Yin-Yang Winter
March 29th, 2012 | Bill KirkSnow, ice, bitter cold - These are some of the words that come to mind when we think about winter. However, this past winter was anything but cold and snowy in the Central and Eastern U.S. While many are ready to blame Global Warming for the recent warmth in the States, they forget to account for the other parts of the globe in their accusations. In fact, if we take a look back at this winter we see there was actually plenty of "winter-like" weather across the globe, especially in Asia. Abnormally mild weather (Yang) would not exist if there wasn't a nearly equal cold force (Yin) to balance out the Earth's energy.
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2011 Global Temperatures are in...WE'RE ALL DOOMED!!!
November 8th, 2011 | Bill KirkThought we'd use a little media hysteria with the headline to get your attention, but sleep easy as the 2011 year-to-date global temperature is a not so whopping +0.15°C above average and cooling quickly (October came in at +0.11°C). One day scientists will look back on the bad science, bad data collection, data manipulation to prove a point (aka fraud) and outright corruption around Global Warming research. Rather than try and prove all that right now, I thought we'd just show you how bad our own government is at collecting weather data that we all use for research. The scary thing? The U.S. has the best weather reporting network in the world but as we'll show - we can't accurately measure yesterday's temperature let alone the pulse of the planet.
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Are You Ready For 5,200" of SNOW?
September 22nd, 2011 | Bill KirkDon't panic...that 5,200" is the total amount of snowfall expected across the ENTIRE United States (260 major U.S. markets) this season. The good news? That's actually the least in 5 years...the bad news...we'll still have plenty of cold and snow and ICE to contend with. But now that we got your attention, let's take a look at what we expect this season.
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Cooking the Books - A New FICTIONAL World Atlas?
September 17th, 2011 | Bill KirkA new World Atlas released in the U.K. this week is yet another example of "cooking the books" by so called climate scientists and editors like John Vidal with a clear global warming agenda. In this case, real climate and satellite data was brushed aside for a PhotoShop airbrush to make Greenland (actually snow covered year round) appear a little greener thanks to runaway Climate Change. You would think the Publishers would do a bit more fact checking after the UK Climategate scandal but why let the facts get in the way of selling books. Then again maybe it's a FICTIONAL ATLAS?
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Leaves Better Learn to Fly!
August 23rd, 2011 | Bill KirkThe leaves better get some flight training from Pink Floyd as Major Hurricane Irene is about to blow in! We'll look beyond the impacts of the hurricane season to predict just how vibrant this fall foliage season is likely to be...and of course end with a Floyd classic! ;)
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Really Honey...The Weather Made Me Buy It!
August 4th, 2011 | Bill KirkFor almost 10 years now we've been working with some of America's most successful and admired companies in retail, seasonal category manufacturers, agriculture and Wall Street to help them better plan their businesses around NEXT YEAR'S weather forecast. But in reality it's all about all of us who buy these products and believe it or not, the weather plays a big role in what we buy and when we buy it. After reading this blog I'll give both spouses an excuse to say, "Really Honey, the weather made me buy all that beer," or, "It's so hot out Honey, the weather made me buy all those strappy sandals"! :)
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Dog Days of Summer...Get Sirius!
July 13th, 2011 | Bill KirkThe dog days of summer are officially here, so to figure it all out we need to know a little history, math, weather, stocks, astronomy, and cynology! And you thought all we were going to talk about was dogs! Get Sirius! :)
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April Showers Bring May Flowers then June Lightning Bugs
June 17th, 2011 | Bill KirkIt looked like the battle of Normandy tonight here in Eastern Pennsylvania as an invasion of lightning bugs, or fireflies, took flight shortly after sunset. As a kid growing up in Hawaii, I was deprived of this childhood experience to see bugs pretending to be a lightning storm as the only bugs that flew in Hawaii were pterodactyl like cockroaches and termites that could swarm so thick it looked like fog. We'll do a little digging here on these meteorologist-wannabe bugs.
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The Weather & Economy is Going "Back to the Future"
June 3rd, 2011 | Bill KirkGuess when all of this occurred: Record strong tornadoes; extremely snowy Winters across the Northern Hemisphere and U.S.; major flooding in Australia and Southeast Asia; worst drought in 30 years for Northern Europe, the Southwest U.S. and China; lowest global hurricane activity in 30 years; global temperatures near average; hundreds of thousands killed by major Earthquakes; thousands killed by tsunamis in the West Pacific; weakest solar cycle in 50+ years; Pacific Ocean temperatures below average; U.S. unemployment at 9%; soaring energy, food, and commodity inflation; gold prices soared to record levels; extreme gas prices; Middle East unrest; democrats blame republicans, republicans blame democrats...can you guess the year?
