August 2011 Weather- Special Anniversary Edition.
What began as a simple journal to record temperatures at The Land and 6400 feet higher in New Mexico has turned into the mindless monster Blue Duck Weather has become. My sole purpose (in the beginning) was a microscopic look at “global warming” as evidenced by the average temperatures recorded in a single year in two different geographical areas, one home to me. After four full years of weather keeping I was amazed at the temperature decline on The Land and a bit alarmed at the temperature climb in the high country. Being in the open desert The Land has some respite from the “urban heat island” effect of Phoenix. Also 2008, when this experiment began was one of the hottest years on record. What has caused the increase in temperatures in New Mexico at our other properties is a mystery to me unless heat rises. The only problem with this theory is there are no “urban heat islands” within two hundred miles from Talking Trees and Antelope Hill.
2008- The average temperature on the Land was 77.21 degrees, New Mexico 67.51 degrees.
2009- 71.36 degrees and 49.15 degrees.
2010- 71.16 degrees and 48.25 degrees.
2011- 69.04 degrees and 50.43 degrees.
There are some changes beginning with this new and exciting edition of Blue Duck Weather. We have decided to omit the boring statistics of humidity, dew point, average temperatures from beginning to end of months, wind and barometric pressure. (I mean who really gives a shit?) Average temperatures for the month, rainfall and lake levels will continue to be a fine feature of this exciting weather news however.
Tropical storms, both in the Atlantic and Pacific popped up like flash cards in August, so quickly one would begin and die out while another was being reported to spawn. And then along came Hurricane Irene.
Much has been said about how “overblown” this weather event was by the media and the warnings. However in a region of the U.S. that rarely receives hurricane activity and the damage associated with it Irene ended up in the top ten of major financial natural disasters. From a weather reporter’s view your damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Not enough warnings and thousands could be killed, too much and it’s all called “hype.”
Other points of interest in this month’s Blue Duck Weather are heat related injuries and deaths in the Phoenix area, record heat around the country, Federal charges filed against two cousins for accidentally starting the largest fire in Arizona history, more effects this much later from the BP oil spill, a piece of a doomed space shuttle found in a receding lake in Texas, Polar bear attack, Arizona utilities get a hand slap for mishandling the record cold of last February and two outdoor concerts that become weather nightmares.
The average temperature on The Land for August was a sweltering 94.70 degrees, with one day with an average of 100.50 degrees. At Talking Trees and Antelope Hill the average temperature was 70.06 degrees.
The Land received a dismal amount or rain, .09 inches with a yearly total of 2.71 inches. Phoenix has received 2.62 inches for the year.
Our two big lakes of the desert are showing the effects of lack of rainfall this year. Pleasant is down to only 48% full and Roosevelt has shrunk to 75%. Mead is still rising at 48% and the largest lake in the South West, Powell is at an impressive 76%.
And now let’s get to the weather reporting for the month that you hunger for:
8-1- July was the hottest on record for Oklahoma City, Washington, D.C. and Wichita Falls, Texas.
The body of a Wyoming deputy who jumped in the North Platte River to rescue a girl last week has been found. The girl survived but the man was swept away in the river flooded with snowmelt. (This my faithful readers was a Hero.)
Last night’s storms knocked down power poles in the Phoenix area. State’s computer mainframe also knocked out by power surge. 675 people are still without power today in this brutal heat and humidity.
8-2- Excessive Heat Warning issued for Maricopa County for the next three days.
Chili’s Atacama Desert, the driest region on earth received four years of rain and snow in one day. Three feet of snow fell in an area that normally receives zero precipitation during the southern winter. 400 people are rescued in snow drifts with 50mph winds.
8-3- Seventy three percent of Arizona at risk for water shortages.
The temperature in 18 states is above 100 degrees. Dallas has had 33 days in a row with temps over one hundred.
A piece of the space shuttle Columbia which broke apart during re-entry 8 years ago has been found in a lake drying up in Texas due to the prolonged drought.
8-4- More violent storms knock out power in the Phoenix area last night and 500 hundred still without electricity.
Regarding the recent heat wave in the Dallas and other areas one Weather Chief says “I can’t remember any year with the magnitude and length of this heat wave.” In the last two days 15 cities have had all time highs, mostly in the South and Central U.S.
8-5- The Wallow burn area in Alpine and Nutrioso, Arizona is experiencing extreme flash flooding.
