Weather, or Not category archive

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.

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”).