Sunday, April 7, 2013
March 2013 Blue Duck Weather News
March 2013 Weather News!
In this mind blowing feature of Blue Duck Weather we will get a taste of Wildfire season already?, “Heart Attack” snow, the flooding tragedy remembered in California in 1938, the world’s most expensive mice, shark infestation just in time for spring break, The tail of Mr. Stubbs, bees respond to caffeine more often when pollinating, what happened to the named winter storms?, changes will be made in the Iditarod Dog race after one of its own dies in the snow, inbreeds in the wolf population hurting reintroduction efforts and so much more.
By the end of this month winter was getting old and aptly named “The Endless Winter by many folks. Even Punxsutawney Phil was indicted on federal charges of falsely representing spring. An Ohio attorney is requesting a death sentence to be carried out by fifteen hunters.
But I’m afraid as I write this the beautiful winter on the Land is over. The last gasp was a powerful wind and rain maker on March 8th. What little spring grass is drying out, the high temps are in the low eighties, I am on the look for rattlesnakes and the beautiful blue skies we had are turning that foreboding white to indicate real heat is on its way.
Temperatures on The Land were fifteen degrees warmer by the end of the month than the beginning . The average temperature was 64.62 degrees. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill had an average temperature of 44.27 degrees. It seems that land in New Mexico ranges about twenty degrees cooler than here despite the month. And I have noticed many of the weather patterns there are similar even though it three hundred miles to the north east.
.49 inches of rain for the month at The Land giving us a total of 1.88’’ this year. Phoenix has had 2.55’’
With winter melt off of snow my beloved Roosevelt Lake rose a bit bringing it to 52%, Pleasant is at 82%, Mead 52% and the mighty shit hole Powell at 48%.
Now for all the weather news that fits-
3-1- Red Flag Warnings for south central New Mexico with 35mph wind gusts expected.
Crews are making progress with a wildfire near Riverside, California. The blaze damaged one home and cut power to 2,000. The fire that began in the Santa Ana River bottom is 40% contained at three hundred acres.
Twenty three Gray whales spotted near San Pedro, California. This is a big deal and the whales have been making a comeback since hunting bans were set in 1947.
3-2- In 1938 from 2-27 to 3-4 thirty inches of rain fell on some Southern California mountains killing 210 people. There were forty five deaths in Orange County alone. Forty three were the result of an eight foot wall of water that went through Atwood, California. The Santa Ana River flooded most of Orange County.
3-3- A fast moving brush fire shuts down I-95 and the evacuation of three hundred homes in Ormond Beach, Florida.
And from “This is a fucking outrage” file: Growing numbers of geese and ducks are forcing some communities in the Phoenix area to ban feeding the poor birds because of all the shit that is accumulating everywhere. The problem reached a “crisis” level last summer in Scottsdale so they passed a “law” banning people from feeding the pests. With less handouts the “bird” population is down but not significantly. (Why don’t you just line up the poor bastards and shoot them? Is this where the term “sitting duck” came from? )
3-4- Midwest storm drops heavy snow from Minnesota to Tennessee.
Two men cross skiing on the western side of Cameron Pass this past weekend trigger an avalanche that buried them. One killed and one critically injured. Both had avalanche locator beacons. The man found alive late in the afternoon had been buried for about ninety minutes. Because of the terrain and snow it took five hours for rescuers to get the man to a location where a helicopter could land and airlift him out.
Four fatalities so far this season- a snowmobiler in Utah, a skier in Wyoming and a climber in New Hampshire who were all killed by snow slides three days ago.
3-5- Heavy snow in the Midwest with the “hardest punch of winter.” Eleven hundred flights cancelled in Chicago. All of its 466 snow plows deployed. Called “heart attack” snow, it is heavy and wet and shoveling it causes over exertion. Snow collapses the roof of a popular banquet hall in Chicago.
3-6- Ten inches of snow in Washington, D.C. and the federal government declares a “snow day” and closes all offices.
Eleven inches of snow in West Virginia and 170,000 without power.
3-7- As a brutal snowstorm batters New England parts of the Sandy damaged Jersey shore is dealing with flooding. Pounding surf broke a dam in Mantoloking sending water onto Route 35, closing it for several hours.
The Phoenix fire department warns hikers on urban mountain trails that rattlesnakes are out sunning and will bite your ass off.
A female volunteer at a California animal park has her neck broken by a lion. She entered the beast’s enclosure alone. She was found with the lion near her. After trying to unsuccessfully lure the lion into another pen, it was shot and killed so the woman could be reached.
This one is a bizarre aftermath story of Hurricane Sandy: Water flooded a hospital in New York including the laboratory basement that housed seven thousand cages of mice used for study of cancer, diabetes, brain development and other maladies. Each cage held up to five of the rodents. Four months later nobody knows exactly how many perished or where they are.
About fifty scientists are going through the slow process of replacing them . What they lost in one night will take more than a year to recover, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. They simply cannot replace the mice from a cage on a shelf. Most were engineered to carry specific mutations to mimic human conditions and diseases. Some breeds can only be found in a few labs worldwide!
Thousands of sharks are seen of the Florida coast (just in time for spring break.)
3-8- What a wild weather day in Arizona and on The Land. Strong winds knock a tree down on my dad’s power line bending his electric panel sideways. Incredibly his electric did not go out or the sagging power line fail.
Hail in Ahwatukee, one inch of rain in Apache Junction, sixty mile per hour winds in Tempe, a massive dust storm in Phoenix (despite the rain), and a foot of snow in Flagstaff.
Two feet of snow in some New England areas. A seaside home in Plum Island, Massachusetts is leaning at 45 degrees after being battered by waves.
Two years after the deadly Tsunami Japan is still struggling with recovery. Dozens of temporary housing camps were meant to be used for two years. Now it could be six to ten years before all is rebuilt. ( Just think about it, can you even imagine being driven from your home for ten years or even ten days?)
Federal prosecutors have decided not to file charges against two young elk hunters in Wyoming when they shot and killed a grizzly bear last fall. The bear charged the two and their father from forty two yards on Thanksgiving Day. The father at first fired pepper spray that did no good stopping the bear. The sons opened fire when the bear was only ten feet away. (I commend this family of hunters. It took great courage and respect of the bear to allow it to get only ten feet away before acting in a life or death defense. Most would have ran, shit their pants or fired at the bear when it was a quarter mile away.)
According to the Science Journal 11,300 years of data show dramatic planet warming in the past century. Scientists used fossils of tiny marine organisms to reconstruct global temperatures back to the end of the last ice age. The decade of 1900 to 1910 was one of the coolest in the last eleven thousand years, cooler than 95% of all other years. The decade of 2,000 to 2010 was one of the warmest.
Global thermometer records go back to 1880 and those show the past decade to be the hottest on record. One scientist said “We’ve never seen something this rapid, even in the ice age.” (spooky shit no matter what your opinion is of the cause.)
3-9- A body is found in a flooded wash in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was first called in as a water rescue but that statement has not been validated.
One inch of snow falling per hour in Denver. Five hundred flights are cancelled.
A helicopter flyover the forty three square mile McDowell Sonoran Preserve has revealed a stable population of deer and javelina. The area is north of Scottsdale, Arizona. Bow hunting is allowed but not rifle hunting. Activists say the sport has the potential to harm unsuspecting hikers during hunting season.
3-10- In the past twenty four hours Sunrise Park Resort in Greer, Arizona has recorded more than two feet of fresh snow. Flagstaff received 14.6” of new snow by noon yesterday. Ten inches of snow recorded fifty miles north east of Payson, Arizona. A whopping twenty six inches of snow in Forest Lakes.
Fourteen inches of snow in Denver, Colorado.
A seven foot long alligator has been given a three foot long prosthetic tail attached firmly with nylon straps and an orange float wrapped around the tail helps stabilize the ‘gator when it is swimming. As far as anyone knows Mr. Stubbs is the first alligator to tolerate, if not wear, a prosthesis. The beast exercises in a pool in north Scottsdale.
The death of an intern last weekend ruled as an accident and the family believes the zoo followed proper protocol and her death was a tragic accident. Investigators believe the lion lifted the door of a partially closed feeding cage with its paw and killed the woman while she was cleaning another enclosure. She died instantly from a broken neck.
Study: “Caffeine shot in nectar improves memory in honeybees.” If they get a shot of caffeine from certain flowers it spurs them to return to the same type of plant. ( Try a “shot” of Jack and see if they can remember to return to the same type of plant. They will remember but the big question is if they are able to fly back?)
3-11- North Carolina Highway 12 is closed due to flooding. It is the only highway to Hatteras island on the Outer Banks.
One sailor is dead in Southern California when a thirty two foot sailboat taking part in a race is driven into a rocky shore and breaks apart by stormy seas. Two nights ago the crew radioed the mayday call and also deployed a rescue beacon but then declined assistance and requested a tow boat.
3-12- First eighty degree day at The Land of the season. Say goodbye to a precious winter of cool days and cold nights.
A heavy snowstorm in north west Europe closes Frankfurt Airport with record traffic jams in Belgium and thousands of British and French drivers stranded in their cars by snow closed roads.
Red algae bloom kills record one hundred and seventy four manatees on the south west Florida coast. Scientists believe the manatees are dying after eating sea grass that algae has settled on. Once afflicted they lose coordination and the ability to swim upright or lift their heads out water to breath. There is no sign when the algae may die off.
