
For all of you WISE duck readers out there, I, the great infallable Mrs. Blue Duck, being just a little tired the other day, sent out LAST months Blue Duck Weather! We have not had any comments directed to us pointing out that I am a dork...although I do expect them now, but either you didn't catch it...which means you are as fried as me; you didn't read...shame on you; or you didn't give a shit. :o) Anyway, happy November since it is almost here and this is the.... (Mrs. Duck)
REAL October 2010 Weather News!
Greetings to my millions of avid Blue Duck Weather readers! Before we dive into the amazing weather facts that October presented us, there is some unfinished September weather business. Phoenix had the dubious honor of having the second warmest September on record. The average high was 104 degrees. I told you it was fucking hot last month, now didn’t I?
October was quite a different matter. The temperatures dropped steadily throughout the month and the end of the month’s average temperature was 17.23 degrees lower than the beginning. To give you an idea of how dramatic that is Talking Trees and Antelope Hill dropped 15.50 degrees to the end of the month. At 7400’ that land consistently runs 20 degrees cooler or more than this south west desert.
Arizona made national news on October 5th and 6th for weather that was described as usually only seen in the “Mid West.” There were a record number of official tornadoes reported, record hail sizes, major flooding, hundreds of trees uprooted and an all time record of insurance claims due, mostly to property and vehicle hail damage. Both TwinkyDuck and DooderDuck told me the same things; “The sky was as black as night and the next minute the sun would be out.” The Lovely Mrs. BlueDuck was stranded in her vehicle in Chandler waiting for the flooding to subside and could not travel in any direction. I sat on my ass on The Land and drank beer while not a drop of rain of rain fell. Looking out the window at the menacing clouds thirty miles north I felt a bit envious about the wild weather happening every where else and a bit sorry for myself. I am just thankful no tornadoes touched down here and carried my duck ass to Oz land! You will read the details as they unfold in the pages of The Amazing Blue Duck Weather!
Toward the end of the month a weather phenomenon “affectionately” dubbed the “Weather Bomb” blew through the Central and North East parts of the nation. Record barometric pressures were recorded and those only recorded in the eye of a hurricane. More of the details will follow.
In this exciting edition of Blue Duck Weather you will also read about firefighters “rescuing” an eighteen foot python, the reintroduced trapping of bears in Alaska and why, Guess what is seven feet long at birth and weighs 350lbs.?, a description of a cyclone shelter (something unimaginable in these parts), the progress of a deadly Super Typhoon, Lake Mead, the piss hole, continues to shrink, a six month oil spill update from the Gulf, more water is on the moon than previously thought, a record you would not want to have, an “odd” hurricane season in the U.S. and so much more for your eyes to hungrily devour!
The average temperature at The Land was 72.32 degrees, the stuff that makes seasonal Apache Junction trailer parks exist. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was 64.61 and not that much cooler for the elevation difference!
Although only .11’’ of rain fell at The Land for the month the average humidity and dew point were high enough to keep your skin from rotting off your dry desert caked toes. The average humidity was 42.82% and the dew point 45.26 degrees.
There is a reason your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather News monitors the lake levels in and around the state. Although there is not a Goddamn thing we can do about it you will know it is time to run when they dry up, as told by the prophet MR BlueDuck!
Mead just keeps dropping and is at a withering 37% capacity. Pleasant gained some storage with the heavy rains of early October and is up to 91%. Powell continues to grow slowly and is at 63%. And although they refilled the sewer known as “Tempe Town Lake” with a billion gallons of water from Roosevelt, that majestic pool in the desert is 90% full.
And now for all the Weather News that fits let us begin the October Blue Duck Weather edition!
10-1- The “Ozone season” (kind of sick when there has to be a season for it) in Phoenix officially ended yesterday but pollution levels spiked at several different valley monitoring stations. Until it cools down this will continue to be a problem. The eight hour monitoring reading on 9-29 was the highest reading this late since 1999.
Five are killed due to flooding in North Carolina. TWELVE INCHES fell in six hours, representing a quarter of the state’s normal annual average rainfall.
Death toll in Mexico mudslides up to thirty two.
10-2- A Dust Storm Warning is posted for northwest Pinal County with 36mph winds recorded in Casa Grande.
A federal judge has ruled that the Arizona bald eagle can be removed from the endangered species list. The judge came to her conclusion from the Wildlife Service review that Arizona eagles were not biologically distinct enough to warrant continued protection. (?)
Heavy rains batter Boston and flights into New York City and New Jersey are delayed for hours. Philadelphia had TEN INCHES OF RAIN.
A video is released by Osama Bin Laden. In part, he accuses Muslim nations of not responding to the flooding tragedy in Pakistan.
Tropical Storm Nicole died out over the Atlantic three days ago but not before causing flooding and landslides in Jamaica. Eleven people have died.
Five are killed by flooding and landslides in southern Haiti.
Wind turbine development plans in Oregon will have to change to protect nesting Golden eagles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended that turbines not be placed any closer than six miles from a nest.
10-3- A Flash Flood Watch has been posted for Yavapai County. Three inches of rain recorded in parts of Flagstaff.
10-4- The Arizona monsoon season was spotty. With 76 rain gauges placed in various locations throughout the valley (excluding mine) the wettest and driest locations were within 15 miles of each other. The driest was Queen Creek with 1.16” of rain for the season. (I don’t feel so bad with 1.20” at The Land.) The wettest was a whopping 5.77’’ in Chandler. “The monsoon started to fade early in September, although moisture levels didn’t subside entirely until later in the month. (Your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather reported this amazing fact a month ago.) The season in Phoenix and Tucson was the third warmest or record.
The first major fall storm is heading for the Valley of the Sun. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued for Pinal County and thirty flights are diverted from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.
A Chihuahua is saved from a Glendale, Arizona house fire. Paco was given oxygen through a mask and treated for smoke inhalation. The little shit and two residents at the home will be fine.
14,000 people are evacuated from flooded homes in central Vietnam with three dead and three missing. TWENTY-THREE INCHES OF RAIN has fallen in the last two days.
Humans and animals share tent life in Pakistan. Eight million people still remain homeless from the flooding seven weeks ago. One man said “It’s like dying here. Dying once is better than dying every day. This is not life.” (God, we are fortunate despite our bitching and moaning.)
10-5. Okay my fine readers, today and tomorrow’s weather in Arizona thundered in like a freight train out of control on cocaine: A Severe Flash Flood Warning is issued for Maricopa and Pinal counties. TwinkyDuck called me at 1:40 in the afternoon reporting hail, two inches of rain and a 40’ uprooted eucalyptus tree in central Mesa. 40 power poles snapped like tooth picks in the same general area. One hundred people are evacuated because of live wires on their homes. Thirty eight homes are damaged. Dobson Ranch golf course lost 37 mature trees and subsequently is closed for three days. Dobson High School is locked down after a funnel cloud was reported. “Typhoon like” conditions are reported with 70 mph winds. Tennis ball hail reported in Fountain Hills. All flights are cancelled at Sky Harbor. House and car windows are shattered by hail at Deer Valley and Tatum roads. Power lines blown over on the freeway at I-17 and Thomas Road. The freeway is closed. Mrs. BlueDuck is stranded in Chandler due to flooding and poor visibility and can not go north or south. A Tornado Warning is posted for Payson. Yours truly travels through flooded dips west of Casa Grande that I really shouldn’t have, given my truck began to move sideways in one.
And with all of this not one single drop of rain at The Land!
In July we reported about a two year old boy missing from a campsite in northern Arizona. Remains were found a week later at the bottom of a wash near the campsite. DNA tests have confirmed it was the same little boy. Toxicology tests are pending. (He was not swept away by flash floods, so how did this happen?)
Strong winds and heavy rain in the South West causing flooding in the Lake Mead area. (They sure need it before Lake Mead dries to a piss puddle and the water wars begin!)
Flash floods in eastern Indonesia kills 56 people with 30 missing. Hundreds of homes destroyed, some completely flattened.
A report reads “Water cycles seem out of whack.” 18% more water was fed into the world’s oceans from rivers and melting polar ice in 2006 than in 1994. Scientists warn that this study takes place in too brief of a time period to draw conclusions.
10-6- Tornado Warnings posted for Coconino and Yavapai counties at 4:00 a.m. Later in the morning two tornadoes were confirmed, four by the afternoon and a fifth one confirmed later in the week by the NWS, all in the Flagstaff area. Heavy property damage occurred in Bellemont, west of Flagstaff. 28 cars of a packed freight train were derailed, semis were blown off the highway, fifteen homes so badly damaged that they are uninhabitable. Two hundred and thirty homes are damaged and 30 recreational vehicles at a dealer are destroyed. It was later confirmed that some of the tornadoes were EF1 storms with sustained winds of 110mph. A Tornado Watch was posted for Gila County from 7:30a.m. until 5:30 p.m. When all was done 22 Tornado Warnings were issued in five Arizona counties today. (So where the fuck was Dorothy and Toto? I just picture them on that innocent little bicycle on the way to opium land being blown into the side of the freight train.)
The Center of Biological Diversity and the Maricopa Audubon Society has filed suit to restore federal protection status to Arizona’s Bald eagles.
A “new study” has been released that states that the U.S. government underestimated the amount of oil leaking in the Gulf and overstated the cleanup results. Information from BP was used while government scientist’s facts were subdued and even overlooked.
