The title of this post is a famous quote from the cowardly lion in the 1939 movie the Wizard of Oz. Readers may remember this film was one of the very first to show “climate disruption” manifesting itself as extreme weather, as regular garden-variety tornadoes in Kansas turned ugly and started transporting people into alternate universes.
I thought that quote was rather appropriate for the kind of weather I’m experiencing in Las Vegas today, on the morning after the ICCC9 conference. This is the view from my hotel room window:
This view is looking southeast at the West end of the McCarran International Airport (KLAS). You can see puddles on the runway and on some of the surrounding land plus the rain shafts coming from the clouds. For those of you that prefer data over pictures, here’s some:
source: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=vef&sid=LAS&num=48
Of particular interest is the graph in the upper right. Note that it registers .08 inches of precipitation this morning but also smaller amounts of precipitation going all the way back to Tuesday.We’ve had sort of a monsoon season this week.
Before I went to the ICCC9 conference, a number of people wrote to me expressing concern that climate skeptics headed to Las Vegas in the middle of July were risking being embarrassed by a heat wave and potentially new high temperature records being set.
That’s why I wrote this post about records and possibilities that might occur during the conference.
But instead, rather than heat waves we got cooler weather as a result of rain and clouds.
In case you’re wondering whether or not the rainfall today set a new record I’ve done that work for you and look it up at the local National Weather Service office. The table below shows that for July 10 we fall significantly short so far. Of course the day is not over.
source: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/vef/climate/LasVegasClimateBook/July%20Normal%20and%20Record%20Precipitation.pdf
While not unprecedented, it is a rather unusual weather event to have rain in July in Las Vegas. It’s almost as if all those climate skeptics coming to Las Vegas had some sort of a symbiotic Gore effect.
I have some other observations to depose later but for now I really need some coffee.
I’d be more concerned about that really weird green colored sky.
What about this impending polar vortex. Any truth in the matter.
I’ll be in Vegas this month.
Average July high T is 106° F (41° C). Record high used to be listed as 118° F, set on July 24, 1942, but that has been adjusted down to 117° F (47° C), so that that date is now tied with July 19, 2005.
Monsoon is right. Rainfall spikes up in July from June low:
http://average-rainfall.findthebest.com/l/157/Las-Vegas-Nevada
Three hours ago, the NWS put out a flash flood warning for Vegas area.
Meanwhile in New York…
….”Gov. Andrew Cuomo today surveyed the damage from a tornado in Madison County outside Syracuse that led to four deaths, including a four-month-old baby, and said it’s another example of “a pattern of extreme weather that is different.”…
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/politics/politics-on-the-hudson/2014/07/09/cuomo-tornado-central-ny-part-pattern-extreme-weather/12409945/
..”Tornados in upstate New York, are comparatively rare events, but are by no means anything new.
Similar storms in the past have wreaked devastation in New York and New England, but few have had the incredible impact of the twister that struck northern Franklin County on June 30, 1856.
The extent of destruction along the eight-mile path through the towns of Burke and Chateaugay was of near-Biblical proportions. In the final tally, 364 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Few North Country disasters can compare in scope and intensity with the tornado of 1856. For decades into the future, it was used as a reference point for comparing other tragic events.”…
See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2013/06/03/ny-weather-history-the-1856-chateauguay-tornado/#sthash.FVkxzgt7.dpu
TomB says:
July 10, 2014 at 12:01 pm
I love flying into places like Vegas and Phoenix. When you look down on the desert landscape, all you can think is “It’s all shaped by water!”
——–
The features you see were predominantly formed during Pleistocene glacial times. see link (bottom of discussion):
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1007/fans.html
and
http://books.google.com/books?id=leJuxIWDLbMC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=mojave+desert+alluvial+fans&source=bl&ots=tuuVq-w7yj&sig=6-EbtVTa-jnwlwz9GJXwrguzPWU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uvK-U97qEsXYoASYuYGYDA&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=mojave%20desert%20alluvial%20fans&f=false
Conclusion : colder periods (Pleistocene glacial) = wetter weather in Mojave desert.
Today’ Vegas weather …. wetter :))) …..conclusion ???? :)) …
Note that all of the largest rain events on the list, with the exception of 1980, occur during a La Nina event.
Poppies make you sleepy. “Snow” wakes you up.
Chicago Weather: Polar Vortex returns? 2 days of ‘unseasonable cold’ possible
http://abc7chicago.com/weather/polar-vortex-2-days-of-unseasonable-cold-possible/174903/
With maps.
The Las Vegas monsoon water vapor trail started in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, where higher-than-anticipated solar energy has warmed the surface waters so much it easily evaporated.
The USAF solar flux forecast was for an F10.7cm flux to be 140 a few days – but it was over 200 for most of the week after climbing up from 94 on July 25, as a result of the SSN being over 250 (now lower). – http://services.swpc.noaa.gov/text/45-day-ap-forecast.txt – The sun has an active face to us now until those sunspots roll around to the “farside”. The farside right now is sparsely active – the SSN was 37 on June 25 during the last excursion a few weeks ago, and it’ll get close to that again. The USAF forecast is for F10.7 to be back down to 95 on Aug 18-19, after peaking Aug 3-5 at 205. Are they right this time?
