Comments on: Roundup of some interesting July weather records

By: Penny

Penny — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:21:31 +0000

I could go for a cooler, drier summer in Florida. I would even take cooler OR drier. Send some record low temperatures my way! An early fall sounds nice too. If I could be a snow bird, I would, but I think I'm a bit too young for that now. Summer in PA and winter in FL = perfect. www.eggairservice.com

By: John Stover

John Stover — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:17:02 +0000

Dollar signs at the end of a Wx report harks back to teletypewriters
when they marked the end of a message.

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:25:48 +0000

Flanagan! Your back pedal splashed mud on my post!

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:34:31 +0000

Don’t ya love the dollar signs at the end!!! Is that a plea for money to fund research on COOLING?

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:32:44 +0000

Summer is OVER! We are now entering FALL!

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOISE ID
609 AM MDT WED AUG 5 2009

IDZ011>016-028>030-ORZ061>064-052200-
WEST CENTRAL MOUNTAINS-LOWER TREASURE VALLEY ID-BOISE MOUNTAINS-
UPPER TREASURE VALLEY-SOUTHWEST HIGHLANDS-WESTERN MAGIC VALLEY-
CAMAS PRAIRIE-OWYHEE MOUNTAINS-SOUTHERN TWIN FALLS COUNTY-
HARNEY COUNTY-BAKER COUNTY-MALHEUR COUNTY-
LOWER TREASURE VALLEY OR-
609 AM MDT WED AUG 5 2009 /509 AM PDT WED AUG 5 2009/

…MAJOR CHANGE IN THE WEATHER TO BEGIN THURSDAY…

A LARGE FALL-LIKE STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE OVER THE REGION LATE
THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY…BRINGING MUCH COOLER TEMPERATURES AND LOTS
OF RAIN TO SOUTHEAST OREGON AND SOUTHWEST IDAHO. WE WILL SEE
RECORD-SETTING TEMPERATURES…IN THE RATHER OBSCURE FORM OF COOL
DAYTIME MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES. THE CLOUD COVER ASSOCIATED WITH THE
RAINFALL WILL KEEP THE TEMPERATURES FROM PLUMMETING AT NIGHT…AND
THEREFORE WE WILL NOT SEE ANY RECORD LOW NIGHT-TIME TEMPERATURES…
THE KIND WE NORMALLY THINK OF WHEN WE THINK OF RECORD COLD
WEATHER.

THE OTHER IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THIS STORM IS THE POTENTIAL FOR VERY
HEAVY RAIN. PARTS OF THE AREA WILL SEE OVER AN INCH OF RAINFALL
IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. MODEL GUIDANCE IS EVEN INDICATING THAT TWO TO
THREE INCHES OF RAINFALL MAY OCCUR IN SOME AREAS. THEREFORE…IT
IS ALMOST CERTAIN THAT RAINFALL RECORDS WILL BE BROKEN AS WELL.

THE RECENT REAPPEARANCE OF EL NINO…AND THE OFTEN-DISCUSSED TOPIC
OF CLIMATE CHANGE…MAY PROMPT THE QUESTION…WHY ARE WE HAVING
THIS STORM? SCIENTIFICALLY…THIS PARTICULAR STORM CANNOT BE TIED
TO ANY ONE PROCESS. FOR MOST OF THIS WARM SEASON…UP UNTIL
ABOUT THREE WEEKS AGO…THE NORTHWEST UNITED STATES WAS IN A
PERSISTENT PATTERN OF BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND ABOVE NORMAL
RAINFALL. THIS STORM SIGNALS A RETURN TO THAT PATTERN. IT APPEARS
LIKELY THAT THIS PATTERN WILL DOMINATE THE SUMMER OF 2009. THIS IS
NOT TO SAY THAT WE WILL NOT HAVE ANOTHER HOT SPELL…BUT OVERALL
THIS SUMMER WILL END UP BEING RELATIVELY COOL AND WET FOR MOST
FOLKS IN OUR PART OF THE COUNTRY.

By: Flanagan

Flanagan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:01:24 +0000

Gary and Harold: I never said fires never took place in Canada, did I? I only notice that they are associated with higher than normal temperatures and dry and windy conditions. This part of Canada has been especially warm recently.

By: Mike Fox

Mike Fox — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:05:44 +0000

Well, here in AGW Central, beautiful Eugene, Oregon, the last refuge of the terminally hip, where it was over 100º a week ago, it barely got to 80º today. Predicted high for Thursday is 71º. So much for summer! Hoping to get more than cherry tomatoes.

