Australia's Darling river is running with water again after a drought in the middle of the decade reduced it to a trickle. But the rains feeding the continent's fourth-longest river are not the undiluted good news you might expect. For the cloudbursts also create ideal conditions for an unwelcome pest – the Australian plague locust.

The warm, wet weather that prevailed last summer meant that three generations of locusts were born, each one up to 150 times larger than the previous generation. After over-wintering beneath the ground, the first generation of 2010 is already hatching. And following the wettest August in seven years, the climate is again perfect. The juveniles will spend 20 to 25 days eating and growing, shedding their exoskeletons five times before emerging as adults, when population pressure will force them to swarm.

It is impossible to say how many billions of bugs will take wing, but many experts fear this year's infestation could be the worst since records began – 75 years ago. All that one locust expert, Greg Sword, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, would say was: "South Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are all going to get hammered." [ INDEPENDENT UK ]

Five businesses in Owatonna, a city of about 24,000 residents 65 miles south of Minneapolis, were closed due to floodwater from two creeks and the Straight River, Steele County Commissioner Tom Shea said. The creeks were receding Friday morning but the river was still rising. Authorities were keeping a close eye on two neighborhoods that may need to be evacuated, he said. No injuries had been reported. [ YAHOO NEWS ]

Nasa has warned that a peak in the sun's magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could generate huge radiation levels.

The resulting solar storm could cause a geomagnetic storm on Earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world for hours, days, or even months, bringing much of normal life grinding to a halt.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who delivered the keynote address at an international conference on the vulnerability of electricity grids around the world, warned that modern societies' dependence on technology leaves them vulnerable to such events.

Britain is overdue a potentially devastating earthquake that could topple London's grandest landmarks, cause billions of pounds worth of damage and endanger scores of lives, a leading seismologist warned yesterday.

Dr Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh said that a sub-sea fault under the Straits of Dover that has caused two large earthquakes in the past 700 years could strike again at any time, putting London in the firing line.

The geological fault has already generated relatively large earthquakes in 1382 and 1580 and there is a substantial risk that a similar-sized earthquake could occur again with severe consequences for the capital given that it rests on clay soil that is easily shaken, Dr Musson said.

At 0500 GMT, Julia was swirling about 535 kilometres (330 miles) west of the Cape Verde islands, packing sustained winds of 120 kph (75 mph), making it a category one system, the NHC said. The storm "is moving west-northwest near 19 kph (12 mph)," the center said in a statement, warning "some additional strengthening is forecast during the next day or so." The storm was not close to any land mass for now, the NHC noted.

Powerful Hurricane Igor meanwhile swirled in the Atlantic away from land but heading west, while authorities in Haiti prepared evacuations as a smaller separate system formed, that also could threaten Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.

Igor, a powerful category four hurricane, was not expected to hit land directly and was forecast to pass some 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) northeast of the island of Hispaniola -- which Haiti and the Dominican Republic share -- by Thursday.

Oil at least two inches thick was found Sunday night and Monday morning about a mile beneath the surface. Under it was a layer of dead shrimp and other small animals, said University of Georgia researcher Samantha Joye, speaking from the helm of a research vessel in the Gulf.

The latest findings show that while the federal government initially proclaimed much of the spilled oil gone, now it's not so clear. At these depths, the ocean is a cold and dark world. Yet scientists say that even though it may be out of sight, oil found there could do significant harm to the strange creatures that dwell in the depths — tube worms, tiny crustaceans and mollusks, single-cell organisms and Halloween-scary fish with bulging eyes and skeletal frames.

"I expected to find oil on the sea floor," Joye said Monday morning in a ship-to-shore telephone interview. "I did not expect to find this much. I didn't expect to find layers two inches thick. It's weird the stuff we found last night. Some of it was really dense and thick." [ YAHOO NEWS ]

Igor will remain a very strong and dangerous hurricane through the week and beyond in the Atlantic due to favorable weather conditions.

Currently, Igor is a Category 4 hurricane. While the strength could wobble a bit over the next couple of days, but it is likely that Igor has passed his peak intensity.

Hurricanes go through cycles, strengthening and weakening.

Igor strengthened into the day Monday but weakened a bit during the late day and overnight hours.

Igor is forecast by the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center to begin a curve to the northwest over the next 24 to 48 hours, steering the system to the northeast of the Antilles. [ ACCUWEATHER ]

"Large and powerful Igor moving westward over the central tropical Atlantic," the NHC said. "Igor is a category four hurricane" on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

At 2100 GMT, the storm had maximum sustained winds near 140 miles (220 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts at 1830 GMT. "Some additional strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days," the NHC said.

The center of Igor was 1,065 miles (1,715 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands, traveling towards the west at 14 miles (22 kilometers) an hour.

The La Nina climate phenomenon is strengthening, increasing the likelihood an active hurricane season could get even busier.

The update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday comes as residents of Texas are cleaning up from the deluge of Tropical Storm Hermine, and Tropical Storm Igor is drifting in the Atlantic.

La Nina is marked by a cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean and was reported to be developing a month ago. It strengthened throughout August and appears likely to last at least through early 2011, NOAA's Climate Prediction Service said.

