Science News

Forecasters say a wetter-than-usual winter and a jet stream ripping over the part of the country known as “Tornado Alley” could lead to an active spring - perhaps starting with the strong twister that nicked a small western Oklahoma town Monday night.

The nation typically will see 70-100 tornadoes by early March, but only 42 had been reported until Monday night’s Oklahoma tornado.

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Melbourne was bracing for more bad weather Sunday after a “beast of a storm” ripped through Australias second largest city, bringing with it hailstones the size of tennis balls.

“The weather system that brought the damage to Melbourne is known in meteorological terms as a supercell thunderstorm, an organised beast of a storm that once it gets going tends to last more than your average thunderstorm,” he said.

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Utility crews are working to restore power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses still in the dark in the Northeast after a winter storm last week.

More than a million homes and businesses lost electricity at the height of the storm Friday. New Hampshire and New York state are now each reporting about 50,000 customers without power.

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Thousands of firefighters and other rescue workers searched house by house Monday along France’s devastated Atlantic coast, trying to help those still stranded by a storm that smashed sea walls and killed at least 62 people across western Europe.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy toured the worst-hit areas Monday, the coastal regions of Vendee and Charente-Maritime, and pledged euro3 million ($4 million) in emergency aid.

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Nearly 200,000 homes and businesses were still without power Sunday as restoration efforts continued days after a slow-moving storm battered the Northeast with heavy snow, rain and high winds.

At the peak of the storm, more than a million utility customers throughout the region had lost power.

More than 83,000 utility customers still lacked electricity late Sunday afternoon in New Hampshire, the hardest-hit state.

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Violent storms swept through France over the weekend, killing at least 15 people, officials said.

South-west coastal regions of France, Vendee and Charente Maritime, were among those worst affected.

Local authorities said three people died on Saturday and another 12 on Sunday and warned the toll could rise.

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Frustration turned to resignation Saturday for hundreds of thousands of people in the Northeast struggling to survive another day waiting for utility crews to restore electricity after powerful storms socked the region with heavy snow, rain and hurricane-force winds.

One man was killed by a falling snow-laden tree branch in Central Park in New York City, and two people in Candia, N.

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A major snowstorm pounded the northeastern United States on Friday, knocking out power in hundreds of thousands of homes and forcing all New York schools to close.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a rare closure of all public schools, handing 1.1 million students an unexpected long weekend. Columbia and other city universities also closed for the day.

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A winter storm is creating huge waves and flooding at high tide along the coast of Maine.

The storm has blown shingles and an antenna off at least one beachfront home and is strong enough to send canoes sailing through the air.

Waves turned beachfront streets into rivers early Friday in Saco, where storms have claimed several homes over the years.

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The winter storm plaguing the Northeast has disrupted air and road travel across the region as people try to get to work.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Ron Marsico says people used “good old common sense” on Thursday and stayed home, limiting the number stranded at airports.

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