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snow fell in six states from North Carolina to Pennsylvania, breaking October monthly and single storm snowfall records. Snowfall totals across the highest elevations neared 3 feet. The Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent for October was the eighth largest monthly extent in the 45-year period of record, at 734,000 square miles above average. The North American snow cover extent was the seventh largest on record for October. The U.S. October nationally averaged precipitation total of 2.19 inches was slightly above the long-term average. The Northwest, Midwest and Northeast were wetter than average, while below-average precipitation was observed across the Southern Rockies and the Central and Southern Plains. As of October 30, 60.2 percent of the contiguous U.S. was experiencing drought conditions, with the most severe conditions in the Great Plains. The U.S. region from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico had below-average temperatures in October, with 19 states having monthly temperatures below their 20th-century averages. The Southwest and the Northeast were the only two regions of the United States with above-average temperatures. which made it challenging to capture clear sound. After a network upgrade in August, signal integrity and compatibility improved, with the Instreamer digitizing the hydrophone-captured audio into 16-bit MP3 for better sound quality. The system captures both loud identifcation calls and soft chatter. It uses Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc. 802.11 microwave radios to deliver the live stream. Pacifc Wild expects to expand up to 12 sites over the next fve years. Google, USGS Partner to Offer Online Emergency Alerts Emergency notifcations for earthquakes, severe weather and other public safety matters are now available via Google Public Alerts. Earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have been incorporated into the system, as well as data from NOAA's National Weather Service. Minutes after an earthquake, USGS publishes information on the origin time, location and magnitude, which is distributed on Google websites. n Hydrophones Monitor Humpback Whales in British Columbia Pacifc Wild, a nonproft conservation organization, has deployed audio monitoring stations at four points along the British Columbia shoreline to capture live sounds of humpback whales in their natural marine environment. The network uses Cetacean Research Technology (Seattle, Washington) C55 hydrophones and Barix AG (Zurich, Switzerland) Instreamer IP audio devices. The Instreamer encodes the sounds captured by the hydrophones, which are live streamed 24/7 over the Internet, available to the public at http://pacifcwild.org/site/greatbear-live/hydrophones. The audio system allows monitoring of changes in individual whale song and how sound is passed between whales. The data will enable the study of behavioral patterns of humpback whales and how surrounding activity, such as shipping, affects their behavior. Pacifc Wild's previous audio system recorded 8-bit audio at 8 kilohertz, www.sea-technology.com DECEMBER 2012 / st 77