November 2009 Weather News!
This last month seemed to be a quiet if not boring month for weather in the United States. But then it occurred to me that your fine staff at BlueDuck Weather report a great deal of human tragedy and loss with the ferocity of Mother Nature at her finest and worst. We report death and casualties as mere numbers and nothing more. However it is our solemn duty to report the facts as they are, numbers. We will offer no bias or opinion in our award winning journalism. My millions of fine readers deserve nothing less. Hurricane Ida and a nasty typhoon did some terrible damage in other countries as you will read as the weather days unfold.
I think you will also find some interesting statistics and facts in this weather report. For example, do you know what is the largest fresh, unfrozen water lake in the world? You will also read a ten year study about the number of record highs vs. the amount of record lows in the United States. You can be on either side of the global warming controversy but these numbers send a chilling message. But the question remains, and I agree, what is humankinds contribution to warming? If you look at it from the amount of trash and pollution that is produced the answer is obvious. We are pigs! I think the earth would be a better place without the likes of “mankind” and it would be a duck’s paradise!.
November was a delightful month for moderate temperatures and it continues to cool. The Land was ten degrees cooler at the end of the month than at the beginning. It was 13.50 degrees cooler at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico. You will read later that there were some extremely cold mornings there. With bone dry conditions the temperature plummets after sundown.
The average temperature at The Land was 62.50 degrees. At 7400’ in New Mexico it was 40.38 degrees.
The average humidity at the Land was 33% and the dew point was 31 degrees; very close to each other but not bone dry.
There was very little wind in November and it seems like the last seven months have recorded higher than average wind speeds but I think this is the lowest wind speed average I have recorded; 1.25 mph. (If we were relying on wind energy we would be fucking dead!.)
The Land received a paltry .13” of rain for the month bringing the total to 4.23 inches for the year. It better get busy or this will be another year of drought conditions for the desert. I believe Phoenix is just under three inches of rain for the year.
The biggest lakes in the South West are showing the effects of little rain. Mead is 40% full, Pleasant is down to 54%. Powell is still trying to rise at 62% and our beloved Roosevelt is at 71%. Both Powell and Pleasant were near one hundred percent capacity at the beginning of this year.
In this fine weather journal you will read about more record heat for Phoenix (In November?), A new ocean forming in the desert ?, what state has the highest amount of carbon dioxide pollution, a country desperate for rain, weather and your holiday pumpkin pies, where the most rain fell in one day on a town and broke an all time record and a man cleared of murder charges because evidence showed a wild animal killed the man’s wife. Let’s now let the fun begin.
11-1- The fourth typhoon in the Philippines kills twenty and blasts its way toward Vietnam.
11-2- Ten degrees above normal in Phoenix and twenty five degrees above temperatures of just last week.
A new super strain of rabies is affecting the Brown bat only found in Coconino County, Arizona. Rabies can be transferred to skunks without physical contact. (scary shit!)
11-3- 96 degree record high in Phoenix.
There are more wildfires in southern California east of Los Angeles. The fires may have been set deliberately.
Unusual fall flooding occurring in Missouri and Illinois. Thousands of acres of farm land underwater.
The “evil” twister Mirinae has hit central Vietnam killing twenty three people.
11-4- Work begins on a one billion dollar New Orleans flood barrier.
The death toll is up to fifty seven people in Vietnam from Mirinae. Villages are cut off by rising flood waters and people are stranded on roof tops.
A thirty five mile crack in the Ethiopian desert may be the beginning of a new ocean. The crack was first discovered five years ago but it is growing.
In Dudley, Massachusetts it is illegal to own more than three cats without a special kennel license. (If RyDuck had his way there would be no cat ownership at all.)
This last month seemed to be a quiet if not boring month for weather in the United States. But then it occurred to me that your fine staff at BlueDuck Weather report a great deal of human tragedy and loss with the ferocity of Mother Nature at her finest and worst. We report death and casualties as mere numbers and nothing more. However it is our solemn duty to report the facts as they are, numbers. We will offer no bias or opinion in our award winning journalism. My millions of fine readers deserve nothing less. Hurricane Ida and a nasty typhoon did some terrible damage in other countries as you will read as the weather days unfold.
