Forecast looks ugly for the East Coast. Time to head to NOLA and celebrate the Saints in the Super Bowl!!! - HLG
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Super Bowl Blizzard for East Coast USA?
Forecast looks ugly for the East Coast. Time to head to NOLA and celebrate the Saints in the Super Bowl!!! - HLG
Friday, January 29, 2010
Global Warming Snow-Storm Crashes Weather Broadcasts in OK
Oklahoma bracing for storm's 2nd wave
By The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
Jan. 29--A strong winter storm buried southern and western Oklahoma beneath ice and snow before creeping into the Oklahoma City area about midafternoon Thursday.
The icy conditions coated roads in a slick glaze and knocked down trees and power lines, forcing highway shutdowns and prompting school cancellations and business closures. Airlines canceled most flights into and out of Oklahoma on Thursday, and additional delays and cancellations are expected today. Tens of thousands were without power.
More than a foot of snow is expected to fall in the Panhandle and northwest Oklahoma today, and a couple of inches of snow are possible in central Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City area.
EMSA paramedics in the Oklahoma City area responded to 140 emergency calls and took 108 patients to local hospitals, spokeswoman Lara O'Leary said. Slips and falls caused 24 calls, and 20 were because of vehicle crashes.
The state Health Department reported 137 injuries because of slips and falls statewide and 25 injuries from vehicle accidents.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported working 86 storm-related crashes, including 27 causing injuries.
More than 132,000 utility customers were without power in Oklahoma on Thursday night, nearly doubling the number of affected customers since the sun went down.
More than 67,000 customers were without power at 5:30 p.m., according to state emergency management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten. That number jumped to more than 132,000 by 9:30 p.m., she said.
More than 55,000 Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives customers in southwestern, south central and central Oklahoma were without power as of 9:30 p.m., Ooten said.
Nearly 44,000 customers on the Public Service Co. of Oklahoma network in western Oklahoma also were without power about 9:30 p.m., spokesman Stan Whiteford said. Outages in Chickasha, Hobart and Lawton were affecting more than 37,000 customers, he said.
Power is not expected to be returned to PSO customers in these areas until Monday night, according to the PSO Web site.
"I do know that the situation is particularly bleak in some areas. I know we are particularly hard-hit in Hobart and Lawton and Chickasha and in some places out in the west ... for as far as you can see, there are downed power poles," spokeswoman Andrea Chancellor said.
Whiteford said crews from less affected areas such as Tulsa will be sent to assist in western Oklahoma today, and about 1,000 additional workers were brought into the state Thursday to assist with restoration efforts.
More than 18,000 Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. customers were without power at 9:45 p.m., including about 2,000 without power in the cities of Colbert, Holdenville and Stratford.
More than 26,000 customers were without power for parts of Thursday night, including more than 9,000 in Yukon and 3,800 in Pauls Valley, according to the OG&E System Watch. Yukon later showed no outages, and Pauls Valley had less than a thousand.
The Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority reported almost 12,000 outages, including about 8,900 customers in Duncan and another 2,300 in Marlow, Ooten said.
The NOAA all-hazards radio broadcast in Lawton will be off the air for an undetermined amount of time because of equipment damaged in the storm, according to a report to the National Weather Service.
Roads State Transportation Department crews reported numerous highway closings because of downed trees and power lines.
Affected areas were in a band from Harmon County in the far southwest part of the state up through the central part of the state to Lincoln County, a department news release said.
Areas near Altus, Lawton, Duncan, Chickasha, Pauls Valley, Purcell and Stroud were most affected. Also, Texas officials reported poor conditions near Stratford, Texas, and requested highways leading from Guymon and Boise City in the Oklahoma Panhandle be closed.
Interstate 35 southbound near Billings was closed for a couple of hours because of a seven-car accident. And the H.E. Bailey Turnpike from Elgin to Chickasha was shut down all afternoon because of downed power lines.
Custer County officials reported several accidents involving tractor-trailers, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was investigating whether slick roads contributed to an afternoon accident and traffic problems on the John Kilpatrick Turnpike at MacArthur Boulevard.
Oklahoma City crews were salting roads with 24 trucks all day, city officials said. The biggest fear was trucks breaking down, which hampered cleanup efforts in last month's blizzard.
"As long as nobody breaks down we'll have 24 trucks out 24 hours," city spokeswoman Kristy Yager said.
Although the roads started to worsen in the afternoon, the city seemed to dodge the worst of the weather, Yager said. Ground temperatures helped melt freezing rain as it hit the streets.
Forecast The first round of the winter storm passed central Oklahoma by sunset, but snow was expected to start falling about dawn, the National Weather Service reported.
"We do have some sleet and snow still occurring in Ponca City, Enid and northeast Oklahoma," forecaster Christine Riley said Thursday night. "We also have some flurries and sleet in the Hobart and Altus area, and it's dry in between."
Starting about 6 a.m. and continuing into the afternoon, forecasters expect snow -- with some sleet mixed in -- to fall in central and southern Oklahoma.
Some light precipitation is expected into this evening, but accumulation will cease during the day, she said.
Airports Nearly all flights in Oklahoma City were canceled Thursday, and further cancellations are expected today, airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said.
"I'm anticipating that flights, weather permitting, will begin arriving at 8 a.m. and slowly start returning to service," she said.
Crews began deicing the runways Thursday afternoon. Flight status can be checked on the airport's Web site, flyokc.com. However, many of Southwest Airlines' arrivals were showing an on-time status, which wasn't accurate, Carney said.
Travelers should contact the airline before driving to the airport.
Morning departures from Tulsa International Airport will depend on whether the airlines have an aircraft in place, airport spokeswoman Alexis Higgins said.
For more flight information, check the airport Web site at tulsaairports.com.
By The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
Jan. 29--A strong winter storm buried southern and western Oklahoma beneath ice and snow before creeping into the Oklahoma City area about midafternoon Thursday.
The icy conditions coated roads in a slick glaze and knocked down trees and power lines, forcing highway shutdowns and prompting school cancellations and business closures. Airlines canceled most flights into and out of Oklahoma on Thursday, and additional delays and cancellations are expected today. Tens of thousands were without power.
More than a foot of snow is expected to fall in the Panhandle and northwest Oklahoma today, and a couple of inches of snow are possible in central Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City area.
EMSA paramedics in the Oklahoma City area responded to 140 emergency calls and took 108 patients to local hospitals, spokeswoman Lara O'Leary said. Slips and falls caused 24 calls, and 20 were because of vehicle crashes.
The state Health Department reported 137 injuries because of slips and falls statewide and 25 injuries from vehicle accidents.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported working 86 storm-related crashes, including 27 causing injuries.
More than 132,000 utility customers were without power in Oklahoma on Thursday night, nearly doubling the number of affected customers since the sun went down.
More than 67,000 customers were without power at 5:30 p.m., according to state emergency management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten. That number jumped to more than 132,000 by 9:30 p.m., she said.
More than 55,000 Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives customers in southwestern, south central and central Oklahoma were without power as of 9:30 p.m., Ooten said.
Nearly 44,000 customers on the Public Service Co. of Oklahoma network in western Oklahoma also were without power about 9:30 p.m., spokesman Stan Whiteford said. Outages in Chickasha, Hobart and Lawton were affecting more than 37,000 customers, he said.
Power is not expected to be returned to PSO customers in these areas until Monday night, according to the PSO Web site.
"I do know that the situation is particularly bleak in some areas. I know we are particularly hard-hit in Hobart and Lawton and Chickasha and in some places out in the west ... for as far as you can see, there are downed power poles," spokeswoman Andrea Chancellor said.
Whiteford said crews from less affected areas such as Tulsa will be sent to assist in western Oklahoma today, and about 1,000 additional workers were brought into the state Thursday to assist with restoration efforts.
More than 18,000 Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. customers were without power at 9:45 p.m., including about 2,000 without power in the cities of Colbert, Holdenville and Stratford.
More than 26,000 customers were without power for parts of Thursday night, including more than 9,000 in Yukon and 3,800 in Pauls Valley, according to the OG&E System Watch. Yukon later showed no outages, and Pauls Valley had less than a thousand.
The Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority reported almost 12,000 outages, including about 8,900 customers in Duncan and another 2,300 in Marlow, Ooten said.
The NOAA all-hazards radio broadcast in Lawton will be off the air for an undetermined amount of time because of equipment damaged in the storm, according to a report to the National Weather Service.
Roads State Transportation Department crews reported numerous highway closings because of downed trees and power lines.
