"Superbloom" Dazzling California And Arizona; Stupid People Threaten To Ruin It

A view of this year's Super Bloom in California

A spectacular "super bloom" is engulfing desert areas of California and Arizona after a very wet winter re-energized plants in arid parts of the southwest.

Hillsides there are dazzling with acres and acres and acres of red poppies, along with lupine, phacelia, popcorn flower, lily, snapdragon and varieties of sunflower.

The result are hillsides so colorful that they - I hate to say it - are at least as stunningly gorgeous if not more so than the fall foliage that brings millions of tourists here to Vermont.   Even photos from space are capturing the gorgeous colors of this super bloom

Newsweek calls this "perfect storm" conditions for a super bloom, but of course storm is not what comes to mind when you see photos and videos of these flowers. But storms are why they are there.

In some spots, wildfire heat and smoke can prime the pump to germinate seeds. If it rains a lot in the months following these fires, ideal conditions develop for super blooms.

Which is happening this year.

Of course, everybody wants to see this super bloom, and that brings out the idiots.

The ecosystem in these super bloom sites is fragile, and visitors really must stay on marked trails or else they'll damage the plants and soil, forever wrecking future super blooms. But of course some people don't, because their own Instagram shots are far more important that the blooms, and the future enjoyment of other visitors.

Apparently, getting "likes" on Instagram is much more important than preserving parks for future super blooms.

So they lay down in the flowers for the glamour shot. And doing so means flowers won't grow back in that spot for ages. Thanks a lot, scummy "fashion models!"

In Lake Elsinore, California, officials had to close down access to Walker Canyon becaue the roads, including Interstate 15, got so clogged with visitors. Area officials started a shuttle service, costing $10 per person, to bring things down to a dull roar.

This recent satellite photo clearly shows the bright colors of
this year's super bloom in southern California.

Many of the visitors were also not prepared. These are hiking trails. Outdoors. In nature. And weather.

So people got stuck or mildly injured because they didn't bring decent hiking shoes, proper clothing and water. Plus, some were not in good enough physical shape to hike.

One particularly entitled pair decided to set a helicopter down this past Tuesday in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, says the Los Angeles Times.

Obviously, there is no airport or landing pad in the reserve. As the Los Angeles Times reports:

"'We never thought it would be explicitly necessary to state that it is illegal to land a helicopter in the middle of the fields and begin hiking off trail in the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve,' officials said in a Facebook post along with the hashtag #Don'tDoomTheBloom.

'We were wrong.'"

The pair fled in the helicopter when rangers began approaching to find out what the hell these two were thinking. Officials said they are still trying to identify the helicopter and its occupants.

I certainly can't blame people for wanting to see this spectacular show from nature. We all love to see things like this. Most people are pretty responsible about it, too. I just hope as soon as somebody sees some moron doing something damaging, they get called out.

A little bit of public shaming wouldn't hurt, either.

Here's a nice video tour around Lake Elsinore, California recently:



Once this video gets going after the preliminaries, the views are spectacular:

All The Stupid Complaints About Meterologists In One Handy Video

This dude plays the archetypal dumb cluck who says all
the dumbest things to meteorologists in a worthwhile video.

I'm not a meteorologist. Just a weather geek. I definitely have training in meteorology, but didn't go the full distance to get a degree in it.

I'm not super great at more advanced math, which a meteorology degree requires, so I went with a journalism degree.

Basically, that means I'm not smart enough to be a full-blown meteorologist, pardon the punny weather reference there.

Meteorologists are really, really smart. However, arguably more than any other profession, they have to put up with an awful lot of outspoken stupidity raining down on them. (There I go again.)

Not all meteorologists are on TV, but they are the ones who constantly get harassed about their wardrobe. As if that aspect of a weather person is the most important. Female meteorologists seem to be most targeted here.   As if the most important thing about a televised tornado warning is the color dress the person delivering said warning is wearing.

Speaking of which, people always complain when regular programming is interrupted by a tornado or some other severe weather warning. The warning might not be for a location close to you, so you scream that the warning interrupted a critical moment of "Wheel Of Fortune."

You really don't care if the TV meteorologist is trying to save lives eight counties over. "Wheel Of Fortune" is so much more important, right?

