Storm Chasing an Earth Sized Thunderstorm?
December 30th, 2010 | Bill KirkA typical thunderstorm here on Earth might span a couple miles and reach 50,000 feet tall. But, imagine a thunderstorm the size of planet Earth with 1,100 mph winds and lightning bolts a 1,000 times stronger. Fortunately,this "Dragon Storm" is on Saturn and has reemerged with a vengeance in recent days. If you want to chase this mega storm all you need is a small telescope and clear skies.
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New York Times Down -65% Snow Up +17%
December 28th, 2010 | Bill KirkThis post is for our friends in New Jersey and New York digging out of nearly 30" (76 cm) of snow today and the rest of us across the Northern Hemisphere suffering through the 4th straight record snowy Winter - most in 32 years. This will warm your hearts and everything else that's still frozen from digging out all day: New York Times "Bundle Up (all the snow) It's Global Warming"! I almost barfed up a lung, other not so vital organs and maybe a Christmas cookie when I read this story today. Do the powers that be at the NYT really think we're this ignorant? Take solace friends in these facts: Northern Hemisphere snow cover up +17% since 1980 and Northern Hemisphere snow cover is the most in 32 years; New York Times circulation down -22% and only 11% of readers actually care about the Times "views and opinions" section where this story can be found. Looks like investors don't put much stock in what the paper says either as NYT's stock price is down -65% since 2006 - the year the Pacific Ocean started it's 30-year cold phase which correlates nicely with all this snow!
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A poetic holiday weather forecast
December 21st, 2010 | Rich WoolleyTwas the days before Christmas, when all through the land All the people were shopping, to find that right brand. The shelves at the store were piled high with care, In hopes that more shoppers soon would be there...>
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Witches thought to be meteorologists? UH OH!
December 20th, 2010 | Bill KirkThis doesn't happen very often - a lunar eclipse on the first day of Winter. According to the US Naval Observatory it's only happened once in the past 2,000 years on 21 December 1638 and won't happen again until 21 December 2094. The rare lunar event is not the only unusual happening in space as the Sun is up to some very unusual antics as well that will have an impact on planet Earth's weather for decades to come. If you don't like the cold, you won't like the answer!
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390ppm = "Global Climate Terror" Really?
December 15th, 2010 | Bill KirkMother Nature wins again as the UN Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico suffers through another inconvenient embarrassment - coldest conditions in over a 100 years for the 29 Nov - 10 Dec, 2010 COP16 Conference! In fact, the all time coldest December day ever occurred at 50F (10C). It didn't help that Europe was suffering through one of the coldest/snowiest outbreaks in decades for the 4th straight year with the U.S. not far behind in the Deep Freeze. These inconveniently timed natural reminders are affectionately being called the "Gore Effect"...every time he speaks or the UN huddles up there tends to be some sort of record blizzard or record freeze dominating the headlines. This might explain why the next conference went as far South as they could - Durban South Africa! Here's some "Global Climate Terror" fodder to warm you up...
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Ocean Dump + Big Waves = Plastic Soup?
December 9th, 2010 | Bill KirkYou will not find this soup on the menu this holiday season and if you did, your bowl would be bigger than the state of Texas! We all know that everything in Texas is BIG so this is really big. The soup we're talking about is a huge swirling mass of "plastic soup" or "Pacific Garbage Patch" that is stuck in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California and another one near Japan. When the waves pick up (you can now monitor waves for day 1-8 in wt360.com) and come from a certain direction Hawaii's pristine beaches can go from paradise to a nightmare.
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wt360 Prediction - Global Cooling for 15 Years!
December 6th, 2010 | Bill KirkThe media and Cancun revelers at the Climate Summit would love to see the headline, "2010 the Warmest Ever", but it's not going to happen! While a moderately strong El Nino (warm sub-tropical Pacific Ocean) early in the year did send global temperatures up to +0.97C above average, they've since plummeted some 0.55C (1F) as the Pacific cooled rapidly and now enters a moderately strong La Nina phase (cold sub-tropical Pacific Ocean). But, there is a much bigger and broader global weather pattern at play here and something worth reading up on - Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) cycle. So goes PDO so goes the world climate! We'll explain here so you can dazzle your friends and colleagues at the next holiday party as we know all casual conversations start with "how about this weather"!
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Google Trends, Weather Trends and Stephen Colbert?
December 1st, 2010 | Bill KirkSo what does Google Trends, Weather Trends, the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancun, Santa Claus, Al Gore, Winter Weather Forecasts, Black Friday, Carbon Trading, Global Warming, President Obama and Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert all have in common? Not much! :) At least according to Google Trends. Read on for what's hot and what's not.
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