Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Shammu]

These are the last 30 days of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park.

[Shammu]

Hurricane season could match '05: UN
Thu Mar 2, 2006pm ET163

By Mica Rosenberg

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - This year's hurricane season could match the record breaking destruction caused by storms in 2005, the United Nations warned.

In 2005, an unprecedented 27 tropical storms, 15 of which became full-blown hurricanes, battered Central America and the U.S. Gulf coast, killing more than 3,000 people and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage.

"We have reason to fear that 2006 could be as bad as 2005," Jan Egeland, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs who coordinates U.N. emergency relief, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We have had a dramatic increase in climate related natural disasters and at the same time we have more vulnerable people, so it's a double effect," he said in Guatemala, where he is meeting Central American leaders to plan for future disasters.

"That's why we need to prepare in order to prevent the damage."

Hurricane Stan killed more than 2,000 people in Central America last October. Guatemala was hardest hit with mudslides burying villages and washing away roads.

Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans and much of the U.S. Gulf coast in late August, killing about 1,300 people.

Guatemala's losses from Stan were nearly $1 billion, equivalent to more than 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to a recent U.N. study.

The U.N. launched an international appeal for more than $30 million in hurricane relief here but has only managed to raise two-thirds of that amount so far.

Most is earmarked for reconstruction rather than prevention. Programs to reinforce buildings and train emergency workers are expensive but Egeland insisted that every dollar spent on prevention can save millions in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

"Haiti is the most vulnerable society in the region and Cuba is one of the best prepared, if not the best prepared for natural disasters," said Egeland. "The same hurricane which would take zero lives in Cuba would kill massively in Haiti."

Latin American and Caribbean nations are prone to floods, earthquakes and forest fires as well as hurricanes, the fallout from which is compounded by poverty and weak infrastructure.

Hurricane season could match '05: UN

[Soldier4Christ]

 Melting Antarctic raising sea levels
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 03 March 2006

More evidence has emerged indicating the Antarctic ice sheet is melting so fast it is contributing to a rise in global sea levels.

The first satellite study of the continent's ice inventory has revealed that Antarctica is releasing around 35 cubic miles of water into the sea each year.

This is equivalent to an increase in global sea level of about 0.4mm a year. This would account for between 20 and 50 per cent of the average rise seen each year for the past century.

The findings suggest that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in its 2001 assessment assumed that Antarctica was not contributing to sea level rise, will have to review its position.

"This is the first study to indicate the total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," said Isabella Velicogna of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"The overall balance of the Antarctic ice is dependent on regional changes in the interior and those in the coastal areas. The changes we are seeing are probably a good indicator of the changing climatic conditions there," she said.

The study, published in the journal Science, results from a new way of investigating Antarctica's ice sheet by measuring changes in the gravitational pull of the continent - which corresponds to the total mass of its ice sheet - on a pair of orbiting satellites.

Until now satellites have concentrated on making accurate measurements of changes to the height of the ice sheet, or by taking images of the surface area of the ice shelves and floating sea ice fringing the continent's coast.

Scientists involved in the latest gravity recovery and climate experiment (Grace) used two satellites, launched in 2002, to measure small perturbations in gravity and hence variations in the total mass of the ice sheet.

The satellites orbit the poles at a distance of 137 miles from one another. A change in gravity due to a change in thickness of the ice sheet below is detected by small changes in the distance between the satellites. Scientists said that they can detect changes in distance between the Grace satellites equivalent to one fiftieth of the diameter of a human hair.

More evidence has emerged indicating the Antarctic ice sheet is melting so fast it is contributing to a rise in global sea levels.

The first satellite study of the continent's ice inventory has revealed that Antarctica is releasing around 35 cubic miles of water into the sea each year.

This is equivalent to an increase in global sea level of about 0.4mm a year. This would account for between 20 and 50 per cent of the average rise seen each year for the past century.