Then the meteorologists get dinged for a slightly inaccurate forecast, or the forecast is accurate but people don't understand what a 30 percent chance of showers means. Crackpot tinfoil hat-wearing onspiracy theorists are angry because meteorologists know chemtrails are bullshit fiction. People would rather believe some Russian bot on the internet than a real, live scientist, I guess.

Anyway, rant over. This rant will continue in this entertaining and what meteorologists would say is a way-too-familiar scenario in this video:

Government Shutdown Is Stupid and Bad For Weather Forecasting And Research

The government shutdown is screwing around with the National
Weather Service, including areas of public outreach, science,
research and other critical areas. yes, the whole situation is stupid.

The government shutdown, as you know, is a real pain in the buttinski. It's affecting a lot of people, including the National Weather Service, and weather geeks like you and me.

We're still getting forecasts, alerts, warnings etc., but other programs are curtailed. Outreach, communications with the public, research, meetings, and other activities are on hold.

The boilerplate message during the shutdown from the National Weather Service is this:

"Due to the government shutdown, all public National Weather Service activities have been canceled or postponed until further notice. The National Weather Service will continue to provide critical forecast, watch and warning information to protect life and property throughout the shutdown."

I imagine moral is poor among NWS employees, but they're are dedicated to protecting the public. I've certainly seen no erosion in the accuracy or timeliness in the many various winter storm, flood, tornado, high wind and other warnings that have been issued since the shutdown began.

Still, starting salaries for the NWS are at $28,000, and highest salaries are not much more than $100,000 for some people in top managerial positions. These guys and gals are NOT rich, so I'm sure they're all worried about how they will pay their bills.

One very regrettable effect of the shutdown is that National Weather Service meteorologists were barred from attending the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting this past weekend in Phoenix. This meant hundreds of scientists, including those from the National Weather Service, had to skip it. 

The Washington Post had this to say about the situation:

"'This meeting is where scientists hatch new ideas for lifesaving methods and warnings,'  said Dan Sobien, the president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. 'Any delay in that research could someday cost someone their life, and that person could be you or me,' Sobie said. 

Not having NWS meteorologists there to collaborate 'will likely cost many more lives than the absence of any border wall, anywhere.'"

Sobien might be overblowing the situation, but he has a point: Scientists getting together a big meeting like the AMS annual do spark creativity and research, so the government shutdown probably helped stymie some needed weather and climate change research.

Not that the Trump administration  cares or takes seriously any scientific facts and research. Especially if it conflicts with their agenda. But that's another story. 

Another effect of the shutdown, at least for the AMS conference, is it has thrown scientific sessions and town hall meetings into chaos. (Bonus for Trump: He loves chaos, too!)  Because NWS personnel were in charge of convening many of these sessions, the were either canceled or they had to scramble to find substitutes

Weather and climate research is on hold, too, due to the shutdown:

Says Time magazine:

"Scientists and engineers working on projects unrelated to the day-to-day safeguarding of American lives and property have been sent home. Efforts within NOAA and NWS to improve weather modeling have been paused, as have continuing training programs for weather staff, both of which are essential to improving long-term weather prediction. For some forecasters, the standoff over the border wall is immaterial compared to the real progress that is being lost due to the shutdown."

National Weather Service meteorologists are working without pay.  The National Weather Service is, or was, one of the best places to work if you are a meteorologist. But these stupid shutdowns make working for the NWS less appealing, so the NWS risks losing the best and the brightest. 

Working for private meteorology companies is fine, but I worry about how research at these companies might be bent in the name of enhancing corporate profits. 

Here in Vermont, some data and services are  not available. Today, there was to have been a webinar out of the National Weather Service in South Burlington on understanding NWS radar images online. But that was canceled because of the shutdown. Sucks. The webinar would have been useful to me, and I'm sure quite a few other people.

The USGS monitors the Lake Champlain water level, and most of that data hasn't been available since the government shut down.. Their website frustratingly says:

"Due to a lapse in appropriations, the majority of USGS websites may not be up to date and may not reflect current conditions. Websites displaying real-time data, such as Earthquake and Water and information needed for public health and safety will be updated with limited support. Additionally, USGS will not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted."
 
