Devastating Michigan Floods. North Carolina Is Next

One of the failed dams causing serious flooding in Michigan
yesterday and today. 

A big flood disaster has been unfolding in Michigan the past couple of days.

Torrential rains have hit the state since Saturday, and as the rains tapered off, the situation actually worsened.

The Associated Press reports that two dams on the Tittabawassee River in Midland County failed, and a flood crest was heading toward the city of Midland, population of about 41,000.

About 10,000 people have been evacuated.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer warned that downtown Midland could become submerged under nine feet of water. Midland is about 140 miles north of Detroit.

Another concern is that a Dow Chemical plant is in the path of the flood waters. So it's not good. Video is at the bottom of this post.

Some parts of Michigan received up to seven inches of rain over the past few days, causing flooding across much of the state. The heavy rain is also sure to cause some of the Great Lakes to rise further, exacerbating flooding, as the lakes are already at near record high levels.

One of the breached dams in Michigan, the Edenville Dam, was built in 1924. As of 2018, the state of Michign rated it as in unsatisfactory condition, according to clickondetroit.com.

Last November, an Associated Press investigation revealed that at least 1,680 dams in the United States are unstable enough to pose a risk to people downstream.

The actual number of such dams is higher than 1,680 because some states refused to release data to reporters, and a few states don't rate dams at all due to a lack of funding.

Now, as parts of Michigan floods, attention is turning to a huge risk of flooding today in North Carolina.

NOAA's Weather Prediction Center put western North Carolina in a relatively rare high risk zone for excessive rainfall today.

Around four inches of rain fell in that region yesterday, and another four inches or so is expected today.

Flooding, landslides and debris flows are all an almost certainty today in the mountainous region in the state.

The Weather Channel reported earlier this year that 41 percent of all U.S. flood deaths covered in one research project were on high risk excessive rain days, which are posted about 15 times per year.

Here's a quick video of Midland, Michigan from early this morning:



The scene around one of the failed dams on Tuesday:

Weather Disasters And Coronavirus: It's Complicated, For Sure

Hundreds of houses destroyed by an Oklahoma tornado in 2013. How
would you shelter all those people during and after a similar tornado
during the coronavirus pandemic? Emergency officials in much
of the nation are mulling that questio. 

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are still a good bet later today in and around Illinois, which means people will have to take shelter.

But where?  The coronavirus has us hunkered down in our houses already.

Of course, houses with basements are fine. You get a tornado warning and head for the basement. But lots of homes and entire neighborhoods rely on community storm shelters when tornadoes threaten.

The risk, aside from the actual tornadoes, is that some people who think there are available storm shelters for them when there might not be.

Some community storm shelters might be shuttered because of the coronavirus threat.  The pandemic has altered the entire world, so all the familiar rules are gone. It's up to local officials to decide which shelter is open and which is closed, so everybody will need to check.

The situation in Illinois is particularly dangerous today.  NOAA's Storm Prediction Center is considering whether to upgrade the risk to its highest level because of the possibility of very strong, long lasting tornadoes in Illinois later today.

People have been advised to figure out by this morning where to take shelter before by this morning to know where to go when the severe weather starts. By the time tornadoes form and warnings are issued, it's too late to begin considering where to take shelter.

This is especially true with this potential Illinois outbreak: Any tornadoes that form are expected to have a forward speed of 60 mph. That's awfully fast. Warnings won't be issued much in advance of the tornadoes hitting, and you won't be able to outrun them in a car.

Assuming community shelters are open, people might be hesitant to crowd into these places with lots of other people. After all, the experts unanimously tell us to stay home, and if we must go out, remain at least six feet away from other people if at all possible.

That's impossible in storm shelters. It's not a great choice, but the bigger danger is the tornado. The National Weather Service advises people to take the shelter from the tornado, and then worry about coronavirus after the storm.  The tornado, when it's happening, is the more dire of the two events.

It's only late March, so the tornado season is just beginning in earnest. It peaks from April to early June. Today's situation in Illinois will almost certainly repeat itself pretty frequently in one fashion or the other over the coming weeks.

Lots of places are already thinking about this, which is good. For instance, officials around Kansas City, which is definitely a tornado-prone area of the nation, said they have contingency plans for a weather disaster atop of the coronavirus outbreak, according to local news station FOX4

The pandemic makes things much more complicated, though.  How do you treat people injured in storms while avoiding Covid-19?  What about people whose homes have been destroyed by a tornado? Where do you put them and keep them safe?  What about cleanup and recovery? Rebuilding? Insurance and government permits for that rebuilding?

According to FOX4 in Kansas City, the planning continues.

"'Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn't slow down because of Covid-19,' Matt May, the emergency management director of Wyandotte County, told FOX4. 'People are having those conversatios about what we woul do if we had a tornado now.'"

An even bigger problem could unfold in the late summer and autumn if the coronavirus pandemic in the United States remains uncontrolled. By then, it will be hurricane season.  Landfalling hurricanes in the U.S. and elsewhere require mass evacuations often involving tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. You end up with thousands of people packed cheek to jowl in emergency shelters.

People can only hope that the coronavirus pandemic fades out by August, when hurricanes really begin to crank.  Otherwise, that'll be yet another reason why we're really screwed.

Meanwhile the severe weather this weekend in the Midwest is just beginning to crank up, and will only get worst later today Some video:

Here's some hail damaging cars in Jefferson City, Missouri last night, as viewed by someone on their apartment balcony.  Some understandable NSFW language in here.

Stupid People Who Drive With Snow On Windshield

The driver of this car caused a collision in Montreal.
Hmm. Wonder why?