Presently, the lunar-driven atmospheric “tide” is drawing cooler Canadian air southward, deep into the US, and temps have cooled in most places for days in spite of the recent solar uptick (outside of the coastal areas). We burned wood twice in July for the first time in memory. Later today, the moon cycle will reach the southern declination maximum of nearly 19 degrees south of the equator. Then it goes the other way, northward for two weeks, drawing warmer tropical moisture and heat further north, and then the cycle repeats with slight differences in max declination angles.
The USAF’s next low in F10.7cm flux is set for July 23, which happens to be same day the moon will be at it maximum declination angle of nearly 19 degrees north of the equator – a good day to evaluate the relative extremes and effects of the solunar cycles.
Who wants to learn from reality?
usually I check DUTCHSINSE BLOG OR YOUTUBE account for details on weather modification. What the devils are doing with the controls, he shows many radar images and for years now can warn people about Joplin inland hurricane type weather. He shows scalar weapons and HAARP return images on radar etc. Geoengineering trails and now dumps as in SAndy. As Scott Stevenston (sp?) states, there is no natural weather anymore. Dana Wigington says the planet is headed for a Venus Syndrome caused by methane release if the lunatics are not stopped.
Well this Hoosier living in central Indiana likes this “different” weather we’re having. The field corn was up to my shoulder on the 4th and now some of it is already beginning to tassel. We’re running almost two weeks ahead of a “normal” year for growth it seems. Some farmers will complain about the weather no matter how good it gets but the only real complaint by those types these days is that they had to replant portions of some fields because of heavy rains early on. The grass is green and growing like it’s spring time when and I’m still cutting it low. Usually it’s getting brown by now.
The only downside is that I will have to bring a jacket for warmth when I go watch the sprint cars run under the lights during the up coming Indiana Sprint Week on the nights the races don’t get rained out.
Despite the wetter than normal weather for this time of year the mosquitoes seem to be considerably fewer than we see during a “normal” year at this time.
TomB says at 11:59 am
I once had a client in Las Vegas. One day I called their office and the phone went unanswered. A little later I called back, it rang repeatedly and I was just about to hang up when someone answered. I asked where everybody was. She said “It’s raining, we’re all outside watching!”
—————– —————- ————————- ————————- —————
Lol. On the other hand, I just got back from Hawaii where I stayed at my uncle’s place in the rain forest above Honolulu, and it just kept on raining, every day for a week, off and on. I kept on noting and making a big deal about the rain, and my uncle would look at me kind of quizzically, saying “yeah?” So I stopped saying “it’s raining again.” And I would just walk outside in the rain as if it wasn’t there. Sometimes I’d have an umbrella, sometimes not (it cooled you down).
On another note, check out the funny 1 minute trailer for the new skeptic film. As I noted at the Real Science link: my only, yet quite serious, reservation about the trailer is that though it is made clear via the Statue of Liberty scene that sea level has not risen any appreciable amount, it is implied that there has been a significant amount of warming. Not true. And I don’t know if that implication is needed.
Third hardest rainstorm I have ever been in was near Beatty, NV in September. Second hardest was in August in Phoenix, AZ.
Hardest was on the edge of the Sahara, but that’s another story.
A July polar vortex? http://www.local2.ca/ssm/viewarticle.php?id=15416
No word yet on if this will be the long-feared AGW induced sharkolar vortex.
Jeff L says:
July 10, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Hence the name Pluvial for the time in which the western US enjoyed lakes much bigger than now, such as Lake Bonneville of which the Great Salt is a remnant. Ditto Lake Lahontan & present much reduced Pyramid Lake. SE Oregon lakes & dry lakebeds were much bigger, too.
The “world’s oldest shoes” were found in a cave overlooking one such ancient lake:
http://pages.uoregon.edu/connolly/FRsandals.htm
It should come as no surprise that the drought in the southwest is affecting Lake Mead.
So what human activities caused the drought in the 1950’s?
Kenny says:
July 10, 2014 at 11:08 am
Watts….Your not in Kansas anymore!
Not in California actually. 🙂
It’s probably related to some Gore special ops forces in the area trying to look for hot pavement to report on during the conference.
And up next will be an interesting AMO number (down again).
I was really more concerned about the green glow in the photo. If I looked out and everything was green, the dosimeter would probably be black.
For crying out loud! Next Friday’s low is into windchill measuring territory.
http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/canada/brampton/ext
Next Friday = the one after tomorrow.
Al Gore went to Australia last week, causing a massive plunge in temperatures and bursts of snowfalls in our southern mountains not seen for over a decade. Now, he returns to the US and causes a polar vortex to descend in July. He really is a champion!
I have a theory for what causes the Gore effect – when he speaks, he puts the greenhouse effect to sleep.
I live in north Arkansas and we’ve yet to have a 90 degree day. I believe the high so far for July is 86 (NOAA). It might have gotten up to 88 for an hour last week. It was 64 when I woke up this morning. And we’ve getting a lot of clouds and rain all through June/July. The high today was 82. A few more hours and I’m opening the windows and doors and turning the attic fan on. Been doing it every night this week. Why use the AC when the temp outside is lower than the thermostat setting?