Worse, the government shutdown is making it hard or impossible to get good readings on the amount of water in the snow up in Vermont's mid and high elevations. I don't really know if someone is monitoring snow water equivalent, but the general public can't access it.

That data is important, especially as we move more and more into winter. You need to know how much water is in that snow to determine the potential for flooding from runoff during thaws.  This data helped the National Weather Service in South Burlington forecast flooding in Vermont just before Christmas, and just before the government shutdown. 

So yeah, the shutdown is lousy for weather geeks, too. I guess politics, um, trumps science, public knowledge, access to data, and government responsibility.

Government Shutdown Could Affect Weather Forecasts

This is the message that greeted us on the
National Weather Service web site during
the 2013 government shutdown. It might be
about to happen again.  

The morons in Washington DC who want to shut down the federal government to score their elusive political points instead of serving their nation might even affect your weather forecasts.

By the way, if Congress Creatures and the grandstanders among them don't get their act together by September 30, there might be another government shutdown even stupider than the one in 2013.

Thanks Ted Cruz! 

Marshall Shepherd, writing in Forbes, says National Weather Service forecasts will go on, just as they did in the last government shutdown, but there are risks that things won't go smoothly.

For starters, we wouldn't have the great access to NWS products that we're used to, and there are a lot of 'em.

The last time we went through this ridiculousness, National Weather Service web sites were down, except for the parts that conveyed critical weather forecasts and updates during dangerous weather.

That was frustrating to say the least, because it's the go to place for all things weather.

True, there are private weather forecasters and other outlets, like the Weather Channel and AccuWeather, that do a fine job.

But Shepherd points out in Forbes that even these outfits depend on NWS and federal resources.

He writes: "Satellites monitoring the tropics for looming threat of hurricanes are federal assets. The dual-polarimetric, Doppler radar network watching for tornadic storms or flood-inducing rains are federal assets. The major weather models that provide day-to-day and long range forecasts are federal assetts.

I have often said, 'We wouldn't have french fries with the potato farmer, yet most people just see the french fries.'"

Many of the federal assets Shepherd describes would still run during a shutdown, but if something went wrong with them, maybe nobody would be around to  maintain them.

And what of morale among all federal employees, including NWS meteorologists?  Many would keep working while being promised to be paid eventually during a shutdown, but geez, talk about an employer - the federal government and Congress - disrespecting their employees!

I wonder how many talented NWS meteorologists would flee, leaving a weaker agency?

Shepherd takes an even handed, sober approach in his Forbes article, which is better than I can do.

I can't take that approach. So hey Congress Creatures: Stop your stupid politicizing and being big dicks and get to work!

Do your job!

Thanks for letting me rant.

The Ice Season Cometh. Now.

Freezing rain contributed to this pileup on
a Utah highway a couple years ago. 

Once we get into December especially, and on through until at least March, freezing rain and sleet becomes a much bigger hazard.

Cue the winter weather advisories. And the extremely stupid people who insist on driving faster than a rocket ship on glare ice.

A huge area from Ohio, on through almost all of Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and the northwest corner of Massachusetts are in for some ice later today and tonight.

The concern this time isn't so much ice caving in trees and power lines, but people not knowing how to drive on icy roads, and causing crashes.

By this late in the season, cold blasts from Canada mean business. We knew that when the temperature dropped by 60 degrees overnight Saturday in the Midwest when record highs in the 60s and 70s becae bitter cold low temperatures in the single digits.

Cold air like this is more dense than warm air, and tends to hug the ground. When warm air tries to move north to re-establish ground, it glides up and over the cold air.

Often when this happens, precipitation breaks out as well. And it's happening now. The cold air invaded the Northeast yesterday and last night, and now a warm front wants to move north and cause a brief warmup up in that part of the country.

Much of the precipitation will start as snow. With the warm air gliding over the cold, eventually the snow will change to rain up above us by several thousand feet. But then the rain will fall into the cold air and re-freeze, turning to sleet, or ice pellets.

As the warm air continues to move north and assert itself, that layer of cold air near the surface will become narrower. So the rain falling into the cold won't freeze until it hits the ground. That's freezing rain, and even more dangerous for driving on than sleet or snow

The ice is smoother and particularly slippery, so roads will be treacherous region wide during this period of transition from snow to sleet to freezing rain.