Part of the same storm system that effected Arizona for the last two days has dropped record setting rain in northern Nevada with enough snow to close a highway pass near Lake Tahoe.
Two Utah students are critically injured by lightning. They were trying to take cover from rain by standing under a tree.
In northwestern Australia three men survive after their 46’ boat collided with a whale and sunk.
Firefighters in Rhode Island rescued an 18’ Burmese python from a burning home. It took two men to carry the snake out and one said the snake had the body diameter of a Frisbee.
The third Killer whale death has occurred in four months at Sea World in Florida. There is a lot of criticism about the program as only thirteen have died in the last fourteen years.
10-7- Asia’s death toll from deadly rains climbs to 140 in Vietnam. The worst flooding in half a century in southern China has forced 213,000 evacuations. Seven inches of rain has fallen in 16 cities in the past week.
10-8- Tropical Storm Otto is the 15th named storm this season and may become a hurricane today or tomorrow. It hit the northeastern Caribbean with raging flood waters, flipping cars, toppling power poles and washing out roads. The British Virgin Islands has been hit with the worst flooding in the territory’s history. TWENTY INCHES OF RAIN HAVE FALLEN!
10-9- The National Weather Service has now confirmed that six tornadoes touched down in Arizona earlier this week. Twenty seven homes in Bellemont are now declared uninhabitable. The governor has declared a Disaster Area for the town and surrounding area and pledges financial assistance.
Havasu Canyon on the west side of the Grand Canyon will be closed at least until November 1st due to flooding from this past week’s storms. Trails and a campground at the base are badly damaged by heavy rain.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is delaying the release of eight Mexican gray wolves in the Apache National Forest in Arizona until next year.
Here is an amazing contribution by the lovely Mrs. BlueDuck: Devil’s Lake in North Dakota has been described by some as slow growing monster. The lake keeps growing because there are no natural rivers or streams to drain the water away. It is North Dakota’s largest lake with one thousand miles of shore line. It has consumed thousands of acres, hundreds of buildings and two towns with its rising waters from snowmelt and rain runoff.
Otto turns into a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80mph. It is located 410 miles southeast of Bermuda. The hurricane season ends on November 30th. Out of eight hurricanes so far five have been major with no significant landfall impact on the U.S. (keep your duck toes crossed!)
More flooding in Vietnam leaves 100,000 facing food shortages. Crop and infrastructure damage is over 110 million dollars.
Alaska may legalize the trapping of Black bears for the first time since statehood in 1959. Black bear numbers are growing and they are killing to many moose and caribous. Critics say the plan is cruel. Bears are lured with buckets of raw meat and their paws snared when they reach inside. Often bears will chew off a trapped foot to get free.
10-10- Fall heat wave bakes the Midwest and the South with temperature records set or tied. Rockford, Illinois reached 90 degrees, breaking a record of 84 degrees set back in 1920. In La Cross, Wisconsin the high of 85 degrees broke a record that stood since 1879! In Vicksburg, Mississippi the temperature hit 90 and in Little Rock, Arkansas 90 degrees.
Otto weakens to a Tropical Storm.
After three days of incessant rains in Bangladesh, 17 are dead and 41 fishermen missing across the southern coast. 10,000 people have taken refuge in cyclone shelters (raised concrete buildings) as the tidal surge from the Bay of Bengal floods their homes.
Two women have been charged with animal cruelty after police found 77 cats living in their two cars.
10-11- Drought conditions in Arizona have improved, especially since last January, but the northwestern part of the state remains extremely dry. The western edge of the Navajo Reservation is in severe drought conditions.
Native Black tailed prairie dogs that have been re-introduced into southern Arizona have begun to reproduce which is an important milestone. Another 119 dogs were released last Wednesday. (Ok Mike, Mrs. Duck here....when I read this, all I can think of are those damn pictures of you dressing up your dog when you were trying to get puppies, you know the ones. If we catch you in the dessert dressing up prairie dogs.....)
The death toll from massive flooding in eastern Indonesia has climbed to 145 with 100 still missing.
A seven foot long, 350 pound Killer whale calf as been born in Orlando Florida’s Sea World. The father is the 12,000 pound whale that drowned a Sea World trainer last February.
10-12- Hurricane Paula grew from a Category 1 storm this morning to a 2 this afternoon. It is bearing down on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
10-13- The NWS has issued a Hazardous Weather Lookout for parts of the North East. Gale Warnings have been issued from Massachusetts to Maryland. The storm is forming off the coast of North Carolina.
Hurricane Paula weakens to a Category 1 storm but heading to the farmlands of western Cuba. An American drowned yesterday off a Cancun beach when he ignored warnings and red flags due to dangerous currents and surf from the storm.
Flood damage to Pakistan estimated to be 9.5 billion dollars! Two thousand people have died and 20 million people affected! (This may very well go down as the biggest weather tragedy of the year when all is said and done.)
10-14- It is official as declared by the NWS. Eight tornadoes were recorded in northern Arizona last week, the last confirmed in Cordes Junction. This is a new state record for tornadoes in one day and extremely rare. Record hail of two and a half inches in diameter recorded. There has been a record of 12,000 auto insurance claims due to hail and storm damage in the last week.
Paula is now a Category 1 hurricane and a Storm Watch has been issued for the Florida Keys.
A female Humpback whale has made the longest migration ever tracked. She swam 6,200 miles from Brazil to Madagascar off the coast of Africa.
10-15- A Dust Storm Warning posted for Pinal County with 45mph winds recorded in Casa Grande.
The season’s first Nor’easter in the North East. There is snow and 50mph winds. Vermont has five inches of snow above 4000’
Paula weakens to a Tropical Storm but floods Havana, Cuba and TEN INCHES OF RAIN has fallen in some areas.
A Super Typhoon has the Philippines on high alert. Authorities have mobilized rescuers, opened evacuation centers and placed army troops on standby. The weather bureau has warned fishermen “to stay out of harm’s way” and farmers to harvest crops early.
10-16- 6900 square acres more of the Gulf Coast near the Florida Panhandle have reopened, closed since the BP oil crisis closed them to commercial and recreational fishing. 16,500 square acres remain closed out of the original 88,500 acres.
A California man has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation for shooting a 650 pound sea lion in the head. He has also been ordered to pay 51,081 dollars for the cost of treating the animal which lived. The man said he shot the sea lion because it was taking his fish when he was fishing on the Sacramento River.
10-17- Super Typhoon Megi, a Category 5 storm, is packing 155mph winds and evacuations begin in Manila. The government has advised seven million people to stock up on food and medicine. Waves off the east coast could be 46’ high. Megi is the 10th and strongest tropical storm to hit the Philippines this season.
10-18- A Flood Advisory is issued for northeast of Flagstaff.
Megi slams the Philippines with 162 mph winds and heavy rain. One meteorologist described the storm “like a tornado 60 miles wide.” China is bracing for its arrival and evacuates 140,000 people.
Flooding in Vietnam and a bus is swept away killing twenty with nineteen missing.
Thailand rescues 100 elephants from floods and some areas have three feet of standing water.
10-19- Lake Mead has dropped to its lowest level since it was filling in 1937. “If the lake falls 8 more feet, thirsty Arizona could experience water restrictions.” Farmers would be the first to be cut off. ( Now doesn’t that make a lot of sense? Cut off the hand that feeds us while the rest of you hose off your driveways, never fix your leaking toilets, leave the water on while brushing your teeth and take luxuriant thirty minute showers. All of that precious water draining into the massive shit hole that is “efficiently “called a fucking collective sewer!)
Super Typhoon Megi exit’s the Philippines after killing 13 and flattening forests and crops.
THIRTY-ONE AND A HALF INCHES OF RAIN has fallen in areas of Vietnam in the past few days. There are 41 flood related deaths and 19 presumed dead from the bus that was swept away killing 20.
A mountain goat in the Olympic National Park fatally gored a hiker last weekend. As people tried to help the man the goat stood over his body and glared at them. (Just shoot the fucker!)
10-20- Rain and hail in Flagstaff and a Severe Thunderstorm Warning posted for Coconino County. All flights grounded at Sky Harbor International Airport from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.
There is a fifty percent chance Lake Mead will be dry in eleven years. There is talk of releasing water from Lake Powell to give the piss hole a fighting chance.
The BP oil disaster began six months ago today. Oil still washing onto 560 miles of shoreline. The seafood industry in the Gulf is down 52% and many people are still out of work due to this fucking mess.
10-21- Tropical Storm Richard forms in the Caribbean.
The worst floods in Thailand in decades have killed twelve. In neighboring Cambodia floods have killed twenty and caused seventy million dollars in damage.
A federal judge is ordering the Obama administration to review whether Polar bears, at risk because of global warming, are endangered and should therefore be protected by federal law.
A 300 pound “pet” chimp escaped chains and attacked a police car with its fists while on the loose. The owner coaxed the beast into a cage after unsuccessful attempts were made by authorities to tranquilize it. The Kansas City man who owns the chimp has been charged for having a dangerous animal within city limits.
10-22- Typhoon Megi has dumped a record FORTY FIVE INCHES of rain in Taiwan in the past 48 hours. Massive rock slides have trapped 400 tourists on a coastal highway. Megi is “weakening” as it heads to China but still has sustained winds of 102mph.
NASA scientists have determined there is twice as much water on the moon than the Sahara Desert. The measurements were taken last year when a rocket intentionally crashed into the moon surface to gather data near the moon’s south pole. The Cabeus crater may hold one billion gallons of frozen water!
