The drought gripping stretches of central and eastern China has dried Lake Honghu into an expanse of exposed mud, stranded boats and dying fish farms, threatening the livelihoods of residents in Hubei Province who call this their "land of fish and rice."

Dry spells and floods blight various parts of China nearly every year, and officials are prone to call each the worst in 50 years or longer.

But many residents around the lake said that was a fitting label for the months-long drought that has drastically shrunk the lake, the adjacent Yangtze River, and many other lakes and tributaries along the mighty river's course through farming and industrial heartlands.

"I've never, ever seen it this bad. Look at the rice. It's all going yellow and the stalks will die unless we get some rain soon," said Ouyang Jinghuang, a pepper-haired 66-year-old farmer tending rice paddies near Lake Honghu.

"We're all digging wells and buying our drinking water. Usually, we have so much water here that we worry about floods, not droughts."

The dry spell is a jarring reminder of how China, the world's second-biggest economy, relies on increasingly strained water resources to feed its people and power rapidly increasing numbers of hydro stations. (read more)

France is now on heatwave alert after the hottest spring since 1900 has left water tables down and farmers struggling to feed their livestock.

The Health Ministry has put into effect level one of an anti-drought plan that was drawn up after 15,000 people died in the long-hot summer of 2003.

Summer 2011 could be drier than summer 1973, when drought cost the economy an estimated 15 billion euros and a “drought tax” was introduced to raise 900 million euros to make up farmers’ losses, according to weather forecasters.

Spring this year has been the hottest since at last 1900 and the driest for 50 years. Temperatures have been 2.6°C higher than the average between 1971 and 2000.

Over half of the country’s départements are already limiting the use of water and farmers have already been promised millions of euros of aid.

The price of straw has been fixed at no higher than25 euros a tonne, Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire announced Tuesday.

The water shortage is likely to push already-rising food prices even higher but could mean a boost to tourism as holiday-makers head for Mediterrenean beaches.

Level one of the government’s heatwave plan puts weather-watchers and health authorities on alert. An emergency phone line has been set up with the number 0800066666.

The highest level of alert allows the government to bring in the army and order news media to broadcast government announcements on how to react to the crisis. Source

Japan underestimated the risk of tsunamis to its coastal nuclear power plants, a British-led UN safety team has concluded.

The report also said that Japan needs to closely monitor public and workers' health after the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, as a result of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The report, from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team, was led by Britain's top nuclear safety official Mike Weightman.

It highlighted some of the well-documented weaknesses that contributed to the crisis at Fukushima when the plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo.

The plant was hit by a massive earthquake and then a tsunami in quick succession on March 11.

Those start with a failure to plan for a tsunami that would overrun the 19-foot break wall at Fukushima and knock out back-up electric generators to four reactors.

This occurred despite multiple forecasts from a government agency and operator Tokyo Electric Power company's own scientists that such a risk was looming.

The IAEA team said Japan's crisis offered several lessons for the nuclear industry globally, including that plant operators should regularly review the risks of natural disasters.

It also recommended that "hardened" emergency response centres should be established to deal with accidents.

"The tsunami hazard for several sites was underestimated," the report's three-page summary said.

"Nuclear plant designers and operators should appropriately evaluate and provide protection against the risks of all natural hazards."

Goshi Hosono, an aide to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, accepted the report, marking the first step in an effort by Japanese officials to show that the lessons learned from Fukushima can be applied to make its remaining reactors safe.

Hosono said the government would need to review its nuclear regulatory framework.
The IAEA team will submit its findings to a ministerial conference on nuclear safety in Vienna from June 20-24.

"We had a playbook, but it didn't work," said Tatsujiro Suzuki, a nuclear expert and vice chairman of Japan's Atomic Energy Commission. Source

Ash clouds coming from an active volcano in Russia’s far east has forced authorities there to reroute a number of international flights, officials said on Tuesday. No flights have so far been canceled.

Although the 3,283-meter (10,771-foot) Shiveluch volcano is not fully erupting, the active volcano in Kamchatka Krai has been active since May 2009 and periodically spews ash up to eight kilometers (4.9 miles) high.

But activity at the volcano has increased in recent days, and Russia’s geophysical service said on Tuesday that the volcano is now spewing plumes of ash up to a height of nine kilometers (5.6 miles). Fears are that the volcano is now at risk of a full eruption.

