Weather, or Not category archive

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.

MarketWatch’s Eric Holthaus wonders whether the Dust Bowl is returning.

On the heels of the worst U.S. drought since the 1950s, long-range weather forecasts are showing that not only will the drought continue, it will intensify.

Consequences could be disastrous for farming and ranching communities across the Midwest — and lead to another spike in commodities prices should yields again suffer. . . .

The U.S. economy is still only starting to process last year’s drought. On the consumer side, recent government reports confirm that food prices have just begun to rise due to last year’s drought that — at its peak last September — covered nearly two-thirds of the country. Though hot weather and lack of rain caused futures prices for corn and soy to peak at new record highs last August, a lag in the country’s agroprocessing system means consumers — and therefore the broader economy — won’t feel the full brunt of higher supermarket prices for meat, dairy, and grains until later this year.

Much more at the link.

Something’s happening here.
What it is ain’t exactly clear.

But there must be some reason that the Miami (as in Florida) Herald would carry a column about decorative cold weather plants suitable for Virginia.

Friday night, we tried checking on the New England snowmageddon on the Weather Channel, but, the third time the announcers referred to the storm as “Nemo,” we signed off in disgust.

Too stupid for words.

Daffodils. February. Really.

Warning: Language.

Today it’s 79 Fahrenheits according to the electronic sending unit on my deck.

Saturday it was 27 Fahrenheits.

Robert I. Field reminds us that there is no reason to be surprised by Hurricane Sandy:

Back in 1994, a physicist looked far into the future and predicted that the first signs of climate change would look like this:

“[T]he slow rise in sea level will start to affect cities like New York during big storms. One year, high waves will wash up on the roads bordering the harbor, forcing the police to close them for a day or two. As time passes, this will get to be a more common phenomenon, and the strength of the storm needed to trigger it will become less.” (See James Trefil, A Scientist in the City, Anchor Books, 1994, p.247-248)

Then, we’ll get the big wake-up call:

“[P]erhaps during one of those hurricanes that occasionally make their way up the East Coast, a big storm surge will send water into the streets of lower Manhattan. It will be a big news item, of course, but it will take some time before people realize that there’s a problem to be dealt with.”

Read the rest to see how other portions of Trefil’s prediction are coming true.

In the third segment of this episode of the Cathy Lewis Show, Cathy interviews one of the Coast Guard officers involved in rescuing the crew of the H. M. S. Bounty, which foundered during Sandy. (The first part of the show is about the effects of and reaction to Sandy in these here parts.)

If you listen with the “On Demand” feature at the website, the interview starts about 45 minutes in. If you download and listen to the *.mp3, it starts about 40 minutes in (the *.mp3 does not include the “news at the top of the hour”).

Second son worked on this ship last winter:

The crew of the Bounty abandoned ship about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras early Monday morning, several hours after first reporting that the ship was in distress, Fredrick said. They donned cold water suits and life jackets and boarded the life rafts, the Coast Guard said.

The 180-foot, three-mast tall ship had lost propulsion and was taking on water. Postings on the Facebook page of the HMS Bounty reported the ship was sinking.

As the storm approaches Philly, Field observes:

All you republicans who hate the government, I sure hope that you will not be needing the services of FEMA or any other government agency. Ask the folks at Bain Capital to give you a low interest loan to fix up your home.

Afterthought:

The hypocrisy of “small government” conservatives is not that they want small government.

It’s that they want big government that benefits them, and only them and no one else, and, by God, they want it for free.

PoliticalProf:

Isn’t it interesting that every storm that goes through the US media center of New York City is the biggest, most important, most compelling news event ever?

Via Contradict Me.

The Chincoteague ponies actually live on Assateague Island, just east of Chincoteague. Assateague, though, does not have a chamber of commerce. All it has is ponies, a glorious beach, deer, and bunnies.

(It used to have human residents, too, but not for many years; my father’s mother taught school there back in the 1910s before she married my grandfather.)

But soon no more:

A new report on climate change posits that Assateague Island National Seashore — and several other National Parks on the East Coast — could be underwater in the next 100 years, unless actions are taken to curb pollution and greenhouse gases causing glaciers to melt and seas to rise.

“The biggest threat, ultimately, to these seashores is that they will be largely or even entirely covered by the ocean,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and an author of the report, “Atlantic National Seashores In Peril.”

But, hey! there’s no such thing as global warming.

H/T Susan for alerting me to this story.