Affected areas were in a band from Harmon County in the far southwest part of the state up through the central part of the state to Lincoln County, a department news release said.
Areas near Altus, Lawton, Duncan, Chickasha, Pauls Valley, Purcell and Stroud were most affected. Also, Texas officials reported poor conditions near Stratford, Texas, and requested highways leading from Guymon and Boise City in the Oklahoma Panhandle be closed.
Interstate 35 southbound near Billings was closed for a couple of hours because of a seven-car accident. And the H.E. Bailey Turnpike from Elgin to Chickasha was shut down all afternoon because of downed power lines.
Custer County officials reported several accidents involving tractor-trailers, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was investigating whether slick roads contributed to an afternoon accident and traffic problems on the John Kilpatrick Turnpike at MacArthur Boulevard.
Oklahoma City crews were salting roads with 24 trucks all day, city officials said. The biggest fear was trucks breaking down, which hampered cleanup efforts in last month's blizzard.
"As long as nobody breaks down we'll have 24 trucks out 24 hours," city spokeswoman Kristy Yager said.
Although the roads started to worsen in the afternoon, the city seemed to dodge the worst of the weather, Yager said. Ground temperatures helped melt freezing rain as it hit the streets.
Forecast The first round of the winter storm passed central Oklahoma by sunset, but snow was expected to start falling about dawn, the National Weather Service reported.
"We do have some sleet and snow still occurring in Ponca City, Enid and northeast Oklahoma," forecaster Christine Riley said Thursday night. "We also have some flurries and sleet in the Hobart and Altus area, and it's dry in between."
Starting about 6 a.m. and continuing into the afternoon, forecasters expect snow -- with some sleet mixed in -- to fall in central and southern Oklahoma.
Some light precipitation is expected into this evening, but accumulation will cease during the day, she said.
Airports Nearly all flights in Oklahoma City were canceled Thursday, and further cancellations are expected today, airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said.
"I'm anticipating that flights, weather permitting, will begin arriving at 8 a.m. and slowly start returning to service," she said.
Crews began deicing the runways Thursday afternoon. Flight status can be checked on the airport's Web site, flyokc.com. However, many of Southwest Airlines' arrivals were showing an on-time status, which wasn't accurate, Carney said.
Travelers should contact the airline before driving to the airport.
Morning departures from Tulsa International Airport will depend on whether the airlines have an aircraft in place, airport spokeswoman Alexis Higgins said.
For more flight information, check the airport Web site at tulsaairports.com.
Bin Laden and Al Gore on Same Page?
Bin Laden Blames U.S. for Global Warming in New Tape
Friday, January 29, 2010
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AP
CAIRO — Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.
In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.
He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for "drastic solutions" to global warming, and "not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change."
Bin Laden has mentioned climate change and global warning in past messages, but the latest tape was his first dedicated to the topic. The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants.
The Al Qaeda leader also targeted the U.S. economy in the recording, calling for a boycott of American products and an end to the dollar's domination as a world currency.
"We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible," he said. "I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America."
The new message, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day.
Friday, January 29, 2010
PrintShareThis
AP
CAIRO — Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.
In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.
He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for "drastic solutions" to global warming, and "not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change."
Bin Laden has mentioned climate change and global warning in past messages, but the latest tape was his first dedicated to the topic. The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants.
The Al Qaeda leader also targeted the U.S. economy in the recording, calling for a boycott of American products and an end to the dollar's domination as a world currency.
"We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible," he said. "I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America."
The new message, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
More Data Hiding at East Anglia
Scientists in Climate-Gate Scandal Hid Data
London Times
The university at the center of the climate change scandal over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.
Professor Phil Jones asked a colleague to delete emails relating to a report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The university at the center of the climate change scandal over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.
The University of East Anglia breached Britain's Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.
The Information Commissioner's Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times of London has learned. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.
The stolen e-mails, revealed on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, showed how the university's Climatic Research Unit attempted to thwart requests for scientific data and other information, and suggest that senior figures at the university were involved in decisions to refuse the requests. It is not known who stole the e-mails.
Professor Phil Jones, the unit's director, stood down while an inquiry took place. The ICO's decision could make it difficult for him to resume his post.
Details of the breach emerged the day after John Beddington, the Chief Scientific Adviser, warned that there was an urgent need for more honesty about the uncertainty of some predictions. His intervention followed admissions from scientists that the rate of glacial melt in the Himalayas had been grossly exaggerated.
In one e-mail, Professor Jones asked a colleague to delete e-mails relating to the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
London Times
The university at the center of the climate change scandal over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.
Professor Phil Jones asked a colleague to delete emails relating to a report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The university at the center of the climate change scandal over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.
The University of East Anglia breached Britain's Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.
The Information Commissioner's Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times of London has learned. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.
The stolen e-mails, revealed on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, showed how the university's Climatic Research Unit attempted to thwart requests for scientific data and other information, and suggest that senior figures at the university were involved in decisions to refuse the requests. It is not known who stole the e-mails.
Professor Phil Jones, the unit's director, stood down while an inquiry took place. The ICO's decision could make it difficult for him to resume his post.
Details of the breach emerged the day after John Beddington, the Chief Scientific Adviser, warned that there was an urgent need for more honesty about the uncertainty of some predictions. His intervention followed admissions from scientists that the rate of glacial melt in the Himalayas had been grossly exaggerated.
In one e-mail, Professor Jones asked a colleague to delete e-mails relating to the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
HLG'S WARM CORE LOW
A nice series of images (from CIMSS) showing the occluded low off the east coast.
BB
Friday, January 22, 2010
SO2 from Kamchatka Volcano
Atmospheric scientists are interested in tracking sulfur dioxide because it can endanger public health and because it can affect global climate. In mid-June 2009, Sarychev Peak Volcano on Matua Island in the northwest Pacific began a series of eruptions of large amounts of ash. According to atmospheric scientist Simon Carn, who is part of the science team for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite, it was also almost certainly the largest sulfur dioxide event so far this year.
This image shows average column sulfur dioxide concentrations between June 10 and 17, 2009, based on data from OMI. High concentrations of sulfur dioxide stretched westward from the volcano as far as Sakhalin Island and mainland Russia and eastward as far as Alaska. Sulfur dioxide is commonly measured in Dobson Units. If you could compress all of the sulfur dioxide in a column of atmosphere into a single layer at the Earth’s surface and keep the temperature at 0 degrees Celsius, one Dobson Unit would be 0.01 millimeters thick, and it would contain 0.0285 grams of sulfur dioxide per square meter.
When sulfur dioxide reacts with water vapor, it creates sulfate ions (the precursors to sulfuric acid), which are very reflective. Powerful volcanic eruptions can inject sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, beyond the reach of cleansing rainfall. At these altitudes, the sulfates can linger for months or years, cooling the climate by reflecting incoming sunlight. (The effect is stronger when the eruptions occur at tropical latitudes.) Carn says the persistence of such high concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the OMI data throughout the week indicates that the plume from Sarychev Peak reached high altitudes. Data from other satellites (such as CALIPSO) suggest that the volcanic plume reached altitudes of 10–15 kilometers, and perhaps as high as 21 kilometers.
Sulfur dioxide is a powerful irritant to the respiratory tract, eyes, and skin, and it leads to acid rain. The primary source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide is burning coal and other fossil fuels, and it is one of the pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act. Since 1980, the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the United States has declined by about 70 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
More UN Lies on Melting Himalayan Glaciers
UN Climate Change panel under fire after Himalayan glacier claim
It has been a bleak winter for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The credibility of the UN body came under attack days before the opening of the Copenhagen climate summit in December, when leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia appeared to show manipulation of temperature data used by the panel. Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, was forced to spend much of his time at the conference defending the integrity of the science contained in the panel’s reports.
Now it has been forced to apologise for including a highly alarmist claim in its most recent report that Himalayan glaciers were very likely to vanish by 2035.
Most glaciologists believe the melting would take hundreds of years and some doubt that it will ever happen, pointing to evidence of glaciers advancing in the neighbouring Karakoram mountain range.
The IPCC reports underpin every country’s decisions about climate change. If the panel cannot be trusted, it becomes much more difficult to justify the global effort to cut greenhouse gases. That is why it is vital to place the allegations against the IPCC in context. While it is alarming that none of the 2,500 scientists who contributed to its 2007 report spotted the error, this is explained partly by it appearing in a single sentence on page 493.