Because volcanic ash can pose a threat to planes and because of the increased risk of a full eruption, authorities have decided to reroute all air traffic around the ash clouds, which is close to a major air corridor for aircraft flying between Russia and locations in Japan and South Korea.

Shiveluch, one of the largest and most active volcanoes in Russia, is located in Kamchatka Krai, a federal subject of Russia. It is one of more than 150 volcanoes in Kamchatka, although only 29 of them are active.

Earlier this month, European airlines were forced to cancel nearly 1,000 flights over a span of several days after the Grimsvotn in Iceland erupted, spreading an ash cloud over several countries. So far, no flights have been canceled as a result of the volcano in Russia. Source

Volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer yesterday warned there was a one-in-500 chance of the world being hit by a super- volcano this century.

The reader in vulcanology at Cambridge University told a Hay audience: “That might not sound like much, but it is a lot more likely than an asteroid impact.

“The events in Japan remind us that you can have a tsunami and earthquake and a nuclear plant there as well and you can have these chain reaction events that are actually quite calamitous and they are not unimaginable.”

Examining geological, historical and archeological records, the expert took the audience on a journey back to three volcanic eruptions that have shaken the world – the 1815 Tambora volcano in Indonesia that killed 100,000 people, the 1783 eruption of Kaki in Iceland and the massive Toba eruption in indonesia that pumped 3,000 cubic km of magma into the atmosphere around 75,000 years ago, leaving behind a lake-filled crater in North Sumatra 100km long and 30km wide.

If such an eruption was to happen tomorrow, he said, the world would be far more vulnerable.

He said: “The world population is bigger, for one thing, and many people are living in abject poverty who are already very vulnerable.

“The effects would be huge, both to people and to the technological world.”

The 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland woke the world up to the threat posed by large-scale clouds of ash, he said.

“Communications become very vulnerable, with disruption to mobile phone communications.

“We do need to think about all these vulnerabilities, both the technological risks and the humanitarian ones.”

He added that evidence shows category-eight earthquakes can trigger volcanoes 1000km away, and that this year’s devastating earthquake off the coast of Japan would be likely to trigger a volcano elsewhere in the country.

“They are linked,” he said.

“Statistically, we could say within the next six months there is likely to be an eruption in Japan because of the events this year.

“Global warming and melting of the ice caps will also have an effect, because a lot of volcanoes are under the ice which, when you remove that loading, will also statistically be more likely to erupt.” Source

Several areas in Kullu and Shimla districts of Himachal Pradesh were lashed by a severe hailstorm this afternoon, causing extensive damage to crops.

The freak weather conditions continued in the region with isolated rains, thunderstorms and hailstorms, keeping farmers on tenterhooks. Apple, wheat, cherry, almond, pear, plum, apricot, stone fruits and flowers suffered due to the untimely rains.

Meanwhile light showers occurred at Seobagh in Kullu which recorded 6 mm of rain while Kumarsein in Shimla and Nadaun in Hamirpur had 2 mm of rains.

The day temperatures rose marginally at some places in Himachal while minimum temperatures were near normal in most parts of the state. The maximum temperature slided by one degree in Shimla to stay at 24.4 degree while it increased by 3.5 degree at Una to settle at 38.4 degree.

The day temperatures remained stable at Sundernagar, Bhuntar, Mandi, Dharamsala, Nahan and Solan while minimum night temperatures were near normal. Shimla recorded a low of 16 degree while Una and Dharmasala recorded minimum temperature at 20.5 degree, followed by Palampur 19.0 degree, Mandi 18.6 degree, Sundernagar 18.0 degree and Solan 16.6 degree.Nahan was hottest during the night with a low of 21.4 degree.

The local Met office has predicted more rains and thundershowers at many places during next 48 hours. Source

New Orleans has made a remarkable recovery since the city was devastated by flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

But now stunning new images have emerged which show how one part of the Big Easy has yet to be revived - its Six Flags theme park.

The haunting photographs, taken over the last six years, reveal an almost post-apocalyptic landscape dominated by twisted and corroded rides, now silent forever.

Graffiti covers many of the buildings, welcoming visitors to 'Zombieland' - a fitting name for the eerie park, which has been completely abandoned.

A smashed-up clowns head lies abandoned on the floor, while most of the rides have been left for the weeds to colonise.

