February 2014 Weather News!
What an unbelievable weather month around the world! In the North East U.S. it’s being called the “angry winter of 2014.” So much snow and record cold a new depressive disorder is being named for it. In the West, for the first time in history, California ranchers and farmers may receive no water allocations for their crops this spring. (Remember no farms no food) On one day during the Sochi Winter Olympics it was warmer there than Florida! Some say the weather there was the biggest adversary to the athletes.
And here in the Arizona desert we are experiencing temperature and fire condition not normally seen until April and May. No rain for over two months, rattlers already crawling and temperatures twenty degrees higher at the end of the month than the beginning. What the hell is going on?
As this planet is spinning madly on its axis weather is bound to change regardless of the politics of global warming but some of the extremes reported in the past editions of Blue Duck Weather, and this edition, are extreme.
Leaving politics and economics aside Blue Duck Weather attempts to report the facts only, as they occur with a bit of sick humor thrown in to keep you sane. And how weather does play into the economic impact on the world probably doesn’t have a price tag that is even imaginable. I knew it to be true instinctively but never thought or read about it in the context I am about to present.
Energy Poverty- 3.5 million people lack adequate access to energy. 4 million people die each year from energy poverty. Millions around the world must choose between paying for food or power. This is the world’s number one human and environmental crisis. This is “where the rubber meets” the road in terms of economies, world powers and weather. Without the cooperation of the weather for sustainability all else is not possible.
Read about a thief taking advantage of icy weather, what SAD means, the state with the worst drought in five hundred years, possibly the worst drought in Arizona in five hundred years according to one scientist, the warmest winter Olympics on record, tornadoes with snow on the ground!, a snake handling pastor who gets his just rewards and so much more in this exciting edition of Blue Duck Weather!
The average temperature on The Land for February was 58.95 degrees. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill was 45.82 degrees.
There was no rain and hasn’t been any since December 20th, 2013.
The low water level in Lake Powell is startling at 41% and will ultimately affect the water rationing that will happen in California. Lake Mead is 48% full, Pleasant is 76% full and Roosevelt 48%. If the great lakes of the southwest turn into piss holes we are fucked!
2-1- For the first time in California’s history there were 407 wildfires last year, a new and terrible record. Indians and Catholics alike are performing rain dances in the state. (I would like to see what a dance party with the two together would be like.)
During California’s most severe drought of all time state officials announce they won’t allocate water to agencies that serve 25 million people and one million acres of farmland. This is the first time in the 54 year history of the State Water Project that it has taken such drastic actions. It was taken to conserve the little water that remains behind the dams in the state. (What does this mean anyway, water not sold to neighboring states? Is there a water war in our future?)
Prince Charles has called people who deny human caused climate change as a “headless chicken brigade” who is ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.
So far Chicago has had four and a half feet of snow this season, thirty nine inches in Detroit.
2-2- Third warmest January on record in Phoenix, Arizona. But on this date in 1939 there was .05”of snow in Phoenix.
And with a major winter storm in the plains Pux. Phil says six more weeks of winter for weary citizens of the Midwest and Northeast. (He was shot to death for this prediction.)
A man (bastard) is accused of using a tow truck to steal cars that were abandoned in Atlanta last week after the snow storm and traffic jams.
2-3- The storm that dropped a foot of snow in Texas and ten inches in the Ohio Valley is headed to the Northeast, with thousands of flights cancelled.
2-4- Second winter storm in a week to dump a foot of snow in the Northeast and Midwest. The storm will impact 32 states and two thousand miles. Winter Storm Warnings are posted from the Rockies to southern Maine. More Americans under alerts than any storm of last year. Every business is shut down in Kansas with the warning “Stay Home!”
A German shepherd on a walk with its owner is swallowed up by a ten foot deep sink hole that suddenly opened in a park in New York. Firefighters dug a hole wide enough at the top to get in and rescue the dog. When they pulled the pooch up from the watery hole the dog “owner” said “It was a beautiful thing. He was wagging his tail and looking at all the people.”
