1,000 People Could Be Trapped in Mexico Landslide, Governor Says

UPDATED: 01:07 PM EDT 09.28.10

Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) - Up to 1,000 people may have been trapped by a landslide in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, Gov. Ulises Ruiz said Tuesday.

A hill about 650 feet wide (200 meters) collapsed early Tuesday, sending tons of mud over as many as 300 houses in the Santa Maria Tlahuiltotepec municipality, Ruiz said.

"We're talking about some 300 homes affected," Ruiz said. "We don't have the exact number of those affected. But the death toll could reach as many as 500 or 600, even 1,000."

"We're already rounding up the necessary equipment, and moving it towards the affected area," Ruiz said in an interview on CNN affiliate Televisa.

"We are also moving members of the military, the state police, ambulances, health workers, and all rescue teams available. They're all trying to get there. But, we haven't been able to reach the area, yet. ... We expect to get there in time to rescue these people," he said.

Ruiz said several rivers overflowed their banks due to heavy rain in the area and many roads are blocked by landslides, making it difficult for rescuers to reach the affected areas.

Some residents were complaining Tuesday morning that help was slow in coming.

"Police and rescue officials still have not arrived at the landslide zone and there are many landslides on the road," one person posted on Twitter.

The region has been plagued by extremely heavy rainfall over the past two weeks, most recently by the remnants of Tropical Storm Matthew, which were still stalled over the area Tuesday, according to CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller.

Satellite data indicates that nearly 12 inches (300 mm) of rain has fallen in the area of the landslide in the past three days, Miller said.

Many houses are built on the edge of ridges on the steep terrain in the state, which stands about 2,400 feet above sea level, making it conducive to landslides in severe weather.

More rain is forecast in the region in the next day and a half, Miller said.

The severe weather led civil protection authorities to declare a state of emergency Monday for the Oaxaca state municipalities of Oaxaca de Juarez, San Felipe Tejalapam, San Jacinto Amilpas, San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, San Pablo Etla, Santa Lucia del Camino and Tlalixtac de Cabrera. A municipality in Mexico is a geographic division within a state, similar to a county in the United States.

The Santa Maria Tlahuiltotepec municipality is a remote area with about 8,500 residents, located about 182 miles (295 kilometers) from the state capital, Ciudad de Oaxaca.

Residents in Tlahuiltotepec are indigenous -- nearly 99 percent of them speak an indigenous language and about 66 percent also speak Spanish, according to information provided by a local educational institution, the Bachillerato Integral Comunitario Ayuujk Polivalente.

Statistics provided by the institution show a relatively poor area where 43 percent of homes didn't have electricity 10 years ago and 17 percent had no indoor plumbing.

Nearly 40 percent of the municipality's residents were illiterate and only about 10 percent graduated from high school, the institute said.

The statistics came from the year 2000 and show an increasingly higher quality of life compared with 1990.

"Housing construction has evolved considerably," the institute said in a report. "Walls that used to be built with sticks, mud and adobe have been substituted by concrete, which is a mix of sand, lime and cement."

Likewise, the report said, roofing that used to consists of leaves, limbs, and other vegetation has been replaced with aluminum or even concrete tiles.

Most residents are involved in low-level farming, raising livestock and commerce.

Severe Wisconsin Weather and Weird Clouds

Wisconsin Severe Weather

My dad took this picture of me standing in a field near our house in southern Wisconsin on July 28, 2009. They were the strangest clouds we'd ever seen. They looked like big round pillows in a grid pattern across the whole sky. What kinds of clouds are these?

Here is a weather report from that day, to give you an idea of the conditions under which these clouds formed:

Severe weather occurred in Southern Wisconsin on Monday evening. There were reports of heavy rains, hail, strong winds and possible tornadoes. The State Emergency Operations Center was activated to Level 3 earlier this evening with partial staff, but has now returned to Level 4 activation with normal monitoring.
Numerous counties reported downed power lines, trees, and road closures, but little structural damage. There has been no request for state assistance. (Region V, Wisconsin EM)

http://www.fema.gov/emergency/reports/2009/nat072809.shtm- article
http://jefkophotoart.blogspot.com/- image

SoCal Sets Record for Heat, Electricity Use

LOS ANGELES -- Another round of scorching heat was expected Tuesday, just one day after Southern California sizzled in record-breaking temperatures and electricity use.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Monday reported a new record all-time peak energy demand of an estimated 6177 megawatts. This, as the mercury showed a record-setting 113 degrees in downtown Los Angeles.