Arizona highway 261 reopens 63 days after the Wallow Fire. Crews repaired guardrails, cleared debris and reseeded the 18 mile stretch in the White Mountains.
Coconino County, Arizona is offering free weather radios to residents east of Flagstaff prone to flooding. These radios give weather information faster than conventional radio and television news.
A 64 year old woman visiting the Grand Canyon with a tour group dies when lightning strikes the ground near her. Five others received minor injuries. Grand Canyon officials recommend people seek shelter if thunder is heard within 30 seconds of seeing lightning.
8-6- The flooding in Nutrioso, the sixth in two weeks, has destroyed one home in the Wallow Fire burn area. Less than one inch of rain caused the flooding due to lack of ground cover.
The Arizona Game & Fish Department is warning people not to hike or hunt in burned out areas due to burned out trees that might fall unexpectedly and unstable ground.
A lightning caused wildfire has burned 8,000 acres in northern Arizona in the past three days. The New Water Fire fueled by grass and brush quickly spread to the Grand Canyon National Park. Containment is hoped for in two days.
In Wyoming the BLM is backing away from a plan to capture and castrate wild horses. Instead they will use a birth control drug on mares to reduce the growth of wild horse herds.
A polar bear has attacked a group of British students camping near a remote Arctic glacier in Norway. A 17 year old was killed, four others injured before a group member fatally shot the bear. Two of the four injured are in very serious condition.
8-7- Seventy six mile per hour winds clocked in Tucson today during a Dust Storm Warning.
The body of a California man has been recovered nearly three weeks after he was swept over a waterfall at Yosemite National Park. Recovery teams spotted the body two days ago pinned against a boulder 240’ from the base of the fall. Searchers lowered down from horizontal ropes crossing the river to recover the body. His two missing companions have not been found.
400,000 of coastal residents in eastern China have been evacuated as Typhoon Muifa bears down. Thousands of ships were called back to port yesterday.
Tropical Storm Emily dumps heavy rain in the Bahamas but is dying out.
8-8- The New Water Fire near the Grand Canyon is contained at 10,000 acres.
Heavy rain causes a mudslide killing seven in an “indigenous camp” settlement in Malaysia.
65’ waves from Tropical Storm Muifa threatens a Chinese chemical plant. A dike near the plant has been breached and one official said “If the breach cannot be blocked up, toxic chemicals will spill.”
8-9- Lightning caused Beale Fire has grown to 2,000 acres near Williams, Arizona.
Heat Advisories are posted in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Residents in Kemp, Texas are without water as the city’s tanks go dry.
8-11- Arizona wildfire headline: “Nearly one million acres of forest and grassland have charred, surpassing 2005 as the worst year on record.” The record was set yesterday by the fire near the Grand Canyon.
The 18 mile McMicken Dam has protected the west valley in Phoenix area communities since 1956. It was built to protect Luke Air Force Base from flooding. It will begin a ten year 98 million dollar “face lift.” The dam begins north of Sun City and stretches south through Surprise and unincorporated areas near Luke.
“In parched west Texas it’s often easier to drill for oil than to find new sources of water.” Years after diminishing water supplies communities are starting a plan to turn sewage into drinking water. The city manager in Big Springs, Texas (it probably once had big springs) said “Any water is good water as far as I’m concerned.”
8-12- Arizona Game & Fish offficials have tracked down and killed a mountain lion that wandered across a Prescott golf course. Residents of the area were “concerned.” A Game & Fish supervisor said “protocal directed the decision to put the animal down because the agency does not remove and relocate mountain lions.” ( There is something horribly wrong with this.)
Three quarters of Texas “unprecedented drought” driest past ten months ever in a century of record keeping.
8-13- Finally some rain in parched north and west Texas. The town of Del Rio received four and a half inches of rain in two hours! ( Flash flood city I can only imagine)
Tropical Storm Franklin forms today northeast of Bermuda and is strengthening.
8-14- Five die and dozens injured when an outdoor concert stage collapses at the Indianapolis State Fair. Sugarland was set to perform and the first band had already finished their set. 70mph winds were reported at the scene.
A new Tropical Storm forms. Gert will brush by Bermuda tomorrow.
8-15- New York City receives an all time record amount of rain in one day, eight inches.
How clean are the waters a year after the BP oil spill? Four hundred dolphins have died and infant mortality is high. Dolphins are being captured by scientists and tested for lung function and neurological functions, tagged and released.
