Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/440288
ByMarkStevenson The Associated Press PIEDRA HERRADA, MEXICO More Monarch butterflies appear to have made the long flight from the U.S. and Canada to their winter nesting ground in western Mexico, raising hopes af- ter their number dropped to a record low last year. But experts still fear that unusual cold temperatures will threaten the orange and black insects. While an official census won't be ready until mid- January, observers are see- ing healthy populations of butterflies bunched to- gether on fir and pine trees in protected sanctuaries, said Gloria Talavera, direc- tor of the official monarch butterfly reserve. "We're encouraged, be- cause we've seen more," Ta- lavera said Monday. But cold forecast for this winter, she said, "could put at risk the whole migratory phenomenon. ... We will be saying a prayer each day until mid-February." Mexico's National Meteo- rological Service predicts 55 cold fronts for the country through May, a 15 percent increase from the average, and with the possibility for repeated cold systems to ex- tend into March and April. The temperate climate of the mountains west of Mexico City normally cre- ates an ideal setting for the Monarchs. Every fall, tens of millions of the deli- cate creatures fly thousands of miles to their ancestral breeding grounds, creating clouds of butterflies. They clump together on trees, forming chandelier shapes of orange and black. The migration is an in- herited trait: No butterfly lives to make the full round trip, and it is unclear how they find the route back to the same patch of forest each year. Some scientists suggest the butterflies may release chemicals marking the migratory path and fear that if their numbers fall too low, the chemical traces will not be strong enough for others to follow. The Monarch popula- tions are being hurt by var- ious factors: in Mexico, the encroachment of logging into their habitat; and in the United States, the de- cline of milkweed, the but- terflies' main source of food that has been crowded out by pesticide-resistant crops. "The butterflies are at their most vulnerable mo- ment because of pesticide use in the United States, climate change along their migratory route, and degra- dation of the forests where they winter," said Homero Aridjis, a noted writer and environmentalist. Observers count the Monarchs not individu- ally, but by estimating how many acres they cover. Last year, after three years of steep and steady declines, the butterflies covered only 1.65 acres their lowest level since record-keeping be- gan in 1993. At their peak in 1996, the Monarchs cov- ered more than 44.5 acres. While the Monarch is not in danger of extinction, there are fears they could stop migrating or migrate elsewhere. HEALTHY POPULATIONS MoreMonarchsreturntoMexico,butnowfacecold CHRISTIANPALMA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A monarch butterfly perches on a branch in the Piedra Herrada sanctuary near Valle de Bravo, Mexico. By Mike Stobbe and Jonathan Paye-Layleh The Associated Press NEW YORK A team of re- searchers think they have pinpointed how the Eb- ola epidemic in West Af- rica started — with a small boy playing in a hollowed- out tree where infected bats lived. The researchers explored an area in southeastern Guinea where 2-year-old Emile Ouamouno fell ill a year ago and died. Health officials believe he was the first case in the epidemic, which wasn't recognized until spring. The Ebola virus wasn't found in the bats they tested, the scientists re- ported in a study published Tuesday. But they came away believing that the boy got it from the bats that had lived in the hollow tree. The Ebola epidemic is the worst in world history, blamed for killing nearly 8,000 people across West Africa this year. The epidemic's exact or- igin has never been de- termined, but the virus is thought to spread to peo- ple from some sort of an- imal. Many experts have suspected some species of fruit bat, though some wonder if West Africa's ep- idemic started through an- other animal — like a chim- panzee or small antelope — that was perhaps infected by bats and then eaten by people. The researchers saw no signs that Ebola had affected larger animals around the boy's small vil- lage of Meliandou. They also found no evidence of the