Climate sceptics around the world have spent two years scrutinising every claim made by the panel. So far they have identified one serious error; it seems unlikely that they will find many more. The IPCC should now re-check all the sources of statements in its report, but this process will not alter its conclusion that man-made emissions are very likely to be the main cause of global warming
It has been a bleak winter for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The credibility of the UN body came under attack days before the opening of the Copenhagen climate summit in December, when leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia appeared to show manipulation of temperature data used by the panel. Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, was forced to spend much of his time at the conference defending the integrity of the science contained in the panel’s reports.
Now it has been forced to apologise for including a highly alarmist claim in its most recent report that Himalayan glaciers were very likely to vanish by 2035.
Most glaciologists believe the melting would take hundreds of years and some doubt that it will ever happen, pointing to evidence of glaciers advancing in the neighbouring Karakoram mountain range.
The IPCC reports underpin every country’s decisions about climate change. If the panel cannot be trusted, it becomes much more difficult to justify the global effort to cut greenhouse gases. That is why it is vital to place the allegations against the IPCC in context. While it is alarming that none of the 2,500 scientists who contributed to its 2007 report spotted the error, this is explained partly by it appearing in a single sentence on page 493.
Climate sceptics around the world have spent two years scrutinising every claim made by the panel. So far they have identified one serious error; it seems unlikely that they will find many more. The IPCC should now re-check all the sources of statements in its report, but this process will not alter its conclusion that man-made emissions are very likely to be the main cause of global warming
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
DEPRESSION OVER THE GULF COAST?
Buoy 42012 - South of Orange Beach, AL - is recording winds up to Tropical Storm strength.
BB
Flooding for SE and West Coast This Week?
HPC maps have a lot of red the next 5 days. El Nino is ANGRY! - HLG
Friday, January 15, 2010
Pre-Xmas East Coast Storm was OFFICIALLY at Cat 3
Thus, a MAJOR winter storm (NESIS Cat 3) to all of you (Klingfree, and Dr BB) who said there was lot's of whining from the Mid-Atlantic Kingdom. - HLG
Solar Eclipse over India
But you can't see much? That's because the sun is blocked by the moon in this MODIS image from Jan 15, 2010.
-HLG
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Amazing Video During Earthquake in Haiti
Cars start moving sideways, then the main building crumbles. Amazing. - HLG
Calling Uncle Al: Large Ice Cube Breaks off Antarctica!
With most of the northern hemisphere under snow, I thought I would present some good news to the GWAs (Global Warming Alarmists). - HLG
OU Dominates AMS Meeting!
OU SCIENTISTS AND SCHOLARS ORGANIZE UNIQUE SESSIONS FOR THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY’S ANNUAL MEETING
Researchers, scientists and students from the University of Oklahoma will be principal presenters in more than 60 sessions at the 90th Annual American Meteorological Society annual meeting in Atlanta Jan. 17 to 21.
Researchers, scientists and students from the University of Oklahoma will be principal presenters in more than 60 sessions at the 90th Annual American Meteorological Society annual meeting in Atlanta Jan. 17 to 21.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
US Models vs EU Models for Winter Storm?
US models are primarily taking the new storm forming in the Gulf on an "inside-track" (i.e. west of Appalachians), while EU models are going with a more coastal track. What do the studs and the babes they worship say??? - HLG
Frigid U.S. Midwest could see more snow
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Blowing snow and frigid temperatures have left the U.S. Midwest in a deep freeze for most of the new year, with the possibility of more wicked weather next week, a forecaster said Friday.
The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and warnings for several areas across the Midwest today.
"The region is expected to have dangerous wind chills and very tough weather through the weekend," said Mike Palmerino, a forecaster at DTN Meteorlogix in Boston.
There is another winter storm developing over the U.S. Delta, but weather forecasting models disagree over its direction.
"There is going to be a significant storm next week, no question about that, the uncertainty lies in tracking its movement," Palmerino said.
"The U.S. model wants to bring it up in the Corn Belt, possibly moving east of St. Louis to Chicago. The European model does not. We won't know until early next week," Palmerino said.
Meanwhile, high temperatures in the western Midwest will range between 5 and 15 Fahrenheit (minus 15 to minus 9 Celsius) with lows between 10 and minus 20 F through Saturday.
Temperatures in the eastern Midwest are expected to range between minus 5 and mid-20s F.
Dangerous roads will hamper the movement of livestock on Friday and Saturday. Several inches of snowfall are still on the ground in many areas of the Midwest from previous storms, and transportation officials were warning people to stay off the roads.
Livestock dealers said transportation difficulties caused several Iowa pork plants to cancel their first production shifts. Additionally, more than two feet of snow was on the ground in Nebraska and Iowa, and Friday's problems were the result of overnight winds that caused snowdrifts on the roads.
Frigid U.S. Midwest could see more snow
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Blowing snow and frigid temperatures have left the U.S. Midwest in a deep freeze for most of the new year, with the possibility of more wicked weather next week, a forecaster said Friday.
The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and warnings for several areas across the Midwest today.
"The region is expected to have dangerous wind chills and very tough weather through the weekend," said Mike Palmerino, a forecaster at DTN Meteorlogix in Boston.
There is another winter storm developing over the U.S. Delta, but weather forecasting models disagree over its direction.
"There is going to be a significant storm next week, no question about that, the uncertainty lies in tracking its movement," Palmerino said.
"The U.S. model wants to bring it up in the Corn Belt, possibly moving east of St. Louis to Chicago. The European model does not. We won't know until early next week," Palmerino said.
Meanwhile, high temperatures in the western Midwest will range between 5 and 15 Fahrenheit (minus 15 to minus 9 Celsius) with lows between 10 and minus 20 F through Saturday.
Temperatures in the eastern Midwest are expected to range between minus 5 and mid-20s F.
Dangerous roads will hamper the movement of livestock on Friday and Saturday. Several inches of snowfall are still on the ground in many areas of the Midwest from previous storms, and transportation officials were warning people to stay off the roads.
Livestock dealers said transportation difficulties caused several Iowa pork plants to cancel their first production shifts. Additionally, more than two feet of snow was on the ground in Nebraska and Iowa, and Friday's problems were the result of overnight winds that caused snowdrifts on the roads.
Over 10,000 US Plane/Bird Strikes Last Year? You are now free to fly about the country!
Bird-Plane Strike Incidents Soar Toward 10,000
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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AP
WASHINGTON — Reports of airplanes hitting birds and other wildlife have soared since a stricken US Airways jet ditched last year in New York's Hudson River, and the government's tally for the year could reach or even exceed 10,000 for the first time.
Serious accidents are climbing at an even faster rate than minor incidents.
There were at least 57 cases in the first seven months of 2009 that caused serious damage and three in which planes and a corporate helicopter were destroyed by birds, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of the latest government's figures available. At least eight people died, and six more were hurt.
The destroyed planes include the Airbus A320 with 155 passengers and crew that went into the Hudson a year ago this week after hitting a flock of Canada geese. No lives were lost in that dramatic river landing. But when a Sikorsky helicopter crashed en route to an oil platform last January after hitting a red-tailed hawk near Morgan City, Louisiana, the two pilots and six of seven passengers were killed. The lone survivor was critically injured.
And there is no shortage of frightening reports of engines knocked out and emergency landings.
Why the increase in bird-strike reports?
Airports and airlines have become more diligent about reporting, said Mike Beiger, national coordinator for the airport wildlife hazards program at the Agriculture Department. But experts also say populations of large birds like Canada geese that can knock out engines on passenger jets have increased.
"Birds and planes are fighting for airspace, and it's getting increasingly crowded," said Richard Dolbeer, an expert on bird-plane collisions who is advising the Federal Aviation Administration and the Agriculture Department.
The surge in reports for 2009 — expected to be as much as 40 percent higher once the final accounting is in — comes in spite of government concerns that disclosing details about such strikes would discourage reports by airports and airlines out of worries about lost business. The previous high was 7,507 strikes in 2007. The government's estimate of as many as 10,000 for 2009 would represent about 27 strikes every day.
Related Stories•Hudson Crash Survivor Opposes FAA Bird Strike Secrecy Proposal
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Video•Jet Downed in Hudson River
Photo Essays•US Airways Crashes Into Hudson River
After US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson on Jan. 15, the AP asked the government for its data including details about more than 93,000 strikes since 1990. Even after the FAA agreed to turn over the records to the AP, it quietly proposed a new federal rule to keep the information secret until Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood intervened and ordered the release. LaHood recently included the disclosure in a list of the department's leading safety accomplishments for last year.