3-13- A deadly fungal infection that has killed millions of bats has been confirmed for the first time in Georgia and South Carolina, bringing the total to twenty two states. White nose syndrome spreads among hibernating closely clustered bats eating away at the bat’s reserves. 5.4 million bats have been killed since 2006.
Record high 89 degrees in Tucson.
3-14- Record high in Phoenix of 93 degrees. Old record 91 set in 2007.
3-15- It doesn’t even seem possible. One week ago today it was barely fifty degrees with heavy rain, wind a downed power line on The Land. Today was 92 degrees and the first time to reach ninety in a very long time. (Not long enough.)
Hungary deploys tanks to reach thousands of motorists trapped in heavy snow and 200,000 without power.
Worst drought in New Zealand in thirty years. Wellington has issued a ban on all outdoor water use. New Zealand’s capital of two hundred thousand folks have a nineteen day supply of water left in its rivers and reservoirs. Auckland, New Zealand issued an outdoor fire ban yesterday.
3-16- And just what we need, a new species of scorpion discovered near Tucson.
Rare cut off low totally unpredicted brings rain and snow to Flagstaff.
Eight hundred acre wildfire fueled by erratic winds threatens fifty homes in Northern California.
3-17- The Galena Fire north west of Denver is 45% contained and evacuation orders are lifted.
3-18- The National Weather Service issued Blizzard Warnings for the Dakotas and Minnesota with 50mph winds and twenty states are in the storm’s path.
Intense thunderstorms produce softball size hail in Jackson, Mississippi.
Two hundred acres in the Great Smokies have burned and twenty four vacation cabins are damaged or destroyed.
A British climber and his twelve year old son are dead after plunging down a mountain in the French Alps. The father had alerted rescuers by phone that his son had fallen. The father also fell after apparently trying to rescue his son.
3-19- Late winter storm slams New England with heavy snow and ice. Seven inches recorded in Boston this morning and five inches in New York.
A big jump seen in hurricane related storm surges. For every 1.8 degrees of warming scientists have found a two fold to seven fold increase in the increased storm surges seen when Katrina hit in 2005.
3-20- First day of spring in Phoenix arrives at four a.m. And while we bask in sun and mild temperatures snow totals in New Hampshire above sixteen inches today and high teens in the Midwest.
3-21- The top four to six feet of the seventy two year old Wade Stadium collapses from “weather.” The walls will be repaired and the team playing baseball by June 1st.
A powerful snow storm in Alberta, Canada on Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary has left one hundred motorists hurt in a mass collision.
3-22- Wind and drying conditions lead to Fire Watches for Graham, Cochise and Greenlee Counties in south east Arizona. (Fucking already?)
Punxsutawney Phil indicted with felony charges by Ohio attorney after falsely and purposely with false calculations mislead people that spring would come early. The death penalty will be sought and fifteen hunters will be selected for the execution.
Changes are planned for Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race following the death this year of a dog of asphyxiation. The dog was buried in snow after high winds. Planned changes include construction of dog shelters at two major check points. “… historical commitment to the improvement of the welfare of canine athletes that annually participate.”
3-23- If one uses weather data it is easy to see that wildfire season is approaching rapidly. The winter rains are gone, the grass is drying and soon even the hillsides will be yellow with dead grass. The humidity at The Land today was 8% with a dew point of 11%, bone fucking dry!
Powerful winter storm Virgil (what happened to all the named winter storms that we were supposed to remember?) from the Rockies to Kansas. Colorado hit the hardest and I-70 closed from Denver to Kansas.
A woman’s body was recovered yesterday from the Colorado River in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Her body was spotted by people on a river trip. The cause of death is under investigation.
3-24- No sign of spring today with heavy snow from Missouri to Pennsylvania. Ten inches of snow in St. Louis and fifteen states are affected.
Coney Island is back in business five months after Hurricane Sandy.
A tornado in Bangladesh, India kills five and injures one hundred.
With the spring like weather more urban mountain rescues in the Phoenix area. A twenty eight year old woman has to be rescued after passing out in the McDowell Preserve. A fifty six year old woman rescued after becoming injured on Picacho Peak. Even an eight year old boy has to be rescued after getting stuck at the top of Hole In The Rock at Papago Park.
Yellowstone bison hunt yields two hundred and fifty animals, the most since 1989. The high numbers are driven by American Indians who harvest the animals under long standing treaty rights. According to wildlife officials the large harvest is relieving some of the pressure of an expanding population.
3-25- “Endless Winter”. Record snows in the Midwest. Seventeen inches in Springer Ville, Illinois.
3-26- Earliest one hundred degree day in Phoenix was set in 1988.
3-27- Massive unexplained landslides may cause thirty homes in Washington State to fail. The single highway to the island area is closed. Late spring snow dumped a half foot on already saturated soil.
Supplies on the way to snowed in farmers in northern Ireland.
3-28- The pollen count in the Phoenix area is eleven out of twelve leaving thousands sneezing and itching their asses off. (Thanks to all of the trees and plants transplanted from other parts of the country over the last fifty years. The dry desert used to be the place to go to get away from respiratory infections and asthma. Everyone who moves here from out of state wants their yard to look just like where they fucking came from!)
Flagstaff, Arizona considers a ban on feeding deer. They shit everywhere, cause vehicle accidents and attract predators. (How about just shooting them and giving the meat to the local food banks?)
Feds want to crack down on the mating of dogs and the endangered Mexican gray wolf. It doesn’t happen often but keeping a pure breed is one of the keys to making the wolf population a success. In 2011 four wolf dog pups had to be put down that belonged to a Mexican gray wolf in the Gila National Forest.
A Colorado man has dies after his guided horse slipped during a ride out of Supai in the Grand Canyon. The pair fell twelve feet into a dry wash with the horse landing on the man. His wife and five year old son were present.
3-29- There is a storm so massive in the Atlantic Ocean it spans the entire ocean and the center is as powerful as a Category 3 hurricane.
In 1848 a massive ice jam “dried up” Niagara Falls to just a “trickle” of water. The phenomenon lasted forty hours. (Can you imagine the before and after photos? It would have been a once in a lifetime event.)
3-30- Massive rescue efforts are under way for 948 starving sea lion pups on Southern California beaches. Scientists don’t know why but the pups are dying of hypothermia, have no body and are one third of normal weight.
3-31- Massive mudslide buries eighty three workers up to one hundred feet in gold mine in Tibet. Eleven bodies have been recovered and the chances of finding anyone alive is slim.
Happy Easter: The New England cottontail was once so common that “The Adventures of Peter Cottontail” and the song was inspired by an author in Massachusetts. But now its habitat is disappearing. (I’m glad ducks aren’t disappearing.)
Until next month remember Settlers took land. Pioneers took bullets.
Professor MR Blue Duck
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
February 2013 BLUE DUCK WEATHER NEWS
February 2013 Weather News!
Find out what defines a “clipper pattern” storm, a tsunami when an ice dam breaks loose in Montana, and from the "We knew it was coming" file, for the first time in history the federal government says it can no longer bail cities and states our for natural disasters, blizzard warning for the Phoenix metro area that proved not to be so far fetched and so much more to read!
This may be the shortest Blue Duck Weather edition you have ever bored yourself to death with. On the big level not much was happening around the world, but what did happen for the U.S. was snow. Even the Phoenix area was one of the most active spots in the United States for wild weather and snow in the desert, as rare as “tits on a boar hog” as my dad used to say.
The average temperature at The Land in February was 52.81 degrees. Talking Trees and Antelope Hill had an “ooshy’ average of just 29.75 degrees. February saw cooler than average temperatures by four degrees below normal in Phoenix and three degrees cooler in Tucson.( This is actually a big deal in the weather geek world. Remember swings should only vary in the tenths. If these temperatures were warmer than normal they would be preaching doomsday and hell fire!)
The rain total for The Land to date this year is 1.30’’. Phoenix has 1.70’’.
Lake Mead is 53% full, Powell is 49%, Pleasant 71% and Roosevelt rose some this month and is 47% full. And now, sit back and read yourself to sleep for this month’s amazing issue of Blue Duck Weather.
2-1- The feds want to list the “mountain devil” or wolverine on the endangered species list. Due to lack of habitat there are only 250-300 left, primarily in the northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming. ( They are fierce little fuckers! They can hold their own against a mountain lion and even take down a deer given the right opportunity.)
2-2- Camelback Mountain and Squaw Peak in the Phoenix area log the most calls for mountain rescues. Together last year they totaled 149 calls for help. Camelback is one of the most dangerous technical rescues because its angle of inclination is more than 40 degrees. This often involves special equipment including helicopters.
2-4- The first sign of spring on The Land? Being a duck call me a slave owner. I “own” chickens. They are not free ranging chickens because coyotes and dogs would eat them alive. They “live” in a pen and I feed and water the mindless fuckers. The little bitches have not laid an egg in months. I gave up on them and swore to myself once they died out I would get out of the chicken business. Lo and Behold the eggs are coming again. The Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck pointed out to me that this means spring is coming. Pux or whatever Phil aint got nothing on the “little laying ladies” on The Land.
2-6- Blizzard Watch issued for the East Coast while many are still waiting for help almost one hundred days after Sandy.
Great Lakes Huron and Michigan have reached all time record lows since record keeping began in 1918.
“National Weather Person’s Day” (you have got to be kidding me. How about Weather Duck Day?)
2-7- Blizzard Warning on the Eastern Seaboard may affect fifty million people in the North East. With hurricane force winds “Potentially history making storm” as two weather systems merge known as a “clipper pattern.”
