July 2011 Blue Duck Weather News

July 2011 Weather News!

It’s that time again with another amazing edition of Blue Duck Weather! The big weather event was oppressive heat from Texas to Canada. At one point it affected thirty four states and one million square miles. Record highs and record high lows were shattered like hundreds of toothpicks falling out of a box. States with generally mild summer temperatures had temperatures with heat indexes that made Phoenix look mild. The humidity on top of one hundred degree plus temperatures had many towns with one hundred and fifteen degrees and higher. New York City shattered a record for the most electricity used in one day. Texas used so much power that rolling blackouts were threatened to conserve electricity.

As you will read New Mexico experienced its largest ever wildfire, just one month after Arizona.

Bear sightings and attacks seemed to increase in July. You will read about a deadly grizzly encounter in Yellowstone and a deadly black bear encounter right here in Arizona. You will also read about a grizzly spotted in an area that no grizz has been seen in fifty years. And you will read a first hand account of a black bear sighting in the wilds of Montana.

Also as you read deep into Blue Duck Weather other amazing reports will surface. What happened to the seven American fishermen lost in the Gulf of Mexico when their boat capsized? The last report was the Mexican government was extending the search and rescue operation and after that nothing else was reported.

You will also learn of the Montana oil spill in the pristine Yellowstone River and the aftermath, the heart breaking worst humanitarian crisis due to drought, massive chicken and turkey deaths due to heat in the U.S. (no word on ducks; they know how to stay cool), white bark pine tree facing extinction and three tourists who ignored guardrails and plunged over a raging water fall in Yosemite

But first let’s get to the boring statistics: The average temperature difference on The Land was 4.50 degrees warmer at the end of July than the beginning. At Talking Trees and Antelope Hill it was 9.5 blissful degrees cooler at the end of the month than the beginning. The average temperature at The Land was 91 degrees, the average at 7400’ in New Mexico was 67.25 degrees.

The average humidity at The Land this month was 34.87 percent, the average dew point just under monsoon of 54.33 degrees.

The Land received 1.56” of rain this month. The total for the year is 2.44”. With half of the year gone we have a long way to go to reach our “average” annual rainfall of about 8”.

You will read later that Lake Powell is recovering nicely from the ten year drought and the benefits for the piss hole Mead downstream. But Pleasant and Roosevelt Lakes are shrinking, the biggest water suppliers for Arizona agriculture and hydro electricity. Pleasant has shrunk to 67% and Roosevelt to 79%.

For the past few months your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather has been supplying barometric pressure readings for our local migraine headache suffers. In this edition you will find out empirical data by a doctor that concludes that the monsoon and rapid pressure readings brings on more headaches than at any other time.

And now let’s give you all the weather news that fits.

7-1- For the first time ever all electronic message boards along Arizona highways this weekend will warn of fire bans across the state.

New Mexico’s Los Conchos Fire has burned 93,000 acres and is a U.S. priority one fire.

A small Texas town uses “witching” to find water. The town’s only supply of water is a river nearly dry.

“Witching is a centuries old practice used mainly in rural areas to find underground water. Many farmers walked their property holding sticks or rods that they believed moved and crossed over each other when water was found underground. When that happened they dug or drilled.

(That is actually the method we used to find water on The Land many years ago. We paid some old fart fifty bucks and a case of beer to witch. Our well is deep by most standards, over four hundred feet. The old dude predicted three layers of water at various depths with the “goldmine” being the deepest. He was right as we found out when the well was drilled.)

7-2- The first 115 degree day at The Land. Phoenix set a new record of 118 degrees.

The Las Conchos Fire is now the largest fire in New Mexico history. It grew 13,000 acres overnight to 113,000 acres.

In Burnett County, Wisconsin a fierce thunderstorm surprises campers with 80mph winds and soft ball size hail. An eleven year old girl was killed by a falling tree, boats blown ashore and 36 people injured. A search in under way for a missing canoeist in the St. Croix River.

Tropical Storm Arlene is breaking apart but not before killing two in Mexico’s central gulf coast.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife has confirmed a hiker’s cell phone photo is a grizzly bear in Washington’s North Cascade Mountains. A grizz has not been seen in this area since the 1950s.

7-3- Unconfirmed Micro-bursts knocked down 17 power poles in north east Phoenix yesterday and east Mesa. 5500 without electricity.

Sixteen miles of the Apache Trail near Apache Junction, Arizona closed yesterday due to a lightning caused wildfire. The Fish Fire has burned 100 acres with zero containment.