When the flooding hit, Six Flags, in a low-lying area towards the east of the city, was submerged in up to seven feet of water, which wasn't drained for almost a month.

The combination of sea and river water corroded most of the rides, damaging them beyond repair. According to a report at the time, 80 per cent of the buildings were completely destroyed. Read More

Heavy rain has flooded the already-devastated Miyagi area of northern Japan, hindering its reconstruction after a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.

Torrential rains brought by typhoon Songda across the country caused landslides and floods, leaving at least 13 people dead and many more missing. Roads have been swept away in at least 200 places and some 19 bridges were damaged. Authorities in the Northeast of Tokyo urged more than 400,000 residents to evacuate their homes Friday following the flooding of a river.

In some areas in the North, 54mm of rain fell in just 12 hours. Up to 1,000 troops have been supporting rescue missions and strengthening flood protection. Songda were downgraded to a tropical storm in the southwest of Japan late on Sunday, but strong winds and rain continue to batter the north. Source

Coral reefs around the world could be teetering on the brink of extinction by the end of the century as the oceans become more acidic, scientists have warned.

New evidence from volcanic seeps - fissures in the ocean floor that leak gases and minerals - suggests a bleak future for the reefs that harbour the world's richest marine ecosystems.

Three natural carbon dioxide seeps in Papua New Guinea have given scientists a snapshot of how coral reefs may look in 100 years.

Like man-made sources of carbon dioxide, the seeps are making the water around them more acidic.

The study showed reductions in reef diversity and complexity as pH values fell from 8.1 to 7.8, indicating greater acidity.

At values below 7.7, reef development ceased altogether.

Climate change experts estimate that by the end of the century, ocean acidity worldwide will change in a similar way because of CO2 emissions.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast predicts that rising concentrations of CO2 will reduce worldwide ocean pH from its present level of 8.1 to 7.8.

Authors of the new research, writing in the journal Nature, said the effect of a pH drop below 7.8 would be 'catastrophic' for the coral.

Chris Langdon, from the University of Miami in the US, who led the seep reef research, said: 'These 'champagne reefs' are natural analogues of how coral reefs may look in 100 years if ocean acidification conditions continue to get worse. Read More

The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant has suspended some of its outdoor work due to a tropical storm, just days after it admitted it was not prepared for harsh weather.

Heavy rain and strong winds are hitting north-east Japan, which was devastated in the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

There are fears that more radioactive material from the Fukushima plant could drain into the land and sea.

Japan's Meteorological Agency has warned of mudslides and floods.

Typhoon Songda weakened to a tropical storm over south-west Japan late on Sunday, but strong winds and rain have continued to pound the north-east of the country.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which runs the nuclear plant, said it was on alert to ensure that contaminated water in reactor buildings did not flow out. (read more)

Global warming is fast heading towards 'dangerous' levels owing to the emission of a record amount of greenhouse gases last year, according to new figures.

Estimates from the International Energy Agency show that a whopping 30.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide was pumped into the atmosphere last year - a worrying rise of 1.6Gt on 2009.

The IEA has warned that annual emissions should be no higher than 32Gt by 2020 if the world is to avoid the most damaging effects of global warming.

At the current rate of carbon dioxide production, the threshold of 'dangerous climate change' - defined as a global temperature rise of 2C - looks almost impossible to be avoided.

'It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker,' said Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA.

It had been hoped that the global recession would have a positive effect on emissions - but the impact so far is negligible.

If we continue the way we're going, there is a 50 per cent chance that the global average temperature will rise by more than 4C by 2100, according to Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the Stern Report into the economics of climate change in 2006.

'Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict,' Stern told the Guardian. Read More

A series of dramatic sea twisters have been spotted off the NSW central coast this morning.

The huge columns of water could be seen spiralling up from the sea near Avoca Beach about 9.45am.

Up to four huge waterspouts were filmed approaching the shore as heavy storms battered the area.

Bar attendant Rebecca Rodier, 34, was travelling to work at the Avoca Beach Hotel when she saw the twisters rising up.

"It was exciting," she said.

"I have seen them before, but not as big as that.

"I have lived on the water all my life and seen some waterspouts before, so I wasn’t really worried about it hitting the shore.

"It looked like it was a huge thing out at sea, like a tornado."