2-8- Snow Advisory above seven thousand feet in Arizona. 41mph winds in Winslow.
Due to the pending blizzard the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut order all non essential vehicles off the road today by four p.m. People should be prepared to be snowed in for at least two days.
New York airports are closed with 1800 flights cancelled. Amtrak rails closed from New York to Boston. Gas stations in New York already out of fuel.
2-9- Twenty one inches of new snow at the Snow Bowl, north of Flagstaff, Arizona.
Nine deaths blamed on the blizzard in the Northeast. Portland, Maine received thirty two inches of snow, a new record. 83 mph winds in parts of Massachusetts.
And this just in from our contributing reporter, GilleonDuck, from snowy Montana! “Gallatin River Tsunami”- Between Bozeman and West Yellowstone an ice dam breaks loose sending a torrent of water, ice and felled trees down the Gallatin. One person said “This is why you don’t want to go wading the rivers in winter when an ice dam can break loose. Everybody pay attention to your river this winter and be safe out there. Wading mid river downstream of a tight bend, with hearing dampened by warm winter headgear could be damned interesting when this wave popped around the corner.” ( My question is why anyone would be “wading” in freezing water? I would rather be caught in a summer flash flood in Arizona. At least I wouldn’t freeze to death before I drowned.)
2-10- Eighteen inches of new snow in Williams, Arizona.
Almost three hundred thousand people without power after the blizzard in the North East. President declares a state of emergency for Connecticut.
Blizzard Warnings for North and South Dakota.
2-11- At seven this morning I heard a traffic reporter in a plane say they had to land due to ice and snow above Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. At three thirty in the afternoon there was thunder and rain on The Land. Table Top Mountain south of here was dusted in snow. (a very rare desert occurrence.) This weather disturbance was totally unpredicted. That is what I love about weather. Sometimes the science and computer models just can’t get it.
Sixteen degrees below normal in Phoenix.
Flagstaff, Arizona cancels school for the day due to snow.
2-12- Freeze Warning issued for the Casa Grande, Arizona area.
2-14- For the first time in history the Government Accountability Office has announced “climate change” on its 2013 list of items presenting a high risk to the federal government. “Significant financial risks related to extreme weather events, and cities and states can no longer depend on the federal government after such events occur.”
2-16- Rare winter snow in parts of North and South Carolina.
New technology allowed forecasters in Mississippi to quickly confirm the tornado that hit Hattiesburg last week and alert the public. Dual polarization Doppler allowed experts to see shapes and sizes of debris inside a tornado. In the past visual reports were relied on, sometimes impossible to obtain at night.
Warmest day on The Land this year at 75 degrees.
2-17- Recent rain triggers landslides in northern Indonesia killing ten with a thousand homes flooded.
2-18- Red Flag Warning issued for southeast Arizona tomorrow.
Two hikers stranded on Humphrey’s Peak in northern Arizona are lucky to be alive. High winds prevented helicopter rescue but was able to drop them food and warm blankets to get through the night. They were rescued the following morning by snowmobile with a temperature of 16 degrees.
Twenty six injured after snow causes accidents on I-95 in Connecticut. East Maine Blizzard Warnings with wind gusts up to 50 mph causing wind chills of fifty below zero!
Sunken debris from Hurricane Sandy still lingers and is dangerous and threatens summer tourism in the coastal areas of New York and New Jersey. “Swimmers could cut themselves on submerged junk, step on thousands of boardwalk nails ripped loose or suffer severe neck or spine injuries diving into solid objects.” One area cleaned up just three weeks ago and still debris are coming down a wash.
In Southern California thousands of dolphins on surface of water at one time near San Diego. “Mega pods” are probably due to available food sources. Dolphins usually swim in much smaller groups.
2-19- Winter Storm Warnings for northern Arizona and even a Blizzard Warning for the Phoenix metro area.
2-20- Six inches of snow in the White Mountains, snow in north central Phoenix and snow on the 101 and Via De Ventura freeway interchange. Cave Creek golf course covered in snow. White out at Salt River fields baseball park. There are imbedded thunderstorms and lightning. All schools closed in Flagstaff. A mountain rescue takes place at Squaw Peak in Phoenix. (In this weather?)
A fifty one year old hiker has been missing in the Superstition Mountains since last night.
I-5 near Bakersfield, California closed because of ice.
Eighteen states and thirty million in the path of dangerous winter storm from west to east. Rare tornadoes in California.
2-25- Snowstorm with hurricane force winds batters the Great Plains. Authorities are urging people to stay off roads. 75mph winds in Amarillo, Texas and eighteen inches of snow on the ground, the most in 110 years. This is the same weather system the slammed Colorado yesterday with 200 flights cancelled in Denver.
2-26- Heavy snow from the Plains to the Great Lakes. Snow caused a roof to collapse in Woodward, Oklahoma killing one person inside.
February snow totals in Wichita, Kansas twenty one inches, breaking a hundred year old record for the month.
Charlton, South Carolina broke record for the month with 10.48’’ of rain.
Waterspout in Tampa, Florida and 90mph winds in Cedar Key, Florida.
2-27- Snowstorm causes sixty students to spend the night in their Colorado school when a state highway is closed due to dangerous conditions.
Tens of thousands without power in Michigan. In Wisconsin hundreds of cars stranded or in crashes due to snowstorms. The storm reaches from Missouri to Maine.
2-28- Sandstorms push Beijing pollution levels “off the charts” combined with some of the worst smog in the world. ( I think I would rather cover my face with a bandana and endure sand instead of no wind and stinking, shitty polluted smog. I would think the blowing sand would scour the smog and blow the shit somewhere else. The question is where?)
The wisely chosen song for the month is a new ditty by Gary Allen called “Every Storm runs out of rain.” Depending where you live on this planet that is a good thing or a bad thing.
With the end of this relatively short weather journal remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
Humbly at your service the Distinguished, Honorable, Award Winning MR Blue Duck. (Quack!)
Sunday, February 3, 2013
January 2013 Weather News
January 2013 Weather News!
Happy New Year! The years go by in a blur no matter how long any given day may seem. And as life is ever changing for the good or the worse, so is the weather. Arizona laid one down for the record books and more diverse weather in one month I have never seen. Five consecutive days of lows below freezing (most of them in the twenties at The Land), two days of record warmth in Phoenix, and then toward the end of the month a record wet air mass over Arizona left The Land with 1.12’’ of rain.
In this new and updated Blue Duck Weather News you will feast your eyes on items such as Disease forecasters examine weather trends and possible causes, “catastrophic” fires in Australia, a new high temperature record for the U.S. and what a one degree rise means, a man that jumps into a mine shaft at Meteor Crater to “appease the gods”, a man’s plea to a charge of trespassing after jumping into a tiger’s den (you read it in Blue Duck Weather when it originally happened.), a python that rides on an airplane wing for two hours (I swear we don’t make this shit up!) a day where it is colder at The Land than Anchorage, Alaska, National Weather Service to use “simpler” language to forecast the chances and severity of storms, Don’t eat the yellow snow at Snow Bowl in Arizona! One week after the deep freeze in the Arizona desert record high temps!, a deer that attacks two men and steals their cigarettes (I swear we don’t make this shit up), a man that goes on an internet quest to remove all pet cats from New Zealand (I swear again, we don’t make this shit up in a cannabis induced or otherwise haze) and a ski resort that is so cold it closes due to unsafe conditions.
But before we get to all the news that fits or not let us get past the ever boring stats that yours truly loves so much.
The average temperature from high to low at the Land for the month of January was a chilly 49.27 degrees. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico was 26.83 degrees.
An impressive 1.12” of rain for the month at The Land, most of it fell over three days. The kind of gentle, soaking rain we desert dwellers love to see.
But I am getting worried about the ever shrinking Roosevelt Lake, down to 42% capacity. This time last year it was nearly full. Mead and Powell remain fairly consistent at 53% and 51% and Pleasant in central Arizona is 63% full.
1-1- Twenty seven degree low on The Land! (Being a desert dweller I might as well have been in Siberia with this kind of cold.)
Coldest beginning to a New Year on record was in Karasjok, Norway in 1886. The low was sixty one degrees below zero!
1-2- Seventy mile per hour Santa Ana winds in Los Angeles County.
A New Year’s Day walk on the beach north of San Francisco proved deadly when a man died after he and his wife were swept out to sea by a “rogue” wave. The man’s wife and dog were able to make it back to shore.
Sixty six days later and still no relief for some victims of Hurricane Sandy.
A Shell oil drilling rig runs aground off Alaska’s Kodiak Island. It is carrying 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 12,000 gallons of oil lubrication. Salvage teams are not able to reach the grounded vessel due to 30mph winds and twelve foot swells.
A Natural Resources Committee member said “Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies.”
1-3- Six salvage experts have been lowered by helicopter to assess the structural damage to the grounded oil rig in the Gulf of Alaska.
1-4- Tucson and Phoenix tied the record for the warmest year since 1989.
“Disease forecasters look to weather trends. Only a 10% chance of showers today but a 70% chance of the flu next month.” In one study two scientists say they could predict seven weeks in advance when the flu season would peak in New York City. Computer models factor in rainfall, temperature and other weather conditions to forecast certain disease outbreaks.