"Going public doesn't appear to have harmed it, and every indicator I have is we have an increased industry awareness on the importance of reporting," said Kate Lang, FAA acting associate administrator for airports, in an interview.
Not all airports have been diligent. Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, for example, showed 46 strikes during the first seven months of 2008 but only 12 for the same period in 2009. When the AP asked about the decline, the airport said there were 28 strikes — not 12 — during that period in 2009 but the airport had neglected to report more than half of them.
A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, John Kelly, said the reporting failure was an oversight and the airport would immediately file the missing incidents. The authority manages the airport, which last year had one of the highest rates of bird strikes in the country.
Dolbeer, the government's bird-strike expert, said a spate of serious collisions that took place miles away from airports was especially troubling.
Over eastern Arizona, for instance, air cargo pilot Roger Wutke had just begun a descent Nov. 4 in his twin-engine Beechcraft turboprop from 11,000 feet when a western grebe — a two-foot-long water bird — crashed through his windshield. The bird hit Wutke, knocking off his glasses, breaking his radio headset and splattering him in blood.
Unable to see out much of the shattered left windshield and unable to hear air traffic controllers, Wutke still managed to land the plane safely.
"I don't know how I did it," Wutke, 26, said in an interview. "It was pretty rough."
Two days earlier, a Delta Air Lines jet en route from Phoenix to Salt Lake City with 65 passengers also struck grebes at about 12,000 feet. The impact tore a 21-inch hole in the MD-90's fuselage, forcing pilots to declare an emergency and return to Phoenix.
On Nov. 14, a Frontier Airlines Airbus A319 en route to Denver collided with a flock of snow geese at about 4,000 feet, forcing the shutdown of one engine. The other engine was also struck but didn't lose power. The plane returned to Kansas City for an emergency landing.
The FAA has mostly focused on keeping birds away from airports, where most strikes take place. But grebes and snow geese are migratory birds and were flying miles (kilometers) away from airports when these collisions took place — evidence that more attention is needed to reduce the threat of wildlife strikes away from airports, Dolbeer said.
The FAA said it is cracking down on airports that fail to complete required studies of risks from birds. The agency identified 91 airports that should have conducted formal assessments but didn't, Lang said. It's also testing different bird-detecting radars, which enable workers to find birds and chase them away.
Some airports are replacing shrubbery that attracts birds and insects that other birds eat. In some cases airports bring in predatory hawks to chase away flocks of smaller birds.
In the first seven months of 2009 there were 4,671 wildlife strikes reported in the government's data, an increase of 22 percent over the same period in 2008. More serious accidents increased over the same period by 36 percent. Officials are still manually adding paper reports for the second half of the year, and they said online reports indicate an even larger increase over that period.
The database includes collisions with all wildlife — deer and coyotes on runways, for example — but historically 98 percent of reported incidents involve birds.
In one case, according to the government reports, a bald eagle was sucked into the right engine of a United Airlines Boeing 757 that had just taken off from Denver International Airport and caused $14 million in damage. The plane, with 151 passengers and crew bound to San Francisco, returned to Denver.
Last month, a Continental Airlines Boeing 767 with 134 passengers struck birds after taking off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, damaging one engine. The plane dumped 9,700 gallons of jet fuel over a warehouse district west of Newark before returning to the airport.
The data showed 218 airports reported fewer strikes during the first seven months of 2009, but 351 airports reported more strikes; 59 reported no change from the same period the previous year.
Denver recorded more bird strikes in the first seven months of 2009 than any other airport with 273, an increase over 223 during the same period in 2008. It is spending more money and has hired a second biologist. The airport is on 52 square miles of land, making it the largest in the U.S., and is surrounded by open agricultural areas. Local officials last year approved a landfill near the airport despite objections that the dump would attract birds.
Among airports reporting declines, the data showed 73 strikes at Cleveland Hopkins International during the first seven month of 2008 but only 53 for the same period in 2009. Both airports said the figures were accurate.
The Cleveland airport has worked to aggressively harass birds and reduce food sources, spokeswoman Jackie Mayo said. The Tampa airport also was chasing away birds and attributed part of its decline to fewer flights, said Robert Burr, the airport's operations director. Air traffic has been down across the country due to the sour economy.
Bird strike reporting to the National Wildlife Strike Database is voluntary even though the National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 1999 that FAA make it mandatory.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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AP
WASHINGTON — Reports of airplanes hitting birds and other wildlife have soared since a stricken US Airways jet ditched last year in New York's Hudson River, and the government's tally for the year could reach or even exceed 10,000 for the first time.
Serious accidents are climbing at an even faster rate than minor incidents.
There were at least 57 cases in the first seven months of 2009 that caused serious damage and three in which planes and a corporate helicopter were destroyed by birds, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of the latest government's figures available. At least eight people died, and six more were hurt.
The destroyed planes include the Airbus A320 with 155 passengers and crew that went into the Hudson a year ago this week after hitting a flock of Canada geese. No lives were lost in that dramatic river landing. But when a Sikorsky helicopter crashed en route to an oil platform last January after hitting a red-tailed hawk near Morgan City, Louisiana, the two pilots and six of seven passengers were killed. The lone survivor was critically injured.
And there is no shortage of frightening reports of engines knocked out and emergency landings.
Why the increase in bird-strike reports?
Airports and airlines have become more diligent about reporting, said Mike Beiger, national coordinator for the airport wildlife hazards program at the Agriculture Department. But experts also say populations of large birds like Canada geese that can knock out engines on passenger jets have increased.
"Birds and planes are fighting for airspace, and it's getting increasingly crowded," said Richard Dolbeer, an expert on bird-plane collisions who is advising the Federal Aviation Administration and the Agriculture Department.
The surge in reports for 2009 — expected to be as much as 40 percent higher once the final accounting is in — comes in spite of government concerns that disclosing details about such strikes would discourage reports by airports and airlines out of worries about lost business. The previous high was 7,507 strikes in 2007. The government's estimate of as many as 10,000 for 2009 would represent about 27 strikes every day.
Related Stories•Hudson Crash Survivor Opposes FAA Bird Strike Secrecy Proposal
•FAA Wants to Keep Airline Bird Strike Records Secret
•US Airways Plane Crash-Lands in New York City's Hudson River, Everyone Survives
Video•Jet Downed in Hudson River
Photo Essays•US Airways Crashes Into Hudson River
After US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson on Jan. 15, the AP asked the government for its data including details about more than 93,000 strikes since 1990. Even after the FAA agreed to turn over the records to the AP, it quietly proposed a new federal rule to keep the information secret until Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood intervened and ordered the release. LaHood recently included the disclosure in a list of the department's leading safety accomplishments for last year.
"Going public doesn't appear to have harmed it, and every indicator I have is we have an increased industry awareness on the importance of reporting," said Kate Lang, FAA acting associate administrator for airports, in an interview.
Not all airports have been diligent. Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, for example, showed 46 strikes during the first seven months of 2008 but only 12 for the same period in 2009. When the AP asked about the decline, the airport said there were 28 strikes — not 12 — during that period in 2009 but the airport had neglected to report more than half of them.
A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, John Kelly, said the reporting failure was an oversight and the airport would immediately file the missing incidents. The authority manages the airport, which last year had one of the highest rates of bird strikes in the country.
Dolbeer, the government's bird-strike expert, said a spate of serious collisions that took place miles away from airports was especially troubling.
Over eastern Arizona, for instance, air cargo pilot Roger Wutke had just begun a descent Nov. 4 in his twin-engine Beechcraft turboprop from 11,000 feet when a western grebe — a two-foot-long water bird — crashed through his windshield. The bird hit Wutke, knocking off his glasses, breaking his radio headset and splattering him in blood.
Unable to see out much of the shattered left windshield and unable to hear air traffic controllers, Wutke still managed to land the plane safely.
"I don't know how I did it," Wutke, 26, said in an interview. "It was pretty rough."
Two days earlier, a Delta Air Lines jet en route from Phoenix to Salt Lake City with 65 passengers also struck grebes at about 12,000 feet. The impact tore a 21-inch hole in the MD-90's fuselage, forcing pilots to declare an emergency and return to Phoenix.
On Nov. 14, a Frontier Airlines Airbus A319 en route to Denver collided with a flock of snow geese at about 4,000 feet, forcing the shutdown of one engine. The other engine was also struck but didn't lose power. The plane returned to Kansas City for an emergency landing.
