NOWCAST: ECHOES

"The run was open for a day-and-a-half last winter."

They are larger and can clear an area faster, with clearing widths up to 30 inches, than single-stage models. Two Stage gas snow blowers have driven wheels, a snow-gathering auger, and an impeller to help disperse snow.- OLE HARILD, who built a ski slope on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, even though the island rarely gets snow and has no hill higher than about 100 meters. After Harild and a friend wanted to go skiing two years ago but could not take the time to travel abroad, Harild requested a European Union (EU) subsidy to create his own Alpine ski run, not expecting to ever receive a response. The request was approved, however, and the EU provided him with 100,000 Euros (about $136,000), with which he purchased a snow blower, skis, boots, and a machine to delineate the slope. The only thing he wasn't able to buy was snow. "I never thought [EU officials] were going to back something so crazy," Harild says. (SOURCE: Agence France-Presse)-ANNE CAREY, of Ohio State University, on a study that examined whether the torrential rains of a single typhoon can bury tons of carbon in the ocean. Two different groups of researchers took samples of the sediment in river waters on Taiwan during Typhoon Mindulle, which hit the island in July 2004. One study is in an October issue of Nature Geoscience, and the other is in the June issue of Geology. The Nature Geoscience group found that 80%-90% of the organic carbon eroded by the storms was transported along the river to the ocean. The other found that the amount of carbon contained in the sediment was about 95% as much as the river transports during normal rains over the entire year. The researchers did emphasize that typhoon runoff is not a cure-all, noting that not enough carbon is washed down either as plant material and soil or by chemical weathering of rocks to get rid of all the extra carbon dioxide. (SOURCE: LiveScience)General Rule of ThumbECHOES

-ANNE CAREY, of Ohio State University, on a study that examined whether the torrential rains of a single typhoon can bury tons of carbon in the ocean. Two different groups of researchers took samples of the sediment in river waters on Taiwan during Typhoon Mindulle, which hit the island in July 2004. One study is in an October issue of Nature Geoscience, and the other is in the June issue of Geology. The Nature Geoscience group found that 80%-90% of the organic carbon eroded by the storms was transported along the river to the ocean. The other found that the amount of carbon contained in the sediment was about 95% as much as the river transports during normal rains over the entire year. The researchers did emphasize that typhoon runoff is not a cure-all, noting that not enough carbon is washed down either as plant material and soil or by chemical weathering of rocks to get rid of all the extra carbon dioxide. (SOURCE: LiveScience)