Two teens are rescued clinging to a tree after lake ice cracked below them near Show Low, Arizona. Both were treated for mild hypothermia. A fire fighter in a water proof suit got a rope to them. “Arizona lakes usually don’t get cold enough for ice to freeze solidly. Every once in a while we have kids trying to see how far out they can go. That was pretty foolish. There was probably an inch of ice in the middle of the lake” according to a spokesman.
1-5- Ten below zero in Window Rock, Arizona.
Dry winter casues more concerns for farmers in the Corn Belt after the driest summer in fifty years. Corn production was down 27%.
Worst drought in north east Brazil in fifty years. 30% of sugar cane production, diminished corn and cotton crops and cattle and goats starving to death. The agricultue secretary said “…… consequences that could be compared to a violent earthquake.”
Twenty two dogs and one monkey rescued from a house fire in Phoenix. All are fine and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the blaze.
1-6- Six Russians killed and two seriously injured when their snowmobile and sled ran off an Italian Alpine ski resort at night. It slammed into a barrier and then careened into a ravine.
1-7- “Fire bans go up in smoke.” Maricopa County, Arizona residents continue to violate wood burning restrictions during Christmas and New Year. The county exceeded federal health standards for particulates on the day before Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. ( Bah Humbug! Why don’t we fucking ban driving for one day and see how many particulates we save and enjoy the fires for several days?)
“Australia faces catastrophic days as wildfires rage in 5 of country’s 6 states.” 90 fires alone are burning in New South Wales. A record heat wave began in western Australia on December 27th with highs as much as 114 degrees, and lasted for eight days, the worst in 80 years. Combined with record low rainfall and high winds the combination is deadly. (Sounds like fire season in the Arizona deserts.)
1-8- As the wildfires spread across Australia national parks are evacuated. One hundred homes lost in Tasmania.
Last year in the United States there were five record high temperatures for evey one record low temp.; a new record.
A new alpha male gray wolf will be released in eastern Arizona to replace the one illegally killed last July.
Wild burros are crossing a roadway in Bullhead City, Arizona and causing hazardous driving conditions. There have been six recent calls on the fuckers and an accident last month that left a motorcyclist injured and the burro dead.
1-9- The U.S. set an “off the charts heat record for 2012. It was a full degree warmer than the record set in 1989. Breaking records by an entire degree is unprecedented. Normally records are broken by a tenth of a degree or so.
Thirty households return to Jersey Shore for the first time since Hurricane Sandy. 7,000 of 7,400 homes damaged or destroyed. Only residents with restored electricity, gas and water are allowed to return. Others can come in the daytime only as a curfew still exists.
Australia gets some fire relief from the relentless temperatures as it cools down. Two days ago was the hottest day on record since 1972.
A brutal cold winter storm is intensifying the misery of 50,000 Syrian refugees. The camp is a muddy cold mess and 35mph winds have knocked many tents down. Some frustrated refugees have attacked aid workers with sticks and stones.
Mid East storms cause flash flooding and dump a rare foot of snow on the desert in Jordon.
1-10- Chicago breaks a seventy two year old record. 320 days without at least one inch of snowfall. The city usually has 11.5’’ by now, they have a tenth of that amount.
“Southern Soaker” storms bring heavy rain to parts of Texas with some drought relief. Three inches of rain in San Antonio in twelve hours. White Rock Lake in Dallas rose ten feet in one day.
Eleven killer whales trapped under the ice in northern Quebec, coming up for air in a hole the size of a pickup truck. Shifting winds caused the ice to break up just in time to save the beasts.
1-11- Hard Freeze Warnings issued for the Phoenix, Arizona area. Two highways out of Globe and Florence are iced over with some rockslides.
“The Grapevine”, I-5 in California was shut down last night due to snow. Twenty degrees colder in San Diego than Chicago.
Most of Utah is under a Winter Storm Warning with two feet of snow already in some places.
State of Emergency from flash flooding in south east Louisiana with three confirmed tornadoes.
Four Florida cities break records for this month with temperatures 85 degrees or above.
International Falls, North Dakota has a record high of 48 degrees, breaking a previous record by seven degrees.
1-12- Twenty four degree low on The Land. 27 degrees in Anchorage, Alaska.
Twenty one degrees below zero in Bellemont, Arizona. Eleven degrees below zero in Barrow, Alaska.
Freeze Warnings again in San Diego County. Twelve degree record set in the Big Bear Mountain resort east of L.A. Daytime highs are twenty degrees lower than Boston.
A visitor at Meteor Crater in Arizona leaped over a fence at an observation deck. He then came to a tall fence topped with barbed wire that surrounds an old mine in the bottom of the crater. He climbed the fence and jumped feet first into the mine. It took twelve hours to stage his rescue and get him out of the one hundred foot deep shaft. He suffered severe hypothermia, a broken leg and arm. He told deputies later that he wanted to “appease the gods.” (Good God!)
A man who jumped into a tiger den at the Bronx zoo last year has pleaded not guilty to charges of trespassing. He said his jump was not a suicide attempt but a “desire to be one with the tiger. (This clown needs to team up with the mine jumper.)
A ten foot python clings to the wing of a plane on a two hour flight in Australia. It fought to stay on the wing despite brutal cold wind by pulling itself forward. It managed to hang on until the plane landed but was dead on arrival. (How the fuck did a ten foot snake go unnoticed on the exterior of a plane before take off?)
1-13- Twenty degree low on The Land with a forty eight degree high. Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska warmer today than Phoenix.
1-14- Twenty eight degree low at The Land with a high, with the wind chill,
of thirty five degrees.
New record low in Los Angeles of 35 degrees. Winds up to 50mph adding misery to the cold.
In Angeles National Forest a hiker was found surviving twenty six hours of temps in the twenties.
One hundred cities on the East Coast break record high temperatures.
One hundred and forty fires burning north and west of South Wales, Australia. The largest fire has burned 100,000 acres and twenty eight homes. Fires have forced the evacuation of a major observatory which has fifteen major telescopes. The site cannot be reached to assess damages.
Father and son arrested after setting a fire to destroy illegal drugs.
1-15- Twenty degree low on The Land with a high of forty five degrees. For Phoenix this is the most consecutive days with temps below freezing since 1988.
It is so cold in Window Rock, Arizona school is closed because the classrooms cannot be adequately heated.
Ice Storm Warning in South East United States.
Smog so bad in Bejing, China it can be seen from space. One building fire burned for hours without being seen due to poor visibility and the amount of shit in the air.
Here is a sad one: An outdoor loving military veteran ventured out with his eight and ten year old sons on the Ozark Trail. Dressed only in light jackets and sweaters they got soaked in freezing rain and died. They had even declined to take a ride back to the lodge where they were staying. The only survivor of the group was the family’s four month old dog. It was the tragic end of a weekend trip that was a surprise anniversary gift for the man’s wife.
1-16-Tennesee declares a State of Emergency as ice storms leave up one half inch. “When you start putting that much ice on roadways and power lines it’s not going to be good” said a spokesman.
Heavy rains in eastern Tennesse causes flooding.
The controversial snow making machine at the Snow Bowl in northern Arizona is producing yellow snow from reclamated water. Environmentalists are outraged and the snow producers say it only rust in the water. (Don’t eat the yellow snow!)
1-17- Heavy rains and severe flooding in the Indonesian capitol Jakarta. Government offices and businessess forced to close because people cannot get to work. The presidential palace is flooded.
1-18- Indonesia army uses rubber boats in the captial’s business district to rescue people trapped by flooding. The president is pictured standing in water up to his shins with his pant legs rolled up. Four are dead and 20,000 evacuated.
Three hundred and twenty six levees in the U.S., covering 2,000 miles are declared deficient by a new inventory conducted by the federal government. The levees are in danger of failing and protect thirty seven states. There are 2487 structures in the U.S. protecting twenty four million people.
In central Alabama hundreds of motorists spent a cold night trapped in their vehicles on I-65 after four inches of snow causes wrecks and stopped traffic. One hundred people made it to shelters in Cullman, Indiana but others were less fortunate.
The National Weather Service will test using simpler language for storm warnings, alerts, watches and advisories. ( I don’t know how one gets any “simpler” than the current “language.”) For example, instead of a winter storm watch ,“The NWS is forecasting the potential for a significant winter storm.” (Don’t these geeks have anything better to do?)
A Tucson based immigrant rights group, “No More Deaths” claim that hidden cameras show a U.S. Border Patrol agent removing food, water and blankets from a trail intended to be used by crossers. This group, and others, leave items for survival along desert trails know to be used by illegals immigrants. Temperatures between January 9th and the 15th dropped to record lows.
1-20- Hundreds of flights canceled in the UK and Paris due to heavy snow.
Four climbers killed when they were engulfed by an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands. Two escaped, one with serious injuries. Scotland has been battered recently by heavy snow and strong winds.
Six “urban” mountain rescues in the Phoenix area today. Due to the warmer weather many were on the trails, and as usual, some were not prepared.
1-21- Fifty fucking degrees below zero in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Highs to remain below zero. Winds knock out power to 120,000 people in Detroit. (And my candy ass complains about twenty degree lows?)
A fifty eight year old hiker dies after falling off a trail near Spur Cross in Cave Creek, Arizona. He tumbled five to ten feet and hit his head on a rock.
A dog in El Mirage, Arizona is recovering slowly after being caught in a coyote trap. The two year old pooch lost seventeen teeth trying to chew the trap off. The dog’s owner claims the neighbor deliberately set the trap because of a feud they were having. After a lengthy investigation police arrested a U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist for charges of animal cruelty and setting the trap for a domestic animal.