The previous peak demand of 6165 megawatts happened on July 24, 2006.

Accroding to the DWP, despite the record-breaking energy demand, the system functioned well and power outages were minimal among the Department's 1.4 million customers.

The temperature in downtown Los Angeles hit 113 degrees around 12:15 p.m. Monday, Santa Monica hit 96, West Hollywood was at 108, Lancaster was 98, Pomona 107, Sylmar at 112 and Long Beach was at 108, according to weather.com.

The old record in downtown L.A. was 112 degrees on June 26, 1990.

The extreme heat prompted adjustments to train speeds and schedules.

The National Weather Service began keeping records in 1877, according to Stuart Seto, a forecaster with the NWS.

According to the NWS, the hot and dry conditions are expected to peak early this week before the high pressure ridge causing the current hot weather will move east by the middle to the end of the week, bringing on a cooling trend.

At least one woman was sent to the hospital over the weekend after suffering from heat exhaustion.

A red flag warning was in effect for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Firefighters battled a small fire brush fire in the hills of Thousand Oaks in Ventura County. The blaze broke out just after 2 p.m. Monday and burned only a few acres. No structures were lost and no evacuations were ordered.

Residents are being asked to avoid using major appliances as the triple digit temperatures are expected to put pressure on the state's electrical grid.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-autumn-heat-wave,0,5227009.story

Pumpkin Shortage Over

I have to admit – I am a big fan of pumpkin pie. So I was concerned about the news stories about the pumpkin shortage. It turns out that Illinois is home to 95 percent of pumpkin production used for pie filling. In fact, Morton, in central Illinois, is considered the pumpkin capital of the world.

Last year was terrible for pumpkin production around Morton. After a wet growing season, October rains that were 3 times the average, over already wet fields, prevented growers from harvesting most of the 2009 crop.
Conditions in 2010 around Morton have been better so far. After a wet start, conditions in July and August were much drier. And the NWS forecast for October is for increased odds of warmer and drier than normal weather. Here’s to a successful pumpkin harvest.

California Bakes

California's blistering fall heat wave sent temperatures to an all-time record high of 113 degrees in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, and many sought refuge at the beach.

Downtown hit 113 degrees for a few minutes at about 12:15 p.m., breaking the old all-time record of 112 degrees set on June 26, 1990, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist at the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. Temperature records for downtown date to 1877.

The historic mark was part of an onslaught of temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in many cities ranging from Anaheim, home of Disneyland, to San Luis Obispo on the usually balmy Central Coast.

Wisconsin Levee Watch

Residents in three states on Monday were dealing with flooding that swamped homes and in one area weakened a levee system to near collapse.

In South Dakota, water levels in the storm-bloated Big Sioux River were stable Monday after up to 4 inches of rain last week pushed the waterway over its banks along a 50-mile stretch from Brookings to Sioux Falls.

Big British Wind Farm

The world's largest offshore wind farm opened in Britain on Thursday, as part of the government's bid to reduce the carbon emissions that drive climate change.
The project received a qualified welcome from environmental campaigners.
The site, a forest of giant turbines in the North Sea off the east Kent coast, has 100 turbines installed so far with a total of 341 planned.

Swedish energy company Vattenfall, which built the farm, says it has the potential to power 200,000 homes.
The farm will increase Britain's capacity to generate wind power by more than 30 percent.
Situated around seven miles (12 kilometers) out to sea, the 380-foot (115-meter) high turbines are spread over more than 22 square miles (35 square kilometers) and are visible from the shore.
The farm is expected to produce 300 megawatts of energy at full capacity, which would see Britain's renewable energy capacity rise to five gigawatts.