None of this precipitation is going to be heavy, at least this time. So I'm not too worried about heavy layers of ice piling up on trees and power lines, causing them to snap.

Freezing rain exactly a year ago contributed to a pileup
on this Worcester, Mass. bridge. Photo by Christine Peterson,
Worcester Telegram and Gazette.  

But it only takes a tiny, tiny amount of sleet and freezing rain to make the roads really dangerous.  Last year, there was a 65 car pileup near Worcester, Mass because of less than a tenth of an inch of ice.

And it's tricky. In one spot on the road, it's already above freezing and just raining, so you think you're fine. Then a short distance down the road, it's freezing, so you're taken by surprise.

Then there's the other boneheads out there. You're crawling along, being careful on the icy roads, and the idiots are zooming past you, because they have to do their usual 80 mph, because that's what they always do and they're going to keep doing it.

Then they cause a pileup. I've seen YouTube videos of pileups on icy Interstates because most people are going slow, and a couple morons are speeding, can't stop when they encounter the slow traffic and slam into them.

These speed demons deserve a special place in hell for causing so much harm for other people, and also causing the inconvenience for thousands stuck in the traffic jam behind the pileup.

Why do these speed demons only get charged at most with careless driving?  If they hurt or kill somebody, shouldn't they be charged with murder or aggravated assault or something?

Will one of these icy road speeders please explain to me why it's so necessary to go so fast on glare ice? Do you want to cause deadly crashes? Are you in a murderous mood? Or are you too stupid to be alive, and somebody needs to take your car keys away from you because you are the biggest imbecile on the planet?

Thanks, I had to get that off my chest.

The worst of the icy roads will be this morning and early afternoon in Ohio and Pennsylvania; during the day in New York, and this evening, overnight and Wednesday morning in northeastern New York, and in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

The warm front will eventually win out, and the precipitation will change to rain and end in most areas by Wednesday afternoon.

But it's December. It will quickly get cold again, and we'll have to deal with freezing rain and sleet on many more occasions as the winter progresses.

Science, Schmience: Two Depressing Stories This Week About Climate Change Response

A scary number of Americans think
global warming is not caused by
greenhouse gases, but "Biblical
end times."

The Washington Post today reported on a distressing poll that suggests that nearly half of Americans think climate change is at least in part due to "biblical end times" rather than us putting too much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

With that many people thinking there's some mystical reason for climate change, rather than pretty much basic physics and meteorology, no wonder there is not much political will to do something about global warming.

There's probably a fair number of politicians who think it's "biblical end times" and not greenhouse gases causing the problem, so no wonder they're not doing anything.

Plus, other politicians don't want to offend their evangelical Christian constituencies with trivialities like science.

(Political contributions from the oil industry surely play a role in the politics, too, but that's another story.)

I admit I'm not clear on the math in this poll, as it says 62 percent say its humans causing climate change and 49 percent say it's biblical end times. It looks like some people think it's both.

I get it. Science doesn't have all the answers. You'd think, though, that people would want to at least listen to what scientists says, since their pretty much experts in their field and seem willing to share their knowledge.

But I guess it's easier to make up your own story. It's more comforting than hearing news that doesn't fit your world view.

Which brings us to the second distressing bit of news. It appears Republicans in Congress don't want scientists influencing Environmental Protection Agency rules that have to do with, um, science.

If Salon and other publications are interpreting this right, under this bill, scientists would not be able to share with Congress their own research with lawmakers:

Says Salon:

".....the bill forbids scientific experts from participating in 'advisory activities' that either directly or indirectly involve their own work. In case that wasn't clear, experts would be forbidden from sharing their expertise in their own research - the bizarre assumption, apparently, being that having conducted peer-reviewed studies on a topic would constitute a conflict of interest.

'In other words,' wrote Union of Concerned Scientists director Andrew A Rosenberg in an editorial for RollCall, 'academic scientists who know the most about a subject can't weigh in, but experts paid by corporations who want to block regulations can.'"

The legislation is presented by Republican as a bid for transparency. They say they don't want the federal Environmental Protection Agency to enact regulations unless Congress is presented with scientific studies backing up those regulations.

