January 2012 Weather News!
Happy New Year! January was a very active, if not strange weather month. Little snow for most of the nation, record heat and tornadoes that usually strike in the spring. And yet Alaska has record breaking cold and snow and toward the end of the month Europe was experiencing some of the coldest temperatures on record.
Nome, Alaska froze so quickly you will read the drama as it plays out trying to get fuel to a town with an iced up harbor, a feat never done before by sea vessel this late in the winter.
Now, down here in the sunny West you have read in this fine weather journal about bee attacks on humans and animals, some severely injuring or killing them. It seems they happen in the summer or fall but a good associate and friend of mine almost died last week after being stung over fifty times. He is also very allergic to bee stings. He was moving brush with a bobcat when he disturbed a hive and was stung. He drove himself to the hospital and then collapsed. He actually heard the staff say “we’re losing him”. My friend was unconscious for over four hours. Thankfully he is alive and well today.
In this exciting edition of Blue Duck Weather you will read all of the weather facts and more! A possible explanation of the world wide bee decline, never before seen warming of the U.S. in January, a tree branch in a storm impales a driver, filling a massive lake may cause earth tremors from the weight of the increased water load, Indians so proud they kill themselves when they cannot provide food for their families due to bitter cold, billion dollar weather disasters, a snow prayer ceremony brings results, raining bird shit so bad is disrupts an entire town, the largest rattler ever caught, the first gray wolf seen in California since 1924 and believe it or not, The giant Galapagos tortoise may not be extinct.
In January on The Land and in Phoenix there was no rain. On average we pick up almost three quarters of an inch. We are off to a slow, dry start causing concerns for another active fire season this summer.
The average temperature on The Land was a pleasant 53.37 degrees. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico had an average of 35.50 degrees.
Lake Mead is 57% full, Powell 65%, Pleasant 73% and Roosevelt 66%.
And now all the weather news that fits for misfits and weather geeks around the world!
1-1- Spring like temperatures at The Land with a high of 71 degrees.
Another no burn weekend in Maricopa County. “Maricopa County officials say it is impossible to enforce people from using their fireplaces.” (You think?)
An Arizona man is reunited with his dog that was lost near Butte, Montana for a month. When he stopped his vehicle in Dillon the dog got out of the camper without notice. The pooch wandered rugged terrain, endured freezing temperatures and BB shots and had a lame foot.
The dog was rescued a reunited with his owner from a lost dog ad on Craigslist.
An avalanche kills a 45 year old skier in British Columbia. He was a victim among a group of eleven led by a guide to do some heli-skiing. He was completely buried by snow.
The first gray wolf seen on the California-Oregon border since 1924. A GPS collar was placed on the wolf last February. Since then the wolf has wandered three hundred miles from the location he was collared at.
1-2- The ASU student that became stranded in the snow on December 11th turned on a “road to nowhere” when she became stuck. She took Highway 99, a little used road south of Winslow designed to be a “shortcut” to Highway 260 just west of Heber. The road is paved for forty miles. It then becomes an unpaved forest road.
In 1991 the state of Arizona was considering abandoning the road but it still remains open. The young woman said she left Phoenix with no particular destination. (She was touted for her skills for surviving the snow and cold for ten days but no particular destination tells me she had not a clue what she might be in for.)
Statewide snow pack in Colorado is 73% of average, 97% at the San Francisco Peaks and 202% in the White Mountains. These percentages are important to try and determine how much spring snowmelt will be added to our lakes and reservoirs.
High winds in Boulder, Colorado cause a three foot tree branch to smash through an automobile windshield, impaling the driver in the chest. He was able to steer the car to safety with his wife inside before he died. ( You talk about your time being up.)
First major snowstorm of the winter in the central U.S. with Lake Effect snow and one foot of snow in Michigan. Strong winds with zero visibility close I-75 south of Cincinnati. Slick road conditions case fifty crashes near Indianapolis.
Ten people jump into an icy Utah River to help save three trapped children after the car they were in lost control and ended upside down in the Logan River. The father managed to escape but could not rescue the kids. The people who jumped into the river turned the vehicle upright. One man shot out a window and cut the seat belts with his knife to free the children.
One hundred blackbirds go berserk from fireworks in Beebe, Arkansas and smash into each other and buildings and dying on New Year’s Eve. (Where the fuck is PETA?)
1-3- Lake Effect snow and wind batter the Northeast and showers are as far south as Atlanta. Winter Weather Advisories posted for areas downwind of Lake Erie and Ontario throughout the night.