Doppler Improvements

The National Weather Service Chicago Office is pleased to announce that the much-anticipated installation process of the Dual-Polarization Radar upgrade to the KLOT WSR-88D will occur between March 8th and March 19th 2011 (dates subject to change). WFO Chicago, as one of the four Beta Test sites, will be one of the first NWS offices in the country to receive this important technology, which will greatly expand the amount of data types and radar products available to users. It is important to note that during the entire time of installation, the radar will be offline. The National Weather Service Chicago Office is pleased to announce that the much-anticipated installation process of the Dual-Polarization Radar upgrade to the KLOT WSR-88D will occur between March 8th and March 19th 2011 (dates subject to change). WFO Chicago, as one of the four Beta Test sites, will be one of the first NWS offices in the country to receive this important technology, which will greatly expand the amount of data types and radar products available to users. It is important to note that during the entire time of installation, the radar will be offline.

Solar Plane to Soar

Think your last flight was long? The Defense Department's research arm wants a plane ride that lasts five years.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is paying The Boeing Co., $89 million to build a huge, solar-powered, robotic aircraft that can carry 1,000 pounds of sensors and other payloads for five years at a stretch.

"It's challenging," Boeing project manager Pat O'Neil told Discovery News. "It presents opportunities to do things in the atmosphere that normally we'd associate with satellites. It's quite compelling."

NYC Workers Clear Debris in Aftermath of Fierce Storm

In a briefing on Friday night, Gary Conte, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said there had been two tornadoes — one that reached up to 80 miles an hour in Park Slope, and a second near Flushing that reached 100 miles an hour — as well as a macroburst in Middle Village and Forest Hills, Queens, that generated winds up to 125 miles an hour.

From the air, some neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens looked like Lego masterpieces that angry children had done their best to sweep aside. Trees remained sprawled along the stately streets of Forest Hills, Queens. Two telephone-pole-thick pieces of one storm-ruined tree still blocked a street, pinning a blue sedan to the pavement.

One person was killed in the storm, a woman in a car that was hit by a tree as she was changing places with her husband. The woman, identified as Aline Levakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., had pulled to the side of the Grand Central Parkway near Jewel Avenue in Queens

Energy States Lead Recovery

Texas, North Carolina, Idaho and a handful of other states are leading the nation's crawl out of the worst recession since the 1930s, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, a group of about 10 states that have outperformed the nation almost continuously for 25 or more years again is generating new income at a faster pace than the rest of the nation.

"Our pipeline of companies looking to expand or relocate here is the biggest it's been in a decade," says Bibiana Nertney of the Idaho Department of Commerce.
Idaho ranked 10th in personal income growth in the year since the recession's end, up from 50th among states and Washington, D.C., during the recession. That's the USA's biggest rebound.

Climate Change Threatens Coral Reefs

This year’s extreme heat is putting the world’s coral reefs under such severe stress that scientists fear widespread die-offs, endangering not only the richest ecosystems in the ocean but also fisheries that feed millions of people.

From Thailand to Texas, corals are reacting to the heat stress by bleaching, or shedding their color and going into survival mode.

Freak Forecasts: Bizarre Weather Phenomena

Our biosphere is chock-full of meteorological oddities: freakish cold snaps, dust devils, rains of frogs or fish. Here is a sampling of the oddest of the odd:

Red sprites and blue jets. Occasionally, a storm cell will release a giant, reddish charge into the upper atmosphere—called a “sprite,” these discharges of energy can top out at 30 to 55 miles high, practically high-fiving the ionosphere. Sprites are triggered by a large, normal lightning flash lower down.

Another type of capping cloud, called a “pileus,” forms over other rising air masses rather than mountaintops. Pilei can be seen over cumulus clouds, nuclear explosions, even volcanic eruptions—as on June 12, 2009, when the International Space Station took this startling video-like series of photos of Sarychev Peak, a violently exploding Russian volcano.

Properly called a parhelion, a sun dog occurs when sunlight bends through a high, icy haze in the atmosphere. On either side of a faint halo around the sun appear two bright—sometimes very bright—spots, the result of refraction.

Giant snowflakes/hail. The largest snowflake on record was 15 inches in diameter. The biggest flakes are created when thousands of symmetrical, 6-sided snow crystals freeze into one large disk.

Landslides in India

Sixty killed in Indian

landslides

More than 60 people have died in flooding and landslides in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand in the past two days after heavy monsoon rain.

Thousands of people in the worst affected districts have been forced to leave their homes.

Some rivers have burst their banks and houses have been crushed by falling rocks. There are also reports that some highways are blocked by debris.

Security forces have been deployed to help with the rescue effort.

Officials say more heavy rainfall is expected in the coming days.

In August, at least 18 children were killed when a school building collapsed in the remote village Sumgarh in Uttarakhand following heavy monsoon rains.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11370468

Authorities: 2 tornadoes struck NYC during storm

By VERENA DOBNIK and SARA KUGLER FRAZIER, Associated Press Writers Verena Dobnik And Sara Kugler Frazier, Associated Press Writers – Sat Sep 18, 3:14 am ET

NEW YORK – All over the city, witnesses compared stories of the destruction they saw — roofs peeled away, street signs uprooted, storefront windows blown out, thick tree trunks snapped in half, a parked van lifted a foot into the air.

So it came as no surprise when meteorologists determined late Friday that the storm that barreled across a large swath of Brooklyn and Queens a day earlier spawned two tornadoes and a fierce macroburst with wind speeds up to 125 mph.

What was surprising, meteorologists said, was that only one person died.

"It's practically a miracle considering the population that was affected by this," said Kyle Struckmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The tornadoes were the ninth and 10th to hit New York City since 1950, according to the weather service.

One struck Brooklyn at 5:33 p.m. Thursday, with winds up to 80 mph, and carved its way northeast from the Park Slope section, Struckmann said. The second hit Queens at 5:42 p.m., with winds up to 100 mph, traveling 4 miles from the Flushing section to a mile north of Bayside.

It was that second twister that snapped trees and scattered them like bowling pins, downing power lines and crushing vehicles, including a car in Queens where a woman was killed, according to the National Weather Service. Aline Levakis was in the parked car with her husband, Billy Levakis. The Pennsylvania couple had just switched seats in the car, said a former business partner, Peter Markos. Billy Levakis survived.

Click image to see more photos of NYC storm

AP/Mark Lennihan

The macroburst packed the biggest punch, said Brian Ciemnecki, another weather service meteorologist. Stretching 8 miles long and 5 miles wide, it started in the Middle Village section of Queens and ended in Forest Hills. A macroburst is an intense gust of wind that pours down from a storm.

"The large majority of damage was associated with the macroburst," Ciemnecki said.

Officials initially had reported that a microburst hit the city but later corrected that to say it was a macroburst, because it was more than 2 1/2-miles long.

Strong winds caused damage on Staten Island, authorities said.

The storm was part of a line that rippled across much of the Northeast before completing its run in New York City during the evening rush hour in a matter of minutes. It caught nearly everyone off guard, including commuters heading home and parents picking up children from after-school activities.

"There are lots of stories of people who came very close to being hit by a big tree and killed, but fortunately there was only one," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. "And that one was really tragic."

Stunned residents sifted through the debris Friday, and utility crews worked to restore power in blacked-out neighborhoods. The number of customers without power peaked at 37,000, but that gradually improved Friday. About 14,000 customers, mostly in Queens, had no power late Friday.

Consolidated Edison said it expects to restore power to most customers by Saturday night, and all service by Sunday night.

On a badly hit Brooklyn block of 1890s brownstones in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the storm swept away parts of rooftops on at least six homes.

One four-story rowhouse was so waterlogged that walls were marked Friday with large black Xs — meaning they were to be torn down. In the yard behind, debris lay piled up, including parts of the roof, a crushed gazebo and a whole tree that landed there from two houses away.

"Just look at this," said owner Babe Hatcher, standing in the backyard.

Pointing at the top floor, he said: "No one can sleep up there; there's no ceiling. You can see the sky."

Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert Limandri said the city had received more than 60 reports of buildings with possible structural damage. Officials had ordered residents out of some of the worst-hit homes in Brooklyn.

The city parks department said it was still assessing the tree damage and cautioned that cleanup would likely go on for days. The parks commissioner warned pedestrians to be careful walking under trees that might have broken branches.

The line of storms began its work in the west. At least seven tornadoes were confirmed in Ohio, where storms flipped mobile homes, injured several people and damaged part of an Ohio State University campus. A small tornado also touched down in southern New Jersey, knocking over trees and damaging two houses.

___

Associated Press Writers Cristian Salazar, Beth J. Harpaz, Ula Ilnytzky, David B. Caruso and Charles Sheehan contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100918/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_storm

Video: Incredibly clear view of Igor

Amazing satellite imagery, called Rapid Scan, of Igor. You can clearly see the well defined eye. This video is courtesy of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Warming Causes Problems For Walruses

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted.

U.S. government scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States. But it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009. In those years Arctic sea ice also was at or near record low levels.

U.S. Geological Survey via AP
Wildlife biologist Tony Fischbach observes a tagged walrus near Point Lay, Alaska, on Sept. 7.The walruses "stretch out for one mile or more. This is just packed shoulder-to-shoulder," U.S. Geological Survey biologist Anthony Fischbach said in a telephone interview from Alaska. He estimated their number at tens of thousands.

Roving Rocks in the Desert

One of the mysterious peripatetic, or roving, rocks of Death Valley National Park (see map) in California and Nevada sits at the end of a curved track in a summer 2010 picture.

Found in the Racetrack—an aptly named dry lakebed, or playa—the moving rocks have stumped scientists since the 1940s. For instance, the rocks are thought to move as fast as a walking person, but they've never been seen in action. Previous studies have shown that gravity or earthquakes can't explain the objects' movements.

Now a student-research project led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has lent support to the idea that, during wintertime, the rocks float down the playa on small "collars" of ice, which form around the stones when lake water flows down the surrounding hills and freezes on the lakebed, according to Cynthia Cheung, a principal investigator for the project. More water flows may allow the ice-collared rocks to "float."

Fire Tornado in Hawaii

Spectacular video of a funnel of fire in Hawaii.

Steamy Summer Across U.S.

The contiguous United States had its fourth-warmest summer (June-August) on record, according to the latest NOAA State of the Climate report issued today. The report also showed the August average temperature was 75.0 degrees F, which is 2.2 degrees F above the long-term (1901-2000) average. Last month’s average precipitation was 2.41 inches, 0.19 inch below the 1901-2000 average.

Cause of Colorado Wildfire

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Colorado crews let hundreds of evacuees return to their scorched homes Sunday as investigators probed the cause of a devastating wildfire that has burned 10 square miles near Boulder.
A senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told the Denver Post that authorities are looking into whether a fire pit sparked the blaze, which could mean criminal charges are possible. The newspaper did not name the official.

Authorities previously said the fire may have started after a vehicle crashed into a propane tank. The sheriff's office is aware of Post's article but won't comment on the cause or origin of the fire because it's under investigation, said Sarah Huntley, a spokeswoman for the fire response.

Flash Flood Watch - ILLINOIS

Alert:

...THE REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM HERMINE BRINGING A HEAVY RAIN
THREAT TO THE REGION...

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING
THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING...

THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES FOR

* PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST ILLINOIS AND SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...
INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...IN SOUTHWEST ILLINOIS...
RANDOLPH IL. IN SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...STE. GENEVIEVE MO.

* FROM 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING

* RAIN WILL SPREAD INTO THE AREA THIS EVENING AND CONTINUE
TONIGHT... AS THE REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM HERMINE MOVE
THROUGH THE MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. THE RAIN MAY BE HEAVY
AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY SOUTH OF THE MISSOURI RIVER. RAINFALL
AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE...WITH ISOLATED
HIGHER TOTALS.

* IN ADDITION TO THE FLASH FLOOD THREAT ALONG SMALL STREAMS AND
LOW LYING AREAS...THIS HEAVY RAINFALL WILL ALSO LEAD TO RISES
ALONG LARGER RIVERS IN THE REGION...INCLUDING THE BIG...
MERAMEC...ST. FRANCIS AND BLACK.

Instructions:

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE BUT NOT IMMINENT IN THE WATCH AREA. PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA SHOULD BE AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING. CHECK YOUR PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS...ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIVE IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS. STAY INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR QUICK ACTION IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED OR IF A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED.

Target Area:

Jackson
Monroe
Perry
Randolph
St. Clair
Ste. Genevieve
Washington

Flooding in Mexico!

Weeks of heavy rain have brought widespread flooding to wide swathes of eastern and southern Mexico.

Hundreds of thousands of people have seen rapidly rising rivers break their banks and inundate their communities.

Authorities have been trying to evacuate the worst-hit areas but some people are refusing to leave, seeking refuge on the roofs of their houses.

Among the most severely affected areas is Tlacotalpan, a colonial-era town declared a world heritage site.

Most of Tlacotalpan's residents have left the town to seek shelter elsewhere in the state of Veracruz, Mexican officials said.

Over the past few weeks, some 200,000 people in Veracruz have been forced to abandon their homes.

'Worst to come'
The torrential rains and subsequent flooding have also affected the states of Tabasco, Chiapas and Oaxaca.

In Tabasco, more than 124,000 people have been affected but many have opted to stay.


People in Tabasco face frequent floods
"They are refusing to leave their homes and they don't want to go to shelters because they have a culture of living with water," said Tabasco Governor Andres Granier.

"What worries me is that the worst is yet to come for Tabasco. The state and these people cannot keep suffering these problems each year, or live in permanent uncertainty."

Tabasco was the scene of devastating floods three years ago.

During a visit to the state on Tuesday Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the rains in the region during July and August were three and a half times more than usual.

The rainy season does not officially end until November.

The government has pursued flood-control measures in recent years. Mr Calderon said these had helped to avoid a wider disaster but he accepted that more needed to be done.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11226611

Flash Floods In Texas

Hermine Sends Water Rushing Over Road

This is where I used to live in Texas. Hurricane Hermine is bringing a ton of rain to the region, which hasn't gotten any rain in a long time. This starts to become a problem with flash flooding when the ground has absorbed all the water it can in a relatively short amount of time.

- Justin

Suicidal Sun Mission

Why the sun's atmosphere is nearly 200 times hotter than its visible surface is a long-standing mystery. A new spacecraft, called Solar Probe Plus, aims to find some answers.

Flying directly into the sun's corona is a suicidal mission to be sure, but scientists and engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Baltimore, which is developing Solar Probe Plus for NASA, plan to keep the spacecraft alive as long as possible.

It's not going to be easy. For starters, the probe will need to withstand temperatures up to about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, its heat shield can't ablate, or boil away like the shields on capsules returning through Earth's atmosphere are designed to do. That would pollute the particles and measurements Solar Probe Plus is being dispatched to gather.

Green Chicago

From aging industrial capital to model of livability and environmental stewardship, Chicago is becoming our kind of town.

Hermine Heads North

Tropical Storm Hermine rolled into south Texas early Tuesday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to an area battered by Hurricane Alex earlier this summer.

Hermine made landfall in northeastern Mexico late Monday and crossed into Texas within hours, bringing with it winds of up to 65 mph (100 kph). It moved on a path similar to the one Hurricane Alex took in late June, and like that Category 1 storm, threatened to dump up to a foot of rain in some areas and cause flash flooding.

Hermine was no Alex in terms of strength. But Hermine wasn't taken lightly: Mexican emergency officials in Tamaulipas worked to evacuate 3,500 people around Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and schools on both sides of the border canceled classes Tuesday.

Earl Packs Punch In Canada

After disrupting Labor Day weekend plans for tens of millions of East Coastal residents and tourists, Earl finally made a blustery landfall Saturday morning in Canada's Nova Scotia province, where one man died.

The storm, downgraded overnight from hurricane to tropical storm, again packed hurricane-speed winds when it made landfall, and then weakened once more before heading out to the frigid Atlantic.

Winds gusting to 80 mph downed trees, flooded roads and left 200,000 customers without power. The province has a population of about 940,000.

"We are still classifying this storm as a hurricane, based on the overnight presentation of the storm on satellite and radar," said Chris Fogarty, program supervisor at Canadian Hurricane Center said at the time. "The eye is still very much intact."