The natural phenomenon occurs when a rapidly rotating column of air below a cloud causes a pressure drop, which lowers the temperature and creates swirling droplets of condensation.

Experts say they rarely hit the shore, but when they do, they can cause serious damage to coastal areas.

Last June, a natural disaster zone was declared at Lennox Head after a waterspout twister tore through the town, wrecking properties and infrastructure. Read More

Despite having weakened somewhat, the storm is yet another natural disaster to hit the already stricken country.

The first major storm of the season is now making its way across southern Japan.

It has weakened somewhat, but Tropical Storm Songda is yet another natural disaster to hit the stricken country in recent times.

This has been quite a long-lived storm, and we have been tracking its progress for more than a week now. Thankfully, it has by-and-large stayed clear of the major land masses in the Western Pacific.

It brushed the Philippines, passing to the northeast of Luzon as a typhoon before drifting east of Taiwan on its way towards Japan.

At its peak it had sustained winds of 240kmph making it a super typhoon (the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane on the Safir-Simpson Scale).

The fact that the eye of the typhoon remained over the ocean means that it has been able to maintain its warm water source, which has thus continued to feed the storm.

As a result, the outer rain bands have produced major rain events for all in its path along with very high seas. It is now weakening over the slightly cooler waters to the south of Japan and the northwest Pacific.

Feeling the effects

As the typhoon made its way towards Kyushu on Sunday morning, Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a mudslide warning for Kagoshima, where recent volcanic eruptions left the ground weak and prone to such events.

Kagoshima received 121mm of rain on Saturday. A little further south, Naze had a whopping 160mm in the same time period. Subsequently, 15,400 households suffered power cuts and 426 households lost their water supply.

Overall, the combination of strong winds and heavy rain left at least 58 people injured and 278,000 households without power. Read More

A mayor in a small town devastated by a tornado has sparked outrage over his refusal to let homeless residents stay in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jack Scott has been branded heartless after his decision not to waive a local law banning single-wide trailers in the town of Cordova, Alabama.

He said he fears the temporary accommodation could become permanent and says he doesn't want run-down mobile homes parked all over town.

Angry residents met on Saturday night and called for Mr Sciott's removal from office.

One resident, James Ruston, said his house was knocked off its foundation by the tornadoes that blasted through the town last month and is still uninhabitable.

He thought help had finally arrived when a truck pulled up to his property with a mobile home from FEMA.

Then he was informed of the ban on single-wide mobile homes.

Mr Ruston and many others see the city's decision as a sign that leaders don't care that some people are barely surviving in the rubble.

Felicia Boston, standing on a debris-strewn plot where a friend lost his home in the tornado, said: 'People have to live somewhere. What's it matter if it's in a trailer?'

Mr Scott, however, has heard all the complaints but is unrepentant.

He said: 'I don't feel guilty. I can look anyone in the eye.'

Blue-collar Cordova has a population of about 2,000 and is 35 miles north west of Birmingham.

It was hit by a pair of powerful tornadoes on April 27, the day twisters killed more than 300 people across the South east.

Officials say 238 died in Alabama, the highest death toll for any state in a spring of violent weather, the Associated Press reports.

An EF-3 tornado with winds of at least 140mph walloped the town around 5.30am, knocking out power and damaging numerous buildings.

An EF-4 with winds around 170mph struck about 12 hours later, killing four people and cutting a path of destruction a half-mile wide through Cordova.

On Main Street, virtually every storefront was destroyed and is now deserted, blocked by a chain-link fence. Read More

About 40 houses had their roofs blown off and hundreds of acres of crops destroyed when a hailstorm hit Namutumba District. The two-hour hailstorm on Thursday hit 20 villages including Isegero A and B, Ndikitwamaila, Namukoge, Busene, Nabikenge, Bakudumira, Nawampiti, Kibaale and Kivule. Domestic animals and birds were also killed. Eight hours after the downpour, ice blocks were still visible on the ground.

African swine fever (ASF), a viral disease harmless to people but lethal to pigs, is likely to spread beyond Russia and the Caucasus region into Europe, the United Nations' food agency said on Thursday.

ASF, for which there is no vaccine, is now established in Georgia, Armenia and southern Russia, with an increasing number of long-distance jump outbreaks in northern areas this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

Long-distance jumps are food-borne, with virus surviving in pig meat products carried by travelers and setting off a new outbreak at the destination where food scraps may be fed to pigs, the FAO said.

