By: Sean Breslin, 01/27/2014

AP Photo/Amanda Lee Myers

It's the last thing Midwesterners wanted to hear – another strong blast of Arctic air will bring brutal temperatures to a region slammed by endless cold weather over the last couple of months. "We had two (employees) call in because they couldn't come to work because of the school closings and another called in sick," said Kristelle Brister, the manager of a downtown Chicago Starbucks who had to bring her 9-year-old son into the store because his school was closed. "It's hard." Frigid temperatures are expected to hold into Tuesday. If Chicago makes it to 60 hours below zero, it will be the longest stretch since 1983 — when it was below zero for 98 hours — and the third longest in 80 years.

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By: Theextinctionprotocol, 01/25/2014

January 25, 2014 – MISSOURI — The New Madrid fault zone in the nation’s midsection is active and could spawn future large earthquakes, scientists reported Thursday. It’s “not dead yet,” said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough, who was part of the study published online by the journal Science. Researchers have long debated just how much of a hazard New Madrid (MAD’-rihd) poses. The zone stretches 150 miles, crossing parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. In 1811 and 1812, it unleashed a trio of powerful jolts — measuring magnitudes 7.5 to 7.7 — that rattled the central Mississippi River valley.

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By: Elizabeth Renter, 01/18/2014

Image from ecns.cn.

China has struggled to keep genetically modified foods out of their country, rejecting and even incinerating US shipments of corn by the boatload this year. But some of the seeds may have made their way in regardless, and it’s these US-made seeds that are being blamed for crop failure in the large eastern country.

Police in the Hunan province have busted a seed smuggling case that may have contributed to the failure of 200 acres of corn in Tongdao last year. Called “US golden corn” by local officials, the seeds originate from giants like Monsanto and Syngenta.

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By: Chris Dolce, 01/16/2014

Fast-moving Alberta clippers will continue to bring snow, gusty winds and cold air to parts of the Midwest, Great Lakes and the East into the weekend. On Tuesday, the first in this parade of clipper systems brought significant accumulating snow to parts of the Upper Midwest. We saw a few amounts in excess of 10 inches in central Wisconsin, with 11 inches reported at Oconto, Wis. Lighter amounts fell over parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota. Into this weekend, we are tracking a few more of these Alberta clippers, including one that is producing blizzard conditions.

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By: Associated Press, 12/23/2013

Saturday's severe weather outbreak, which swept across the central and southern U.S., brought tornadoes and wind gusts that ripped roofs from barns and hurled trees into power lines, officials said. The storm system was blamed for the deaths of at least nine people. "There were clearly not as many tornadoes as feared Saturday; The final number will likely settle out between 5 and 10," said weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. "Yet two of them caused deaths. And wind damage was widespread; Preliminarily, it was the 11th-most active severe weather day of 2013. Considering it was the winter solstice – with the lowest amount of solar energy reaching the U.S. of any day on the calendar – that's just astounding." The storms lessened on Sunday, but the occasional severe thunderstorm popped up and parts of the Ohio Valley and Southeast received persistent, flooding rainfall.

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