Which I guess would be fine, if they actually let the scientists present their information. But the bill seems to prevent that, or at least strongly discourage scientists from talking about their findings.

Oh, right! It's the industries that would be regulated who should write the rules. Scientists familiar with the issue shouldn't. That seems to be the "logic" here.

I guess education and rigor are totally passe. Mysticism and corporate lobbying, it's the American way!

I wonder what really is a bigger sign of the End Times: Global warming or the incompetence and venal wackiness of at least a good chunk of Congress.

Sorry, Conspiracy Theorists, But "Chemtrails" Are Not A Thing

I'm totally on with Vane, the weather page on the snarky Web site Gawker, which has been totally going off on all those people who think that chemtrails exist and the government is trying to kill us with them.

Or something.

At the risk of having a bunch of conspiracy theorists with pitchforks or spray bottles of vinegar (more on that later) come at me because they think I'm part of the conspiracy, I'm going to yell at the chemtrail believers too.

CHEMTRAILS DON'T EXIST, YOU MORONS!!!

I'd better explain what this conspiracy theory is first: You know those thin white clouds or streaks you see forming behind a jet airplane as it passes overhead? Those are contrails. The hot exhaust from the jet engines hits the cold air and causes condensation. What you're seeing is a trail of ice crystals behind the jet.

These condensation trails can last from a few seconds to several hours after the jet goes by, depending upon atmospheric conditions.

We've seen these contrails up in the sky ever since there were jets.

Chemtrail enthusiasts say the you can tell many, most or all contrails are actually their beloved chemtrails, because they spread out or linger in the sky for hours, or merge with existing high clouds.

Since there can be any number of wind patterns up there where the jets fly, the wind can do all kinds of things to the condensations trails, bend them, make them much wider, intertangle several condensation trails-- you name it.

Still, a bunch of yahoos think these contrails are actually chemtrails.

According to RationalWiki, chemtrail conspiracists aren't totally sure what nefarious plot is behind the phenomenon, but top theories are it's for sterilization for genocide or population control, administration of drugs for mind control, to stop human evolution, to combat climate change.

One of the more interesting theorites is that chemtrails are designed to give Monsanto a global monopoly on genetically modified food by poisoning the environment so nothing but their seeds will grow.

Um, doesn't Monsanto already have almost a monopoly on genetically modified seeds? So why would they need so-called chemtrails.

Well, that's besides the point.

We could dismiss chemtrail enthusiasts as a bunch of tinfoil hat wackos, but too many people who should know better take this seriously for some reason.

 An Arizona State senator recently held a hearing on chemtrails in Lake Havasu City and the local paper took the foolishness seriously. 

In their article, the Havasu News actually did person on the street interviews about the subject and got responses like this:

"Jennifer Cramer of Havasu said she's noticed the "chemtrails" in town for about two years. "Every time they do chemtrailing there is some dramatic change in the weather. I noticed it this weekend and then it got very windy.....I'm not a scientist and I don't know what's in the (chemtrails) I think we have a right to know instead of worry (sic) about it every day."

Let me clue you in,  Jennifer, so you can stop worrying.  Contrails are most noticeable and tend to last longest, and spread out more when there are other high thin clouds starting to move in.

Those high thin clouds are often the first sign of an approaching storm. That's why it got windy, Jennifer. A normal, run of the mill, non conspiracy, meterological storm was probably coming your way.

So chill.

Oh, and about the vinegar: Some conspiracy theorists say you can neutralize the effects of chemtrails by spray vinegar into the air. That has led to some hilariously pathetic YouTube videos of people with plant misters spraying vinegar into the air.

There's one of those videos at the bottom of this post for entertainment.  In it, a woman is spraying vinegar into the air with a plant mister, and is convinced she is making the "chemtrails" disappear. (The contrails disappear on their own, you moron!)

The best line in the video is when you hear her teenage son say, resigned: "We are NOT your average family."

Meanwhile, I'm sure I, and Vane/Gawker writer Dennis Mersereau would get plenty of flak and vinegar from the conspiracists. But that's part of the job, I guess.

Now, go have some vinegar with that video I promised: