Month: February 2021

People the world over have questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. Most have heard rumors about their safety. Even some health workers and members of the U.S. military have opted out of getting immunized. VOA’s Carol Pearson helps debunk some common myths about the COVID vaccines. …

The COVID-19 pandemic has erased more than a decade of improvements in life expectancy in the United States and widened racial and ethnic inequalities, Chart shows the change in estimated life expectancy in the U.S. from 2019 to 2020The new CDC data put the United States in line with estimates from England, Wales and Spain, which also calculated about a one-year drop in life expectancy.France projected a half-year decline for men and four-tenths for women. Swedish men also lost an estimated half a year, and women, three-tenths.U.S. life expectancy already “lags substantially behind virtually all of the high-income countries,” Goldman noted. “Now, we’ll just be even further behind.”These estimates look at cases where COVID-19 is listed as the cause of death. But “it’s definitely true that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting other causes of death indirectly,” said University of Oxford demographer José Manuel Aburto, co-author of the study on life expectancy in England and Wales.He said people have delayed treatment for other diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, out of fear of going to the hospital, which may lead to higher death rates.Experts do not expect life expectancy to snap back to normal when the pandemic ends.For many COVID-19 patients, the disease has worsened existing health problems or created new ones that persist long after the virus is gone.Plus, the social and economic impacts of the pandemic “have been terrible on a large segment of the population that will translate into poorer health and ultimately poor survival,” Goldman said. “And …

Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, so the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report said.Unlike past U.N. reports that focused on one issue and avoided telling leaders what actions to take, Thursday’s report combined three intertwined environment crises and told the world what must change. It called for changing what governments tax, how nations value economic output, how power is generated, the way people get around, fish and farm, as well as what they eat.FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Dec. 18, 2020.”Without nature’s help, we will not thrive or even survive,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “For too long, we have been waging a senseless and suicidal war on nature. The result is three interlinked environmental crises.”Thus the 168-page report title is blunt: “Making Peace With Nature.””Our children and their children will inherit a world of extreme weather events, sea level rise, a drastic loss of plants and animals, food and water insecurity, and increasing likelihood of future pandemics,” said report lead author Sir Robert Watson, who has chaired past U.N. science reports on climate change and biodiversity loss.”The emergency is in fact more profound than we thought only a few years ago,” said Watson, who has been a top-level scientist in the U.S. and British governments.This year “is a make-it …

NASA’s Perseverance probe landed safely and on time on Mars, at 3:55 p.m. EST, Thursday, marking another success for the U.S. space agency.The nuclear-powered probe made its way through a harrowing landing process, deemed by some engineers as “seven minutes of terror” because it involves parachutes, powered descent and a “sky crane” that gently lowers Perseverance onto a challenging, rocky area of Martian surface. After a confirmed safe landing, members of the probe’s Mission Control erupted in applause and cheers. NASA has now successfully landed nine of 10 probes sent to the Red Planet. Minutes after touching down, Perseverance beamed back a black-and-white image from the surface as more applause broke out at Mission Control.Safe on Mars. https://t.co/heoYjkwfty— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021The probe is equipped with a microphone, which should have recorded its descent. Perseverance, and its helicopter-like companion drone, Ingenuity, began the 300-million mile journey in July. Ingenuity will test if powered flight can be done in Mars’ thin atmosphere. The six-wheeled Perseverance, which looks like the other four rover probes that have landed on Mars, set down in Jezero Crater, which is believed to be an ancient lakebed and a potential source for remnants of ancient life.  Determining if Mars once hosted life is the primary goal of the probe’s two-year mission. During its search, the probe will take samples from the Red Planet’s surface and store them in its 43 sample tubes. NASA plans to send another mission to Mars to retrieve the tubes sometime in the early 2030s. Before …

NASA and the United States have successfully landed the Perseverance on Mars after the rover left the company of spacecrafts from the UAE and China in orbit. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, challenges for the rover – and potentially a treasure trove of discoveries  – await.Produced by:  Arash Arabasadi …