8-16- All time daily records set for rain; Philadelphia five inches and 3.51’’ in Cleveland. Flood Warnings are still in place for New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
Amtrak closed rail service through Baltimore due to water on the tracks.
Nineteen public beaches are closed in Long Island due to bacteria from storm drain runoffs.
This weather system was the same one that collapsed the concert stage in Indiana, killing five, three days ago.
Food prices are spiking in the U.S. due to floods and drought. Corn prices hit record highs in June.
Medics treat nine with two hospitalized in Tempe, Arizona. The idiots were painting the “A” for ASU on the infamous hill when they were overcome by heat. There were even misting stations, a half ton of ice, and cold water on site for them!
Almost half of the sacks of grain and other foods meant for starving drought stricken Somalis are being stolen and sold in markets. (Where I ask is humanity?)
A nineteen year old student visiting from Japan is swept over Niagra Falls and presumed drowned. She climbed over the railing and straddled it holding an umbrella. She then lost her balance. ( What an awful final photo shoot if that is why it happened.)
8-17- Heat and overuse causes 700 water main breaks in Houston in one day. This is the 15th straight day of 100 degrees or higher breaking a record set in 1980.
Lightning strike injures eight people at Sea World’s Discovery Cove.
One school began on time in Joplin, Missouri after the devastating tornado destroyed schools three months ago. The local high school was destroyed but reopened today with all of the eminities in a vacant big box store.
Tropical Storm Fernanado forms in the Pacific today 1400 miles southeast of Hawaii. It could become a hurricane by tomorrow.
A joint task force from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission warned south western electric and natural gas companies need better winter preparations after last February’s bitter cold left tens of thousands without gas to their homes. The problem affected 65,000 SRP customers and 19,000 South West Gas companies in Arizona. Most SRP customers had power restored in hours but some gas customers were out of service for days. “Shedding electricity or gas load in the winter places lives and property at risk” according to the task force.
Dozens gathered to mourn the death of a 45’ gray whale in the Klamath River in California. She had been stranded for over a month. The whale swam into the river with its newborn calf in June. The calf swam out to sea after it was weened on July 23rd.
8-18- Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for Maricopa and Pinal counties in Arizona. 45-60mph winds recorded in the Sun Lakes area.
Intentional fires are set to try and containe the Beale Fire near Williams. The fire has burned 3900 acres.
A storm slammed into the Belgian open air music festival as the American band Smith was performing. The musicians were spared but three people were killed and seventy injured.
Hurricane Greg gains strength in the Pacific. (Hell, I didn’t even know it formed as a tropical storm and what the hell happened to Tropical Storm Fernando?)
8-19- Arizona makes national news with yesterday’s weather: “Third Haboob hits Phoenix this summer.” 70 power lines knocked down, flights delayed at Sky Harbor, 60mph wind gusts in the south valley near SunLakes. However Eloy was hit the hardest. One roof top air conditioner torn off and ended up in a neighbor’s yard. One home had its entire roof torn off including the trusses. For that to happen winds had to be 113-160mph, the same as a F-2 tornado. One resident said it “felt and sounded like a tornado.” One business sustained a quarter of a million dollars worth of damage and the junior high school was damaged. Microbursts suspected but not confirmed.
It was so hot and humid yesterday the Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck reported that all out door activity was cancelled for her little quacklings at school, the first time in two years that she has been teaching there. (this went on every day for 10 days)
Heavy rain and flooding in the Schultz Fire burn area near Flagstaff. Although that fire happened over a year ago the ground is still scarred and unable to absorb rain causing massive runoffs. There is a Flood Advisory for Gila and Yavapai counties.
8-20- Enough rain has fallen in southern Arizona fire works ban has been lifted in Santa Cruz County.
An unconfirmed tornado reported in Marinette County, Wisconsin leaving one person dead. The storm dropped hail two inches in size.
The flash flood that engulfed a city street outside of Pittsburgh yesterday came “out of nowhere”. Drivers were overwhelmed as water rose up to nine feet deep on Washington Boulevard. The area received 2.1” in an hour. But an earlier storm the same day meant the area was flooded with three inches of rain. Eighteen vehicles stranded with eleven water rescues. Four are killed.
Tropical Storm Harvey forms in the Atlantic off the coast of Honduras and makes landfall in Belize.