A ten year old girl is in serious condition after being impaled by a metal rod while sledding north of Baltimore, Maryland.
2-5- Arizona snow pack is only 15% of normal. (God, it’s going to be a brutal summer if rain or snow doesn’t come quickly.)
From his frozen location in Colorado RyDuck reports 18 below zero last night with a wind chill of thirty below. (My duck ass would be frozen solid.)
Millions of people without power and one hundred and fifteen million affected in 32 states from this latest storm. In Maine, Pennsylvania and New Jersey it is snowing two inches per hour. Ten inches of snow in Boston with forty five inches so far this season.
2-6- Power lines snapped by ice and snow and four hundred thousand without power in Pennsylvania. The power company says it is the worst winter storm ever for the state and emergency conditions are declared.
Snow level drops to five thousand feet in Arizona but not much is expected.
In Sochi, Russia on the eve of the Winter Olympics it is fifty degrees. In some parts of the United States it did not reach the freezing mark.
A chemical smell is still in the water after the spill in Charleston, West Virginia even as residents have been told the water is safe to drink.
2-7- Two hundred and twenty two thousand still without power in Pennsylvania.
Two inches of snow at Sunrise, Arizona and five inches at Snow Bowl. And here in the parched deserts it has been 49 days with no rain.
An earth science professor at the University of Arizona says tree ring records this water year, which began October 1st, really stands out as one of the worst single years for drought in the last five hundred!
“Seasonal Affective Disorder.” A serious and severe type of depression far worse than the cabin fever associated with “winter blues” has been “discovered” in the United States. It is because of the continuous cold and dark days of winter.
2-8- 1.11’’ deficit in the “rain bucket” in Phoenix for the year. Usually an inch of rain falls in January and February.
This is the halfway point for winter in the northern hemisphere.
Residents in Tonopah, Arizona protest Hickman’s Family Farms plan to build a farm factory holding 2.2 million stinking ass chickens. Residents want an environmental impact study to determine the impact to health and natural resources. This little community is twenty miles west of Buckeye and residents are simply beside themselves with rage.
A Las Vegas pet shop owner is seen on a security camera setting her store on fire with 22 puppies inside. She was handcuffed, jailed and a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar bond posted. (Get a fucking rope!)(Mrs. Blueduck is totally willing to buy the rope)
A nationwide propane shortage is due largely to the bitter cold and has struck an Indian reservation on the Dakotas’ border. A healthy sixty one year old woman was found dead in a rundown mobile home with an empty propane tank. The morning she died the temp was the same inside as outside the home, one degree above zero. Hypothermia is the suspected cause as the woman had tried to remove some of her clothing before she died.
2-9- “Drought Fears Laid Bare- Alarming Dry January Fuels Greater Worry about Arizona Wildfire Season, West’s Water Supply”. Zero snow recorded in forty four measurement stations in northern Arizona, the first time in thirty years. .01’’ of rain along the Little Colorado, two percent of normal!
Much welcome rain to parts of California. Warm, moisture packed system from the Pacific Ocean known as the “Pineapple Express”. Seven inches of rain in Marin County, three inches of rain in San Francisco and San Jose. Four feet of snow on top of Lake Tahoe Ski Resort. But Southern California is as dry as a bone.
In Portland, Oregon three days of snow brings freezing rain and people told to stay home.
2.9” of snow at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport breaking a record for this day.
115,000 still without power, lights and heat from ice storm several days ago in Pennsylvania and Maryland. (Those poor folks have to be miserable. I hope they all have fireplaces with plenty of wood stocked.)
2-10- Eighty percent of the Great Lakes are frozen but just how thick the ice is a major safety concern.
60 degrees in Sochi, Russia, warmer than Indiana.
The governor of Georgia declares a State of Emergency for the next two days due to pending ice storm. Schools are closed and emergency shelters are being put up.
Britain’s worst rainfall in 250 years (!) has stranded some residents in Moreland on a forty square mile patch of land since Christmas!
