January 2011 Weather News!
Happy New Year Mother Nature! I’m sure this date means nothing to you but your yearly cycles are somewhat predictable, and I use that term very loosely. I love you and I hate you. You bring warmth to my skin when I need it mentally as bad as physically. You send the cold wind down my back when I need it the least. You give me not a drop of rain and then flood my existence. I worship and I scorn you. You provide balance to this planet and give me the food and water I need to survive. While doing this the carnage of human suffering from your affects need no numbers, no tallies. In the big picture they are what they are. The entire planet is your jurisdiction up to an altitude of about sixty thousand feet and that is where space and God take over. So, whether I love you or hate you at any given time, I must bow to your power and respect the ultimate goal of your mission, to keep this planet on its axis. That my mother is a daunting task!
January was pure hell for folks in Australia and Brazil with record flooding and record amount of mudslides killing folks. It was no bargain for Midwest and Northeast America either with all of the snow. Read about this and more in the latest Blue Duck Weather News. Find out about thousands of birds and fish dying in just a few states with no apparent answer, how the flooding in Australia could effect the world economy, BLM wants to place wild horses on birth control (I swear we don’t make this shit up), the warmest December temperatures in Phoenix on record, “Reverse Arctic Oscillation”, the state deemed the most likely for future natural disasters, hope for Lake Mead?, stray cats in Gilbert, Arizona ruining a bird preserve, a “blocking weather pattern”, what it means to the world if Greenland’s ice sheet melts, why a woman kills her nephew’s dog and more news trickling in from the BP oil spill last spring.
The average temperature at The Land was 18 degrees warmer at the end of the month than the beginning. This is a good thing as seven out of the first nine days were below or at freezing for morning lows. The average temperature for Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was twenty degrees warmer at the end of the month.
The average temperature at The Land was 51.98 degrees and 30.14 degrees at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill.
The average humidity at The Land was 40.50 percent with a dew point of 24.31 degrees. In other words, it was fucking dry for January.
The barometric pressure was fairly consistent. I hope our local migraine sufferers were spared if there is any truth to radically changing pressure.
There was ZERO rain at The Land.
Lake Mead is 38% full, Pleasant 82%, Powell 57% and Roosevelt finished the year at 90%!
And now the day by day flashbacks of Mother Nature and her wicked little grin!
1-1- A twenty four degree low at The Land with a 45 degree high meant an average temperature of just 34.50 degrees. In the shade there was ice on the dog water bowl all day. This is the third night in a row that Phoenix has issued a freeze warning. The temperatures out here in the open desert average about ten degrees cooler and cool off much faster than the trapped heat in the city. But I should not complain. The temperature at the Grand Canyon dropped to a staggering 31 below zero.
An official described the surging floodwaters in northeast Australia as reaching “biblical proportions.” 22 communities are swamped and rivers are surging to record levels, overflowing into low lying towns as the water rushes to the sea. Australia has had its wettest spring on record!
1-2- Three swollen and busted water pipes on The Land from three hard nights of freezing. When I look at the freeze icon on the weather station monitor at seven thirty in the evening I just cringe. That means we are in for a hard freeze.
Snow on Interstate 5 closes the freeway near Los Angeles. The snow level has dropped to 1800’.
A woman is feared dead after falling into a flooded river near Brisbane, Australia.
In Beebe, Arkansas one thousand dead black birds have fallen from the sky in a one mile area. No other dead birds outside that radius has been found. 65 of the dead birds will be sent for testing. One ornithologist said the birds “showed physical trauma and the flocks could have been hit by lightning or high altitude hail.’’
1-3- As of December 29th there were 559 complaints of residential wood burning in Maricopa County on no burn days. Inspectors must witness smoke coming out of a chimney or backyard before issuing warnings or violations. There are some exemptions, including if a fireplace is the only source of heat. Smoke from wood burning fireplaces contain particulates so small 30 of them would make up the width of a human hair. (It is remarkable that DooderDuck did not get busted for burning his trash in backyard fire pit last year. He had great plumes of ash, smoke and charred paper filling the neighborhood. A fine son he turned out to be and learned from the best!.)
Garbage trucks in New York City have been working as snow plows and trash has been not been picked up in ten days. Walls of trash bags stacked six feet high line sidewalks and curbs. Residents and shop owners want it picked up and now! (Just burn the shit.)
Ten people have now died from flooding in Australia. Military flights rush food to Brisbane before it is cut off by floodwaters. Flood levels in Rockhampton are 30’ above flood stage. The rain and flooding have been caused by the cooling “La Nina” ocean currents that produced monsoon rains over the western Pacific ocean and southeast Asia.
