November 2012 Weather News!
Welcome to another award winning edition of Blue Duck Weather! (How is that possible when no one but me has even read the damn thing yet?) Sandy dominated the news almost daily with it’s sad and tragic aftermath of a storm now almost a month now as I write this. One account that amazed me were the record amounts of trees, some one hundred and twenty years old, that were destroyed in New York and New Jersey. With that the quote of the month is quite eloquent. It was written in an AP story about the tree loss. “They fell by the thousands, like soldiers in some vast battle of giants, dropping to the earth in submission to a greater force.” Jim Fitzgerald.
Although Hurricane Katrina killed more people along the Gulf Coast Sandy caused more property damage in an area of the country that is densely populated. FEMA could not bring in emergency trailers for housing as many areas there was just not room for them. With so many apartments and high rises where could a trailer be parked? You will read more about this later.
But, as always, there were other things that happened last month to educate, entertain, amuse you or bore you to death. Read below for a tasty tidbit of the information waiting you.
An elephant that vocalizes human words, the wilderness is dead when the Reavis Ranch trail in Arizona is on the local evening news as a “popular hiking destination”, a critical update on the red squirrel population on Mount Graham in south east Arizona, Mesa, Arizona man pleads guilty to starting an 18,000 acre wildfire last summer, two tons of pigeon shit has to be cleaned up on a church tower, a missing hiker found in the Superstition Mountains three years later (obviously very dead), A Chandler, Arizona couple facing criminal charges for raising chickens in their back yard (are ducks legal?), a very sad story about a family that loses their lives trying to rescue pet dog from the ocean, the official cause of the death of a man eating cockroaches, the metropolitan area in the United States with the most mountain rescues and how the 2012 Hurricane season stacked up (you will be surprised.)
The average temperature at The Land for the month was a beautiful and comfortable 62.18 degrees. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico at 7400’ was 43.41 degrees.
The Land received only .06 of an inch of rain bringing the total rain fall for the year to 5.29”. To date Phoenix has had only 3.41’’, almost three and a half inches below normal.
My beloved Roosevelt Lake continues to shrink with the lack or rain and is 43% full. Lake Mead is holding its own at 51%, Powell at 55% and Lake Pleasant at 53%. (Please perform a peyote ceremony and a rain dance for your desert friends. We are going to dry up and blow away.)
11-1- Power outages from Sandy could last another ten days for hundreds of thousands in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey. Three days after the impact of the storm finding food, water and gas the big challenge. People are even looking for discarded food in dumpsters. Power out to 4.5 million in 14 states and eighty folks have been killed, mostly by drowning and falling trees. The deadliest zone is Staten Island and thirty seven in New York have died, many of them elderly folks. Two small children ripped from their mothers arms by the storm have been found dead.
After suffering the worst disaster in it’s 108 year old history subway services in New York resumed this morning at six. Jersey City has issued a curfew on people driving from seven p.m. to seven a.m. Due to power outages many gas stations aren’t able to pump gas. People lining up for fuel for a mile. Rationing allows ten gallons of fuel for those that are able to find it. The President asks for emergency fuel releases.
Three feet of snow in West Virginia due to the effects of Sandy.
And here in sunny Arizona one of my favorite camping and hunting spots twenty years ago is featured on the local news as a popular hiking destination. The destination is Reavis Ranch on the north side of the Superstition Mountains, an eight mile hike into apple orchards and “paradise”. I knew it was dead ten years ago while hunting deer there. I would be perched above the trail in concealment with rifle and binoculars out. One morning I heard bells and couldn’t figure out what the fuck it was. Up comes “hikers” on the trail with their water bottles, spandex, jingling bells to distract bears (I guess) and noisy conversation. Not one of them knew I had my beady little eyes on them until they rounded boulders out of view and were lumbering on their way. I remember seeing a fine deer in a meadow of grass on one of my perches. I did not dare shoot as I knew the trail and possible “hikers” were on the other side. ( I have not been back since.)
11-2- The death toll raises to 94 from Sandy in the North East and Mid Atlantic. 7400 National Guard have given out 144,000 meals in New York City and Long Island. 5500 folks in New York are in city shelters. Residents of Staten and Coney Island are complaining of aid being too late. “People are defecating in the hall ways.”
Four million still without power and dropping temperatures into the thirties add misery. Some people wait all night for gas. A man in Queens is arrested after he tried to cut in line at a gas station and point a gun at another motorist.
For the first time in history Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project are sending men and equipment to help out in New York.