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wt360 Best & Worst Weather This Summer
May 17th, 2011 | Bill KirkOnly 36 days until the official start of Summer, so we thought we'd take a peak at who will have the best and worst weather this Summer month-by-month. Last year we had an epic heat-wave in Russia - more likely to be cool/wet this year; Hawaii had a drought - not this go around; the Eastern U.S. had the hottest/driest Summer in decades - rethink that beach house this year!
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"Is this something we have done?" NO!
May 6th, 2011 | Bill KirkThis kind of reporting in the midst of a natural disaster with hundreds killed by tornadoes is nothing short of really poor journalism that is unfortunately common with today's media when it comes to Climate Chagne basics. “Let’s be candid here,” Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News said. “When you and I go home, you see friends, family, you get e-mail from people you know, people ask the same question, what’s going on here? Is this something we have done? What has happened to the climate, because it seems so much of what we cover is relentless weather-related tragedy?”
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Honey...I Shrunk the Meteorologist
April 11th, 2011 | Bill KirkPopular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science predicted in 1949 that "computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons!" That's roughly 3,306 pounds. Guess that prediction didn't turn out so well as today's computer chips weigh less than 2 grams or 0.004 pounds. As our computing power gets faster and faster it also tends to get smaller and smaller. Is the meteorologist next to be put into the ray gun from the 1989 classic "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"?
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Weather & Syrup - Tricky and Sticky
March 25th, 2011 | Bill KirkIt's syrup season in the Northeast U.S. and Canada and we're off to a good start thanks to the weather. So goes the weather so goes the flow of sticky, sappy syrup out of Sugar Maple trees in New England. Vermont is the biggest producer of Maple Syrup in the U.S. and last year's very hot start to Spring across the Northern U.S. cut U.S. production by 19%. We'll look at how weather influences this sweet stuff and why gas prices look so cheap at $4 a gallon.
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You Ate More Radiation Than Tokyo, Japan!
March 18th, 2011 | Bill KirkIf you had a banana for breakfast and maybe plan on a beer, nuts and a steak for dinner tonight you'll be exposed to twice as much radiation as that measured in Tokyo today! Yet thanks to foreign media hysteria we've pretty much scared the Japanese out of Tokyo. We'll explore some Geiger counter readings for everyday items and compare them to Japan levels to help put the media coverage into perspective.
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Blizzard Alley Meet Tornado Alley
March 4th, 2011 | Bill KirkIt's that time of year when cold air meets warm air for big Spring snow storms and the start of the severe thunderstorm/tornado season in the U.S. This coming week we'll get a chance to see both Blizzard Alley active and at the same time Tornado Alley should come to life. Now would be a good time to set up some severe weather alerts in wt360.com!
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Space Shuttle a Wimp in Weather!
February 23rd, 2011 | Bill KirkOn Thursday, 24 February 2011 at 4:50pm EST Discovery space shuttle mission STS-133 will be the last mission for Discovery with only 2 more shuttle launches. The Atlantis mission in June will officially bring t an end 30 years of Space Shuttle missions. While the space shuttle is unmatched in space, traveling at more than 17,500 mph (Mach 23), 9 times faster than a speeding bullet, 26 times the speed of sound, and lift-off thrust exceeding 37 million horsepower, but put it down here on Earth and it's actually a big WIMP when it comes to the weather!
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Food Inflation Hysteria - Relax - Have a BEER :)
February 15th, 2011 | Bill KirkIf you think you're paying a lot more at the grocery store for everyday items these days - you are - and in part we can blame Mother Nature for that but don't even utter the words "It's Global Warming!" As the global economy improves so does the demand for consumable categories like food, beverages, clothes, auto products, health and beauty aids, toys and BEER. But what if the supply goes down with a curve ball from the weather? The weather certainly has in part sent prices higher for coconut oil, cotton products, rubber, wheat, coffee and yikes barley = BEER, say it ain't so!!! You'll spend a little less for hot cocoa, rice and olive oil...but what's that about my BEER???
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Frosty meet Sneezy!
February 11th, 2011 | Bill KirkWhile most of us suffered through mountains of the white stuff this Winter, South Texas had a blizzard of a different kind - Mountain Cedar tree pollen. With tree pollen levels the most in over a decade in parts of the Texas hill country it's not surprising that allergy sufferers are already seeking help from itchy/watery eyes and endless sneezing. This early onslaught of pollen is likely to be a common theme for folks in the South this year while we fare a littler better in the North.
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Groundhog Day's 1,000 year tradition started in Europe.