The World Health Organization said Thursday it is sending 11,000 doses of Ebola vaccine and more than 100 experts to Guinea to address an Ebola outbreak in the West African nation.     Speaking in a virtual news conference from her headquarters in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said officials are also expecting an additional 8,600 doses of vaccine from the United States, for a total of nearly 20,000 shots. She expects them to arrive by Sunday and Ebola vaccinations to begin by Monday.   Health officials in Guinea declared an epidemic Sunday after three cases were detected in Gouécké, a rural community in N’Zerekore prefecture. At least one victim there has died. It is the first Ebola outbreak in Guinea since 2016 when a large one was brought under control.   Moeti said the WHO released $1.25 million to support the response in Guinea and to show its “readiness” in the neighboring countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone. She said the epicenter of the outbreak was in the border area, so the entire sub-region is on high alert.   Meanwhile, the WHO said there four confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including two deaths. The agency has around 20 experts supporting national and provincial health authorities in the DRC.   The United Nations announced it is releasing $15 million from its emergency relief fund to help fight the outbreaks in both Guinea and the DRC.   Ebola …

The World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday launched its 2021 COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) designed to help all nations fight the pandemic and is seeking nearly $2 billion in donations to fund it.This is the second such initiative, coming just over a year after the first one was announced.  At a news conference in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the 2020 strategic plan raised $1.58 billion from WHO members and other donors.Tedros said those funds were allocated to nations and regions throughout the world, helping those at the front lines of the pandemic.He said this year’s COVID-19 SPRP will have six objectives: suppressing transmission of the virus, reducing exposure, countering COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation, protect the vulnerable, reduce death and illness, and accelerate equitable access to new tools to fight the virus — including vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.The WHO chief said the agency needs to raise $1.96 billion to meet those objectives. He said most of that funding — $1.2 billion — would go into WHO’s Access to COVID –19 Tools (ACT) accelerator program, designed to equitably distribute medicines, treatments and technology to all nations.Tedros urged donors to contribute, saying it was more than just charity.“Fully funding the SPRP is not just an investment in responding to COVID-19, it’s an investment in the global recovery and in building the architecture to prepare for, prevent and mitigate future health emergencies,” he said. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. …

Pushed to the back of Gen Z anxieties by the COVID-19 pandemic, a looming stressor for many people younger than 30 remains climate change, say experts.    “Natural disasters precipitated by climate change, including hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, and floods can lead to … increased rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and other mental health disorders,” according to researchers at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Canada, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. FILE – Firefighters battle the Morton Fire as it burns a home near Bundanoon, New South Wales, Australia, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)  The authors label the fear “eco-anxiety, climate distress, climate change anxiety, or climate anxiety,” writing in the respected British medical and science journal, The Lancet Planetary Health.    In other words, the future is not looking bright from the perspective of many people under 30.    Xiye Bastida, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, has been fighting the climate crisis since her hometown in Mexico flooded when she was 13. She calls it a pivotal moment in her environmental activism.    “Sometimes we don’t realize when we actually start caring about something and acting upon it,” she said.    Mexican-Chilean Bastida is one of the founding members of the New York City chapter of Fridays for Future, a strike movement that pressures public officials about climate change by protesting outside schools and government offices. She is also the co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative, which seeks to educate the public about climate …

Malawi will reopen schools on Monday (Feb 22), five weeks after President Lazarus Chakwera suspended classes due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. Malawi’s Presidential Task-Force on COVID-19 determined it is safe to resume classes after a drop in the rate of infection.Co-Chairperson of the Presidential Task-Force on COVID-19 Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said in a televised address Wednesday night the infection rate is at 16%, down from 30% in January, when classes were suspended.She said, “Actually what we wanted is that once we reopen the schools our children should be safe because we know that when we were closing the schools, some teachers were COVID-19 positive and were on quarantine.  So we wanted to give them enough time to recover.”However, Kandodo Chiponda, who is also minister of health, said some schools will require students to produce COVID-19-negative certificates to be allowed into class.She asked parents to comply with such a requirement, saying the government has enough COVID-19 test kits in all public hospitals in the country.She said, “I would like to ask schools with such a requirement not to suspend learners with positive COVID-19 results but reverse their places and give them enough time to recover.”Critics say the decision to resume classes has been rushed and many schools, especially in rural areas, are not ready to reopen.They say unmet requirements include on-the-campus water sources for hand washing and enough classrooms for proper social distancing when learning.   But Education Minister Agness Nyalonje says everything is set and that the ministry has allocated …

