Summer thunderstorms in North America will likely be larger, wetter and more frequent in a warmer world, dumping 80 percent more rain in some areas and worsening flooding, a new study says. Future storms will also be wilder, soaking entire cities and huge portions of states, according to a federally funded study in the journal Nature Climate Change. The U.S. in recent years has experienced prolonged drenchings that have doused Nashville in 2010, West Virginia and Louisiana in 2016 and Houston this year. By the end of century if emissions aren't curbed, these gully washers will be much worse because they will get bigger, said Andreas Prein, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who led the study. Prein and colleagues used high-resolution computer simulations to see how global warming will likely change the large thunderstorms that are already daily summer events in North America. Previous studies projected more frequent and wetter storms, but this is the first research to show they likely will be more widespread, covering an entire city, Prein said.
Roman shipwrecks found off Egypt coast
Egypt says archaeologists have discovered three sunken shipwrecks dating back more than 2,000 years to Roman times off the coast of the city of Alexandria. A statement from Mostafa Waziri, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the discovery was made in collaboration with the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology. Waziri says the archaeologists also uncovered a head sculpture carved in crystal and three gold coins dating back to Rome's first emperor, Augustus. Parts of large wooden planks and archaeological remains of pottery vessels were also found, which could have been part of the ships' cargo. The discoveries were made in Alexandria's Abukir Bay. Separately from the Roman-era finds, a votive bark of the Pharaonic god Osiris was found in the nearby sunken city of Iraklion.
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