Airplanes Can Cause Extra Rainfall

Chaos prompts terror fears; agency calls for re-registration

(NEWSER) - The FAA lacks key information on who owns some 119,000 private and commercial aircraft in the US, prompting concerns that terrorists or drug traffickers could use the paperwork mess to their advantage—something the latter group is already doing. The FAA is calling for all owners to re-register the country's 357,000 aircraft next year, fearful that criminals could now secretly buy aircraft or use other planes’ registration numbers to prevent tracking More»

Survivors lay in mangled wreckage as chilled rain fell

(NEWSER) - When Ted Stevens and his companions left their lodge, they thought they were headed for a quick trip to a salmon fishing camp. When they hadn’t arrived hours later, the lodge sent out search planes, who quickly found a horrific scene, the AP reports. The nose of the plane was gone, fuel slicked over the ground, the bodies of some—including Stevens—mangled in the fuselage. It was raining hard, and the survivors were freezing. Now, authorities are studying that rain, and the gusty wind that accompanied it, to see if it caused the crash. More»

Rains, wet winter, expected El Nino delivering deluge

(NEWSER) - In the latest climate calamity to cause misery, a third of the US is expected to be hit with flooding this spring. The Midwest, followed by the East Coast, will likely bear the brunt of what could be record flooding, brought by heavy rains last autumn, a wetter-than-usual winter, and a predicted El Nino weather system. "We are looking at potentially historic flooding," said a top official of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More»

Lajamanu is 326 miles from nearest river

(NEWSER) - Forget about cats and dogs—it literally rained fish for two days in one tiny, landlocked Australian town. Meteorologists say the spangled perch likely got sucked up by a thunderstorm, frozen, then dropped above the town, the Telegraph reports. Local records say it is the third time the town, Lajamanu, has been hit in 30 years. Many of the small white fish were still alive. "What if anything bigger falls out of the sky next?" one man asks. "It could be crocodiles." More»

(NEWSER) - This could set off an interesting price war: JetBlue today began selling a $599 pass for all the flights you can handle between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8, reports Bloomberg. The idea is to try to keep their planes full once the peak summer season winds down. The offer's good for all 56 cities served by the airline, which has seen a 4.6% dropoff in traffic of late. More»