82 F. high in the Twin Cities Sunday.
66 F. average high on September 28.
72 F. high on September 28, 2013.
September 28, 1876: Cold day over the region with a high of 45 in the Twin Cities (normally the high should be 65 there this time of year).
Best Investment
“Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual” said Socrates. He was right.
I
can't recall yesterday but I vividly remember a flight 30 years ago,
sitting next to an investment banker. I asked the obvious inane
question. "What's the best investment?" He thought about it and
surprised me with his answer. "Go back to school. Get an advanced
degree. The extra money you earn during your career will far eclipse any
returns from stocks, bonds or real estate."
I've earned a crude
MBA the hard way, by starting up 4 companies, but I wish I'd taken his
advice. That said, there's only so much you can learn from a book or
lecture. Memorization only goes so far. Trial and error is a much better
teacher.
The bubble has burst on our late September
weather-honeymoon. Keep in mind the sun is as high in the sky as it was
in mid-March, longer nights emboldening cooler fronts to probe farther
south.
A family of fronts spark sprinkles today; heavier showers
late Tuesday & Wednesday. We slide into a cooler, wetter pattern as
we sail into October; jackets by late week, a risk of frost in the
immediate metro Sunday morning.
It looks like 40s and low 50s for the Twin Cities Marathon.
As Inevitable as Gravity.
We knew 80s couldn't spill on indefinitely, but it sure was nice while
it lasted. Temperatures drop through the 60s today; 50-degree highs
predicted by the end of the week with a slight frost risk by Sunday
morning. The best chance of rain comes late Tuesday into Wednesday, a
few PM showers possible Friday afternoon before drying out next weekend.
Temperature Correction.
From July to October in the span of 36 hours? High-resolution NAM
guidance from NOAA shows chilly air pushing south, sparking clouds and a
few sprinkles today as temperatures fall through the 60s. 2-meter
60-hour temperature animation: HAMweather.
Canadian Infiltration.
As jet stream winds buckle much colder air will plow southward; the
main thrust of chilliness coming behind a sloppy frontal passage on
Wednesday. Time to migrate from shorts back to jackets, but I still
think we'll see a few more 70s before the flakes start to fly.
60-Hour Accumulated Rainfall Potential.
The approach of colder air sets off a smear of heavy rain over the
Rockies; another bulls-eye of heavy rain from southern Georgia into the
Florida Panhandle where 4-6" rains may spark flash flooding. 4 KM NAM
guidance: NOAA and HAMweather.
Solar Energy: A Sunflower Solution to Electricity Shortage. An IBM innovation that not only taps the free power of the sun, but also desalinates water for drinking and sanitation?
The Guardian has details; here's a clip: "
Computer giant IBM last week revealed the prototype of its advanced solar electricity generators:
a 30ft-high concrete “sunflower” fitted with wafer-thin aluminium
mirrors and a maze of tiny tubes for carrying coolant through the heart
of each device. The machines, which will be built in conjunction with
the Swiss company Airlight Energy,
can convert 80% of the sun’s radiation into electricity and hot water,
it is claimed, with each generating 12 kilowatts of electricity and 20kW
of heat on a sunny day, enough to supply several homes..."
Image credit above:
‘Game changer’: IBM and Airlight Energy’s 30ft concrete ‘sunflower’ was inspired by the branched blood supply of the human body."
MONDAY: Mostly cloudy, cooler. Sprinkles. Winds: NE 10. High: 61
MONDAY NIGHT: Patchy clouds, chilly. Low: 48
TUESDAY: Fleeting sun. Late showers likely. High: 65
WEDNESDAY: Showers, stray T-storm or two. Wake-up: 59. High: 68
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy, feels like October. Wake-up: 56. High: 64
FRIDAY: Gray and raw. Few PM showers. Wake-up: 45. High: 52
SATURDAY: Partly sunny and jacket-worthy. Wake-up: 40. High: 50
SUNDAY: Early frost? Clouds, stray sprinkle. Wake-up: 35. High: 57
Climate Stories...
Floods, Forest Fires, Expanding Deserts: The Future Has Arrived. We've gone from theory to reality, according to this article at
The Guardian; here's an excerpt: "...
Perhaps
most alarming of all the forecasts that concern the future warming of
our planet is the work of Camilo Mora at the University of Hawaii. His
research – which involved using a range of climate models to predict
temperatures on a grid that covered the globe – suggests that by 2047
the planet's climate systems will have changed to such an extent that
the coldest years then will be warmer than even the hottest years that
were experienced at any time in the 20th century. "Go back in your life
to think about the hottest, most traumatic event you have experienced,"
Mora said in an interview with the New York Times recently. "What we are
saying is that very soon, that event is going to become the norm..."
How Melty Was The Arctic Sea Ice This Year? It looks like the 6th greatest loss of polar ice. Science writer Greg Laden puts things into perspective at
scienceblogs.com: "...