I think you will also find some interesting statistics and facts in this weather report. For example, do you know what is the largest fresh, unfrozen water lake in the world? You will also read a ten year study about the number of record highs vs. the amount of record lows in the United States. You can be on either side of the global warming controversy but these numbers send a chilling message. But the question remains, and I agree, what is humankinds contribution to warming? If you look at it from the amount of trash and pollution that is produced the answer is obvious. We are pigs! I think the earth would be a better place without the likes of “mankind” and it would be a duck’s paradise!.
November was a delightful month for moderate temperatures and it continues to cool. The Land was ten degrees cooler at the end of the month than at the beginning. It was 13.50 degrees cooler at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico. You will read later that there were some extremely cold mornings there. With bone dry conditions the temperature plummets after sundown.
The average temperature at The Land was 62.50 degrees. At 7400’ in New Mexico it was 40.38 degrees.
The average humidity at the Land was 33% and the dew point was 31 degrees; very close to each other but not bone dry.
There was very little wind in November and it seems like the last seven months have recorded higher than average wind speeds but I think this is the lowest wind speed average I have recorded; 1.25 mph. (If we were relying on wind energy we would be fucking dead!.)
The Land received a paltry .13” of rain for the month bringing the total to 4.23 inches for the year. It better get busy or this will be another year of drought conditions for the desert. I believe Phoenix is just under three inches of rain for the year.
The biggest lakes in the South West are showing the effects of little rain. Mead is 40% full, Pleasant is down to 54%. Powell is still trying to rise at 62% and our beloved Roosevelt is at 71%. Both Powell and Pleasant were near one hundred percent capacity at the beginning of this year.
In this fine weather journal you will read about more record heat for Phoenix (In November?), A new ocean forming in the desert ?, what state has the highest amount of carbon dioxide pollution, a country desperate for rain, weather and your holiday pumpkin pies, where the most rain fell in one day on a town and broke an all time record and a man cleared of murder charges because evidence showed a wild animal killed the man’s wife. Let’s now let the fun begin.
11-1- The fourth typhoon in the Philippines kills twenty and blasts its way toward Vietnam.
11-2- Ten degrees above normal in Phoenix and twenty five degrees above temperatures of just last week.
A new super strain of rabies is affecting the Brown bat only found in Coconino County, Arizona. Rabies can be transferred to skunks without physical contact. (scary shit!)
11-3- 96 degree record high in Phoenix.
There are more wildfires in southern California east of Los Angeles. The fires may have been set deliberately.
Unusual fall flooding occurring in Missouri and Illinois. Thousands of acres of farm land underwater.
The “evil” twister Mirinae has hit central Vietnam killing twenty three people.
11-4- Work begins on a one billion dollar New Orleans flood barrier.
The death toll is up to fifty seven people in Vietnam from Mirinae. Villages are cut off by rising flood waters and people are stranded on roof tops.
A thirty five mile crack in the Ethiopian desert may be the beginning of a new ocean. The crack was first discovered five years ago but it is growing.
In Dudley, Massachusetts it is illegal to own more than three cats without a special kennel license. (If RyDuck had his way there would be no cat ownership at all.)
11-5- The death toll from Mirinae in Vietnam rises to ninety one people and fifteen thousand evacuated.
Hurricane Ida develops and Nicaragua and Honduras may receive flash floods and mudslides.
11-6- Ida slams Nicaragua and then weakens to a tropical storm. 80% of the homes in Tasbapauni are destroyed.
Flooding after days of rain have forced forty four thousand people to evacuate from their homes in Mexico. Rivers jumped their banks flooding homes in ninety communities. A State of Emergency has been called by the federal government.
11-7- Ida heads toward the United States and could impact the Gulf Coast in three days.
Tens of thousands of homes flooded in Mexico’s Gulf Coast. Many of the two hundred thousand people impacted refused to leave because of the fear of looting.
11-8-- A State of Emergency has been declared in Louisiana as Hurricane Ida approaches. It is a Category 2 storm with 100mph winds.
Ninety one people are dead in Valenzuela from Ida.
11-9- Ida downgraded to a Tropical Storm but may hit Florida with 75mph winds. Heavy rain, five to ten inches, predicted all the way up into Georgia.
A rare tornado rakes Oregon’s coast.
Rescuers dig for dozens of people buried in landslides in El Salvador. Days of heavy rain linked to Hurricane Ida caused mud and boulders to crash down the side of a volcano burying homes and cars in the town of Verapaz. Some houses were split in two by boulders.