Los Alamos evacuation orders lifted and 12,000 folks go home. Some rain helped the fire fighting efforts. The fire has grown to 120,960 acres.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued for Maricopa and Pinal counties in Arizona.

With the rising humidity and temperatures the first snake is spotted on The Land. A four foot bull snake came slithering by the picnic table where I was sitting and having morning coffee and sweating my ass off.

Snow ski resorts are still open from Colorado to California. Skiiers show up in bathing suits with the warm weather. But warm weather and left over snow make for dangerous conditions. At Yosemite one hiker is killed and another missing after being swept off of a bridge by higher than usual runoff.

An Exxon Mobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Monatana ruptured yesterday. 42,000 gallons of oil escaped before the pipe line was shut down. A twenty five mile plume of oil caused evacuations along the river.

Tropical Storm Arlene death count rises to 11 from flooding and mudslides.

7-4- Happy Independence Day! Five are injured by lightning during a Civil War re-enactment at Gettysburg.

Flash Flood Warnings issued for Tucson, flights diverted and five thousand without power.

With record snowfall last Winter Lake Powell is 70% full! It rose 25 feet last month alone.

Two hundred people are working on the Yellowstone oil river cleanup. 40,000’ of boom being set up. Strong floodwaters may have punctured the pipeline with debris.

A fishing charter boat has sunk in the Gulf of Baja only sixty miles from land. Eight American fishermen are missing.

7-5- This is the third day with average dew points at or above 55 degrees at The Land. With sweltering dew points in the mid sixties today, July 3rd was the meteorological beginning of the monsoon.

Man, did it hit in full force this evening. By 7:00 p.m. all natural lighting was obliterated by a black wall of dust. Visibility was near zero. A few minutes later it began raining so hard, almost three quarters of an inch fell in about forty five minutes.

I was flooded in and the Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck and Beck Peck were flooded out. It took them hours to get home from Phoenix with the dirt and the rain. It is a credit to Nancy with her experience in shitty weather driving to get home alive.

The Haboob that spread across the Valley was one hundred miles wide and eight thousand feet high. It caught the attention of journalists and weather people from around the world. Flights at Sky Harbor International Airport were postponed. The peak wind gust was recorded in Chandler, Arizona at 70mph. 9400 people were without power in the east valley.

Localized flooding in Tucson with an inch of rain. They haven’t had this much rain in a single event in nine months.

The victim of a black bear attack last week in the White Mountains is in a medically induced coma. Her scalp was ripped off and has severe artery damage under her left arm. The bear has been tested for rabies and did not have the deadly disease. ( I have read many times that black bear attacks are rare but more deadly than a grizzly attack. If you are lucky you can fake a grizzly by playing dead or rolling up in a ball. If a black bear attacks you have to fight for your life, there are no other options.)

Seven American fishermen are still missing near Baja, Mexico. There is hope for rescue and survival due to the warm waters. Thirty five men escaped the boat capsized by 40’ waves. One survivor swam sixteen miles to shore. The captain of the boat was warned not to set sail due to the weather.

Arlene is proving to be a deadly Tropical Storm in central Mexico. Even after breaking up the death toll is now up to 16.

Severe flooding in western China left 50 people trapped on a collapsed bridge over a torrential river. They were rescued by cable and huge tractor buckets to transport them over the river.

7-6- Our roving reporter TwinkyDuck reports this afternoon there is still no power in Quartzite, Arizona from last night’s storm.

All of the 1.78 million acres of the Coronado National Forest remain closed due to fire danger despite recent rains.

There are tough conditions for crews cleaning up oil on the Yellowstone River as it rises above flood stage with heavy snow runoff. The surging river could push crude into back channels vital to the river’s prized fishery.

There are still seven missing American fishermen missing near Baja, Mexico. The Mexican government will end the search in two days if they are not found.

7-7- Air quality since the Haboob two days ago is still so bad in the Phoenix area flights were delayed yesterday due to heavy dust at six thousand feet.
Quartzite, Arizona just now has restored electricity to residents after the strong winds knocked out power. (Two days without electricity in this humidity and heat!)

The Los Alamos National Laboratory re-opens after being closed for a week due to the massiv Las Conchas Fire. Residents of Los Alamos are warned about hungry black bears displaced by the fire wandering into town.
The fire is 40% contained and has burned 130,560 acres.

The Mexican government will continue searching for the missing American fishermen in the Baja Gulf.

A mother Grizzly kills a hiker on a Yellowstone hiking trail. All trails are closed. The bruin will not be trapped and killed as she was just protecting her young’uns.

