We're Wet; But Parts Of The World Too Hot, Too Dry

Residents of Chennai, India queue up for emergency water supplies
as seen in this photo from Reuters. 

After all that rain we had this week, I certainly didn't have to water my garden in St. Albans last evening.

The water content of my garden is the the most trivial thing in the world compared to weather conditions in some parts of the world.  Here's one: A major Indian city is running out of water.

Chennai, India, has about 4.6 million people and a punishing drought, aggravated in the past two or three months by record heat, has shriveled up its reservoirs.

Which means India is faced with an impossible task: How do you supply that many people with water when there's practically none locally?

As CNN reports:

"With low groundwater levels and insufficient rainwater collection systems, the state government has resorted to trucking water directly into Chennai neighboryoods, where hundreds of thousands of residents wait in line for their meager allocations."

Just as climate scientists have predicted, the water shortages have causes public unrest, with fights breaking out for thin water supplies and people hijacking water trucks.

Climate change, which seems to be intensifying droughts and delaying seasonal monsoon rains in India, is only one ingredient to this mess.

CNN reports there's no good infrastructure to store water in Chennai and other areas of India when the rains do come.

Chennai did manage to get 1.14 inches of rain Thursday, but that is as much as they've had in the previous six months combined. For Chennai, that's really not much rain at all. And a lot of that precipitaiton ran off, since there's no good systems to either store the meager rainfall in reservoirs or tanks.

India more than other countries relies on groundwater, and that's been depleting fast. Wells in groundwater aren't expensive, but as we see, combined with drought, this causes water shortages.

Chennai is the third major city in recent years to flirt with entirely running out of water, and it is the worst of the three.

Sao Paulo, Brazil and its 20 million people nearly very ran out of water in 2014 when reservoir levels dipped to 3 percent of capacity. Cape Town, South Africa nearly ran out of water in 2018. 

EUROPE HEAT

It's not drought so much at the moment in Europe as it is heat. A strong blocked up weather pattern seems destined to steer what could be a record heat wave into much of Europe over the next several days. Heat records for the month of June are threatened, notes the Category 6 blog.

Temperatures in parts of Germany, Belgium, France, the Nethelands and other countries could reach 100 degrees.


nearly ran out of water

Cyclone Fani Continues Tragic Storm Year in Indian Ocean.

Satellite view shows extremely powerful Cyclone Fani near the eastern
India coast a couple days ago. That small eye and those fineine banding
features in the clouds surrounding the eye indicate a very strong storm.

As expected, powerful Cyclone Fani struck eastern India on Friday, leaving a long trail of destruction and death.

As CNN reports, the cyclone caused at least seven deaths in eastern India, and that toll is expected to rise. Al Jazeera was reporting as many as 25 deaths as of Saturday morning.

Cyclones in the Indian Ocean are what we in the United States call hurricanes - they're the same thing.

Cyclone Fani made landfall as basically a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 125 mph near the city of Puri.  Videos of the storm are at the bottom of this post.

At least 1 million people in India were evacuated ahead of the storm.  While the storm is weakening some as it heads toward the northeast, it was expected to cause a devastating storm surge in low-lying Bangladesh, where 2.5 million people were evacuated, says CNN. 

All those evacuations and all that preparedness in advance of the cyclone doubtlessly saved a lot of lives.

Cyclone Fadi follows two cyclones that headed west this spring and slammed into Africa, causing humanitarian crises in Mozambique and surrounding nations.

Earlier this week, Cyclone Kenneth slammed into northern Mozambique, killing more than 40 people - and that toll is certain to rise. This was also a Category 4 storm. On the island of Ibo, pretty much all the homes were destroyed, or at the very least lost their roofs. Humanitarian workers say not nearly enough aid is coming in to help.

Crops are also destroyed, so the region will need food aid for some time to come.

Near-complete devastation from Cyclone Kenneth in
Mozambique. Photo by Tsvangirai Mukwazhi/AP

This was the first cyclone to hit northern Mozambique in modern times, so this one is pretty much beyond the pale.

Even before this crisis, southern and central Mozambique and surrounding nations were staggered by Cyclone Idai, which has killed more than 600 people.

That two powerful cyclones would hit Mozambique within six weeks is unprecedented. Some blame climate change.

Water in the Indian Ocean is trending warmer over the years and recent decades. The warmer the water, the more fuel for cyclones. That increases the chances they could form, and increases the chances that any cyclones that do form become stronger than they otherwise would be.