One day about a week ago, I was driving along after one of Vermont's frequent bouts with mixed precipitation this winter.

I had been unable to scrape the frozen snow off the roof of my truck before I left home. It was really stuck on there. In hindsight, I probably should have tried harder to get that stuff off the truck roof.

By the time I got to Winooski, the snow and ice had started to melt. I stopped at a light on a downward sloping hill and all that snow and ice came down on the windshield.  It was too much for the windshield wipers to handle.  

So, I did what I thought everyone else would have done: I put on my hazard lights, pulled over to the side of the street, got out of the truck and cleaned all the ice of my windshield, then continued on my way.

Apparently, not everybody does that. For proof, check out two of the videos below, and a third from a person who definitely was from Canada, let me tell ya.

 I have seen lots of people driving around with snow on windshields, back windows, you name it. Clean the damn snow off so you don't crash into me and others, you morons!

 The Weather Channel just featured somebody causing a crash because they had an experience similar to me:  Snow had fallen on their windshield, but in their case, they kept going.

Here's that video. I hope the person who caused the crash feels like a real idiot:



And check out this video from last winter in Toronto:



Now, here's a video of somebody who DID make the effort to remove snow from the windshield.  This was in Vancouver, Canada, and he used a very Canadian way to do the job. Look what he's using to get the snow off the car:

Your Yearly (Scary) Reminder Not To Be An Idiot On Snowy Highways

Aftermath of that big highway pileup in Iowa Monday. Photo
via the Des Moines Register

We get these videos every winter. A snowy and icy Interstate highway.  A minor accident ahead causes people to brake.

But some people are distracting. Others, who have four wheel drive, think that allows them to stop on a dime.  Still others are panicking, and stopping right in the path of the cars and trucks behind them.

The inevitable big pileup then happens.

Such was the case yesterday, as you can see in the video at the bottom of this post from television station KCCI.  Interstate 80 was snow covered and slick.  A minor accident happened. Then, boom! Everybody piles into each other.

The Des Moines Register reports that luckily, only one person suffered serious injuries in the 50-vehicle pileup near Altoona, Iowa, which is east of Des Moines.

One side note:  Why do big tractor trailers go so fast in the snow?  I've regularly been nearly forced off the road by truckers blasting by me at top speeds on Interstate 89 in Vermont during icy snowstorms.

My cynical side says they stir up so much blowing snow that they know they won't be caught if they cause a crash. Who cares if somebody dies?  They have a schedule to make!  It might not be precisely the truck drivers' fault.

Most of them probably do care if they kill someone in a icy highway crash. But the trucking companies put pressure on the drivers to adhere to schedules, no matter what. It's some of the trucking companies, who believe the bottom line is much more important than peoples' lives. That's not all the trucking firms, but some of them.

Notice how many tractor trailers were involved in the crash you see in the video below.  This wasn't the fault of all of 'em, but perhaps some of them.

It's certainly not just the truck drivers.  A lot of people ignore this, but you need to greatly increase the distance between you and the car in front of you in case you have to hit the brakes. Granted, this is hard to do, because when I try this, somebody inevitably passes me and then cuts in front of my truck just inches from my headlights. But you have to try, I guess.

This should be obvious, but slow the hell down!  And no, your four wheel drive vehicle will NOT enable you to stop in a shorter distance without skidding.  Four wheel drive is good for traction, but it does not give you a license to speed.

It seems like most people don't understand this. I drive a four-wheel drive pickup truck, and I certainly get the evil eye from speed demon pickup drivers because I'm driving so "slowly" on the ice.

What should you do if you're caught up in a pileup?  Accuweather says at least initially, you should stay in your car, even as more collisions are happening around you.  At least your car, or the remains of it, provide some structure to protect you for oncoming cars and trucks. That's better than getting run over or smooshed when you're getting out of your car.

Accuweather says once things calm down a bit, you can get out, but then stand behind a guardrail or tree.  If you're not hurt call 911 and see if anybody else needs help.

It was warm in Vermont this morning, but a cold front is on our doorstep. That means temperatures will rapidly fall this afternoon and evening. Icy patches will develop on the roads. Will you be the cause of the next pileup when this happens? Don't be that person.

Here's footage of the Iowa pileup on Monday:

Two Tornadoes In Two Weird Places

Tornado the other day in Taiwan

Videos have emerged of two separate tornadoes in the past couple of days, which in and of itself isn't weird. Tornadoes are fairly common in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere summer.

It's just where these two happened: One was in Taiwan. The other was in Portland, Oregon.

Tornadoes are not unheard of in either location. However, people are also not used to them in either place.

You can tell that by the videos at the bottom of this post. People stayed outside filming the tornadoes when they were right on top of them. They should have been hiding indoors, preferably in a basement.

The amateur videographers all survived, which is great. I present the videos with mixed emotions, because I don't want to encourage people to go out in dangerous conditions and shoot videos. But still, they're pretty cool.

Tornado damage in Portland, Oregon. 

The tornado in southern Taiwan injured two people, cut power to about 7,400 others and caused quite a bit of structural damage.

The Portland, Oregon tornado was fortunately weak. It had peak winds of 80 mph, was only 40 yards wide and had a path length of 1.6 miles. It caused roof damage to a couple houses and knocked down several trees.

It was the fifth tornado in records dating back to 1904 of hit within Portland city limits, says the National Weather Service.

