Tropical Cyclone Yaas formed in the Bay of Bengal Sunday night eastern time, and is poised to intensify -- perhaps at a rapid rate, as it swirls toward landfall in the Indian coastal state of Odisha on May 26.
The big picture: The storm, which may reach Category 2 or 3 intensity prior to landfall, threatens to cause more disruptions at the same time as India is reeling from a devastating surge in coronavirus cases.
The Biden administration plans to invest $1 billion helping states prepare for extreme weather ahead of the 2021 hurricane season, alongside an initiative to track natural disasters through a new NASA program.
Why it matters: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expects above-average storm activity during the next hurricane season, which would make this the sixth unusually active season in a row.
Health officials in India are scrambling to contain a potentially fatal fungal infection affecting people being treated for or who've recovered from COVID-19, as the official coronavirus death toll surpassed 300,000 on Monday.
Why it matters: Mucormycosis, the "black fungus" infection, is still quite rare, with some 9,000 cases as of Saturday, per NDTV. But Indian health services are overstretched treating COVID-19 patients, with oxygen and other supplies running out in many places amid sluggish vaccine deliveries, AP notes.
In many areas, the Brood X cicadas that are emerging across a 15-state region are spottier in their prevalence than they were 17 years ago. Some neighborhoods have been inundated with the insects, while others are seeing only a few.
Why it matters: The 17-year periodical cicadas are one of nature's wonders, but the patchiness of the emergence, particularly in suburbia, points to one of the key threats to these unique insects: urbanization.
Two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca are "highly effective" against variants first detected in India and the United Kingdom, health officials in England announced Saturday.
Why it matters: Some health experts have expressed concerns that contagious new variants could be more resistant against coronavirus vaccines, potentially prolonging the pandemic.
Mount Nyiragongo in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo erupted on Saturday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate the nearby city of Goma, per Reuters.
The state of play: Witnesses told AP that lava had "engulfed" a highway connecting Goma with the city of Beni and Reuters reports that lava has reached an area near Goma's airport, on the outskirts of the city, which has a population of about 2 million.
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