11-10- A 91 degree record was set in Phoenix today breaking the record of 90 degrees set in 1989.
Yours truly killed the egg sucking bull snake today.
11-11- Ida weakens but soaks the Gulf Coast.
Mudslides from heavy rains kill 42 in India.
Ten thousand Salvador flood victims need food and thirteen thousand are homeless. The death toll is sixty.
A father and seven kids survive after being buried in snow in Oregon during a camping trip. When leaving camp they made it a mile before being stranded in their car in three feet of snow. They were rescued after two nights.
Twelve inches of rain possible in the Virginias from Ida.
11-12- Parts of Australia enduring a five day record heat wave.
Heavy rain and lightning knock out power to sixty million people in Brazil. (Editor’s note: Sixty million people? This must be a dense population in a very small area or the electric grid delivery system ain’t worth shit.)
11-13- Carbon dioxide pollution in Arizona has grown 61% in twenty years. This is more than any other state and three times more than the national average. (And you wonder why the EPA is breathing down our throats with fines?)
Snow falling in Flagstaff and the snow level is expected to drop to six thousand feet.
Remnants of Ida flood the Eastern Seaboard. The Virginia governor has declared a State of Emergency and five are killed.
From January 1st, 200 to September 30th, 2009 the continental United States has experienced 291,237 record high temperatures and 142,420 record lows.
11-14- A fierce rainstorm sends mud, water and large rocks flowing from slopes ravaged by fires in a Los Angeles neighborhood.
Unusually heavy snow storms in China kill forty and has destroyed five hundred thousand acres of winter crops. Snow may have been caused by cloud seeding and nine thousand buildings have collapsed. (Be careful messing with Nature! You may get what you hoped for and then some.)
Twisters with 100mph winds pound Britain. Sixty homes are damaged.
11-15- A foot of snow fell around Denver, Colorado.
Vietnam climber Tomaz Humar was found dead in the Himalayas yesterday. He was injured and stranded on a 23,710’ peak. He was a veteran mountain climber.
11-17- Plans to raise the water level behind China’s massive Three Gorges dam this month have stalled because of the worsening drought and landslide risks. Once the water reaches 574’ deep the dam would begin generating electricity. The water reached 561’ and stopped. The lake behind the dam is four hundred and ten miles long and has displaced 1.4 million people.
Phoenix is 4.21 inches below normal rainfall to date.
11-18- A massive landslide in northern China has partially buried a village and killed twenty three people.
Parched Venezuela asks Cuba to help “zap” clouds so that it rains. Cloud seeing has no basis in science but some insist it works.
11-19- The low at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill is a ooshy 12 degrees.
As the world’s largest lake, Superior, warms it is creating stronger winds. This lake holds ten percent of the unfrozen fresh water on the planet.
11-20- Heavy rains recently in Oregon have hurt the pumpkin harvest. There may be a shortage of pumpkin pies as the largest pie maker is based out of Oregon.
Floods cause havoc in the U.K. and Ireland. Two hundred have to be rescued and two bridges collapse.
Yellowstone Grizzlies are kept on the Endangered Species list by a U.S. District Judge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has argued that the bears have recovered from near extermination and no longer need protected.
11-21- Winds and dust interrupt travel around Reno, Nevada. One person is killed in an eight car pileup on I-80. Winds exceeded 80mph and a foot of snow fell in the northern mountains.
Warmer than average temperatures are forecasted for the northern and western United States in December.
Britain receives record rain and “Biblical” flooding. Some flooding is eight feet deep. Cockermouth was the hardest hit town with one thousand homes flooded. 12.3 inches of rain fell in twenty four hours, the most rainfall in twenty four hours ever recorded in the U.K.
11-22- A man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for trying to smuggle lizards onto a flight. Fifteen live lizards were stuffed into his money belt and strapped to his chest.
DUMB ASS...i bet he liked the way it felt (Mrs. DUCK)
Hurricane Ida develops and Nicaragua and Honduras may receive flash floods and mudslides.
11-6- Ida slams Nicaragua and then weakens to a tropical storm. 80% of the homes in Tasbapauni are destroyed.
Flooding after days of rain have forced forty four thousand people to evacuate from their homes in Mexico. Rivers jumped their banks flooding homes in ninety communities. A State of Emergency has been called by the federal government.
