CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Grain prices pushed to record highs on Thursday as scattered rains in Midwest did little to douse fears that the worst drought in half a century will end soon or relieve worries around the world about higher food prices.

Government forecasters did not rule out that the drought in the U.S. heartland could last past October, continuing what has been the hottest half-year on record.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hotter-than-normal temperatures are expected through October over most of the contiguous 48 U.S. states, with below-average precipitation for Midwest areas already hit by the worst drought in a half century, government forecasters said on Thursday.

Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did not rule out drought that could continue past October, and they noted that there was a chance of an El Nino pattern that could mean more excessive heat and dry conditions by the end of 2012.

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) – Hotter-than-normal
temperatures are expected through October over most of the
contiguous 48 U.S. states, with below-average precipitation for
Midwest areas already hit by the worst drought in a half
century, government forecasters said on Thursday.

Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration did not rule out drought that could continue past
October, and they noted that there was a chance of an El Nino
pattern that could mean more excessive heat and dry conditions
by the end of 2012.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke free from Greenland’s massive Petermann Glacier, which could speed up the march of ice into northern waters, scientists said on Wednesday.

This is the second time in less than two years that the Petermann Glacier has calved a monstrous ice island. In 2010, it unleashed another massive ice chunk into the sea.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Dr. Jill Stein, expected to be chosen as the presidential candidate of the Green Party on Saturday, acknowledges her ultra-long-shot status in this year’s White House race.

“We don’t have to win the election in order to win the day,” the Harvard-trained physician said on Thursday in a telephone interview. “The whole reason we’re in this race is to ensure that everyday people have a voice in this election and a choice at the polls.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Climate change increased the odds for the kind of extreme weather that prevailed in 2011, a year that saw severe drought in Texas, unusual heat in England and was one of the 15 warmest years on record, scientists reported on Tuesday.

Overall, 2011 was a year of extreme events – from historic droughts in East Africa, northern Mexico and the southern United States to an above-average cyclone season in the North Atlantic and the end of Australia’s wettest two-year period ever, scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Kingdom’s Met Office said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scorching temperatures in June’s second half helped the continental United States break its record for the hottest first six months in a calendar year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday.

The last 12 months also have been the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1895, narrowly beating the previous 12-month period that ended in May 2012.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – This may not be much of a surprise, but mermaids aren’t real. No less an authority than the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has debunked the existence of the legendary half-woman, half-fish creatures.

NOAA’s National Ocean Service came out against the reality of mermaids after a documentary-style science fiction program on the Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet suggested in May that the body of a mermaid had been found on a beach.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a cosmic case of “now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t,” a brilliant disk of dust around a Sun-like star has suddenly vanished, and the scientists who observed the disappearance aren’t sure about what happened.

Typically, the kind of dusty haloes that circle stars have the makings of rocky planets like Earth, according to Ben Zuckerman, one of a team of researchers who reported the finding on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – To Shoshana Gurian-Sherman, driving seemed like a huge hassle.

“Part of it was laziness,” the 23-year-old Minneapolis resident recalled. “I didn’t really want to put in the effort to learn how to drive … I knew how to ride the buses, so it was not necessary.