First up: A compilation video of the Taiwan tornado. Still surprised only two people were hurt, given how many people were too close to flying debris:



Next video is the funnel almost directly overhead of the people shooting the video in Portland, Oregon. They can't believe there's actually a tornado in Portland. Then they realize that it has actually touched down. Still, they stay outside. Luckily no harm done to them:

Summer (Unofficially) Here! Don't Go In The Water - Yet

Lake Champlain in the summer of 2016. People who want to  re-create
this nice scene over the Memorial Day weekend should remember
the lake is still very cold. Be safe! 

When I got up this Saturday morning and looked up the National Weather Service website like I always do first thing, I noted most of northern New England, including all of Vermont was covered by a Special Weather Statement.

"What fresh hell is this?," I wondered. Often, a special weather statement from the NWS means they're worried about some impending storm but haven't quite pulled the trigger on watches or warnings yet.

Or it means there's some sort of localized hazard which would mean getting out and driving on the roads will be a nightmare.    

However, today's special weather statement was none of those things. It is, however, a very wise warning to those venturing out to enjoy the first unofficial weekend of summer.  Basically it said that the weekend would be fairly nice, and temperatures would warm up into the 70s.

That means people would be tempted to go to the lake, maybe brave a dip, or even more likely go out for an excursion on their boats.   The special weather statement told us to beware, though:

"The cold water temperatures can quickly cause hypothermia to anyone immersed in the water. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, when the temperatures are below 50 degrees, the chance of immediate incapacitation due to cold shock is extremely high. 

Anyone on small boats, canoes or kayaks should plan accordingly if recreating this weekend, and use extreme caution to avoid the threat. Paddle smart from the start and always wear your life jacket."

Especially on larger lakes, like Champlain, winds will gust to 25 mph at times, increasing the risk of overturning small boats.

Not everybody will heed the warnings: For example, last Sunday, I saw some people swimming in frigid Lake Bomoseen as thunder rumbled in the distance. A double whammy of dangerously cold water and lightning strikes. Lovely.

Another big event this weekend for the Green Mountain State is the Vermont City Marathon and Relay. Conditions will be great for spectators, but maybe a bit much for some of the runners.

Rain tonight will largely have ended by the time the race starts a little after 7 a.m. Sunday. Skies will at least partially clear during the race, so the sun's heat will be a factor. So will the humidity. Dewpoints will be in the upper 50s to low 60s. It won't be oppressive, but runners will feel it.

Temperatures at the start of the race will probably be near 60 degrees and reach the mid-70s by early afternoon. There is a remote chance of a shower or thunderstorm, so there's a slight risk lightning could be a hazard. But that chance is pretty low.

At least this year will be better than 2016, when extreme heat and humidity injured several runners and forced organizers to suspend the marathon just under four hours into it.

Mississippi College Bar Tornado Panic Proves Need For People To Plan For Scary Weather

 The building housing Bin 612 in Starksville, Mississippi. The
bar came under controversy this month when it ordered
patrons out when a tornado warning was issued. 

If you're out and about and a tornado warning is issued, you should seek shelter in a sturdy building if at all possible.

One good idea if you have time is to run into a business in a substantial building.

People do that all the time during warnings. Business owners are pretty much always happy to rescue people caught out in their cars or on foot when a tornado is bearing down.

However, you can't always count on a business being accommodating, or even capable of helping people out in dangerous weather.  

This was the case earlier this month in Mississippi. It highlights how people should be prepared in advance for scary, dangerous weather. And how businesses and municipalities can develop or improve severe weather emergency plans.  

Controversy erupted in Starksville, Mississippi during a recent tornado outbreak in the South, when a pub called Bin 612 near Mississippi State University.

Bin 612, and other nearby restaurants, shut their doors when a tornado warning was issued.  Some people were outraged that the bar would kick people out in a tornado warning. Others wondered why people were out at bars in the first place when forecasts had called for severe weather all day.

According to Al.com:

"Bin 612 - and nearly half a dozen nearby restaurants in the area's Cotton District - shut their doors as soon as the tornado warning was issued. Those already inside were asked to leave. And it didn't go over well.

Video posted to social media Saturday night showed a cacophony of dumbstruck students as chaos ensued following the evacuation notice. 'Get the (expletive out!' a voice can be heard shouting - later revealed to be a third-party security guard."

In the jumpy video, you can also hear a young woman pleading, "Where do we go for shelter?"

Dire warnings probably unintentionally helped lead to the panic. Often, if a tornado is confirmed or if signs point to a particularly bad one, tornado warnings often have enhanced working. Shortly before 10 p.m. that Saturday, the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi issued a tornado warnint for the Starksville area.

A few minutes later, that warning was upgraded to include the message that "a confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado was located....nine miles southwest of Starksville" and moving right toward the town. People had less than 10 minutes to take cover.

This enhanced wording from the National Weather Service is meant to tell complacent people that this one is serious, take it seriously.

The dire warning panicked people in Bin 612 and surrounding bars. Bin 612 has a basement, but it can only hold about 50 people. Close to 300 people were in Bin 612 that night. Video of the moment is at the bottom of this post.

Staying in the bar would have been dangerous, Ty Thames, the owner of Bin 612 told Al.com

"'People were too intoxicated to understand they were in danger there,' explained Thames. 'It's basically wall to wall glass on the front and back of the building. The only non-glass walls we have are interior room-to-room walls. And those are lined with glass racks to hold glasses, over 300 liquor bottles and tons of serving glasses."

Thames said security guards tried to guide people to a nearby underground parking garage. But the crowd was panicked, the guards were frantic and yelling expletives. So any sense of a reasonable process to take cover was lost

Thankfully, the tornado lifted before it reached town.  So, death and disaster averted.

That's not always the case. There have been deaths over the years at outdoor concert venues and other events when severe weather rolled in and organizers didn't have a good enough plan to get people to shelter in time.