Philippine landslides and floods have killed five children and an adult with three girls missing. Two of the children, a sister and brother, were buried in a landslide while they slept.
1-4- While the last two days have had entries of garbage burnt or stacked the latest comes from Prescott Valley in Arizona. Garbage collections have been delayed by ice and snow for the last five days. Road conditions are just too unsafe to be driving the fifty thousand pound beasts. ( Again, just burn the shit!)
Warmest average temperatures in Phoenix for December on record according to the National Weather Service.
Las Vegas received a trace of snow today. (Talk about the blues if you lost your “shorts” and woke up to this.)
The death toll is up to 17 in the Philippines from landslides and flooding. 13,000 people seek shelter in schools and gyms.
Crocodiles and snakes pose a grave threat in flooded Australia. “If people enter the water their safety cannot be guaranteed.”
Now, from the this is getting strange file: Now the blackbird death toll count in Bebee, Arkansas is up to 3,000. Officials say it may have been fireworks that frightened them into flying into buildings and falling to their death. Three hundred miles away 500 starlings die in Louisiana. 100,000 dead drum fish are discovered by a tugboat captain over a 20 mile stretch of the Arkansas River. It is not linked to the bird deaths. ( Have you ever heard of the canary in a coal mine? These birds were placed to detect unsafe levels of oxygen. If they died you were fucked. The Lovely Mrs. BlueDuck and myself have had the version of this on our Land for thirty years. If the pets thrive on the water from the ground we will be fine. Shit, we have a cat that is pushing seventeen years old and a dog the same. But what does it say about these birds and fish in a relatively close area dying so mysteriously? Perhaps it is fucking aliens or the approach of the Mayan calendar year.)
1-5- Federal prosecutors in New York are looking into allegations that sanitation workers sabotaged the city’s snow cleanup after the post Christmas blizzard. Two sanitation union bosses have said the slowdown rumors are false.
Australia’s record flooding is causing catastrophic damage to the infrastructure in the state of Queensland. 75% of its coal mines are shut down. These mines fuel Asia’s steel mills. So far 1200 homes have been destroyed and 10,700 damaged.
Ice and sleet have collapsed the roofs of 1200 homes in southern China. 60,000 people have been evacuated. Freezing weather has damaged 300,000 acres of cabbage and rice crops.
Slaughtering wild horses for food isn’t an option for thinning herds that have strained public lands throughout the West. The BLM wants to give mares birth control to diminish the need for horse roundups. (Our federal government at work, fucking amazing!)
A seven year old Montana boy is recovering from surgery after being impaled on a six inch pine tree branch during a snow sledding accident.
1-6- A Pollution Advisory is issued for Maricopa County and wood burning fires are banned once again.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that the official low temperature on New Year’s Eve in Flagstaff was 19 below zero. It was the third coldest morning on record since 1961.
Mountain lion sightings have increase in the lower Salt River Canyon.
An army general has been assigned to lead the flood recovery in Australia. Queensland’s premier proclaimed this is “a disaster of unprecedented scale.”
Rain has been falling in Brazil since Christmas and flooding or mudslides have killed 35. 30,000 people throughout the country have been forced from their homes.
Near freezing temperatures and icy Himalayan winds have killed 41 in northern India in the past two weeks. Poor people living on the streets are the most affected. Dressed in only light clothing death is a certainty if they don’t have fuel to build fires.
Angry relatives of 42 Israelis killed in a forest fire last month forced the Prime Minister to stop his speech honoring the dead. They said he should be responsible for the handling of the disaster response.
A rare Siberian tiger has attacked and killed a man in China as he was checking his tour bus that was stuck in the snow. The cat pounced on the man and drug him into the forest.
1-7- Thirty nine people have died from flooding and thunderstorms in eastern Africa. Seven were killed by a single lightning strike.
More rain falls in areas of an already flooded northeast Australia. Flood waters are expected to remain high for another week. One town mayor said it could take up to a year to recover.
1-8- Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, Hartford, Connecticut, Concord, New Hampshire and Caribou, Maine have had the highest average temperatures in 2010 than records began in 1872.
The death toll from near freezing temperatures in northern India from the last two weeks is up to 63. The government is distributing blankets and medicine to the poor. All schools have been closed until the weather improves.
Reverse Arctic Oscillation involves the exchange of heat from dark surfaced open waters to the atmosphere and the resulting north-west movement of weather patterns. This may explain warm rain in Alaska recently and a freezing Georgia and Florida. Arctic sea ice coverage this past December was the lowest of any December since satellite records began in 1979.