Winds over 100 mph kill two in Britain with 102 mph winds reported in Scotland. Train service and ferry traffic cancelled.
1-4- Record lows reported in Florida.
Flagstaff warms up to 68 degrees and the snow pack is melting rapidly at the Snow Bowl. The average temperature is 42 degrees.
California snow pack survey shows water content so far this year at only 19%.
A bus in southern China loses control on a snow covered bridge and plunges into a valley thirty feet below. 16 people killed.
1-5- Record high temperatures in the Dakotas with 55 degrees in Bismark, 32 degrees above normal.
98% of the United States is above 32 degrees, never before heard of. 118 high temperature records broken.
1-6- Record breaking temperatures in the Midwest today will be moving northeast. Minot, North Dakota, an all time record of 61 degrees, Des Moines, 65 degrees, Rapid City, 73 degrees, International Falls 46 degrees and St. Louis 66 degrees.
A dog, thought to be dead in an avalanche in Montana, has shown up at a Montana motel where is owner had checked in four days prior. His master was killed by the avalanche.
1-7- Arizona wildfire risks will rise this spring in warm and dry conditions persist and we may have a repeat of 2011.
The National Weather Service has officially declared last year as the driest on record in Texas. 500 million trees have died.
A Russian tanker is heading for Nome, Alaska cut off from the rest of the world by sea ice. The tanker is carrying 1.1 million gallons of diesel and 300,00 gallons of unleaded gasoline. Fuel in Nome is nearly nine dollars per gallon.
1-8- Eleven inches of snow fell in Show Low and four inches at the Snow Bowl in eastern and northern Arizona. And yet it was sunny and warm down here in the desolate desert.
Three days of snow with three feet of accumulation in parts of the Swiss Alps. Extreme Avalanche Warnings are posted.
Scientists may have found a reason for the mysterious world wide honey bee die off occurring over the last several years. A parasitic fly deposits eggs into the bee’s abdomens that causes the bees to leave hives at night and die.
1-9- As Lake Mead continues to rise a series of small tremors have been measured in the last year. The lake now has 4.8 million acre feet of water more than it did in 2010. It is only theory buy many seismologists believe that when Lake Mead originally filled in the 1930s the added weight of the water led to a series of tremors.
Near Missoula, Montana a bus on icy I-90 crashes head on with another vehicle. Two folks are dead and eight in serious or critical condition.
Heavy rains, flooding and an unconfirmed tornado strikes the Houstan area. The Mall of the Mainland in Texas City closes due to structural damage from the winds. Five inches of rain prompt Flood Warnings.
The tiny town of Cordova, Alaska is asking for state help to dig out of massive snow levels that have collapsed roofs, triggered avalanches and trapping some people in their homes. The Prince William Sound community has no road access to the town. Fifty National Guard members were on their way yesterday to help folks dig out. Snow is higher than some home’s doors.
1-10- Want snow, head for the southern U.S. Midland, Texas has received twenty inches so far this winter with half falling yesterday. A daily snow record was set yesterday for the city. Midland has had more snow than most northern U.S. cities this winter.
Most of Alaska is under Winter Advisories with 60 mph winds recorded in Homer. A main highway (and there ain’t many in Alaska) is cut off outside Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula.
Eight are dead and twenty missing from mudslides in Brazil.
A few survivors of the giant Galapagos tortoise, thought to be extinct in the 1840s,may still exist on a island in the Pacific. DNA testing was performed on 1600 and 84 were direct offspring.
1-11- From his secluded location in Colorado RyDuck reports that yesterday was a warm 63 degrees (almost the same temperature on The Land.) This afternoon, with the wind chill, it is 5 degrees.
Since November 1st, Cordova, Alaska has received fifteen feet of snow and forty four inches of rain adding to the hardened snow pack. Avalanche conditions are extreme with strong wind gusts and white out conditions. School children have missed twenty five days due to the snow.
A fuel tanker and a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker trying to make it to Nome, Alaska are stuck in sea ice. Aerial teams, and a drone, are scouting the safest passage. They are ninety seven miles away, and if they make it to Nome, it will be the first time ever a fuel tanker reaches a western Alaskan town cut off by sea ice. (Now, I know it is not spring but the song “When it’s Springtime in Alaska it’s Forty Below” by Johnny Horton sure comes to mind.)
1-12- “The worst winter anyone can remember in Alaska has piled snow so high people can’t see out the windows of their homes.” Valdez has had twenty six feet of snow since November. Anchorage has had 81.6’’, breaking a record of 77.3’’ set in 1993-94.
