Video Credit: Daily Caller/C-SPAN – click for video
By WUWT Regular Just The Facts
First, I’m sure I speak for everyone at WUWT when I say that our hearts go out to all the families in Oklahoma affected by the weather tragedy there today.
In the video above US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse states that:
“When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas.”
Read more: Daily Caller
If Senator Sheldon Whitehouse did more reading and less ranting, he might know that Continental US Temperature Lower Troposphere (TLT) – 1979 to Present;
is currently below average.
US Strong to Violent Tornadoes (EF3-EF5) – 1950 to 2012;
are below average. US Inflation Adjusted Annual Tornado Trend and Percentile Ranks;
are currently below average. US Tornadoes Daily Count and Running Annual Total;
are currently well below average.
US Extremes in Landfalling Tropical Systems – 1910 to Present – Annual;
are currently below average.
This US Acres Per Wildfire and the Number of Wildfires Per Year graph;
shows that the number of wildfires have decreased, while the acres per fire have increased.
This is an important distinction as the associated article elaborates:
This graph shows the inverse relationship between numbers and sizes of US wildfires over time. Note the greater number and smaller sizes of fires between the creation of Wilderness in 1964 and the beginning of the modern wildfire era in 1987 and 1988 (with Silver Complex and Yellowstone fires of those years), as compared with the smaller number and greater size of recent fires. One factor may be the shift in USFS policy from rapid suppression to “let it burn,” which has allowed for numerous smaller fires – previously extinguished individually — to coalesce into larger fires and singular complexes.Evergreen
For reference;
“Forest managers agree that the current fire risk is primarily a combination of two factors — higher-than-average temperatures and a profusion of fuel, the product of nearly a century of fire suppression policies.”
“Recognizing widespread overgrowth in American forests, in the late 1970s the Forest Service began reintroducing policies of prescribed burning and allowed many smaller, natural fires to burn out on their own, provided they didn’t threaten lives or property. The decision this summer to attack all fires, while not a direct reversal of this policy, does represent a departure from that practice of natural restoration, said Jennifer Jones, a public affairs specialist with the Forest Service. Scientific America
The shift in thinking was formalized in a 1995 statement of federal fire policy, and strengthened in a 2001 revision. The policy recognizes that fire is “an essential ecological process,” and that decades of trying to keep fires from burning have led, ironically, to “larger and more severe” conflagrations because of the buildup of underbrush and other fuel. USA Today
As such, US Forest Fire data is biased by “nearly a century of fire suppression policies” and “the shift in USFS policy from rapid suppression to ‘let it burn,'”, which begin “in the late 1970s”, “was formalized in a 1995 statement of federal fire policy, and strengthened in a 2001 revision.” Furthermore, given that continental US Temperatures are currently below average, it is absurd to blame to recent forest fire activity on Global Warming.
US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse used the tragic weather events in Oklahoma to spout erroneous alarmist Global Warming rhetoric. Mr Sheldon, less ranting, more reading…
Hat Tip to WUWT Reader “007”
=================================================================
Anthony: Unfortunately, there is shameful precedence for this sort of opportunistic political rhetoric, WUWT readers may recall when the Center for American progress blamed southern conservatives voting record for tornadoes:
This might be a good time to remind readers of this essay:
The folly of linking tornado outbreaks to “climate change”
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“And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas.”
So Ok & Tx should just reduce their bad CO2 pollution and just stop pumping & refining their dirty oil and sending it to RI for all the cars and yachts up there. Let’s hear how that would go over.
DesertYote says:
May 21, 2013 at 11:46 am
old construction worker says:
May 21, 2013 at 3:27 am
“CodeTech says:
May 20, 2013 at 8:26 pm
And, being dropped on your head causes people to be Democrats. Got it.”
He’s not a Democrat. He is a Progressive Socialist.
###
Same difference.
==============
Regressive fake socialist might be more accurate.
Blaming weather events on 666. That’s so last millennium Whitesnake.
Watching them dig through that elementary school, it’s clear that the walls were concrete reinforced blocks, with rebar. That school probably would have been a safe place for any lesser tornado, certainly safer than the houses around it. It would be wrong to suggest that it was insufficient protection.
Also, it’s a smaller school than either elementary school I went to (checked it out on Google Earth), there’s no way they could have afforded the kind of protection required to withstand a direct hit by an EF5 tornado. Like many horrible things, it was a terrible combination of circumstances that caused the tragedy, not a lack of planning or other human failings.
CodeTech says:
May 21, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Fair enough about the schools protective construction but surely there should be something done about building codes for houses in areas of frequent tornadoes. This town has had 3 majors in 14 yrs. Ditto about about houses of sticks in areas of frequent hurricanes. I visited the old plantation houses around N.Orleans a few years back. Many are falling down because of a century or so of neglect but they haven’t been blown away by two or three centuries of hurricanes. I guess the Three Little Pigs wasted their time if they thought reading it would make people think about preparing for the future..
