OBJECTIVE This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether or not Hurricane Katrina and related factors (i.e. the amount of rainfall) influenced the male-to-female birth ratio (M/F). MATERIALS AND METHODS Monthly births by gender for the affected states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi) for January 2003 to December 2012 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control an...

During the 24-hour period ending 1230 GMT May 13, 1957 moderate to heavy convective-type rain occurrecl over a large portion of north central Texas. In consideration of the type of prec.ipitation, amounts were not unusually large, ranging from 1 to 5 inches (fig. 1). However, the most interesting feature was that the rainfall area was well organized and locat,ed in an area where the surface is...

The approach to illustrate observed changes in heavy precipitation has been repeated for gridded daily precipitation data for the US. Fig.S1a shows the same result as Fig.2b but for the contiguous US east of 100°W, specifically the region between 65° and 100°W and 25° and 49°N with data coverage (see domain in Fig.S5). Note that the period differs somewhat from Fig.2b since only data up to 2006...

In this study, we examined heavy-metal concentrations in feathers of nestling great tits Parus major and blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus at two different sites (urban parkland vs. deciduous forest) located in the Łódź agglomeration in relation to interyear variation. We found that tit species did not differ significantly in lead and cadmium concentrations. Zinc concentration was significantly hig...

To provide guidance for the development of satellite microwave rainfall-retrieval algorithms, the basic relationships between emission and scattering signals in natural clouds must be understood. In this study, the relationship between two parameters observed from microwave satellite data—the polarization difference at 19 GHz D and the polarization-corrected temperature PCT—is investigated over...

Satellite-data derived total precipitable water (kg/m 2 ) is the amount of water vapor in the atmospheric column from the surface of the earth to space. The microwave instruments SSMI/S, AMSRE and AMSU can be used to retrieve this parameter that could be useful in relation to heavy precipitation. The MIRS products, developed by NESDIS, were used as indices. In order to study the cause of heavy ...

Between the 11 and 13 October 2005 several flash floods were produced along the coast of Catalonia (NE Spain) due to a significant heavy rainfall event. Maximum rainfall achieved values up to 250 mm in 24 h. The total amount recorded during the event in some places was close to 350 mm. Barcelona city was also in the affected area where high rainfall intensities were registered, but just a few s...

Soil moisture plays a key role in vegetation restoration and ecosystem stability in arid and semiarid regions. The response of soil moisture to rainfall pulses is an important hydrological process, which is strongly influenced by land use during the implementation of vegetation restoration. In this study, vertical soil moisture variations of woodland (Pinus tabulaeformis), native grassland (Sti...

Calendaricities, or the occurrence of weather anomalies on fixed calendar dates, are investigated for the Eastern Mediterranean (EM). The anomalies discussed here are the maxima and minima in the frequency of occurrence of the EM synoptic systems bearing rainfall. Those are mostly the Winter Lows passing over Cyprus en route eastward of the Ionian Sea where they are generated in situ or come to...

This study evaluated the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS) forecast bias in different precipitation (light rain, moderate rain, heavy rain and very heavy rain) by comparing the ground-based observations in three countries. Then the correlations between GFS precipitation forecast errors and the aerosol loading are investigated extensively to examin...