54 F. high in the Twin Cities Sunday.
40 F. average high on March 13.
62 F. high on March 13, 2015.
March 14, 1943:
Snow, sleet and ice cripple parts of Minnesota south of a line from
Duluth through St. Cloud and Ortonville. The heaviest ice was in the
vicinities of Lake Benton, Springfield and Windom. Ice thickness was 1/2
to 3/4 inch around St. Cloud to 3/4 to 2 inches in the Pipestone,
Ruthton, Lake Wilson, Slayton and Tracy. A good description of the ice
was submitted in one report: '…ice was 2 inches across and 1 3/4 inch
deep on wire. A little frost ice near the wire with the outside solid
ice. The ice was irregular in shape.' Duluth had 6 inches of snowfall at
the city office with 13 inches at the airport. The ice was confined to
Moose Lake and south.
March 14, 1870:
A severe snow and wind storm moves across Minnesota and Iowa. The
'Northern Vindicator' of Estherville, Iowa becomes the first newspaper
to use the term 'blizzard' on this date.
Premature April Showers - Slow Temperature Slide
"Hi,
my name is Paul. I'm addicted to my smartphone." Like Gollum huddled
over his "Precious" I can't look away. I need a steady dopamine drip of
digital distractions. It gives me the illusion of being informed and in
control.
One-size-fits all weather is going the way of rotary
phones, cassette tapes and Duran Duran. GPS-aware phones, supercomputers
in our pockets, can now pinpoint severe storm warnings and forecasts
for our precise locations. I may be biased but I suspect it will change
the way most of us get personalized weather info. Everyone sees
something different.
In spite of a cooling trend this week your
lawn may green up a month ahead of schedule. Light showers today give
way to heavier rain
Tuesday as a storm spins up overhead; 1-inch amounts possible. By
Wednesday PM it's cold enough for wet snow; a slushy coating can't be ruled out. After
Saturday's euphoric 70F high mere "average" may feel like a cool slap across the face. We've been spoiled.
Sorry,
I have to answer 78 e-mails, tweet something inspirational & gawk
at my Facebook feed.
Where's the off-switch on this thing?
A Healthy Dousing.
The 00z NAM prints out .83" of rain by Wednesday; our internal model
ensemble hints at some 1"+ rainfall amounts by 6 PM Wednesday. Source:
Aeris Enterprise.
Warm Enough for Rain.
Although the atmosphere cools as the week goes on temperatures in the
lowest mile of the column of air overhead should remain above 32F
through midweek, meaning rain vs. snow for the bulk of this next storm.
Amounts range from .72" to 1.04".
Dry Break This Afternoon - Next Surge of Moisture Arrives Tuesday.
We may wake up to puddles but NOAA's 12 km NAM dries us out by
afternoon as temperatures approach 60F. A surge of heavier rain arrives
from the south tomorrow as a strong storm intensifies almost directly
over MSP - mixing with a little wet snow over far northern Minnesota by
Wednesday morning. 2-meter precipitation type and future radar: NOAA and
AerisWeather.
1-3" Rainfall Amounts West Central Minnesota?
High-resolution NAM guidance prints out a smear of heavy rain from
near Alexandria north to Detroit Lakes and portions of the Red River
Valley by Wednesday morning, closer to .5" to 1" for the Twin Cities
metro.
March Relapse.
My calendar insists that it's mid-March, and it will feel more like
March out there by Thursday as Canadian air sloshes south behind
Tuesday's storm. Highs hold in the upper 30s and low 40s from late week
into the weekend before a slight recovery next week. Source:
WeatherSpark.
Jacket-Worthy.
No, this won't be an arctic outbreak, no sign of the dreaded Polar
Vortex, more of a polite slap across the face vs. a punch of Canadian
air. You know you've been spoiled when "average" is communicated as a
"cold front".
February Smashes Earth's All-Time Global Heat Record by a Jaw-Dropping Margin. Dr. Jeff Masters has a must-read post at
WunderBlog; here's the intro: "
On
Saturday, NASA dropped a bombshell of a climate report. February 2016
has soared past all rivals as the warmest seasonally adjusted month in
more than a century of global recordkeeping. NASA’s analysis showed that
February ran 1.35°C (2.43°F) above the 1951-1980 global average for the
month, as can be seen in the list of monthly anomalies going back to 1880.
