December 2011 Weather News!
For the first two weeks in December the West dominated the weather news, including Arizona. You will read about two remarkable snow survivals right in Arizona.
Unfortunately the deadliest weather in the world for the month happened in the Philippines by massive flooding and drowning of folks who had little warning to escape.
Also in this fine edition (as always) of Blue Duck Weather News you will read where 150mph winds occurred in the United States, rare shifts in the California Santa Anna winds cause pure hell, dog shoots his master duck hunter in the ass, man that survives on his trek to the wilderness on frozen beer, new record set this year for billion dollar weather disasters, mass suicide or crash landing of thousands of birds, a Russian team that will attempt to conquer the second highest peak in the world in the winter (a feat that has never been done), a contribution from DarrDuck that will show you the strange phenomenon of “Kelvin-Hemholtz” waves and the “South Pole Christmas miracle.”
But first let us get into the boring statistics recorded at the Blue Duck Weather station. December was a “cold” month for desert standards. Most high temperatures never reached 60 degrees, there was a week and a half of rain, clouds, fog and mud. There were also a number of freezing temperatures with lows bottoming out at 29 degrees. (I will take that compared to 14 degrees last February.)
The average temperature at The Land was 47.88 degrees. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was 29.58 degrees.
Rainfall for the month at the Land was a respectable .74’’ but the year only finished at 4.92’’. Phoenix received “officially” 4.61’’.
Lake levels in and around the state, the ones that matter to our agriculture, survival and toilet flushing are as follows: Lake Mead is 56% full, Pleasant 65%, the mighty Powell 67% and Roosevelt 65%.
12-1- Eight inches of snow fell at the Snow Bowl in northern Arizona, five inches in Flagstaff and Prescott with two inches on the ground. Winter storm warnings are still in effect and I-40 is closed near Williams.
The high today at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was 59 degrees at an elevation of 7400’.
The high at The Land, elevation 1100’ was 58 degrees.
A rare change in wind patterns is driving the Santa Anna winds in southern California east. Wind gusts up to 100 mph in southern California, 102 mph in Utah. Six tractor trailers blown over below the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino City. Pasadena schools are closed and 300,000 thousand without power.
Brush fires and emergency response calls every twelve seconds! Los Angeles Airport is closed. As these winds move east High Wind Warning issued for six states.
From his secluded location in Colorado RyDuck reports at 3:30 p.m. twenty degrees and five inches of snow on the ground.
12-2- Flagstaff, Arizona schools close due to the snow and Show Low has two feet on the ground.
A thirty seven degree low on The Land with a dew point of 37 degrees and humidity of 93% caused dense fog even though there was little rain the night before.
At Mammoth Mountain in California 150mph winds were recorded. The wind instrument does not record anything higher than that!
200,000 homes still without power in Southern California. Pasadena was the heaviest hit with 40 buildings “red tagged” as being uninhabitable.
A fifty car pile up in fog and icy road conditions leave one dead in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Biologists have found an extremely rare albino dolphin off the coast of South America.
A dog in a boat with his “Master” shoots him in the ass with a shotgun. The gun was on the bow, the safety off, when the dog got excited while hunting ducks. The dog set off the gun with his paw.
12-3- Snow level drops to 4,000 feet in Arizona with snow in Oracle. I- 40 closed and hail reported in Gilbert.
One hundred thousand still without power in Southern California from hurricane force winds two days ago.
A respected wildlife biologist was a casualty form the high winds in Big Sur when a tree blew over and killed him instantly.
Arizona Game & Fish officials have verified a highly probable ocelot sighting in Cochise County. Photos of the sighting were provided by a homeowner yesterday. Verification included paw prints at the scene.
The Southern Arizona Cattlemen’s Protective Association is offering a reward for information about the killing and partial butchering of a cow on a ranch in Green Valley, Arizona. The beast was shot at least once and its front quarters removed.
12-4- First freeze temperature of the season on The Land at 32 degrees along with heavy fog. There is a Freeze Warning issued for Pinal County tomorrow morning.
Six days ago in a man in Nome, Alaska set out on a cruise in his 1990 Toyota Nacoma to see how far a road would take him. Forty miles north of town his truck plunged into a snow drift. He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans and a light jacket. The man had few supplies with no food or water.
His cell phone wouldn’t work and he knew he was in deep shit. He put on a fleece sleeping bag liner he had in the truck and wrapped a towel around his feet. Occasionally he started the truck to run the heater and listen to the radio. The temperature dropped to seventeen below zero by the second night of his ordeal.
