Dry autumns and winters may lead to fewer tornadoes in the spring

August 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found that young muskoxen conserve heat almost as well as adults, a finding that runs contrary to a longstanding assumption among scientists that young animals should be more vulnerable in extreme cold. Biologist Adam Munn from the University of Sydney, Australia, carried out the study.

July 22nd, 2009 EPA wants better monitoring of airborne leadWASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency wants better information on how much lead is in the air of large cities and industrial areas. The EPA proposed Wednesday an expansion of its monitoring for airborne lead levels in communities where harmful amounts of lead are most likely to be found in the air.

July 14th, 2009 LONDON - The discovery of three fossil burrows in south-eastern Australia has suggested that small dinosaurs living in polar areas survived the lean months when little food was available by burrowing during the winter. According to a report in New Scientist, fossils from "Dinosaur Cove" in Victoria show that small plant-eating dinosaurs called hypsilophodontids were common in the area about 110 million years ago, a time when the region was within the Antarctic Circle.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - In a new study, scientists have said that as global warming removes the Arctic's icy lid, the region is expected to teem with life by the year 2030. According to a report in New Scientist, the study of what the Arctic looked like just before dinosaurs were wiped off the planet has provided a glimpse of what could be to come within decades.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has provided evidence for climate change as the cause of the mysterious decrease in the size of wild sheep on the Scottish island of Hirta. According to the researchers, due to climate change, survival conditions on Hirta are becoming less challenging, which means slower-growing, smaller sheep are more likely to survive the winters than they once were.

July 2nd, 2009 White House garden tests positive for leadWASHINGTON — The White House says its high-profile garden on the South Lawn has tested positive for lead although it is not at dangerous levels. White House spokeswoman Katie McCormick-Lelyveld said Thursday that tests on the soil in the White House garden detected lead levels of 93 parts per million.

July 2nd, 2009 Baaad news? Global warming now shrinking sheepWASHINGTON — Like the wool sweater that emerges from the dryer a size too small, global warming seems to be shrinking sheep. On average, wild Soay sheep on Scotland's island Hirta are 5 percent smaller today than they were in 1985, according to a team of researchers led by Tim Coulson of Imperial College London.

June 17th, 2009 Report: Drier South, warmer North, and more bugsWASHINGTON — The new climate change science report by the federal government looks at effects of global warming on specific U.S. regions and forecasts what's to come: NORTHEAST Already: Winter temperatures have increased by 4 degrees since 1970.

June 17th, 2009 Spring dry spell approaching record in SeattleSEATTLE — A near-record spring dry spell in Seattle is boosting the threat of wildfires in western Washington state. Tuesday was the 28th day without measurable rainfall at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Mockingbirds tend to sing fancier tunes with changing climate, say researchers. The research team from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre (NESCent), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and McGill University showed that species in more variable climes also sing complex tunes.

May 9th, 2009 President approves disaster aid for Ala. countiesWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster for Alabama counties affected by severe storms, flooding, tornadoes and straight-line winds in mid-April.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New observations by a suite of five NASA space probes has reportedly solved the mystery of the Northern Lights, attributing the cause of the natural phenomenon to powerful currents generated by giant electrical tornadoes in outer space. The probe cluster, called Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS), indicate that these "space tornadoes" span a volume as large as Earth and produce electrical currents exceeding 100,000 amperes.

April 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A wave of violent spring weather across the US left at least eight people dead and dozens more injured, after severe storms spawned tornadoes in the south and wildfires burned in the southcentral states of Oklahoma and Texas. A mother and her infant daughter were killed when a tornado touched down in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Friday afternoon, the Daily News Journal reported.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - For every gram of salt that Americans reduce in their daily diets, over 200,000 deaths and quarter million new heart disease cases could be averted over a decade, according to a new study. 'A very modest decrease in the amount of salt - hardly detectable in the taste of food - can have dramatic health benefits for the US,' said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology, University of California, San Francisco (UC-SF).

March 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A man, understood to be the pastor of the First Baptist Church in the US town of Maryville, Illinois, was shot dead Sunday by an assailant, local media reports said. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the assailant walked into the Sunday service at the church and shot the Reverend Fred Winters, who died shortly afterwards at hospital.