A smog like haze hangs over parts of Alaska’s Kodiak Island this week and the result is a volcano eruption that happened one hundred years ago. Strong winds and lack of snow have stirred ash from the largest volcanic blast of the 20th century in 1912.
11-3- Under increasing pressure, as thousands are still devastated by Sandy, the annual NYC Marathon has been canceled. 47,000 runners from around the world were scheduled to begin the race in hard hit Staten Island. Storm victims were being evicted from hotels to make way for the runners and their reservations.
With temperatures expected to fall in the thirties tonight power is still out for 2.3 million people in the North East.
National park rangers are trying to rescue a hiker in the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. The Appalacian Trail hiker got into trouble in four to five feet snow drifts left by “Superstorm Sandy.” The man used his cell phone to call 9-11 two days ago. Yesterday morning he called again and said he was hunkered down in his location and might not be able to get out.
An elephant in a South Korean zoo reproduces five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sounds. An international team of scientists went to the zoo to confirm this unprecedented phenomenon.
11-4- Twenty five thousand blankets passed out in New York. The National Guard is passing out free gas in Brooklyn. Five thousand gallon trucks from the Department of Defense dispatched in five locations in New York City. Even and odd numbered license plates designate altering days to get gas in New Jersey. (This has not happened since the fuel shortage in the seventies.)
Seven hundred thousand still without power in NYC, six days after the storm, and temperatures are falling with another storm coming. New York governor says “its going to become increasingly clear that home without heat are uninhabitable.’’ Bloomberg states that housing will have to be provided for thirty to forty thousand people. Two million people in the North East are still without power.
11-5- Eight hundred thousand still without power in New Jersey, including schools. One hundred and thirty seven miles of shoreline have been devastated. “Impactful” Nor’easter on the way.
11-6- “Sandy’s next crisis”: Thousands need housing and two hundred million dollars in emergency housing assistance has been dispensed by the federal government. The tactics that FEMA have used in the past for emergency housing will be difficult to place in a densely populated city. Trailer space is not an option when so many live in apartment buildings. Thirty four thousand people in New York and New Jersey have been put up in hotels and motels.
Staten Island is in desperate need for underwear. Other clothing donations have exceeded generous. “It’s like a third world nation” one person said of the destruction on the island’s south shore.
The World Trade Center Memorial reopens after floodwaters are pumped out from a high water mark of ten feet at the sixteen acre site.
A trainer in Billings, Montana is mauled to death cleaning the pen of two five hundred pound brown bears. He has extensive wounds that make it impossible to determine if he was conscious during the attack and able to defend himself. He had no defensive wounds and had not deployed his pepper spray. There is speculation he may have fallen and hit his head before being killed.
11-7- Nor’easter comes after Sandy’s destruction in NYC. There are new power outages and twelve hundred flights are canceled across the North East. Bloomberg orders three nursing homes and adult care facilities to be evacuated in Queens. 620 people removed and 672,000 still without power.
“Code Blue” across New Jersey for anyone who needs shelter and needs to get warm. “Snowing like January.”
One man says he plans to ride out the latest storm in his apartment even after he saw cars floating by his front door last week. As the water receeded men dressed in dark clothing broke down his door. They were surprised to see him and other residenst inside. The men said they were rescue workers but took off.
The man has put up a handmade sign that reads “Have gun. Will shoot U” and uses a bed frame to barricade the front door. He has gas and boils water to give out warmth.
11-8- 50mph wind gusts and snow knock out power to 167,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey, 50,000 in Long Island. 4.4’’ of snow in Central Park , a record for this date. Record 6’’ in Newark, New Jersey. Bridgeport, Connecticut 3.5’’ breaking a record of 2” set in 1953.
760,000 still without power. Thirty eight percent of stations in NYC still have no gasoline. Rationing with even and odd number license plates will begin in New York tomorrow like New Jersey had to do.
11-9- Weather Alert issued for the state of Arizona. Five inches of snow in Sunrise. Hail in Flagstaff.
By new weather reporting standards by the NWS (you read it here first) the first winter storm for the western U.S. is named Brutus. Blizzard conditions are on the way and wind gusts of 85mph in Salt Lake City with snow this morning.
11-10- As the first big cold front of the winter season slams the West, four feet of snow in Helena, Montana. Lake effect snow in Western Nevada, south east of Lake Tahoe. Top wind gust of 111mph at Meteor Crater in Arizona.
Here at The Land we had the first significant wind chill, 61 degrees plus a 15mph wind resulted in a high temperature of just 55 degrees. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico had wind and snow with a fucking freezing low of 16 degrees.