February 2nd, 2011 | Bill KirkWhile many imposter groundhog weather prognosticators have emerged in recent years like Staten Island Chuck, Long Island Malverne Mel, Connecticut Chuckles, Georgia's General Beauregard Lee and Canada's Wiarton Willie, Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam and Alberta's Balzac Billy...there's only one REAL weather forecasting ground hog and that's Pennsylvania's own Punxsutawney Phil! This morning at 7:25am it's official Spring is on the way! Don't be on it...
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Snow + Cold = Low on Blood
February 1st, 2011 | Bill KirkThe American Red Cross reports 10s of thousands of blood donors haven't been able to donate due to the extreme cold and snow across much of the country this Winter. Reports show blood supplies for this time of year are the lowest in 10 years and in this case blaming the weather is certainly a valid reason.
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U.S. gets a D- in Science & Math
January 27th, 2011 | Bill KirkThis week 3,500 scientists, meteorologists, climatologists, students, businesses and weather organizations gathered in Seattle, Washington for the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The theme of the 2011 AMS Annual Meeting is “Communicating Weather and Climate” but a government report out this week shows just how poorly U.S. students compare to their international counterparts when it comes to the importance of academic disciplines in advanced math, physics and science.
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Bad science destroys Queensland. Who's next?
January 18th, 2011 | Bill KirkBy now we've all heard that the flooding in Queensland, Australia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Brazil, etc. etc. is all due to "man-made Global Warming!" Diane Sawyer here in the U.S. said so on national TV this week so it must be true? Her guest was Professor RichardSomerville a "climate scientist" from the University of California – he sounded credible and after all 2010 was the wettest year ever; record heat killed 56 thousand people in Russia; record cold and snow across the Northern Hemisphere for the 4th straight winter; record freezes in Florida - it's all man-made Global Warming a sign of things to come (oops – we should use the new term "Climate Disruption" - Global Warming is so 2009). All of this may indeed be a sign of things to come but nothing to do with "Global Warming" as there isn't any - not on land and definitely not in the Oceans!
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49 of 50 U.S. States (71%) Covered in Snow!
January 12th, 2011 | Bill KirkFor the 2nd year in a row 49 of 50 U.S. states have some snow on the ground! On the 13th of February 2010 all states but Hawaii were covered in snow including Florida with 68.1% of the U.S. covered. This time Florida has escaped the snow but Hawaii, yes Hawaii, has snow on the top of Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet (4,205 meters). A whopping 70.9% of the U.S. is covered in snow - most likely the most since the 1970s and possibly the late 1800s.
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WT360's Weather Super Hero Sighting?
January 7th, 2011 | Bill KirkHello Earthlings, I'm your new WT360 super weather hero to save you from boring weather forecasts and other earthly calamities! My objective is simple to spread awareness about future YEAR-AHEAD weather. My motive is a little bit more complex: to get people to believe that weather matters.
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Bye...Bye...Blackbird :(
January 4th, 2011 | Bill KirkSo what killed 5,000 red-winged black birds in Beebe Arkansas New Year's Eve? The testing is underway but the conspiracy theories suggest they all hit a UFO and plunged to their deaths (least likely), weather blogs say it was severe thunderstorms - lightning, hail and strong up drafts and others say it was fireworks. We'll examine the facts that we know so far and look at other things that have fallen from the heavens over the years...
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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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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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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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The Story Behind WT360.com Part 2
November 22nd, 2010 | Bill KirkFast forward 18 years to 2007 when now retired General Schwarzkopf asks now civilian Bill "When will you launch a consumer version of your year-ahead weather forecasting technology?" That same year we did one of our most famous and difficult vacation forecasts that spanned three continents over five weeks (months in advance) for Steven Busch, the youngest heir of the Anheuser-Busch family. Then in 2008 we appeared on ABC 20/20 with Sam Champion and thousands of brides called in after the show asking for their year-ahead wedding forecasts - we responded to them all! Forbes recognizes WTI as #5 on America's Most Promising Companies list in October 2009 and again the question comes up, when will WTI give consumers and humanitarian agencies access to the forecasts. We got the message - time to start working on a consumer product!
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The Story Behind WT360.com PART 1 of 2
November 19th, 2010 | Bill KirkA few years ago while filming a segment for CNBC TV a pretty famous General asked me when would Weather Trends International open up our commercially proven year-ahead business weather forecasting technology to the public in an easy to use format? "Everyone wants to plan their important events Bill, just ask my wife, and just like we did in the military it's better to plan than react," said General Norman H. Schwarzkopf. From that day forward its been a dream of mine that is now finally a reality. Read on for the rest of the story...