A new study shows the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the South African variant of the virus, although it generates a slightly lower immune response.   In a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers with Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch created a version of the virus that carried the same mutations found in the South African variant dubbed B.1.35.1.  They tested the engineered virus against blood samples from people who had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.  FILE – A Walgreens pharmacist prepares a syringe with COVID-19 vaccine in Coral Gables, Fla., Jan. 12, 2021.The results found the vaccine’s ability to produce antibodies was reduced by two-thirds, compared with its effect on the most common version of the virus. In a separate letter published in the NEJM, U.S. drugmaker Moderna says it has discovered similar results with its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine in fighting the B.1.35.1 variant.  Pfizer and BioNTech issued a statement saying they were making the necessary investments and talking with regulators in anticipation of developing an updated version of the vaccine or a booster shot.   FILE – A staff member works during a media tour of a new factory built to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, at Sinovac, in Beijing, China, Sept. 24, 2020.Hong Kong OKs Sinovac’s vaccineMeanwhile, Hong Kong has formally granted emergency use authorization to Chinese-based Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine.The drug’s approval came after the city’s special advisory panel on COVID-19 vaccines recommended its use despite the fact the …

The latest NASA probe to Mars is set to land Thursday after a journey that began last July.Perseverance’s entry into the Martian atmosphere was set to start at 3:55 p.m. EST, starting a seven-minute process that scientists hope will be successful. During the landing, NASA has no ability to control the probe.The elaborate landing process involves parachutes, powered descent and a “sky crane,” which is expected to lower Perseverance onto the Martian surface using cables.”I can tell you that Perseverance is operating perfectly right now, and that all systems are go for landing,” Jennifer Trosper, a NASA deputy project manager for the rover mission, said during a press briefing Tuesday.Perseverance is targeting a landing in Jezero Crater, which is believed to be an ancient lakebed. There, it will search for signs of ancient life.The terrain around the landing site is rocky, making landing difficult, but NASA said the probe is up to the challenge.“When the scientists take a look at a site like Jezero Crater, they see the promise, right?” said Al Chen, who is in charge of the entry, descent and landing team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, according to The Associated Press. “When I look at Jezero, I see danger. There’s danger everywhere.”NASA has successfully landed eight of nine probes on Mars.Perseverance is similar in appearance to other Mars rovers, but it carries a helicopter-type drone, Ingenuity, which will test if powered flight on Mars is possible. …

President Joe Biden’s administration has pledged to improve the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. This week, the first federally supported mass vaccination sites opened in California. Matt Dibble reports. Camera: Matt Dibble     Producer: Matt Dibble …

As vaccination efforts ramp up in the United States, experts say efforts to deal with doubters need to increase along with them.Some are predicting that as soon as April, there may be more vaccines available People receive the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site Feb. 17, 2021, in Las Vegas.For example, an organization called Cure Violence could be well-placed to win over skeptics in the largely African American and Latino neighborhoods in which they work, and where vaccine hesitancy runs high.The group’s main mission, as the name suggests, is to prevent violence. Its outreach workers come from low-income neighborhoods in more than 20 cities across the country.When the pandemic began to spread last March, Cure Violence quickly began training its outreach workers about the disease and how to talk about it in their neighborhoods.Dealing with a disease outbreak may not have been their original purpose, but “that’s the way it goes in epidemics,” said Gary Slutkin, the organization’s founder and CEO. “You usually don’t have an existing epidemic infrastructure. You have to use something or build something.”Slutkin knows from experience. He worked on fighting cholera, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Africa before adopting disease-control methods to prevent violence.Motorists line up for their COVID-19 vaccine a joint state and federal mass vaccination site set up on the campus of California State University of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, Feb. 16, 2021.Cure Violence made videos, social media posts and paper posters about how to live real life with COVID-19 around. Of course, that …