The previous record was set just last month, as January 2016 came in
1.14°C above the 1951-1980 average for the month. In other words,
February has dispensed with this one-month-old record by a full 0.21°C
(0.38°F)--an extraordinary margin to beat a monthly world temperature
record by. Perhaps even more remarkable is that February 2015 crushed
the previous February record--set in 1998 during the peak atmospheric
influence of the 1997-98 “super” El Niño that’s comparable in strength
to the current one--by a massive 0.47°C (0.85°F)..."
Map credit: "
Anomalies
(departures from average) in surface temperature across the globe for
February 2016, in degrees Centigrade, as analyzed by NASA’s Goddard
Institute for Space Studies." Image credit:
NASA/GISS.
Nearly 5,000 Homes Flooded During Historic Flood Event. Here's an excerpt from
KSLA News 12 in Shreveport, Louisiana: "
The
Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has
released a statement about this week's floods across the state of
Louisiana. GOHSEP stated that initial reports from parishes around the
state indicate that nearly 5000 homes have received flood damage and
thousands of people have been forced from their homes. So far, Governor
John Bel Edwards, as well as key cabinet members and FEMA
representatives, have toured the damage of many of the hardest hit areas
of the state..."
Photo credit above: "
This is a road in French Settlement. It's hard to tell where the line of separation is between it and the Amite River." Source: Gerron Jordan.
The Fuel Behind Louisiana's Torrential Rains, Floods. Here's a clip from
Climate Central: "...
In
general, climate scientists expect heavy downpours to increase over the
U.S. and elsewhere, as a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture,
making more of it available to fall as rain. Observations have already
shown an increase, though the amount varies from region to region. The
Southeast as a whole has seen a 27 percent increase in the amount of
rain falling in the heaviest events since 1958. Baton Rouge ranks among
the top 20 cities in terms of the increase in heavy downpours it has
seen, with a 120 percent increase since the 1950s, according to a Climate Central analysis..."
Animation credit above: "
Animation rains measured by NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement satellite." Credit: NASA/JAXA/SSAI, Hal Pierce.
22 Amazing Renewable Energy Projects That Pave The Way to a Cleaner Future.
Gizmodo has the photo essay; here's an excerpt: "
There’s
a growing demand for greener, safer renewable energy sources. Sun,
wind, water, biomass, waves and tides, and the heat of the soil, all
provide alternatives to non-renewable energy. The following collection
showcases some of the most amazing renewable energy projects and
prototypes from the past few decades, including quite a few you’ve
probably never heard of before..."
Photo credit above: "
Here’s an aerial view of the solar plant of Ouarzazate, in central Morocco. The world’s biggest solar plant using photovoltaics (PV), it takes advantage of the Sahara sunshine." Photo: Abdeljahil Bounhar/AP.
Tackling Climate Change is a Profitable Opportunity, Rather Than an Expensive Problem. America has a long, storied history of turning negatives into positives. Here's a clip at Huffington Post: "...Looking
at how we consume energy and in particular the resulting waste will go a
long way in helping us better understand the real issues at stake. The
technologies we use today are 100 years old! They present a complete
lack of efficiency compared to the clean technologies available:
our combustion engines are three times less efficient than electrical
ones; light bulbs create more heat than light and in turn require
cooling devices; poor insulation of buildings and single glazed windows
continue to run up our monthly electricity bills; and, heating and
cooling systems, as well as industrial processes produce more losses
than efficiency. Why are we so demanding about modern information
technology and so relaxed about energy efficiency?..."
Here's Why Consumers Are Increasingly Turning to Streaming Media Devices to View Content. It's all about convenience and control, and paying for what you're actually watching. Here's a clip from
Business Insider: "...
As
streaming media device uptake rises, stakeholders throughout the larger
media ecosystem will need to adapt to consumers' changing
habits. Legacy TV providers will likely need to offer skinny bundles or
their own OTT subscriptions to stay relevant, while advertisers will
want to capitalize on the opportunities available in targeting streaming
viewers using demographic and behavioral data. App developers, platform
creators, and game makers will also have a stake in where and how
streaming activity develops..."
The "AT&T Spokesperson" is a Political Refugee.
Unless you have Apache, Cheyenne or Sioux blood chances are you're the
offspring of an immigrant. So is the gal who shows up in those
ubiquitous AT&T ads on TV, a political refugee who came to the USA
from Uzbekistan when she was 2 years old. Here's an excerpt at
looper.com: "...