1-22- An “Alberta Clipper” drawing arctic air from Canada has brought brutal winds and snow from North Dakota to Maine. Below zero temp in the western Great Lakes. Seventy five degrees colder in Maine, after record highs, last week. Eighty six car pile up in Cincinatti, Ohio in snowy conditions leaves one person dead. Twenty degrees below zero in Chicago.
And here in the deserts eighty one degrees breaks the old record of 79 degrees set in 1994.
Half of the world’s iron ore shippers halted by a tropical storm in Australia.
1-23- Eighty one degree record high in Phoenix, Arizona.
Most snow ever in January for Erie, Pennsylvania.
A seventeen year old from Tempe, Arizona dies during a sledding accident near Flagstaff, Arizona. He and a friend lost control of the sled and slammed into a tree. The young man was in the front and took full impact of the collision.
No running water for two million Chileans after heavy rain and warm weather melts snow in the Andes mountains causing landslides and river flooding. Mud, rocks and trees have forced the temporary closure of three water purification plants.
Two men shaken up after being attacked and robbed in the front of their yard of a East Texas home. The assailant was a white tailed deer. It chased one of the men into a pickup truck and proceeded to poke the man in the ribs. As the man escaped the deer entered the truck and stole a pack of cigs. Once cops arrived it took five men to calm the “nicotine enraged deer. “ No one was seriously hurt. ( I swear, we simply do not make this shit up.)
A man wants all pet cats out of New Zealand because they are threatening native birds. He has set up a web site called Cats To Go showing a tiny kitten with devil’s horns. The caption reads “That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.” ( My God, please believe your editor in Chief, we do not make this shit up!)
1-24- Victims of Hurricane Sandy hit hard by the cold. Four hundred residences still have no electric. Some who were in “makeshift” homes turn to shelters in tents with propane heaters.
Temps so cold that New Hampshire’s Wildcat Mountain ski resort closed yesterday and today. With a windchill of 48 degrees below zero it was deemed unsafe to be there (you think?)
Salt Lake International Airport closed due to ice.
1-25- Chicago’s no more than an inch of snow in one day streak ended today breaking a record at 335 days. 1.1’’ fell today. The old record of snowless days was set in 1940 of 310 days.
Twenty swift water rescues in Queensland State, Australia from flash flooding. Nearly a foot of rain has fallen since yesterday.
1-26- The wettest air mass in January over Arizona ever recorded. 1.02’’ of rain in Phoenix sets a new daily record. Blizzard conditions in Sunrise, Arizona.
Freezing rain and ice in the Deep South.
1-27- Fifty hikers rescued in Bear Canyon near Tucson, Arizona due to flood waters.
Two water rescues in the Verde River near Pumpkin Center, Arizona.
Flights in and out of Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis grounded due to ice.
Churches across Iowa called off Sunday services due to ice. One half inch across the Midwest.
Salt Lake City had the dirtiest air in the United States last week prompting a State of Emergency. (It sure seems to me this term is way overused. You hear it often ahead of hurricanes, tornadoes and other events even when the city or state may dodge the weather bullet.)
Sixty seven dead cats and ninety nine living ones are removed from a filthy, stinking home in upstate New York. The dead cats were packed in plastic bags in a freezer. (Now this is a fucking state of emergency.)
1-28- Four inches of rain in northern Arizona sets a new record and now snow advisories are issued.
Landslides caused by flooding have killed sixteen poor souls and nine are missing in western Indonesia. Twenty homes buried.
1-29- Four feet of new snow at the Snow Bowl in northern Arizona. (And it ain’t man made yellow piss snow.)
Tornadoes in January? Warm air colliding with cold air has prompted Tornado Watches in five states. Kansas City had a high of 68 degrees and Chicago, 63 degrees, thirty degrees above normal.
1-30- Don’t drink the yellow snow. Snowbowl snow making gets the okay and according to ADEQ treated waste water is a “safe source.”
Powerful tornado in Adairsville, Georgia. One person killed and overturned cars closed ten miles of I-75.
Tornado Warnings from Central Tennessee and Kentucky to northern and western Georgia.
Florida warm weather colliding with north colder air. Tornado watches issued for D.C., the first in twenty years. Record 65 degrees yesterday in Cleveland, tonight snow.
The cat killer debate moves to the United States. Cats kill up to 3.7 billion birds annually, part of a three year Fish and Wildlife Service Study . A third of the eight hundred bird species in the U.S. are endangered, threatened or in significant decline.
1-31- Sudden snow white out kills three and injures forty in Michigan on I-75 near Detroit.
What happened to the days when Blue Duck Weather was only a few pages? Was weather less severe or as my maddened mind looked for more news? One of these months, when the Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck edits this shit for press she is going to shoot me in the beak and cut my tail feathers (balls) off.
Until next month remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The quite Distinguished, weather photograph runner up, honorary award winner of the Quack award in journalism, Honory Professor, Mr. Blue Duck.
Happy New Year! The years go by in a blur no matter how long any given day may seem. And as life is ever changing for the good or the worse, so is the weather. Arizona laid one down for the record books and more diverse weather in one month I have never seen. Five consecutive days of lows below freezing (most of them in the twenties at The Land), two days of record warmth in Phoenix, and then toward the end of the month a record wet air mass over Arizona left The Land with 1.12’’ of rain.
In this new and updated Blue Duck Weather News you will feast your eyes on items such as Disease forecasters examine weather trends and possible causes, “catastrophic” fires in Australia, a new high temperature record for the U.S. and what a one degree rise means, a man that jumps into a mine shaft at Meteor Crater to “appease the gods”, a man’s plea to a charge of trespassing after jumping into a tiger’s den (you read it in Blue Duck Weather when it originally happened.), a python that rides on an airplane wing for two hours (I swear we don’t make this shit up!) a day where it is colder at The Land than Anchorage, Alaska, National Weather Service to use “simpler” language to forecast the chances and severity of storms, Don’t eat the yellow snow at Snow Bowl in Arizona! One week after the deep freeze in the Arizona desert record high temps!, a deer that attacks two men and steals their cigarettes (I swear we don’t make this shit up), a man that goes on an internet quest to remove all pet cats from New Zealand (I swear again, we don’t make this shit up in a cannabis induced or otherwise haze) and a ski resort that is so cold it closes due to unsafe conditions.
But before we get to all the news that fits or not let us get past the ever boring stats that yours truly loves so much.
The average temperature from high to low at the Land for the month of January was a chilly 49.27 degrees. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico was 26.83 degrees.
An impressive 1.12” of rain for the month at The Land, most of it fell over three days. The kind of gentle, soaking rain we desert dwellers love to see.
But I am getting worried about the ever shrinking Roosevelt Lake, down to 42% capacity. This time last year it was nearly full. Mead and Powell remain fairly consistent at 53% and 51% and Pleasant in central Arizona is 63% full.
1-1- Twenty seven degree low on The Land! (Being a desert dweller I might as well have been in Siberia with this kind of cold.)
Coldest beginning to a New Year on record was in Karasjok, Norway in 1886. The low was sixty one degrees below zero!
1-2- Seventy mile per hour Santa Ana winds in Los Angeles County.
A New Year’s Day walk on the beach north of San Francisco proved deadly when a man died after he and his wife were swept out to sea by a “rogue” wave. The man’s wife and dog were able to make it back to shore.
Sixty six days later and still no relief for some victims of Hurricane Sandy.
A Shell oil drilling rig runs aground off Alaska’s Kodiak Island. It is carrying 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 12,000 gallons of oil lubrication. Salvage teams are not able to reach the grounded vessel due to 30mph winds and twelve foot swells.
A Natural Resources Committee member said “Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies.”
1-3- Six salvage experts have been lowered by helicopter to assess the structural damage to the grounded oil rig in the Gulf of Alaska.
1-4- Tucson and Phoenix tied the record for the warmest year since 1989.
“Disease forecasters look to weather trends. Only a 10% chance of showers today but a 70% chance of the flu next month.” In one study two scientists say they could predict seven weeks in advance when the flu season would peak in New York City. Computer models factor in rainfall, temperature and other weather conditions to forecast certain disease outbreaks.
Two teens are rescued clinging to a tree after lake ice cracked below them near Show Low, Arizona. Both were treated for mild hypothermia. A fire fighter in a water proof suit got a rope to them. “Arizona lakes usually don’t get cold enough for ice to freeze solidly. Every once in a while we have kids trying to see how far out they can go. That was pretty foolish. There was probably an inch of ice in the middle of the lake” according to a spokesman.
1-5- Ten below zero in Window Rock, Arizona.
Dry winter casues more concerns for farmers in the Corn Belt after the driest summer in fifty years. Corn production was down 27%.
Worst drought in north east Brazil in fifty years. 30% of sugar cane production, diminished corn and cotton crops and cattle and goats starving to death. The agricultue secretary said “…… consequences that could be compared to a violent earthquake.”
Twenty two dogs and one monkey rescued from a house fire in Phoenix. All are fine and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the blaze.
1-6- Six Russians killed and two seriously injured when their snowmobile and sled ran off an Italian Alpine ski resort at night. It slammed into a barrier and then careened into a ravine.
1-7- “Fire bans go up in smoke.” Maricopa County, Arizona residents continue to violate wood burning restrictions during Christmas and New Year. The county exceeded federal health standards for particulates on the day before Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. ( Bah Humbug! Why don’t we fucking ban driving for one day and see how many particulates we save and enjoy the fires for several days?)