The findings suggest that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in its 2001 assessment assumed that Antarctica was not contributing to sea level rise, will have to review its position.

"This is the first study to indicate the total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," said Isabella Velicogna of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"The overall balance of the Antarctic ice is dependent on regional changes in the interior and those in the coastal areas. The changes we are seeing are probably a good indicator of the changing climatic conditions there," she said.

The study, published in the journal Science, results from a new way of investigating Antarctica's ice sheet by measuring changes in the gravitational pull of the continent - which corresponds to the total mass of its ice sheet - on a pair of orbiting satellites.

Until now satellites have concentrated on making accurate measurements of changes to the height of the ice sheet, or by taking images of the surface area of the ice shelves and floating sea ice fringing the continent's coast.

Scientists involved in the latest gravity recovery and climate experiment (Grace) used two satellites, launched in 2002, to measure small perturbations in gravity and hence variations in the total mass of the ice sheet.

The satellites orbit the poles at a distance of 137 miles from one another. A change in gravity due to a change in thickness of the ice sheet below is detected by small changes in the distance between the satellites. Scientists said that they can detect changes in distance between the Grace satellites equivalent to one fiftieth of the diameter of a human hair.

[Shammu]

Scientists Say Sun's Next Cycle Stronger

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Mon Mar 6, 11:17 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - A new computer model suggests the next solar cycle will be more active than the previous one, potentially spawning magnetic storms that will be more disruptive to communication systems on Earth.

The next sunspot cycle will be between 30 percent to 50 percent more intense than the last one, scientists said Monday.

The cycle will also begin a year later than expected, in late 2007 or early 2008, and peak around 2012, said Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

The new prediction is at odds with previous forecasts, which suggested that the intensity of the next solar cycle would be measurably smaller.

Accurately predicting the intensity of the sunspot cycle, which occurs about every 11 years, allows scientists to anticipate solar storms. They are caused by solar flares, or giant eruptions that burst from the surface of the sun.

Solar storms, which eject billions of tons of plasma and charged particles into space, can produce dazzling northern lights, but also disrupt power lines, radio transmissions and satellite communication.

The last time the solar cycle peaked was in 2001. During the last cycle, solar storms caused extreme radio blackouts in the Pacific.

For decades, scientists have tracked the solar cycle and appearance of sunspots, but they have been unable to accurately predict the intensity or timing of solar storms, which increase as the number of sunspots increases.

Dikpati, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said her team tested the new computer model using previous solar cycle data and had 98 percent accuracy.

David Hathaway, a solar astronomer with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., does not doubt that the next sunspot cycle will be stronger than the previous one.

But Hathaway said his own research suggests that the next cycle will occur late this year — earlier than what Dikpati predicted.

The current research, funded by National Science Foundation, is published in the latest Geophysical Research Letters.

Scientists Say Sun's Next Cycle Stronger

[Shammu]

Naples Should Study Vesuvius Blast

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Bronze-age farmers escaping a massive volcanic eruption abandoned their homes in and around what is today the Italian city of Naples, leaving food and cooking implements on their tables as they fled.

Others were trapped and died where they had lived, their bodies a warning that the modern city needs to consider the threat from Mount Vesuvius in planning for the future, said Michael Sheridan, a geology professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

"Scenes of everyday life, frozen by the volcanic deposits, testify that people suddenly left," Sheridan and co-authors report in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In one area there were "the molds of four huts with pottery and other objects left inside; skeletons of a dog and nine pregnant goat victims found in a cage; and footprints of adults, children and cows filled in by the first fallout pumice."

The eruption occurred about 3,780 years ago — about the same era as Hammurabi was consolidating his hold on Babylon, the Shang Dynasty established control of northern China and the earliest ceremonial pyramids were built in South America. The remains have been under study in the last couple of years by Italian and other archaeologists.

The blast was much larger than the eruption of A.D. 79 that buried the towns near the mountain, producing the famed archaeological sites at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, Sheridan said in a telephone interview.