He said the cold was more painful than the hunger but he found a few cans of Coors Light in the cab that were frozen. (He probably had more than a few before he went on his run with no provisions in Nome!) He cut the lids of the beers like you would a can of beans with a knife and ate the frozen contents.
He was rescued alive on the third day of his ordeal. Later he said he lost sixteen pounds in three days!
Earlier this year your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather reported about the small utility company that serves Maricopa and surrounding areas. They had the unmitigated balls to shut the power off for nonpaying customers last February when temperatures dropped into the teens. They were criticized by the Corporation Commission for shutting down power in a threat to life situation.
Today the utility company announced they are establishing an assistance fund based on customer and community member donations. Not a word about what they will donate or set aside to contribute to the fund!
12-5- Morning snow at an elevation of 2500’ in the north valley including Fountain Hills, Carefree and parts of North Scottsdale. (For the first time in thirty five years I had a subcontractor pull off of a job because of snow. He said there were flurries lasting forty five minutes and snow sticking on the ground.)
U.S. 60 closed between Superior and Globe due to snow.
Sun Rise Ski Resort in the White Mountains opens in three days with 26’’ of snow.
64mph Santa Anna winds in Santa Barbara, California.
Now Arizona Game & Fish are discounting the ocelot sighting in Cochise County. “Ocelot experts” studied the photos and determined that some markings were not consistent with an ocelot. They believe it was a serval, an African cat popular in the pet trade business.
A Bald eagle carcass was found in a paper bag with rocks on it by a hiker near Tucson on November 21st. Arizona Game & Fish has offered a five hundred dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer.
Because of the drought in Texas thousands of horses have been abandoned by owners due to the ever increasing cost of hay and feed. Twenty to forty calls a week about horses along the side of the road. Abandoning horses is against the law in Texas.
12-6- Eleven degrees below zero in Greer, Arizona this morning.
I-10 closed in the entire state of New Mexico from Arizona to Texas from wind and snow.
Officially the north Valley received one half inch of snow yesterday morning.
Los Angeles is asking state and federal governments to declare the region a disaster area after last week’s brutal wind storms. 15,000 are still without power.
Five months later two remaining bodies have been found and recovered after being swept over the Merced River fall in Yosemite last July.
12-7- Twenty five degree low on The Land this morning.
Snowstorms cause traffic jams and vehicle crashes from Amarillo to Austin, Texas yesterday. Today it hits Tennessee and moving up the coast with heavy rain.
“America smashed the record for billion dollar weather disaster with a deadly dozen and counting.” There were more weather catastrophes that caused the dollar amount than it did in all of the eighties even with figures adjusted for inflation. Extreme weather this year killed over a thousand folks.
“Scientists blame an unlucky combination of global warming and freak chance. The six large outbreaks of tornadoes can’t be attributed to global warming.”
In Pima County, Arizona a woman is sentenced to 10 hours of community service for unlawfully feeding javelina. She was cited after repeated requests by Arizona Game & Fish officials to stop. A state law makes it illegal to feed wildlife in Pima and Maricopa counties, other than birds and tree squirrels.
12-8- An elderly New Mexico couple left Chandler, Arizona last week to head home on U.S. 60. They made a wrong turn and ended up on a forest road before their transmission went out. Snow storms moved into the region and the couple survived in the car until two days ago when the vehicle ran out of gas and no longer provided heat. The two left on foot and the woman died shortly after. After trying to revive his wife the man stuck to the road leaving markers behind him so his wife could be found. He walked until evening and then took shelter under a tree. Yesterday he continued on and was located by a Game & Fish officer. The man is doing well in a Globe hospital. ( What a tough man in his eighties. I sure feel bad for his wife of sixty years but this man had a whole lot of luck and some survival skills, mentally and physically. A tendency to give up all hope after losing your spouse in the cold lonely woods shock most people literally to death.)
Schools closed in western and southern parts of Tennessee after four inches of snow fell yesterday.
Wind gusts up to 100 mph in Scotland. A wind speed of 151 mph recorded on a summit in Aberdeenshire. Many schools and major bridges closed.
A hillside loosened by heavy rains collapses on a bus killing six near Bogota, Columbia. 3500 homes flooded with water up to five feet deep. Rains since September have caused 140 deaths.
12- 11- North east states, due to budget cuts, will eliminate heating aid to the poor.
