Nature
It plays rough, fights dirty, and doesn't like to leave witnesses.
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Feb 2008
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The Planet’s So Hot It’s Up to Its Eyebrows in Snow
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Mon 25 Feb 2008 16:32
by Kevin McGehee
66° and fair
in Coweta County, GA
0 comments
[Nature]
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Al Gore has been busy this winter.
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January “was -0.3°F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.“
China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.
There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.
In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.
And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its “lowest levels on record?“ Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.
The ice is back.» Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age
Seriously, Al—go home and stay home. Spring is (supposed to be) coming, and some people would like to see their local snow and ice go away for a few months.
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Ice Fog!
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Tue 5 Feb 2008 12:17
by Kevin McGehee
-47° and fog
in Fairbanks, Alaska
0 comments
[Alaska]
[Nature]
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I’m not actually posting this in Fairbanks—just providing the current conditions at the time these pictures were taken at about a quarter past 8:00 a.m., Alaska Standard Time:
» Read more "Ice Fog!"
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Jan 2008
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Snow and Sleet
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Sat 19 Jan 2008 10:26
by Kevin McGehee
35° and sleet
in Coweta County, GA
0 comments
[Coweta County]
[Nature]
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I didn’t say anything ahead of time about the prospect of snow a few days ago, and it happened. I didn’t say anything ahead of time about the prospect of snow today, and it’s happening.
As often as forecasts of frozen precipitation for hereabouts have gone <pffffft!> in the past, I think I can be forgiven for being just a tad superstitious. So, any other things I might be doing or not doing lest I jinx it, I won’t mention.
Chris wishes the “heavy snow warning” were called something else—people in Marquette, Michigan or Breckinridge, Colorado might make fun of what it says about our idea of “heavy” snow.
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Have There Been Climate Change Protests in Greenland This Winter?
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Thu 17 Jan 2008 23:07
by Kevin McGehee
40° and cloudy
in Coweta County, GA
4 comments
[Nature]
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I’m tellin’ ya, them fellers are surprisingly effective!
While the rest of Europe is debating the prospects of global warming during an unseasonably mild winter, a brutal cold snap is raging across the semi-autonomous nation of Greenland.
On Disko Bay in western Greenland, where a number of prominent world leaders have visited in recent years to get a first-hand impression of climate change, temperatures have dropped so drastically that the water has frozen over for the first time in a decade.
“The ice is up to 50cm thick,“ said Henrik Matthiesen, an employee at Denmark’s Meteorological Institute who has also sailed the Greenlandic coastline for the Royal Arctic Line. “We’ve had loads of northerly winds since Christmas which has made the area miserably cold.“
Matthiesen suggested the cold weather marked a return to the frigid temperatures common a decade ago.» Ice returns as Greenland temps plummet
If this cooling trend keeps up, I may find myself regretting having lost all that weight over the last 12 years or so.
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Were There Climate Change Protests in Atlanta Yesterday?
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Thu 17 Jan 2008 23:01
by Kevin McGehee
39° and cloudy
in Coweta County, GA
0 comments
[Wackadoodle]
[Nature]
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...‘cause that might explain the weather we had. Like in Maryland:
It snowed, but they still came. A heavy snowfall blanketed a global warming protest outside the State House in Annapolis this morning, but it did not dampen the shouts of about 400 activists who urged lawmakers to pass the nation’s toughest greenhouse gas control law.
As supporters waved signs, chanted and banged drums, 18 legislators walked down a symbolic green carpet to sign up as co-sponsors to a bill that would mandate that all businesses in Maryland cut emissions of global warming pollution by 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050.
“We are going to pass this bill this year,“ said State Sen. Paul Pinsky, a Democrat from Prince George’s County and chairman of the senate’s environmental matters subcommittee. “We are not going to rest, we are not going to stop. ... We are going to keep going until we pass this bill.“ » Global warming protest frosted with snow
Spewin’ an awful lot of greenhouse gases, aren’t they?
Anyway, why bother with legislation? Seems they don’t even need to invite Al Gore to an event to cause immediate localized cooling. They should just stage permanent anti-global-warming demonstrations all over the world.
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I Think That Temperature Reading May Be a Bit Off
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Wed 16 Jan 2008 15:14
by Kevin McGehee
40° and snow shower
in Coweta County, GA
4 comments
[Coweta County]
[Nature]
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 ...not that it couldn’t be 40°F. and be snowing.
We’ve got a respectable-looking snow shower going as I type this, but as yet it isn’t sticking. There’s a winter weather advisory posted that isn’t even in effect yet, alleging “sleet or snow mixing with rain this afternoon,“ turning to rain and then freezing rain.
I vote we just keep the snow. It looks nicer.
Update: That’s about as good as a camera phone is going to give you (click it for slightly bigger). It’s been 25 minutes since I first posted this entry and it’s still falling. Looks like it really wants to start sticking, too. The Weather Channel gizmo in Firefox claims it’s still 40°. Riiiiight.
‘Nother Update, 3:56 p.m.: It’s sticking—in select spots, such as the lowest shingles on our roof. Even poor Lucy had some trying to stick in her coat!
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Thus Suspends Our Broadcast Day
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Thu 10 Jan 2008 18:42
by Kevin McGehee
66° and cloudy
in Coweta County, GA
3 comments
[Nature]
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A few weeks ago I took my APC offline because it kept going off even when there didn’t seem to be a power interruption to justify it. On the chance the problem has been the battery (despite there being no notices about the battery being bad), I ordered a replacement, and have been holding off installing it and reconnecting everything through the APC.
Tonight, Coweta County is under a tornado watch until 1:00 a.m., and not having the thingie hooked up, I’m shutting down the bugbox for a while. Perhaps I’ll take advantage of that shutdown to go ahead and get the APC set up and (hopefully) working properly again.
See y’all on the other side.
Update: I had to suspend the suspension in order to fire off an angry message to APC. They sent me the wrong dog-gamn battery.
I have not been impressed with this unit from APC, and being sent the wrong battery only makes it worse. So, I’m throwing open the floor for suggestions: what other companies are there that make UPS-es that actually work, and that can get the order right when you need replacement parts?
‘Nother Update: The tornado watch has been canceled, the storms have (mostly) passed, and I’m still P.O.‘d at APC.
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Ouch!
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Sun 6 Jan 2008 22:00
by Kevin McGehee
47° and clear
in Coweta County, GA
0 comments
[Out West]
[Nature]
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You may have read elsewhere about the diner from the Spider-Man movies that was trucked to Wyoming.
The Moondance Diner made it safely through a 2,100-mile trek west from New York City last summer, but the roof of the famed eatery was damaged by snow during the bitter Wyoming winter.
The diner’s owners Cheryl and Vince Pierce said they’ll continue renovating the space after parts of the roof and walls were damaged Thursday, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. The couple hopes to open the restaurant later this year in LaBarge, a town of about 500 at the base of the Rocky Mountains, where the diner now sits.» Wyoming Winter Damages Historic NYC Diner
That’s out west for you. If you don’t have a weather story or three to dine out on, you’ve never been there.
H/t: Blue Crab Boulevard.
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