1-9- The skeletal remains of two humans have been found in the Superstition Mountains. The Medical Examiner’s office will try and determine if the remains are from two missing hikers last July. ( Much has been written about this vast wilderness. Even with cell phones and today’s technology folks just seem to get swallowed up by the myths and the mountain. Anyone hiking in the Superstitions in July are asking for death unless their hike is a short one.)
The National Weather Service has posted winter Storm Warnings from east Texas to the Carolinas. Louisiana and Alabama governors issue emergency declarations. Mississippi has already had snow, sleet and freezing rain.
The latest town to experience flooding in Australia is Maryborough. More rain for Queensland with EIGHT INCHES in the last twenty four hours.
1-10- Seven of the last nine morning lows at The Land have been thirty two degrees or colder.
The average low temperature in Phoenix during December was 48.7 degrees. This is 5 degrees above normal and the warmest in 114 years of record keeping. (On January 4th your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather reported the warmest average daily temperatures in Phoenix for December.)
Atlanta’s airport closes and thousands of flights are cancelled due to icy storms in the South. Even if a few inches accumulates, cities may not have enough snow plows since appreciable snow falls are so rare. Snow is expected from the Texas Panhandle to Oklahoma, North and South Carolina.
11-11- Snow falls in the South yesterday ranged from a few inches to a foot from Louisiana to the Carolinas.
69.4% of the U.S. has snow on the ground.
A “super rainstorm” pours SIX INCHES IN AN HALF HOUR in the town of Toowoomba, Australia. A twenty six foot wall of water strikes without warning killing nine with fifty seven missing. People are stranded and homes torn apart.
Mild temperatures have melted record December snowfalls in Germany. The Rhine River in the west and the Ode River in the east burst their banks flooding fields and towns. One person was swept to his death on a flooded road. Commercial shipping is banned on a ninety mile stretch of the Rhine.
1-12- Sixteen inches of snow and 50mph winds in Boston, twenty two inches of snow in Ridgefield, Connecticut and twelve inches of new snow in New York City.
Flooding in Brisbane, Australia is causing mass panic. The mayor proclaimed “the water is swallowing up the city.” Thousands are urged to evacuate. So far 22 have died and 43 missing.
The latest flooding and mudslides in Brazil have killed 13. So far this year 30 have been killed and 100,000 are homeless in the southeast states.
Monsoon rains have been flooding the eastern Philippines for two weeks, pushing the drowning death toll up to 40 with 7 people missing. One million people have been affected with 25,000 in evacuation centers.
1-13- Australia faces a rebuilding effort due to flooding so massive it is quoted as being “post war proportions.”
Mudslides in Brazil have killed 355 with dozens of missing with little hope to be found. Entire neighborhoods are devastated. Ten inches of rain fell in Rio De Janerio in 24 hours, the equivalent to a month’s rain.
1-14- The missing from flooding in Brazil up to 100.
1-16- A two year U.S. Geological Survey study shows that California is at the most risk of devastating storms. The study builds on a new understanding of the term “atmospheric rivers.” These are high powered winds that drag massive amounts of tropical moisture across the Pacific Ocean and directly over California for days on end. In December an atmospheric river caused a series of wet storms in California that broke rainfall records in many areas.
The death toll from mudslides in Brazil is up to 610 people. A seven day period of mourning for the victims has been declared by the government.
The U.N. is appealing for emergency flood aid for Sri Lanka. 38 people have died and hundreds of thousands are homeless. Vast rice fields that were ready for harvest are now under water.
1-17- The BLM (normally a dirty word in my book) is going to plant 15,000 trees near Yuma where the Laguna Fire burned in 2008. Volunteers are asked to help plant 7,000 grown mesquite trees and 8,000 cottonwood willow poles.
Heavy rain in Washington and Oregon causes landslides that closes roads yesterday, including U.S. 20 in central Oregon.
The recent flooding in Australia could be the country’s most expensive natural disaster on record.
20 communities in Brazil are still cut off from food and water due to mudslides. The death toll is up to 655.
Flooding has killed or left 40 missing in South Africa and destroyed thousands of homes. The country’s army has been placed on standby to evacuate people near major dams.
1-18- The piss hole, Lake Mead, may be helped with heavy snow pack once it melts this spring. The lake has already risen five feet since December 1st. A series of storms drenched southern Utah and southern Nevada. Snow pack in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains is 133% of average with some locations reporting 200%.