The FAA has mostly focused on keeping birds away from airports, where most strikes take place. But grebes and snow geese are migratory birds and were flying miles (kilometers) away from airports when these collisions took place — evidence that more attention is needed to reduce the threat of wildlife strikes away from airports, Dolbeer said.
The FAA said it is cracking down on airports that fail to complete required studies of risks from birds. The agency identified 91 airports that should have conducted formal assessments but didn't, Lang said. It's also testing different bird-detecting radars, which enable workers to find birds and chase them away.
Some airports are replacing shrubbery that attracts birds and insects that other birds eat. In some cases airports bring in predatory hawks to chase away flocks of smaller birds.
In the first seven months of 2009 there were 4,671 wildlife strikes reported in the government's data, an increase of 22 percent over the same period in 2008. More serious accidents increased over the same period by 36 percent. Officials are still manually adding paper reports for the second half of the year, and they said online reports indicate an even larger increase over that period.
The database includes collisions with all wildlife — deer and coyotes on runways, for example — but historically 98 percent of reported incidents involve birds.
In one case, according to the government reports, a bald eagle was sucked into the right engine of a United Airlines Boeing 757 that had just taken off from Denver International Airport and caused $14 million in damage. The plane, with 151 passengers and crew bound to San Francisco, returned to Denver.
Last month, a Continental Airlines Boeing 767 with 134 passengers struck birds after taking off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, damaging one engine. The plane dumped 9,700 gallons of jet fuel over a warehouse district west of Newark before returning to the airport.
The data showed 218 airports reported fewer strikes during the first seven months of 2009, but 351 airports reported more strikes; 59 reported no change from the same period the previous year.
Denver recorded more bird strikes in the first seven months of 2009 than any other airport with 273, an increase over 223 during the same period in 2008. It is spending more money and has hired a second biologist. The airport is on 52 square miles of land, making it the largest in the U.S., and is surrounded by open agricultural areas. Local officials last year approved a landfill near the airport despite objections that the dump would attract birds.
Among airports reporting declines, the data showed 73 strikes at Cleveland Hopkins International during the first seven month of 2008 but only 53 for the same period in 2009. Both airports said the figures were accurate.
The Cleveland airport has worked to aggressively harass birds and reduce food sources, spokeswoman Jackie Mayo said. The Tampa airport also was chasing away birds and attributed part of its decline to fewer flights, said Robert Burr, the airport's operations director. Air traffic has been down across the country due to the sour economy.
Bird strike reporting to the National Wildlife Strike Database is voluntary even though the National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 1999 that FAA make it mandatory.
Cool Weather Pics (Double Tornado, Northern Hemisphere 2010 Cold Anomaly, & Alaska Sunny and "Warm"
Very coold archival image of the great Palm Sundy Double Tornado in Elkhart, IN, 1964, and the MODIS temp anomalies for the norther hemisphere this winter, compared to decadal averages, and Alaska basking in the sunshine! - HLG
Monday, January 11, 2010
Snow for Super Bowl in Miami?
Start the wagering now!
I say two inches of snow during the Super Bowl in Miami, February 7, 2010. Any takers???
I say two inches of snow during the Super Bowl in Miami, February 7, 2010. Any takers???
Thirty or Thirty-Thousand Years of Ice Coming?
Geologically speaking, not much difference. Hard to even measure most of the time! - HLG
30 Years of Global Cooling Are Coming, Leading Scientist Says
NASA Earth Observatory
From Miami to Maine, Savannah to Seattle, America is caught in an icy grip that one of the U.N.'s top global warming proponents says could mark the beginning of a mini ice age.
December temperatures compared to average December temps recorded between 2000 and 2008. Blue points to colder than average land surface temperatures, while red indicates warmer temperatures.
From Miami to Maine, Savannah to Seattle, America is caught in an icy grip that one of the U.N.'s top global warming proponents says could mark the beginning of a mini ice age.
Oranges are freezing and millions of tropical fish are dying in Florida, and it could be just the beginning of a decades-long deep freeze, says Professor Mojib Latif, one of the world's leading climate modelers.
Latif thinks the cold snap Americans have been suffering through is only the beginning. He says we're in for 30 years of cooler temperatures -- a mini ice age, he calls it, basing his theory on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the world's oceans.
Latif, a professor at the Leibniz Institute at Germany's Kiel University and an author of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, believes the lengthy cold weather is merely a pause -- a 30-years-long blip -- in the larger cycle of global warming, which postulates that temperatures will rise rapidly over the coming years.
At a U.N. conference in September, Latif said that changes in ocean currents known as the North Atlantic Oscillation could dominate over manmade global warming for the next few decades. Latif said the fluctuations in these currents could also be responsible for much of the rise in global temperatures seen over the past 30 years.
Latif is a key member of the UN's climate research arm, which has long promoted the concept of global warming. He told the Daily Mail that "a significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles -- perhaps as much as 50 percent."
According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado, the warming of the Earth since 1900 is due to natural oceanic cycles, and not man-made greenhouse gases. The agency also reports that Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007.
Many parts of the world have been suffering through record-setting snowfalls and arctic temperatures. The Midwest saw wind chills as low as 49 degrees below zero last week, while Europe saw snows so heavy that Eurostar train service and air travel were canceled across much of the continent. In Asia, Beijing was hit by its heaviest snowfall in 60 years
30 Years of Global Cooling Are Coming, Leading Scientist Says
NASA Earth Observatory
From Miami to Maine, Savannah to Seattle, America is caught in an icy grip that one of the U.N.'s top global warming proponents says could mark the beginning of a mini ice age.
December temperatures compared to average December temps recorded between 2000 and 2008. Blue points to colder than average land surface temperatures, while red indicates warmer temperatures.
From Miami to Maine, Savannah to Seattle, America is caught in an icy grip that one of the U.N.'s top global warming proponents says could mark the beginning of a mini ice age.
Oranges are freezing and millions of tropical fish are dying in Florida, and it could be just the beginning of a decades-long deep freeze, says Professor Mojib Latif, one of the world's leading climate modelers.
Latif thinks the cold snap Americans have been suffering through is only the beginning. He says we're in for 30 years of cooler temperatures -- a mini ice age, he calls it, basing his theory on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the world's oceans.
Latif, a professor at the Leibniz Institute at Germany's Kiel University and an author of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, believes the lengthy cold weather is merely a pause -- a 30-years-long blip -- in the larger cycle of global warming, which postulates that temperatures will rise rapidly over the coming years.
At a U.N. conference in September, Latif said that changes in ocean currents known as the North Atlantic Oscillation could dominate over manmade global warming for the next few decades. Latif said the fluctuations in these currents could also be responsible for much of the rise in global temperatures seen over the past 30 years.
Latif is a key member of the UN's climate research arm, which has long promoted the concept of global warming. He told the Daily Mail that "a significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles -- perhaps as much as 50 percent."
According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado, the warming of the Earth since 1900 is due to natural oceanic cycles, and not man-made greenhouse gases. The agency also reports that Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007.
Many parts of the world have been suffering through record-setting snowfalls and arctic temperatures. The Midwest saw wind chills as low as 49 degrees below zero last week, while Europe saw snows so heavy that Eurostar train service and air travel were canceled across much of the continent. In Asia, Beijing was hit by its heaviest snowfall in 60 years
Kentuckian Glaciation?
We had the Wisconsin, the Illinoisian, and a couple of other major ice ages. This one is progressing south of Kentucky, as can clearly be seeen in this image. Will geologists of the future remember it as the Kentuckian? Tennessean? Alabamian? (can't be Mississippian, since that was a coal-forming era. Already taken), Louisianian, or Floridian??? - HLG
Cloud Streets in Caribbean Sea
I personally can't remember seeing such strong cloud streets anywhere in the Caribbean Sea. Gulf of Mexico? All the time. Caribbean? Wow! Cancel that vacation in The Caymans, cause it's cold?? - HLG
Record Cold Temps Continue to be Set in Florida
Record Cold in Miami as South Turns Icebox
Monday, January 11, 2010
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MIAMI — Freakish cold weather continued to grip the southern United States, with snow flurries spotted around Orlando and a record low set for Miami, and forecasters said Sunday that more of the same was expected.
About 100,000 tropical fish being raised on a fish farm in South Florida couldn't bear the cold. Michael Breen, 43, who owns Breen Acres Aquatics in the small town of Loxahatchee Groves just north of Miami, said temperatures dropped below freezing overnight, leaving ice on his 76 ponds.
The ponds should be green because of algae bloom that feeds baby fish, he said.