All this points to lessons that should have been learned. Bin 612 and other businesses should think through a plan to evacuate people in an orderly fashion during an emergency. No ad hoc security guards shoving people out through doors, please. To his credit, Thames said he would review and upgrade his severe weather plan

And people out for an evening when severe weather is forecast should have looked at their surroundings and figured out where they would go if a tornado warning was issued, or another emergency cropped up. Better yet, since they'd been forecasting rough weather all day, people maybe should have stayed home, and go out another night when the weather was calmer.

I know this is paranoid, but when I go to a crowded public venue, I always take note of where the exit  signs are, and think for a moment how I would leave if I had to get out in a hurry.

Here's the video of security guards yelling, scared, drunk patrons and people not knowing what to do. Not the best moment in severe weather prep:

Selfish People Think It's OK To Let People DIe To Avoid Hail Dings On Their Cars

In this image from The Weather Channel, parked cars beneath an
Oklahoma overpass block traffic during a weekend hail storm. 

UPDATE:

Kudos to the Twittersphere, namely Becks DePodwin and Nevin deMelliano for pointing out that some insurance companies actually encourage people to park beneath overpasses when it hails.

Yes, as the discussion below shows, doing that endangers other people. But apparently as long as insurance companies don't have to file claims for their own customers, who cares if other people get hurt or killed?

It's all right there. Nationwide's web site tells people to "help protect your car by seeking shelter under an overpass or in a structure with a strong roof."

Not all insurance companies suggest this. Progressive, for instance, tells people who don't have garages or are worried about hail to temporarily stow their car in a covered parking garage at the local mall, which is reasonable enough. No mention of overpasses on the Progressive web site, though I would suggest a disclaimer NOT to do that.

This is an improvement over a couple years ago, when I reported in 2017 that Progressive advised people to stop beneath overpasses. From what I can tell, Progressive has mercifully dropped that advice.

Geico tells people to "pull over to the side of the road and wait out the storm." Fine, but people should pull over well off travel lanes.

The advice from Esurance is actually pretty good: "If you can, pull over into a covered parking area. Pull over to the side of the road (provided its safe to do so."  My quibble: Esurance should say that the "covered parking area" does not include overpasses.

Clearly, despite the advice of weather and severe storm safety experts for the past few decades, the public, insurance companies and others still need a lot more education on the folly of trying to avoid hail and other hazards beneath overpasses.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Cars block an underpass on a busy highway during a hailstorm
in this undated photo from Reuters. 

Some serious hail storms hit parts of Texas, Oklahoma and other places in the past few days severe thunderstorm season continues to ramp up.

Big hail causes a lot of damage, of course. I also get it that people don't want to get their cars all dented up by giant hail stones.

However, as usual, as we see every year, there are a number of thoughtless, selfish people who decide that the safety and lives of their fellow motorists are expendable if it means they can avoid a couple little hail dings on their cars.

So they park beneath overpasses. Which jams up the highways behind them.

 There's lots of "for instances." Like on Saturday, when parts of Interstate 44 in Oklahoma got jammed up because morons parked beneath bridges and overpasses during a hail storm.

There are so many reasons why parking beneath overpasses in hailstorms is is dangerous. Here are just a few:

1. Visibility is naturally very poor in a thunderstorm with heavy rain and large hail. People trying to manage driving through the hail and rain won't see the traffic jam until it's too late. This is a recipe for a deadly pileup.

2. Even while the hail is pounding down and you're beneath the overpass blocking traffic, the storm has probably already caused damage and maybe injuries up ahead. Emergency vehicles are already racing to the scene. And here the ambulances and firetrucks are coming up behind you and you're blocking their way.

Seconds count in emergencies. And you're wasting time by trying to keep a couple dings off your ride.

3. Thunderstorms with big hail often produce tornadoes. More often than not, as the tornadic thunderstorm approaches, the places affected first get a barrage of hail. Unseen through all this hail is the tornado. People sheltering beneath the overpass, and those trapped behind them, are sitting ducks for the tornado when it follows closely on the heels of the hail.

People are blocked in, so they can't flee the approaching tornado. So that's another way to kill people by parking beneath an overpass.

By the way, the myth still somehow exists that an overpass is a good place to shelter when a tornado approaches. The opposite is true. The structure of the overpass funnels strong winds, so the tornadic gusts are stronger beneath the overpass than elsewhere. Which means if you're sheltering there, you and your car will get blown way. Or sandblasted and impaled by debris. This will kill you. Or worse.

Andrew Pritchard (@skydrama) recently tweeted this recounting from the National Weather Service of people in Oklahoma who "sheltered" beneath an overpass as a strong tornado came in.  There were 12 people there. Only one died. Not so bad, right?

Here's a quote Pritchard repeated from a report of that 1999 tornado, which about what happened the remaining: "Unfortunately, what has not been well publicized is the horrific injuries suffered by all but one of the survivors under the bridge.......These injuries included but were not limited to compound fractures, shattered bones, missing fingers, missing ears, missing noses and being impaled by shingles, 2X4's etc."

So don't shelter under overpasses during severe weather. It's something out of a horror movie.

Not to mention the risk of killing others by stopping beneath these bridges. The 1999 bridge incident, described above was in part created by people stopping beneath that span. Some of the gruesome injuries were because people were blocking the road, and a quarter mile long traffic jam formed there as the EF-5 tornado passed over.

Even with that terrible story,  I know many of those entitled idiots will just flip me the bird and continue to stop at underpasses, not giving a damn if they hurt or kill others.  However, these tips are also great for those of us who want to do the right thing and not hog an overpass.