It's not proven, of course, that climate change has created all these cyclones in the Indian Ocean this year, but the situation is suspicious. I'm sure climate scientists will be looking more intensely at the Indian Ocean after this episode.

Back in India, Cyclone Fani made landfall during the day, allowing for some dramatic video footage.

Here's a compilation from Voice of America:



Video, apparently taken from a high rise, of metal roofs being torn from buildings, the weakened walls collapsing:



Here, the winds from the cyclone knock over a large construction crane on a high rise, crushing smaller buildings beneath. I hope nobody was in the smaller structures!

Snowstorms Block Western Roads, But "Mystery Couple" Helps

A road along Carson Pass, about 8,600 feet up in elevation in
the Sierra Nevada mountains over the weekend. Photo via
Twitter by Steve Allen of Saratoga, California. 

So far in my life, I've missed out on the "joy" of getting stuck on a highway for multiple hours when things grind to a halt in a snowstorm.

By a fluke of timing, I just barely avoided getting trapped on Interstate 89 for four hours, as others did, during an ice storm earlier this month in northern Vermont.

It might happen yet, as there seems to be a number of cases where this happens somewhere in the nation every winter.

In California and Oregon, winter has kept people stranded on roads for hours -- even up to a day.

Let's get into the negativity first, then we'll end on a positive note.

California's Lake Tahoe region received nine feet of snow in the seven days ending Saturday. Hey! Nine feet of powder on President's holiday weekend! Let's go up for some powder runs!

Not so fast. Have you even tried plowing away nine feet of snow? It's not easy, to put it mildly. The main route up to Tahoe, Interstate 80, was closed. State highways were no better, and often worse. The following tweet from Placer County Sheriff Lt. Andrew Scott pretty much summed it up: "State Route 267 is so deep that plows can no longer plow. They have ordered up a large blower to try and clear the pass."

The California Highway Patrol begged would-be skiers not to head up to Tahoe, because they wouldn't make it through the snow-clogged roads.

In Placerville, California, the California Highway Patrol posted this partly all caps message on Facebook: "STOP DRIVING UP HERE FROM OUT OF AREA. We cannot handle the amount of vehicles that keep coming up and getting stuck here...Just please stop coming up here. The situation is too much for the area to handle and there is nowhere for you to go." 

Did people listen? Of course not!

The inevitable happened. People got stuck, big time.

Many people had to stop in the tiny town of Pollock Pines, almost 60 miles away from Lake Tahoe, says the San Francisco Chronicle. 

The tiny town is ill-equipped for people. Stuck would-be skiers ended up sleeping overnight in their cars parked along Pollock Pines streets or in the Safeway parking lot.

Tempers in Pollock Pines and other tiny communities flared as there were so many people that cars double and triple parked on streets. Fights broke out, The Weather Channel reported. 

Fun ski vacation, huh?

In Oregon, people late last week were stuck along Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge.  A recent storm there had hundreds of people sitting and stewing and freezing in their cars for up to 19 hours.

Jade and Quintin Stell spent hours on Interstate 84 in Oregon handing
out food, water and gasoline to people stranded on the highway
for up to 19 hours during a recent winter storm. 

That's way, way too long. The problem was caused in part by people who did not put chains on their tires, or even have decent tires on their vehicles when the winter weather hit.

As is often the case, police arrived to hand out a little food and water and gasoline to the motorists who needed it.   Then a mystery couple appeared on the scene, reports KGW8  

The man and woman had been briefly caught in the traffic jam, but found a way out. When they learned hours later that a lot of people were still trapped on I-84, they stepped right up.

"The couple came in here early yesterday mrning, bought a bunch of groceries - water and bananas - and I asked them if they were stocking up. They said they were going to go take it out to everybody that was stuck on the freeway, said Katie Murphy, who works at a grocery store in Cascade Locks.

The pair had moved to the area from Los Angeles back in December.

Some people trapped in the snow storm snapped photos of the couple and posted them on Facebook. That helped KGW8 track the couple down and identify them as Jade and Quintin Stell.

The Stells said motorists try to give the couple money, but for the most part they refused. They made an exception at one $100 donation. At that point, they were almost out of food to give away, so they took the $100 back to the grocery store, stocked up, and returned to the traffic jam.