Hurricane Sandy’s relief efforts by the Red Cross and Salvation Army will be the largest since Hurricane Katrina. The Red Cross has sent 5,800 workers, served 3.2 million meals and snacks and provide 110,000 emergency shelters.
317,000 people have registered with FEMA for financial help. As of yesterday 470,000 people in New York and New Jersey still have no electricity.
Tensions are boiling over almost two weeks later on parts of Long Island One “protestor” carries a sign that reads “We are cold and we are tired. We want our power now.”
The Coney Island Aquarium was flooded in the disaster, home to 12,000 fish and marine mammals. Holding tanks and heating equipment were lost, but due to rescue efforts 90% of the animals and fish are saved.
And here in the sunny desert climate a south east valley girl was bitten by a rabid bat last weekend and receiving treatment.
11-11- Yesterday’s storm dropped a half inch of rain to an inch and a half in Gold Canyon and Queen Creek, Arizona. With only .05’’ of rain at The Land, once it cleared out, this morning was the first 32 degree low of the season. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill had a low of 9 degrees! Zero at The Grand Canyon!
From his secluded location in Colorado RyDuck reports a temperature with wind-chill of 10 degrees!
Alarmed that rebel militias are profiting from a sharp increase in the slaughter and poaching of elephants and rhinos, the U.S. plans to build a global coalition to combat illegal wildlife trade.
And right here in the sunny Arizona, Peoria Police and Maricopa County Animal Control receiving calls about “strange acting” coyotes near homes, schools and parks. (Just shoot the conniving bastards!)
11-12- Two weeks after Sandy 90% of Long Island still without power. Five thousand people in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are in shelters.
The 6th worst flooding in a 150 years chases tourists from Venice.
11-14- Two Arizona utilities are working sixteen hours a day to help restore power to Long Island, New York. There are eight utility companies there from California, Arizona and Nevada.
The Tiber River in Rome is flooded from rain and flooding suburbs. One of the city’s most historic bridges closed today. St. Mark’s Square under so much water tourists swim there.
Three mountain lions close together photographed in Sabino Canyon, Tucson Arizona.
11-15- Despite recent moisture three quarters of Kansas, South Dakota and Nebraska are under extreme or exceptional drought conditions.
The annual survey shows that red squirrels are holding steady at about 215 on Mount Graham in south east Arizona. ( If you have any idea how vast this mountain range is that is not many squirrels. I can see why they are on the endangered species list.)
11-16- Near Fire Island, New York Hurricane Sandy exposed a ninety year old shipwreck. The “Bessie White” was a four mast Canadian schooner. The ship went down in heavy fog in 1919 or 1922.
11-17- Forty five hundred tons of debris wash up at Queens Park in New York from Sandy. Three hundred and fifty homes in Nork City are beyond saving, eighty in Breezy Point alone from the damge of Sandy.
11-20- A Mesa, Arizona man has pleaded guilty as the cause of the 18,000 acre Sunflower Fire last summer. He used a “flame throwing” shotgun and shot at a box in the timber near Payson. As part of his defense he called 9-11 from his cell phone to report the fire and was told to leave the scene.
Record rain and wind from a powerful storm in the North West from Washington to Oregon. The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport received 2.13’’ of rain, shattering the old record of 1.23’’ for this date in 1962.
In parts of western Washington seven inches of rain fell in two days.
In Oregon an Elk hunter was killed when a tree fell on his tent from winds. Peak wind gusts of 101mph recorded. 20,000 without power.
11-21- Some of New Jersey’s beaches lost half their sand during Hurricane Sandy. The average state beach is thirty to forty feet narrower. The shore town of Mantoloking lost one hundred and fifty feet of beach.
For the first time since 1998 water will flow the entire 1450 miles of the Colorado River all the way from Yuma to the Gulf of California in Mexico. Arizona and six other states sign a water sharing deal with Mexico. This will also help Arizona’s defense agains drought.
The debris from Sandy on the beaches of New Jersey will take months to clean up. On a normal day the city of Hoboken averages sixty tons of trash per day. Workers are now hauling three hundred tons per day (the question in my mind is where?)
11-22- 26,500 Thanksgiving meals passed out at thirty sites in New York neighborhoods affected by Sandy.
One hundred vehicles in south east Texas on Interstate 10 collide in dense fog killing two and injuring fifty one. Before the pile up many vehicles were driving close to the posted speed limit of 70mph despite the foggy conditions. (You have got to be kidding me. Is there no common sense anymore?)