This causes me to realize the idea of mitigation for coming disastrous weather from CAGW, or even the stopping of CO2, if it indeed was a menace, just simply wouldn’t be done. Disaster is already here for many folks for a long time. It’s all a waste of words and effort. People build in flood plains, on earthquake faults, hurricane and tornado alleys, and hope for the best and rebuild after a disaster. Maybe a different kind of thinking is needed. Build our houses of straw – they’re cheaper to replace and no need for expensive insurance. The Three Little Pigs may be a more subtle story than I had thought.. .
Gary Pearse says:
May 21, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Uniform Building Codes already address wind speed for design of buildings according to region of the US, including tie downs for mobile homes and houses to foundations.
However, this was an F5 tornado, as serious as it gets. To resist this event you have to design a building able to withstand debris flying through the air such as automobiles and large trucks. It is impossible enough to resist 2x4s flying through the air like spears at much lower wind velocities.
At some point all the precautions you can stack onto the cost of housing or other buildings means that people would go from being able to afford a house to withstand a 100 mph wind to not having a house or anywhere else to live. In that case, they would have to huddle and shiver in the smallest of rain events, but the building code would meet the needs of every eventuality.
Chris4692 says:
May 21, 2013 at 4:39 pm
Gary Pearse says:
May 21, 2013 at 4:16 pm
“However, this was an F5 tornado, as serious as it gets. To resist this event you have to design a building able to withstand debris flying through the air such as automobiles and large trucks. It is impossible enough to resist 2x4s flying through the air like spears at much lower wind velocities”.
I concede to your excellent point.
CD (@CD153) says:
May 21, 2013 at 11:12 am
“I believe I remember reading about a company which has created a new desalination filter
which they hope will bring down the cost of desalination. It was still in the testing phase the
last I heard.”
Lockheed has something in the works I think. There was a story here on WUWT a few months back. They were using advanced reverse osmosis membranes that slashed the energy costs.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/mst/features/2013/130322-wanted-clean-drinking-water.html
_Jim says:
May 21, 2013 at 9:02 am
I ask … and would also like to know what study is actually being referred to… it would be
nice to be able to refer to, cite and see the original USGS paper or study and see the
author’s originals words (as opposed to multiple interpretations and re-interpretations by
multiple organizations and people)
Using the word ‘predict’ is generally a poor choice of words so I stand corrected. The USGS report is here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2013/5079/SIR2013-5079.pdf
People made fun of Texas Gov. Perry when he held a prayer vigil for rain back in 2011 but there is a 2 billion dollar budget item in the legislature now.
http://www.twdb.texas.gov/surfacewater/conditions/drought/index.asp
Water shortages are things you can plan for and Texas fell behind but maybe now they can do better.
???
Where did this, and upon what basis is this statement made? I’m IN Texas and take exception to what may be behind this statement, but rather than make assumptions here I will ask for clarification.
These last few years have been ‘drought’ years, we’ve had to implement watering restrictions in our area (twice a week) due to other issues, such as Zebra mussel infestation that is restricting the drawing of water from a major reservoir (Lk Texoma) until a pipeline is completed to the water treatment plant (this prevents direct Zebra mussel migration to Lk Lavon which water from Texoma used to be let).
Here is our ‘water district’ website: https://ntmwd.com/
Perhaps begin here rather than above (various presentations on plans and current status):
https://ntmwd.com/ntmwdpresentations.html
BTW, thanks for the link to the USGS report.
Anyone here from Rhode Island? You know what to do.
_Jim, not wanting to speak for Raptor but I didn’t read that as a slight on Texas. Here in Alberta we’re also one or two drought seasons away from having a water problem, we just haven’t had that happen yet. Through the late 90s it was getting bad, though, and since the drought broke the region has failed to plan for the next one. Our population has grown a LOT, our infrastructure has not.
Our water comes from meltwater in the Rockies. The last few seasons have been boom years for winter snowfall, but that’s not a given. Also there is increasing demand for irrigation, and some parts of the region that were not used for farming are being developed. It doesn’t help that people are refusing to allow more water control (ie. dams)
I agree with Raptor’s last line:
And could easily replace “Texas” with any state or province or region you can name. In the old days, before humans somehow got the impression that we knew everything and had all of nature under control, establishing adequate water, sewage treatment, power, transportation and communication even in the event of shortage were the goal of governments and regional managers. I wonder why these fundamentals have become backburner issues in so many places?
Heck, in Calgary they’re diverting a significant percentage of infrastructure construction (overpasses, light rail mass transit, sewage treatment plants!) costs to “artistic merit”, where millions are spent casting pictures of fish and mountains and pretty patterns into the concrete.
I’d rather it just worked, and don’t care what it looks like.