By: Fluffy Clouds (Tim L)

Fluffy Clouds (Tim L) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:29:05 +0000

mods maybe A.W. would like this link:
http://www.9and10news.com/category/story/?id=161953
any how feel free to snip OTC.
TX Tim

By: Gary Pearse

Gary Pearse — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:53:20 +0000

Flanagan (18:13:45) :

“Yes, North America was SO COLD that thousands of Canadians had to leave their homes because of wlidfires. Wildfires in Canada? That’s quite not in line with the “unseasonably cold” weather that is reported here, no?”

Harold Ambler (18:29:55) put you straight already but I have a link that will be very educational and at the same time tell you that forest fires have been a part of Canada for tens of millennia:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/dci/src/3d_eng.asp?what=more&sitename=reforest&theme=mi&btn_state=HTML&more_lnk=no

Here you will see that the ubiquitous Jack Pine REQUIRES A FOREST FIRE to unlock the seeds in their tough cones in order to germinate at all. I believe there are other species around the world that have the same requirement.

By: Douglas DC

Douglas DC — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:30:22 +0000

Pamela Gray (18:56:03) :
Re:your post-Right on! as an old Aerial firefighter, I was witness to the dismantling of the Forest Service and BLM by several adminstrations,both
Republican and Democrat. The closing of roads and the build up of trash
and debris will come back to bite them. My office is in Elgin, which burned down back in 1910. The big Burns of that period led to the creation of the USFS.
The debate over the Mt.Emily rec area near La Grande, is a farce. that was part of my family’s old ranch the Bar MC-and was logged back in the 1930′s by my Pop, his brother and a ‘Gyppo’ Logger.Now the local greenies are saying NO!
to Forest capital’s logging the property again.The want to ‘save’ the area but
say log it, nice firebreak,may save mt.Glen or even La Grande..
Love their definition of ‘old’ Growth…
May the Ghost of Gifford Pinchot come back to haunt them…

By: matt v.

matt v. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:00:29 +0000

I neglected to add that the third reason for the cool summer in many regions of the north central North America is the negative ARCTIC OSCILLATION also called NAO or AO. A negative AO , which is what we have had recently during the summer [since about early June ], means greater pressures over the Arctic and weaker westerlies which allows cooler air from the north to regularly sweep or sink gradually south. These events seem to be more frequent events this late spring and summer. Joe d’Aleo and Scott Sabol [Morning Meteorologist ] have posted articles on this .

By: matt v.

matt v. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:41:56 +0000

We have noted in earlier tracks that one of the reasons for the cooler than normal 2009 is that for the first half of the year we had a cool AMO and cool PDO. AMO is currently slightly positive [0.176] and the PDO is still cool[-0.31] but warming as the El Nino approaches. The second reason seems to be the low solar activity with near solar minimum conditions continuing well into 2009. History [per hadcrut3]shows that global temperature anomalies dropped during the year of solar minimums for 9 of the last 15 solar cycles going back to 1856. Of the 6 that showed warming , 4 had El Nino’s .

By: scfaster

scfaster — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:57:39 +0000

Go Pamela! (18:56:03)

O/T- Wood burners-
There are some very efficient wood burning stoves. I use a Napolean 1400. It uses air injection to do a secondary burn, and it flashes over a random swirling gas flame sort of like the aurora as it re-burns the products of incomplete combustion. Not only is it extremely efficient, it is really cool to watch.

More on topic, I actually used the wood burner in June of this year, and on the night of July 17 & 18 above, when it got down to 40. That is a first. I have never had to light the wood stove in June or July before. Usually the air conditioner is grinding away, I think that the AC was maybe on 4 times this summer.

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:56:08 +0000

Harold, I have the second chamber stove you talk about. You are also right about the wood. Pissy wood doesn’t burn so well. Piss Willow (known as weeping willow) is the worst. Plus it smells bad when burning. Cottonwood burns long and hot but creates lots of ash. No bother though. It cleans the chimney and heat efficiently. I’ll take seasoned Cottonwood over anything but Tamarack. Tamarack is the best.

By: Chuck Bradley

Chuck Bradley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:45:18 +0000

Seeing so many comments about current local temperatures compared to average local temperatures reminds me that global averages should be ignored. As has been mentioned frequently, nobody lives at average. Instead we should look at long term trends at many individual places. Then look a various collections of those records, such as similar latitude, similar elevation, similar topography, similar wind patterns, similar proximity to various kinds and sizes of bodies of water. In such groupings, discontinuities in the data do not have to be filled in, and station moves can be treated as different stations. We might actually learn something about climate. Numerical results would be easier to verify or refute. They would be more believable and hence more likely to be believed.