#drought

#drought

Air pollution has reached "alarming" levels in the Iranian capital, Tehran, leading authorities to close schools and universities and ban truck travel in the region in the latest environmental crisis to strike the Middle East nation. The Air Quality Index in Tehran and surrounding cities on November 29 climbed to between 170 and 200 -- considered to be "unhealthy" for all age groups, Iranian media reported.

The first recorded death from West Nile virus this year in L.A. County was confirmed Friday by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The individual, whose details have been kept anonymous, was hospitalized in the San Fernando Valley for neurological illness caused by the mosquito-borne virus. In Southern California, October is the middle of mosquito season. Across Los Angeles County, 14 West Nile virus infections have been documented in 2025; half have been in the San Fernando Valley.

It was dark and smelled of rotten leaves. As I shook the tube, I tried to keep the muck from getting on my shoes. There must have been three or four gallons of it. Contorted in an uncomfortable crouch and harassed by bugs as the water glugged slowly out of the little hole, I felt impatient. I was ready to share my grubby prize with my friends, but the hole was so small and I was still far from the road.

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Rising pressure on local water infrastructure, with prolonged drought, declining inflows and rapid population growth were the focus of a recent Urban Land Institute Austin panel. Speakers called attention to ongoing water policy shortfalls at the state and local levels and warned that continued development could outpace available supply unless legislative and planning reforms are adopted.

The newly discovered tombs are believed to date back to the Hellenistic or Hellenistic-Seleucid period. Archaeologists in drought-hit Iraq have discovered 40 ancient tombs after water levels in the country's largest reservoir declined, according to an antiquities official. The tombs, believed to be more than 2,300 years old, were unearthed at the edges of the Mosul Dam reservoir in the Khanke region of Duhok province in the country's north.

Researchers have now discovered that between 870 and 1100 CE, there were eight extreme drought events on the Yucatan Peninsula, one of the core areas of Mayan civilization.

The first hosepipe ban of 2025 has been announced in the UK, following the country’s driest spring in over a century, with only 15cm of rainfall recorded.

Low water levels after heatwaves and drought are limiting shipping on some of Europe's biggest rivers, including the Rhine and the Danube, and pushing up transport costs.

Millions of Yorkshire households are facing a potential hosepipe ban in two weeks time to cope with the county's drought. Internal Yorkshire Water documents suggest a temporary ban for its five million customers has been pencilled in for July 14.