Weather, or Not category archive

In the Las Vegas Sun, Paul VanDevelder argues that the race to dam the rivers of the western United States* has exacerbated the current drought, which geological evidence suggests is the worst in a millenium, by disturbing the balance of nature. A nugget:

The Colorado River has always been a special case. The drought that grips the Southwest today is the worst in 1,250 years, and climate modeling suggests things are likely to get worse. Ironically, the first state in line to lose water from diminishing reserves is Arizona. Suddenly, those 280 golf courses in the greater Phoenix area, not to mention tens of thousands of swimming pools, look kind of ridiculous. And don’t look now, but guess who’s first in line for the water that would otherwise water those golf courses?

The tribes. Dozens of them: the Fort Mojaves, the Shoshones, the Chemehuevi and Quechan, the Hopi and Navajo, et al. Where water flows between a rock and a dry place, tribes get first dibs.

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*A dam to fill the Grand Canyon was narrowly averted as recently as 1963.

The Weather Channel asked its viewers Saturday to urge Congress to intervene in its business dispute with DirecTV, arguing that it can harm public safety if the satellite system pulls the network off the air for nearly 20 million viewers.

Yeah.

Right.

Speaking of climate change, we ran the AC in the car on the way home from the grocery store today, after bundling up in the Fahrenheit teens and twenties three days ago.

Addendum:

Elsewhere, Bob Cesca looks at the big picture. A nugget:

See, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere where in Australia, for example, they’re enduring a record-breaking heat wave. The seasons are opposite due to the natural tilt of the Earth’s axis and — well, you know. Science, science, science. But screw that mumbo-jumbo — it’s easier to look outside, see snow on the ground and then to, via confirmation bias, conclude that global warming is a hoax. Easy. And dumb.

Image via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

78 Fahrenheits two days before Christmas.

That’s okay in San Diego. Not here.

Yesterday, the high here was 77 Fahrenheits. In December.

We turned on the AC. In December.

One of my potted roses is budding. In December.

The daffodils are sprouting. In December.

Move along, though. Nothing to see here.

Not this December.

Today is the eighth straight day of unrelenting clouds, rain, and drizzle.

The clouds parted yesterday evening, but it was merely a cruel joke to get our hopes up. They unparted during the night.

I can’t recall a stretch of such unrelenting dreary weather.

It’s been raining since Tuesday.

I looked at my rain gauge, which has a capacity of 5.25 inches, this morning.

It was full.

Addendum, Later Same Day:

Another .75 inches today.

Here’s a slice of news.

The city’s (Milwaukee, natch–ed.) Department of Public Works will go ahead this winter with a pilot program to determine whether cheese brine — a liquid waste product left over from cheesemaking — can be added to rock salt and applied directly to the street.

A report prepared by the city’s Department of Public Works notes that Milwaukee, like most cities, relies on rock salt as its primary de-icer on roads. Rock salt, according to the report, is plentiful, inexpensive and very effective.

At Psychology Today Blogs, two psychologist try to understand America’s failure to face the reality of climate change and to what extent even thinking about the possibility thereof may have become a societal taboo.

A nugget:

Pythia: Indeed these days we can more easily speak about sex or money than our overfished oceans and vanishing species. But just like social conventions once prohibited us from discussing sex, what are the cultural reasons that reinforce this repression around climate change?

Mary: One reason Americans don’t talk about this is because we don’t get good information. For twenty years now the culture has been mired in the least productive of all topics, which is “Do you believe in climate change?” It’s as if we were talking about whether or not we believe in extraterrestrials! Climate change is no more a matter of belief than microbes are a matter of belief — it’s an empirical fact based on evidence provided by international scientists.

Lake Powell used to be Glen Canyon. I’ve gone rafting down river from it.

A federal Bureau of Reclamation study released Friday says the Colorado River’s worst drought in a century will force reduced water releases from Lake Powell that could affect agriculture, downstream business and hydroelectric power production.

Groups urging conservation warned of drastic water cutbacks and severe economic implications, while state officials and the Central Arizona Project sought to downplay the alarm.

Looks like it’s on the way to once again being just plain old Glen Canyon.

Beating the heat on the autobahn . . . .

A BMW convertible first aroused the suspicions of a motorcycle cop on patrol in the eastern German town of Eibenstock when water sloshed out of it as it drove around a curve. When the officer pulled the car over, he could hardly believe his eyes.

(snip)

But there’s one question that even police experts have been unable to answer: Is it illegal to drive a swimming pool?

Poolside photos at the link.

Via BartCop.

A rising tide floods all houses.

New homes in flood-prone areas (in Norfolk, Va.–ed.) will be built higher than initially proposed, and a full 2 feet above where they’re built now, if the City Council approves new regulations later this year.

Currently, homes built in such areas must be built 1 foot above where floodwaters can rise. The higher elevation would bring the requirement up to 3 feet and is one of several changes proposed.

City staff originally pushed for an increase to 2 feet last year, but a rise in the sea level caused the Planning Commission to go higher, Vice Chairman Martin Thomas Jr. said. Already, the city has seen a dramatic increase in the number of properties with recurring flood damage.

Via the San Jose Mercury-News, footage of a tornado in Italy. It’s below the fold because it autoplays.

Read more »

California prepares to relive its storied past.

The survey showed the water content of what little snowpack does remain at 17 percent of normal, an ominous situation for a state that depends on a steady stream of snowmelt to replenish reservoirs throughout the summer.

For nearly a century the state has been taking snow measurements at select areas across the Sierra Nevada in an attempt to gauge how much water will be available for farmers and city dwellers. Having a course bare of snow is not unheard of in May – the last month it is measured – but it’s another stark reminder that water will be in short supply this summer.

With the DWR projecting to supply just 35 percent of what 29 agencies providing water to 25 million Californians say they need, officials still are not ready to call it a drought.

For grins and giggles, here’s a bit of what Richard Henry Dana had to say about Los Angeles.

I also learned, to my surprise, that the desolate-looking place we were in furnished more hides than any port on the coast. It was the only port for a distance of eighty miles, and about thirty miles in the interior was a fine plane country, filled with herds of cattle, in the centre of which was the Pueblo de los Angeles,–the largest town in California,– and several of the wealthiest missions; to all of which San Pedro was the seaport.

We seem to have gone from March to July in three days.

Colorado water utilities imposing severe limits on using water for ornament watering lawns.

The only way lawn-watering restrictions could be avoided in Denver is if the mountains were to receive at least 8 feet of snow by April, said Denver Water spokeswoman Stacy Chesney.

More dryness at the link.