11-7- Ida heads toward the United States and could impact the Gulf Coast in three days.
Tens of thousands of homes flooded in Mexico’s Gulf Coast. Many of the two hundred thousand people impacted refused to leave because of the fear of looting.
11-8-- A State of Emergency has been declared in Louisiana as Hurricane Ida approaches. It is a Category 2 storm with 100mph winds.
Ninety one people are dead in Valenzuela from Ida.
11-9- Ida downgraded to a Tropical Storm but may hit Florida with 75mph winds. Heavy rain, five to ten inches, predicted all the way up into Georgia.
A rare tornado rakes Oregon’s coast.
Rescuers dig for dozens of people buried in landslides in El Salvador. Days of heavy rain linked to Hurricane Ida caused mud and boulders to crash down the side of a volcano burying homes and cars in the town of Verapaz. Some houses were split in two by boulders.
11-10- A 91 degree record was set in Phoenix today breaking the record of 90 degrees set in 1989.
Yours truly killed the egg sucking bull snake today.
11-11- Ida weakens but soaks the Gulf Coast.
Mudslides from heavy rains kill 42 in India.
Ten thousand Salvador flood victims need food and thirteen thousand are homeless. The death toll is sixty.
A father and seven kids survive after being buried in snow in Oregon during a camping trip. When leaving camp they made it a mile before being stranded in their car in three feet of snow. They were rescued after two nights.
Twelve inches of rain possible in the Virginias from Ida.
11-12- Parts of Australia enduring a five day record heat wave.
Heavy rain and lightning knock out power to sixty million people in Brazil. (Editor’s note: Sixty million people? This must be a dense population in a very small area or the electric grid delivery system ain’t worth shit.)
11-13- Carbon dioxide pollution in Arizona has grown 61% in twenty years. This is more than any other state and three times more than the national average. (And you wonder why the EPA is breathing down our throats with fines?)
Snow falling in Flagstaff and the snow level is expected to drop to six thousand feet.
Remnants of Ida flood the Eastern Seaboard. The Virginia governor has declared a State of Emergency and five are killed.
From January 1st, 200 to September 30th, 2009 the continental United States has experienced 291,237 record high temperatures and 142,420 record lows.
11-14- A fierce rainstorm sends mud, water and large rocks flowing from slopes ravaged by fires in a Los Angeles neighborhood.
Unusually heavy snow storms in China kill forty and has destroyed five hundred thousand acres of winter crops. Snow may have been caused by cloud seeding and nine thousand buildings have collapsed. (Be careful messing with Nature! You may get what you hoped for and then some.)
Twisters with 100mph winds pound Britain. Sixty homes are damaged.
11-15- A foot of snow fell around Denver, Colorado.
Vietnam climber Tomaz Humar was found dead in the Himalayas yesterday. He was injured and stranded on a 23,710’ peak. He was a veteran mountain climber.
11-17- Plans to raise the water level behind China’s massive Three Gorges dam this month have stalled because of the worsening drought and landslide risks. Once the water reaches 574’ deep the dam would begin generating electricity. The water reached 561’ and stopped. The lake behind the dam is four hundred and ten miles long and has displaced 1.4 million people.
Phoenix is 4.21 inches below normal rainfall to date.
11-18- A massive landslide in northern China has partially buried a village and killed twenty three people.
Parched Venezuela asks Cuba to help “zap” clouds so that it rains. Cloud seeing has no basis in science but some insist it works.
11-19- The low at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill is a ooshy 12 degrees.
As the world’s largest lake, Superior, warms it is creating stronger winds. This lake holds ten percent of the unfrozen fresh water on the planet.
11-20- Heavy rains recently in Oregon have hurt the pumpkin harvest. There may be a shortage of pumpkin pies as the largest pie maker is based out of Oregon.
Floods cause havoc in the U.K. and Ireland. Two hundred have to be rescued and two bridges collapse.
Yellowstone Grizzlies are kept on the Endangered Species list by a U.S. District Judge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has argued that the bears have recovered from near extermination and no longer need protected.
11-21- Winds and dust interrupt travel around Reno, Nevada. One person is killed in an eight car pileup on I-80. Winds exceeded 80mph and a foot of snow fell in the northern mountains.
Warmer than average temperatures are forecasted for the northern and western United States in December.