8-21- Excessive Heat Warning issued for Phoenix for the next four days. And with that said I shot a rattlesnake literally at our back door today at three thirty in the afternoon! 105 degrees and the bastard was looking for a place to cool off. The door stoop was shaded and the beast must have felt the cool on the other side of the door, the wrong side for his slithering ass!
The Beale Fire in the Kaibab National Forest has grown to 5600 acres. Most of the growth is due to back burning.
The flood that overwhelmed a city street two days ago in Pittsburgh killing four is now being called a “fluke.” The heavy rain overwhelmed the city sewer system just as rush hour traffic jammed low lying streets. Washington Boulevard is lined with hills and the road slopes downward. When heavy rain hits water rushed in from three directions. The low lying area was once a creek bed. ( All the engineers in the world cannot change natural drainage. They plan for it, alter it, divert it but sooner or later water takes its course.)
In the Atlantic Tropical Storm Irene heads toward Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands causing heavy rain and winds that closes airports and floods the Leeward Islands.
8-22- Phoenix ties the record of 113 degrees
The first twenty days of this month have been the hottest on record for August in Phoenix. The average twenty four temperature has been 96.8 degrees and the average high has been 107.2 degrees.
The monsoon in Arizona, or lack of it, is not helping the drought. 98% of the state is abnormally dry or experiencing some level of drought.
Hurricane Irene pounds Puerto Rico and a State of Emergency is declared. One million people are without power.
Forty seven are dead and tens of thousands displaced in India’s west Bengal state due to monsoon flooding.
8-23- Record 114 degrees in Phoenix.
With excessive heat in Phoenix 70 scorpion stings were reported in twenty four hours. Bugs are looking for cooler temperatures, crawl into homes and scorpions follow them to eat them.
A 31 year old man in the west valley was barely breathing and unresponsive Sunday afternoon after collapsing while hiking a rugged area in the Estrella Mountains. Hiking with three other men they started at six a.m. When they were returning about noon the man collapsed. The group ran out of water and did not have any protection against the sun such as hats, pants and long sleeved shirts.
Temperatures of one hundred degrees and above In Oklahoma City for the 51st day this year breaking a record set in 1980.
North Carolina orders tourists to leave with the probable approach of Hurricane Irene. The growing storm is 700 miles wide.
8-24- The average twenty four hour temperature at The Land 100 degrees, the first of this long miserable summer.
Two cousins in their mid twenties face Federal charges for starting the Wallow Fire on Memorial Day weekend, the largest fire in Arizona history. They went for a hike and left the fire unattended. Both men claim to be avid campers and had their fire ring in an open, well used area. One man said he thought the fire was out since he threw a candy wrapper on the coals before the two set out for their hike. He said it did not burn or even begin to smoke and melt.
A seventy year old Surprise, Arizona woman is the latest victim of the brutal heat. After she died the temperature in her home was 107 degrees. An air conditioning technician had been at her home the night before she died. He wasn’t able to complete the repairs and offered to have the woman placed in a hotel. She did not want to leave her cat. When he arrived the next morning she did not answer the door. The cat survived.
The Excessive Heat Warning in the Phoenix area has been extended for two more days.
Hurricane Irene is now a Catogory 3 storm and on path toward the eastern U.S. It has 120mph sustained winds blowing two hundred miles from its center. There are twenty communities flooded and 12,000 in emergency shelters in the western Cuba and the Bahamas.
8-25- A new record high of 113 in Phoenix with a record high low of 92 degrees.
Sixty million people are in the path of Hurricane Irene. According to the Weather Channel “no one has seen a good model to divert storm.” This may be the hurricane of a “lifetime” for the Eastern Seaboard.
In preparation for Irene the U.S. Navy has ordered the Second Fleet in southeast Virginia, including the Norfolk Naval Station, to leave so ships will be safe. Yesterday’s order applied to 64 large vessels. Ships at sea can weather storms better in large storm surges with high winds.
8-26- Hottest recorded August temperature ever recorded in Phoenix today; 117 degrees. Excessive Heat Warning extended for three more days.
As Irene approaches President Obama makes a statement about being prepared, mandatory evacuations begin in New Jersey’s Cape May County. New York City is doing two things never before in history for a weather event; mandatory evacuations of all low lying areas and tomorrow at noon all mass transit will close. (That means if you are on the street without a ride you could well be fucked even if the storm doesn’t hit; in New York City without a ride?)
