We just had that sub zero and today in the 40s with 50s predicted for Friday. Like a roller coaster. Just got a call from my local VA (Veterans Administration). Apparently a major pipe burst with the sub zero and devastated the place. They hope to be up by late march. Just means on Friday I have an appointment downtown to get my hearing aids rather than at my local satellite VA. No shortage of power outages and frozen pipes here. Looks like no snow for several days or at least a week. Tomorrow I'll do a major super market run.

Ron

 

Glad this isn't MY home.

ah... lake Erie... winds pushed water from one side to the other.
while west was measuring water level at -7ft, east side was up to +9ft. homes near lake cased in thick ice, lots of flooding....

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1606396660434837507

 

ah... lake Erie... winds pushed water from one side to the other.
while west was measuring water level at -7ft, east side was up to +9ft. homes near lake cased in thick ice, lots of flooding....


View attachment 284237

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1606396660434837507

While Lake Erie is the shallowest of the great lakes it has two basins and East Basin and a West Basin. The west basin being shallower than the east basin. If we have a cold winter the feeding rivers freeze over till spring. When spring comes the ice flows and blocks begin resulting in flooding. I never did understand why people build houses in a flood plane. Next as mentioned when we get a strong wind out of the north the wind pushes the water ashore. This becomes a mess during winters when the water is freezing in for example Interstate 90. Currently the lake is the highest it has ever been. Both cities in Canada and the US draw water from the lake but it has been on the rise.

If and when the lake does get a thick layer of ice the fishing guys drive out and set up their fishing shanties. This is great till spring when the ice cracks and we have ice flows and the Coast Guard plucking stupid people off the ice flows.

Growing up Long Island I always had the beach and ocean. Living on one of the Great Lakes is and entirely different experience.


Ron

 

Currently the lake is the highest it has ever been. Both cities in Canada and the US draw water from the lake but it has been on the rise.

The Great Salt Lake sure could use some of that water.

The lake has been drying up because of two factors - overuse of the water source and lack of rainfall/snowfall. What many Salt Lakers don't realize is that when the lake dries up so does the lake effect snowfall. This is a feedback that has tipped beyond what nature can rectify without a drastic drastic drastic winter - or several drastic drastic winters in a row. The marina is dry. Dust blown from what was the lake bottom contains a lot of arsenic, and it becomes airborne when the south winds blow. I'm on the north east side of the lake. Yeah, all I need now is a little "Old Lace" to go with my arsenic.

Not long ago I was watching the NASA channel and they were talking about Apollo 11 moon landing and how the entire earth population (3 billion) was watching. Got curious and looked up earth's population and it's 7.955 billion now. Let's go ahead and call it what it is - 8 billion people. That's a lot of people sucking up the water and pumping out carbon dioxide. Great Lakes at historic highs, midwestern and eastern seaboards experiencing torrential rainfalls and stormy weather, ocean levels rising and Florida coastlines sinking - I think this is part of natures balancing act. When a species overtaxes the resources the population declines. Sadly experts are predicting a peak of some 10 billion people before it begins to decline. I remain skeptical that mankind won't experience some sort of self inflicted catastrophe that will hasten the decline of the human society. And I'm not talking about an asteroid strike or a super volcano eruption. Dinosaurs ruled for many millions of years. When their population overtaxed the area and food sources became scarce so did the dinosaurs. But it didn't lead to their extinction. What may lead to our own extinction (opinion here) is that we are so busy prolonging life and taking more and more land for humanity that we're going to reach a collapsing point. The weather is a result of human presence. And pollution. No other animal burns fossil fuels. No other animal seeks medical advances to prolong life. No other animal is subject to natures balancing effects.

OK, happy new year y'all. "(

 

OK, happy new year y'all. "(

and a happy and safe new year back at you.

Ron

 

The flip-side.

 

OK, happy new year y'all. "(

Happy new year to you too

 

Looks like a January thaw. Average temperatures here are 22 average low and 35 average high. But those are just averages. Weather typically has a range of what would be considered normal daily variations in temp's.

 

It's cloudy in my place now, 0 degrees cloudy, as always, almost in winter, unfortunately, there is no snow

 

Today it's snowing in Sweden, the temperature was -2 at night, it's supposed to snow a lot

 

 

Normally by now we have seen plenty of snow but we only really only had one sub zero F cold snap over Christmas leaving about 4" of snow. Been making about 40 F the past week and currently 5:44 PM it's still 36 F. Plenty of overcast and rain with more to come.

Ron

 

Today in my Norway in Oslo it was snowing all day but the temperature is not bad, only -2

 

A sad story.
“We use the term, ‘Turn around, don’t drown,’”
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/01/12/boy-told-mom-be-calm-before-being-swept-away-in-floodwater-2/
Boy told mom ‘be calm’ before being swept away in California floodwaters

LOS ANGELES — Lindsy Doan didn’t think the water flowing over the creek crossing on San Marcos Road was deeper than normal when she tried navigating it in her SUV while driving her 5-year-old son to school.

But the creek, swollen with rain from California’s epic winter storms, was much higher and flowing stronger than she anticipated. Doan cursed as she lost control of the steering and the 4,300-pound Chevy Traverse was carried off the road and pinned against a large sycamore tree.

 

I actually caught the story on the news. Sad to say the least. Something I just can't fathom is losing a child.

Ron

 

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/01...osting-water-supplies-after-years-of-drought/

California storms: Reservoirs are filling quickly, boosting water supplies after years of drought
Some Bay Area reservoirs are 100% full, as Oroville rises 97 feet

 

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/01...osting-water-supplies-after-years-of-drought/

California storms: Reservoirs are filling quickly, boosting water supplies after years of drought
Some Bay Area reservoirs are 100% full, as Oroville rises 97 feet

Prayers for the delta smelt.

 

Prayers for the delta smelt.

 

 

Been there and played that game. No 4 wheel drive and no chains, no mountain pass. Pretty cool snow blowers on a large scale. Actually was upper 40s today, rain turning to snow and maybe 4" by morning rush hour. Not bad so far, Buffalo isn't all that far. those poor bastards.

Ron