Stray cats at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, Arizona have been given a reprieve until February 18th. Originally today was the deadline for a volunteer group, Save The (fucking) Cats, to remove all cats before Gilbert resumes trapping and killing them. The problem is so bad the state Audubon Society threatens to remove the location as an important area for birds. (This problem is certainly a statement about foreclosures and people losing their homes; just turn the cats loose and let them fend for themselves. It is a matter of time that we will be hearing about wild dogs roaming, pet snakes in the canals and pet fish in the toilets clogging up the massive sewer shit transportation system.)
Heavy rain runoff floods a river near Mount Hood, Oregon, forcing residents to evacuate on foot. As much as ten inches of rain fell in the Sandy River drainage with an additional two inches of melted snow on the lower slopes of Mount Hood.
Brazil’s army has sent 700 soldiers to help desperate neighborhoods cut off from food, water and recover bodies buried in mud. One man has been rescued after being buried for sixteen hours.
1-19- A third set of human remains were found in the Superstition Mountains this week. Authorities believe they are the three men who hiked into the area last July in 110 degree heat to find the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. (You read it here how the men were so confident that they had found the gold they sat out poorly provisioned; no phones, very little water and no food. They had checked in to a motel in Apache Junction with no intention of camping. They had just driven up for the day.)
Death toll in Brazil up to 700 and 14000 are homeless.
1-20- A Wind Advisory has been posted for western Arizona along the Colorado River until 10:00 p.m.
Twenty nine states are under a Winter Weather Advisory as storms head to the North East. 40 below zero in International Falls, Minnesota.
A wall of water slams another Australian town, Kerang and one thousand people who did not evacuate are stranded. Flooding, miles wide, surges across northern and western Victoria state after record rainfalls last week. 62 towns have been affected. The floodwaters are the highest in one hundred years.
Yuma, Arizona officials are drafting plans to control an explosive cat population. One part of the proposal bans feeding feral cats. (Just shoot them and feed them to the homeless.)
1-21- On this day in 2007 the Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck reported afternoon snow from the Fry’s parking lot in Maricopa.
A ten year old boy in Arizona City is severely mauled by dogs when he got off the afternoon school bus to walk home. Two Rottwiler mixes and a pit bull mix had to be beaten off of the boy with baseball bats by neighbors.
The fifth snow storm since January 1st freezes the North East. The wind chill was 20 below in Chicago this morning. Schools from New Jersey to Massachusetts are closed. This cold snap is caused by a “blocking weather pattern.” It prevents warm air from the Pacific while cold air is being pushed down from Canada.
Even with historic flooding in Australia the southwest part of the country is experiencing drought conditions with the driest year on record. Typically Australia is the second driest continent on the planet.
Authorities in central Africa have arrested five people who had in their possession 12 chimpanzee heads, 25 hands, an endangered gorilla and body parts belonging to leopards, elephants and a lion. It is not known why the men had them. ( Food or voodoo?)
1-22- Forty six below zero in International Falls, twenty seven below in Fargo, sixteen below in Minneapolis and thirteen below in Greenbay. Freezing weather in thirty three states.
Greenland’s ice sheets experience record melt in 2010, an area the size of France. The ice sheets have melted at the fastest rate since record keeping began in 1979. The current contribution of Greenland ice melt to global sea level rise is .02 inches a year. Greenland has one twentieth of the world’s ice. It it melts entirely the the global sea rise would be twenty seven feet!
Cold weather in Vietnam over the past three weeks has killed seven people and twenty thousand livestock. Temperatures have fallen to 26 degrees. The normal temperature for this time of year is 60.
1-23- 43mph winds in Sedona, Arizona, 41mph winds in Flagstaff, 38mph winds in Payson and 28mph winds in Bullhead City and Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.
The recent flooding in Brazil is the deadliest since 1900 killing 791 people.
1-24- 36 below zero in Saranac Lake, New York, Montpelier, Vermont 21 below zero. Two people have frozen to death. A Wind Chill Advisory issued for Massachusetts and Rhode Island. ( Who needs advisories with those kind of temperatures? Wind or no wind, a person will freeze to death outside in the elements if anything goes wrong. Read “To Build A Fire” by Jack London.)
Austraila loses three billion dollars in damage to crops and lost coal exports due to the massive flooding.
Brazil’s death toll from flooding has risen to 806 with hundreds still missing. It is the second worst disaster ever recorded in the country. The first was a meningitis outbreak in 1974 that killed 1500 poor souls.
1-25- Tornado Warnings issued in Florida.
A fourteen year old boy in southwestern Alaska dies of exposure while walking from a friend’s home. The temperature was 50 below with 70mph winds. (I know folks are hardy in Alaska but this is hard to believe. I can’t imagine being able to stand up in a 70mph wind regardless of the temperature. I still feel sorry for the young man and his cruel fate.)