1. Pay attention to forecasts. If there's alerts, and especially if there's severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings, postpone driving if possible until the threat is over.

2. Watch the skies. If you see what looks like a bad thunderstorm a few miles up ahead, see if you can take the next exit and wait out the storm in a substantial shelter.  One sign that the thunderstorm up ahead might contain a lot of hail is if the storm clouds have a green or blue tint.

3. If caught driving in a hailstorm, slow down and put your blinkers on. By all means do NOT stop under that overpass. It's unsafe to pull to the side of a busy highway, too. But if conditions are so serious you can't see what you're doing, or if the hail breaks your windshield, definitely pull over as far off the roadway as possible. Also, do everything you can to protect your eyes if the car glass is breaking.

4. Remember, it's just a car. Insurance almost always covers the hail damage. Better to ding up your car than kill someone by blocking the highway.

We here in Vermont don't have giant hail or tornadoes as frequently as other places in the nation. But it can still happen. Plus, you might be driving somewhere else when this kind of weather happens.

Please don't be a jerk, and kill or hurt someone by parking beneath an overpass. I do think there's sometimes such a a thing as karma. If you look at it that way, the life you save might be your own.

Here's a harrowing video taken several years ago after an Oklahoma tornado hit an overpass where cars had parked beneath. One person died and several were injured:

Vermont Heat Deaths Show Risk Is Not Just A Southern Thing

Two elderly Vermonters died early this week in the Brattleboro area during the brief but intense heat wave we had, and officials tied those deaths to heat exposure.

At two separate houses, an 87 year old woman and an 87 year old man were found outdoors near their houses, according to the Brattleboro Reformer and VTDigger.

While the medical examiner has not announced an official cause of these deaths, the fact that it looks like they're heat related offers us a warning:

We can get in trouble during hot weather even up here in northern New England.

In fact, in some ways, the problem can be worse. Many homes don't  have air conditioning. (Hey, some parts of New York and Vermont were in the 30s last night - in June!)

Still, the overall trend has been for more summer hot spells and especially hotter, muggier nights, and that can take a toll on  us.

Any hot afternoon can be risky if you don't take care of yourself. That's especially true among the elderly and people who have health problems.

Even healthy, young pups need to be careful, though.

Back in September, 2015, Vermont State Trooper Kyle Young, 28, died of heat exhaustion during a training exercise on a very warm, humid day.  And a younger man who was a logger died while working during record heat in July, 2012 in northern Vermont.

And a study has shown that emergency room visits in New England increase exponentially during hot spells.

More hot, humid spells are inevitable this summer. It's only mid-June, after all. In fact, it will be muggy with temperatures flirting with 90 degrees Sunday afternoon.

So remember these tips for the rest of the summer:

Check on the elderly. Often. Make sure they are in a cool place or take them there, like to the mall or a movie. Make sure they're drinking a lot of liquids.

Take care of yourself, too. There's no need to mow the lawn at 3 p.m. in the afternoon in the sun when the temperature is 95 degrees. Keep drinking that water, and maybe even throw in a sports drink or two.

If you or someone you're with is in hot weather and start experiencing things like heat cramps, nausea, confusion, dizziness, get to a cool place now if not sooner and drink non-caffienated liquids. If it starts to progress to heat stroke, (super high temperature, dry skin, fainting, call 911 pronto.

Take care of your pets, too. Dogs cool off by panting, and there's only so much they can do. My house is not air conditioned, so when it gets too hot, our dogs and I retreat to the cool basement and hang out down there. We make a day of it.

Also remember: If you take your kids and pets on a car trip, don't leave then sitting in a parked vehicle in the sun for even a couple minutes while you run your errands. And when you get home or do your destination, please, please always remember to make sure you've retrieved your kids and pets and anyone else from the car.

There have been too many deaths in hot cars across the country already this summer.

Progressive Insurance's Hail Advice Is Dangerous

Like most competent insurance companies, Progressive sends out  "what to do" press releases informing consumers what to do if, say, they've had a house fire, a car accident or what have you.

Cars blocking a highway beneath an overpass during a
hailstorm. Don't do this, despite what Progressive says

Recently, Progressive put out a statement on what to do if you encounter a hail storm when driving.  

One of their suggestions was downright dangerous. They said, "Stop under an overpass, and don't forget to pull out of traffic lanes and onto a shoulder Avoid ditches due to possible high rising water. "

The parts about avoiding ditches is great. Pulling over to the shoulder is good, too 

Here's the problem: Very commonly, a bunch of people stop under an overpass during hail. Even if people are somewhat pulled over, oncoming cars can encounter the building traffic jam at the overpass.

Visibility is poor during severe thunderstorms. The rain and the hail make the roads slippery. The hail sure is distracting when you're driving. Stopping under overpasses is a great way to cause a very messy pileup.

Stopping beneath overpasses is very dangerous in another respect: Sometimes, a tornado is attached to the supercell thunderstorm producing the hail. 

Typically, the hail core of a tornadic thunderstorm passes over an area first. Then the tornado follows.  People under the overpass are sitting ducks for the oncoming tornado. Plus, tornadic winds funnel through the overpass, making the wind even stronger and more dangerous. 

And by stopping beneath the overpass, you've blocked traffic behind you on the highway, and now all those motorists can't get out of the way from the approaching tornado. 

If it is hailing badly, it's probably best to pull over while driving, onto a shoulder and outside of traffic. But please don't gum up the overpasses and block traffic.

You might be killing people in an effort to prevent your car from getting dinged. Is it worth it?