“Australia faces catastrophic days as wildfires rage in 5 of country’s 6 states.” 90 fires alone are burning in New South Wales. A record heat wave began in western Australia on December 27th with highs as much as 114 degrees, and lasted for eight days, the worst in 80 years. Combined with record low rainfall and high winds the combination is deadly. (Sounds like fire season in the Arizona deserts.)
1-8- As the wildfires spread across Australia national parks are evacuated. One hundred homes lost in Tasmania.
Last year in the United States there were five record high temperatures for evey one record low temp.; a new record.
A new alpha male gray wolf will be released in eastern Arizona to replace the one illegally killed last July.
Wild burros are crossing a roadway in Bullhead City, Arizona and causing hazardous driving conditions. There have been six recent calls on the fuckers and an accident last month that left a motorcyclist injured and the burro dead.
1-9- The U.S. set an “off the charts heat record for 2012. It was a full degree warmer than the record set in 1989. Breaking records by an entire degree is unprecedented. Normally records are broken by a tenth of a degree or so.
Thirty households return to Jersey Shore for the first time since Hurricane Sandy. 7,000 of 7,400 homes damaged or destroyed. Only residents with restored electricity, gas and water are allowed to return. Others can come in the daytime only as a curfew still exists.
Australia gets some fire relief from the relentless temperatures as it cools down. Two days ago was the hottest day on record since 1972.
A brutal cold winter storm is intensifying the misery of 50,000 Syrian refugees. The camp is a muddy cold mess and 35mph winds have knocked many tents down. Some frustrated refugees have attacked aid workers with sticks and stones.
Mid East storms cause flash flooding and dump a rare foot of snow on the desert in Jordon.
1-10- Chicago breaks a seventy two year old record. 320 days without at least one inch of snowfall. The city usually has 11.5’’ by now, they have a tenth of that amount.
“Southern Soaker” storms bring heavy rain to parts of Texas with some drought relief. Three inches of rain in San Antonio in twelve hours. White Rock Lake in Dallas rose ten feet in one day.
Eleven killer whales trapped under the ice in northern Quebec, coming up for air in a hole the size of a pickup truck. Shifting winds caused the ice to break up just in time to save the beasts.
1-11- Hard Freeze Warnings issued for the Phoenix, Arizona area. Two highways out of Globe and Florence are iced over with some rockslides.
“The Grapevine”, I-5 in California was shut down last night due to snow. Twenty degrees colder in San Diego than Chicago.
Most of Utah is under a Winter Storm Warning with two feet of snow already in some places.
State of Emergency from flash flooding in south east Louisiana with three confirmed tornadoes.
Four Florida cities break records for this month with temperatures 85 degrees or above.
International Falls, North Dakota has a record high of 48 degrees, breaking a previous record by seven degrees.
1-12- Twenty four degree low on The Land. 27 degrees in Anchorage, Alaska.
Twenty one degrees below zero in Bellemont, Arizona. Eleven degrees below zero in Barrow, Alaska.
Freeze Warnings again in San Diego County. Twelve degree record set in the Big Bear Mountain resort east of L.A. Daytime highs are twenty degrees lower than Boston.
A visitor at Meteor Crater in Arizona leaped over a fence at an observation deck. He then came to a tall fence topped with barbed wire that surrounds an old mine in the bottom of the crater. He climbed the fence and jumped feet first into the mine. It took twelve hours to stage his rescue and get him out of the one hundred foot deep shaft. He suffered severe hypothermia, a broken leg and arm. He told deputies later that he wanted to “appease the gods.” (Good God!)
A man who jumped into a tiger den at the Bronx zoo last year has pleaded not guilty to charges of trespassing. He said his jump was not a suicide attempt but a “desire to be one with the tiger. (This clown needs to team up with the mine jumper.)
A ten foot python clings to the wing of a plane on a two hour flight in Australia. It fought to stay on the wing despite brutal cold wind by pulling itself forward. It managed to hang on until the plane landed but was dead on arrival. (How the fuck did a ten foot snake go unnoticed on the exterior of a plane before take off?)
1-13- Twenty degree low on The Land with a forty eight degree high. Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska warmer today than Phoenix.
1-14- Twenty eight degree low at The Land with a high, with the wind chill,
of thirty five degrees.
New record low in Los Angeles of 35 degrees. Winds up to 50mph adding misery to the cold.
In Angeles National Forest a hiker was found surviving twenty six hours of temps in the twenties.
One hundred cities on the East Coast break record high temperatures.
One hundred and forty fires burning north and west of South Wales, Australia. The largest fire has burned 100,000 acres and twenty eight homes. Fires have forced the evacuation of a major observatory which has fifteen major telescopes. The site cannot be reached to assess damages.
Father and son arrested after setting a fire to destroy illegal drugs.
1-15- Twenty degree low on The Land with a high of forty five degrees. For Phoenix this is the most consecutive days with temps below freezing since 1988.
It is so cold in Window Rock, Arizona school is closed because the classrooms cannot be adequately heated.
Ice Storm Warning in South East United States.
Smog so bad in Bejing, China it can be seen from space. One building fire burned for hours without being seen due to poor visibility and the amount of shit in the air.
Here is a sad one: An outdoor loving military veteran ventured out with his eight and ten year old sons on the Ozark Trail. Dressed only in light jackets and sweaters they got soaked in freezing rain and died. They had even declined to take a ride back to the lodge where they were staying. The only survivor of the group was the family’s four month old dog. It was the tragic end of a weekend trip that was a surprise anniversary gift for the man’s wife.
1-16-Tennesee declares a State of Emergency as ice storms leave up one half inch. “When you start putting that much ice on roadways and power lines it’s not going to be good” said a spokesman.
Heavy rains in eastern Tennesse causes flooding.
The controversial snow making machine at the Snow Bowl in northern Arizona is producing yellow snow from reclamated water. Environmentalists are outraged and the snow producers say it only rust in the water. (Don’t eat the yellow snow!)
1-17- Heavy rains and severe flooding in the Indonesian capitol Jakarta. Government offices and businessess forced to close because people cannot get to work. The presidential palace is flooded.
1-18- Indonesia army uses rubber boats in the captial’s business district to rescue people trapped by flooding. The president is pictured standing in water up to his shins with his pant legs rolled up. Four are dead and 20,000 evacuated.
Three hundred and twenty six levees in the U.S., covering 2,000 miles are declared deficient by a new inventory conducted by the federal government. The levees are in danger of failing and protect thirty seven states. There are 2487 structures in the U.S. protecting twenty four million people.
In central Alabama hundreds of motorists spent a cold night trapped in their vehicles on I-65 after four inches of snow causes wrecks and stopped traffic. One hundred people made it to shelters in Cullman, Indiana but others were less fortunate.
The National Weather Service will test using simpler language for storm warnings, alerts, watches and advisories. ( I don’t know how one gets any “simpler” than the current “language.”) For example, instead of a winter storm watch ,“The NWS is forecasting the potential for a significant winter storm.” (Don’t these geeks have anything better to do?)
A Tucson based immigrant rights group, “No More Deaths” claim that hidden cameras show a U.S. Border Patrol agent removing food, water and blankets from a trail intended to be used by crossers. This group, and others, leave items for survival along desert trails know to be used by illegals immigrants. Temperatures between January 9th and the 15th dropped to record lows.
1-20- Hundreds of flights canceled in the UK and Paris due to heavy snow.
Four climbers killed when they were engulfed by an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands. Two escaped, one with serious injuries. Scotland has been battered recently by heavy snow and strong winds.
Six “urban” mountain rescues in the Phoenix area today. Due to the warmer weather many were on the trails, and as usual, some were not prepared.
1-21- Fifty fucking degrees below zero in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Highs to remain below zero. Winds knock out power to 120,000 people in Detroit. (And my candy ass complains about twenty degree lows?)
A fifty eight year old hiker dies after falling off a trail near Spur Cross in Cave Creek, Arizona. He tumbled five to ten feet and hit his head on a rock.
A dog in El Mirage, Arizona is recovering slowly after being caught in a coyote trap. The two year old pooch lost seventeen teeth trying to chew the trap off. The dog’s owner claims the neighbor deliberately set the trap because of a feud they were having. After a lengthy investigation police arrested a U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist for charges of animal cruelty and setting the trap for a domestic animal.
1-22- An “Alberta Clipper” drawing arctic air from Canada has brought brutal winds and snow from North Dakota to Maine. Below zero temp in the western Great Lakes. Seventy five degrees colder in Maine, after record highs, last week. Eighty six car pile up in Cincinatti, Ohio in snowy conditions leaves one person dead. Twenty degrees below zero in Chicago.
And here in the deserts eighty one degrees breaks the old record of 79 degrees set in 1994.
Half of the world’s iron ore shippers halted by a tropical storm in Australia.
1-23- Eighty one degree record high in Phoenix, Arizona.
Most snow ever in January for Erie, Pennsylvania.
A seventeen year old from Tempe, Arizona dies during a sledding accident near Flagstaff, Arizona. He and a friend lost control of the sled and slammed into a tree. The young man was in the front and took full impact of the collision.
No running water for two million Chileans after heavy rain and warm weather melts snow in the Andes mountains causing landslides and river flooding. Mud, rocks and trees have forced the temporary closure of three water purification plants.
