It sounds almost like something out of a cartoon. Someone crosses the road on a hot day and gets stuck in the melting asphalt, leaving behind shoes like some kind of Family Circus trail .
Talking about the weather has never been prettier, or more comprehensive. Instead of simply observing the weather outside why not watch the weather of the entire world for an entire year in just eight minutes? In a new video, you can watch all the weather of 2015, seeing storms make landfall, tundras brighten with snow, and green blossom on the continents.
The hotter weather expected with climate change is likely to cause a litany of figurative aches for humanity (and already is), but some of those pains may be quite literal. A new study found that higher temperatures significantly increase the risk of developing kidney stones, hard crystals that are painful to pass and which can cause damage to the organs. The idea is that hotter weather leads people to become more dehydrated, which allows minerals to concentrate and crystalize within the body.
We're further along in using science to manually force the weather's hand than many people suspect. In 2009, for example, the Chinese government used weather manipulation to bring a snowstorm to Beijing, and they aren't the only nation giving it a try. But using so-called "cloud seeding" techniques as high-tech rain dances is controversial; critics say it's both ineffective and bad for the environment. A potentially better solution - to this, as to most things! - is to fire up some lasers.
When European farmers turn their eyes skyward, they soon may have more than the weather to worry about. The more progressive aviation framework in Europe means that government monitors potentially have a new weapon in their arsenals - unmanned aerial drones - to enforce regulations, and they're starting with agriculture. EU regulators are exploring potential aerial systems that can help them spot farm subsidy cheats and violators of Common Agricultural Policy rules.
