Weekend Edition - El Nino Pattern Continues and the Snow Piles up Back East With More on the Way

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Standing tall on North Dakota snow, a March blizzard nearly buried utility poles. Caption jokingly read "I believe there is a train under here somewhere!" If the snows keep falling in western New York, we could see similar pictures as the drifts pile up. This photo was taken on March 9, 1966 at Jamestown, North Dakota by Bill Koch, ND Hwy Dept. Courtesy of Dr. Herbert Kroehl, NGDC

NOWCAST - Our El Nino type pattern continues as weather systems split off the coastline with most energy heading south and wrap around moisture reaching us with lighter rainfall amounts. Light rain or showers with seasonal to above temperatures are on tap all next week.

FORECAST - Tonight: Showers. Lows 40 to 45. East wind 10 to 15 mph except 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph near the Columbia gorge..decreasing late.. Sunday: Chance of showers. Highs around 50. South wind 10 to 15 mph. Sunday night: Showers likely. Lows around 40. South wind 5 to 15 mph becoming light after midnight. Monday: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Highs around 50. South wind 5 to 10 mph. SEVEN DAY TREND - Periods of light rain or showers with dry periods as well. Temperatures 35-55 degrees.

OUTCAST - This photo by the AP shows the snow to be quite deep in western NY with some communities reporting ten feet of snowfall with 2-4 feet more expected over this weekend before all is said and done. Officials are running out of places to put all that snow and are hauling truckloads of the white stuff to vacant lots and dumping it. some of these man made mountains of snow could reach 75 feet high! Enough to last a good share of the summer. Some folks say this rivals the blizzard of 1966. Residents of these lake effect snows usually deal with 5-6 feet of snow with no problem but this is too much! First Alaska had too much snow which caused big problems for Anchorage a while back and now this. I watched a National Geographic show the other day and they said we could be about ready to enter another big cool down or ice age caused by . . . global warming! As the ice melts the ice at the north pole, the cold water flows south to the equator causing severe weather patterns, this deep cold water affects the global conveyor belt thermohaline circulation . Not to be caught up in the global climate change alarm that is blaring right now as this has occurred in the past long before man walked these parts. The program said volcanic eruptions and the earth's not so perfect orbit around the sun can cause great swings in temperatures on the planet. Bottom line is that there will be more severe weather events caused by these natural changes in our climate. Man should worry and take care of more immediate issues troubling our society.

On the down side of things, thanks to Al Gore and company, the way children are taught about climate are changing, at least in England. read this:

Reading, Writing, and Global Warming for British Students
By Kevin McCandless
CNSNews.com Correspondent
February 09, 2007

London (CNSNews.com) - Students at state-funded schools in Britain will learn about global warming, the government announced this week -- and former Vice President Al Gore's provocative views on the issue will get maximum exposure.
As part of the new school curriculum for 11- to 14-year-olds, the government said students will be taught about how the earth's climate is changing and about the importance of "sustainable development."
(Other new subjects being introduced include Arabic and Mandarin, healthy cooking and the history of Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.)
A government spokeswoman said Friday that all state schools and all faith-based school getting state funding -- most of them do -- are required to follow the curriculum. Private schools are "strongly encouraged" to do so.
A spokesman for the UK government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) told Cybercast News Service that under the new plan, teachers will not be given a set number of hours each week to teach about global warming.
The new curriculum is a guideline, which individual schools and teachers will use in the formation of their lesson plans, he said.
For example, a class might take a field trip to the hills of north Wales and study the evidence of previous ice ages to be found in the rocks there. From this, he said, students will learn firsthand about how the earth's temperature has changed through the ages.
Although many scientists still question the extent of the climate-change threat - and whether human activity plays a role in it -- the spokesman called it an "uncontentious issue" and said the "evidence was already in."
The National Union of Teachers warned this week that students might be overloaded from the new curriculum, but the QCA spokesman said he doubted there would be many complaints over the global warming classes.
"Not from parents," he said. "Not on an issue like this. The controversial issues in the English school system are sex, drugs, alcohol, and religion."
In addition to the new curriculum, the government also announced that it will send a copy of Gore's global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to every high school in England.
The movie charges that the global environment has been drastically changed by the burning of fossil fuels and suggests in a variety of ways how viewers can change their behavior to save the planet.
Government ministers said the debate on global warming had been settled and that by watching Gore's documentary, young students will be inspired to live less environmentally damaging lives.
"Children are the key to changing society's long-term attitudes to the environment," Education Minister Alan Johnson said. "Not only are they passionate about saving the planet, but children also have a big influence over their own families' lifestyles and behavior."
The Gore documentary will form part of a year-long environmental program in state schools, although the QCA spokesman said it was not part of the new curriculum.

Politics questioned
Greenpeace and the British Green Party applauded the move but the conservative U.K. Independence Party charged that it violated education laws which prohibited the airing of partisan political views in schools.
"This is political propaganda at its worst," said deputy party leader David Campbell Bannerman. "The climate change argument is ongoing and for the government to sponsor one side of the debate is a disgrace."
In recent months, European critics of the film have charged that Gore exaggerates and distorts facts in his films to fit his argument.
For example, Danish writers such as Flemming Rose and Bjorn Lomborg -- the latter, the author of the Skeptical Environmentalist -- have attacked Gore for showing a sea-rise of 20 feet while the U.N.'s climate body has only postulated a rise of one foot over this century.
A spokesman for the government's environmental department brushed these concerns aside Thursday.
"We're not going to get into a discussion on the merits of the film," he said.

And the debate goes on - George Taylor (right) and Phil Mote (left) recently discussed their views on global climate change at OMSI. And no, George is not giving the peace sign or is he? Nice gesture anyway. Just goes to show you that there are always two sides to every issue. You have to decide for yourself based on the facts presented.






BIG SNOWSTORM COMING? - AccuWeather is predicting a big snowstorm for the mid Atlantic states on Tuesday. Read their special report here.

THIS IS AWFUL - I can't leave you without showing you this video clip of a poor weather man back east. I will warn you it is three minutes long and you may not be able to stand it. Click here.


My Quote of the Day - " If you don't know which way to turn, turn to a friend for help." - Pat Timm



-- posted by Pat Timm @ 4:53 PM,  

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home