Heavy rain and pounding surf driven by Hurricane Sally hit the Florida and Alabama coasts Tuesday as forecasters expected the slow-moving storm to dump continuous deluges before and after landfall, possibly triggering dangerous, historic flooding along the northern Gulf Coast. “It’s going to be a huge rainmaker,” said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist and meteorologist at Colorado State University. “It’s not going to be pretty.” The National Hurricane Center expected Sally to remain a Category 1 hurricane, with top sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour at landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The storm’s sluggish pace made it harder to predict exactly where its center will strike. The hurricane’s slow movement exacerbated the threat of heavy rain and storm surge. Sally remained dangerous even after losing power, its fiercest winds having dropped considerably from a peak of 161 kph on Monday. Waves crash near a pier at Gulf State Park, in Gulf Shores, Ala., Sept. 15, 2020.Tuesday evening, hurricane warnings stretched from east of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Navarre, Florida. Rainfall of up to 50 centimeters was forecast near the coast. There was a chance the storm could also spawn tornadoes and dump isolated rain accumulations of more than 75 centimeters.  Heavy rain and surf pounded the barrier island of Navarre Beach, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon and road signs wobbled in the gusty wind.  Rebecca Studstill was among those watching. Studstill, who lives inland, was wary of getting stuck on the island, saying police close bridges once the wind and water get too high. “Just hunkering down would probably be the best thing for folks out here,” she said. Two large casino boats broke loose Tuesday from a dock where they were undergoing construction work in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. M.J. Bosarge, who lives near the shipyard, said at least one of the riverboats had done considerable damage to the dock. “You really want to get them secured because with wind and rain like this, the water is constantly rising,” Bosarge said. “They could end up anywhere. There’s no telling where they could end up.” A man carries empty fuel containers in Gulf Shores, Ala., Sept. 15, 2020.In Orange Beach, Alabama, towering waves crashed onshore Tuesday as Crystal Smith and her young daughter, Taylor, watched. They drove more than an hour through sheets of rain and whipping wind to take in the sight. “It’s beautiful, I love it,” Crystal Smith said. “But they are high. Hardly any of the beach isn’t covered.” Capt. Michael Thomas, an Orange Beach fishing guide, secured boats and made other last-minute preparations. He estimated up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain had fallen in as many hours. “I’m as prepared as I can be,” Thomas said. A couple kilometers away in Gulf Shores, Alabama, waves crashed over the end of the long fishing pier at Gulf State Park. Some roads in the town already were covered with water. Stacy Stewart, a senior specialist with the National Hurricane Center, warned that floods in the affected areas could be deadly.  “This is going to be historic flooding along with the historic rainfall,” Stewart said. “If people live near rivers, small streams and creeks, they need to evacuate and go somewhere else.” Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Louisiana, said Sally could unleash flooding similar to what Hurricane Harvey inflicted in 2017 when it swamped the Houston metropolitan area. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday that people in the southern part of the state should prepare for heavy rain and the potential for flash flooding, even if the hurricane comes ashore to the east. He said about 120 people were in shelters in Mississippi. As rain grew heavier Tuesday, many businesses appeared to be closed at exits along the I-10 highway that runs parallel to the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida. Waters from the Gulf of Mexico poor onto a local road, in Waveland, Miss., Sept. 14, 2020.In Gulfport, Mississippi, white plastic bags hung over some gas station pumps to signal they were out of fuel. Along a bayou that extended inland from the Gulf, three shrimp boats were tied up as shrimpers and others tried to protect their boats from waves and storm surge. Most boat slips at Gulfport’s marina were empty. Metal storm shutters or plywood covered the windows of many businesses. David Espinosa walked the streets of Pascagoula, Mississippi, Tuesday afternoon, drenched by the rain. He wasn’t worried much about Sally, having found his pickup truck in a tree after Hurricane Katrina wrecked much of Mississippi’s coast in 2005. Espinosa had just moved back to the area days earlier, after a long stint in Oklahoma City. “We just didn’t know there would be another hurricane when we got back,” Espinosa said. “Here we go again.” In Alabama, officials closed the causeway to Dauphin Island and the commuter tunnel that runs beneath the Mobile River.  Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey urged residents near Mobile Bay and low-lying areas near rivers to evacuate if conditions still permitted a safe escape. The National Hurricane Center predicted storm surge along Alabama’s coast, including Mobile Bay, could reach 6 feet (1.8 meters) above ground. “This is not worth risking your life,” Ivey said during a news conference Tuesday. The storm was moving at only 4 kph late Tuesday, centered south of Mobile, Alabama, and southwest of Pensacola, Florida. Hurricane-force winds stretched 65 kilometers from its center. After making landfall, Sally was forecast to cause flash floods and minor to moderate river flooding across inland portions of Mississippi, Alabama, northern Georgia and the western Carolinas through the rest of the week. Emergency declarations President Donald Trump issued emergency declarations for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday, and tweeted that residents should listen to state and local leaders. The threat to Louisiana eased as officials in some areas reversed evacuation orders that had been issued for areas that had been feared to be a risk of flooding from Sally.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency in 13 counties. On the barrier island of Pensacola Beach, Florida, the Sandshaker Lounge was open Tuesday afternoon, filled with about 30 locals and tourists staying at nearby hotels. “I think I’m the only business open,” said bartender Kyra Smith. “It’s pretty windy, but nobody’s being knocked down. We want everybody to be safe.” Smith said most locals have lived in the area for decades and have weathered many storms bigger than Sally. “We’re just going to ride it out,” she said. 
 
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Scientists at a Russian university have announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved ice age cave bear, with much of its soft tissue including its nose, flesh and teeth intact.In a statement, scientists from North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk say reindeer herders on Great Lyakhovsky island in the New Siberian Islands archipelago discovered the carcass in the melting permafrost. NEFU is considered the premier center for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric, ice age species.Scientists at the research center have hailed the find as ground-breaking. Previously, scientists had only the bone of cave bears to study. The species, or subspecies, lived in Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene period and became extinct about 15,000 years ago.Preliminary analysis suggests this specimen to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, but it will be carbon dated to confirm that.Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, ice age foal, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost inside the Arctic Circle melts. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says slow-moving Hurricane Sally, the latest storm to threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast, remains offshore but is already bringing high winds, rain and surf to the coastline. 
 
In the latest report, forecasters say Sally was about 110 kilometers east to southeast of east of the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. It currently has maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour, and hurricane warnings early Tuesday extended from the Louisiana-Mississippi border east to Florida. 
 
Forecasters say Sally should reach land near the Alabama-Mississippi state line by late Tuesday or early Wednesday, although they stress “significant” uncertainty as to where the storm’s eye would make landfall. But they say Sally is moving more eastward than originally anticipated, sparing the city of New Orleans.  
 
The slow-moving system is expected to produce 25-50 centimeters of rain, but isolated areas could see as much 76 centimeters. That, along with storm surge that could be almost three meters in the worst areas, has increased the likelihood of coastal flooding in the warning region. 
 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency in the state’s western Panhandle’s areas, which were experiencing a great deal of rain Tuesday from the storm. 
 
President Donald Trump issued emergency declarations Monday for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and he tweeted that residents should listen to state and local leaders. 
 
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought the presidential declaration after the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, warned of the increasing likelihood of “dangerous and potentially historic flooding,” with waters rising as much as 9 feet (2.7 meters) above ground in parts of the Mobile metro area. Ivey urged residents Tuesday to stay vigilant and heed any emergency warnings. 
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Hurricane Sally drew closer to  the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday morning, bringing heavy rains and  surging water ahead of its expected landfall as a Category 2 hurricane, with the chance of further strengthening possible.
