Monday, March 15, 2010

Now that winter is ending, it has gotten a little warm, hasn't it?

The past five years have seen an increase in tornado activity. This year is not going to be any different. While crossing the coastal plain into the piedmont of North Carolina recently there was a huge heat transfer system traversing the region. It is this system that delivered such significant weather to the northeast USA.

That isn't the point.

The point is that I observed innumerable meso-tornadic clouds and systems. I fully expect a severe tornado season with 'touch downs' in non-traditional areas of the country. We have a very hot troposphere and that will result in storm events in order to transfer the heat from air to surface for absorption.

Basically, the movement and availability of water vapor has been redistributed, but, the increasing heat index hasn't changed.

The other reality that plays into the weather patterns that will result in spring, summer and into autumn with the arrival of tornado and hurricane season is the 'replenishment' of water to terra firma. Evaporation will cause higher degrees of air turbulence with much of it being spontaneous. I would expect not just a strong tornado season, but, severe storms as well that spawn those tornadoes. There may also be an increase in 'near shore' hurricanes as well.

Tornadoes, Heavy Rain and Flooding for Eastern U.S. (click here)

Four Tornadoes Overnight in Arkansas; Forecasters Concerned About Flooding From Melting Snow




March 14, 2010
Wharton, New Jersey
Photographer states :: Rockaway River Flooding

Northeast Wind-Driven Rain Blamed For 7 Deaths (click title to entry - thank you)

Posted By - Gary Franklin
Updated On: 3/15/2010 5:16:47 AM

EGG HARBOR CITY, N.J. (AP) -- The damage and flooding left in the wake of a torrential rainstorm in the Northeast could keep some people from their homes for days and cause headaches for the morning commute.

The Long Island Railroad says flooding near an East River tunnel
could delay or cancel trains and advised commuters to give
themselves extra time.

Dozens of roads in New York are blocked by fallen limbs and wires. And in Boston, the transit authority shut down stretches of the Green and Red rail lines because of rising water.

In the New York-New Jersey area, airlines reported delays and
scattered cancellations.

At least seven people died in storm-related accidents over the
weekend, and nearly half a million people were without electricity in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut at the peak of the storm.

Associated Press

Rain? Oh. Rain and snow melt make for interesting partners.




March 15, 2010
Kennebunk, Maine
Photographer states :: Roaring again. So far we've had over 6 inches of rain from this current storm, and the rivers are roaring once again. You can see that the Kennebunk River is over its banks, covering the lower4 or 5 feet of these trees along its edge.

One day five feet of snow and the ? next ? five feet above flood stage. My, my.

Is elevation not impervious to Human Induced Global Warming and the Climate Crisis? It would seem to be not.

I just can't wait for the Ice Age to roll back in, can you?



Motorist slows for flood debris on Blue Ridge Mountain Road, Clarke County, Virginia

River Road and Mountain Road Flooding Impacts Driving Conditions (click here)

...River Road south of Route 7 is submerged in several areas while Blue Ridge Mountain Highway (Va. Rt. 601) is also experiencing flooding and road debris both north and south of Mount Weather as of Saturday morning. Driving conditions on both roads is poor....

Record temps and new flood warnings (click here)

The temperature hit 64 in the Twin Cities on Sunday as rivers throughout the area continued to rise.

Last update: March 15, 2010 - 9:23 AM

On a sunny Sunday featuring a record-high 64 degrees in the Twin Cities and continued rapid snowmelt that caused some ice jams on area rivers and streams, the National Weather Service issued several flash-flood warnings.

It also added the Mississippi River in St. Paul and Hastings to a long list of flood warnings, predicting moderate flooding, and predicted the Red River in Moorhead, Minn., and Fargo, N.D., would rise to 38 feet by week's end.

The flash-flood warnings, triggered by ice jams in the Minnesota River and its tributaries, were issued for overnight Sunday for parts of Le Sueur, Sibley and Scott counties....

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park is still above freezing and it won't ever return to freezing since Spring is nearly here.



Warm winters distress reindeer herders (click title to entry - thank you)
28 February 2010 - 06H54

...But warm winters in recent years have forced herders here in the far northern Kola Peninsula to delay for months the rounding up of their reindeer from the vast tundra -- at great economic cost.

"We've had to move the slaughter forwards from December to February because the lakes haven't frozen over," said Vladimir Filippov, an ethnic Komi herder who heads the farm Tundra, the main employer in this remote village.

These reindeer have lost roughly 20 percent of their weight during the extra months spent in the tundra while herders waited for the ice to thicken enough for the forced migration....



Local Time: 5:44 AM AKDT (GMT -08)

Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W

Updated: 4:56 AM AKDT on March 15, 201


Temperature :: 39 Fahrenheit

Conditions :: Scattered Clouds

Windchill :: 37 Fahrenheit

Humidity :: 70%

Dew Point :: 30 Fahrenheit

Wind :: 4 mph from the South

Pressure :: 29.74 inches (Falling)

Visibility :: 10.0 miles

UV :: 0 out of 16

Clouds :: Scattered Clouds 11,000 feet

(Above Ground Level)

Elevation :: 33 feet

Everyone sees Perry and the Tea Baggers as a political component.