Sheridan said a future eruption should provide considerable warning from earthquakes in advance and urged that this danger be included in hazard planning for Naples. Current planning focuses on a smaller eruption from 1631 that only affected areas near the base of the mountain, he said.

But the new findings from the ancient quake show the hazard from ash, hot gases and other dangers could affect much of modern Naples, he said.

Indicating there must have been warnings of the ancient disaster, the researchers found thousands of footprints from a rapid evacuation of the area, including the present Neapolitan district.

Not everyone fled, though, as they found the skeleton of a man and woman buried more than a yard deep near the village of San Belsito, they added.

Why didn't everyone go?

"These were bronze age people and they had a pantheon of gods that they thought controlled their world," Sheridan said, so some probably made sacrifice to the gods when they felt warning quakes or saw vapors before the final blast.

Remains indicate that some of those who fled returned quickly and built new homes, they said, but those sites were abandoned a short time later and no new permanent settlements were established for more than 200 years, the researchers reported.

A similar eruption today would bring "extreme devastation extending into the densely urbanized Neapolitan area" that was untouched by the A.D. 79 event, they warned.

Naples Should Study Vesuvius Blast

[Soldier4Christ]

Home » National » Article
Refugee disease screening questioned

THE Premier, Morris Iemma, has accused the Federal Government of failing to adequately screen African refugees for diseases and of indirectly being responsible for gangs of young African men forming in Sydney.

The Premier made his accusations yesterday after it was revealed some refugees were spending up to 12 months in an African refugee camp after an initial health screening by the immigration department before travelling to Australia, leaving open the chance they could arrive with communicable diseases.

The independent upper house MP, David Oldfield, said if people were not worried about themselves, then they should "think about their children, or grandchildren".

"Who are they at school with?" Mr Oldfield said on Channel Seven news. "Who might bite them, who might spit on them?"

Mr Iemma said people were being put at risk of contracting tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, measles, intestinal parasites and clinical rickets.

He also blamed the lack of English language lessons and Medicare cards for African asylum seekers on bridging visas as partially responsible for causing crime problems.

Anne Duffield, a spokeswoman for the parliamentary secretary for immigration, Andrew Robb, accused Mr Iemma of attempting to "demonise" African refugees. She said 50 per cent of African refugees had a second screening and this would soon rise to 100 per cent.

Ms Duffield, a former chief of staff to the former immigration minister Philip Ruddock said: "I don't know why [Mr Iemma] wants to run with this. It seems incredibly divisive at a time these people need lots of support. They don't need to be demonised."

[Soldier4Christ]

Flesh-eating germ kills woman in three days
North Carolina nursing assistant cut her finger on a wheelchair


DUNN, N.C. - North Carolina health officials are investigating the death of a woman who died last week of a flesh-eating bacteria three days after accidentally jamming her hand in a wheelchair while working at a nursing home.

Nursing assistant Sharron Bishop, 44, died Feb. 27. A doctor said a rare flesh-eating bacteria may have entered her body through a thumb injury and she turned from healthy to fatally ill.

The culprit was a rare invasive form of group A streptococcal bacteria, said Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services. The noninvasive form is widespread and is commonly known for causing strep throat, she said.

"It's kind of like getting bitten by a shark or struck by lightning," she said. "It's not something that spreads to the community."

North Carolina gets about 125 reports of the invasive form of strep annually, and about 10 percent are fatal, she said.

David Bishop said doctors at UNC Hospitals, where Sharron Bishop died, have told him it's impossible to know how his wife contracted the rare infection.

"The UNC doctors said she could have picked it up at the gas station, at the grocery store, anywhere," he said. "We will never know."

Sharon Bishop complained on Feb. 24 about a swollen thumb. She had jammed it at work and worried that she had dislocated it. David Bishop took her to Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital, where doctors gave her pain medication and sent her home.