Three beaches northwest of Los Angeles are closed today after a surfer on a body board was attacked by a shark. The shark severed the young man’s leg and he bled to death by the time he was aided to shore by his friend.
10-23- Megi’s impact on Taiwan becomes worse. Landslides buried a Buddhist temple killing nine. A bus carrying nineteen Chinese tourists is missing.
Cyclone Giri with winds of 160mph slams Myanmar. “Everything is gone. All the trees and lamp posts have fallen. Many buildings were damaged and many people will be homeless.”
Tropical Storm Richard is gaining strength and soaks the Honduran coast. Hurricane Warnings are in effect for many areas.
10-24- Richard is now a Category 1 Hurricane headed for the Central American nation of Belize.
Cyclone Giri that hit Myanmar yesterday has forced thousands to evacuate.
10-25- Freeze Warning issued for Prescott, Arizona with temperatures dropping into the 20s.
Tornado Watches are issued for parts of Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina. A tornado caused severe damage yesterday in Nevarro County, Texas overturning cars and damaging a school.
Richard knocks out the entire national electric grid in Belize. One hundred thousand people are without power.
Taiwan rescuers are still searching for 21 Chinese tourists that were in a bus that was swept away last week. Debris from the bus have been found at the base of a rocky slope near the sea. One body and various body parts found.
10-26- The tornadoes in Texas yesterday have been verified by the NWS. The Rice tornado was an EF-2 storm with 135mph winds. The Lone Star tornado was an EF-O with 85mph winds. The Rice tornado in east Texas left a seven mile path 100 yards wide, destroying five homes, damaging three others and the Rice Public School.
The worst storm in seventy years slams the Mid West. 78mph winds closes Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. One meteorologist wrote “This is a very different type of advent. (The storm’s central barometric pressure is equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane. It is also a record low reading.) But that does give you an indication of the magnitude of the winds. This isn’t something seen every year.” The storm has been named by meteorologists as the Bomb. There have been twelve unconfirmed and three hundred thousand are without power from Ohio to Wisconsin. 15’ seas reported in Lake Michigan and Blizzard Warnings issued for North Dakota.
Scientists on research vessels find oil on the Gulf ocean floor in a 140 mile radius of the BP oil well that failed last April. The samples ranged from “light degraded oil to thick raw crude.”
A Michigan man has set an unofficial world record by stuffing 16 Madagascar hissing cockroaches in his mouth for 10 seconds.
A Critically Endangered black rhino shot nine times by poachers in Africa has been moved to a zoo for a hopeful recovery.
A Georgia man and his wife found a neighbor’s buffalo in their swimming pool. The owners found two holes in the pool cover and went outside to take a look. They noticed something moving and pulled the cover back. The animal had to be hoisted and lifted by ropes for the rescue. (Now, I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about swimming pools or covers but I would have to guess that fat beast would have done a lot more falling in then leave “two holes” in the cover.)
10-27- The Bomb is the most severe weather event in American history affecting thirty states. There have been 400 severe wind events. This front is making its way to the North East today with 21 tornadoes reported yesterday. An Illinois woman is recovering in a hospital after being impaled by a tree branch torn off by high winds.
A giant stag, known as the Emperor of Exmoor, has been killed in the British Isles. Standing nine feet tall to the tip of his antlers the deer’s death is blamed on trophy hunters.
10-28- 56 tornadoes reported as The Bomb raged from the Dakotas to the Carolinas.
It has been (thankfully) an unusual hurricane season in the U.S. given the amount of tropical storms and hurricanes that have formed so far. Since 1900 there is no precedent of an Atlantic hurricane season with ten or more storms where none made U.S. landfall.
The longest snake in captivity has died at an Ohio zoo. The beast was a twenty four foot python which weighed 300 pounds!
A federal judge has approved plans to use sharpshooters to thin the deer population as the Valley Forge National Historic Park in Philadelphia. Several animal rights sued but the National Park Service plans to begin the night time exterminations next month.
10-29- “ Sheriff won’t rehire deputy in frog abuse case.” A bored Pinal County deputy tased a frog. He shot the frog at least once, causing the frogs legs to “shoot out”. Animal cruelty charges have been dropped but he has no job now. (I swear, we don’t make this shit up!)
Tropical Storm Shary develops and warnings are issued for Bermuda.
The number of grizzlies around Yellowstone reaches a new high of 603. That is more than three times the number in 1975 when hunting was outlawed and the bears were placed on the endangered list. ( Wonder how many grizzlies were in those parts 200 years ago?)
10-30- Seventeen hundred people evacuated because of a wildfire near Boulder, Colorado are allowed to return home today. Firefighters worked through the night to stop the 144 acre fire.
“Newly born Hurricane Thomas barrels toward a cluster of Caribbean islands today tearing off roofs, damaging houses and downing power lines in its path”
Tropical Storm Shary heads into the open Atlantic missing Bermuda.
A 73 year old Oregon man traveled three miles in his wheelchair in the snow before hunters found him. He and his sister had been stuck in their vehicle for two nights before the man sat off to find help. They had gone for a drive down a forest road to view autumn colors before getting trapped. They melted snow to drink, ate snacks and were in good shape after being rescued.
And finally, the song of the month so appropriately titled is Nickel Sized Hail by Sunny Ludford. As always your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather News appreciate your reading displeasure. Thank you.
The Distinguished, Honorable Professor Mr. Blue Duck.
September 2010 Weather News!
Welcome to another fantastic mind altering fascinating edition of Blue Duck Weather. Although fall officially began at the Land on September 22nd at 8:09 p.m. all I can say is “My Ass!” The average temperature at the end of the month was only one degree cooler than the first day of the month. Phoenix shattered three consecutive heat records at the end of the month. Los Angeles reached its hottest day ever recorded on the 27th. The monsoon really ended long before the new brainless date but the dew points remained in the fifties. All the first day of fall did for me is make me drop to my knobby knees and scream for some reprieve from this brutal summer. Sixteen days in Phoenix were 105 degrees or warmer and two were over 110. Fortunately there were only six days The Land reached 105 but that is small relief for the sweat on my brow and balls!
All of this when us desert dwellers are exhausted, dehydrated and weak sure makes it easy to give into the global warming theory, or at the very least politically correct, climate change. Climate change is ongoing and inevitable as Mother Earth goes through her “periods.” I have no idea how mankind has affected global warming during the industrial revolution and those of you who have read past editions of this amazing weather journal know I take no political rhetoric from both sides of the flooding river. I will however leave you with the following quotes from two sources. One is form a NASA scientist. Although NASA has been fingered as being in the pocket of the government I happen to respect the unimaginable engineering feats of big boy shit that has occurred in the last fifty years.
“James Hansen, the NASA scientist who is perhaps the most respected authority on Global warming, says that climate change is the predominant moral issue of the 21st, comparable to slavery faced by Lincoln and the response to Nazism faced by Churchill.”
“On Thin Ice- The world’s two great ice sheets are melting faster than anyone believed possible. Glaciers in both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice at twice the rate they were in 2002, as much as 400 billion tons every year.”
In this fantastic edition of Blue Duck Weather you will read, amongst so many other things, the worst fire in Colorado history, more Gulf Coast oil leak affect reports (although “conveniently” they are harder to find), track a tropical depression and hurricane from its roots through its amazing journey of havoc and destruction, a group of people happy to see a hurricane, an animal thought to be extinct rediscovered, the definition of the meteorological summer, a refrigerator floating in a house, the new term Super Derecho and its definition, an amazing but sad story about Alaska walruses, a five year old winner of a moose calling contest, “the Fujiwhara effect”, four hundred escaped crocodiles, a bear beat away by a woman with a large zucchini, a man who kills his unruly dog with a chainsaw and the criteria for a tropical storm to be a named storm.
The average temperature at The Land for the month was 83.22 degrees. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was much cooler at 62.09 degrees.
The average humidity was 29.66% with a still sticky dew point of 50.37 degrees. The Land received .33” of rain, actually more than the prior three monsoon months. We have a thirsty total of just 4.65 inches for the year while Phoenix has received 7.40 inches.
The important lake levels that keep us from killing each other for water are as follows: Mead (soon to have us killing) dwindles to 38%, Pleasant (we better get some more fucking rain) 53%, Powell 63% and my desert gem, Roosevelt stands strong with 94%.
A feature we began last month is to track unusually fast and falling barometer pressures. The purpose it to help you migraine sufferers track the pressure correlation and your agonizing headaches. The pressure fell fast on September 5th and alas, .06” of rain fell. The pressure dive bombed for four days in a row between September 19th to the 22nd to a all time low of 28.03 and alas there was 28.06” of rain. This is also important for us campers to note; falling pressure usually means a dramatic change in wind or it means rain. But why should we give a fuck, none of us measure barometric pressure camping unless we get a blinding splitting headache!
The song of the month is “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley. It doesn’t have a thing to do with the weather but it sure shows the weather reporting at hurricane sites and the disappointment visibly shown when there aren’t more “casualties”.
9-1- Flagstaff flood victims after the Schultz Fire earlier this summer will not receive Federal aid to rebuild. FEMA requires that one hundred homes in a community have to be destroyed for aid. Only two homes in the Flagstaff area were destroyed. Most homeowners did not have flood insurance.
Mosquitoes in the town of Maricopa, Arizona test positive for the West Nile Virus.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering a 5,000 dollar reward for information about the killing of a baby Bighorn sheep. The lamb was found shot to death along the Apache Trail on August 24th. (This is beyond sick and depraved, it is a flat out sin and crime against nature! Justice will be served when the circle turns.)