Residents, some of whom lack heat or basic amenities in their own homes due to the unusually chilly weather, have been rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles and taking them to a convention center in a South Texas resort town. “Every 15 minutes or less there’s another truck or SUV that pulls up,” Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. He said sometimes people bring one or two sea turtles, sometimes more. “We had trailers full yesterday coming in that had 80, 100, 50,” he said. The South Padre Island Convention Center started pitching in Monday when its neighbor, Sea Turtle Inc., could no longer handle the number of sea turtles being dropped off, and their mostly outdoor operation had lost power. He said the convention center itself didn’t have power or water till early Wednesday morning. He says they’ve “collected” more than 3,500 sea turtles so far. He said he hesitates to use the word rescued because “we know we’re going to lose some.” Caum said that with another cold front approaching, they don’t know when they’ll be able to return the sea turtles to the water.  Temperatures in the area on Wednesday afternoon were in the 40s. He said it may be Saturday — when temperatures are expected to reach the low 60s (above 15 Celsius) — before the turtles can be released back into the Gulf. He said with power returned they have been able to bring the convention center’s temperature to 60 degrees. “We’re trying to …

The U.N. secretary-general called on the world’s largest economies Wednesday to create a task force to plan and coordinate a global COVID-19 vaccination plan.  “The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities,” Antonio Guterres told a high-level virtual meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the global vaccine rollout. “I believe the G-20 is well-placed to establish an emergency task force to prepare such a global vaccination plan and coordinate its implementation and financing.” He said the task force should include the World Health Organization (WHO), the global vaccine alliance Gavi, international financial institutions, as well as the international vaccine alliance COVAX, and all countries that have the capacity to develop vaccines or produce them if licenses are available. “The task force would have the capacity to mobilize the pharmaceutical companies and key industry and logistics actors,” Guterres added. Leaders of the G-7 are holding a virtual summit this Friday, and Guterres said they could use that session to create momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources. “The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is generating hope,” he noted, but warned that people affected by conflict and insecurity are at risk of being left behind. US to pay WHO U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his international debut at the online meeting. He said the Biden administration will work with partners to expand COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity, and increase access, including to marginalized populations.   He also said Washington would pay over …

Japan began its long-awaited coronavirus vaccination program Wednesday. The first shots took place at a Tokyo hospital just hours after the hospital received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.  As many as 40,000 doctors and nurses across the nation will receive the first doses of the vaccine, with the eventual goal of inoculating a total of 3.7 million medical personnel by March, followed by about 36 million citizens 65 years of age and older.   Japan’s vaccination program is off to a slow start, with health authorities only formally approving use of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech drug on Sunday. Officials asked Pfizer to carry out further tests on the vaccine in addition to earlier tests that had been conducted in several other countries. Taro Kono, the country’s vaccine minister, told reporters Tuesday the additional testing was conducted to reassure the Japanese people of its safety.  Vaccinations are not compulsory in Japan, and while Kono voiced confidence he could reach front-line workers and elderly people, he acknowledged he needed to formulate a plan for successfully reaching younger people and encourage them to get the shot.A medical worker fills a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as Japan launches its inoculation campaign, at Tokyo Medical Center in Tokyo, Feb. 17, 2021.Along with Pfizer-BioNTech, Japan has also signed contracts to procure millions of doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Moderna, enough in all for 157 million people. The country is hoping to get enough people vaccinated in time for the postponed Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, …

It’s as if the world has been turned upside-down, or at least its weather. You can blame the increasingly familiar polar vortex, which has brought a taste of the Arctic to places where winter often requires no more than a jacket. Around the North Pole, winter’s ultra-cold air is usually kept bottled up 15 to 30 miles high. That’s the polar vortex, which spins like a whirling top at the top of the planet. But occasionally something slams against the top, sending the cold air escaping from its Arctic home and heading south. It’s been happening more often, and scientists are still not completely sure why, but they suggest it’s a mix of natural random weather and human-caused climate change. This particular polar vortex breakdown has been a whopper. Meteorologists call it one of the biggest, nastiest and longest-lasting ones they’ve seen, and they’ve been watching since at least the 1950 s. This week’s weather is part of a pattern stretching back to January. “It’s been a major breakdown,” said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod. “It really is the cause of all of these crazy weather events in the Northern Hemisphere.” “It’s been unusual for a few weeks now — very, very crazy,” Francis said. “Totally topsy-turvy.” Record cold in warmer placesRecord subzero temperatures in Texas and Oklahoma knocked millions off the power grid and into deep freezes. A deadly tornado hit North Carolina. Other parts of the South saw thunder snow and reports of something that seemed like a snow …

Sixty-six million years ago, a huge celestial object struck off the coast of what is now Mexico, triggering a catastrophic “impact winter” that eventually wiped out three-quarters of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. A pair of astronomers at Harvard say they have now resolved long-standing mysteries surrounding the nature and origin of the “Chicxulub impactor.”  Their analysis suggests it was a comet that originated in a region of icy debris on the edge of the solar system, that Jupiter was responsible for it crashing into our planet, and that we can expect similar impacts every 250 million to 750 million years. The duo’s paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports this week, pushes back against an older theory that claims the object was a fragment of an asteroid that came from our solar system’s Main Belt. “Jupiter is so important because it’s the most massive planet in our solar system,” lead author Amir Siraj told AFP. Jupiter ends up acting as a kind of “pinball machine” that “kicks these incoming long-period comets into orbits that bring them very close to the sun.” So-called “long-period comets” come from the Oort cloud, thought to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the solar system like a bubble that is made of icy pieces of debris the size of mountains or larger.  The long-period comets take about 200 years to orbit the sun and are also called sungrazers because of how close they pass. Because they come from the deep freeze of the outer solar system, comets are icier …

The European Space Agency (ESA) said Tuesday it is recruiting new astronauts for the first time since 2008 and encouraging women and people with disabilities to apply.The announcement Tuesday came in a virtual news briefing that included ESA Director General Jan Worner and current agency astronauts. Worner said while ESA still has astronauts from the last selection process, it needs new astronauts to “secure a continuity” and ensure a smooth transfer of knowledge from one class to another.Worner said the agency is looking to add up to 26 permanent and reserve astronauts. And it is strongly encouraging women to apply, as well as people with disabilities to its roster to boost diversity among crews. The agency has launched a “parastronaut” program designed to examine what is needed to get disabled astronauts onto the International Space Station.ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said if technology can allow other humans to work and thrive in space, it can do so for the disabled as well. “When it comes to space travel, we are all disabled. You know, we all have a disability because we were just not meant to be up there. So, what brings us from being, you know, disabled, to go to space to being able to go to space is technology.”Requirements for an astronaut job at ESA include a master’s degree in natural sciences, engineering, mathematics or computer science and three years of post-graduate experience. But the agency says it is looking for “all-arounders,” not specialists.The application process begins March 31 with …

The World Health Organization and other aid agencies are moving quickly to try to gain control over a new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Guinea. Guinea is one of three countries that was affected by the 2014 West African outbreak, the largest in history.The outbreak in Guinea was detected February 14, just one week after a new outbreak of Ebola was identified in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  The two outbreaks are unrelated, but the World Health Organization says both face similar challenges and both can benefit from new treatments and recent experiences. The WHO reports seven family members who attended a burial ceremony in the town of Goueke, Guinea, were infected with the virus and three have since died.  WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris says 115 contacts have been identified and the majority have been traced. “We are confident with the experience and expertise built during the previous outbreak that the health team in Guinea are on the move to quickly trace the cause of the virus and curb further infections. But it certainly will be a big job. And WHO is supporting the Guinean authorities to set up testing, contact tracing, treatment structures and to bring the overall response to full speed,” said Harris.Harris says WHO offices in surrounding countries have been contacted and preparedness plans are being put in place. FILE – Mark Lowcock, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Emergency and Relief Coordinator, speaks at U.N. headquarters, Oct. 23, 2018.In New York, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Mark Lowcock, announced …