"But all the ponds are crystal clear and fish are laying on the bottom. What we see on the surface died two days ago," he said, referring to the dead fish found floating Sunday morning.
Breen estimated he lost $535,000 in business because of the cold.
The National Weather Service issued a hard freeze warning for South Florida from Sunday night to Monday morning. A freeze watch will continue through Tuesday. Northern Florida residents will feel temperatures drop to the lower 20s and mid-teens.
On Saturday night, a temperature of 35 degrees set a record that had stood since 1970, said Joel Rothfuss with the National Weather Service in Miami.
He said a record low of 37 degrees on Monday, which was set in 1927, could also be broken, with the forecast saying it would drop to 35 degrees again.
For the first time in at least 30 years, Miami Metrozoo shut its doors because it was too cold. Atlanta's zoo was closed because the trails were iced over, officials said. Temperatures in Atlanta stayed around freezing over the weekend. The average high for Atlanta is in the 50 degrees (around 10 Celsius) with lows in the 30s (around 0 Celsius).
The start of the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando was 28 degrees before dawn, though it climbed above freezing by late afternoon. Average highs in the central Florida city this time of year are in the lows 70s.
In a suburb north of Atlanta, two teens died Saturday after falling through the ice on a partially frozen pond. The surviving teen was in stable condition at a hospital, said Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services Capt. Tommy Rutledge. He said the three, ages 13 to 15, were playing and sliding on the semi-frozen pond when the ice broke.
"I'm sure that that frozen over pond was probably enticing to the kids," he said.
Ice does not freeze uniformly with some spots only an inch thick, he said. They had been warning children to stay off frozen-over ponds, he said.
In Vermont, state police said a snowmobiling accident on a partially frozen lake killed three people Saturday, including a 3-year-old girl.
Police say three snowmobiles carrying a total of six people went through ice on Lake Dunmore near Salisbury at around noon Saturday.
Breen said his Florida town, which raises everything from tropical birds and fish to organic produce and palm trees, was holding on to the little that was left from the cold.
"Everybody is just wiped out. It's that bad," he said
Monday, January 11, 2010
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MIAMI — Freakish cold weather continued to grip the southern United States, with snow flurries spotted around Orlando and a record low set for Miami, and forecasters said Sunday that more of the same was expected.
About 100,000 tropical fish being raised on a fish farm in South Florida couldn't bear the cold. Michael Breen, 43, who owns Breen Acres Aquatics in the small town of Loxahatchee Groves just north of Miami, said temperatures dropped below freezing overnight, leaving ice on his 76 ponds.
The ponds should be green because of algae bloom that feeds baby fish, he said.
"But all the ponds are crystal clear and fish are laying on the bottom. What we see on the surface died two days ago," he said, referring to the dead fish found floating Sunday morning.
Breen estimated he lost $535,000 in business because of the cold.
The National Weather Service issued a hard freeze warning for South Florida from Sunday night to Monday morning. A freeze watch will continue through Tuesday. Northern Florida residents will feel temperatures drop to the lower 20s and mid-teens.
On Saturday night, a temperature of 35 degrees set a record that had stood since 1970, said Joel Rothfuss with the National Weather Service in Miami.
He said a record low of 37 degrees on Monday, which was set in 1927, could also be broken, with the forecast saying it would drop to 35 degrees again.
For the first time in at least 30 years, Miami Metrozoo shut its doors because it was too cold. Atlanta's zoo was closed because the trails were iced over, officials said. Temperatures in Atlanta stayed around freezing over the weekend. The average high for Atlanta is in the 50 degrees (around 10 Celsius) with lows in the 30s (around 0 Celsius).
The start of the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando was 28 degrees before dawn, though it climbed above freezing by late afternoon. Average highs in the central Florida city this time of year are in the lows 70s.
In a suburb north of Atlanta, two teens died Saturday after falling through the ice on a partially frozen pond. The surviving teen was in stable condition at a hospital, said Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services Capt. Tommy Rutledge. He said the three, ages 13 to 15, were playing and sliding on the semi-frozen pond when the ice broke.
"I'm sure that that frozen over pond was probably enticing to the kids," he said.
Ice does not freeze uniformly with some spots only an inch thick, he said. They had been warning children to stay off frozen-over ponds, he said.
In Vermont, state police said a snowmobiling accident on a partially frozen lake killed three people Saturday, including a 3-year-old girl.
Police say three snowmobiles carrying a total of six people went through ice on Lake Dunmore near Salisbury at around noon Saturday.
Breen said his Florida town, which raises everything from tropical birds and fish to organic produce and palm trees, was holding on to the little that was left from the cold.
"Everybody is just wiped out. It's that bad," he said
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Big Storm Brewing for Northern Gulf Coast on 1-16-2010?
The official NOAA surface forecast for next weekend looks like there may be a bad Global Warming Ice Storm for the NOLA area! Surely the Saints will win, and then Hell will FREEZE OVER!!! - HLG
Friday, January 8, 2010
North Pole Web-Cam
The US Naval Post-Grad school maintains a web-cam on their north-pole instrument station. The images are often white-out/grey-out conditions, no sign of Santa, but interesting internet trivia, nonetheless. - HLG
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/latest/noaa1.jpg
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/latest/noaa1.jpg
Indiana & Kentucky Cancel High School Basketball!
Now that is the surest sign it is a weather emergency!!! - HLG
Weather postpones prep games in Kentucky, Indiana
It is the JCPS policy that if class is canceled then games will not be played.
In Indiana, the following boys’ basketball games have been postponed — Jeffersonville at New Albany, Corydon Central at Floyd Central and Borden at New Washington.
Friday’s Floyd Central at Charlestown wrestling match also was postponed.
New Albany’s boys’ basketball game on Saturday with Evansville Reitz also was postponed, as was Saturday’s New Albany at Floyd Central girls’ game.
Weather postpones prep games in Kentucky, Indiana
It is the JCPS policy that if class is canceled then games will not be played.
In Indiana, the following boys’ basketball games have been postponed — Jeffersonville at New Albany, Corydon Central at Floyd Central and Borden at New Washington.
Friday’s Floyd Central at Charlestown wrestling match also was postponed.
New Albany’s boys’ basketball game on Saturday with Evansville Reitz also was postponed, as was Saturday’s New Albany at Floyd Central girls’ game.
Are South Indian Cylcones Smaller this Year?
Or is it just me? Seems there has been a string of these very compact South Indian TC's. This is the latest. TC "EDZANI" - HLG
"Pleistocene Park"? or Return of the Ice Age!
Simple astounding image of nearly all of Britain buried in snow. I have never seen a satellite image like this one, myself. Time to clone the mastadons, and saber-tooth tigers and turn them loose in London! - HLG
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Global Warming Hits Orange Bowl (Frozen Concentrat Orange Bowl?)
Coldest ever was in 2010, second coldest was 2008, but pay no attention to such meaningless records. Surely it was really hot in Australia! - HLG
Coldest Orange Bowl on Record in Miami
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Share This MIAMI — The Orange Bowl is chilled.
Tuesday night's matchup between Iowa and Georgia Tech is the coldest Orange Bowl ever, with the kickoff temperature 49 degrees and a northwest wind making it feel seven degrees cooler.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service say wind chills across South Florida will be in the 30s by game's end, part of the region's worst cold snap in a decade. Temperatures across the region have been about 20 degrees colder than normal for several days.
The previous Orange Bowl low was 57 degrees, set two years ago for the matchup between Kansas and Virginia Tech
Coldest Orange Bowl on Record in Miami
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Share This MIAMI — The Orange Bowl is chilled.
Tuesday night's matchup between Iowa and Georgia Tech is the coldest Orange Bowl ever, with the kickoff temperature 49 degrees and a northwest wind making it feel seven degrees cooler.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service say wind chills across South Florida will be in the 30s by game's end, part of the region's worst cold snap in a decade. Temperatures across the region have been about 20 degrees colder than normal for several days.
The previous Orange Bowl low was 57 degrees, set two years ago for the matchup between Kansas and Virginia Tech
Flying Get Even More Fun (IF that is possible!)
Slovak Officials Admit Planting Explosives on Innocent Flier in Security Test
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
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AP
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A failed airport security test ended up with a Slovak man unwittingly carrying hidden explosives in his luggage on a flight to Dublin, Slovak officials admitted Wednesday — a mistake that enraged Irish authorities and shocked aviation experts worldwide.