Life
in the USSR wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows for Vayntrub's family,
especially because they faced persistent religious persecution for
being Jewish in a country that was officially atheist. When Vayntrub was
just two years old, her family fled Uzbekistan in hopes of finding
religious freedom and political asylum in America. The process was long
and grueling, with the family stranded in both Austria and Italy for a
while. Luckily, the Vayntrubs made it to America and settled in
California, which sounds like a wonderful step up to us..."
Trump's Rebel Yell: How The Tech Revolution Is Setting Up Another Civil War. Disruption is hard, yet inevitable. My thanks to
Newsweek for cheering me up on a Monday morning; here are a couple clips from an interesting, if not unsettling story: "
A
technological revolution killed the Whig Party in 1850. A new one is
blasting the GOP into splinters in 2016. Amazingly, none of the
presidential candidates talk much about technology, yet our
software-eats-the-world whirlwind drives everything that’s cleaving the
country and throwing its politics into chaos. The parallels to the
dynamics of the 1850s are a little scary. After all, the Whigs’ self-destruction was a prelude to the Civil War...
The current rift
in America isn’t going to mend if Trump wins, or loses. Look at what’s
coming. Autonomous vehicles will eat driving jobs of every kind.
Artificial intelligence will eat rules-based white-collar jobs like
accounting. Block-chain technology will result in software-based
contracts that eliminate the need for mortgage brokers and lots of
lawyers. Factory work will be diminished by 3-D printing. The total
disruption of the 20th-century way of life is inevitable and far from
over..."
File photo credit: "
A
group of men sit near a railroad junction near City Point, Virginia,
circa 1861. The increased access to information and ability to move
people and services provided by railroads fundamentally changed the
country and its politics; the Whig Party tried to hold on to old ways,
but lost supporters to politicians embracing technology." Andrew J. Russell/Library of Congress.
Computers Will Overtake Us When They Learn to Love, Says Futurist Ray Kurzweil. I'll be happy if I can get my computer to work - without pleading, swearing and shrugging.
CNN Money has an interesting story; here's a clip: "
Ray
Kurzweil, the celebrated American inventor who keeps predicting the
future with scary accuracy, says computers will match -- and possibly
beat -- human intelligence by 2029. Here's the trick: By then, computers
will possess emotions and personality. "When I talk about computers
reaching human levels of intelligence, I'm not talking about logical
intelligence," Kurzweil said at an event in New York on Monday night.
"It is being funny, and expressing a loving sentiment... That is the
cutting edge of human intelligence..." (File image: CNN).
5 Ways You Can Build a Great Company Culture. An article at
Fortune rings true; here's an excerpt: "...
Organizations that manage people well outperform their peers. Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 research has found five keys to success in building a thriving organization today. They are the following: Goals are clear and people are rewarded for results.
People want to know what they’re responsible for and how they’re being
evaluated. High performing organizations set clear goals, assign
responsibility, and define what success looks like. People are rewarded
for results, not their position. If a company’s culture rewards success,
people will focus on how to get things done and worry less about what
to do..."
Batnado! Just when you thought you saw everything, along comes this post at
Tech Insider: "
When dusk falls, 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats swoop out of Bracken Cave
near San Antonio, Texas. After spending the winter in Mexico, the bats
fly north to procreate. By August, the pups can fly and the colony size
reaches its peak. Each night, the Bracken bat colony can eat 200 tons of moths, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Feel what it's like to stand at the cave's entrance in this awesome video from National Geographic..."
TODAY: Damp, few showers - still mild. Winds: SE 5-10. High: 58
MONDAY NIGHT: A shower or two. Low: 49
TUESDAY: Heavier, steadier rain likely - winds increase. Winds: W 15-25+ High: 55
WEDNESDAY: Cold rain mixes with wet snow. Raw. Wet roads. Winds: NW 10-20. Wake-up: 36. High: 39
THURSDAY: Chilly with flurries, slushy coating? Winds: NW 10-20. Wake-up: 32. High: 36
FRIDAY: Mostly gray, few flakes. Winds: N 10-15. Wake-up: 31. High: 42
SATURDAY: Heavier jackets required, more flurries. Winds: NW 10-15. Wake-up: 29. High: 37
SUNDAY: More sun, not as chilling. Winds: NW 8-13. Wake-up: 28. High: 41
Climate Stories....
The Coincidences Keep Piling Up. The warmth in February was historic; here's an excerpt from
HotWhopper: "...