"African swine fever is fast becoming a global issue," Juan Lubroth, FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer, said in a statement.

"It now poses an immediate threat to Europe and beyond. Countries need to be on the alert and to strengthen their preparedness and contingency plans," he said.

ASF was introduced into Georgia from southern Africa in 2006 entering through the Black Sea port of Poti, where garbage from a ship was taken to a dump where pigs came to feed, FAO said.

Currently, ASF is spreading northwards at the rate of roughly 350 km a year. Usually, ASF has distinct seasonal outbreaks in the summer and autumn. But long-distance jumps have also occurred as the ASF wave travels northwards.

The frequency of such jumps is increasing as the originally infected territory enlarges, while the ASF virus strain now spreading is a very aggressive one, the Rome-based FAO said. (read more)

Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and winds of a typhoon heading towards the country, officials admit.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), which runs the plant, said some reactor buildings were uncovered, prompting fears the storm may carry radioactive material into the air and sea.

Typhoon Songda is expected to hit mainland Japan as early as Monday.

Fukushima was heavily damaged by the deadly 11 March quake and tsunami.

'Inappropriate measures'

"We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings," a Tepco official said on Saturday.

"We apologise for the lack of significant measures against wind and rain," the official added.

Tepco has been pouring anti-scattering agents - such as synthetic resins - around the damaged buildings of reactors one and four.

But some of the buildings still remain uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions soon after the quake and tsunami struck. (read more)

The high school You Tube star who was sucked through the sunroof of his car as he drove home from graduation has been confirmed dead.

Will Norton was driving home from his school graduation when the tornado struck. His father desperately tried to hold on to his son as the Hummer H3 started to flip, but his seatbelt snapped and he went hurtling through the roof of the vehicle.

This morning his aunt, Tracey Presslor, said that the family received confirmation of his death late Friday night. She declined to say more until a later news conference.

The confirmation of Mr Norton's death came as the toll from the savage storm reached 142 people - making this the deadliest year for tornadoes since 1950, based on an assessment of figures from the National Weather Service.

The total tornado death toll for 2011 is now 520. Until now, the highest recorded death toll in a single year was 519 in 1953.

There were deadlier storms before 1950, but those counts were based on estimates and not on precise figures.

Missouri says the number of people still unaccounted for since the Joplin tornado is now at 105. State Department of Public Safety deputy director Andrea Spillars said Saturday that within that number, nine people have been reported dead by their families.

She said that the temporary morgue has 142 human remains, but that includes partial remains.

'Some of those remains may be the same person,' she said, adding that officials are trying to use scientific means rather than relying on relatives giving visual identifications.

Identification of the deceased has been slow because officials have taken extra precautions since a woman misidentified one victim as her son in the chaotic hours after the tornado hit.

Authorities say their deliberate efforts on identifying the bodies are necessary to avoid more mishaps. Read More

China's lingering drought is continuing to affect the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Despite government measures the situation remains critical.

The five provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu have suffered the most under the limited rainfall. The Ministry of Civil Affairs says nearly 35 million people have been affected.

Among them, about 4 million are experiencing difficulty in obtaining drinking water. China has been discharging water from the Three Gorges Dam，the world's largest water conservation project, to alleviate the drought in the downstream provinces.

Regions along the Yangtze River are suffering the worst drought in half a century. The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has ordered the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, to increase its discharge of water from 10 to 20 percent. But the water supply for daily use, irrigation and water transportation in the region still can't meet the demand.

The Three Gorges Reservoir launched its first emergency discharge earlier this month to support the anti-drought efforts of areas along the lower reaches of the Three Gorges Dam.

Li Xuegui, Tech Dept. Director of Three Gorges Cascade Dspatch Center, said, "The water level in Yichan city of Hubei Province has increased by nearly 1.5 meters after the discharge. It's been effective. "

However, the Dam's crippling water supply is another problem. Regular discharges downstream from the Three Gorges Dam have emptied the reservoir of four-fifths of its dischargeable volume. The other one-fifth will be exhausted in less than two weeks.

The China Meteorological Observatory says the region along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will see sunny and hot weather in the coming days, prolonging the drought. The State Disaster Relief Commission on Thursday allocated an emergency fund of 55 million yuan to Hubei and Hunan, the two hardest hit provinces. Source