Now in Swan Hill, Australia residents evacuate with a sea of muddy water approaching.
A sixty five year old woman in South Carolina has been charged for animal cruelty after hanging her nephew’s pit bull with an electrical cord and then burning the dog. She said the poor bastard was a “devil dog” after chewing on her Bible.
1-26- Sixth major snowstorm since January 1st arriving in the North East after leaving the Mid Atlantic region.
Snow accumulations are rare in the South but Nashville has three inches on the ground. (Glad I’m not a broke musician living there right now!)
The La Nina weather pattern began last June and is likely to last until the end of the first quarter of this year according to the World Meteorological Organization. Its effects are strong trade winds over the Pacific and reduced cloudiness in some areas of the world. This is one of the strongest ones in the last century.
A thirty year old surfer is in fair condition after nearly drowning while attempting to surf Mavericks, a famous break about 20 miles south of San Francisco.
1-27- So far this is the second driest snowfall season in Flagstaff history. This time last year there was five feet of snow. (This is the La Nina weather pattern at work my faithful readers.)
Weather predictions for this latest storm in the North East were badly under estimated. New York City received eighteen inches of snow, bringing the total to thirty six inches this season shattering a eighty six year old record. The Statue of Liberty is even closed. Nineteen inches of snow fell in New Jersey and seventeen inches in Philadelphia. In the South , Huntsville, Alabama and Athens, Georgia have received five times the normal amount of rain so far this season. 55 million people in 17 states are affected. Eight inches of snow in Chicago causes eight hours of highway gridlock for the afternoon commute.
Two men trapped in a car when a garage roof collapses from snow are rescued alive in Massachusetts.
More sea turtles (600) were killed or injured in the Gulf of Mexico in the months following the BP oil spill than in any period in twenty years.
A dead dog encased in an ice block is found on the front lawn of a home in Dawson, British Columbia. The owner says he has never seen the dog before and doesn’t know how the block of ice arrived on his property.
1-28- Seven deaths are blamed on the latest severe weather in the North East. Three people in separate states were killed when they were struck by snowplows. ( I see lawsuites in the near future.) Several hundred thousand are without power.
1-29- Beijing, China is facing its longest wait for winter snow in 60 years. Nine million people in China have been affected by drought conditions.
1-30- Five degrees in Billings, Montana as the “Penquin Express” heads our way from Alaska.
Cyclone Anthony, a Category 2 storm with 80mph winds is headed for Australia’s flood ravaged northeast. It is expected to cross Queensland state tomorrow.
1-31- Afternoon wind chill at The Land: 61 degrees plus 14mph wind equals 58 degrees. The temperatures are expected to fall dramatically in the next several days as the fucking “Penquin Express” heads to town.
At high noon RyDuck reported from his secluded location in Colorado 8 degrees and light snow. He said three days ago it was 60 degrees!
A massive weather system is expected to bring snow and ice from the Rockies to the East Coast. thrity three states and one hundred million people will be affected.
Cyclone Yasi in Australia is upgraded to a Category 3 storm with 115mph winds. This storm may produce THREE FEET OF RAIN!
A flash flood in Bolivia has swept 30 people to their deaths when a bus and a truck tried to cross a swollen river. Intense hail only hours before caused flooding in the river, which is dry most of the year. (Sounds like Arizona desert washes “most of the year.”)
I am pleased to announce that one of our past contributing editors is back on the scene. From his secluded location in Colorado The RyDuck gives you the following: “The term wind chill is based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin caused by wind and cold. In 2001 new formulas were adopted that are based on greater scientific knowledge and on experiments that tested how fast the faces of volunteers cooled in a wind tunnel with various combinations of wind and temperatures. The actual calculation is made using a complex mathematical formula. The formula is wind chill = 35.74 + 0.6215T- 35.75 (VO.16) + 0.4275T (VO.16) Where T= Air Temperature, V= Wind speed (mph). (Editor’s Note: What science can’t calculate is the psychological factor. 40 degrees + 11mph wind= 34 degrees. 34 isn’t bad with no wind but the chill is just bone numbing.)
And there you have it my faithful readers; Mother Nature does not rest. Before I give you the song of the month I would like to give you a quote I stole. “Stay close to nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” This month’s song is simply titled “Snow” by Jesse Winchester. It is fitting in a light hearted way.
Until next month, when they dig your dead dog out of an ice block, remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The Distinguished, Honorable Professor Mr BlueDuck