The swelling got worse. By the morning of Feb. 27, her arm was twice as large as normal and looked like it would burst, David Bishop said. Fluid leaked from her elbow and wrist. She complained of terrific pain.

Dunn physician Abraham Oudeh diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis, an infection that destroys tissue.

Doctors at UNC Hospitals that evening tried to stop the spreading infection by amputating her arm at the clavicle and removing all the muscle and tissue around her left breast, torso and thigh in a futile effort to save her life.

Harnett County Health Director John Rouse Jr. said Bishop's was one of two confirmed cases of the bacteria that his office investigated in recent days after being notified by state health authorities. He said he believed the other woman, whom he also did not identify, knew Bishop.

Rouse said it would be impossible to determine whether they passed the bacteria to each other. Rouse said the other woman is recovering.

[Shammu]

The sun is going away, but don't panic...

Fri Mar 10, 9:36 AM ET

ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian government, anxious to avoid a repeat of riots that marked a solar eclipse in 2001, warned citizens they may suffer "psychological discomfort" during a new eclipse this month but urged them not to panic.

Information Minister Frank Nweke said an eclipse five years ago caused riots in northern Borno state because people did not know why it happened.

"Some people even felt some evil people in their communities were responsible for the eclipse," he said in a statement on Thursday aimed at reassuring Nigerians that the eclipse is expected to darken parts of the country on March 29.

"The eclipse is not expected to have any real damaging effect, only social and psychological discomforts are envisaged," Nweke said.

He did not explain what the discomforts might be.

The sun is going away, but don't panic...

 

My note; Durning the start of the millennium rule of Christ, we won't need light. The light will be supplied by Christ himself.

[Shammu]

Rain in Phoenix Ends Record Dry Spell at 143 Days

Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
LiveScience.com Sat Mar 11, 10:00 AM ET

PHOENIX—A good old-fashion downpour in the predawn here today ended a record string of 143 days without rain.

The previous record was 101 days, set in January 2000.

NOAA reported light rain around dawn and a 0.26-inch accumulation at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, the official recording station.

Elsewhere around the sprawling, water-starved but surprisingly green city, where residents have been rooting for precipitation from storms that didn't deliver in recent weeks, heavy downpours occurred.

Here in a far northern suburb of the city a mix of light and heavy rain has fallen for more than two hours. Up to three-quarters of an inch was forecast for the day with possible heavy thunderstorms.

While Phoenix is in the middle of a desert, the average annual rainfall is 7.56 inches. About half of it falls in winter and the rest comes with the summer-fall monsoon.

The last measurable rain fell on Oct. 18, nearly five months ago.

April and May are typically dry, so rainfall now is important to reduce fire risk. Last year dry conditions fueled the Cave Creek Complex Fire, which burned 248,000 acres of brush, mesquite trees and saguaro cacti.

More rain is in the forecast for next week. But dry conditions could return over the long run, climate experts say. The Pacific Ocean cool-water condition known as La Nina has taken hold, according to NOAA, and that tends to thwart rain in the Southwest.

In 1899, Yuma, Arizona recorded 179 straight days without rain.

Arizona is far from being the driest place on Earth. That title goes to Arica, in Chile, which gets just 0.03 inches of rain per year. At that rate, it would take a century to fill a coffee cup. The wettest place? Lloro, Colombia averages 523.6 inches of rainfall a year, or more than 40 feet.

Rain in Phoenix Ends Record Dry Spell at 143 Days

My note; YEAH!! Praise God for the rain, least this will help reduce our fire danger. Also I checked a little while ago, I have 29 inches of snow, in the middle of the driveway.

[Shammu]

 Possible U.S. case of mad cow being investigated

Saturday, March 11, 2006; Posted: 10:15 p.m. EST (03:15 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Agriculture Department is investigating a possible case of mad cow disease, the agency's chief veterinarian said Saturday.

A routine test indicated the possible presence of mad cow disease, said John Clifford, the USDA official. The agency would not say where the animal was from.