Two men shaken up after being attacked and robbed in the front of their yard of a East Texas home. The assailant was a white tailed deer. It chased one of the men into a pickup truck and proceeded to poke the man in the ribs. As the man escaped the deer entered the truck and stole a pack of cigs. Once cops arrived it took five men to calm the “nicotine enraged deer. “ No one was seriously hurt. ( I swear, we simply do not make this shit up.)
A man wants all pet cats out of New Zealand because they are threatening native birds. He has set up a web site called Cats To Go showing a tiny kitten with devil’s horns. The caption reads “That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.” ( My God, please believe your editor in Chief, we do not make this shit up!)
1-24- Victims of Hurricane Sandy hit hard by the cold. Four hundred residences still have no electric. Some who were in “makeshift” homes turn to shelters in tents with propane heaters.
Temps so cold that New Hampshire’s Wildcat Mountain ski resort closed yesterday and today. With a windchill of 48 degrees below zero it was deemed unsafe to be there (you think?)
Salt Lake International Airport closed due to ice.
1-25- Chicago’s no more than an inch of snow in one day streak ended today breaking a record at 335 days. 1.1’’ fell today. The old record of snowless days was set in 1940 of 310 days.
Twenty swift water rescues in Queensland State, Australia from flash flooding. Nearly a foot of rain has fallen since yesterday.
1-26- The wettest air mass in January over Arizona ever recorded. 1.02’’ of rain in Phoenix sets a new daily record. Blizzard conditions in Sunrise, Arizona.
Freezing rain and ice in the Deep South.
1-27- Fifty hikers rescued in Bear Canyon near Tucson, Arizona due to flood waters.
Two water rescues in the Verde River near Pumpkin Center, Arizona.
Flights in and out of Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis grounded due to ice.
Churches across Iowa called off Sunday services due to ice. One half inch across the Midwest.
Salt Lake City had the dirtiest air in the United States last week prompting a State of Emergency. (It sure seems to me this term is way overused. You hear it often ahead of hurricanes, tornadoes and other events even when the city or state may dodge the weather bullet.)
Sixty seven dead cats and ninety nine living ones are removed from a filthy, stinking home in upstate New York. The dead cats were packed in plastic bags in a freezer. (Now this is a fucking state of emergency.)
1-28- Four inches of rain in northern Arizona sets a new record and now snow advisories are issued.
Landslides caused by flooding have killed sixteen poor souls and nine are missing in western Indonesia. Twenty homes buried.
1-29- Four feet of new snow at the Snow Bowl in northern Arizona. (And it ain’t man made yellow piss snow.)
Tornadoes in January? Warm air colliding with cold air has prompted Tornado Watches in five states. Kansas City had a high of 68 degrees and Chicago, 63 degrees, thirty degrees above normal.
1-30- Don’t drink the yellow snow. Snowbowl snow making gets the okay and according to ADEQ treated waste water is a “safe source.”
Powerful tornado in Adairsville, Georgia. One person killed and overturned cars closed ten miles of I-75.
Tornado Warnings from Central Tennessee and Kentucky to northern and western Georgia.
Florida warm weather colliding with north colder air. Tornado watches issued for D.C., the first in twenty years. Record 65 degrees yesterday in Cleveland, tonight snow.
The cat killer debate moves to the United States. Cats kill up to 3.7 billion birds annually, part of a three year Fish and Wildlife Service Study . A third of the eight hundred bird species in the U.S. are endangered, threatened or in significant decline.
1-31- Sudden snow white out kills three and injures forty in Michigan on I-75 near Detroit.
What happened to the days when Blue Duck Weather was only a few pages? Was weather less severe or as my maddened mind looked for more news? One of these months, when the Lovely Mrs. Blue Duck edits this shit for press she is going to shoot me in the beak and cut my tail feathers (balls) off.
Until next month remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The quite Distinguished, weather photograph runner up, honorary award winner of the Quack award in journalism, Honory Professor, Mr. Blue Duck.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
December 2012 Blue Duck Weather News
December 2012 Weather News!
Before we begin another amazing issue of Blue Duck Weather your fine staff is pleased to announce yet another amazing award for Professor Blue Duck. He has won Honorable Mention for a photograph of flash flooding that he took last summer. The contest was sponsored by the National Weather Service locally to capture weather events and their impact. The Quack never ceases to amaze!
On a much more serious note December had a cyclone in a distant part of the world equal to a Category 5 hurricane. The devastation and death toll was staggering. Had it been the United States it would have been front page print news and around the clock reporting on media outlets for weeks. There would have been fund raisers, concerts, prayer vigils, donations and help from afar. But I would bet that most of you reading this do not even know where this destructive phenomenon happened. The events will unfold in this weather journal. And almost two months after Hurricane Sandy there were news reports (if you looked for them) at least twice a week. The poor souls in New Jersey and New York are still trying to recover.
This month you will read about Hurricane Sandy’s prediction of size and power was underestimated and under predicted, a fire in the mountains of Colorado in December (seems impossible), Typhoon Bopha, hunting grizzly bears may become legal in the not so distant future (?), a rare tornado with major damage in New Zealand, on a not so happy note just in time for Christmas, partridges and turtle doves in sharp decline in Great Britain (aren’t they the birds in that stupid Christmas song?), find out what a “king tide” is, a dog that saves his and other pets lives trapped in a car by honking the horn, circus elephants almost killed by the cold saved by vodka diluted with warm water!, “Sandy Claus”, “find out what a skin slide is, Hurricane domes being constructed in Texas and so much more in this amazing issue of Blue Duck Weather!
The average temperature on The Land for December was 47.90 degrees, a full thirteen degrees colder than the beginning of the month. The average temperature at Talking Trees and Antelope Hill in New Mexico was 32.45 degrees.
The Land received .40” of rain in December. The total for the year was 5.69”, over two inches below “normal”. Phoenix received 4.27’’ or rain for the year.
The lake levels (that matter) continue to reflect this never ending drought. Lake Mead is 52% full, Pleasant 58%, Powell 53% and Roosevelt 42%!
12-1- November was the second warmest on record in Phoenix, Arizona.
The body of a missing seventeen year old hiker has been found in the White Tank Mountain Park west of Phoenix after missing for three days. The young man was a cross country runner. The death “does not appear suspicious.”
Two hundred folks evacuate the Fern Lake Fire in the Rocky Mountain National Park near Denver, Colorado. The fire is being fueled by 70 mph winds and has burned one cabin. The blaze originally began in October by an illegal campfire and was 40% contained until last night. The fire is has burned 1550 acres since it began. Snow is desperately needed. Editor’s note; this fire must be burning in some rugged, inaccessible areas with little “impact” to be left burning since October. God, it must be dry for a fire to burning in December in the mountains of Colorado!
12-2- “What would normally be of interest only to weather Geeks.” The fact that Sandy made landfall last week as a post tropical cyclone rather than a hurricane is feeding controversy among government agencies. The question is why were there no hurricane warnings issued? Two days before the storm the New York City mayor said “with this storm we will likely see a slow pile up of water rather than a sudden surge.” (Man, were they wrong!)
Thousands in Staten Island still waiting for repairs to their homes to restore electricity and heat.
The third storm in a series hits central and northern California last night and today. The rain total in some areas is up to twenty inches! All of San Francisco is under a flash flood and mud slide Warning.
Group of Boy Scout hikers in the Four Peaks area, north east of Phoenix are twenty four hours overdue. They went on a “quick” weekend nine mile hike.
12-3- A dry fall has placed Houston and Fort Worth, Texas back into severe drought conditions.
Record heat in Chicago at 70 degrees, 30 degrees warmer than normal. Two hundred high temperature records broken in forty states. The jet stream is keeping cold weather well to the north and Fairbanks, Alaska had a low temperature today of 52 degrees below zero!
Overdue Boy Scouts located in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona and are safe. A rescue helicopter spotted them at about one in the morning, determined they were fine, and left. They thought they got the “thumbs up” from the weary boys and “leaders.” Some parents are pissed because they thought a rescue should have taken place since the group was low on food and water.
12-4- Typhoon Bopha hit’s the Philippines with 160 mph winds, equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, killing eighty one people and 155,000 in shelters.
12-5- The death toll from Bopha has risen to 283 poor souls. 300 missing and “entire families washed away.”
A cargo ship and rescue boat sink in a severe storm in the Black Sea near Turkey. Three killed and ten missing.
Hurricane Sandy victims still looking for vacant apartments. First responders from Katrina have come in to help New York residents. New York was there for the Gulf Coast after the devastation of Katrina. New Orleans is returning the favor. (Honor amongst brothers.)
With bear and human conflicts rising, wildlife managers in the northern Rockies are laying the groundwork for trophy hunts in anticipation of the government lifting the the Grizzly bear’s threatened species status. It will be another two years before six hundred bears around Yellow Stone National Park lose federal protection. But already “officials” say the population has recovered to the point that limited hunting for small numbers could occur. (I am a hunter but this is wrong! They were slaughtered nearly to extinction out of fear. If hunts are to be allowed it should not be “trophy” hunts but extended to the folks who need every part of the bear for survival. Are there any of those people left? We all know who they once were but now Wal Mart and Jack in the Box has replaced every basic, and then some, need.)
12-6- A fifty four year old man has been found alive two days after being swept away by flooding from Typhoon Bopha. He was found clinging to a boulder by a tree in a river. He survived on coconut and water until he was found with a fractured leg. Three hundred and seventy nine folks are gone and hundreds missing.
A rare tornado kills three near the largest city in New Zealand, Aukland, and damages one hundred and fifty homes.
