Western Water Supplies Already Altered by Global Warming

When it rains, it sometimes still pours out West. But it's not enough.

Changes in the western U.S. water supply, such as a declining snowpack and rivers running dry in the summer, can mostly be attributed to human-caused climate change, a new study finds. These changes will require a new approach to water management in the West in the future, scientists say.

Uganda's lucrative coffee threatened by climate change

NSANGI, Uganda (AFP) - The temperature is rising a little too quickly in Uganda -- and coffee farmers are getting worried. Growers say that global warming is damaging production of coffee, Uganda's biggest export.

Hottest year on record for Shanghai in 2007: official media

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Shanghai may have endured one of its coldest months ever in January but 2007 was the eastern Chinese city's hottest year on record, state press reported on Friday.

'Greatest ever' downpour floods Tonga: officials

NUKU'ALOFA (AFP) - A freak storm -- that dumped more than a month's average rainfall in less than 24 hours -- has swamped the Pacific island nation of Tonga, forcing evacuations, officials said Saturday.

Kashmir avalanches kill 22: police

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Avalanches triggered by the worst snowfall in years killed 22 people and left 15 missing in Indian Kashmir, police said on Saturday, as hundreds of stranded people were evacuated.

Cold snap kills 760 in Afghanistan: authority

KABUL (AFP) - More than 750 people have died in the harshest winter to have hit Afghanistan in decades, the disaster authority said Saturday.

More than 500 homes, mostly traditional mud brick houses, have been destroyed and tens of thousands damaged by the heaviest snowfalls in 30 years, said Ahmad Shkeb Hamraz, an official at the National Disaster Management Authority.

Beijing says snow storms destroy one tenth of China's forests

BEIJING (AFP) - China has lost about one tenth of its forest resources to recent snow storms regarded as the most severe in half a century, state media reported Sunday

La Nina, warmth mix for tornadoes

WASHINGTON - All the right ingredients combined for Tuesday's killer tornadoes, especially warm moist air and a shifting weather pattern courtesy of the La Nina phenomenon. Just one thing was off: The calendar.

The Feb. 5 killer tornadoes — at least the 15th deadliest U.S. outbreak on record — had all the earmarks of a batch of twisters usually seen in March, said several meteorologists.