The couple said they were heartened by how motorists kept an eye out for each other. People in one car turned down food and pointed the Stells to another vehicle whose occupants were hypoglycemic and needed a snack. Other motorists directed the Stells to cars with babies and children.

"It was an experience that seemed so simple and such like a nothing thing on our part, but it was so rewarding to be able to love on people in that way," Jade Stell told KGW8.

People always tend to band together and help when there's some sort of crisis, disaster or problem. Still, it's nice to remind ourselves that there's a lot of people like the Stells out there who are willing to help when we need it.

I hope it inspires the rest of us to lend a hand when others need it.

Here's a news report about the I-84 backup:

Worst Japanese Flood In Decades Kills 200, More Missing

Massive flooding in Japan this week. Photo via STR/AFP Getty Images

I've been watching the flooding in Japan this week, and decided it really needs a post, as it is certainly one of the worst weather disasters to hit the world this year, if not the worst.

At least 200 people died, and many more are missing after incredible rains last week in western Japan. The rain has mostly stopped and water is receding, but the immense damage is done.

According to a Category 6 blog post by Bob Henson, the came when a relatively weak typhoon passed just to the west of Japan. This set up a very wet flow of super moist air coming into western Japan. Then a weather front stalled over the region, unleashing the heavy rains.

And boy, were they heavy. A weather station in Sukomo reported 4.25 inches of rain in just an hour, and 10.35 inches in three hours. Some areas received a storm total of more than 20 inches of rain.

The obvious result was widespread flash flooding and many, many mudslides in the hilly region of Japan. At least 4,600 homes were destroyed and millions evacuated.

Even though the water is draining away now, damaged roads and rail lines are preventing supplies from getting into some of the hardest hit areas.

One resident said:  The floodwaters were up o"ver my house, probably reaching 4 or 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) up past the roof all the way to the TV antenna."

This must have reminded people of Japan's worst modern disaster, the epic earthquake and massive tsunami of March, 2011.

Cleanup and recovery now is being hampered by oppressive heat and humidity. It's the 90s in the hardest hit areas with dewpoints in the 70s. Much like during the heat wave we had here in Vermont a week or two back.

Here are a couple videos of the flooding:




Not sure about the guy in the upper right hand corner watching the video with the rest of us, but, w
whatever

Puerto Rico, Aid, Trump, Heat And Politics #&*%ing Me Off

Desperate message written on a Puerto
Rican intersection after Maria.
The words under the SOS read
"We need water and food."

This is going to be a political kinda weather post, because I'm pissed off today.

Pissed off, because we've just spent three days yelling and screaming about whether NFL players should kneel during the National Anthem, all because Donald Trump forced the issue with his whines.

What those NFL players are protesting is racial injustice. No question, that's very important.

But we have a weather-related crisis going on now. In the United States. Involving Americans who are in very deep shit and so, so need our help.

As we know, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last week. Some humanitarian aid is flowing in, but the response has been anemic and totally in adequate. Remember, Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

There's no power. No water. More people are going to die in Puerto Rico from the lack of an emergency response than the storm itself. Trump and the rest of the government should be throwing everything they can at Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Instead, Trump complains about kneeling NFL players.

When he finally deigns to bring up Puerto Rico, it's to complain about its bad infrastructure. It's financial mismanagement over the past decade or two.

Forget that, dammit! There are people dying. We should have the island of Puerto Rico ringed with Navy ships, all tossing out food, generators, water, electrical repair crews and everything else.

I hope this isn't because the people of Puerto Rico are too Hispanic-ish for some people's taste.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yuliz Cruz said this to CBS News:

"Its life or death......People are starting to die already. We need to get our shit together because people are dying. People are really dying. I've put them in ambulances when they're gasping for air."

I suppose that as of today, there are some early signs of Washington getting its shit together, prodded by activists, some Senators who have got Puerto Rico's back and an increasingly hostile press. It shouldn't take that to get aid to the island.

I know, I know, we're already dealing with Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida, so it's hard to deal with a third major blow. And relief efforts never go without a hitch. But come on, let's get real with Puerto Rico, OK?

Another thing: I'm writing this in late September in far northern Vermont. I can see Canada from my house. Literally.

And the temperature is heading toward 90 for the third day in a row. The temperatures are shattering long-held records. It's oppressively humid. I'm sweating like hell.

This at a time of year that I should be wrapped in fleece and wondering what to do with my frost-bitten tomato plants. This heat wave is unprecedented for Vermont. Much like the 70 degree weather we had in February. And the 70 degree weather we had on Christmas Eve, 2015.