Maybe We Need To Change How Severe Weather Warnings Are Issued

A map showing a tornado watch (yellow) tornado warning
(in red) and severe thunderstorm warning (in orange)
The map shows county borders statewide.
If you didn't know the name of your county and surrounding
counties if you were in Oklahoma, you wouldn't know
if the tornado was threatening you. 

You've heard people say this before:

Victims of tornadoes or other severe weather would say, "It hit without warning." or "We had no warning, it just blew in."

Almost always, there had indeed been timely warnings before the storm arrived. Did the storm victims not hear the warnings? Or disregard them?

As we head into the spring and early summer tornado season, this is an important, immediate worry.

Al.com recently had an interesting take on this, which perhaps highlights a need to change how weather warnings go out.

Typically, the National Weather Service will issue a tornado or severe thunderstorm warning for a particular county during a particular time period. The warning might mention a few of the communities that are threatened, but they obviously can't list them all.

The warning might start out reading like this:  "The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Smith County until 7 p.m......."

Here's the problem, put succinctly by the Al.com headline: "Many Alabamians Can't Find Themselves On A Map, And That's Dangerous"

This isn't a slam against Alabama residents. It looks like not a lot of people anywhere in the United States know which county they live in. That's a problem, since, as noted, warnings tell you which county the warning is affected by a warning.

The entire Al.com article, though focused on Alabama, is a must-read for anyone who will someday, sooner or later, will have to heed a weather warning to save their lives and property.

That means pretty much everybody.

This whole question started in Alabama because of social scientist April Taylor.

On April 27, 2011, Alabama was at the epicenter of the most extensive, and one of the most deadly and destructive tornado outbreaks in American history.

One of the tornadoes, an EF5 - the strongest and most dangerous possible - tore through DeKalb County, Alabama, killing 25 people.

Taylor knew that before the tornado in DeKalb County, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the county immediately to the west, the direction from which the tornado was coming.

Then, a warning was issued for DeKalb County itself. Why were people saying they had no warning?

According to Al.com, this prompted Taylor to create an experiment:

A deadly tornado pummels Tuscaloosa, Alabama on
April 27, 2011 during a super outbreak of tornadoes.
Researchers learned some people couldn't understand
weather warnings duirng this storm and many others because
they can't locate the county they live in on a map.

"I pulled together a map and a group of people with college degrees....It was seven people. And I passed out a map of the northern half of Alabama with the major highways listed. 

And I asked them: Label your home county, label the surrounding counties. Put a dot where your hometown is and if you can find where your school and your church and all that is.

"Seven people. All with college degrees. Only three people could label their home county. Only three. Only one was able to label surrounding counties"

In other words, when the National Weather Service issues a tornado or any other warning for X County, few people know what that means or whether it will affect them.

Taylor conducted a similar experiment with many more people. Most people couldn't identify their counties.

She took her study results to Kevin Laws at the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, to ask whether there was a way to improve warnings.

Broadcast meteorologists are happy with that move. They are welcoming this look at how warnings are disseminated.

Veteran Alabama television meteorologist James Spann in Alabama says during severe weather he routinely puts maps live on the air showing sections and counties in Alabama that are under tornado warnings.  These maps also go immediately on social media.

"You work really hard on these maps and graphics, really hard. The minute you post it, the first 10 comments are 'What about Cullman?' 'What about Jasper?' 'What about Dora?' 'What about Eastaboga?' 'What about Hanceville?' 'What about Clanton?'

And I'm thinking, I don't understand this. What it is, is that people can't find themselves on a map. They honestly can't help it. They can't find themselves."

Part of the problem might be the maps. Sometimes, they're not labeled. It's hard to formulate a map that tells you both what's going on, and where you're referencing. You have to do both, apparently, but if the map gets too cluttered with information, you lose everything.

On top of that, Al.com notes, we don't use maps nowadays the same way we used to.

"'You look at college kids today, and I study them, because I've got to reach them,' Spann said. 'They pull out their maps app all the time, but they use the directions coming off that maps app that tells you what to do. It tells you to turn here and turn here, and they really don't even look at the map, they just follow directions.'"

Researchers are taking the experiences in Alabama with warnings and maps and doing even more research. They want to design warning maps that people can easily understand and interpret.

At the risk of sounding like Jason Chaffetz, I'm going to advocate for personal responsibility. I get it we don't know where we are on maps, so plan ahead. This won't really even cost you any morey.

Get a copy of a map of your area, preferably one that sbows counties, roads and landmarks surrounding your area.  Find it online and print if you want. Make it big enough so that you can mark each county with its name, and leave it where you can find it when there's weather warnings.

Like right next to your weather radio. You do have a weather radio, right?

This way, when the National Weather Service or a broadcaster squawks a warning, you can readily see where they're talking about. Pay attention to directions, too. If they say the storms are moving east, you can look at the map and see if the storms are west of you. If they are, be on the lookout.

Comcast Truck Causes Snow Crashes In Viral Video

These cars slid of an Indiana road this week on a snowy day in patt
because a Comcast truck was blocking one lane of traffic
surprisng motorists who had just crested a hill.  

There's a video that hit big today about some car slide-offs and crashes in Indiana this week that appear to be have been caused by a Comcast repair truck.

In the video, which you can see below, a Comcast truck is blocking one lane of traffic on a slushy, icy two lane road while the guys make repairs to some sort of cable problem along the road.

There's a upward grade on the road before the Comcast truck, and then it goes downhill just prior to where the Comcast truck is parked.

Motorists crest the hill, and are then surprised to see the Comcast truck blocking things. Some of the motorists either slide off the road because they can't brake in time, or they crash into each other.

