What's more current than the weather?

[busterb]

Rain!! !@#$%^ rain. Since Sunday

[Griff]

38 more days Noah!

[Gravdigr]

Yer gonna need a bigger boat.

[Pete Zicato]

Snow's a-comin'.

Chicago is just getting it now.

[xoxoxoBruce]

With Drought Season Off to a Bad Start, Scientists Forecast Another Bleak Year

Drought conditions in more than half of the United States have slipped into a pattern that climatologists say is uncomfortably similar to the most severe droughts in recent U.S. history, including the 1930s Dust Bowl and the widespread 1950s drought.

The 2013 drought season is already off to a worse start than in 2012 or 2011—a trend that scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say is a good indicator, based on historical records, that the entire year will be drier than last year, even if spring and summer rainfall and temperatures remain the same. If rainfall decreases and temperatures rise, as climatologists are predicting will happen this year, the drought could be even more severe.

Sounds bad and the maps look worse.

[tw]

A 1930s drought was severe. But made devastating by mismanagement done by man. Facts explained in Ken Burn's PBS documentary: The Dust Bowl

Essential to averting disaster is science. Science to predict a disaster before it happens. And science to change mistakes so that a drought does not become a disaster.

Long ago, the informed had discussed a problem with a drying aquifer, too much unproductive farm land, and other problems on land that is now at environmental risk. One rather respected solution was to buy out many farmers. Convert acres of land back into prairie grass reserves. To protect or refresh ground water. To let soils recover from heavy farming. To protect rivers from top soil runoff. To diminish flooding (as now expected in the Dakotas). And a long list of other potential solutions.

But let's remember who was running our government then. Wacko extremists who even invented a mythical Saddam, destroyed the American economy, all but protected bin Laden, and uselessly massacred almost 5000 American servicemen. With leaders like that, then doing better science was all but impossible.

An array of satellites necessary for that science were canceled or quashed in proposal by an administration that hates science. One example was a satellite that wackos called GoreSat. Due to extremist hate of science, reality, and Democrats. Making victims or creating bogeymen is how extremists maintain power.

As described in Bush's Shrinking Safety Zone:

Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

The irony: farmers today are doing well due to welfare from corn ethanol and crop insurance. Farm land prices are at all time high. Some layman only assumed drought means agricultural failure. Others who learn from recent history know otherwise. A drought does not automatically create agricultural failures or bankruptcies.

However, when farming was so prosperous and land prices so high (during a previous dry period), too many business school types ignored long term thinking. Resulting in severe agriculture downturns years later.

You cannot assume a drought and bad crops result in agricultural hardships. But we know one fact from so many previous droughts (including the 1930 Dust Bowl and the Ethiopian famine). Most of the problems are created by human mismanagement - not by the drought. Therefore we need more environmental science necessary for any long term agricultural planning. Not less as still advocated by George Jr's wackos and their legacy the tea party.

Space from Earth only discusses one example of the problem. Names include Aqua, Aura, Terra, and POES. But research into avoiding environmental disasters was subverted by George Jr. After all, it might discover who is really creating global warming. Wacko extremists today are continuing that effort by subverting new science in the name of their political fears, propaganda, and cost controls. Even advocate welfare to agriculture - ie corn ethanol. You would think they learn from the 2008 world wide food shortage. But they said they wanted America to fail.

Two recent examples were demonstrated by a near zero hurricane Sandy and by another serious low pressure system that followed three months later. Having been starved of funds, then American weather models did not accurately predict accordingly. More accurate on both storms were European weather models. Why did Europeans do better weather forecasting? Their governments and science are not subverted by wacko extremists who fear research into anything (including gun violence) and who prefer to enrich the rich. The European supercomputer was even better. Extremist legacy remains in numerous science tools (ie satellites, computer models, etc) that cannot happen in America.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Found a new and interesting site for weather, http://forecast.io
Enter your address in the header bar, then click on local and click on the image. It will give you a very detailed forecast for the next four hours. It will show if it's a passing shower or you should move the whole picnic indoors.
On the right is the next hour, 24 hours, and week.

[busterb]

Doesn't fly for me? Try again later.

[ZenGum]

I saw that dust bowl doco over the last month. What a spectacular example of shitting in your own nest. Back then, at least some people could genuinely claim ignorance as an excuse. But, we're still led by short term decision making in a world with medium term variability.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

I saw that dust bowl doco over the last month.

I saw it too. It was so fascinating.

[Sundae]

In the middle of a cracking storm right now.
I mean an English storm, not one of the foreign ones that are spectacular and/or kill people.

Both cats are inside, so it's a cosy feeling.
The 'rents have to get back from Mass, but they can always get a taxi or shelter in the pub (their new routine is to have supper there on the way home.)
Haven't had a daylight weekend storm for ages.

I might just go doze to the sound of thunder for a while.
It's to the South so I'll only see reflected lightning.

[ZenGum]

We've had the warmest summer on record, and it's still going. There has been a bushfire in the Adelaide Hills, out of control for the last three days, in MAY. We've finally got a few showers of rain, which is helping.

I've long since given up on there being a "normal". Times they are a-changin', we'll just have to hope, and wait and see.

[Lamplighter]

I did not know such things happened.
... after the ubiquitous 30-second ad.

A "wave" of ice slowly comes on shore from Mille Lacs Lake area of Minnesota. (USA Today - May 12)

[tw]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Times they are a-changin', we'll just have to hope, and wait and see.

Years ago, George Jr supporters reported that Global Cooling was ongoing. What they say is never supported by numbers. Therefore it must be true.

[BigV]

it was 80 degrees last week. HOT. sunny, clear, HOT.

Today, thundershowers, 60 degrees, hail. yeesh. this is why I left Oklahoma.