The cow did not enter the human or animal food chain, Clifford said.

The department is conducting more detailed tests at its laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and should have results in four to seven days.

"This inconclusive result does not mean we have found a new case of BSE," Clifford said, giving the abbreviation for the disease's formal name, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests, which are designed to be extremely sensitive," he added in a statement.

In humans, eating meat products contaminated with mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 deaths worldwide from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and fatal nerve disease.

A majority of the deaths were in Britain, where there was an outbreak of mad cow disease that started in the mid-1980s. There was one case confirmed in the U.S., although the federal Centers for Disease Control believes the person got the disease while in the United Kingdom.

No one is known to have contracted the disease inside the United States.

U.S. government investigators have found two cases of mad cow disease. The first was in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. The second was last June in a cow that was born and raised in Texas.

In response to the first case, the Agriculture Department increased its level of testing for the disease. As of Friday, 644,603 of the nation's estimated 95 million head of cattle had been tested.

The United States has had three cases in which "inconclusive" results turned out to be negative. Two of those times were in 2004 and the third was in 2005.

Tests are done on dead animals; there is no test for the disease in a live cow. The department primarily tests animals that can't walk, have signs of nervous system disorder, are emaciated or injured or that have died. These animals are considered to be at greatest risk of having the disease.

The 2003 case of mad cow disease prompted a ban on American beef by Japan, once the biggest customer of U.S. beef, and many other countries.

Japan finally reopened its market in December but halted U.S. beef shipments in January after finding veal cuts with backbone, which is eaten in the U.S. but considered at risk for mad cow disease in Asian countries.

Clifford said the U.S. has "a system of interlocking safeguards" against mad cow disease that protects people and health. The U.S. has a ban on adding remains of dead cattle to feed for live cattle, because eating contaminated feed is how the disease is believed to spread.

The government also requires the removal of tissues known to carry the disease, such as brains and spinal cords, when animals are slaughtered.

"We remain very confident in the safety of U.S. beef," Clifford said.

Possible U.S. case of mad cow being investigated

[Shammu]

Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest, Killing Two

By JIM SALTER, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago

ST. MARY, Mo. - Powerful tornadoes ripped across southern Missouri and southern Illinois during the night, destroying homes along a path of more than 20 miles and killing two people, officials said Sunday.

Several other people were injured as the storm system pounded the central Mississippi Valley with hailstones as big as softballs, high wind and torrential rain.

It was not immediately clear how many tornadoes struck the area straddling the Mississippi River from Missouri into Illinois. The twisters were part of a long line of stormy weather that stretched from the southern Plains up the Ohio Valley.

The worst damage was along a rural stretch of Highway 61 near St. Mary in Perry County, about 80 miles south of St. Louis, emergency management director Jack Lakenan said.

A twister caught a pickup truck on the highway and hurled it beneath a roadside propane tank, killing both people in the vehicle, Lakenan said. The wreckage of the pickup was wedged beneath the tank.

Also near St. Mary, mobile homes were tossed and a brick ranch house was split in half. Several people were injured and two were taken to a hospital in St. Louis.

"Best we can figure, five or six homes were destroyed and another five or six were badly damaged," Lakenan said.

Across the Mississippi River in Illinois, a tornado damaged several homes and businesses in the small town of Fults, and injured one person, said meteorologist Ron Przybylinski.

One person was injured by flying glass in Bremen, Ill., authorities said.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said the tornado near St. Mary had wind of 113 mph to 206 mph. Softball-sized hail caused more damage and heavy rain prompted flash flood warnings in southern Missouri. The heaviest rainfall was 3 to 4 inches about 100 miles east of St. Louis in Illinois, said Jon Carney of the National Weather Service.

In Missouri's Jefferson County, just south of St. Louis, high wind struck a new subdivision, destroying seven homes. Five people were hurt, but the extent of their injuries was unclear, the National Weather Service said.

High wind tore the roof off a McDonald's restaurant in the tourist town of Branson.