A search resumes today for a man who jumped from an icy Interstate bridge into a river to avoid a skidding tractor trailer in Arkansas. He was among three who left their vehicles after an accident. All three quickly jumped and two rescued.
Rescuers stayed overnight with a stranded hiker near Salome, Arizona. A man and two women wearing light clothing had gotten trapped on a ledge. It was too dark when rescuers reached them so they parked their asses until morning. “Always be prepared. You don’t know what’s going to happen when you are hiking.”
A zoo in Copenhagen kills a healthy giraffe because rules imposed by the European Zoo Association to deter inbreeding. Among seven others at the zoo “Marvin was put down with a pistol because there already were a lot of giraffes with similar genes in the breeding program” The meat was fed to carnivores at the zoo. (Fucking mankind loves to play God whenever there is an opportunity in the name of science or religion.)
2-11- Approaching ice storm in the South described as “catastrophic by the National Weather Service. An event of historical proportions.” A State of Emergency is declared in five states.
Warmest Winter Olympics on record in Sochi, Russia.
2-12- All flights into Atlanta have been cancelled Metro Atlanta devoid of traffic as everyone stays home. One half million without power. And folks in North Carolina walk away from their cars with six inches of snow; more in one day than an entire year.
This time last year it was well below freezing in Phoenix. Now they are flirting with record high temperatures.
Sochi is warmer than the continental U.S. at sixty degrees. It is colder and snowier in parts of Florida!
A Polar bear in a German zoo dies after eating a purse and coat that fell into the enclosure.
2-13- 81 degrees at The Land, twenty degrees above normal!
One hundred million affected in fourteen states with the latest “Super Storm” that has fifteen hundred miles of snow embedded in it. One million travelers affected. 800,000 without power. Both Washington airports closed. Pennsylvania breaks a 140 year old record with four snow falls of four inches or more. Fifty inches of snow so far. National Guard called.
And in sunny Sochi it is 70 degrees.
“The Angry Winter of 2014.” In Pennsylvania there is a one hundred car pileup on black ice with twenty people injured. Some drivers stuck for six hours. Twenty one deaths are blamed for the latest storms in the South and North East.
A Rabies Advisory is issued for Pima and Santa Cruz counties in southern Arizona. Since January 1st, thirteen rabid skunks have been identified. There were only seventeen in these two counties all of last year.
2-14- High temperature records broken in Kingman, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and Prescott, Arizona. It has been two months with no rain in Phoenix. January and February are critical to this state’s annual rainfall.
From her secluded location in Montana, LaurieDuck reports being snowed in for ten days with her family and livestock.
In New York a pregnant lady loading groceries into the trunk of her car with her husband is struck and killed by a snowplow. Her baby boy was successfully delivered by an emergency C section and doing well. 9.5’’ of snow had fallen before this tragic accident.
2-15- High temperature record of 86 degrees in Phoenix breaks the 83 degree record set in 1977.
88% of the Great Lakes are frozen. They hold one fifth of the world’s fresh water (as polluted as that might be.)
Finally, impressive snow in California mountains. Four to six feet of fresh snow in the Sierras since last week. The same has fallen in the mountains of Colorado and Utah.
Due to relentless ice and snow storms in the U.S. this winter there have been more flight cancellations than in twenty five years. Seventy five thousand domestic flights since December 1st with fourteen thousand this week
Six people have been killed by avalanches this week in the West. Avalanche Warnings have been called out for much of the West. On track for the most folks killed in twenty years. Rapid, heavy snow and unstable snow pack are to blame.
2-16- 84 degree high in Phoenix ties record set in 1977. And this prompts more warm weather mountain rescues in Phoenix. A thirty year old man rescued at Echo Canyon due to heat exhaustion. (Just fucking stay home if you are not prepared!)
Six weeks of nonstop rain in southern England. A taxi driver in Britain killed when his car was crushed by falling block from a building during 85 mph winds.
A “freak wave” also broke five windows on a cruise ship killing and 85 year old man.
There is record snowfall in Japan, more than in fifty years.
“Winter’s Toll.” One foot of snow in New England and 125,000 still without power.