People upset with the Bush Administration accepted the consequences of their protests. Funny. I thought those folks won the majority of votes in 2006 and 2008.

The LADY below is Cindy Sheehan. And what a lady she is. The Patriot.

Cindy Sheehan plans tent-city protest (click title to entry - thank you)

Lee-Anne Goodman
The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON—Cindy Sheehan was a long-time thorn in the side of former president George W. Bush, famously camping out in front of his Texas ranch to protest the war that claimed the life of her son in 2004 as he served in Iraq.

But Sheehan, 52, isn’t any more enamoured of President Barack Obama, trailing him as far as Norway when he won his Nobel Peace Prize to point out there’s no real difference between his administration’s and Bush’s when it comes to the American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan....



Maybe.

But, when a GOVERNOR starts succeeding in elections threatening to secede, that is treason.

The sovereignty of the USA is not a game and the people that elected him to run again aren't children.

What if Ahnold stated he was going to lead California to secede?

Or Patterson in New York?

Or C(h)rist in Florida?

Political jargon? Not hardly.

I guess it is just a 'Facebook thing' after all.

It is quite one aspect of anger to burn a flag, protest peacefully to be recognized, it is quite something else to bring guns to a Town Hall Meeting. Guns intimidate and that is exactly why they were carried by these nut cases of the Republican Right Wing. The Town Hall meetings were to hear constituent concerns and there was absolutely no issue surrounding the Second Amendment in dispute. There were elected federal public officials at those meetings and if security was an issue I am quite confident the 'guests' at the meeting with their Senator or Congressperson would have requested same and received it. There was no reason what so ever at all for gun toting Tea Baggers upset about the outcome to the elections of 2008 to be given validity in their obvious and violently threatening behavior. If guests to Town Halls want protection and feel threatened they should let their elected federal officials know they want a police presence to protect them.

Thai Protesters Shut Down Parts of Bangkok (click here)



Protesters and supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, make their way on the street after they dispersed from a rally outside a military barrack on Monday in Bangkok.

Thai PM rejects political ultimatum (click here)

Thailand’s prime minister, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament on Monday as tens of thousands of red—shirted protesters vowed to continue their push to oust the government.

In the first reported violence of the protests, two soldiers were wounded when four grenades exploded inside an army headquarters ringed by the demonstrators, said army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

He did not blame the demonstrators but said there has been intelligence that some elements had been planning such attacks. The grenades were fired from an M—79 launcher, he said....

Who indeed is fueling the border war with the Drug Cartels in Mexico?



Gerbasi thinks that President Chávez and his government top officers have had an ambiguous relation with the FARC (Photo: Oswer Díaz Mireles)

Interview with Fernando Gerbasi, ex Foreign Vice-Minister

"The case of ETA-FARC-Chávez could go to the International Criminal Court" (click here)

Does the indictment filed by Judge (Eloy) Velasco, of the Spanish National Court compromise, besides President Hugo Chávez's destiny, the fate of the whole country, taking into account that not only diplomatic relations with Spain or Colombia, but also with the European Union are endangered?
This situation will be more and more complicated as the trial goes on; defendants of (Basque terrorist group) ETA and the FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) give their testimony, as well as security corps of Spain and Colombia. I think that some issues that compromise the situation of the Venezuelan government before the European Union and the international community will arise. In the case of the European Union, because they label the ETA and FARC as terrorist organizations and an action against a member country is regarded as harmful to remaining member states. In addition, in the event of a short trial, Spain holds the presidency of the European Union....



The year is 1847 and the conflict between Mexico and the USA was for sovereign authority. Is that still the case today?

The bigger picture demands an analysis that goes beyond the drug cartels, after Governor Perry wants to secede from the lower 48 states with allies that stretch into Alaska. One has to wonder how this mess ever started in the first place.

Who is tapping into the drug cartel profits, why is there still sufficient ammunition in this war on drugs? Why is the USA targeted? And what if anything does the Tea Bagger 'network' have to do with any of this and does it have a greater potential to cause violence in the USA?

3 with ties to U.S. Consulate killed in Mexico (click title to entry - thank you)

Monday, March 15, 2010

(03-15) 04:00 PDT La Union, Mexico -- Gunmen believed to be linked to drug traffickers shot an American Consulate worker and her husband to death in the violence-racked border town of Ciudad Juarez over the weekend, leaving their newborn baby wailing in the back seat of their car, the authorities said Sunday.

They also killed the husband of another consular employee and wounded his two young children.

The shootings appeared to be the first deadly attacks on U.S. officials and their families by Mexico's powerful drug organizations. They came during a particularly bloody weekend when nearly 50 people were killed around the country in drug-gang violence....


continued...


The crashed car of a U.S. Consulate employee and her husband sits near the Santa Fe international bridge to El Paso in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, after the two were shot to death. (Associated Press / March 14, 2010)

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

2 Americans and a third victim are killed in Mexico shootings (click here)

Two cars leaving a party come under fire in Ciudad Juarez. A baby in the back seat of one car survives unscathed, but her parents are dead.