A Hurricane Warning is issued for North Carolina as Earl gets closer. A Warning means hurricane conditions are expected within 36 hours. 5,000 tourists on the islands of Ocracoke and Hatteras are ordered to leave. If this storm moves up to New England as a hurricane it will be the first time since 1991.
Floods that have devastated Pakistan for the past five weeks are finally heading to the Arabian Sea but eight million people still need emergency aid.
9-2- Here we go again! An Excessive Heat Warning is issued for Maricopa county tomorrow until eight p.m.
Hurricane Earle is 500 miles wide and has winds of 145mph. The governor
of North Carolina is urging visitors to leave and residents to hunker down.
One group of people excited about Earl’s approach are East Coast surfers. “ Hurricane season is one of the rare times waves can reach world class heights.” Waves at the center of the storm are 30’ high.
A golfer’s routine swing at the Shady Canyon golf course in Irvine, California struck a rock. The impact caused a spark that set off a 25 acre wildfire that took 150 Orange County firefighters to put out. ( Now I understand why shooting restrictions are placed in dry conditions.)
9-3- North Carolina is spared from Earle as it diminishes to a Category 1 hurricane. There are still concerns as it moves up the coast as 13 states may still be affected. ( Editor’s Note: The news reporters on National television seemed discouraged by this. I guess they are trained to report on chaos, destruction and death. So much so that some get off on it. They actually should have been jumping up and down with the “happy dance of joy.”)
More wildfires in southern Russia kill 8 and burn 400 homes to the ground.
Typhoon Kompasu kills five in South Korea.
9-4- Earle fizzles to a tropical storm and then briefly regains strength to a hurricane. 200,000 without power and one dead in Halifax, Canada.
9-5- The Barometric pressure fell like a rock on the Land today, from 28.42 degrees to an all time low of 28.08 degrees. Literally out of the blue came dark clouds out of the south. No rain was predicted anywhere at all. We received a heavy brief downpour that produced .05 inches of cooling rain!
(How was your headache today?)
Red Flag Warning issued for northern Arizona.
Torrential rains in Guatemala causes landslides that kill 38 people, some of them rescuers. Their president tells them avoid highways where slides may occur.
Fishermen ignored storm warnings in Mozambique when they went onto the Indian Ocean to fish. Capsized boats have killed 15.
A Sierra Nevada red fox has been found 90 miles south of Reno, Nevada. It is a native subspecies thought to be extinct since the last sighting in 1990.
9-6- The meteorological calendar for summer is June through August. In Phoenix the average daytime high for that period was a normal 105.3 degrees. But the overnight lows averaged 82.8 degrees, three degrees above normal. It was the fifth warmest night time averages in 114 years of record keeping. Ten temperature records were tied or broken with high minimums.
Out of nowhere a big storm is headed for Texas. Tropical Storm Hermine has 60mph winds and a Flash Flood Watch has been issued all the way to Houston.
9-7- A “monsoon buster” of low pressure from the north Pacific is on its way to Arizona. (Fucking Hallelujah, it’s about time.)
There is a fast moving wildfire near Boulder, Colorado. It has burned 3500 acres, thousands evacuate and a dozen homes are lost.
A “typical” wildfire season in the United States burns five million acres of land a year. This year has “only” been two and a half million acres.
Tropical Storm Hermine may dump a foot of rain on Mexico’s northern coast and Texas.
9-8- The Four mile Fire near Boulder has consumed 7100 acres and a State of Emergency has been declared. 92 buildings have burned and 3000 evacuated. There are eight people missing who refused to leave their homes. The fire may have started when a car crashed into a propane tank.
In McAllen, Texas residents are urged to evacuate as the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers are rising fast from rain produced by Hermine. In central Texas authorities are searching for possible victims after two mobile homes and a house are swept away.
Man am I glad I don’t live in ‘Vegas. The first measurable rain (.01’’) fell since April 22nd. The average temperature in July was 96.2 degrees, the warmest ever recorded for the city. (Fucking desolation row! Can you imagine being broke and hung over on the street there?)
Strong winds knock down electrical lines causing “raging” fires in Detroit. Eighty five buildings have burned and 50,000 without power. The city’s fire department could not keep up and adjoining fire departments had to be called in for the first time since the riots of 1967.
Weeks of heavy rains and flooding in southern Mexico have forced tens of thousands to evacuate from flooding rivers. Thousands more, who won’t leave their property, are sleeping on roofs. To keep up with the swell four dams have been releasing 71,000 cubic feet per second to keep up with the upstream deluge.
A bobcat climbing a power pole got electrocuted and set off a 5 acre wildfire in Ventura County, California.
A Massachusetts woman fell into a yellow jacket nest in her yard and was stung 500 times. She is hospitalized and her condition is unknown. (Editor’s Note: We have reported local bee stings many times. I would much rather deal with them than a yellow jacket. When I was a young duck my parents had grape vines growing on a trellis that shaded a carport. One afternoon my drunk uncle got tangled up with a yellow jacket nest picking grapes. The poor bastard’s head and face looked like a cauliflower! He didn’t go to the hospital, no the “strong” man just kept drinking to kill the pain. He didn’t die though as I recall, not from that.)
9-9- The Monsoon season may be over at The Land. It was a blissful low of 62 degrees with a dew point of 30 degrees this morning. The last time Phoenix had a 62 degree low was fucking June 12th and you ain’t there yet if you live in that shit hole.
The remnants of Hermine move north after forcing one hundred high water rescues in and two killed in Texas. Some homes have five feet of water in them. One man said “Did you ever see a refrigerator floating around your kitchen before?”
Many Louisiana fishermen are hesitant to begin fishing again in the coast. They are not convinced the oil is gone or has not damaged the fish making them unsafe to eat.
The ninth named tropical storm of the year has formed in the Atlantic, Igor.
A black bear has broken into a dozen vehicles over the past two weeks in Montana just north of Yellow Stone Park. This last time a van door shut and trapped the bear inside the vehicle. A sheriff’s deputy and a game warden tied a rope to the door, took cover and pulled it open. The bear, fortunately, ran off.
9-10- West side Boulder residents prepare to evacuate ahead of advancing fire. 60mph winds threaten to drive the fire their way. Residents are urged to fuel up and park their cars facing the street, wet down yards and pick up important personal documents and medicines. 169 homes have been destroyed including hilltop mansions.
Authorities in Austin, Texas have scaled back the search for a missing motorist. The Bull Creek was flooded due to rain from Hermine. The woman ignored and drove around police barricades and was swept away.
The Texas governor issued disaster declarations for 40 counties.
9-11- (WE CANNOT FORGET!)
The Colorado wildfire is 50% contained and 2000 people are allowed to return to their homes. Another 1000 wait to be allowed back.
The bodies of two men in Texas were found yesterday raising the death toll from Hermine flooding to six.
Tropical Storm Igor is nearing hurricane strength.
9-12- The fire near Boulder, Colorado is under control but has burned TEN SQUARE MILES. Now authorities are investigating whether a fire pit started the worst fire in Colorado history.
In one day Tropical Storm Igor turns into a Category 4 Hurricane. It is 1120 miles east of the Caribbean Leeward islands with no “immediate threat to land or energy interests.”
The ocean surface water temperatures near Japan were the highest ever recorded for the month of August at 1.2 degrees warmer than average. This may seem insignificant to us mortals but fish and water mammals prematurely move from their “native waters” to pursue cooler temperatures.
9-13- Four endangered California condors will be released north of the Grand Canyon on September 25th, part of the work to save the endangered birds from extinction. It is the 16th release in Arizona since 1996. 73 condors are alive and soaring the skies in northern Arizona.
A new wildfire breaks out near Loveland, Colorado with six hundred acres burned and one house destroyed.
Patches of oil two inches thick are found on the ocean floor 80 miles from the Gulf Coast oil blowout. Under the oil are dead shrimp and other smaller fish.
A fierce windstorm that blew across Kansas, Missouri and Illinois in May, 2009 has earned a brand new classification, “Super Dericho” coming from the Spanish adverb for straight. It is a long lived windstorm that blows in a straight line. That day the storm began in Kansas and caused 18 tornadoes!
Igor may become a Category 5 storm today. Tropical Storm Julia develops in the eastern Atlantic.
9-14- Two homes have now been destroyed and 900 acres burned in the wild fire near Loveland, Colorado. The fire near Boulder is fully contained.
Julia turns into the 5th Atlantic hurricane of the season and Igor weakens to a, still dangerous, Category 4 hurricane.
Tens of thousands of walruses are driven to land in north west Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. The numbers are a mile wide, side by side. Scientists are most concerned about a stampede and one ton females crushing smaller calves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to divert airplane traffic above the animals as not to spook them. (A sad story because of the cause but what amazing photo opportunities this would present if only my beady eyes were there!)
A five year old boy in Alaska is the winner of a moose calling contest. How did he do it? His mother says he likes to make a lot of noise and “he’s good at it.” (I’m glad this brat doesn’t live in my house spending all of his waking hours practicing calling moose. Although not a violent duck I would have ideas on how to stop the noise.)
9-15- Two of Flagstaff’s favorite fall color locations are closed due to the Schultz Fire earlier this summer. They are closed until December 31st.
Tropical Storm Karl makes landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It is the 11th named storm of the season.