Looking
at JUST surface area, which is one indicator of how warm the Arctic has
become with Global Warming, we can see (above) that this years march of
melting has been extreme, hugging the two standard deviation limit for
all of the data from 1979 to 2010 (almost the present). Here you can see
that 2014 is distinctly different, with much more surface area loss,
than the first ten years of this data set, from here..."
How Big Business Can Help Fight Climate Change. When going green puts more green back into consumer and company pockets - and we're pretty much there, as Bob McDonald at
CBC News explains; here's an excerpt: "...
For decades, the business community has known that going green usually makes money. It’s
already been demonstrated at the simplest level, with examples such as
hotels that have installed low-flush toilets and efficient shower heads,
and then recouped those costs through savings in a very short time. The
same is true for investments in better building design and more public
transit. The changes were not just to save energy and reduce emissions;
it was because it made good business sense..."
Climate Change Threat: As Global Leaders Stall, Cities Move To Cut Emissions, Boost Efficiency. Here's the intro to a story at
International Business Times: "
In
the face of global and federal paralysis on climate-change policy,
local officials in the U.S. are already moving to cut their cities’
emissions and make their infrastructures less vulnerable to
environmental threats. In Dubuque, Iowa, municipal leaders are rolling out data technology to help residents use less water and electricity. In Philadelphia, city experts are restoring watersheds
and planting gardens to soak up the residue of heavier rains and rising
sea levels, both effects related to global warming. However, few cities
are doing more to confront climate change than New York, where Mayor
Bill de Blasio appears keen to build on the environmental agenda of his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg..."
ADVERTISEMENT
However,
few cities are doing more to confront climate change than New York,
where Mayor Bill de Blasio appears keen to build on the
environmental agenda of his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.
Climate Change Linked To Spread of Lyme Disease. Here's an excerpt from
EcoWatch: "
As if we needed another reason to deplore the impacts of climate change, its warming effects are encouraging the northward spread of Lyme disease, carried by the black-legged tick which rides on deer, rodents and dogs, the Daily Climate
reports. While common in the U.S., it was rare in Canada until
recently. Because of that, Canadians eventually diagnosed with the
disease were delayed in getting appropriate treatment..."
Image credit above: "
The range of the black-legged tick, which carries Lyme disease, is expanding north due to the warming effects of climate change."
Photo credit: Shutterstock.
U.S. and Climate Change: Here Are The Top 10 Greenest Cities in America. No sign of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester or Duluth yet, at least according to this analysis from
International Business Times; here's an excerpt: "...
The
number of so-called LEED-certified buildings (i.e., structures designed
with minimal nonrenewable energy use and reduced water consumption) is
also a good gauge of a city’s ecological consciousness. Cities with high
proportions of green space also get two (green) thumbs up. Based on
these and other criteria, below are the 10 greenest cities in the U.S.,
in no particular order:
1. San Francisco.
The city’s curbside compost pickup program is just one of its many
eco-friendly features. It was also the first U.S. city to ban plastic
grocery bags.
2. Chicago. Chicago has
more green roofs (i.e., roofs partially or completely covered in
vegetation) than does any other city in the U.S. Green roofs help cut
the amount of energy it takes to heat and cool a building, while also
improving air quality..."
The Natural Gas Boom Could Accelerate Climate Change.
That is, if methane leakage around wells isn't adequately addressed in a
rush for profits. Here's a snippet that made me do a double-take from
FiveThirtyEightScience: "...
Policymakers
have hailed this revolution as beneficial in the fight against climate
change, but natural gas does have a dark side: It is composed primarily
of methane, which has a much stronger climate-warming effect than carbon
dioxide. Unburned methane that leaks into the air from anywhere in our
natural gas infrastructure has a potent climate-warming effect, and
global methane levels have been steadily increasing since 2007.
The only way to know whether switching to natural gas will worsen
climate warming, rather than lessen it, is to accurately assess the
scale of methane leakage..."
10 Fact Checks About Climate Change.
PolitiFact has the analysis - here's an excerpt: "...
U.S.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse delivers regular Senate speeches about the
dangers of climate change and authors commentary on the topic. In May,
he argued that addressing climate change makes economic sense, adding,
"There are already more American jobs in the solar industry than in coal
mining." PolitiFact Rhode Island found that the most recent data from
three objective sources support his claim. We rated his statement True."
Opinion: A $65 Trillion Global Warming Gamble in a $75 Trillion GDP World.
Marketwatch has the Op-Ed; here's a clip: "...
One
final observation on the world’s new love of free-market capitalism and
its blind obsession with economic growth at all costs: BusinessWeek
quoted David Owen from his “The Conundrum”: “As long as the West places
high and unquestioning value on economic growth and consumer
gratification — with China and the rest of the developing world right
behind — we will continue to burn the fossil fuels whose emissions trap
heat in the atmosphere.” Unable to stop. And eventually the addiction to
‘growth at all costs’ will itself destroy the planet’s collective
conscience ... because history keeps repeating... until there is nothing
left to repeat."
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