7-8- Arizona Game & Fish is meeting today to consider greatly reducing the number of turkey permits issued next fall in the burned out Wallow area. It is feared that many turkeys were killed by the fire.

7-9- The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is fully contained at 538,049 acres. It began on May 29th.

Calmer winds and higher humidity help fire fighters save a sacred Pueblo Indian mountain in New Mexico from the Las Conchas fire. The Chicoma Mountain is 11,560 feet high and said to hold an elliptical shrine with seven exits opening toward tribal regions. The mountain is considered to be the “center of all” by New Mexico Pueblo Indians.

Two inches of rain falls in less than an hour in the north east Denver area.

The Missouri River is near historic flood levels for 800 miles from South Dakota to the confluence with the Mississippi River. 560,000 acres are flooded in seven states and 447,000 acres of farmland.

Tropical Storm Calvin forms in the Eastern Pacific.

7-10- Calvin fizzles out with no damage caused.

Peak wind gusts at Phoenix International Airport recorded at 66mph.
Flash Flood Warnings are issued for Coconino and Cochise counties.

The head of the United Nations refuge agency says that the drought in Somalia is the “worst humanitarian disaster in the world.” Ten million people need aid. Two million children are malnourished and in need of life saving actions.

7-11- Two inches of fast rain in the Sierra Vista burn area causes mudslides and road closures with an unknown number of homes damaged by mud.

Heat Advisories posted from Georgia to Illinois and down to Oklahoma. It was 110 degrees in Wichita, Kansas yesterday.

7-12- The Hidden Fire began two days ago by lightning in northwest Arizona. It has burned 17,000 acres of cheatgrass.

Valley Fever expected to triple from last week’s Haboob in the valley.

A new weather radar is being tested at Chandler Gateway Airport. It can detect rainfall and hail even through dust and clouds. (You read about this used in other parts of the country right here in Blue Duck Weather.)

Twenty four states are under an Excessive Heat Advisory. 106 degrees is a new record in Joplin, Missouri. Owensburg, Kentucky reached 123 degrees today factoring in humidity. Six people have died from heat related stress.

The drought is so bad in 14 states it could rival the Dust Bowl period in the 1930s. Five months from February to June so dry it shattered a Texas record set in 1917. Shrinking cattle herds due to lack of food and water will be the major impact on the U.S.

From his secluded location in Colorado Ryduck reports up to four and a half inches of rain this month in areas. This morning it was 63 “balmy” degrees and foggy.

More oil is found along sections of the pristine Yellowstone River after flood waters recede. Forty five locations have been found, an increase of fifteen from two days ago.

7-13- A break in the miserable monsoon humidity and dew points at The Land this morning. I woke up to a blissful 68 degree low with a dew point of 35 degrees instead of the mid sixties.

The Nation’s high today was in Fort Smith, Arkansas with 108 degrees. The heat wave now extends to the North East setting new records; Newark, New Jersey, 99 degrees, Islip, New York 93 degrees and John F. Kennedy International Airport 97 degrees.

7-14- Oh how your Editor in Chief is so brilliant! Your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather in the past months have been giving you barometric pressure fluctuations to see how they compare to poor migraine headache sufferers.
Now there is imperical data from one valley physician. He said “headaches are out of control “during the monsoon season due to dust and barometric pressure. (I fucking amaze myself sometimes.)

A Kingman, Arizona man has been arrested for shooting and killing several cows and a calf near his home. ( Get a rope!)

Agricultural losses in Texas due to the drought near three billion dollars!

Three quarters on an inch of hail falls in Denver in fifteen minutes. Denver International Airport is closed with 40 planes damaged.
This month Denver has received 2.12’’ of rain. The average is .80’’.

The heat has been so bad in some states 50,000 chickens died at a couples farm when the power was off less than an hour.
A Kansas couple lost 4300 turkeys due to the heat.

7-15- Several areas of the Coronado National Forest have been opened after being closed to all travelers due to the extreme fire danger. My beloved Mount Graham is open but no fires of any kind are allowed.

A Florida couple is convicted of third degree murder in the death of their baby stangled in its crib by a “pet” python. The eight and a half foot snake wrapped itself around the baby’s head. Testimony revealed the snake had not been fed in a month before the strangulation occurred.

7-16- There have been nine heat related deaths in Kansas City, Missouri this summer, three this week.

Due to heavy rain a 40’ wide by 30’ deep sink hole opened up on a Utah highway near Tabiona. One car was swallowed by the massive hole and the driver injured. Another vehicle swerved to miss it, crashed and a fifteen year old occupant killed.