Britain receives record rain and “Biblical” flooding. Some flooding is eight feet deep. Cockermouth was the hardest hit town with one thousand homes flooded. 12.3 inches of rain fell in twenty four hours, the most rainfall in twenty four hours ever recorded in the U.K.
11-22- A man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for trying to smuggle lizards onto a flight. Fifteen live lizards were stuffed into his money belt and strapped to his chest.
DUMB ASS...i bet he liked the way it felt (Mrs. DUCK)
11-23- Seven degree low at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill.
A ten year study has found 17, 650 species of living creatures below the 656’ depth in the ocean, the depth where there is no sunlight penetration. 5,722 live in extreme depths over three thousand feet. The deep sea used to be considered a “desert” with no life.
Two Tucson men have been convicted of stealing saguaros from Tucson National Park. One man received eight months in federal prison and the other received six months of home confinement and one thousand hours of community service.
11-24- Health Watch issued in Phoenix for particulate pollution.
A wind driven wildfire breaks out south of Los Angeles. State Route 241 is acting as a fire break protecting homes. The fire is ten percent contained at sixty acres.
Every second around the world sixty three lightning strikes occur. Since 2002 the World Wide Lightning Location Network ( that’s a mouthful) has been working on listening to the earth’s electrical charges from the sky. It may help scientists to predict hurricane strength.
English flood victims return home. Eighteen hundred bridges are being inspected for structural damage from flooding.
A crowded ferry sinks in Indonesia during a storm. Twenty nine people have died, twenty missing and two hundred and fifty five survivors rescued.
Hundreds of icebergs that split from Antarctic ice shelves are drifting toward New Zealand. Some are visible from the coastline, the first time since 1931. Navigation Warnings have been issued for the area.
In Raleigh, North Carolina airport officials have noticed a marked increase in the number of coyotes crossing the paths of taxiing planes. The animals cause delays in take offs and landings. ( Run them over and get on with it!)
11-29- A Winter Storm Advisory issued for Safford (the day the DudeDuck and I break camp, thankfully as it turned out.)
Two people were killed in separate crashes on I-10 near Casa Grande yesterday due to blowing dust. Heavy dust storms triggered five different collisions on I-10.
3.5’’ of snow in Flagstaff.
Park Rangers removed the body of a man two hundred feet below the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The death toll from floods in Saudi Arabia reaches one hundred and six. Many homes were built on normally dry river beds. (It doesn’t take an engineer to figure out you don’t build where water has flowed)
A Swedish husband has been cleared of the death of his wife, the culprit was a moose. The woman was found dead after taking an evening stroll last year. Although the husband was initially jailed as a suspect moose hair and saliva was found on the victim’s clothing.
(Joan, I think this is a set up, how about you? MRs. Duck)
11-30- The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends tomorrow. Only two storms made landfall in the U.S. It was the quietest season in three years.
The quote of the month from the Mighty BroadDuck reads as follows; “It’s getting to be that time of year that you can hear the winter winds howling, either that or the Missus just sat on a cold toilet seat. "(Jesus Sean, what the hell?) Mrs. DUCK
And deep in seclusion of Colorado RyDuck sends this for our nature weather observation; “Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning sailor’s take warning. A red morning sky means likely rain in that day. A red evening sky suggests the next day will be clear.” (The DudeDuck and I witnessed this first hand last Saturday morning on Mount Graham. The morning sky was red and all hell broke loose that night and the next day.)
The little know Arizona fact from the beautiful and soft spoken TwinkyDuck’s is as follows. “Many people think of Arizona as desert and home to cow ducks but this state has the largest Ponderosa pine forest. The highest elevation in the state is 12,633’ above sea level with Humphrey’s Peak north of Flagstaff. The Colorado River in the bottom of the Grand Canyon is the lowest level at 70’ above sea level.
The song of the month is actually a line from a song by Bob Dylan of which name escapes my feeble brain entirely. “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
Until next month when the hot burning tree branch is stuck up your asshole, remember Pioneers took bullets, Settlers took land.
(What the hell do I say????????????) Mrs. Duck
The honorable, distinguished, award winning Professor MR BlueDuck.
1 comment:
Always a good laugh my friend. Ditch the tape measure and head out on your national comedy tour.
Enjoying some James McMurtry on Pandora as I type this. "Only two kinds of music".
Balmy 11 degrees today with snow on it's way, high country living.
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