The second strong storm in less than a month to threaten the region, Sally’s winds increased to 100 miles per hour (155 kph), and late Monday was 90 miles (145 km) east of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
It could wallop the Mississippi and Alabama coasts on Tuesday with devastating winds of up to 110 mph, on the cusp of becoming a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, the NHC said.
Hurricanes are considered to have the potential for devastating damage when they have sustained winds past 111 mph (179 kph).
Mississippi and Louisiana called for evacuations of low-lying areas and President Donald Trump issued an emergency disaster declaration for both states. Alabama closed the state’s beaches and recommended evacuations of residents in low-lying areas.
Mobile, Alabama Mayor Sandy Stimpson warned residents he expected a “tremendous amount of flooding” and said the city was barricading intersections likely to see high water.
Ports, schools and businesses closed along the coast. The U.S. Coast Guard restricted travel on the lower Mississippi River in New Orleans to the Gulf, and closed the ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
Energy companies buttoned up or halted oil refineries and pulled workers from offshore oil and gas production platforms.
The hurricane is expected to dump between 8 and 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) of rain on the coast, with isolated 24-inch downpours, and cause widespread river flooding.
Mississippi appears more likely for landfall, but Sally’s biggest threat is that it will be a “rainmaker” across a wide swath of the Gulf Coast, with 3 to 4 inches (7.62 to 10.2 cm) in areas as far inland as Atlanta, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, an energy, agriculture and weather data provider.
Sally is the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth of tropical storm or hurricane strength to hit the United States — something “very rare if not a record” said Dan Kottlowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, noting that accurate data on historic tropical storms can be elusive.
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Marine experts are planning to rescue humpback whales that have been recorded for the first time in crocodile-infested waters in the Kakadu national park in tropical northern Australia. It is thought the giant sea mammals took a wrong turn during one of nature’s most epic migrations. The humpbacks should be starting their long journey to Antarctica from breeding grounds off Western Australia’s remote north coast. Instead, a small group – thought to be two adults and a large juvenile – were spotted in the East Alligator river in the Kakadu national park, east of Darwin on September 2.  It is famous for its world heritage Aboriginal rock art and for its crocodiles. Never have migrating whales been recorded in the area.  Experts believe one of the humpbacks has returned to the sea, and plans are being made to coax the others to follow. This could involve using the noise from boat engines to gently move them down the river towards Van Diemen’s Gulf that leads to the open waters of the Timor Sea off northern Australia. Whale calls and songs might also be used to try to move the humpbacks back into safer waters. Scientists also hope to fit satellite tracking devices to the mammals.  Dr. Carol Palmer, a senior dolphin and whale scientist at the Northern Territory government, says it was extraordinary to see the humpbacks so far inland. “We went up the East Alligator (river), we were turning around, we went up about 30kms and then as we were just moseying on down, what did we see the humpback whales.  Everyone, including myself, we were just really shocked.  It is something that has never been recorded before,” Palmer said.Tens of thousands of humpback whales migrate up and down Australia’s east and west coasts each year. This migration from Antarctica begins around April, when the giant mammals head north to breed. They start heading south in September and November. Scientists have not yet explained why a small group wandered so badly off-course, ending up in crocodile-infested waters in the Northern Territory.  Saltwater crocodiles are the world’s largest reptiles. They are aggressive and dangerous but are thought to pose little danger to the whales unless the humpbacks become stranded on a sandbank.   