7-17- The Mighty BroadDuck takes remote reporting to an entirely different level, roaming around the desert in the night like a fool. He sent amazing photos of a bobcat encounter with a rattlesnake on the Peralta Trail in the Superstition Mountains. I told the quack he needs to arm himself.

A massive heat wave extends from Texas to Canada. The heat index with humidity in some states reach 120 degrees!

This one is right out of the 1800s; two men in Alaska accused in participating in a walrus ivory and polar bear hide trading ring have plead guilty to the charges. They were accused of trading tobacco, guns and other items to Native Americans in exchange for federally protected animal parts.

7-18- Another massive dust storm blankets the Phoenix area. The term Haboob, rarely used, is now the most popular weather word and soon to be worn out and over used.

The extreme heat buckles concrete on a bridge in Oklahoma as steel reinforcement expands with the heat. This is the 28th straight day for triple digit temperatures in that state.
There are 42 states with temperatures and humidity levels in the nineties.
It was 115 degrees in Minneapolis today.

A helicopter search team has rescued an injured Arizona climber after a twenty foot fall from El Diente Peak in Colorado. He was descending the 14,159’ mountain alone in the dark when he fell onto a snowfield. The next morning he crawled to a slope where he was found by two other climbers. They activated a personal locator beacon which summoned an emergency rescue.

A powerful storm blows down most of a rock stage in Ottawa, Canada. Cheap Trick were twenty minutes into their set and managed to escape without injury. Others were injured.

Tropical Storm Bret forms in the Atlantic near the northern Bahamas.

7-19- The U.S. Forest Service has crews spreading grass seed in the burn areas near the Horseshoe Two Fire in the Coronado Mountains. It is hoped the monsoon rains will help spread the seed.

Tropical Storm Dora is rapidly approaching hurrincae strength with sustained winds of 70mph. It is 265 miles south of Puerto Angel, Mexico.

The Fish & Wildlife Service announced yesterday that the white bark pine, a tree found on mountains across the west, faces an “eminent” risk of extinction. For the first time ever the agency cites on the factors is climate change.

7-20- Ninety five degrees in Bismark, North Dakota today, an area known for summer cool temperatures.

This heat wave covers one million square miles in 34 states and has killed 20 folks. With the heat index it was 131 degrees in Knoxville, Iowa and a 124 degrees in Madison, Minnesota.

Three tourists have plunged to their presumed deaths over the 370’ Vernal Falls in Yosemite in a chain reaction of events. A man and woman crawled over a guardrail to get a better view of the falls. One slipped, fell in the rushing river and the other tried to rescue. When he slipped a third person tried to rescue both of them and fell into the river and was swept over the falls. The river was swollen with snowmelt.

Four members of a family killed and two others injured after their vehicles were swept away by flash flooding in south central Wyoming. The accidents happened after heavy rains prompted mandatory evacuations of campgrounds in the area. The family had left camp when they later hit a swollen stream over a roadway.

The nuclear reactors in Japan damaged by the March 11th earthquake have finally been declared stable. The entire plant is on track for a “cold shut down” in six months.

19 oiled animals have been seen since the Yellowstone River oil spill. An oiled hawk was captured yesterday for rehabilitation yesterday.

7-21- A man in Scottsdale, Arizona finds a bobcat in the hollow of a grapefruit tree in his backyard. “Critter Control” (never heard of this outfit) set a trap in the man’s backyard and the cat was caught the next day.

A seven year old male giraffe at Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo has died in a “horrible unfortunate accident.” The giraffe ate toxic oleander leaves.

The National Weather Service report with the severe heat over half of the country, “Do not take threat lightly.”
3,000 separate records for overnight high lows have been set. At 3:00 a.m. this morning it was 90 degrees in Chicago.

Dora has turned into a category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds in the Pacific. Deadly surf conditions exist and a major shipping port in Mexico is closed.

A leopard mauls eleven people in a fierce fight at a village in India. It was finally tranquilized but died of its injuries during the battle.

7-22- A new record of 108 degrees in Newark, New Jersey and 105 degrees in Dulles, Virginia.

This one reads just like a typical Phoenix morning in the summer: “East Coast a.m. commute in the 90’s, triple digits coming.” 96 degrees this morning in Boston.
To add shit (literally) to the misery of the heat bathers are told to stay out of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers in New York. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the rivers after a fire shut down one of the city’s largest sewer treatment plants.