A severe thunderstorm also hit eastern Kansas on Sunday morning, knocking out power lines and blowing out windows. The agency sounded tornado sirens as the storm ripped through Douglas County, but no twisters had been confirmed.

Elsewhere, storms scattered across the West gave Arizona a break from a prolonged dry spell, with Phoenix getting an inch of rain Saturday after a record 143 days without a drop. More than a foot of snow fell at higher elevations in northern and eastern Arizona.

Snow and sleet in the San Francisco area Saturday caused a 28-vehicle pile just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in which two people were killed.

As much as 1 1/2 feet of snow fell during the weekend in the mountains of California's eastern San Diego County, and one illegal immigrant died Saturday after getting caught in the freezing weather.

Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest, Killing Two

[Shammu]

Snow, freezing temperature strike Scotland, north of England

2 hours, 9 minutes ago

LONDON (AFP) - Heavy snow and freezing temperatures brought large swathes of Britain to a standstill, with Scotland bearing the brunt of the wintry weather.

More than 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow fell on Glasgow, leaving an estimated 3,000 night-clubbers to seek refuge in discotheques, hotels and even a bus station that remained open to provide shelter.

There was also heavy snow in the north of England, with Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle among the cities affected, as temperatures hovered around the freezing point.

Both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were closed Sunday morning, with several incoming flights diverted -- including two transatlantic flights that were sent to Northern Ireland's Belfast, airport officials said.

Many roads throughout Scotland were either completely blocked or only passable with care. One route affected was the M74 motorway, the main link between England and Scotland.

Liz Anetts, a weather forecaster for Britain's domestic Press Association news agency, said Scotland had been hit by more snow than expected.

"The problem is caused by a weather front coming in (off the North Atlantic Ocean) from the west and cold air coming in from east at the same time," she said Sunday. "They collided and turned what would otherwise have been rain into snow."

"It was expected, although we didn't expect as much snow as this... We're expecting it to die away this afternoon, with possibly only a few more centimetres falling this afternoon."

Snow, freezing temperature strike Scotland, north of England

[Soldier4Christ]

Snow falls in the Valley, or was it just a hail of white stuff?
Look, up in the sky, it's snow, hail ... it's 'bouncing snow'
By Charles F. Bostwick, Staff Writer

TUJUNGA - Snowmen, snowballs and sleds came out Saturday as a frigid storm from the Gulf of Alaska turned streets and lawns white - sort of like Michigan with palm trees, for a little while.

The cold white stuff that fell on Tujunga, Sunland and the Verdugo Hills probably was hail, but it was good enough as snow for inhabitants of a region that hasn't seen real snow since 1989.

"The kids went out and scooped it off cars and threw it at each other," said Katie Morin, a clerk at the Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library. Tiny snowmen sprouted on lawns and on cartops. Snowboarders and sledders came out on icy streets. Townsfolk welcomed the sight.

"They're very happy," said Vrouj Zargarian, owner of Tujunga Food Market owner on Foothill Boulevard. "All the ground is white, like Siberia, like Canada."

As to what the white stuff was, Morin said: 'You could kind of call it snow - more like slush than real snow."

A National Weather Service spokesman said the agency had received no reports Saturday of lowland snow - just hail.

"There was a lot of hail reports," Weather Service spokesman Bill Hoffer said.

On the Foothill Freeway at Roxford Street about 1 p.m., the California Highway Patrol got a report of "bouncing snow."

In La Crescenta, the stuff was described as mostly hail, from about BB size to marble size. Rain washed it away in about an hour.

In the Verdugo Hills, recreation supervisor Alex Nash said the stuff that came out of the sky for five or 10 minutes at the Glendale Sports Complex seemed to be snow. It melted as it touched the ground.

"At first it looked like hail, but I thought, hail isn't supposed to be floating," Nash said.

