By: AP, 12/27/2013

READING, Pa. (AP) — Highways in eastern Pennsylvania have been reopened after being shut down for hours because of chain-reaction pileups that ensnared dozens of vehicles on snow-covered roads. No deaths have been reported. Pennsylvania Turnpike officials say 35 vehicles piled up Thursday, blocking westbound lanes and causing a 4-mile backup about 50 miles west of Philadelphia, between the Morgantown and Reading (REH'-ding) exits. Turnpike spokeswoman Renee Colborn says the highway reopened after 5 p.m. and about 10 people were taken to hospitals.

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By: Tim Radford, 12/23/2013

Photo Credit: Louis Vest/flickr

LONDON – It was only a single, withered conifer needle, but it told a dramatic story of climate change. Glaciologists found it in a set of ice cores drilled through a glacier on top of Mount Ortles, in the Italian Alps. It lay about 80 meters (262 feet) below the glacial surface, encased in solid ice, and carbon dating confirmed that it had blown from the branches of Larix decidua, the European larch, 2,600 years earlier. It was found about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from a far more dramatic exposure: the body of Ötzi the Iceman, a mummified Bronze Age corpse revealed by a melting glacier in 1991. Both finds deliver the same uncompromising message: for at least 5,000 years – because Ötzi perished around that time – the Italian Alps had continued to stay frozen throughout the year. And now they are melting.

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By: Associated Press, 12/23/2013

TORONTO -- A storm system is bringing freezing rain across much of Eastern Canada, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people and wreaking havoc on holiday plans at one of the busiest travel times of the year. "Winter Storm Gemini carried with it an exceptional amount of warmth and moisture by December standards, and where this air mass slid over a shallow cold layer near the ground, a major ice storm broke out over a long swath from Oklahoma to Ontario to New England," said weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. Utility companies said power outages hit more than 400,000 customers in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick as crews struggled to restore service. Roads and sidewalks turned into skating rinks. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is calling it one of the worst storms in the city's history.

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By: Wunderground.com, 12/18/2013

BIG SUR, Calif. — Firefighters were expected to get some help Wednesday from the weather as they battle an unusual late fall wildfire that has destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced about 100 people to flee the scenic Big Sur region overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Winds were expected to be calm during the day, and there's a minimal chance of rain.

The slow-moving fire in Los Padres National Forest near state Highway 1 had consumed 769 acres, or a little over a square mile, by Tuesday night and was 20 percent contained. Full containment was expected by late Friday. It has destroyed 22 buildings, Los Padres National Forest spokesman Lynn Olson said. About 14 of those structures were homes, she said. No injuries have been reported. Mark Nunez, the incident commander of the team fighting the fire, said 829 firefighters had deployed to the area, and thus far, weather has been working in their favor.

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ABC, By: Jacob Kagi, 12/18/2013

The sweltering conditions experienced by much of the southern Wheatbelt and south-east coast has broken several records, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Newdegate, Lake Grace, Ravensthorpe and Esperance are among the towns to have broken records during the heatwave over recent days, while the Wheatbelt town of Hyden has been one of the worst affected, suffering four straight days of 41 degrees or higher.

Esperance set the most notable record yesterday, breaking its previous mark for the hottest ever December day. It recorded a top of 45.3 degrees at 1.23pm, beating the previous mark of 44.9 degrees set on December 29, 2009. It was an astonishing 24.8 degrees above the town's maximum temperature just five days earlier. Newdegate and Lake Grace both recorded three consecutive December days with maximum temperatures above 40 degrees from Saturday to Monday, for the first time.

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