The Comcast guys seem oblivious. The guy making the video points out that the Comcast guys are creating a hazard.

The Comcast guy replies that they put out the correct number of traffic cones warning of the danger. Which is likely true for optimum driving conditions, but not for the conditions in winter storms.

Sure, some of the motorists might have been driving too fast for the conditions, but must the Comcast  repair guys make things worse?

Why, yes, they must!

The guy shooting the video manages to put his own makeshift cones out, but it's not enough. We see a  pickup truck slide into the back of a braking car, then skid into not one, but two front lawns.

After that mishap, the guy taking the video yells at the Comcast worker.

Who basically shrugs. Comcast Guy says, "I have work to do."

To which our videographer responsds, "You got work to do. Is that cable more important than people's safety?

I actually feel for the Comcast workers, because they're between a rock and a hard place. It's corporate America, where workers must do what is proscribed in company rules, even if it makes no sense. If they don't, they're fired or punished.

They might have been able to park the trucks in a safer spot, but maybe that would have violated company rules?

But if the publicity gets bad, which it does here in this viral video, they're still in trouble.

As the video went viral, Ed Marchetti, SVP, Technical Operations put out a statement, which read in part:

"Safety matters most - especially in dangerous weather conditions like this. 

We are actively investigating what happened when our technicians were on site to restore services during an outage and we will reach out to those who were impacted buy this incident.

Within the next 24-48 hours, my team will meet with our technicians across the company to use this example of how important it is to make everyone's safety a priority in everything we do."

In other words, the employment of these Indiana Comcast workers is toast.

I'm glad that Comcast will emphasize safety, and I hope they follow through

I'm sure the people in that neighborhood were bummed that their cable access had been knocked out. I'm sure they wanted Comcast to fix the problem ASAP, as would I.

But I'd rather live without cable TV, and suffer through an afternoon unable go watch the Steve Harvey show, than see motorists get killed or injured because somebody is trying to enable me to watch the show.

Let's let common sense rule in winter weather, please.

Here's the video:

Here's Why You Should Clean All The Snow And Ice Off Your Car

A big chunk of ice flew off an SUV on a Massachusetts
highway and here, is about to hit the windshield of
this car, which was equipped with a dashcam.

It's snowing again here where I live in Vermont. It won't amount to much, at least here in the Champlain Valley.

Maybe we'll get a couple inches.

But I'll be damn sure I clean the snow off my truck before the next time I drive anywhere.

Snow blowing off your car can blind other drivers or reduce your own visibility through icy windows.

Worse, think about what could happen if the snow on your car turns to ice.

Recently, Massachucetts got a nasty mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain. It was only a couple inches of the stuff, but it was heavy and it froze.

Watch this news report about what happens when that ice flew off an SUV and onto another car behind it on Route 495 in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Lesson learned: Scrape the snow and ice off your car.

 

Stupid People Keep On Driving Into Floods, Keep Getting Stuck

Cars stranded in street flooding in the
Wichita, Kansas area Monday. Photo from KAKE.com 

This is the summer of flash flooding, apparently.

I've noted this already in previous posts, but yet again, a vast part of the nation is under threat of flash floods today, and many areas experienced such deluges Monday.

Today, the flash flood risk zones include a broad stripe from Texas through Oklahoma into Missouri; part of Nevada and the desert Southwest, as monsoon moisture will trigger local torrential thunderstorms; parts of Wyoming, and mountainous West Virginia, where gullywashers could easily sweep down steep slopes today.

This just adds to epic rainfall totals for the year in some parts of the nation, a contrast to the West Coast, where the drought just keeps on grinding on.

The flash floods this week add more to the usual phenonenon we see: So many people driving into flooded streets, and getting stuck.

I guess the National Weather Service's constant refrain, "Turn Around, Don't Drown," isn't working. I don't know why.  It seems pretty easy to understand, at least to my little brain.

I'm amazed at the videos, an example of which you see below, of people seeing that cars and trucks have died out as motorists tried to drive down flooded streets. But does everybody else turn around?

Of course not! Some people soldier on, thinking they have magical powers in which everybody else's car drowns in the water but theirs won't.

In the videos, you do see other people turning around instead of plunging into the water. You can almost see the thought bubble of the people in the cars that are turning around. They look at people with their stuck cars and say, "Loser."

The video below, from StormChasingVideo.com, shows cars struggling amid flash floods in Wichita, Kansas Monday.

Wichita isn't exactly a remote, boony one road town. A little under 400,000 people live there. It's a pretty sizeable town.  You'd think that if one street floods, you can turn around and find a nearby street that's not flooded and do a detour there.

So, if you encounter flooding today, no matter where you are, don't drive through it. The car and life you save might be your own.

Why Are These Truckers Driving Into A Tornado?

Two tractor trailers drive into a tornado
near Eolio, Missouri Sunday. Photo by Kholby Martin.  

Yesterday, there were severe thunderstorms and tornados in and around the St. Louis metro area.

Storm chaser Kholby Martin captured one of the tornados crossing a highway near Eolio, Missouri.

Granted, it wasn't the strongest and most visible tornado in the world, but to anyone traveling along the highway, you can tell there was trouble ahead.  

So in the video you see below, why did two tractor trailor drivers keep going down the road right into the tornado instead of stopping and letting it cross?

One of the trucks went off the road because of the tornado, and the other came THIS CLOSE to tipping over.

Somebody really could have gotten hurt, and it would have taken only a minute to stop and let the tornado cross. Another video I saw of the same tornado taken from the opposite side showed cars stopping to let the twister pass.

