash layer almost ten feet deep a thousand miles away in eastern Nebraska killing all plant life and covering almost all of the United States west of the Mississippi. Modern geological surveys have shown that this supervolcano erupts catastrophically every 600,000 years, and the land that supervolcano is trapped in was called by Blackfoot Indians 'the land of evil spirits' -what we call today, Yellowstone National Park.

A report from scientists at the University of Utah shows that the “supervolcano” underneath Yellowstone has risen at a record rate since mid 2004. Apparently, a “pancake-shaped blob” of molten rock he size of Los Angeles was pressed in to the slumbering volcano, some six miles down.

“There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That’s the bottom line,” says seismologist Robert B. Smith, lead author of the study and professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. “A lot of calderas [giant volcanic craters] worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting.”

The journal Science however reported that the caldera floor of the massive volcano has risen 3 inches, per year, for the past three years. This is a rate of growth three times more rapid than ever observed, since records were first kept back in 1923.




“Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock,” Smith says. “But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again,” he adds.

Brisbane floods: before and after

High-resolution aerial photos taken over Brisbane last week have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

The aerial photos of the Brisbane floods were taken in flyovers on January 13 and January 14.

Hover over each photo to view the devastation caused by flooding.

Development: Jim Whimpey and Andrew Kesper
Executive Producer: Matthew Liddy
Source: NearMap

A Total Eclipse at the End of the World

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2011 January 15



A Total Eclipse at the End of the World
Credit & Copyright: Fred Bruenjes (moonglow.net)

Explanation: Would you go to the end of the world to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If you did, would you be surprised to find someone else there already? In 2003, the Sun, the Moon, Antarctica, and two photographers all lined up in Antarctica during an unusual total solar eclipse. Even given the extreme location, a group of enthusiastic eclipse chasers ventured near the bottom of the world to experience the surreal momentary disappearance of the Sun behind the Moon.

One of the treasures collected was the above picture -- a composite of four separate images digitally combined to realistically simulate how the adaptive human eye saw the eclipse. As the image was taken, both the Moon and the Sun peaked together over an Antarctic ridge. In the sudden darkness, the magnificent corona of the Sun became visible around the Moon. Quite by accident, another photographer was caught in one of the images checking his video camera. Visible to his left are an equipment bag and a collapsible chair.

Snow-covered Mass. lifts state of emergency

(Reuters) - Massachusetts lifted its state of emergency on Thursday as New England dug out from under deep snow following a winter storm that blasted the region with high winds and chilly temperatures.

The storm blanketed eastern New York and western New England with anywhere from 8 inches to unofficial reports of 38 inches of snow in Berkshire County in Massachusetts, said meteorologist Brian Frugis with the National Weather Service in Albany, New York.

Crew clear heavy snow off power lines during a winter nor'easter snow storm in Somerville, Massachusetts January 12, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Lauren Keiper

BOSTON | Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:53pm EST

Despite the snow from Wednesday's storm, Massachusetts emergency management teams and state police reported no major accidents.

"The road clean-up was excellent," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. "We attribute that to the fact that folks stayed off the roads yesterday."

Massachusetts lifted the state of emergency it had declared at noon on Wednesday, at the height of the storm. Such declarations are typically made in order to gain access to emergency funding and to mobilize certain resources, such as the National Guard, to cope with the storm's impact.

Power outages that affected more than 100,000 homes at the peak of the storm were reduced to just 3,500, said Judge.

Traffic patterns at Boston's Logan International Airport also were returning to normal.

Two active runways were available at Logan, with airlines operating at about 90 percent of a typical schedule, said Logan spokesman Phil Orlandella.

Winds that were a major factor in Wednesday's storm were likely to linger in the 10 to 25 mph range, which may cause snow to blow and drift, say meteorologists.

The winds were creating a significant chill in the air throughout the Northeast that was likely to keep the snow from melting, according to Accuweather.com meteorologists.

Wednesday's blizzard-like conditions did set some records, including a new snowstorm record in Hartford, Connecticut of 24 inches and a new snowiest day in Worcester, Massachusetts with 21.1 inches, according to The Weather Channel.

The heavy snow did not cause major outages or accidents in Vermont, said Mark Bosma, spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management.

In fact, Bosma said the state's ski industry "is doing backflips right now" over the fresh snow ahead of the three-day holiday weekend.

The latest storm to batter the Northeast came on the heels of separate weather systems that wreaked havoc across the South and Midwest.

"The potency of Wednesday's snowstorm came to be after two separate storm systems merged together," said Accuweather.com senior meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.

Thousands in peril in Brazil flooding

Rio De Janeiro (CNN) -- Thousands of families living on mountain slopes or on river banks in Brazil face "extreme risk" of being washed away in heavy rains and flooding that have killed more than 400 people, authorities said Thursday.

Officials feared that many more were dead, buried in landslides or washed away by gushing waters. Mud rushed down hillsides and into towns and cities in Rio de Janeiro state, as murky brown rivers cut through lush landscape.

President Dilma Rousseff flew over the affected areas Thursday and landed in a slushy, trash-littered soccer field in the city of Friburgo, the official Agencia Brasil news agency said.

She trudged through mud in her rain boots to talk to residents in a neighborhood where four of seven fireman attempting to rescue people were buried. Three others were pulled out alive.

"We are going to take firm action," to help the devastated areas, Roussef said.

Brazilian authorities have been criticized for a lack of disaster planning and allowing people to build homes in areas known to become treacherous in the rainy season.

The roofs of houses and tree tops were the only dry things peeking out from the water. People used inflatable rafts or inner tubes to navigate submerged roads. One family filmed by TV sat perched on the roof of their house, wondering how much higher the water would get.