virus in tests of 169 bats, including fruit bats. Then they learned that a large colony of small, smelly bats with long tails lived in a hollow tree near the boy's home. Villagers told the researchers that the tree caught fire in March, causing a "rain of bats" to emerge from the tree. RESEARCHERS Bats suspected in first Ebola case Washington 39/27 New York 34/24 Miami 82/69 Atlanta 50/32 Detroit 22/16 Houston 48/41 Chicago 19/16 Minneapolis 13/7 Kansas City 23/17 El Paso 43/29 Denver 19/1 Billings 25/19 Los Angeles 57/37 San Francisco 54/45 Seattle 40/27 AIRQUALITYFORECAST Whatitmeans: 0-50:Good; 51-100:Moderate; 101-150:Unhealthyforsensitivepeople; 151+:Unhealthyforall. Source: Airnow.gov City Today'sairquality City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W CALIFORNIA CITIES National and world forecast s-sunny,pc-partly cloudy,c-cloudy,sh-showers,t-thunderstorms,r-rain,sf-snow flurries,sn-snow,i-ice City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W Summary National Extremes World Extremes North and South America Asia, Australia Africa CarsonCity Hawthorne Reno Herlong Lovelock Sacramento Yuba City Napa Ukiah Chico Corning Lakeview Alturas Susanville Redding Red Bluff Laytonville Fort Bragg Point Arena Eureka Redway Mount Shasta Yreka Crescent City Ashland Shown is today's weather. Temperatures are today's highs and tonight's lows. Shown are today's noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. ALMANAC Precipitation Temperatures ALLERGY REPORT Pollenlevels Source: National Allergy Bureau TODAY'S UV INDEX (The higher the number, the faster skin damage will occur.) Extreme Very high High Moderate Low SUN SETTINGS, MOON PHASES Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset Hoursofsunlight River Levels SacramentoRiver Flood 7a.m. 24-hr Stage yest. chg. Lake Levels Elevation Yesterday Storage (acre-feet) Percent Capacity Q: A: THURSDAY 53° 30° FRIDAY 54° 33° Plenty of sunshine Plenty of sunshine SATURDAY 57° 34° Mostly sunn y SUNDAY 60° 40° Times of clouds and sun TODAY 53° 31° Sunny and breezy. Clear and chilly tonight. High ....................................................................... 50° Low ........................................................................ 39° Normal high ......................................................... 53° Normal low ........................................................... 37° Record high ............................................. 72° in 1989 Record low .............................................. 25° in 1994 Humidity noon today ........................................ 23% 24 hours through 2 p.m. yesterday ................. 0.01" Month to date ................................................... 9.74" Normal month to date ..................................... 4.01" Season to date ................................................ 16.35" Normal season to date .................................... 8.83" Red Bluff through 2 p.m. yesterday Chico .................................................................. Good Napa ........................................................... Moderate Red Bluff .............................................. Not available Redding ..................................................... Moderate Yuba City ........................................................... Good Allergy, dust and dander today: High Risk Grass .................. Absent Mold ............... Moderate Trees .................. Absent Weeds ................ Absent 2 Highest at 11 a.m. Today 7:31 a.m. 4:53 p.m. 1:48 p.m. 3:03 a.m. Thursday 7:31 a.m. 4:54 p.m. 2:31 p.m. 4:05 a.m. 9 hr., 22 min. Jan4 Full Jan13 Last New Jan20 First Jan26 aboveBendBridge......................27 ...........1.80 ....... -0.10 atHamiltonCity.........................148 ......130.04 ....... -0.16 atOrdFerry................................114 ........97.78 ....... -0.22 atRedBluffDiversionDam.......253 ......238.30 ....... -0.10 atTehamaBridge ......................213 ......201.10 ....... -0.10 atVinaWoodsonBridge............183 ......167.25 ....... -0.15 BlackButte ....................445.13..............42,035 .....29.3% LakeOroville..................685.31.........1,145,984 .....30.7% LakeShasta ...................948.30.........1,849,144 .....40.6% LakeTrinity..................2232.26............810,662 .....30.6% Whiskeytown...............1198.14............204,621 .....84.9% Weather Trivia ™ What is the purpose of a snow fence? To disrupt strong winds and thus reduce blowing and drifting snow. Today Thursday Anaheim 58/34/pc 61/37/s Bakersfield 49/31/c 52/32/s Chula Vista 57/39/sh 61/39/s Crescent City 53/40/s 54/40/s Death Valley 53/34/sn 54/31/s Eureka 53/32/s 52/35/s Fremont 54/36/s 55/33/s Fresno 46/27/s 50/29/s Glendale 52/35/c 59/36/s Huntington Beach 58/40/pc 60/43/s Irvine 59/35/pc 59/39/s Lake Tahoe 25/12/pc 37/12/s Long Beach 59/36/pc 61/37/s Los Angeles 57/37/pc 60/40/s Mammoth Mountain 23/6/c 38/10/s Modesto 52/27/pc 52/28/s Monterey 54/35/s 56/37/s Moreno Valley 52/33/c 55/35/s Napa 55/29/s 53/31/s Needles 42/34/sh 49/31/s Oakland 54/39/s 54/35/s Oxnard 60/39/pc 61/40/s Redding 53/31/s 56/31/s Riverside 51/32/r 53/34/s Sacramento 53/27/s 52/28/s San Bernardino 50/32/c 54/31/s San Diego 57/43/sh 60/43/s San Francisco 54/45/s 55/41/s San Jose 52/36/s 54/32/s San Luis Obispo 56/30/pc 58/33/s Santa Ana 61/40/pc 61/42/s Santa Barbara 60/33/pc 59/36/s Santa Clarita 51/30/c 56/30/s Stockton 52/27/s 52/29/s Ventura 60/39/pc 60/41/s Yosemite Valley 38/17/pc 46/18/s Today Thursday Albuquerque 31/19/c 36/18/sn Atlanta 50/32/pc 53/40/pc Baltimore 36/22/s 40/26/s Boston 32/21/pc 33/26/s Buffalo 24/21/sf 30/24/sn Chicago 19/16/s 27/22/s Cincinnati 26/19/s 34/26/s Dallas 38/33/c 36/34/r Denver 19/1/s 25/2/s Detroit 22/16/pc 29/22/s El Paso 43/29/c 52/33/c Fargo 17/9/s 20/4/sf Honolulu 75/61/s 76/61/pc Houston 48/41/c 46/42/r Indianapolis 21/16/s 29/22/pc Kansas City 23/17/s 33/22/pc Las Vegas 40/28/sn 43/31/pc Louisville 29/22/pc 37/29/pc Miami 82/69/sh 81/70/c Minneapolis 13/7/s 22/6/sf New Orleans 55/43/s 59/52/c New York City 34/24/s 36/30/s Oklahoma City 29/25/c 34/29/c Cold air will stretch across much of the nation on the last day of 2014 with central and South Florida being the exceptions today. The coldest air will hover over the Central and Western states, relative to average. Spotty rain will fall along the east coast of Florida and in South Texas with spotty ice in part of western Texas. Flurries and bands of heavy snow will develop downwind of the Great Lakes. Local whiteout conditions can form in parts of upstate and western New York and in Upper Michigan. Snow and cold rain will fall in the Southwest. High .............. 85° in West Palm Beach, FL Low ........... -34° in West Yellowstone, MT High ........... 114° in Roebourne, Australia Low ............. -57° in Yekyuchchyu, Russia Bogota 70/43/pc 70/41/pc Buenos Aires 76/63/r 77/58/pc Caracas 86/73/pc 86/73/s Ensenada 54/37/sh 60/39/s Mexico City 72/45/pc 72/43/pc Montreal 18/13/pc 27/12/sn Rio de Janeiro 95/79/c 95/78/t Tijuana 58/36/pc 63/36/s Toronto 22/18/sf 29/23/sn Vancouver 38/25/s 40/28/s Orlando 73/61/c 78/63/pc Philadelphia 35/24/s 39/29/s Phoenix 54/36/r 50/35/pc Pittsburgh 24/17/pc 31/23/s Portland, ME 29/17/pc 32/22/pc Portland, OR 36/23/s 39/26/s St. Louis 28/23/s 38/30/pc Salt Lake City 22/8/pc 28/13/pc Seattle 40/27/s 42/31/pc Tucson 63/36/pc 50/31/sh Washington, DC 39/27/s 43/32/s Cairo 70/48/s 59/43/s Casablanca 64/41/s 62/39/s Johannesburg 78/58/t 76/58/pc Kinshasa 88/71/t 85/72/t Lagos 92/73/s 91/74/s Nairobi 84/57/t 83/55/t Tripoli 46/41/r 50/44/sh Baghdad 67/43/s 67/46/pc Beijing 34/15/s 38/19/s Hong Kong 70/55/pc 64/54/s Jerusalem 61/46/s 57/38/pc Kabul 47/22/s 49/20/s Manila 82/72/c 81/73/sh Melbourne 77/55/pc 76/56/pc New Delhi 61/45/s 64/50/pc Seoul 32/15/sf 24/13/s Singapore 84/77/r 84/76/r Sydney 76/68/pc 84/70/pc Tehran 54/36/s 54/40/s Tokyo 54/37/s 43/34/c Amsterdam 45/36/pc 42/40/pc Athens 45/41/r 44/39/r Belgrade 17/-1/s 18/9/s Berlin 39/36/sh 38/32/pc Budapest 25/17/pc 28/24/c Dublin 52/45/sh 55/39/r London 46/43/s 53/47/c Madrid 52/26/s 52/27/s Moscow 21/20/sn 35/32/c Paris 40/29/pc 39/35/s Rome 40/30/s 47/33/s Stockholm 38/31/c 42/39/c Vienna 23/20/pc 36/27/c Zurich 30/15/pc 27/17/pc 30/14 29/11 30/14 31/12 31/6 53/27 52/28 55/29 53/29 52/29 53/29 28/4 28/12 34/11 53/31 53/31 52/26 53/41 53/44 53/32 55/28 38/23 37/19 53/40 38/21 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2014 100JacksonStreet, Red Bluff (530) 529-1220 NEW Membership Specials CallorComeIn for details RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! 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