Hurricane Dora prompts Port authorities in Las Cabos, Mexico to suspend boat tours and other tourism services. Four emergency shelters in elementary schools are being prepared in case of flooding.

In Mogadishu, Somalia soldiers with gun butts beat back desparate families as they fight for food supplies in front of a weeping diplomat. The worst drought in a generation is the cause for this desparation.

7-23- Fire restrictions lifted across all of the Coronado National Forest in southeast Arizona.

Lake Powell is nearing its highest level in ten years from record snow pack. It will peak this summer at 75% full and will have enough water to help Arizona and Nevada escape forced shortages this year. Downstream Lake Mead will rise 51’ above the record low level it reached last November.

A new record today at J.F.K. International Airport in New York of 102 degrees.

An eighteen year old landscaper dies in Louisville, Kentucky with a core body temperature of 110 degrees.

In Philadelphia fifty of the city’s pools operated on 45 minute cycles to give everyone a chance to get wet and cool off.

Chicago breaks the heat wave with the wettest calendar day on record, 6.86 inches of rain!

7-24. Severe Flash Flood Warnings issued for Safford and Wilcox, Arizona.

7-25- An injured man trapped in the Buckeye Hills area in Arizona was rescued after lighting a signal fire. The man has a bad leg, high blood pressure and was dehydrated. A Sherrif saw the fire and heard the man shouting for help. He reached the man but could not carry him out. The man was airlifted to a local hospital.

Desparate mothers are abandoning their dying children by the roadside as they walk to overcrowded emergency foo shelters in eastern Africa. A camp in Kenya built for 90,000 now has 400,000.

A grizzly that was with her cub attacked teens participating in survival skills in Alaska and two are badly injured.

7-26- The woman that was attacked by a black bear in Pinetop, Arizona in June has died from a brain hemorrhage.

New York City used a record one trillion watts of power during four days of the latest heat wave.
Dallas has a record high low of 86 degrees.

Rare and unusually heavy snowfall across South Africa. Ut to two feet fell with major transport delayed.

7-27- Landslides and flooding kill 32 in South Korea.

Storms leave the Philippines with 25 dead. Five fishermen missing.

7-28- Sixty four people and thousands of cattle have died from the latest heat wave in the eastern United States.

Tropical Storm Don headed for the Texas coast. Oil workers are evacuated from off sore platforms.

South Koreans are worried about unearthed land mines and explosives after deadly landslides around the capitol Seoul military sites. The mines were placed in the Korean War.

7-29- Record rains in part of the Mid West will cause the Missouri River to rise two feet. Ten inches of rain fell in Dubuque, Iowa breaking the old record of three inches in 1896.

Here is a first hand acccount of a very close bear sighting from the Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck’s sister from her spread in Montana: “ I’ve been fencing a lot the last few weeks but it all paid off today. When I was fencing along the creek and looked up, and about fifty feet away was a big black bear (well, cinnamon colored) sitting on his behind in the creek under a big tree! He knew I was there but I was down wind. He kept sniffing the air but didn’t move. I stayed near the 4 x 4 but watched him for about five minutes. It was really neat! (It’s also a good thing I wasn’t tromping around down there like I often am, with no thought of running into a bear!)

7-30- Tropical Storm Don fizzles out leaving less than an inch of rain in parched Texas.

Wettest July on Record in Chicago with 11.16” of rain.

The Missouri River flooding this year is equivalent to a one in 500 year event. The river will not even fall below flood stage in Omaha, Nebraska until mid September.

Floods wash North Korea land mines in South Korea. Two empty mine boxes have been found. The detonators and explosives are believed to have been swept away in a river.

7-31- Phoenix rain to date 2.38”. The Land received 1.56’’ in July for the year’s total so far of 2.44”. Halfway through the year and we haven’t recived even half of our yearly rainfall average of about 8’’.

It’s been over 100 degrees for over 30 days in a row in parts of Oklahoma. In the town of Altus the average high was 105 degrees, usually a mild town.

Tropical Storm Nock-ten has left 50 dead and 25 missing in Vietnam.

And there you have it my fine baked feathered friends. The song for the month is appropriate for the parched areas of the U.S.; “A Little Rain Will Do” by Cody Canada.

And equally fitting is a quote I stole from Cormak McCarthy; “The desert wind would salt ruins and there would be nothing, no ghost or scribe, to tell any pilgrim in his passing how it was that people had lived in this place and in this place had died.”

Until next month wind the desert sands scour your foot prints remember

Settlers took land. Pioneers took bullets.

The Distinguished Professor MR Blue Duck (a quack)