Topic: Weather

This year's Atlantic hurricane season is expected to produce a normal number of tropical storms, with up to eight becoming hurricanes, forecasters say. But beware: All it takes is one big one.

Thailand's economy expanded a robust 11.0 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, rebounding from last year's severe flooding, and strong full-year growth is expected due to a jump in consumption and investment after the disaster.

Forecasters are predicting a milder 2012 season, largely based on the fact that hurricanes thrive on warm water and the Atlantic Ocean has cooled this year.

Hundreds died and businesses lost billion in last year's floods, caused in part by overflow from dams filled to hedge against drought. This year, Thailand is testing different prevention measures. The CSM reports.

A drought affecting parts of England could last until after Christmas, Britain's environment agency warned on Monday, as rain over the spring and summer is unlikely to replenish low water levels.

As weather disasters strike with more frequency, homeowners first get hit with the destruction or total loss of property. Then many are hit with the unexpected loss of homeowners insurance policies as insurance companies re-evaluate their financial liabilities.

Australia, one of the world's top mining and agricultural nations, faces a quickening pace of climate change, according to a snapshot of the nation's weather, forcing farmers to alter cropping strategies and miners to cope with more intense floods.

Floods across eastern Australia forced more than 13,000 people to evacuate their homes on Tuesday after record-high summer rains drenched three states over the past week, swelling rivers and forcing dams to overflow.

Calm weather gave dazed residents of storm-wracked towns a respite early on Sunday as they dug out from a chain of tornadoes that cut a swath of destruction from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, killing at least 39 people

A powerful storm system that produced multiple reports of tornadoes lashed the Midwest early Wednesday, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to small towns in Illinois and Kansas. At least 13 people were killed.

Thailand's economy shrank 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from the third, the worst performance on record after catastrophic floods, but the planning agency raised its forecast for 2012, anticipating a jump in public and private spending.

Syngenta, the world's largest agrochemicals company, is aiming for higher earnings this year as price hikes and cost-cuts are expected to help it offset the impact of the strong Swiss franc and raw material prices.

Thousands of Australians were forced from their homes on Monday because of floods that have risen to record levels in some areas and killed one person, and authorities issued warnings for more than a dozen rivers in Queensland and New South Wales states.

Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims on Sunday and brought widespread disruption to transport services, with warnings that the chilling temperatures would remain into next week.

A major winter storm that dumped two feet of snow on the Denver area marched eastward on Saturday, buffeting the Central Plains with heavy snowfall and wind gusts of 25 miles per hour.