Typhoon Kompasu kills dozens in North Korea. Heavy rains wash away 74,000 acres of crops and 3300 homes are lost. Landslides cause damage to the rail system.
Hurricanes cannot merge. If two get too close to one another they begin to circle around each other and draw energy from the opposing hurricane. Eventually one weakens or both weaken equally. This is called the Fujiwhara Effect, named for a Japanese meteorologist that discovered this phenomenon.
An endangerd Albatross is snagged on a commercial fishing hook in Alaska and has died. The birds were once thought to be extinct but now number a few thousand.
9-16- And from the “This happened right down the street” file: Pinal County Animal Care and Control seized 152 cats and 19 dogs from a home in Hidden Valley, Arizona. The home had no running water and no litter boxes. There were layers of shit throughout the house.( Yours truly hit the street to interview neighbors about this horrific discovery. One said “Oh, they were such a nice family. No one really seemed to mind the stench around their property or the shit dripping down windows. The children were so well mannered although their clothes were stained and stunk like cat piss. We just thought they were a little strange.”)
A California wildfire in the southern Sierra has burned 6100 acres and another fire breaks out near Whittear, California.
Karl becomes a hurricane after re-entering the Gulf of Mexico. Karl may make landfall tomorrow near the oil hub of Poza Rica, Mexico. Igor is still churning out there too with 140mph winds.
9-17- Pinal County sheriff’s deputies rescued two Mexican women who had been traveling on foot across the desert for six days. They were both out of food and water. In a panic one woman used her cell phone to call for help. The Sheriff’s department was able to triangulate the call and locate the women. One woman was delirious and suffering from dehydration. They were traveling with eight others before they were abandoned without food and water.
Karl is now a Category 3 hurricane flooding Veracruz, Mexico. 14 production oil wells have been shut down and workers evacuated. Government officials say this is the worst hurricane there in 50 years.
Storms slam New York City with 100mph winds. One woman was crushed by a falling tree while in her car and 27,000 without power. The National Weather Service is determining if an official tornado struck.
Strong storms tear through Ohio and hail destroys part of Ohio State University in Wooster. Numerous possible tornadoes sighted.
A record number of shark bitten sea otters were found last month along California’s central coast. The lower water temperatures this summer made ideal conditions for sharks.
9-18- Phoenix sets a record of 109 degrees today. The past several days have been the hottest in thirty years.
The National Weather Service has concluded that two tornadoes ripped through New York City two days ago. With up to 125mph winds the tornadoes left a path of destruction fourteen miles from Brooklyn to Queens. Tornadoes in New York City are extremely rare.
Karl has killed six in Veraccruz, Mexico and forcing the country to shut down its only nuclear power plant. EIGHT INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN NINETY MINUTES! Now weakened to a Tropical Storm Karl may hit Mexico City with 70mph winds and heavy rain.
Hurricane Igor is bearing down on Bermuda with 40’ tides hitting the barrier reefs.
Colorado wildlife officials are declaring a victory in an eleven year effort to reintroduce lynx to the state. The cats are reproducing faster than they are dying. The state’s native lynx became extinct in the 1970s because of trapping, poisoning and land development.
Officials in Idaho County want the governor to allow wolves to be shot on sight due to attacks on livestock and wildlife. A U.S. District Court decision last month restored federal protection to wolves in Idaho and Montana despite objections from both states.
A woman hunter in South Carolina has taken a thirteen and a half foot, 1025 pound alligator in Lake Moutrie! A .22 caliber gun was not enough to kill the gator so she used a knife to sever the spinal cord! The woman said she was an experienced hunter but had never killed an alligator.
9-19- A couple of records were broken in Phoenix today; 111 degrees was the high, shattering the old record of 107 in 1962. It was the latest date ever for a temperature of 110 or higher in a hundred years of record keeping.
Igor is near Bermuda as a Category 1 storm. The eye of the hurricane will pass over late today. (Oh how I would love to be there with a camera!)
Typhoon Fanapai strikes Taipei, Tawain with 102mph winds. TWENTY ONE INCHES OF RAIN FELL! All flights and rail service are cancelled and 170,000 without power.
9-20- Phoenix set a new heat record at 107 degrees with a new morning high low of 91 degrees.
Heavy monsoon rains and landslides have killed 47 in northern India.
“ More than 100,000 children left homeless by Pakistan’s floods are in danger of dying because they simply don’t have enough to eat, according to UNICEF. Children already weak from living on too little food in poor rural areas before the floods are fighting to stay alive as diarrhea, respiratory disease and malaria attack their emaciated bodies.” ( Simply hearbreaking! Where are you God? They desparately need a miracle.)
9-21- A Flash Flood Watch is posted for Pinal County until 6:00p.m.
Twenty power poles are knocked down by strong winds in Gila Bend. A Flash Flood Watch is issued for Maricopa County until tomorrow afternoon.
A wildfire in Merriman, Utah burned several homes and 1600 evacuated. A commander of the Utah National Guard takes full responsibility for allowing live fire training despite a Red Flag Warning. He was conducting a machine gun exercise in “tinder dry conditions.”
The National Weather Service has issued flood watches for eleven Texas counties. Flooding in Corpus Christi forced 100,000 gallons of raw sewage out of a manhole ( this makes my shitter problems look like nothing). Crews resumed looking for a a missing motorist who called from his car before it was swept away.
The death toll from flooding and mudslides by Hurricane Karl is up to 16 in Veracruz, Mexico.
Hurricane Igor’s winds strengthen as the storm makes landfall in eastern Canada.
Two new tropical storms develop: Georgette in the Pacific and Lisa in the Atlantic. ( If this Lisa is anything like our Lisa it will develop into a major hurricane and cause absolute havoc!)
9-22- A Flash Flood Warning is issued for N.E. Maricopa County and Gila County until 9:45 a.m. Highway 188 north of Roosevelt Lake is closed due to SIX FEET of rock and mud. 3.87 inches of rain fell in Punkin Center!
Brutal temperatures have killed 236 illegal migrants so far this year in the Arizona desert. This is the second highest total on record. The Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office reported 7 bodies found in one day, the most ever.
Fall begins at The Land tonight at 8:09 p.m.
Six square miles have been burned but the wildfire in Utah is 50% contained. Some evacuation orders have been lifted.
Hurricane Igor floods the Atlantic’s coast province of Newfoundland washing out roads and stranding residents in their homes. 14 communities have declared a state of emergency. “Normally the cool Atlantic chills out hurricanes, but this one came with a vengeance”.
Typhoon Fanapi hits China killing 18 with 44 missing. Five were killed when a dam collapsed after being hit by landslides. 350 houses destroyed.
Landslides have killed five in flooded out regions of Mexico. More than seventy people have died this rainy season which has been declared one of the heaviest on record.
280-400 endangered Morelet crocodiles have escaped a refuge in Mexico after flooding from Hurricane Karl. Residents in the state of Veracruz are ordered not to kill or capture the crocs.
9-23- Death toll from Typhoon Fanapi in China is up to 54. FORTY INCHES OF RAIN have fallen in some areas.
“The Wave. When violent storms send swells rolling across the Pacific, the world’s most daring surfers will drop everything and travel anywhere to risk riding a wall of water as high as 100’”. ( JerDuck shared this amazing article with me. These guys have made a science of tracking the biggest waves by tapping into the science of weather forecasting and mapping. So a hurricane or typhoon is a good thing to them if it creates the swell and wave they hope comes with it. One amazing account was about a dude to went to Alaska to surf the waves created by calving glacier. It said he was dodging chunks of ice city blocks long.)
9-24- 2500 people are urged to evacuate Arcadia, Wisconsin and the National Guard is called in to help. The downtown area is under three feet of water from heavy rains and flooding.
Northern India has experienced “unprecedented rain” since August. Two million people have been forced to evacuate in a twenty four hour period. 17 people have been killed and thousands of homes washed away in Lucknow.
A woman near Helena Montana fended off a 200 pound black bear by whacking it with a large piece of zucchini from her garden. The bear was trying to get into her home. She suffered scratches and her dog was injured trying to protect her.
A New Mexico man faces felony charges after killing his pit bull with a chainsaw as his young children watched. The man said the dog bit his nine year old daughter and he felt the dog needed to be put down. He tried to use a knife to slash the dog’s throat, but when that didn’t work he grabbed his trusty chainsaw.
9-25- An aggressive swarm of bees leaves a Phoenix family trapped inside their home near 24th Street and Indian School Road. Two of the family’s large dogs were killed by multiple stings and another is recovering.
Arizona Game and Fish is offereing a 2700 dollar reward for the arrest and conviction of person(s) who poached a 6x6 bull elk near Ash Fork. The animal was illegally shot and killed between September 6th and the 8th. The elk’s antlers were sawed off but left at the scene with the rest of the carcass. This happened just before legal archery season so the agency is hoping someone scouting witnessed all or part of the butchering.
The U.S. Department of Defense will pay homeowners for losses in the wildfire started in Utah last week by the National Guard conducting live fire training. The fire is now 100% contained.
Several towns in southwestern Wisconsin and southern Minnesota have received a half foot of rain that caused evacuations yesterday and today.
Mathew weakens to a Tropical Depression but floods the southern part of Central America with as much as SEVENTEEN INCHES OF RAIN!
The Canadian military is in eastern Newfounland to help rebuild two bridges in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor.
9-26- With one hundred cases and seven deaths Arizona leads the nation in West Nile mesquito infections. Most of the cases have occurred in the southeast valley.