The first winter blast hits with parts of Connecticut having the first snow since October. Chicago cancels 425 flights today due to snow. For Illinois, today marked the first significant snow in eleven months.
A tornado tears through towns in North Carolina injuring 15, destroying 9 homes with 47 damaged.
South African rangers find eight poached rhinos in one day, dead and stripped of their horns. 448 were poached last year, a new record.
1-13- The Arizona Game & Fish Department is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of a deer poached December 30th near Fort Huachuca. The buck was shot and beheaded, with the body left to waste.
Two suspects are wanted for questioning, both white males wearing camo. They were described as six feet tall with slim, athletic builds. One had a dark beard and both carried scoped rifles.
1-14- The bitter freeze last February in the Arizona deserts have killed off older saguaro cacti, notably in Tucson’s Saguaro National Park. Temperatures then were in the low teens for several days in a row.
Thirty one inches of Lake Effect snow falls in Buffalo, New York.
Seven inches of snow in Massachusetts with 30mph winds.
The Russian tanker carrying 1.3 million gallons of fuel for Nome has gone as far as it can. Nome’s harbor is iced up and the fuel transfer will have to be done with a mile long hose. Spilling fuel is a major concern.
Winter Weather Advisories issued above 6500’ in Arizona until noon tomorrow.
1-15- Winter Weather Advisory extended for northern Arizona until noon tomorrow.
1-16- Thirteen inches of snow at Sunrise, Arizona. No measurable rain in Phoenix and none so far this year. Normal rainfall for this date is .49’’.
1-17- Seattle, Washington could get six inches of snow tonight. Their average total for an entire year is 5.9”
Fuel is being pumped by two parallel hoses, seven hundred yards long each, from the Russian tanker to Nome. Without the fuel Nome would be out completely by March or April, long before the next barge delivery in unfrozen waters possible.
A sixty six year old snowshoer missing on Mount Rainer for three days has been found alive by three rescuers. The man was alert, conscious and in stable condition. He said he used fire starters to burn leaves and eventually his extra socks and paper money. Rescuers were working to bring in a Snow Cat vehicle to transport him out of the area since severe weather prevented a helicopter from landing.
Mexicans are rushing aid to communities in the remote northern mountains in Mexico. “Dozens of Indians had killed themselves because they couldn’t feed their families due to severe cold weather.” (Desparation, pride or both?)
1-18- 4.2’’ of snow in Seattle, 13’’ in Olympia and 20’’Rochester, Washington. Schools are closed.
30,000 people are without power in the Portland, Oregon area as a powerful snow storm turns into rain. Wind gusts of 100mph reported.
“Powerful spring like” storm sets off tornadoes in Indiana, Kentucky and Mississippi.
1-19- Ice closes Seattle airport and 200,000 are without power due to downed power lines from fallen trees and ice. A State of Emergency is declared by the governor.
Two adults and their young children drive into a rain swollen creek in Albany, Oregon. The man and his five year old son were able to get out. The body of a twenty month old child was found later but mom is missing and presumed dead. The car has not been found.
100 mph winds stop search for overdue hikers and climbers on Mount Rainier in Washington. They are experienced but four days overdue.
The fuel transfer in Nome is complete and successful without any oil spills.
Two more billion dollar disasters added to the record set in 2011; Tropical storm Lee and severe weather in the Midwest and the Rockies in July. The total is now 14 with losses at 55 billion dollars. The previous record was set in 2008 with nine over a billion dollars.
1-20- The snow storm approaching Chicago is thought to be large enough that sixty garbage trucks have been converted to snow plows.
First rain in San Francisco in two months.
2011 was the warmest on record for Spain and Norway. The average global temperature was 57.9 degrees, a bit cooler than last year.
1-21- Wind gusts up to 70mph in northern Arizona.
Fourteen counties in South Carolina are under Tornado Watches.
Eight inches of snow in Chicago with the cancellation of 700 flights. As the storm moves quickly through the North East it is only the second time since Ocotober significant snow has occurred.
The driest winter in Reno, Nevada in 120 years and a fast moving wildfire destroys 29 homes and 10,000 are evacuated. The fire was accidently caused by an elderly man who “improperly discarded fireplace ashes.” He reported the cause and is extremely remorseful. No charges are planned to be filed.
Scientists in Indonesia have discovered a large gray monkey so rare many believed it to be extinct. The Miller’s Grizzland Langur has been found in an area far from its previously recorded home range.
