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 grew up out there 60 years ago.
This is common monsoon season. This year is proving to be a wet monsoon, wetter than normal and yes, it is cooler than normal but not as cool and wet as 1964.
Its only 50F here in Hervey Bay, Australia, on the southern edge of the tropics. Thanks a bunch Al.
After the dinner and talks at the ICCC on Tuesday I made the 10 minute hike back to my room and turned on the local news and weather. I had no idea that there were flood warnings around town or that we had all missed a spectacular thunderstorm (at the very least, viewers had sent in spectacular photographs). I had figured that if I had to trade off the very dry pre-monsoon weather for the more humid (and just as hot during the day), then perhaps I’d see a good thunderstorm.
Rats….
I had forecast the solar signal weakening early July with wetter cooler conditions from around July 5th for around 10 days. The solar wind speed has certainly been very slow, and the AO has dropped negative.
Driving back to Phoenix on Wednesday, I got this pic about 40 miles before Wickenberg:
http://postimg.org/image/d6vxidpfh/
We hit it about 10 minutes later and the rain was quite intense. Life in the desert. I love it here.
The weather always feels unique. That’s why Joe Bastardi is someone who I always listen to. He will tell you exactly when the weather was just like it is now. Then he’ll tell you why.
We had a low of 50F last night here in the Catskills / Woodstock area. I have had three summer fires at night to keep warm so far this year.
NWS Climate Prediction Center July 18 2014 to July 24 2014
Whoa – 50% probability of below normal temps for the Midwest.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/index.php
Good post!
Brad
Back in 1964 I got a job as a Ranger at the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) Ranch in Cimarron, NM.
The year before they had devastating floods, which wiped out most of the transportation infrastructure.
They were still rebuilding when I was there. This place was 147,000 acres large and located in the
Sangre De Cristo Mountains. The 12K+ peaks had snow in July. Used to drive over the Raton Pass to Trinidad, CO with 2 people on a Honda 50 scooter. Walked it up, rode it down at 65 mph.
Every day, there was a 10 AM and 3 PM thunderstorm. You could set clocks by the weather.
Wondering if it’s still like that…
[snip -derogatory, unnecessary -mod]
Here in south of France, it’s been the wettest beginning to July I can remember. Meanwhile the local authorities are in full climate denial and what appears to be centrally orchestrated warnings and restrictions are being put out.
Normally ( last 20 years personal recall ) May is blazing hot, this year it was grey. There is one good summer storm each in July and August. ( Local folklore has it that it always happens on the 15th ).
This year every second of this day is cloudy and we’ve had a few good down pours. My water reserve is full.
This makes it lot more agreeable than the heatwaves we were having ten years ago. Looks like quite a nice ( cool ) summer.
This year every second
of thisday is cloudyhttp://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/
Interesting article with some interesting facts about records.
regards
Greg, just caught this: Snowing in the Alps. http://www.thelocal.fr/20140710/in-pictures-french-alps-get-summer-snow
Very wet here in North Alabama this year so far. We average around 4″ of rain in the month of June…This year we had over 7″. July has started out wet as well. And one thing I have noticed…..the rain seems to come down in buckets. Heavy, heavy downpours….like tropical rain. Y’all know what I mean…..It’s like a cow pissin on a flat rock.
I am sure Gore must be in Australia still.. We’re on track for our best ski season since 1981.
Still not a 90F day here in mid-Appalachians (other than city/town cores). 89F a couple days ago & also once in late May. Tallest corn is near 6′ already.
Thanks for those links. Interesting reading. Getting information like this one of the reasons I love this blog.
Weather men ought not to make predictions. Murphy can hear you.
Hey Anthony do us a favour. I’m in the North West UK, can you predict low seasonal weather for us to continue?
Thank you 🙂
“Unusual weather we’re having, ain’t it?” Considering that the movie was released in August 1939, Cowardly Lion was probably not the only one making that comment. Did anyone at the time think it was permanent climate change?
I think we need to look up some of Mulholland’s offspring. I see a really, really long adqueduct, from the Mid South or Ozarks to California. Mwahahahah! We are coming to take your water!
If you are/were suffering from PTSD symptoms, like me, from last winter’s shock here comes a rude reminder… call it PVSD (Polar Vortex Stress Disorder) Hope and pray we get a new pattern change from something, like El Niño before winter returns? This country is not very well prepared and more people very well could lose a lot more, even their lives. It’s serious folks, this could be another really hard fight ahead.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/07/10/poor-mans-polar-vortex-to-make-shocking-summer-return-in-eastern-u-s-next-week/
What amazes me most about the pattern is not so much the forecast temperatures, but the uncanny similarities in the weather patterns over North America seen in both the heart of winter and heart of summer. All of the same features (refer to the map at the top of this post) apparent in January are on the map in mid-July: low pressure over the Aleutians (blue shading), a large hot ridge (yellow and red shading) over the western U.S., the huge cold low or vortex over the Great Lakes (blue and green shading), and then the ridge over northeast Canada (yellow and red shading).
Soon, the ice sheets will begin their march …
You guys need to go back to Las Vegas. Lake Mead went up two tenths of an inch from the record low. The record low water level since it was filled back in the thirties.
http://m.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/clark/lake-mead-reaches-a-record-low-level/30255372