“We have a lot of terrified people who can’t see how they are going to survive.”
12-12- Winter Storm Warning for northwest Arizona above 5500’ to the White Mountains until 12-14. Six inches of snow has already accumulated in the higher elevations of Gila County.
12-13- Flagstaff schools closed with thirteen inches of snow in the last twenty four hours. 1.81 inches of rain recorded in Queen Creek, Arizona.
The most recent mudslide in Colombia has killed a child and fifteen are missing.
12-14- 17.6” of snow in Flagstaff, 33’’ at Forest Lakes and 9’’ in Prescott. The most rain was recorded in Apache Junction at 2.20’’.
A five mile stretch of the Hunt Highway was closed this morning in the San Tan Valley due to a six foot by ten foot sink hole in the road caused by heavy rain.
The biggest wave ever recorded off Ireland yesterday at sixty seven feet high.
Near St. George, Utah thousands of birds died on impact after mistaking a Walmart parking lot for a body of water. Two thousand surviving birds were rescued and released. Storm clouds over the top of city lights made the parking lot look like a nice, flat body of water to the birds.
12-15- Dense Fog Advisory issued for entire southern Arizona this morning south to the Mexican border and west to Dateland, California. It was so humid at The Land it registered as .01’’ of rain.
Warm temperatures in the Northeast have delayed many ski resort openings. Most are usually opened by Thanksgiving. As of yesterday 16 of New England’s 52 ski resorts were open.
12-16- The Snow Bowl in Flagstaff and Ski Valley on Mount Lemon in Tucson have enough hard pack snow to officially open today. Tomorrow the snow level is expected to drop to six thousand feet.
Near Lorient, France, high winds completely beach a cargo ship and 220 tons of fuel is leaking, threatening the beach.
Swiss airports canceled and diverted flights as a winter storm delivered 93mph winds and heavy snowfall. A severe avalanche warning is issued for the Swiss Alps.
Russian authorities are trying to rescue 100 endangered beluga whales trapped in the midst of large chunks of polar ice in the Bering Sea.
12-17- Twelve hours of nonstop rain in the southern Philippines have killed 436 people due to Tropical Storm Washi. Entire villages were swept to sea as a wall of water drowned many as they were asleep in their beds.
A team of fifteen Russians are attempting to climb to the top of K2, the world’s second highest peak, in the winter. This has never been accomplished before. The mountain range straddles Pakistan and China. The temperatures in the winter can be forty below zero with winds of 40mph.
The team will begin their ascent around Christmas, will not be carrying oxygen tanks and will have porters at base camp only. Their gear and food, including three fresh slaughtered yaks and a “little vodka” is being flown by Pakistani army helicopters charging 7,000 dollars per hour.
12-18- Winter Weather Advisory issued through tomorrow night in northern Arizona.
A Blizzard Warning has been issued for parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
A Blizzard Warning is defined as life threatening winter weather conditions are likely including wind gusts of 35mph and visibility less than a quarter of a mile.
“Typhoon Washi leaves 1400 dead or missing in Philippines. Flood washed away entire houses with families inside……”
12-19- Blizzard Warnings issued for seven states from New Mexico to Kansas.
Funeral parlors are overwhelmed in the southern Philippines from the death toll due to Typhoon Washi and officials organize the first mass burial of 700. They also say 80 are missing but the Red Cross estimates 800.
12-20- Forty one degrees plus ninety two percent humidity and a forty degree dew point at The Land produced enough moisture to record as .01” of rain. Hell, we’ll take what we can!
Six killed in deadly storm throughout the Great Plains. Snow drifts up to ten feet in southeast Colorado. Drifts five feet high on I-25, the main route between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Colorado. The interstate was closed. Ten inches of snow fell in western Kansas and in Amarillo, Texas rain and snow are a welcome sight with the prevailing drought.
Philippines typhoon death toll up to 957 with 49 missing. 38,000 people there are affected.
12-21- Winter begins in Arizona at 10:30 p.m. With this being the shortest day of the year there is 9.56 hours of sunlight.
From his secluded remote location in Colorado RyDuck reports that the chance for snow is 100%. The high temperature for tomorrow is forecasted to be 15 degrees at seven thirty in the morning. From there it will only drop.
