Where California’s towering Sierra Nevada surrender to the sprawling San Joaquin Valley, a high-stakes detective story is unfolding. The culprit isn’t a person but a process: the mysterious journey of snowmelt as it travels underground to replenish depleted groundwater reserves. The investigator is a NASA jet equipped with radar technology so sensitive it can detect … Read more
Venice Reuters — Weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns that Italy could face another drought after last summer’s emergency, with the Alps having received less than half of their normal snowfall, according to scientists and environmental groups. The warning comes as Venice, where flooding is normally the primary concern, faces unusually low tides … Read more
CNN — Lake Powell, the second-largest human-made reservoir in the US, has lost nearly 7% of its potential storage capacity since 1963, when Glen Canyon Dam was built, a new report shows. In addition to water loss due to an intense multiyear drought, the US Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation report found, Lake … Read more
Story highlights Africa will launch its first private satellite into space It’s been built by schoolgirls CNN — They may be teenagers, but 17-year-old Brittany Bull and 16-year-old Sesam Mngqengqiswa have grand ambitions – to launch Africa’s first private satellite into space in 2019. They are part of a team of high school girls from … Read more
PUNE: The statistical models used by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had failed to predict all the three droughts in India in the last decade. Though statistical models will still be used for monsoon forecast, the ministry of earth sciences is putting more emphasis on dynamic models. M Rajeevan of National Atmospheric Research Laboratory said, … Read more