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At opposite ends of the country, President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden presented vastly different views Monday about the cause of the historic, destructive wildfires in the Western United States, which have killed at least 35 people.In California, the president — brushing aside concerns about climate change as a catalyst for the increasing number and intensity of such fires — reiterated his call for Western states to practice better forest management.“When trees fall down after a short period of time, they become very dry — really like a matchstick,” said Trump on arrival in California. “And they can explode. Also leaves. When you have dried leaves on the ground, it’s just fuel for the fires.” Trump’s “climate denial” did not cause the fires, Biden said in his home state of Delaware. But if the president gets a second term, “These hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly.”Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about climate change and wildfires affecting Western states, Sept. 14, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.Speaking outdoors with a field of wheat as the backdrop fewer than 50 days before the national election, Biden added, “If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?”The former vice president said Trump’s approach is to ignore the facts and “deny reality,” calling that a full surrender to the effects of climate change.Amid the real peril, this is also a time of extraordinary possibilities, said Biden, adding that as president he would take “urgent action” to combat global warming.  Trump has stayed mostly silent about the widespread devastation in the three solidly Democratic states — California, Oregon and Washington — where more than a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land has burned.  Among those briefing Trump in California on Monday was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of the president.  U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a briefing on wildfires in McClellan Park, California, Sept. 14, 2020.Newsom noted that 56% of the land in California is federally owned, so the federal government has a major responsibility in improved forest management along with the state.  “It’s a big problem, and it will get solved,” said the president.  Newsom told Trump, “We feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting dryer. Something has happened to the plumbing of the world, and we come from a perspective, humbly, that we assert the science that climate change is real. Please respect the difference of opinion out here with respect to the fundamental issue of climate change.”  California Gov. Gavin Newsom listens during a briefing with President Donald Trump at Sacramento McClellan Airport, in McClellan Park, Calif., Sept. 14, 2020, on the western wildfires.Trump replied, “Absolutely.”  The president, however, also predicted that the climate “will start getting cooler.””Just watch. I don’t think science knows, actually.”  Trump has often questioned the science of climate change, instead blaming poor forest management for the spread of the fires and their intensity. His visit to California, where polls show the majority of voters sharply oppose his reelection, gave the president an opportunity to offer sympathy for the victims of the fires and emphasize the federal firefighting assistance he has approved.  “We say God bless you to those who were killed in this serious fire. We are showing and give support to the people of California,” Trump said.  The president has dispatched more than 26,000 federal personnel and 230 helicopters to fight the fires, according to the White House.U.S. President Donald Trump awards the Distinguished Flying Cross to California National Guard Sergeant Cameron Powell during a ceremony to honor Powell and six other helicopter crew members at McClellan Park, California, Sept. 14, 2020.Trump also presided Monday over a ceremony to award seven members of a California National Guard helicopter crew the Distinguished Flying Cross for rescuing hundreds of stranded campers who had become surrounded by fire. Smoke and flames have combined to envelop the cities of San Francisco, Seattle and Portland with some of the worst air quality in the world.   The massive clouds of smoke blanketing the region have endangered the health of millions of residents. Air quality across the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon was characterized by state environmental officials as “hazardous” or “very unhealthy.”  Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.  Visibility has been less than a half kilometer in some places, according to the National Weather Service, making it dangerous to drive.  Ken Bredemeier in Washington contributed to this report.  