Anyway, here's the video:

Saratoga, New York Lightning Strike Shows Why Standing Under Trees in Storms Is Bad Idea

Lightning striking a tree in Saratoga, N.Y., as captured by
a surveillance camera.  

A surveillance camera at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York captured lightning hitting a tree at the edge of one of their parking lots.

The video goes to show why you don't stand under trees in storms.

If you watch carefully, you'll note, too, how far and wide pieces of the tree rocket into the parking lot, especially early on in the strike.

You don't have to be that close to a lightning strike to really get hurt.

The clip is going viral, much like that one of the truck getting struck by lightning as it sped down an Alberta highway recently.

Here's the Saratoga surveillance camera drama:

British Potholes Making It Harder To Catch Drunk Drivers

There's another hazard to add to the litany of woes caused by the potholes and frost heaves that I wrote about the other day.   

Are people swerving around these like drunken drivers?  

In Britain, where a winter of flooding had caused a lot of road damage, the BBC reports that the potholes make it harder to catch drunk drivers.

Sober drivers are weaving and swerving around the holes in the road, the BBC reports. 

They look like drunken drivers.

According to the BBC, quoting an inspector named Richard Mallett:

"Yes, the conditions of the road are a concern because there is a likelihood of it causing crashes, but people need to take some responsibility when they're behind the wheel.....Anecdotally, it makes it more difficult for us to spot the drunk drivers as everyone is weaving about around the potholes.

Here in Vermont and in the rest of the northern parts of the United States, frost heaves and potholes are everywhere after a long, tough winter. So there's plenty of bumps and holes to swerve around as we're driving out there.

Still, I don't think weaving around the potholes would be a good excuse to tell an officer if you're driving drunk. They could just whip out the Breathalyzer to determine what's going on.

Besides, if weaving around potholes is unsafe for sober drivers, imagine a drunken driver trying to pull that off.

Stay safe out there, people.

 because there is a likelihood of it causing crashes, but people need to take some responsibility when they're behind the wheel.

"Anecdotally, it makes it more difficult for us to spot the drunk drivers as everyone is weaving about around the potholes."

Fog Is Not Your Friend

Yesterday, I wrote about thick smog in China and elsewhere and noted that's not usually much of a problem in Vermont or surrounding states.

However, Vermont can have a real fog problem.

And fog can be some of the most dangerous weather out there.

The web site Jalopnik, which covers cars and car culture, had a thing on how people  on foggy highways tend to drive too fast, going faster than their ability to see through the gloom.

Here's the video Jalopnik featured of a crash on foggy highway.





If you're not terrified enough by that video, here's another one of a grandmotherly woman saying she can't see in the fog as she speeds along a highway, and can't even figure out how to turn on her lights, which of course distracts her even more.

As you can guess, it doesn't end well.




According to the Federal Highway Administration, fog causes or contributes to about 38,000 road crashes with about 600 deaths each year.

True, that's only 3 percent of all weather related car crashes and 8 percent of all weather related car crash deaths, but that's probably surprising to the many of us who think fog doesn't kill.

But compare the 600 people who die in foggy crashes to the average number of U.S. deaths from floods, In 2011, a particularly bad year for floods, 113 people died in high water, 68 in car-related flood incidents.

An average of 60 people die each year in tornadoes, but that number varies greatly year to year.

So far this year there have been 23 lightning deaths in the United States.

Bottom line: Fog is dangerous. Sometimes.

Vermont has many foggy mornings in the fall. And of course in the winter, heavy snow and whiteouts  cut visibility next to nothing. Plus the snow adds the joy of glare ice to the roads, so it's doubly dangerous.

So if the visibility is low on the highway, do us all a favor. Drive more slowly than you think you need to. Thank you.

Why Reporters On The Beach During Hurricanes Is A Bad Idea

The tropics are quiet at the moment. There's no tropical storms or hurricanes lurking in the Atlantic Ocean that might cause havoc somewhere in the United States.

Another journalist  having a tough go of it
reporting live from a hurricane.  

But almost inevitably, sometime between now and the end of November, a hurricane will menace the coast somewhere between Brownsville, Texas and Eastport, Maine. That's a lot of potential targets.

And a lot of potential places for reporters to make fools of themselves. Because every time there's a hurricane, hordes of reporters tell us to flee the beach to get away from the dangerous hurricane.

They all tell us this while standing on the very beaches they've told us to get away from. And getting blown over. Or knocked over by a wave. Or having idiots streaking behind them on camera.

I get it. The reporters and camera people and news directors want to show us how powerful the storm is, its destructive potential, its drama.

Plus, riveting videos of storms are ratings bonanzas. Heck, why do you think I post wild videos and pictures of storms and other extreme events in this blog?  People like it, and I like showing it.

Plus, hurricanes are not that complicated a story to cover, really.

It's not like a hurricane is going to refuse comment when approached by a reporter. And the reporter doesn't have to dig through dense government documents to get the story. It's right there, unfolding before their eyes. The newsgathering in hurricanes is easy and cheap and thrilling.

To be fair, reporting live from a storm is a huge rush, and many news organizations take precautions to protect journalists from especially dangerous moments in these storms. 

Still, this tradition of standing on the beach during a hurricane might end the day a two by four flying in the wind will smashed through the skull of a reporter doing a live report. I hope that doesn't happen, but I fear it will.

We lost some storm chasers during an Oklahoma tornado earlier this year, and there's no reason we won't lose a reporter to a hurricane, unfortunately.

At the very least, reporting live from a hurricane isn't a terribly dignified exercise. Watch this hurricane reporter fail compilation video to fully understand why: