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From record heat, fires and floods to hurricanes, tropical storms and even an eclipse, August brought a dramatic and — for those along the Gulf Coast — devastating end to summer as Mother Nature demonstrated her power and ability to awe.

Monarch butterfly populations from western North America have declined far more dramatically than was previously known and face a greater risk of extinction than eastern monarchs, according to a new study in the journal Biological Conservation.

“Western monarchs are faring worse than their eastern counterparts,” said Cheryl Schultz, an associate professor at Washington State University Vancouver and lead author of the study. “In the 1980s, 10 million monarchs spent the winter in coastal California. Today there are barely 300,000.”

For a few weeks over the summer in 2011, teams of scientists from around the world converged on a small patch of ponderosa pine forest in Colorado to carry out one of the most detailed, extended survey of atmospheric chemistry ever attempted in one place, in many cases using new measurement devices created especially for this project. Now, after years of analysis, their comprehensive synthesis of the findings have been released this week.

Satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite have provided different data on the still Category 5 Hurricane Irma as it headed for the Turks and Caicos Islands.  

While Hurricane Irma moves through the Caribbean islands toward South Florida with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour, forecasters are warning that two other major named storms have formed in the Atlantic Basin — Hurricanes Katia and Jose. It is the first time since 2010 that three hurricanes have been active in the region at the same time.