Last
month, February, the global mean surface temperature was a whopping
1.35 °C (2.43 °F) above the 1951-1980 mean. That smashes previous
records, and is the hottest February on record by 0.47 °C. The previous
hottest February's were in 1998 at 0.88 °C and 2015 at 0.87 °C. It's
also the highest ever anomaly for any month,with the previous highest
anomaly being the previous month, January 2016, when the temperature was
1.14 °C above the 1951-1980 mean. There've now been five "hottest months on record" in a row, starting in October last year..."
Scientists Predicted Jump in Temperatures.
Is El Nino turbocharing global warming? It turns out Dr. Kevin
Trenberth predicted this scenario some time ago; here's a link to a
video interview and reposted story at
Climate Denial Crock of the Week: "...
Dr.
Trenberth spoke about large cycles in the Pacific that are part of
natural variability, and how the ocean has tended in recent years to
take more heat into greater depths, where it can not show up on surface
temperature measurements. Dr. Trenberth further predicted, starting at
about 9:00 above, that a new El Nino event, if strong enough, like the
one we are seeing now, would jumpstart the kind of warming trend that we
saw between the mid-70s and 1998..."
Why Young Americans are Suing Obama Over Climate Change. Here's an excerpt from
Rolling Stone: "...
People
should be enraged," says attorney Julia Olson, who argued the
plaintiffs' case Wednesday and spoke to Rolling Stone last week. Olson
is executive director of Our Children's Trust, the Oregon non-profit
that's brought nearly two dozen climate cases around the country using
the emerging legal strategy called Atmospheric Trust Litigation. "This
is the part of democracy that people don't see, but when you watch
government lawyers, side by side with industry lawyers, stand up in
front a judge and say these kids don't have a right to be protected
against catastrophic climate change, and the U.S. Constitution doesn't
protect that right, that's powerful..."
Miami Beach Mayor Rips Rubio: He "100 Percent" Sounds Like a Climate Change Denier. Here's an excerpt at
Raw Story: "...
Philip
Levine, mayor of neighboring Miami Beach, said Rubio was “100 percent
using the language of a climate change denier” and has overlooked the
escalating problem of sea level increases for south Florida. Miami Beach
has already spent $100 million on new sea defenses to curb the regular
flooding of its western half. Sea levels are expected to rise
in south-east Florida by six to 10 inches by 2030, with ever increasing
levels throughout the century unless greenhouse gases are severely cut.
These increases risk inundating large areas of the region, with 2.4
million people living within 4ft of the local high tide line..."
Racism and the Effects of Climate Change.
Those with the least are first to be impacted by a more volatile
climate, making this the civil rights movement of the 21st century.
Here's an excerpt at
The Philadelphia Tribune: "...
Fifty
percent of people of color live within two miles of areas of
pollution,” said Beverly Wright, executive director of Dillard
University’s Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. “There need to
be buffers. We need a special distribution of polluting facilities. The
people least responsible are the most affected.” Wright said those
involved in environmental justice have a tough job fighting against
corporations, utilities and government officials who are intent on
decimating the environment. The professor said race is a predominant
indicator that determines the exposure some communities receive to
assorted toxins, chemicals and pollutants. “Climate change is a threat
multiplier for the Black community,” said Leslie Fields, director of the
Sierra Club’s Environmental and Community Partnership Programs. “Our
children have asthma, miss school, fall behind and end up in the
school-to-prison pipeline. African Americans are disproportionately
affected by climate change and are demanding action..."
File photo: Tim Wimborne, Reuters.
How Climate Change Challenged, Then Strengthened My Faith. Here's an excerpt of an Op-Ed at
Religion News Service: "...
When
I was younger, God’s presence in nature was affirmation of this. When
it dawned on me that creation itself was actually being destroyed, my
faith faltered. Now, I realize that God is revealed to us not only
through creation, but even more so through the suffering we feel on
account of our love for it. I feel the Holy Spirit within me when I
advocate for climate justice, and 10 times more strongly when I see the
millions of others doing the same. I see Christ in the faces of those
putting themselves on the line to preserve this planet for our children,
and I know that God has not abandoned us, but is very much with us."
T
ruth in Advertising. Here's an excerpt of an interesting article from
EnergyDesk at Greenpeace: "...
Across the Atlantic and in complete contrast, North Vancouver is implementing compulsory anti-smoking-style warning stickers for fuel pumps at petrol (or ‘gas’) stations. These
ads will use text and images to remind customers of the climate impact
of the fuel they’re buying, in the hopes that drivers will consider
their fuel consumption more carefully and perhaps drive more
fuel-efficiently. Or just drive less. Do it for the moose, Canada."
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