The FCC announces a series of hearings to find ways of widespread communication losses in disasters, such as Sandy. Even first responders and emergency managers lose communication.
11-23- Hurricane Sandy destroyed or damaged 113,000 trees in New York City and New Jersey, more than any storm on record. Some of the trees were one hundred and twenty years old.
The sand dunes that saved Fire Island, New York from the full impact of Sandy are gone but 4,000 structures survived. Some dunes, up to twenty feet high are washed away.
And here in sunny Arizona in November with temperatures in the low eighties two female hikers rescued off of Squaw Peak in Phoenix, suffering from dehydration. (Give me a break! Thankfully they weren’t hiking in August!)
In Crescent City, California fifty four million dollars is being spent to build the West Coast’s first harbor to withstand the type of tsunami expected to strike every fifty years. It happened in 2011 when the highest surge in the boat basin measured 8.1 feet and currents at 22 feet per second.
244 new steel pilings will be thirty inches in diameter and seventy feet long, with thirty feet sunk into bedrock. The pilings will extend eighteen feet above the water so surges plus or minus seven and a half feet will not rip docks loose.
11-24- Three more hiker rescues on Squaw Peak in Phoenix. At eighty five degrees one was carrying no water and one was wearing no shoes! ( I just don’t even have a fucking comment on this one.)
After all of the recent and violent weather in the United States climate activists hope the U.S. will be more “than a disinterested bystander” when the U.N. climate talks resume in two days.
With a re-elected President “I think there will be expectations from countries to hear a new voice from the U.S.” the director of climate and energy program said.
11-25- “A Fight For Chickens”. A Chandler, Arizona family is facing “criminal charges” for keeping nine chickens in their backyard. All they want to do is provide nutritious additive free eggs for their children. (Don’t cities have better things to do with their lawyers?)
11-26- Superstition Search and Rescue find human remains in the Superstition Mountains after three years of searching. The volunteer group found the remains in a crack in the mountain thirty five feet above ground about a half mile from the tent site of a hiker that went missing three years ago.
11-27- There are more mountain park rescues in the Phoenix metro area than any other city in the United States.
Three hikers lost and one injured while searching for the perfect Christmas tree in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. Fortunately two of them made it to a forest service road before sunset and sought help. A call for help brought a DPS helicopter to the location of the injured hiker who had started a signal fire.
The Coast Guard ended a search yesterday for a boy whose parents were killed when the three tried to rescue their dog from strong surf in northern California. Ten foot waves pulled the dog into the ocean three days ago as it ran to retrieve a a stick. The boy went in after the dog. The father went in the ocean to help. The boy made it back but then he and his mom went out to help dad. All lost their lives. (sad, sad Thanksgiving weekend story.)
An autopsy has determined that a man that choked to death after eating dozens of roaches during a “contest” at a Florida pet store in October. The grand prize winner was to receive a python.
After more than a month with no electricity for folks in part of New York City they have received electric bills. The bills were based on last year’s electric useage.
11-28- Seven days of rain in Wales cause the Clwyd River to burst its banks. Parts of England also flooded.
Debris from the Tsunami almost two years ago in Japan are piling up in Hawaii. There is twenty tons of plastic and other shit on a ten mile stretch of beach. Every bird and fish caught has shreds of plastic inside when opened up.
11-29- Tomorrow will be the end of the Atlantic, Caribbean hurricane season where this year the most devastation has been by water, not wind. The National Hurricane Center is ramping up efforts to develop new tide surge warnings.
Large, early snowstorm drops eight inches of snow in twenty four hours in Moscow. This represents half of typical amounts of snow for all of November.
“Melting Away”- Polar ice in Greenland has shrunk five times the pace of the 1990s. Rising ocean levels made Sandy worse with storm surges.
11-30- The second of a series of storms slams Northern California today as heavy rains and strond winds knocked out power, ties up traffic and causes flooding. North Bay received seven inches of rain and Napa County six inches.
Seventy flights cancelled in San Fancisco and the famous bridge with the same name losing all lighting, causing thee hour traffic delays. One foot of snow in the Sierra Nevadas.
One month later folks without housing and electricity in Staten Island, New York feel abandoned and ignored.
And that concludes another outstanding edition of Blue Duck Weather. With Christmas approaching please reach out to the poor folks in New York and New Jersey who are still devastated by the monster Sandy.
Your fine staff at Blue Duck Weather will leave you with the song of the month; “Eye of the Hurricane” by David Wilcox.
As Always your humble, Distinguished, Professor of Quackery,
MR Blue Duck