Rabies have been confirmed in a pair of Mohave County, Arizona bats. The children that came in contact with them are being treated.
From heavy rains this past week in central Wisconsin a levee fails south of Highway 33 today. In Zumbro Falls, Minnesota floodwaters have destroyed 58 homes and 20 businesses. 10.86 inches of rain has fallen in areas. The governors of both states declare a State of Emergency.
9-27- Los Angeles set an all time record high of any date in history of 113 degrees today.
Much of the U.S. is experiencing abnormally dry weather conditions that began in June. Some states have issued drought warnings and high risks for brush fires. The states most affected are inland areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and parts of New Jersey up to Maine.
Most of the oil leaked into the Gulf is still there despite the hype from the White House. The most sustained deep water release of oil has left at least 50% of the oil on the ocean floor.
Recorded depression of Gulf Coast residents is up 25% since the massive oil leak.
Flooding in Nigeria is rotting crops and making food shortages worse. Thirty four square miles of farmland is under water at the worst possible time, before the harvest. Two million people have been displaced or affected by flooding.
9-28- The Bald eagle population in Arizona is at a new high of 104 breeding adult eagles since the project began in 1990 to save them from extinction.
The Grand Ol Opry reopens after a twenty million dollar renovation caused by the flooding in May.
27,000 in Los Angeles for eight to sixteen hours after yesterday’s all time heat record. The drain from air conditoners overloaded and blew transformers.
A rain soaked mountainside has given away in Oaxaca, Mexico. At least 300 homes have been buried or destroyed. No official count of the human casualties.
In Columbia 20 people changing from one bus to another because of an earlier landslide blocking a road are buried by another landslide.
Today is the average last day of 100 degrees in Phoenix.
9-29- Eighty three degrees a record high for Flagstaff for the second day in a row.
SEVENTEEN INCHES of rain has fallen in Delaware and moving up the East Coast.
A Tropical Depression is soaking south Florida after drenching Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Sustained winds are at 35mph. At 39 mph a depression becomes a named storm.
Eleven people are confirmed missing after a landslide in Oaxaca, Mexico yesterday. At first reports were that hundreds were feared dead.
9-30- The last new official day of the monsoon for Arizona.
“Epic” rains and tornado alerts for the East Coast from the Carolinas up to Maine. Wilmington, North Carolina sets a record with TWENTY ONE INCHES OF RAIN since last Sunday. The cause for all of this moisture are the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole mixed with low pressure.
Tropical Storm Nicole kills eight in Jamaica during flash flooding.
Mudslides in the state of Chiapas, Mexico kill 16.
Until next month I remain faithful and undaunted to my millions of readers.
The Distinguished and Renound MR BlueDuck
September 2010 Weather News!
Welcome to another fantastic mind altering fascinating edition of Blue Duck Weather. Although fall officially began at the Land on September 22nd at 8:09 p.m. all I can say is “My Ass!” The average temperature at the end of the month was only one degree cooler than the first day of the month. Phoenix shattered three consecutive heat records at the end of the month. Los Angeles reached its hottest day ever recorded on the 27th. The monsoon really ended long before the new brainless date but the dew points remained in the fifties. All the first day of fall did for me is make me drop to my knobby knees and scream for some reprieve from this brutal summer. Sixteen days in Phoenix were 105 degrees or warmer and two were over 110. Fortunately there were only six days The Land reached 105 but that is small relief for the sweat on my brow and balls!
All of this when us desert dwellers are exhausted, dehydrated and weak sure makes it easy to give into the global warming theory, or at the very least politically correct, climate change. Climate change is ongoing and inevitable as Mother Earth goes through her “periods.” I have no idea how mankind has affected global warming during the industrial revolution and those of you who have read past editions of this amazing weather journal know I take no political rhetoric from both sides of the flooding river. I will however leave you with the following quotes from two sources. One is form a NASA scientist. Although NASA has been fingered as being in the pocket of the government I happen to respect the unimaginable engineering feats of big boy shit that has occurred in the last fifty years.
“James Hansen, the NASA scientist who is perhaps the most respected authority on Global warming, says that climate change is the predominant moral issue of the 21st, comparable to slavery faced by Lincoln and the response to Nazism faced by Churchill.”
“On Thin Ice- The world’s two great ice sheets are melting faster than anyone believed possible. Glaciers in both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice at twice the rate they were in 2002, as much as 400 billion tons every year.”
In this fantastic edition of Blue Duck Weather you will read, amongst so many other things, the worst fire in Colorado history, more Gulf Coast oil leak affect reports (although “conveniently” they are harder to find), track a tropical depression and hurricane from its roots through its amazing journey of havoc and destruction, a group of people happy to see a hurricane, an animal thought to be extinct rediscovered, the definition of the meteorological summer, a refrigerator floating in a house, the new term Super Derecho and its definition, an amazing but sad story about Alaska walruses, a five year old winner of a moose calling contest, “the Fujiwhara effect”, four hundred escaped crocodiles, a bear beat away by a woman with a large zucchini, a man who kills his unruly dog with a chainsaw and the criteria for a tropical storm to be a named storm.
The average temperature at The Land for the month was 83.22 degrees. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was much cooler at 62.09 degrees.
The average humidity was 29.66% with a still sticky dew point of 50.37 degrees. The Land received .33” of rain, actually more than the prior three monsoon months. We have a thirsty total of just 4.65 inches for the year while Phoenix has received 7.40 inches.
The important lake levels that keep us from killing each other for water are as follows: Mead (soon to have us killing) dwindles to 38%, Pleasant (we better get some more fucking rain) 53%, Powell 63% and my desert gem, Roosevelt stands strong with 94%.
A feature we began last month is to track unusually fast and falling barometer pressures. The purpose it to help you migraine sufferers track the pressure correlation and your agonizing headaches. The pressure fell fast on September 5th and alas, .06” of rain fell. The pressure dive bombed for four days in a row between September 19th to the 22nd to a all time low of 28.03 and alas there was 28.06” of rain. This is also important for us campers to note; falling pressure usually means a dramatic change in wind or it means rain. But why should we give a fuck, none of us measure barometric pressure camping unless we get a blinding splitting headache!
The song of the month is “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley. It doesn’t have a thing to do with the weather but it sure shows the weather reporting at hurricane sites and the disappointment visibly shown when there aren’t more “casualties”.
9-1- Flagstaff flood victims after the Schultz Fire earlier this summer will not receive Federal aid to rebuild. FEMA requires that one hundred homes in a community have to be destroyed for aid. Only two homes in the Flagstaff area were destroyed. Most homeowners did not have flood insurance.
Mosquitoes in the town of Maricopa, Arizona test positive for the West Nile Virus.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering a 5,000 dollar reward for information about the killing of a baby Bighorn sheep. The lamb was found shot to death along the Apache Trail on August 24th. (This is beyond sick and depraved, it is a flat out sin and crime against nature! Justice will be served when the circle turns.)
A Hurricane Warning is issued for North Carolina as Earl gets closer. A Warning means hurricane conditions are expected within 36 hours. 5,000 tourists on the islands of Ocracoke and Hatteras are ordered to leave. If this storm moves up to New England as a hurricane it will be the first time since 1991.
Floods that have devastated Pakistan for the past five weeks are finally heading to the Arabian Sea but eight million people still need emergency aid.
9-2- Here we go again! An Excessive Heat Warning is issued for Maricopa county tomorrow until eight p.m.
Hurricane Earle is 500 miles wide and has winds of 145mph. The governor
of North Carolina is urging visitors to leave and residents to hunker down.
One group of people excited about Earl’s approach are East Coast surfers. “ Hurricane season is one of the rare times waves can reach world class heights.” Waves at the center of the storm are 30’ high.
A golfer’s routine swing at the Shady Canyon golf course in Irvine, California struck a rock. The impact caused a spark that set off a 25 acre wildfire that took 150 Orange County firefighters to put out. ( Now I understand why shooting restrictions are placed in dry conditions.)
9-3- North Carolina is spared from Earle as it diminishes to a Category 1 hurricane. There are still concerns as it moves up the coast as 13 states may still be affected. ( Editor’s Note: The news reporters on National television seemed discouraged by this. I guess they are trained to report on chaos, destruction and death. So much so that some get off on it. They actually should have been jumping up and down with the “happy dance of joy.”)
More wildfires in southern Russia kill 8 and burn 400 homes to the ground.
Typhoon Kompasu kills five in South Korea.
9-4- Earle fizzles to a tropical storm and then briefly regains strength to a hurricane. 200,000 without power and one dead in Halifax, Canada.
9-5- The Barometric pressure fell like a rock on the Land today, from 28.42 degrees to an all time low of 28.08 degrees. Literally out of the blue came dark clouds out of the south. No rain was predicted anywhere at all. We received a heavy brief downpour that produced .05 inches of cooling rain!
(How was your headache today?)
Red Flag Warning issued for northern Arizona.
Torrential rains in Guatemala causes landslides that kill 38 people, some of them rescuers. Their president tells them avoid highways where slides may occur.
Fishermen ignored storm warnings in Mozambique when they went onto the Indian Ocean to fish. Capsized boats have killed 15.
A Sierra Nevada red fox has been found 90 miles south of Reno, Nevada. It is a native subspecies thought to be extinct since the last sighting in 1990.