1-22- Two inches of rain in Reno brings flash flood concerns in the 3200 acre fire zone that was fully contained yesterday.
1-23- A tornado with winds recorded at 150 mph has killed two and injured one hundred in Alabama. This type of storm is rarely seen in January. It reached from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
Winter Weather Advisory issued for the Grand Canyon to the White Mountains in Arizona above five thousand feet.
Lake Tahoe finally receives snow, one two two feet since last week. The snow pack there has only been 25% of normal for this date.
The storm came a week after a group of Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribal members performed a ceremony seeking spiritual help for snow.
1-24- Six inches of snow at the Grand Canyon.
One snowmobiler dead and his brother rescued in a snow cave in a Colorado avalanche.
“Space hurricane” from solar flares are sweeping over our planet causing some flights to be rerouted. This is the biggest flareup since 2003.
1-25- No rain at all in Phoenix so far this year and .71’’ below normal.
Spring like moisture dumps a record of 6.8’’ of rain on Austin and 30,000 without power in San Antonio. An unconfirmed tornado also reported.
Forty dead and twenty missing from a landlside on the South Pacific island of New Guinea.
1-26- Up to ten feet of snow falls in eastern and central Europe. 340 people rescued from stranded vehicles and 1300 given temporary shelter. Overnight temperatures sixteen degrees below zero.
Severe flooding and landslides kill six people in Fiji.
1-27- In northern Kentucky there has been a plague of several hundred thousand European Starlings every evening since Thanksgiving. The birds are shitting everywhere and people cannot go outside without umbrellas.
1-28- 49mph wind gusts in Bullhead City, Arizona.
The American Prairie Foundation in northern Montana receives seventy one bison calves from Canada. Their intent is to rebuild the herd and with the new calves the herd will number 216. The nine month old calves will be held in isolation for a month before being released into the main herd.
1-29- A twenty four year old snow boarder has died after becoming trapped in an avalanche in steep Utah backcountry. It is the 9th avalanche fatality in the West this season. His body was found using avalanche beacons.
Scientists investigate 77 dolphin deaths beached on Cape Cod. Whether they got lost or sick is a mystery.
1-30- Fort Yukon, Alaska has ranged from fifty below zero to sixty two below zero in the last three days. There have only been three other years when it has been this cold in the history of weather keeping. The average temperature for January in Anchorage has been 2.7 degrees, well below the average of 15 degrees. ( Timely after just seeing the movie “The Grey.”)
Drought forces Texas cattle ranchers to drive cattle north to Nebraska. 250,000 head moved there in the past year.
“Junary” where temperatures are in June in many places. Nine tenths of the country is above average. Fifty high temperature records have fallen from Colorado to Kansas.
At four a.m. yesterday morning fog and smoke caused a freeway pile up on I-75 in Floriday that killed ten folks and injured eighteen. The crash was so bad the NSTB was called in and they are usually only used for airline crashes. The smoke from the wildfire is suspected to be arson.
1-31- Temperatures in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions are in the 50’s and 60’s, twenty degrees above normal. There is speculation this may be the warmest January on record.
Forty eight folks have died from extreme cold across central and eastern Europe. In Kiev, Ukraine temperatures dropped to ten below zero.
An ever increasing population of huge pythons, many of them discarded pets, are wiping out large numbers of mammals in the Florida Everglades. Raccoons, Oppossums and bobcats are among them.
And this nightmare contribution from the Lovely Mrs. Blueduck: A fifteen foot eastern Diamonback rattlesnake, the largest on record ever, has been caught in a new home subdivision near St. Augustine, Florida. It weighed 170 pounds with a head the size of a human. It has a five foot, six inch striking distance.
A good friend of mine was stung over fifty times last week by bees and is highly allergic to them. He was moving a pile of debris in his yard when he disturbed the nest. He was able to drive himself to the hospital but blacked out when he got there. He had to be revived several times and almost died. He could hear the hospital staff say “we’re losing him”. Day to day shit doesn’t seem all that important to him right now. He is so grateful to be alive. Although scary, his account of dying and coming back to life was inspirational to me.
With that happy ending we will leave you with the inspirational gospel standard song for the month. “One fine morning when this life is over I’ll fly away.” I think of that line many times but the very next song that comes to mind is “The Crystal Ship” by the Doors. I know I am sick and need help, but so does this weather journal.
Until next month when bees are knocking at your mortality remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The Honorable, Distinguished, Somewhat twisted, Professor MR Blue Duck.