This month we have an amazing DarrDuck contribution, one I have never heard of: A series of huge breaking “wave clouds” lined the horizon in Birmingham, Alabama on December 16th. Amazed, people took photos and sent them to a local weather station asking “What are these tsunamis in the sky?” The clouds are examples of “Kelvin-Helmholtz waves.” Whether in the sky or ocean, this type of turbulence always forms when fast moving layers of fluid slides on top of a slower thicker layer, dragging its surface.
12-22- An A.S.U. student has been rescued after being trapped for more than a week in a remote area south of Winslow, Arizona. She got stuck in the snow in her vehicle. The young woman had two candy bars and melted snow in a water bottle in the sun. Survival experts say she did everything “right” to stay alive.
Rescuers yesterday pulled a family of three from a car that had been buried in a snow drift for two days on a rural New Mexico Highway. They had to dig through four feet of ice and snow to rescue them. State police said they had received a distress call and launched a search two days ago. Both parents had pneumonia but the young child was fine.
A fifty one degree high at The Land with a 9mph wind left a wind chill of 46 degrees.
12-23- Drivers are warned of snowy conditions on I-10 near Wilcox, Arizona. (I’ve driven that stretch many times on my way to the beloved Mount Graham.)
Unconfirmed tornadoes injure seven in northern Georgia. Reported major structural damage to homes and 19,000 without power.
70 mph winds recorded at Warm Springs in the Angeles National Forest in California.
Twelve inches of snow in western New Mexico and blizzard conditions exist in other parts of the state. Every ski resort in New Mexico is open.
Snow welcomed in west Texas due to the prolonged drought.
Denver International Airport cancels flights due to heavy snow.
12-24. Bah Humbug! Maricopa County declares no burn days for Christmas weekend. (At least Santa won’t burn his ass coming down the chimney unless it is my house!)
12-26- “Flagstaff has notified the state that it has secured the needed water resources to accommodate demand and growth for the next one hundred years.” In part they have reached an agreement with the Navajo tribe to import as much as seven million gallons of water per day from the aquifer under the Red Gap Ranch forty miles away.
North Texas experienced a rare white Christmas especially with the severe drought conditions that have plagued the area the past year.
The death toll from the Philippines flood is up to 1236. Bodies have been found in the sea more than 60 miles from the worst hit areas. Officials have stopped counting the missing. 60,000 homeless for Christmas.
12-27- Despite issuing no burn days in Maricopa County over the Christmas weekend the county exceeded federal health standards for small dust pollution. Officials claim wood burning fireplaces were likely the primary cause of the pollution.
Ninety dead because of the cold in India that folks are not accustomed to. Forty degrees may seem mild by some standards but most of the dead were the homeless and the elderly.
12-29- Drought and bark beetles devastate New Mexico forests. The tree mortality rate is up 140 percent this year, especially in southern New Mexico.
Lack of snow this year is a big problem for ski resorts nationwide. The largest resort, Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, had hardly any snow fall this month.
Wind gusts up to 50 mph force long flight delays at two major airports in NYC.
12-30- Dense fog or smoke may have caused a predawn pileup on I-10 in New Orleans that left two dead and sixty one injured. Twenty five were taken to the hospital.
Wind gusts up to 70mph in Denver.
Vermont reopens the last highway damaged by Hurricane Irene four months ago.
Eleven killed as Cyclone Thane strikes southeast India with 85mph winds and heavy rain. All deaths were caused by walls collapsing or electrocution.
12-31- Warmest day all month at The Land with a high of 73 degrees! There are actually patches of green grass growing on the desert. (Eat your heart out, you miserable snow and cold bound people in other parts of the world. This is why the deserts of Arizona are the dumping grounds for folks wanting a little paradise in the winter.)
Arizona Game and Fish is offering a one thousand dollar reward for information leading to the slaughter of five javelina, left to rot, near Pima on or about December 15th. A sow, boar and three piglets were found shot to death.
Warm weather and heavy, wet snow are creating avalanche conditions in western Canada. A backcountry skier was killed yesterday. He was injured two days ago but an air rescue was impossible because of night approaching.
With another calendar year of weather reporting, along with some misfits to keep you amused, your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather has made every attempt to keep you informed, updated and aware of new weather records on this ever changing planet. Some say the weather is getting more severe around the world due to climate change. Your Editor in Chief will only present you the facts, the conclusions are up to you. With that said we will leave you with the song of the month by Tony Joe White, “Run For Cover.”
Until next year remember Settlers took land. Pioneers took bullets.
The Distinguished, Honorable, Baffled, Full of Shit, MR Blue Duck.
No comments:
Post a Comment