"La Nina can contribute to increased Atlantic hurricane activity by decreasing the vertical wind shear over the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Ocean," the center noted.

Wind shear is a sharp difference in wind speed at different levels in the atmosphere. A strong wind shear reduces hurricanes by breaking up their ability to rise into the air, while less shear means they can climb and strengthen.  [ MyWay News ]

Giant rogue waves like the kind popularized in the George Clooney movie The Perfect Storm could be predictable thanks to new research on light in fiber optic cables.

Reporting in the journal Nature Physics, an international collaboration of scientists have created the first huge, solitary wave made from lots of little waves that can maintain its size and speed over long distances in the lab.

While sailors might call these waves scary, scientists have named them Peregrine solitons. With the help of meteorologists, giant, ship-sinking waves could be found and tracked in the open ocean, sparing ocean-going vessels and their crew.

"This is an especially important result for understanding how high-intensity rogue waves may form in the very noisy and imperfect environment of the open ocean," said Nail Akhmediev, one of the study's co-authors and a scientist at the Australian National University. [ MSNBC NEWS ]

NASA said its sky observation from Arizona discovered the objects on September 5. One asteroid was believed to be 10 to 20 meters (32 to 65 feet) in size and was expected to pass within 248,000 kilometers (154,000 miles) of Earth at 0951 GMT.

The second object estimated to be six to 14 meters (20 to 45 feet) in size was set to pass within 79,000 kilometers (49,000 mile) 2112 GMT.

"Both objects should be observable near closest approach with moderate sized amateur telescopes," NASA said. "Although neither of these object has a chance of hitting Earth, a 10 meter-sized near-Earth asteroid from the undiscovered population of about 50 million would be expected to pass almost daily within a lunar distance, and one might strike Earth's atmosphere about every 10 years on average." NASA estimates that asteroids smaller that 25 meters in diameter would burn up while entering the atmosphere, and cause no damage.

Thousands of plants and animals worldwide are listed as threatened or endangered, but the point of no return for these diminishing populations has been impossible to predict. A new study suggests a way to determine when extinction becomes inevitable.

If the findings from a laboratory experiment prove applicable in nature, they could help ecologists step in to save species before it's too late, researchers say. For now, the study is the first step in moving a mathematical theory into the real world, where endangered species are vanishing at a rate that may range from 10 to 100 times the so-called background extinction rate.  [ Read "Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button? " ] - [ LIVE SCIENCE ]

Will Esposito describes an otherworldly scene after a wildfire tore through a canyon in the Colorado foothills: Some houses in his neighborhood burning while others stood intact, a propane tank shooting flames into the sky, and an eerie quiet interrupted only by firefighting helicopters and airplanes.

"There was something majestic and beautiful about it, although it's terrible that some people lost their homes," Esposito said after he took a clandestine tour on Tuesday.

The 11-square-mile blaze destroyed at least 92 structures — including 53 homes — and damaged eight others by Wednesday. The list of homes lost was based on a survey of only 5 to 10 percent of the burned area.

No injuries have been reported since the fire broke out on Monday. Officials say the cause is still under investigation. [ YAHOO NEWS ]

Hermine, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, may reach hurricane strength before it makes landfall on Monday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm's forecast path kept it away from major oil and natural gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico, and energy companies said there had been no affect on their operations.

The Miami-based hurricane center warned the storm could dump heavy rain on the coastal region and would pack a 2-to-4-foot (0.75-to-1.25-meter) storm surge that could cause deadly flash flooding and mudslides.

A tropical storm warning was in effect from La Cruz, Mexico, to Port O'Connor, Texas, while a hurricane watch was in effect from Rio San Fernando Mexico, to Baffin Bay, Texas.

The 7.1-magnitude quake which hit Christchurch, the country’s second-largest city, destroyed about 500 buildings and caused an estimated £930million of damage.

But hundreds of lives were saved by tough building rules, it was claimed. Only two injuries were reported.The quake was caused by the continuing collision between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates, said Professor Mark Quigley, of Canterbury University.

‘One side of the Earth has lurched to the right ... up to 11ft and in some places been thrust up,’ he said. ‘We went and saw two houses that were completely snapped in half by the earthquake.’ [ DAILYMAIL UK ]

On Wednesday in the same area about 30 miles from Oklahoma City, geologists also recorded six earthquakes that ranged from a preliminary 1.8 magnitude to 3.1. Another quake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.7 was recorded Friday about 10 miles east of the Saturday temblors.

No injuries or damage was reported from any of the earthquakes. Quakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3 are generally the smallest felt by people. [ AP News ]

Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala - some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud.

In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers searched through mud and rocks for bodies Sunday after two slides in the same spot killed at least 20 along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. Another slide closer to Guatemala City killed at least 12.

Suagustino Pascual Tuy, a Nahuala police officer, said he and several others rushed to the highway with picks and shovels after hearing radio reports of the fallen earth, which had buried two pickup trucks and a bus at kilometer 171 of the Inter-American highway. [ MyWay News ]