Irene is the size of Europe. Eleven states have declared emergencies, there is a extremely rare Hurricane Warning posted for NYC and Amtrak cancels rail service from Boston to Florida.
Flash floods triggered by heavy rain kills 16 in a village in northwest Pakistan. Several others are missing.
8-27- A seventy five year old Glendale, Arizona man is found dead in his home after no one had heard from him in a few days. The temperature in the house was over one hundred degrees and the air conditoner was blowing hot air.
A 1700 acre fire, called the Tortilla Fire, is burning in the Tonto National Forest near Highway 88 and Fish Creek. The fire started by lightning is being monitored for resourse purposes. (?)
The latest with Hurricane Irene: Two killed and 500,000 without electricity in Virginia, 2.5 million are under evacuation orders, 300,000 in New York City. Three are dead and one missing in North Carolina, 115 mile per hour winds and seven foot storm surges, and a surfer killed by huge waves in Florida. The East Coast is a “solid wall of red hurricane warnings today.”
The bands projecting from Irene extend from North Carolina to Canada. Boston and New York City canceling all air travel for the first time in history due to a weather event.
Authorities across the Balkans have issued emergency heat warnings. Temperatures in the capitol of Podgoreia reached 106 degrees two days ago, in the captiol of Bosnia, 113 degrees.
8-28- Excessive Heat Warning in Phoenix extended for two more days.
Storms knock out power in Dateland, Arizona yesterday and seventy still without electricity.
Irene dropped a foot of rain on North Carolina and Virginia yesterday. 1.5 million people without electricity. The storm is weakening but still has 50 mph winds.
Today Irene moved to New England as a Tropical Storm. An eight foot storm surge sent flood water flowing into lower Manhattan.
In total four million without power, eighteen dead and ten thousand flights cancelled. This storm has threatened 65 million, the largest number of Americans ever effected by a single storm.
Newly formed Tropical Storm Jose is moving past Bermuda, the 10th named storm of the season.
8-29- “One hundred year flood” in Vermont from the effects of Irene. Five all time record crests in Vermont rivers.
Five million still without power in the affected states. Two hundred roads are closed.
With a 112 degrees in Phoenix today and the relentless heat wave utility companies are showing some mercey and not shutting off power for non payment of utility bills.
Fire crews are fighting ten fires started by lightning along the Arizona, Utah border. The largest is 2,000 acres.
One hundred are evacuated as fire burns outside of Yosemite National Park. It began when a motor home caught fire. It is 35% contained at 4600 acres.
Residents evacuated as Typhoon Nanmadol hits Tywan with 68 mph winds.
8-30- Heat Warnings for Phoenix extended for two more days.
The 650 Fire is burning in the Superstition with 50 acres consumed. It began with a lightning strike.
Eight hundred acres have burned near Globe due to a lightning strike.
3.3 million still without power from Hurricane Irene. The death toll is up to 41 in twelve states. Food airlifts are being conducted for ten Vermont towns cut off by flooding.
Flooding from Hurricane Irene in northern New Jersey today and hundreds are evacuated. There have been 700 boat rescues in that state today.
There have been 66 major natural disasters in the U.S. so far this year and the Federal Disaster Fund is running out of money.
Tropical Storm Katia is forecast to become a hurricane by the end of the week.
Wildlife officers are trying to capture and kill a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park after it killed a 59 year old hiker.
8-31- Irene now falls into the top ten most costly natural disasters of all time at 12 billion dollars of damage. 300,000 still without power.
President Obama to tour ravaged Patterson, New Jersey. This state already had its wettest August on record before Irene came.
Tropical Storm Katia nears hurricane force with 70 mph winds.
In Morro Bay, California fifteen brown pelicans have died with huge puncture wounds in their chests. State Game & Fish officials speculate that the birds may be injuring themselves on rocks as the dive for bait fish.
And there you have it for the month of August my faithful loyal readers. The song of the month and the quote of the month are the same. “Goodnight Irene” is a bluegrass traditional standard done by many artists. My favorite happens to be by Leon Russell.
“Sometimes I live in the city.
Sometimes I live in the town.
But when misfortune and misery hit me
I believe I’ll jump into the river and drown.
Good night Irene, good night Irene.
I’ll see you in my dreams.”
Until the next Irene blows you over remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The world renowned distinguished Professor MR Blue Duck.
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