• South Shetland Islands and Antarctica viewed from ISS

    The inclined equatorial orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) limits astronauts to nadir views of Earth—looking straight down from the spacecraft—between approximately 52 degrees North latitude and 52 degrees South. However, when viewing conditions are

  • Wandan mud volcano erupted in Taiwan

    Wandan mud dome  erupted early Friday after nearly a year of inactivity is spilling mud flows of up to two meters high. The Wandan mud volcano, Pingtung County, erupted around 3 a.m. near a cemetery area, ejecting mud and releasing natural gases, according to the

  • Extreme weather events fatal for walnut trees

    Drier summers and extreme weather events considered possible as the climate changes would be especially troublesome – possibly fatal – for walnut trees, according to research at Purdue University. Researchers now suspect and predict that climate change is going to

  • Brutally cold air mass forming up north of Northern America

    The cold air will continue to expand toward the south and east Sunday night and Monday bringing some of the lowest temperatures so far from New Mexico and West Texas to the Great Lakes. The storm that brought snow to the Front Range of the Rockies and a section of the

  • 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit Cook Strait, New Zealand

    A 5.3-magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand 30 km (18 miles) east of Picton and 40km (24.8 miles) southwest of the capital city of Wellington (41.552°S, 174.617°E) at 7:19 p.m. local time Saturday (at 06:19:07 UTC) with epicenter at depth of 59.1 km (36.7

  • Massive sinkhole opens up in Sayre, Oklahoma

    A massive sinkhole appears overnight at Beckham County near Sayre, Oklahoma. KFOR reports that the sinkhole is about 40 feet deep and 40 feet wide. Sinkholes are not so uncommon in western Oklahoma. Geologists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey say several things could

  • Santa Ana winds damage

    Santa Ana winds whipped through Southern California Wednesday night with peak wind gusts of up to 167 mph (270 km per hour). Wind gusts stronger than 140 mph – which would be equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane – have been measured on the Sierra Crest mountain ridge,

  • Highest pressure in decades over the Northwest?

    UW’s Neal Johnson ran the numbers and found that the sea level pressure at Seattle-Tacoma Airport today was the highest since record keeping began there in 1948.  Last night at midnight Sea-Tac hit 1043.4 hPa, smashing the old record of 1043.0 hPa.According to