While the Slovaks blamed the incident on "a silly and unprofessional mistake," Irish officials and security experts said it was foolish for the Slovaks to hide actual bomb parts in the luggage of innocent passengers under any circumstances.
The passenger himself was detained by Irish police for several hours before being let go without charge Tuesday.
The Irish were also angry that it took the Slovaks three days to tell them about the Saturday mistake and that the pilot of the airplane decided to fly to Dublin anyway even after being told that an explosive was in his aircraft's checked luggage.
After being informed by the Slovaks, Irish authorities shut down a major Dublin intersection Tuesday and evacuated people from several apartment buildings as Irish Army experts examined the explosive. The unwitting passenger was identified by Irish police as Stefan Gonda, a 49-year-old Slovak electrician who lives and works in Ireland.
The incident was bound to heighten flying jitters in the wake of the Christmas near-disaster where, authorities say, a 23-year-old Nigerian suspect tried to detonate an explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be foiled by a passenger who jumped over seats to subdue him.
Security experts said the Dublin episode illustrated the inadequacy of the screening of checked-in luggage — the very point Slovak authorities had sought to test when they placed bomb components in passengers' bags.
Yet Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general of the U.S. Homeland Security Department, called the Slovak test "crazy."
"It should be a controlled exercise," Ervin said. "It never should be done to someone unwittingly."
"It's unbelievable, it's astonishing," said Rick Nelson, a former Bush administration official who worked at the National Counterterrorism Center. "I'm not sure what they were thinking using an unknowing civilian rather than an undercover security official."
Their comments were echoed by experts in several nations.
Aviation analyst Chris Yates said someone should be fired, not only for the mistake, but for how the entire operation was designed.
"The whole idea of putting devices in passenger bags scares the living daylights out of me, frankly. It leaves it wide open to a whole range of things, including theft," Yates told The Associated Press in London.
"Anything could happen," he said. "That bag could go through a different carousel in the airport, you could lose it and you get the situation where you have RDX plastic explosive loaded into the cargo hold of an airplane, flown to another destination and then you have to find (it)."
Aviation security experts in Israel, considered among the top in the world, were equally incredulous.
Rafi Sela, president of AR Challenges, a consulting firm specializing in security, said Israel conducts daily drills in which people try to smuggle mock explosives, but the explosives are monitored at all times and are handled by volunteers, never by unwitting travelers.
"Nothing has ever happened like that in Israel and it never will because we operate differently here," he told the AP. "It's extremely dangerous what happened there. We send people to try and get through security all the time to test the system but explosives are always closely monitored and would never end up unattended like that."
In neighboring Hungary, officials said placing explosives secretly in a passenger's luggage was against the law.
Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak expressed "profound regret" to the Irish government for the oversight and the delay in alerting them.
But his ministry, in a statement, still claimed that "no one was in danger (during the flight) because the substance, without any other components (detonators) and under the conditions it was stored, is not dangerous."
The ministry said it ordered an immediate halt to such tests and took steps to prevent a repeat, while Tibor Mako, the head of Slovakia's border and foreign police whose people carried out the exercise, offered his resignation. There was no word on whether it would be accepted.
"The aim of the training was to keep sniffer dogs in shape and on alert in a real environment," the ministry said.
Still, details emerging from the failed exercise heightened concerns that basic precautions were not taken, with the ministry saying that when Slovak authorities realized their error and told the pilot of the Danube Wings flight, he still decided to take off with the explosives on board.
It was not clear what any other airport or airline officials, either in Slovakia or Dublin, knew about the failed security test. Slovak authorities said the officer who overlooked the planted explosive only told his superiors about the incident Monday.
Even the basic facts of test were in dispute Wednesday.
Irish officials said the Slovaks told them nine real bomb components were placed into the bags of nine different passengers at two airports, including Bratislava Airport and Poprad-Tatry Airport in central Slovakia. Eight items were detected, the Irish said, adding that one bag had two bomb components in it.
Slovak officials say they only attached two caches of explosives onto the outside of one man's bag.
The sniffer dog found one explosive but the police officer in charge failed to remove the second, which was not detected by the dog, from the bag because he was busy, the Slovakian interior ministry statement said.
That allowed 3 ounces of RDX plastic explosive to travel undetected through security at Poprad-Tatry Airport onto a Danube Wings aircraft. The Slovak carrier launched services to Dublin last month.
"The police officer made a silly and unprofessional mistake, which turned the good purpose of protecting people into a problem," the ministry statement said.
Slovak border police subsequently traced the man and told him where the explosive was planted so that he was able to find it Monday evening, said the ministry. Kalinak, the interior minister, called him to apologize.
But the Slovak ministry admitted it did not contact Irish authorities and explain the situation until Tuesday. That prompted Irish police to raid the man's Dublin apartment and detain him for several hours.
Irish police said they initially were led to believe the man might be a terrorist until the Slovaks explained the situation further.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said Dublin police eventually confirmed that the explosive "was concealed without his knowledge or consent ... as part of an airport security exercise."
The Slovak statement criticized the Irish police.
"For an incomprehensible reason for us, they took the person into custody and undertook further security measures," it said.
Slovakia was considering "new forms of sniffer dog training" to avoid a repeat of the scare, the ministry said.
In the Slovak capital of Bratislava, people expressed mixed feelings about the mistake.
"It's a big deal, I think it's horrible," said Robert Maslej, 28, waiting for his flight to Manchester, England at Bratislava airport.
But Neil Hamison, a 30-year-old IT engineer booked on the same plane, was far less perturbed.
"I saw it on the news but didn't really think about it," he said.
The incident was reminiscent of a French security exercise gone awry six years ago, when a bag of plastic explosives hidden intentionally in an unwitting passenger's luggage went missing.
Police had placed explosives in the side pocket of a suitcase in an exercise to train bomb-sniffing dogs at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. The bag, containing nearly 5 ounces of explosives, was never seen again.
French police said at the time there was no chance the explosives could go off since they were not connected to detonators, but the incident caused widespread criticism. The French subsequently stopped placing explosives intentionally into passengers' luggage for training.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
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AP
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A failed airport security test ended up with a Slovak man unwittingly carrying hidden explosives in his luggage on a flight to Dublin, Slovak officials admitted Wednesday — a mistake that enraged Irish authorities and shocked aviation experts worldwide.
While the Slovaks blamed the incident on "a silly and unprofessional mistake," Irish officials and security experts said it was foolish for the Slovaks to hide actual bomb parts in the luggage of innocent passengers under any circumstances.
The passenger himself was detained by Irish police for several hours before being let go without charge Tuesday.
The Irish were also angry that it took the Slovaks three days to tell them about the Saturday mistake and that the pilot of the airplane decided to fly to Dublin anyway even after being told that an explosive was in his aircraft's checked luggage.
After being informed by the Slovaks, Irish authorities shut down a major Dublin intersection Tuesday and evacuated people from several apartment buildings as Irish Army experts examined the explosive. The unwitting passenger was identified by Irish police as Stefan Gonda, a 49-year-old Slovak electrician who lives and works in Ireland.
The incident was bound to heighten flying jitters in the wake of the Christmas near-disaster where, authorities say, a 23-year-old Nigerian suspect tried to detonate an explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be foiled by a passenger who jumped over seats to subdue him.
Security experts said the Dublin episode illustrated the inadequacy of the screening of checked-in luggage — the very point Slovak authorities had sought to test when they placed bomb components in passengers' bags.
Yet Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general of the U.S. Homeland Security Department, called the Slovak test "crazy."
"It should be a controlled exercise," Ervin said. "It never should be done to someone unwittingly."
"It's unbelievable, it's astonishing," said Rick Nelson, a former Bush administration official who worked at the National Counterterrorism Center. "I'm not sure what they were thinking using an unknowing civilian rather than an undercover security official."
Their comments were echoed by experts in several nations.
Aviation analyst Chris Yates said someone should be fired, not only for the mistake, but for how the entire operation was designed.
"The whole idea of putting devices in passenger bags scares the living daylights out of me, frankly. It leaves it wide open to a whole range of things, including theft," Yates told The Associated Press in London.
"Anything could happen," he said. "That bag could go through a different carousel in the airport, you could lose it and you get the situation where you have RDX plastic explosive loaded into the cargo hold of an airplane, flown to another destination and then you have to find (it)."
Aviation security experts in Israel, considered among the top in the world, were equally incredulous.
Rafi Sela, president of AR Challenges, a consulting firm specializing in security, said Israel conducts daily drills in which people try to smuggle mock explosives, but the explosives are monitored at all times and are handled by volunteers, never by unwitting travelers.