For the first time, wild camels have been sold on Australia’s leading online livestock auction. Australia has the world’s largest herd of feral camels that were introduced in the 1840s. Auctioneers in Australia weren’t sure if the group of 93 Arabian camels would sell online, but they all sold for as much as $230 each.  Most were bought to keep prickly weeds under control on farms, and there was interest from domestic meat traders. The animals had been rounded up, or mustered, by helicopter on a remote property in Queensland.  Scott Taylor is a selling agent who helped arrange the auction. He says it took two days for all the wild camels to be caught. “They came in, I think it was probably about 60 kilometers back to the yards. They were mustered in over a two-day period. Yeah, they just came straight in out of the bush and into the yards, and it is surprising how quickly they settled down once they get into captivity, for being a feral animal,” Taylor saidAlmost 100 animals were sold on AuctionsPlus, an online service that normally trades in cattle, sheep and goats.   It is estimated there are at least 300,000 feral camels in central Australia. They can often compete with livestock for scarce supplies of water. Thousands been killed by farmers. They have been declared agricultural pests by state authorities, including Western Australia. Wild herds are also considered to be a health and safety risk to isolated indigenous communities.  The animals were imported from South Asia and elsewhere in the mid-19th century. They were used in colonial Australia as transport, but when they were superseded by motor vehicles, many were released into the wild or escaped. They have, like …

Colombia is set to begin immunizations against COVID-19 after receiving its first shipment of vaccines on Monday. President Ivan Duque and his health minister accepted the first 50,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and said frontline health care workers and the elderly will be the first to get their shots. Colombia has a contract to buy 10 million doses from Pfizer and it expects to soon receive 1.6 million doses from other laboratories. The government says it intends to vaccinate 35 million people this year, including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees. Colombia is one of the last countries in Latin America to start vaccinations, behind Ecuador, Panama and Chile. President Duque said his administration was hesitant to start immunizations until it had assurance of getting a steady supply of vaccine to battle the novel coronavirus.  The president also said the arrival of vaccines does not end the use of masks and social distancing. Colombia has more than 2,198,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 57,786 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center.   …

The deaths of two Colorado men caught in avalanches and a third in Montana over the frigid Presidents Day weekend show how backcountry skiers and others in the Rocky Mountain wilderness risk triggering weak layers of snow that have created the most hazardous conditions in a decade, forecasters say. At least 25 people have been killed in avalanches in the United States this year — more than the 23 who died last winter. Typically, 27 people die in avalanches in the U.S. annually. Avalanche forecasters say they have rarely seen the danger as high as it is now — and it will grow as more snow moves into the Rockies, adding weight and stress on a weak, granular base layer of snow that’s susceptible to breaking apart and triggering especially wide slides on steep slopes. The main culprit is that ground layer of snow that dropped in October. A dry November weakened it, which is anywhere from several inches (centimeters) to several feet (meters) thick, and despite more snow falling, it’s stayed the consistency of granular sugar, said Dave Zinn, an avalanche forecaster for the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in southwestern Montana. “That layer consists of large, sugary crystals that don’t bond together well. It’s impossible to make a snowball from it. And when it becomes weighted down, it becomes fragile and breaks,” bringing down the heavier layers on top of it, Zinn said. “It’s the weakest link in the chain. When you pile on more snow, there’s always one spot that’s going to …

Much of the United States was in the icy grip of an “unprecedented” winter storm on Monday as frigid Arctic air sent temperatures plunging, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, making driving hazardous and leaving millions without power in Texas.Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for the southern state, and the National Weather Service (NWS) said more than 150 million Americans were under winter weather advisories.”I urge all Texans to remain vigilant against the extremely harsh weather,” Abbott said in a statement.The NWS described conditions as an “unprecedented and expansive area of hazardous winter weather” from coast-to-coast.More than 2.7 million people were without power in Texas, according to PowerOutage.us, and temperatures in the major metropolis of Houston dipped to 16 degrees Fahrenheit (minus nine Celsius).President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Texas on Sunday providing federal assistance to supplement state relief efforts.Texas is not used to such brutal winter weather and the storm caused havoc in parts of the state, including a 100-car pileup on Interstate 35 near Fort Worth last week that left at least six people dead.Austin-Bergstrom International Airport said that all flights had been canceled on Monday due to the “historic weather” and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport also shut down.The NWS said Arctic air was driving a “polar plunge” that is expected to bring record-low temperatures.Much of the United States has been shivering under chilly temperatures for days, with about half of all Americans now under some sort of winter weather warning.Temperatures have dropped …