Posts Tagged ‘weather’

Climate Change Deniers Are Completely Insane

Wednesday, January 28th, 2015

I couldn’t agree more with this guy, Matt Walsh, in the article posted on theBlaze.com, Climate Change Deniers Are Completely Insane.

Here’s an excerpt:

If anyone is a climate change denier — that is, someone who denies that climates change — I’d agree that he is an imbecile and probably mentally unstable.

Yet that view doesn’t exist because we all know the climate changes. Of course the climate changes. It’s a climate. That’s what climates do. They change. It gets colder, it gets hotter, it rains, it snows, it does all kinds of things. I don’t deny that, and although I’m not a Republican and I take great exception to that accusation, I feel safe in speaking for them when I say that they neither deny the fact of the climate, nor the fact that the climate changes. Progressives use labels like “climate denier” or “climate skeptic” (for the people who are willing to believe that there might be a climate, but are still a little iffy on the whole thing) because they are not interested in an honest discussion. You either buy in to their environmental dogma one hundred percent, or you will be painted as an idiot, an infidel, and a maniac.

Now, why might a person be skeptical about the theory that humans are causing dramatic shifts to the climate, and that these shifts will eventually kill us all? Have you ever thought about why someone might have these reservations, JM? Have you really taken the time to consider the reasons for this skepticism? Yeah, they’re morons, right, I get it, but have you determined that they’re morons because the media and people on Twitter told you they’re morons, or because you gave their case a fair hearing and came away with the impression that they have absolutely nothing even slightly coherent to say? I’m guessing it’s more the former, which makes you not necessarily a moron yourself, but an intellectually lazy chump who can be easily herded and exploited.

There’s a lot more to his article; very well written, and very much in line with the way I see the issue. The climate change issue seems to have less to do with science than with politics, and the people making the most noise about it don’t do themselves any favors when they start demonizing anyone who doesn’t agree with them on the subject. Well done, Mr. Walsh; bookmarked.

global-warming

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The Return Of The Weatherball?

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

The Argus Leader ran a story today about a Sioux Falls guy — Greg Allis — who is leading the charge to resurrect one of the weatherballs that used to operate in town.

When the weatherball is red,
Warmer weather is ahead.

When the weatherball is white,
colder weather is in sight.

When the weatherball is green,
No change is forseen.

When it blinks in agitation,
There’s going to be precipitation.


There are only two weatherballs left in Sioux Falls; a 5-foot ball at 33rd and Minnesota and a 10-foot ball at 9t Street and Main Avenue. Neither one works. Apparently there is no desire on the part of the banks to get them working again, so Allis wants the city to pick up the project and place one of the balls in a city park, in the name of historic preservation. But the city is balking because they aren’t really old enough to qualify for the “historic” designation.

I love the idea of putting a weatherball back in action, but I don’t necessarily like the idea of it becoming a city government thing. I’m surprised though that one of the local news & weather stations hasn’t grabbed the idea and used it for promotion. KELO-TV was one of the original sponsors; wouldn’t it be great for them to put a weatherball on top of their tower in the downtown area? Just think of the mileage they’d get out of that thing. Or if KSFY picked up on the idea and placed one on a prominent billboard with reference to their weather forecasting…

That would be pure genius. At least I think so. (more…)

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The Convective Heat Burst

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Last night we experienced a rather weird and rare weather phenomenon. It’s called a Convective Heat Burst.

About 4 a.m. this morning I woke to the sound of shrieking winds and tree branches falling on the roof. I looked outside & saw that a good-sized branch had fallen from the maple tree, so I went outside to check & see if there was any damage. One step outside the back door and I knew something was up; it was like walking into a sauna — hot!

The wind was still howling and it was beginning to rain, but thankfully, there wasn’t any damage to the house & the large branch had fallen between our house and the neighbor’s garage on the fence & but small branches were scattered everywhere. The wind died down shortly afterward, and I could feel the temperature dropping while I was out there. It was strange; really strange.

This afternoon I went digging around on the Internet to see what I could find out about what went on this morning; KELO-TV had a blurb on their website and their blog about it which provided me with its name, and of course Wikipedia has a page on it, which was even updated with this morning’s event; how about that! I posted a question to the KELO blog about it and Tony Barlow responded with a little more information on it and a link to another website describing the phenomena. The graph below (click on the image for a slightly larger version) also came from Tony and the KELO blog.

Turns out that meteorologists don’t know for sure what causes a heat burst but they always happen when a thunderstorm cell is dying. It’s theorized that it starts when rain hits a pocket of dry air at about 10-20,000 feet and quickly evaporates. The evaporating moisture causes the air to become more dense than the surrounding air, which causes it to descend rapidly. During the rapid descent the air mass is compressed, which causes its temperature to rise sharply. When that mass of air hits the ground, you get high winds and hot, dry air. The link provided by Tony mentions that the hot dry air is capable of killing vegetation by quickly pulling the moisture out of it, and in some cases the heat can stick around for quite some time.

According to the chart above the temperature was about 73° prior to the event. Within a very short time period the temp jumped to the 101° high, then drifted back down to about 72°. According to the Wikipedia entry, a heat burst occurred in Brazil in 1949 causing the temp to jump from 100°F to 158°F in two minutes!

I had never even heard of a heat burst before, much less experienced one, so in a way I’m glad for the large downed branch laying in my yard, in spite of the extra work it means… If it weren’t for that I wouldn’t have been outside at 4a.m. to experience the heat; and if it weren’t for that I wouldn’t have been curious enough to go looking for the reason behind that and the wind accompanying it.

Update: (more…)

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