With more rains in the forecast, Brazilian authorities have ordered mandatory evacuations for at least 5,000 families living in especially perilous areas in Rio de Janeiro state, Agencia Brasil said.

Another 3,000 families from a mountainous region were homeless and sheltered in schools and gymnasiums, the news agency said.

"The most important thing right now is to assist the homeless population and reach the most critical points, said Rodrigo Neves, the state secretary of Social Welfare and Human Rights.

State health officials issued a plea for people to donate blood that will be sent to the Serrana region, where only 36 units of blood remained for treatment of flood victims.

The death toll was steadily climbing Thursday with at least 377 people dead in Rio de Janeiro state, civil defense officials said. Of those, 168 were in Nova Friburgo; 161 in Teresopolis; 35 in Petropolis; and 13 in Sumidouro.

In Teresopolis, schools and police stations served as morgues where people waited to identify their family and friends. Mayor Jorge Mario Sedlacek declared his city a natural disaster area.

In neighboring Sao Paulo, at least 24 people died as heavy rain continued to batter parts of the state, authorities said.

Aline Silva told Agencia Brasil that she narrowly escaped with her three children from a landslide in Rio de Janeiro's Feu district. She said they heard a thud, and then ran out with a few vital documents and the clothes on their back.

Thousands Of Dead Fish Washing Up In Chicago

Thousands of gizzard shad have been turning up dead along the Chicago lakefront recently. Michigan Program biologist Dan Makauskas speculated that the young shad may not have built up enough reserves to survive the cold, but says the die-off is abnormal. Basically, this is just another sign that the world is ending.

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  A clump of dead gizzard found floating Friday in DuSable Harbor. (Dale Bowman~For the Sun-Times)

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  One of the thousands of young dead gizzard shad found frozen in the ice of Chicago harbors, including DuSable Harbor on Friday. (Dale Bowman ~For the Sun-Times)

Wow...2 million fish found dead in Maryland

(CNN) -- Authorities in Maryland are investigating the deaths of about 2 million fish in Chesapeake Bay.

"Natural causes appear to be the reason," the Maryland Department of the Environment said in a news release. "Cold water stress exacerbated by a large population of the affected species (juvenile spot fish) appears to be the cause of the kill."

The investigation comes days after the deaths of an estimated 100,000 fish in northwest Arkansas. Authorities suspect disease was to blame there, a state spokesman said.

In Maryland, preliminary tests showed water quality to be acceptable, officials said.

4,000 Dead Blackbirds Drop From the Sky

Times Square had the ball drop, and Brasstown, N.C., had its descending possum. But no place had a New Year’s Eve as unusual — and downright disturbing — as Beebe, Ark.

About 10 p.m. Friday, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling out of the sky over this town about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock. They landed on roofs, roads, front lawns and backyards, turning the ground nearly black and scaring anyone who happened to be outside.


“One of them almost hit my best friend in the head,” said Christy Stephens, who was standing outside among the smoking crowd at a New Year’s Eve party. “We went inside after that.”

The cause is still being determined, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Of the more than 4,000 birds that fell on Beebe, 65 samples have been sent to labs, one in Arkansas, the other in Wisconsin. Some results may be available as soon as Monday, Mr. Stephens said.

Indiana earthquake: a 'very loud boom'

(CNN) -- Debra Sholty was just opening up her business Thursday morning in Kokomo, Indiana, when a 3.8-magnitude earthquake rumbled through the north-central part of the state.

"It was like a huge explosion under your feet," said Sholty, the owner of Hobson Cleaners.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck just before 8 a.m. ET and was three miles deep. The USGS initially reported that the quake had registered a 4.2 magnitude, but later revised the estimate. Its epicenter was located about 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, and 50 miles north of Indianapolis.

No damage was immediately reported in Indianapolis, though some residents closer to the epicenter were surprised by the quake's intensity.

There was "a very loud boom," Sholty said. "We really felt it. ... It was like something hit the building from underneath. I actually felt an upward lift."

What Are the Chances of a Global White Christmas?

From holiday films to children's books, Christmas seems to be perennially tied with snow. But dare we dream of such a winter wonderland across the globe? The prospects are enticing and may reside in more than fairy tales, scientists say.

They can certainly keep dreaming, because climatologists say that it's not impossible. But don't bet all the holiday gifts under the tree on the chance of a snow-blanketed Earth this Saturday.

"Is it possible that snowfall can occur across the entire Earth? If the temperatures are low enough and if there is an excess of humidity present, then it can," said Caspar Ammann, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. "Is it likely? No."

Every part of the globe may have at least seen snow on the ground at some point during Earth's existence, Amman explained, but not during human history.

Frigid weather blasts Europe

(CNN) -- A blast of harsh winter weather socked Europe on Saturday morning, causing travel chaos and sending temperatures into a deep-freeze ahead of a busy holiday travel week.

From Northern Ireland to Bulgaria, blizzard conditions left airports with heavy delays or shut them entirely Saturday.

London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports closed all runways Saturday afternoon because of heavy snow and ice, though Gatwick reopened at 3 p.m. after clearing 4 inches of snow from the tarmac. Despite the reopening, the airport warned of "inevitable" delays and cancellations throughout the day.

British Airways canceled all Saturday domestic and European flights at Heathrow. On Saturday night the airport announced it would be closed indefinitely.

Warming temps in South, but winter storm hammers upper Plains

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Temperatures were slowly warming Thursday across the South, where freezing rain glazed roads with ice, but a sprawling winter storm system remained in place across the upper Plains states.December 16, 2010 -- Updated 1934 GMT (0334 HKT)

Snow, ice make life tough

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings and advisories for more than a dozen states. The brunt of the system is poised to hit Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, but several inches of snow are forecast for portions of Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as Minnesota and the Dakotas. Winter weather advisories stretched into Wisconsin and Minnesota.