Yes, I get it. The weather always goes off the rails occasionally. And, in terms of Harvey, Irma, and Maria, there have always been big hurricanes and global warming did not "cause" the three huge hurricanes.

But let's get real. I always say it's hard to tease out exactly if and how global warming affected individual weather events, and that's still true.

However, the hurricanes, and the Vermont heat wave, and other strange weather events in recent years have the fingerprints of global warming all over them. The unusually hot ocean water made the hurricanes stronger than they otherwise would have been.

The downpours of Harvey in Texas probably would have been just a bit less intense had there not been more heat in the atmosphere, which can hold more water, which can unleash heavier downpours.

Vermont has always had warm spells in the autumn. But not like this. Perhaps in past decades, it would have been hot today in the Green Mountain State, but not like this.

Yet, we have a U.S. government led by Trump and other people that say global warming is totally imaginary - a conspiracy cooked up by China to ruin our economy, liberals who want to take freedom away from the rest of us, and scientists who want to fleece the government.

If you believe those conspiracies, I've got a hurricane-ravaged island in the Caribbean I can sell you.

The science is settled on this. The politics is not. With the fossil fuel industry and their minions funneling money to the climate deniers in Washington, we're getting no action on this. Just like Puerto Rico is not getting any action in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

I've always been taught that America is a can-do nation. We work incredibly hard. We're amazing innovators. When there's a crisis, we solve it. (My late World War II veteran father was part of the Greatest Generation, and I could see this greatness in him.)

I believe all this remains true about America. We are smart and hard working enough to lead the world out of the threat of global warming through inventiveness, guile, hard work and our culture of freedom and entrepreneurship.

Donald Trump keeps telling us he's going to make America great again. But he and his minions are doing the opposite through inaction in crises from Maria to climate change. I just wish he'd get out of the way and let the rest of us Americans get the jobs that need to get done get done.

Donald Trump wants to divide us for his own personal gain. Millions of Americans want to unite us to make an already great America even better.

Puerto Rico and the rest of the world who are already feeling the effects of climate change are asking: Which will it be?

Fatal Italy Avalanche Part Of A Current Brutal European Weather Pattern

In the lobby of the avalanche-destroyed hotel in Italy
a wall of snow and debris is seen pressing into the building
on the left.  

We awoke to the sad news today that a giant avalanche smashed into a resort luxury hotel in Italy, which is likely to have claimed 30 lives.

The avalanche came after incredibly heavy snows hit the mountainous Abruzzo region of central Italy in recent days.

The area has also been hit by swarms of earthquakes in recent months. More earthquakes Wednesday apparently sent the deep snow hurtling down mountainsides.

Incredibly severe weather also hampered rescue operations. Drifts were reported to be 16 feet deep, and it took many hours for rescuers to reach the hotel through blizzard conditions.

Some of the avalanche victims might have survived the snow slide, but froze to death awaiting rescue.

Plus, some of the guests might have already left before the slide hit because they had checked out. However, they were still there when the avalanche hit, waiting at the hotel for crews to clear snow-blocked roads so they could leave, Reuters reported.

The Italy avalanche tragedy is the worst part of a brutal weather pattern that is causing misery in much of central and eastern Europe.

Another huge concern is the refugee crisis in the region combined with the harsh winter conditions.

Snow and freezing cold have hit normally temperate areas of southern Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Even before the latest blast of frigid weather hit this week, at least five refugees had died as of last week from the cold and many others suffered from frostbite and hypothermia, The Guardian reported.

Some refugees in Greece have been moved to warmer buildings, but many others in Greece and elsewhere are stuck in flimsy tents, unprotected from the cold.  

Refugees in Belgrade, Serbia try to wash clothes
and themselves in hard winter conditons over
barrels filled with water and heated from below
with scraps of wood. Photo via Getty Images

In Serbia, women and children are mostly in warm shelters, but up to 1,200 men and unaccompanied boys are outdoors, unprotected as temperatures plunge into the single digits Fahrenheit.

Some countries, and people, are hostile to the refugees, and there are reports of police confiscating clothes and mobile phones from them, preventing them from calling for help or staying warm in the horrible weather.

This is beyond cruel. So-called humans have quite a capacity to destroy others, don't they?

No real relief is in sight as renewed cold and snow are due through the weekend in Greece, Italy, Turkey and the Baltic nations