9-6- The meteorological calendar for summer is June through August. In Phoenix the average daytime high for that period was a normal 105.3 degrees. But the overnight lows averaged 82.8 degrees, three degrees above normal. It was the fifth warmest night time averages in 114 years of record keeping. Ten temperature records were tied or broken with high minimums.
Out of nowhere a big storm is headed for Texas. Tropical Storm Hermine has 60mph winds and a Flash Flood Watch has been issued all the way to Houston.
9-7- A “monsoon buster” of low pressure from the north Pacific is on its way to Arizona. (Fucking Hallelujah, it’s about time.)
There is a fast moving wildfire near Boulder, Colorado. It has burned 3500 acres, thousands evacuate and a dozen homes are lost.
A “typical” wildfire season in the United States burns five million acres of land a year. This year has “only” been two and a half million acres.
Tropical Storm Hermine may dump a foot of rain on Mexico’s northern coast and Texas.
9-8- The Four mile Fire near Boulder has consumed 7100 acres and a State of Emergency has been declared. 92 buildings have burned and 3000 evacuated. There are eight people missing who refused to leave their homes. The fire may have started when a car crashed into a propane tank.
In McAllen, Texas residents are urged to evacuate as the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers are rising fast from rain produced by Hermine. In central Texas authorities are searching for possible victims after two mobile homes and a house are swept away.
Man am I glad I don’t live in ‘Vegas. The first measurable rain (.01’’) fell since April 22nd. The average temperature in July was 96.2 degrees, the warmest ever recorded for the city. (Fucking desolation row! Can you imagine being broke and hung over on the street there?)
Strong winds knock down electrical lines causing “raging” fires in Detroit. Eighty five buildings have burned and 50,000 without power. The city’s fire department could not keep up and adjoining fire departments had to be called in for the first time since the riots of 1967.
Weeks of heavy rains and flooding in southern Mexico have forced tens of thousands to evacuate from flooding rivers. Thousands more, who won’t leave their property, are sleeping on roofs. To keep up with the swell four dams have been releasing 71,000 cubic feet per second to keep up with the upstream deluge.
A bobcat climbing a power pole got electrocuted and set off a 5 acre wildfire in Ventura County, California.
A Massachusetts woman fell into a yellow jacket nest in her yard and was stung 500 times. She is hospitalized and her condition is unknown. (Editor’s Note: We have reported local bee stings many times. I would much rather deal with them than a yellow jacket. When I was a young duck my parents had grape vines growing on a trellis that shaded a carport. One afternoon my drunk uncle got tangled up with a yellow jacket nest picking grapes. The poor bastard’s head and face looked like a cauliflower! He didn’t go to the hospital, no the “strong” man just kept drinking to kill the pain. He didn’t die though as I recall, not from that.)
9-9- The Monsoon season may be over at The Land. It was a blissful low of 62 degrees with a dew point of 30 degrees this morning. The last time Phoenix had a 62 degree low was fucking June 12th and you ain’t there yet if you live in that shit hole.
The remnants of Hermine move north after forcing one hundred high water rescues in and two killed in Texas. Some homes have five feet of water in them. One man said “Did you ever see a refrigerator floating around your kitchen before?”
Many Louisiana fishermen are hesitant to begin fishing again in the coast. They are not convinced the oil is gone or has not damaged the fish making them unsafe to eat.
The ninth named tropical storm of the year has formed in the Atlantic, Igor.
A black bear has broken into a dozen vehicles over the past two weeks in Montana just north of Yellow Stone Park. This last time a van door shut and trapped the bear inside the vehicle. A sheriff’s deputy and a game warden tied a rope to the door, took cover and pulled it open. The bear, fortunately, ran off.
9-10- West side Boulder residents prepare to evacuate ahead of advancing fire. 60mph winds threaten to drive the fire their way. Residents are urged to fuel up and park their cars facing the street, wet down yards and pick up important personal documents and medicines. 169 homes have been destroyed including hilltop mansions.
Authorities in Austin, Texas have scaled back the search for a missing motorist. The Bull Creek was flooded due to rain from Hermine. The woman ignored and drove around police barricades and was swept away.
The Texas governor issued disaster declarations for 40 counties.
9-11- (WE CANNOT FORGET!)
The Colorado wildfire is 50% contained and 2000 people are allowed to return to their homes. Another 1000 wait to be allowed back.
The bodies of two men in Texas were found yesterday raising the death toll from Hermine flooding to six.
Tropical Storm Igor is nearing hurricane strength.
9-12- The fire near Boulder, Colorado is under control but has burned TEN SQUARE MILES. Now authorities are investigating whether a fire pit started the worst fire in Colorado history.
In one day Tropical Storm Igor turns into a Category 4 Hurricane. It is 1120 miles east of the Caribbean Leeward islands with no “immediate threat to land or energy interests.”
The ocean surface water temperatures near Japan were the highest ever recorded for the month of August at 1.2 degrees warmer than average. This may seem insignificant to us mortals but fish and water mammals prematurely move from their “native waters” to pursue cooler temperatures.
9-13- Four endangered California condors will be released north of the Grand Canyon on September 25th, part of the work to save the endangered birds from extinction. It is the 16th release in Arizona since 1996. 73 condors are alive and soaring the skies in northern Arizona.
A new wildfire breaks out near Loveland, Colorado with six hundred acres burned and one house destroyed.
Patches of oil two inches thick are found on the ocean floor 80 miles from the Gulf Coast oil blowout. Under the oil are dead shrimp and other smaller fish.
A fierce windstorm that blew across Kansas, Missouri and Illinois in May, 2009 has earned a brand new classification, “Super Dericho” coming from the Spanish adverb for straight. It is a long lived windstorm that blows in a straight line. That day the storm began in Kansas and caused 18 tornadoes!
Igor may become a Category 5 storm today. Tropical Storm Julia develops in the eastern Atlantic.
9-14- Two homes have now been destroyed and 900 acres burned in the wild fire near Loveland, Colorado. The fire near Boulder is fully contained.
Julia turns into the 5th Atlantic hurricane of the season and Igor weakens to a, still dangerous, Category 4 hurricane.
Tens of thousands of walruses are driven to land in north west Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. The numbers are a mile wide, side by side. Scientists are most concerned about a stampede and one ton females crushing smaller calves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to divert airplane traffic above the animals as not to spook them. (A sad story because of the cause but what amazing photo opportunities this would present if only my beady eyes were there!)
A five year old boy in Alaska is the winner of a moose calling contest. How did he do it? His mother says he likes to make a lot of noise and “he’s good at it.” (I’m glad this brat doesn’t live in my house spending all of his waking hours practicing calling moose. Although not a violent duck I would have ideas on how to stop the noise.)
9-15- Two of Flagstaff’s favorite fall color locations are closed due to the Schultz Fire earlier this summer. They are closed until December 31st.
Tropical Storm Karl makes landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It is the 11th named storm of the season.
Typhoon Kompasu kills dozens in North Korea. Heavy rains wash away 74,000 acres of crops and 3300 homes are lost. Landslides cause damage to the rail system.
Hurricanes cannot merge. If two get too close to one another they begin to circle around each other and draw energy from the opposing hurricane. Eventually one weakens or both weaken equally. This is called the Fujiwhara Effect, named for a Japanese meteorologist that discovered this phenomenon.
An endangerd Albatross is snagged on a commercial fishing hook in Alaska and has died. The birds were once thought to be extinct but now number a few thousand.
9-16- And from the “This happened right down the street” file: Pinal County Animal Care and Control seized 152 cats and 19 dogs from a home in Hidden Valley, Arizona. The home had no running water and no litter boxes. There were layers of shit throughout the house.( Yours truly hit the street to interview neighbors about this horrific discovery. One said “Oh, they were such a nice family. No one really seemed to mind the stench around their property or the shit dripping down windows. The children were so well mannered although their clothes were stained and stunk like cat piss. We just thought they were a little strange.”)
A California wildfire in the southern Sierra has burned 6100 acres and another fire breaks out near Whittear, California.
Karl becomes a hurricane after re-entering the Gulf of Mexico. Karl may make landfall tomorrow near the oil hub of Poza Rica, Mexico. Igor is still churning out there too with 140mph winds.
9-17- Pinal County sheriff’s deputies rescued two Mexican women who had been traveling on foot across the desert for six days. They were both out of food and water. In a panic one woman used her cell phone to call for help. The Sheriff’s department was able to triangulate the call and locate the women. One woman was delirious and suffering from dehydration. They were traveling with eight others before they were abandoned without food and water.
Karl is now a Category 3 hurricane flooding Veracruz, Mexico. 14 production oil wells have been shut down and workers evacuated. Government officials say this is the worst hurricane there in 50 years.
Storms slam New York City with 100mph winds. One woman was crushed by a falling tree while in her car and 27,000 without power. The National Weather Service is determining if an official tornado struck.
Strong storms tear through Ohio and hail destroys part of Ohio State University in Wooster. Numerous possible tornadoes sighted.
A record number of shark bitten sea otters were found last month along California’s central coast. The lower water temperatures this summer made ideal conditions for sharks.
9-18- Phoenix sets a record of 109 degrees today. The past several days have been the hottest in thirty years.
The National Weather Service has concluded that two tornadoes ripped through New York City two days ago. With up to 125mph winds the tornadoes left a path of destruction fourteen miles from Brooklyn to Queens. Tornadoes in New York City are extremely rare.
Karl has killed six in Veraccruz, Mexico and forcing the country to shut down its only nuclear power plant. EIGHT INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN NINETY MINUTES! Now weakened to a Tropical Storm Karl may hit Mexico City with 70mph winds and heavy rain.