 In February 1989, there was no doubt the Valley was hit by a

snow storm. Up to 4 inches of snow fell in Northridge and Woodland Hills, schools closed, freeways closed, and people skied at Porter Ridge Park.

The 1989 storm was the first measurable snow in the Valley since 1962, though there had been occasional flurries and sleet. In January 1949, a three-day storm left more than a foot of snow in some Valley areas.

There was no doubt Saturday about heavy snow in Southern California's mountains.

Interstate 5 closed to traffic just before 7 p.m. Saturday between Castaic and Lebec because of ice and snow. CHP officers expected the closure to last several hours.

Mount Wilson at 5,700 foot elevation got 6 to 8 inches by midafternoon, the Weather Service said. Wrightwood at 6,000 feet got 10 inches. Frazier Park off Interstate 5 got 3 inches.

At the Mountain High ski resort above Wrightwood, 10 to 14 inches fell Friday and another five by midafternoon Saturday. The snowfall led resort operators to open runs today on the separate Mountain High East ski area.

"This is our biggest storm this season," Mountain High spokesman John McColly said.

Today the Weather Service forecast scattered showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms in the Valley, with nighttime temperatures in the 30s or low 40s. The chance of showers is expected to decrease to 20 percent tonight, then rise to 40 percent on Tuesday.

[Shammu]

4 Dead in 9-Car Crash Amid Texas Wildfires

7 minutes ago

GROOM, Texas - Four people died Sunday in a multi-vehicle crash as smoke from raging wildfires reduced visibility, the Texas Forest Service said. Six people were injured.

The blaze spread across at least 300,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of eight towns, said Warren Bielenberg, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.

The crash involved nine vehicles on Interstate 40.

Bielenberg said it likely "one of the biggest fire days in Texas history."

4 Dead in 9-Car Crash Amid Texas Wildfires

[Shammu]

3 Killed As Storms Rip Across Midwest

By DAVID LIEB, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 24 minutes ago

SEDALIA, Mo. - Severe storms across the Midwest packed winds that knocked over airplanes, ripped roofs off homes and spawned tornadoes that killed three people.

A twister, which roared up to one-half mile wide, killed a woman seeking shelter in her mobile home and displaced about 150 residents in western Missouri on Sunday night, officials said.

Six people were injured and two were missing after the tornado cut a path more than 16 miles wide through the town of Sedalia, said Rusty Kahrs, Pettis County presiding commissioner.

Bobby Ritcheson, 23, said he watched his neighbor die when her mobile home collapsed on her south of Sedalia.

"She went in there," Ritcheson said of the victim, and "the trailer came down right on top of her."

Sheriff Kevin Bond described the damage he saw as "large amounts of power lines down, many buildings that are simply no longer there, and a tremendous amount of debris."

Storms rolled through northeastern Kansas earlier in the day with fierce winds that lifted a cargo container off the airfield at the Kansas City International Airport, authorities said. At the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, some private airplanes tied down on the airfield were "spun around," spokesman Joe McBride said.

The University of Kansas in Lawrence canceled classes Monday after 60 percent of its buildings were damaged by the storm, school officials said. The roof of the nondenominational Danforth Chapel, which has been the site for thousands of weddings on campus, was torn off almost completely.

James Patterson, 23, was asleep in his upstairs Lawrence apartment when a sudden drop in pressure woke him about 8 a.m.

"It felt like I was in the tornado, if that's what it was," he said.

The storms followed powerful tornadoes that ripped across southern Missouri and southern Illinois Saturday night, destroying homes along a path of more than 20 miles and killing a married couple whose pickup truck was blown off a rural road about 80 miles south of St. Louis, officials said.

During the night, several people were injured as the storm system pounded the central Mississippi Valley with hailstones as big as softballs, high wind and torrential rain.

It was not immediately clear how many tornadoes struck the area. The twisters were part of a long line of stormy weather that stretched from the southern Plains up the Ohio Valley.

3 Killed As Storms Rip Across Midwest