They called it the “Goddess of the Yangtze” – a creature so rare that it was believed to bring fortune and protection to local fishermen and all those lucky enough to spot it.
But overfishing andhuman activitydrove it to the brink of extinction and it hasn’t been seen in decades.
“The baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, was this unique and beautiful creature – there was nothing quite like it,” said Samuel Turvey, a British zoologist and conservationist who spent more than two decades in China trying to track the animal down.
“It was around for tens of millions of years and was in its own mammal family. There are other river dolphins in the world but…
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has declared a state of disaster Saturday as a powerful storm threatens huge swaths of the state’s western coastline.
Towns are facing strong winds and flooding, and bracing for possible power outages caused bya stormforecasters are calling one of the worst in the state’s recent history.
The storm systems continued to “produce a potentially historic and long-duration storm surge, and damaging high winds across southwestern and western Alaska,” the National Weather Service said Saturday.
The remnants of Typhoon Merbok are expected to bring moderate to heavy rainfall to the region until Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, a “very angry sea” brought storm surge into the community of Port of Nome, the Weather Service station…
An unseasonably wet storm will bring rain relief to California this weekend.CNN WeatherCNN —
A wet weekend in central and northern California has helped firefighters better contain the Mosquito Fire, the state’s largest fire of the year.
The Mosquito Fire, which has burned nearly 75,000 acres, is now 34% contained, a significant jump from the 20% containment on Friday, according to a Sunday morning update on InciWeb.
The update said that fire behavior overnight was “minimal” because all areas of the fire received precipitation.
“Rain is expected to be light and sporadic Sunday morning, but by the afternoon and evening, rain showers will be heavy and widespread. By Monday morning, most of the fire could have received more than an inch of rain,” the update said.
“Rain changes the firefighting strategy to some degree but does not change the priority of improving conditions in evacuated areas such that residents can be allowed to return.”
The storm system represents an early and substantial rain event that experts believe could help slow the ongoing fire season – at least temporarily.While rain and cooler temperatures this weekend may help with immediate fire containment in the short-term, the long-term drought persists across the state.
“Fuels are still critically dry, near record levels, and a period of warmer, drier weather will likely follow the rain,” the National Weather Service sin Sacramento tweeted. “But the good news is that any rain will help ongoing or new fires!”
Nearly the entire state of California remains under drought conditions and dry conditions are likely to continue to fuel the development of new fires later this month and into October.
Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
An aerial view of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona, on April 20. The Department of the Interior said on August 16 it is prepared to take action to limit the water releases from Lake Powell to prevent it from plunging below 3,525 feet above sea level by the end of 2023. Below that level, the Glen Canyon Dam, which forms the reservoir, cannot produce hydropower.
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The Mosquito Fire has become the largest fire in California this year since igniting more than a week ago in the forest between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The heaviest rainfall from the system is likely to occur Sunday through Monday, when widespread rainfall totals of 0.3 inches along the coasts to 3 inches up in the mountains are possible.
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To put the unseasonably high rainfall totals in perspective, San Francisco and Sacramento average less than a tenth of an inch of rain for the month of September.
San Francisco last saw rain on August 1, but it was a measly one hundredth of an inch. It has been a dry year for The Golden City with only 1.9 inches of rain recorded since January 1, putting the city nearly 11 inches below normal rainfall so far this year.
The last time Sacramento saw measurable rain was more than three months ago on June 5. They have only seen 2.17 inches of rain this year, which is about 10 inches below normal to date.
September is also the third-driest month of the year for these cities, behind August and July, which lines up with the peak of northern and central California’s fire season of September-October.
A Level 1 of 4 risk for excessive rainfall has been issued for Sunday, across coastal portions of northern and central California, as rainfall rates of a half inch per hour are possible, which could lead to flooding.
“Though much of the rainfall may be beneficial, some isolated runoff issues may occur in urban areas and/or in areas of steep terrain,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
The low-pressure system is likely to linger off the West Coast through early next week, keeping rain chances in the forecast through at least Tuesday.
Rain will not be the only benefit from this storm. Temperatures will also plummet to well below normal through the weekend with highs only in the 60s and 70s for much of central and northern California.
Temperatures may actually be cold enough in the Sierras at elevations above 8,000 feet, for some light snowfall to accumulate Sunday into Monday night.
CNN Weather
The NWS office in San Francisco said the weekend temperatures are “definitely a welcoming site given the record-breaking heat much of the area experienced just last week.”