12-7- Typhoon Bopha’s killing spree is over five hundred with four hundred missing. 310,000 are homeless. (One photo I saw really struck me in the heart. It showed six or seven men wading across a swollen muddy river holding a white casket above their heads. They were taking the body home.)
12-8- After killing near six hundred people Typhoon Bopha makes a u-turn and heading back to the northwest Philippines.
Breezy Point, New York faces its greates historical challenge after Hurricane Sandy. Residents have to decide if they can afford to re rebuild and others wondering if their community will ever be the same. The town was built by Irish immigrants around the turn of the 20th century.
Britain’s Royal Society for Protection of Birds reposts that partridges and turtle doves are declining rapidly with numbers down 30%.
A woman ate snow and tomatoes for nearly a week and found shelter in a hollowed out treee after becoming stranded in a snowstorm in California’s Alpine County. Her boyfriend died trying to find help. Their Jeep Cherokee got stuck during on a dirt road near a lake.
12-10- The last significant rain in the Phoenix area was on September 7th, leaving a deficit of almost four inches. But much cooler weather is on the way.
12-11- I didn’t realize “much cooler weather” would mean a 29 degree low at The Land. With a dew point of 6 degrees you can be sure there was no ice.
Rare December tornadoes in southern states. Forty homes damaged and twelve destroyed. Fuel pumps blown over in Alabama.
12-12- Twenty seven degree low on The Land! The lovely Mrs. Blue Duck told me on her way to work she turned on the the windshield wipers and cleaning fluid and it immediately turned into ice!
Hayduke Lives! Four protestors of artificial snowmaking were arrested for interfering with a Coconino National Forest office in Flagstaff. One poured out a clear fluid that later was determined to be reclaimed water. The lobby was closed and fucking Haz-Mat units were called. The protestors wore white suits and masks, chanting and displayed large banners that read “Forest Service kills Native culture.”
The fourth straight day of snow and blizzard in Southeastern Europe. Three feet of snow falls overnight in Montenegro. In Serbia, across the border, heavy snow blocked roads to a dozen villages and schools are closed for the rest of the week. Nine deaths are attributed to the weather with temperatures as low as five degrees.
12-13- Snow level in Arizona expected to drop down to five thousand feet.
Growth in the West is straining the Colorado River. “Population growth and climate change will drain the Colorado River’s ability to supply the West unless there is bold action to conserve fresh water or make more” according to federal officials. ( Let me remind you water cannot be “made." It can be hauled, transported, pumped or stolen but it cannot be made.)
The first significant snow of the season in Anchorage, Alaska.
Winter storm today in Southern California with rain that causes mudslides, flooded streets and a “Kingtide” across the coast. At Sunset Beach, ocean water flooded over streets and parking lots. It is a unusually high tide that only happens a few times a year. One inch of rain was reported in San Diego in three hours.
A pile of trash three story’s high remains from Sandy in Long Beach, New Jersey.
12-14- Fourteen to sixteen inches of snow in the White Mountains in Arizona.
A Tuba City, Arizona man pleads guilty of violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act by selling golden eagle and other bird parts. He faces up to two years in prison and a 250,000 dollar fine. In 2008 he offered a golden eagle feather fan for sale on line. An undercover agent exchanged email and offered to buy it.
More information on the King Tide; it happens when the earth, moon and sun align in a way that increases gravitational pull on the earth’s oceans, raising water levels higher than normal high tides.
Death toll from Bopha in the Philippines is over nine hundred, 80,000 in shelters, nine hundred and thirty four missing and twenty six hundred injured.
12-15- With a Winter Storm Warning still in place twenty one inches of snow north west of Flagstaff, eighteen inches east of Payson, 1.32” of rain in Anthem and 1.35” of rain in Apache Junction.
A dog apparently left and neglected by owners trapped in a vehicle with two other dogs and two cats for days. Apparently one of the dogs alerted Canadian police by honking the horn. ( I swear, we don’t make this shit up.)
12-16- An impressive twenty inches of snow from this latest storm in Flagstaff, Arizona.
“Sandy’s mental health toll emerges.” Project Hope in New York City is reaching out to twenty thousand people. One man lives in a tent in his back yard refusing to leave until his home is demolished. The extent of the problem is difficult to measure, as many people are too anxious to leave their homes, wracked by fears of wind and water or parting from their loved ones. One woman said “You’ve got to get numb. You’ve got to get tough. If I’m not numb I can’t function.
12-17- Tropical Cyclone Eva slams the “tropical paradise’’ of Fiji in the Pacific with winds up to 170 mph. 3500 evacuated to emergency shelters.
12-18- One hundred percent chance of snow in Flagstaff, Arizona today. (A rare prediction as the weather reporters have no excuse if they blow it!)
Northwest mountains receive three feet of snow in the strongest storm of the season. 80 mph winds along the coast knock out power in Seattle and the Portland areas to 28,000. Nineteen states are under Winter Storm Warnings.
12-19- Freeze Warning from two a.m. to ten a.m. for the “Valley of the Sun”.
Blizzard Warnings from the Rockies to the North East including twelve states. Wisconsin governor declares State of Emergency. Chicago may get snow after a record of 92 days without any.
The cold in Siberia almost killed two circus elephants after their trailer caught on fire. A handler bought two cases of vodka and gave it to the beasts with diluted with warm water. “After that they roared as if they were in the jungle.” Apparently they were happy.”
12-20- Holiday travel alert as Central U.S. storm brings flight disruptions, deadly blizzard and even a tornado. Six hundred flights cancelled at Chicago O’Hare, a tornado knocks out power to 400,000 in Mobile, Alabama. Blizzard Warnings are issued for sixteen states. “Thundersnow” in Iowa last night as thunder and lightning mix with falling snow. This same system in west Texas caused a dust storm that caused accidents along I-27. Wisconsin declares State of Emergency and all schools are closed.
12-21- First day of Old Man Winter and the least amount of daylight. It’s uphill from here leading right back to another fucking summer in the desert!
Sandy Claus delivers toys to storm ravaged homes in Queens, New York to awe struck little kids whose play rooms were destroyed by flooding and old toys swept away.
The tornado in Mobile, Alabama has been confirmed as an EF-1 with winds of 86-99 mph. 22,800 still without power.
12-22- 6300 flights delayed and 144 canceled. Winter Storm Warnings for northern California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Ohio and North Carolina. (Merry Christmas from fucking Old Man Winter!)
12-23- Whiteout conditions in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California with three to five feet of snow expected. Heavy rain in San Francisco.
An Amtrack train called the Train of Hope is headed from New Orleans to Sandy victims with one half million shoes, blankets and toys.
12-24- Up to six feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. As the storm moves east Winter Storm Warnings are issued from Monatana, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
12-25- Seventeen extremely rare winter tornadoes in the South, the worst in Mobile, Alabama.
Snow as far south as Texas all the way to Maine. Denver hasn’t had snow on Christmas day since 2009. 150,000 without power in Arkansas. Thirty one unconfirmed tornadoes spotted from Texas to Alabama.
12-26- Heavy snow from Indiana to New York and a Blizzard Warning that extends for seven hundred and thirty miles from Winter Storm Euclid. (As you may recall, the fine staff at Blue Duck Weather reported in a forgotten edition that the U.S. was going to begin naming major winter storms so people pay more attention to the potential devestation possible. But give me a break. Euclid? )
Twenty one tornadoes sets a record in the South in the last twenty four hours with three deaths. Arkansas sets a record with nine inches of snow on the ground.
12-27- From his secluded location in Colorado RyDuck reports a high temperature of sixteen degrees.
Twenty one inches of snow in the North East with one thousand flights canceled and eight thousand delayed.
12-28- The Arizona ski resort Snowbowl near Flagstaff has received six feet of snow this season in a very short amount of time.
Forty landslides caused by heavy rain since Thanksgiving have disrupted the scenic Amtrack train route between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Passenger service has been completely shut down since December 17th. The worst damage, a “skin slide”, a section of cliff slid into a moving cargo train taking out seven cars. The latest slide occurred yesterday.
“Hurricane Domes” are being built across Texas doubling as a typical high school gym and a hurricane shelter. Twenty eight will be built with double layers of block walls with steel and concrete that penetrate thirty feet below grade. They are designed to withstand winds up to 200mph. New York is looking at a similar plan.
12-29- From the Ohio Valley to New England severe storm causes of to one foot of snow in areas. Twenty million holiday travelers affected.
Three bull elk were illegally poached around December 3rd near Flagstaff, Airzona. Although it was elk season (legally) the three carcasses were found partially field dressed with most of the edible meat left to waste.
A reward is being offered by the Arizona Game & Fish department for information of who illegally killed a javelina on Christmas day near Bisbee. It was shot in the head and dragged down a residential street. The pig was found with an orange extension cord wrapped through its mouth.
12-30- The snow level in Arizona will drop to twenty five hundred feet tonight. Ooshy at The Land and .05’’ of rain.
Snow Emergencies in Wisconsin and Rhode Island.
12-31- Freeze Warning issued for “the Valley of the Sun” from midnight to eight a.m.
Eight inches of snow in Payson from the latest storm that passed by.
And so my faithful readers this ends another exhausting year of weather reporting from your fine Staff at Blue Duck Weather.
Until next year remember Pioneers took bullets. Settlers took land.
The Distinguished, Honorable MR. Blue Duck
Sunday, December 2, 2012
November Blue Duck Weather News 2012
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
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