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Hurricane Sally, one of five storms lined up as if on a conveyor belt across the Atlantic, churned toward the Louisiana-Mississippi coast Monday with rapidly strengthening winds of at least 145 kph (90 mph) and the potential for as much as 60 centimeters (23.5 inches) of rain that could bring severe flooding. Storm-weary Gulf Coast residents rushed to buy bottled water and other supplies ahead of the storm, which was expected to reach Louisiana’s southeastern tip around daybreak Tuesday and make its way sluggishly northward into Mississippi on a path that could menace the New Orleans metropolitan area and cause a long, slow drenching. Forecasters said it could be a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 169 kph (105 mph) by the time it nears the coast. It would be Louisiana’s second pounding from a hurricane in less than three weeks. Jeremy Burke lifted things off the floor in case of flooding in his Bay Books bookstore in the Old Town neighborhood of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a popular weekend getaway from New Orleans, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) to the west. The streets outside were emptying fast.”It’s turning into a ghost town,” he said. “Everybody’s biggest fear is the storm surge, and the worst possible scenario being that it just stalls out. That would be a dicey situation for everybody.” FILE – Bradley Beard digs as he searches in vain for his water shutoff valve, next to his heavily damaged home and the destroyed trailer home of his daughter in Hackberry, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Aug. 29, 2020.Sally is perhaps the least welcome guest among lots of company: For only the second time on record, meteorologist Philip Klotzbach said, five tropical cyclones were churning simultaneously in the Atlantic basin.  In addition to Sally were Hurricane Paulette, which passed over a well-fortified Bermuda on Monday and was expected to peel harmlessly out into the North Atlantic, and Tropical Storms Rene, Teddy and Vicky, all of them out at sea. As of midafternoon, Sally was about 260 kilometers (161 miles) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi. Sally’s sluggish track could give it more time to drench the Mississippi Delta with rain and push storm surge ashore. People in New Orleans watched the storm’s track intently. A more easterly course could bring torrential rain and damaging winds to Mississippi. A more westerly track would pose another test for the low-lying city, where heavy rains have to be pumped out through a century-old drainage system. FILE – Remnants of the half-destroyed mobile home of James Townley, who is living in the standing half, are seen in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Aug. 30, 2020.Even with a push toward the east, New Orleans, which is on Lake Pontchartrain, will be in the storm surge area, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. He said New Orleans “should be very concerned in terms of track.” The National Hurricane Center forecast storm surges of up to 11 feet (3.4 meters), including 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) in Lake Pontchartrain and 6 feet in downtown Mobile, Alabama, a city of about 189,000 people. In eastern New Orleans, drainage canals were lowered in anticipation of torrential rains, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said. New Orleans police went on 12-hour shifts, and rescue boats, barricades, backup generators and other equipment were readied, Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said. On Aug. 27, Hurricane Laura blew ashore in southwestern Louisiana along the Texas line, well west of New Orleans, tearing off roofs and leaving large parts of the city of Lake Charles uninhabitable. The storm was blamed for 32 deaths in the two states, the vast majority of them in Louisiana.  Other Gulf Coast states urged residents to prepare for Sally. In Jackson, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the hurricane could dump up 51 centimeters (20 inches) of rain in the southern part of the state. Shelters opened, but officials urged people who are evacuating to stay with friends or relatives or in hotels, if possible, because of the coronavirus.  People in shelters will be required to wear masks and other protective equipment, authorities said. “Planning for a Cat 1 or Cat 2 hurricane is always complicated,” Reeves said. “Planning for it during 2020 and the life of COVID makes it even more challenging.” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey closed beaches and called for evacuations. 
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An international team of astronomers Monday announced the discovery of a rare gas molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus, which may be the first solid evidence of extraterrestrial life in the solar system.  The researchers say on Earth, phosphine is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments. The international team, which includes researchers from Britain, the U.S. and Japan, published their findings in two papers — the science journal Nature on Monday, and Astrobiology journal on Saturday.Phosphine was first spotted in observations that were made by Cardiff University astronomer Jane Greaves using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. The discovery was then confirmed using a more sensitive radio telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.  FILE – Radio telescope antennas of the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) project, in the Atacama desert, Chile, March 12,2013.The team estimates that phosphine exists in Venus’ clouds at a small concentration, only about 20 molecules in every billion. Still, after running several calculations, they determined there were no non-biological sources on the planet that could account for the levels of phosphine they discovered in the atmosphere. Astronomers have speculated for decades that high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes — floating free of the scorching surface but needing to tolerate very high acidity. They say detection of phosphine could point to such extra-terrestrial “aerial” life. Another member of the team, Massachusetts Institute of Technology molecular astrophysicist Clara Sousa Silva, has investigated phosphine as a “biosignature” gas of non-oxygen-using life on planets around other stars. She said finding it on Venus is exciting and extraordinary.  But she said it raises many questions regarding how any organisms, if they exist, could survive in the planet’s atmosphere, where clouds are made up of about 90% sulphuric acid. So, team members acknowledge that confirming the presence of “life” needs a lot more work. 
 
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