2-17- Eighty-eight degree record high in Phoenix.
Four acre fire near Saguarho Lake.
Rain soaks ranches in drought stricken Honolulu.
January had the most rain since 2005.
Six inches of snow and white out conditions in Chicago. 1350 flights cancelled.
11th bighorn sheep found dead in the Catalina Mountains near Tucson was killed by a mountain lion. Thirty-one sheep were reintroduced to the area in November.
A snake-handling pastor in Kentucky shown in the reality show “Snake salvation” dies after being bitten by a snake. He refused treatment and later succumbed at his home.
2-18- The brush fire near the Salt River two days ago quickly turned into an inferno. It started small but soon 50 foot tall flames jumped a sixty foot wide footpath. “Tinder box conditions not normally seen until May.”
Early onset of 80’s bringing out the rattlers out, not usually seen until March or April in the Phoenix deserts. “Snakes don’t work off a calendar, it’s all about temperatures.” And when they come out they are fucking hungry and mean!
With record amounts of snow cities are running out of salt to treat the roads. Connecticut and Rhode Island declare States of Emergency. They are blasting salt quarries around the clock. (I would like to know what happens to all of that salt when everything melts.)
2-19- One year ago today the snow level was down to two thousand feet in Phoenix. The rare freezing rain event that looks like snow caused many to believe it was in the desert.
Brush fire near Prescott has burned one hundred acres. It was started by someone burning dead tumbleweeds.
Record high in Nashville of 78 degrees and thirty states have tornado warnings posted. This storm system extends from Canada to Georgia and the south side of it is warm, moist air.
2-22- Sixty seven days with no rain in Phoenix.
Tornadoes devastate a town in northern Ohio blowing the roof off of a high school gym.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has announced that many California farmers caught in the drought can expect to receive no irrigation water from the federally run Central Valley Project. “The grim levels so far prove that the state is in the throes of one of its driest periods in recorded history.”
2-24- Snowmobiler dies in an avalanche on the Idaho-Montana border. Two others were buried but rescued in time. One man was found with only his head above the snow.
Warm weather, stupidity or both? Air rescuers get a teenager off Squaw Peak in Phoenix after he “began struggling on the trail.”
2-25- Radiation from the tsunami in Japan almost three years ago and the nuclear power plant shutdown is expected to reach the North West coast by April. Levels will be monitored.
2-26- Detroit, Michigan has had its harshest winter in sixty years. With six and a half feet of snow and one hundred days below freezing, this city tops two dozen of the hardest hit.
USDA to spend three million dollars to provide food for the nation’s struggling honeybees. This will help farmers and ranchers improve pastures in five states.
2-27- 69 days with no rain may be over as a major storm is expected to move through Arizona with snow level dropping to seven thousand feet.
Forty nine out of fifty states below freezing. White out conditions in Buffalo, New York. Ice floes from the Hudson River to Wisconsin.
“High Alert”. Mandatory evacuations east of Los Angeles. Recent fires mean mudslides from heavy rains. All of L.A. is under a Flash Flood Watch. The snow pack in the state is seventy five percent below normal. (This is not good news. It doesn’t matter how much moisture they get from this storm. Summer is on the way.)
2-28- The system in California is being called the “West Coast Hurricane.” It has the swirling eye of a hurricane. Some places had had more rain in the past two days than an entire year. One thousand homes evacuated due to mudslides.
Deep freeze from Kansas to Massachusetts will affect one hundred million folks.
Snow squalls cause a 96 vehicle pileup north of Toronto, Canada.
On a very tragic and sad note your staff at Blue Duck weather reports a six year old girl freezes to death outside of her apartment in Minnesota. Although she was dressed warmly the wind chill had driven the temperature down to 42 below zero. (Mother Nature loves us but she will kill us if we let our guard down.)
The song for the month, although it is not a weather song but adds to the calamity of this month’s weather, is “What the Hell?” by Paul Thorne.
Until next month remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The Honorable, Distinguished, forgettable MR Blue Duck.