Hurricane Igor is bearing down on Bermuda with 40’ tides hitting the barrier reefs.
Colorado wildlife officials are declaring a victory in an eleven year effort to reintroduce lynx to the state. The cats are reproducing faster than they are dying. The state’s native lynx became extinct in the 1970s because of trapping, poisoning and land development.
Officials in Idaho County want the governor to allow wolves to be shot on sight due to attacks on livestock and wildlife. A U.S. District Court decision last month restored federal protection to wolves in Idaho and Montana despite objections from both states.
A woman hunter in South Carolina has taken a thirteen and a half foot, 1025 pound alligator in Lake Moutrie! A .22 caliber gun was not enough to kill the gator so she used a knife to sever the spinal cord! The woman said she was an experienced hunter but had never killed an alligator.
9-19- A couple of records were broken in Phoenix today; 111 degrees was the high, shattering the old record of 107 in 1962. It was the latest date ever for a temperature of 110 or higher in a hundred years of record keeping.
Igor is near Bermuda as a Category 1 storm. The eye of the hurricane will pass over late today. (Oh how I would love to be there with a camera!)
Typhoon Fanapai strikes Taipei, Tawain with 102mph winds. TWENTY ONE INCHES OF RAIN FELL! All flights and rail service are cancelled and 170,000 without power.
9-20- Phoenix set a new heat record at 107 degrees with a new morning high low of 91 degrees.
Heavy monsoon rains and landslides have killed 47 in northern India.
“ More than 100,000 children left homeless by Pakistan’s floods are in danger of dying because they simply don’t have enough to eat, according to UNICEF. Children already weak from living on too little food in poor rural areas before the floods are fighting to stay alive as diarrhea, respiratory disease and malaria attack their emaciated bodies.” ( Simply hearbreaking! Where are you God? They desparately need a miracle.)
9-21- A Flash Flood Watch is posted for Pinal County until 6:00p.m.
Twenty power poles are knocked down by strong winds in Gila Bend. A Flash Flood Watch is issued for Maricopa County until tomorrow afternoon.
A wildfire in Merriman, Utah burned several homes and 1600 evacuated. A commander of the Utah National Guard takes full responsibility for allowing live fire training despite a Red Flag Warning. He was conducting a machine gun exercise in “tinder dry conditions.”
The National Weather Service has issued flood watches for eleven Texas counties. Flooding in Corpus Christi forced 100,000 gallons of raw sewage out of a manhole ( this makes my shitter problems look like nothing). Crews resumed looking for a a missing motorist who called from his car before it was swept away.
The death toll from flooding and mudslides by Hurricane Karl is up to 16 in Veracruz, Mexico.
Hurricane Igor’s winds strengthen as the storm makes landfall in eastern Canada.
Two new tropical storms develop: Georgette in the Pacific and Lisa in the Atlantic. ( If this Lisa is anything like our Lisa it will develop into a major hurricane and cause absolute havoc!)
9-22- A Flash Flood Warning is issued for N.E. Maricopa County and Gila County until 9:45 a.m. Highway 188 north of Roosevelt Lake is closed due to SIX FEET of rock and mud. 3.87 inches of rain fell in Punkin Center!
Brutal temperatures have killed 236 illegal migrants so far this year in the Arizona desert. This is the second highest total on record. The Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office reported 7 bodies found in one day, the most ever.
Fall begins at The Land tonight at 8:09 p.m.
Six square miles have been burned but the wildfire in Utah is 50% contained. Some evacuation orders have been lifted.
Hurricane Igor floods the Atlantic’s coast province of Newfoundland washing out roads and stranding residents in their homes. 14 communities have declared a state of emergency. “Normally the cool Atlantic chills out hurricanes, but this one came with a vengeance”.
Typhoon Fanapi hits China killing 18 with 44 missing. Five were killed when a dam collapsed after being hit by landslides. 350 houses destroyed.
Landslides have killed five in flooded out regions of Mexico. More than seventy people have died this rainy season which has been declared one of the heaviest on record.
280-400 endangered Morelet crocodiles have escaped a refuge in Mexico after flooding from Hurricane Karl. Residents in the state of Veracruz are ordered not to kill or capture the crocs.
9-23- Death toll from Typhoon Fanapi in China is up to 54. FORTY INCHES OF RAIN have fallen in some areas.
“The Wave. When violent storms send swells rolling across the Pacific, the world’s most daring surfers will drop everything and travel anywhere to risk riding a wall of water as high as 100’”. ( JerDuck shared this amazing article with me. These guys have made a science of tracking the biggest waves by tapping into the science of weather forecasting and mapping. So a hurricane or typhoon is a good thing to them if it creates the swell and wave they hope comes with it. One amazing account was about a dude to went to Alaska to surf the waves created by calving glacier. It said he was dodging chunks of ice city blocks long.)
9-24- 2500 people are urged to evacuate Arcadia, Wisconsin and the National Guard is called in to help. The downtown area is under three feet of water from heavy rains and flooding.
Northern India has experienced “unprecedented rain” since August. Two million people have been forced to evacuate in a twenty four hour period. 17 people have been killed and thousands of homes washed away in Lucknow.
A woman near Helena Montana fended off a 200 pound black bear by whacking it with a large piece of zucchini from her garden. The bear was trying to get into her home. She suffered scratches and her dog was injured trying to protect her.
A New Mexico man faces felony charges after killing his pit bull with a chainsaw as his young children watched. The man said the dog bit his nine year old daughter and he felt the dog needed to be put down. He tried to use a knife to slash the dog’s throat, but when that didn’t work he grabbed his trusty chainsaw.
9-25- An aggressive swarm of bees leaves a Phoenix family trapped inside their home near 24th Street and Indian School Road. Two of the family’s large dogs were killed by multiple stings and another is recovering.
Arizona Game and Fish is offereing a 2700 dollar reward for the arrest and conviction of person(s) who poached a 6x6 bull elk near Ash Fork. The animal was illegally shot and killed between September 6th and the 8th. The elk’s antlers were sawed off but left at the scene with the rest of the carcass. This happened just before legal archery season so the agency is hoping someone scouting witnessed all or part of the butchering.
The U.S. Department of Defense will pay homeowners for losses in the wildfire started in Utah last week by the National Guard conducting live fire training. The fire is now 100% contained.
Several towns in southwestern Wisconsin and southern Minnesota have received a half foot of rain that caused evacuations yesterday and today.
Mathew weakens to a Tropical Depression but floods the southern part of Central America with as much as SEVENTEEN INCHES OF RAIN!
The Canadian military is in eastern Newfounland to help rebuild two bridges in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor.
9-26- With one hundred cases and seven deaths Arizona leads the nation in West Nile mesquito infections. Most of the cases have occurred in the southeast valley.
Rabies have been confirmed in a pair of Mohave County, Arizona bats. The children that came in contact with them are being treated.
From heavy rains this past week in central Wisconsin a levee fails south of Highway 33 today. In Zumbro Falls, Minnesota floodwaters have destroyed 58 homes and 20 businesses. 10.86 inches of rain has fallen in areas. The governors of both states declare a State of Emergency.
9-27- Los Angeles set an all time record high of any date in history of 113 degrees today.
Much of the U.S. is experiencing abnormally dry weather conditions that began in June. Some states have issued drought warnings and high risks for brush fires. The states most affected are inland areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and parts of New Jersey up to Maine.
Most of the oil leaked into the Gulf is still there despite the hype from the White House. The most sustained deep water release of oil has left at least 50% of the oil on the ocean floor.
Recorded depression of Gulf Coast residents is up 25% since the massive oil leak.
Flooding in Nigeria is rotting crops and making food shortages worse. Thirty four square miles of farmland is under water at the worst possible time, before the harvest. Two million people have been displaced or affected by flooding.
9-28- The Bald eagle population in Arizona is at a new high of 104 breeding adult eagles since the project began in 1990 to save them from extinction.
The Grand Ol Opry reopens after a twenty million dollar renovation caused by the flooding in May.
27,000 in Los Angeles for eight to sixteen hours after yesterday’s all time heat record. The drain from air conditoners overloaded and blew transformers.
A rain soaked mountainside has given away in Oaxaca, Mexico. At least 300 homes have been buried or destroyed. No official count of the human casualties.
In Columbia 20 people changing from one bus to another because of an earlier landslide blocking a road are buried by another landslide.
Today is the average last day of 100 degrees in Phoenix.
9-29- Eighty three degrees a record high for Flagstaff for the second day in a row.
SEVENTEEN INCHES of rain has fallen in Delaware and moving up the East Coast.
A Tropical Depression is soaking south Florida after drenching Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Sustained winds are at 35mph. At 39 mph a depression becomes a named storm.
Eleven people are confirmed missing after a landslide in Oaxaca, Mexico yesterday. At first reports were that hundreds were feared dead.
9-30- The last new official day of the monsoon for Arizona.
“Epic” rains and tornado alerts for the East Coast from the Carolinas up to Maine. Wilmington, North Carolina sets a record with TWENTY ONE INCHES OF RAIN since last Sunday. The cause for all of this moisture are the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole mixed with low pressure.
Tropical Storm Nicole kills eight in Jamaica during flash flooding.
Mudslides in the state of Chiapas, Mexico kill 16.
Until next month I remain faithful and undaunted to my millions of readers.
The Distinguished and Renound MR BlueDuck