The unseasonable weather pattern is a welcome relief, but it is not expected to last long.
“Warmer and drier weather is then forecast for the area during the latter portion of next week as most [weather models] show high pressure over the Northeast Pacific trying to develop,” the NWS office in Eureka said.
The Climate Prediction Center 8- to 14-day outlook also shows indications of warmer and drier weather returning the last week of September into October.
CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.
If La Niña conditions develop in the Pacific for the third year in a row,as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts, cool ocean temperatures along the equator will once again crank up Earth’s air conditioner. And once again, climate change will overpower it and deliver yet another hot year.
Years ago, that forecast might have been more of a toss-up. It’s still possible — but less likely — that global temperatures dip a little before La Niña conditions switch back to normal. The cycle between La Niña, neutral (or normal), and El Niño conditions — where warm water dominates the equatorial Pacific — has historically…
The stream function at an altitude of 850 mb. Credit: Woosok Moon, Baek-Min Kim, Gun-Hwan Yang, and John Wettlaufer.
A quartet of researchers, two with the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics and two with Pukyong National University, has created a group of simulations of changes to the jet stream under global warming. In their paper published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes using math theory to describe wind motion under given circumstances to create their simulations.
Over the past several years, the jet stream has become wavier than it used to be. Both peaks and valleys have become more extreme. This has led to changes inweather patterns—some places have grown wetter and some drier, and there have also been more extended hot and cold spells around the globe. In this new effort, the researchers suspected that…
Cheetah Conservation Fund founder and executive director, Laurie Marker, and staff prepare the cheetahs for their journey in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, on September 12. Photo credit: Carolina Torres/Cheetah Conservation FundCheetah Conservation FundCNN—
After going extinct in India over 70 years ago, cheetahs are finally making a comeback in the country with a new reintroduction program.
Eight cheetahs from Namibia arrived in India on Saturday, according toa tweet from the Cheetah Conservation Fund(CCF). The big cats were released into India’s Kuno National Park in the state of Madya Pradesh.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was there to welcome the cheetahs to their new home. “A long wait is over,” Modiwrote on Twitteralongside pictures of the cats in their new environment.
Georgia DNR Law Enforcement Offices seized a black bear they say was illegally killed in White County. They charged the hunter with killing the bear over bait. (GA DNR Law Enforcement Division /Facebook)
A hunter accused of illegally killing a bear in White County faces a stiff fine and possible jail time.
Acting on a tip, Georgia Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officers investigated the incident over the weekend. They inspected the kill site and determined John Wesley Dowdy lured the bear with bait.
State laws forbid the use of bait to lure bears to a specific location “which gives or might give a hunter an unnatural advantage when hunting bear,” according toGeorgia State Code.
The spread of the virus is demonstrated both the risks posed to wildlife and provides a new opportunity for the virus to mutate and adapt, experts said.
In a first, a case of H5N1 avian influenza virus, more commonly known as bird flu, has been detected in a bottlenose dolphin in Florida and a porpoise in Sweden. This version of the virus has affected an unusually broad array of species across the world. However, these are the first ever documented cases of avian influenza in cetaceans, a group of marine mammals that includes dolphins, porpoises, and whales.
Americans are paying more than ever for turkey as a contagious virus leads to the destruction ofmillions of birds.
The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus is helping drive the price of turkey — specifically white boneless breast meat — to record highs, even as the hottest inflation in 40 years hascooled some in recent months. That may make the Thanksgiving meal even pricier this year.
“We’ve seen record prices for turkeys in recent days, and the spotlight is on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and its effect on the market,” American Farm Bureau economist Bernt Nelson told CBS MoneyWatch.
Seven years after the last U.S. outbreak, HPAI has been hitting U.S. commercial poultry flocks all year, with the latest wave particularly disruptive to turkey suppliers.
British bases police netted a poacher for illegal bird trapping in the Pyla range of Xylophagou and he is now due to appear in court on September 19.
The Greek Cypriot was arrested on September 4 after the bases’ specialised unit – the community action team – spotted him retrieving ambelopoulia (black caps) from mists nets, which he allegedly set up.
Police officers scoured the area and further uncovered a bird imitating device, two iron poles, and nine recently killed black caps, among other items.
Pertev Karagozlou, acting superintendent who oversees the CAT, said this was an early warning to would-be trappers.
Speaking this week, he explained that: “The SBA police in Dhekelia has deployed the CAT for many years now [to] tackle any illegal activities related to hunting, especially bird trapping.
Exposing the Big Game 