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Wind farms can raise ground temperatures in their immediate locality, which could lead to a "noticeable" impact on local and regional weather and climates, research suggests.

Ireland and the UK are bracing themselves for gusts of up to 160km/h as the remnants of hurricane Katia are expected to arrive late Sunday and Monday. As Katia moves eastward from the New England region of the United States, it will race across the Atlantic over the next 48 hours towards old England.

They are over 100 miles wide, over a mile high, and are regular occurrences in Phoenix, Az. These clouds, called Haboobs, happen in arid areas of the world, most commonly the Sahara desert, the Arabian Peninsula, the Central United Stats, affecting states as diverse as Kuwait and Iraq, to Texas and New Mexico.

This storm is 800 times bigger than the surface area of the Earth, covers 4 billion square kilometres, and is so long it has etched a planet-wide scar encircling Saturn's Northern Hemisphere.

A massive scar, caused by one of the most destructive tornado super-cells to hit the US in 30 years, stretches across the Alabama city of Tuscaloosa in these satellite images just released by Google.

NASA has mobilised its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra satellite to track the massive Tropical Cyclone Yasi, which is currently heading for Australia’s Queensland cost. According to NASA the tropical cyclone is approaching Cairns, Queensland, at about 165kmph (90 knots) and is due to make landfall early tomorrow morning Queensland time.

It might be cold where you are but spare a thought for these poor Canadians. YouTube user samantha683 braved temperatures of below -30 °C (-22°F) to demonstrate just how chilly it is. In the video she throws freshly boiled water in the air only for it to evaporate in a plume of white fog before it hits the ground.

Ireland and the UK will see their first solar eclipse of the new year on Tuesday (4th January). The partial eclipse will be visiable across the British Isles from 8:00am and will last until about 9:30am. At its peak the moon will obscure about 66% of the sun, although the amounts will vary depending on location. The eclipse will also be visible over much of Europe, North Africa and central Asia.

“Jesus loves you” was the most searched term on Google News in the UK and Ireland in 2010, according to Google Insights for Search. In Ireland the term was 20 times more popular than “ireland“, the next highest ranking term. “Jesus loves you” even outranked search terms such as “gerry ryan“, “weather” and “haiti“. In the UK it was 10 times more popular than the second search term “news“.

With temperatures in some parts of the UK and Ireland set to reach as low as 28°C on Monday night, many have been wondering why this winter has been especially harsh. According to NASA the reason is a natural shift the the location of the Gulf Stream called ‘Negative Arctic Oscillation’.

With temperatures set to plunge once again towards the latter half of next week, stay safe and informed with these great Irish weather applications that work on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

The Irish east coast might not have received the 25cm (10") of snow predicted on Monday but the blizzard conditions are still occupying the minds of Irish tweeters - or at least those in the nation's capital, or so says Trendsmap.

Ireland is preparing itself for the worst storm of the year today as gale force winds and driving rain are expected to hit the country Sunday evening through to Monday. Latest info here