Science News

As the second big snowstorm this winter hammered the Washington area Friday, some blamed El Nio, the phenomenon where unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean move east, pulling rainfall along with them.

“It also increases the odds of having a big snowstorm in the mid-Atlantic states, including Washington DC,” Klaus Wolter, a climatologist at the University of Colorado, told AFP.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sudan, Africas largest country blessed with oil reserves, could descend into a new war unless the world community takes action to salvage a peace accord that ended one of the continents longest conflicts five years ago, aid groups have warned.

“It is not yet too late to avert disaster, but the next 12 months are a crossroads for Africas largest country,” said the reports co-author, Maya Mailer, from Oxfam.

Read the rest of this entry »

North Dakota regulators say the state’s wind power resources almost doubled in 2009.

North Dakota Public Service Commissioners Tony Clark and Kevin Cramer say the state’s wind power capacity is now almost 1,200 megawatts.

Four major projects began operating. They’re capable of generating about 547 megawatts.

Read the rest of this entry »

You may think Mr. Frosts blustery entrance already occurred, but not officially. The winter solstice, and thus the official start of the chilly season on the astronomical calendar, begins Monday.

Heres whats behind the timing:

More exactly, the winter solstice begins at 12:47 p.m. EST (1747 UT) on Dec.

Read the rest of this entry »

Woolly mammoths and other large beasts in North America may not have gone extinct as long ago as previously thought.

After plucking ancient DNA from frozen soil in central Alaska, researchers uncovered “genetic fossils” of both mammoths and horses locked in permafrost samples dated to between 10,500 and 7,600 years ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Saturns eccentric orbit might be the cause of the uneven distribution of ethane and methane lakes on the ringed planets moon, Titan.

Cassini data also show that there are significantly more partially filled and now-empty lakes in the north.

Images from NASAs Cassini spacecraft reveal that liquid methane and ethane lakes in Titans northern high latitudes cover 20 times more area than lakes in the southern high latitudes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cameras aboard NASAs Cassini spacecraft have captured images of a mysterious hexagon-shaped cloud formation that is likely formed by the path of a jet stream flowing around the planets north pole.

“The longevity of the hexagon makes this something special, given that weather on Earth lasts on the order of weeks,” said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at the California Institute of Technology.

Read the rest of this entry »

The energy ministers of nine European Union nations on Monday signed a deal to develop a massive offshore wind power grid in the North Sea and Irish Sea, as UN climate talks got underway in Copenhagen.

“This very ambitious project is not just of interest to the countries bordering the North seas. It is important for the future energy mix providing the needs of the European Union,” said Paul Magnette, climate minister of Belgium which initiated the scheme.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cooler temperatures in North America last year do not mean global warming is easing, government and academic scientists said Friday.

Rising temperatures over decades have prompted scientific concern, and the last decade has been the hottest in thousands of years, according to climate records. However, the warming eased over North America last year, and groups seeking to deny climate change seized on that in an effort to challenge the idea of overall warming.

Read the rest of this entry »

Torrential rain battered North Koreas capital and other regions over the weekend, state media said on Sunday amid concerns that flooding may aggravate the countrys food shortages.

But the agency gave no immediate damage report.

The official Korean Central News Agency said up to 287 millimetres (11.5 inches) of rain fell in Pyongyang and the provinces of South Phyongan and South Hamgyong between Friday and Saturday.

Read the rest of this entry »