"Nothing has ever happened like that in Israel and it never will because we operate differently here," he told the AP. "It's extremely dangerous what happened there. We send people to try and get through security all the time to test the system but explosives are always closely monitored and would never end up unattended like that."
In neighboring Hungary, officials said placing explosives secretly in a passenger's luggage was against the law.
Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak expressed "profound regret" to the Irish government for the oversight and the delay in alerting them.
But his ministry, in a statement, still claimed that "no one was in danger (during the flight) because the substance, without any other components (detonators) and under the conditions it was stored, is not dangerous."
The ministry said it ordered an immediate halt to such tests and took steps to prevent a repeat, while Tibor Mako, the head of Slovakia's border and foreign police whose people carried out the exercise, offered his resignation. There was no word on whether it would be accepted.
"The aim of the training was to keep sniffer dogs in shape and on alert in a real environment," the ministry said.
Still, details emerging from the failed exercise heightened concerns that basic precautions were not taken, with the ministry saying that when Slovak authorities realized their error and told the pilot of the Danube Wings flight, he still decided to take off with the explosives on board.
It was not clear what any other airport or airline officials, either in Slovakia or Dublin, knew about the failed security test. Slovak authorities said the officer who overlooked the planted explosive only told his superiors about the incident Monday.
Even the basic facts of test were in dispute Wednesday.
Irish officials said the Slovaks told them nine real bomb components were placed into the bags of nine different passengers at two airports, including Bratislava Airport and Poprad-Tatry Airport in central Slovakia. Eight items were detected, the Irish said, adding that one bag had two bomb components in it.
Slovak officials say they only attached two caches of explosives onto the outside of one man's bag.
The sniffer dog found one explosive but the police officer in charge failed to remove the second, which was not detected by the dog, from the bag because he was busy, the Slovakian interior ministry statement said.
That allowed 3 ounces of RDX plastic explosive to travel undetected through security at Poprad-Tatry Airport onto a Danube Wings aircraft. The Slovak carrier launched services to Dublin last month.
"The police officer made a silly and unprofessional mistake, which turned the good purpose of protecting people into a problem," the ministry statement said.
Slovak border police subsequently traced the man and told him where the explosive was planted so that he was able to find it Monday evening, said the ministry. Kalinak, the interior minister, called him to apologize.
But the Slovak ministry admitted it did not contact Irish authorities and explain the situation until Tuesday. That prompted Irish police to raid the man's Dublin apartment and detain him for several hours.
Irish police said they initially were led to believe the man might be a terrorist until the Slovaks explained the situation further.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said Dublin police eventually confirmed that the explosive "was concealed without his knowledge or consent ... as part of an airport security exercise."
The Slovak statement criticized the Irish police.
"For an incomprehensible reason for us, they took the person into custody and undertook further security measures," it said.
Slovakia was considering "new forms of sniffer dog training" to avoid a repeat of the scare, the ministry said.
In the Slovak capital of Bratislava, people expressed mixed feelings about the mistake.
"It's a big deal, I think it's horrible," said Robert Maslej, 28, waiting for his flight to Manchester, England at Bratislava airport.
But Neil Hamison, a 30-year-old IT engineer booked on the same plane, was far less perturbed.
"I saw it on the news but didn't really think about it," he said.
The incident was reminiscent of a French security exercise gone awry six years ago, when a bag of plastic explosives hidden intentionally in an unwitting passenger's luggage went missing.
Police had placed explosives in the side pocket of a suitcase in an exercise to train bomb-sniffing dogs at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. The bag, containing nearly 5 ounces of explosives, was never seen again.
French police said at the time there was no chance the explosives could go off since they were not connected to detonators, but the incident caused widespread criticism. The French subsequently stopped placing explosives intentionally into passengers' luggage for training.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Global Warming Meets GeoPolitics
Most of the Korean peninsula is currently buried in frozen H20 (a KNOWN Greenhouse Gas!). The snow is deepest in the starving North, but is breaking records all over East Asia. - HLG
Monday, January 4, 2010
Global Warming Sends More Record Snows and Cold to China
When will the madness stop? Dr Mann, which "Thermostat Gas" is causing this madness? - HLG
Global Warming Plungest US into the Deep Freeze!
Deep freeze across nation to get colder
By Craig Johnson, Special to CNNJanuary 4, 2010 11:07 a.m. EST
(CNN) -- Much of the nation awoke to frigid weather Monday as below-freezing temperatures threatened to shatter records across the South.
"We're seeing freeze warnings not just into Central Florida, but down into the Everglades," CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said.
Hard freeze warnings were in effect for much of the Florida Peninsula and the Southeast, according to the National Weather Service. Record lows were expected in the Gulf Coast states and into southern Florida, said CNN meteorologist Sean Morris.
Temperatures in parts of South Carolina got down to 14 on Sunday, Morris said, breaking the record low of 18 set in 1979.
The Big Chill is far from over.
"More arctic air will move in this week," Morris said. "It will get progressively colder in the Southeast."
Share your photos, video of winter weather near you
"Some locations could see temperatures 30 to 40 degrees below normal" across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley on Thursday, Morris said. By Friday morning, afternoon highs will struggle to make it above zero, he said.
"The main event will come whenever the reinforcing cold air moves in," Morris said.
A weak storm system will move rapidly eastward across the Gulf Coast states Thursday and could bring a dusting of snow to Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, Morris said.
Florida was monitoring the cold's impact on crops, according to John Cherry, director of external affairs for the state's Division of Emergency Management.
"We'll be getting some data today on what the impact is," Cherry said Monday. The state began warning residents last week to take precautions. "We saw this coming," he said.
A winter storm watch was in effect for parts of central North Dakota, which was expected to experience moderate to heavy snowfall, the Weather Service said.
The cold meant more homeless people were seeking shelter, according to CNN affiliate WBIR in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Two hundred guests have shown up at Knox Area Rescue Ministries, which was built to house 100 people, according to WBIR. "When it gets this cold it means it's extra demands on what we do day in and day out," Rescue Ministries President Burt Rosen told WBIR.
Turning to the Northeast, the Weather Service warned that a large storm off the New England coast would continue to bring heavy snow to much of New York state, including the Buffalo and Syracuse areas
By Craig Johnson, Special to CNNJanuary 4, 2010 11:07 a.m. EST
(CNN) -- Much of the nation awoke to frigid weather Monday as below-freezing temperatures threatened to shatter records across the South.
"We're seeing freeze warnings not just into Central Florida, but down into the Everglades," CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said.
Hard freeze warnings were in effect for much of the Florida Peninsula and the Southeast, according to the National Weather Service. Record lows were expected in the Gulf Coast states and into southern Florida, said CNN meteorologist Sean Morris.
Temperatures in parts of South Carolina got down to 14 on Sunday, Morris said, breaking the record low of 18 set in 1979.
The Big Chill is far from over.
"More arctic air will move in this week," Morris said. "It will get progressively colder in the Southeast."
Share your photos, video of winter weather near you
"Some locations could see temperatures 30 to 40 degrees below normal" across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley on Thursday, Morris said. By Friday morning, afternoon highs will struggle to make it above zero, he said.
"The main event will come whenever the reinforcing cold air moves in," Morris said.
A weak storm system will move rapidly eastward across the Gulf Coast states Thursday and could bring a dusting of snow to Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, Morris said.
Florida was monitoring the cold's impact on crops, according to John Cherry, director of external affairs for the state's Division of Emergency Management.
"We'll be getting some data today on what the impact is," Cherry said Monday. The state began warning residents last week to take precautions. "We saw this coming," he said.
A winter storm watch was in effect for parts of central North Dakota, which was expected to experience moderate to heavy snowfall, the Weather Service said.
The cold meant more homeless people were seeking shelter, according to CNN affiliate WBIR in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Two hundred guests have shown up at Knox Area Rescue Ministries, which was built to house 100 people, according to WBIR. "When it gets this cold it means it's extra demands on what we do day in and day out," Rescue Ministries President Burt Rosen told WBIR.
Turning to the Northeast, the Weather Service warned that a large storm off the New England coast would continue to bring heavy snow to much of New York state, including the Buffalo and Syracuse areas
Global Warming Drives Up Energy Costs!
January 4, 2010 Natural gas and home heating oil prices are rising. Crude oil has started trading above $80 a barrel. All of that likely will translate into higher energy bills. The rising prices also suggest the global economy is recovering, and regaining its appetite for fuel. - NPR via HLG
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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