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Time to Talk Turkey & Travel
November 11th, 2010 | Bill KirkChristmas is just 44 days away! YIKES! So even though we just took down the Halloween decorations, it's time to start thinking about the Thanksgiving turkey and all the gifts we’ll need to buy. As usual, retailers are way ahead of us with holiday displays up back in October. When it comes to the holiday shopping season, one of the most critical factors for gifts flying off retail shelves or flying on-time to Grandma’s house is the WEATHER. Will there be early snow that prevents us from getting to the stores or will it wait to arrive the day that we’re flying? That is the million dollar question of the moment for everyone who partakes in the traditional holiday activities of shopping and visiting friends and family and for everybody else who hopes to avoid the hoopla by hopping on a plane to find a secluded beach.
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Weather Radar Won't Cook Your Turkey
November 8th, 2010 | Bill Kirk115 years after the accidental discovery of X-rays, Google opted to X-ray their logo today - safer than what the German scientist did back in 1895. The X-rays were called this because they were an "unknown" (reason for the X) type of radiation or very small wavelength with high levels of energy. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen's first subject to test the new X-ray device wasn't a Google logo but rather his wife's hand; not sure if that tells us how he felt about his wife or if he was just a big chicken or turkey. I'm leaning turkey. We'll move up to some bigger wave lengths to talk turkey on weather radars.
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Election Day Weather - NO EXCUSES!
November 1st, 2010 | Bill KirkNo matter which side of the political fence you're on for this year's Midterm U.S. elections (2 November 2010), I'm sure we all agree that November 3rd can't come soon enough! WE THE PEOPLE will end the mud-slinging, name calling, backstabbing and 24-7 blow-by-blow analysis when we cast our votes tomorrow. Even Mother Nature can't wait for it to all be over as she's ordered up nearly perfect weather for most of the country. In this blog we'll examine the weather, unemployment and other myths about which party benefits under certain weather conditions.
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What to Wear During a Chinook
October 29th, 2010 | Bill KirkThe media made a big deal on this week's big storm in the Northern Plains of the U.S. and whether or not a low pressure record was set in Big Fork, Minnesota. While this storm was intense and brought snow to the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains, dozens of tornadoes and strong winds to the Central U.S. the media bark was bigger than the bite! This storm pails in comparison to some of the record setters.
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The Flu, Weather and Guinea Pigs?
October 21st, 2010 | Bill KirkThe Northern Hemisphere is entering the dreaded Winter Flu season just as our neighbors down under are coming out of their Flu season. Scientists have debated for decades whether or not cold Winter weather has anything to with the Flu but it's a very hard thing to study in a laboratory. Intuitively the answer is yes since the Flu peaks, everywhere in the world, during the cold Winter season. So let's look at Australia, Winter weather and Guinea Pigs to find out why!
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Hurricane, Cyclone, Typhoon - What's in a Name?
October 18th, 2010 | Bill KirkSuper Typhoon Megi is roaring across the Northern Philippines Luzon province today with 112 mph winds (180 km/hr) and upwards of 10-20" (250mm-500mm) of rain creating widespread flooding, power outages and destruction of crops. Next for the weaker Typhoon Megi appears to be Taiwan late in the week with more heavy rainfall. So why is this storm called a Typhoon and what's the difference from a Hurricane? We'll get a little technical here to address this topic.
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"Free at Last" - A Beautiful Day!
October 13th, 2010 | Bill Kirk"FREE AT LAST!" 33 Chilean copper-gold miners had no idea they would experience a life changing event on a cold August 5th Winter day. But on this day they are one-by-one experienceing a glorious Spring day and reunited with their loved ones with the entire world watching!
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2010 Raise a Glass for Northeast Wines
October 4th, 2010 | Bill KirkKnow the world's weather and know what wine to buy now and later. It should come as no surprise that weather and wine go hand in hand. Typically a hot year with some rain (not too much, not too little) will yield an excellent year for grapes with a higher sugar content, and as such, better wines are produced. For example, 2003 in Rhone, Southern France was one of the hottest on record and yields were excellent with award winning wine from the region. While it was great to be a grape in France that year, the excessive heat took lives of nearly 15,000 people. This national tragedy marks 2003 as the death year in France.
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60 days + 64,000 forecasters = 59 day old forecast?
September 29th, 2010 | Bill KirkWhile some think weather prediction is as simple as looking out the window, licking your finger and holding it to the heavens to make a forecast, it's a bit more complicated than that, in fact much more complicated. The science behind predicting the weather has been around for over 100 years with the "primitive equations" that make even the smartest mathematician's head spin. To give a sense of that complexity a leading mathematician by the name of Lewis Fry Richardson in 1904 said it would take 64,000 highly skilled scientists 2 months to make a 1 day forecast! Hmmm...Houston, we have a problem.
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Never say Never...
September 28th, 2010 | Bill KirkWith the launch of weathertrends360.com we'll soon be adding long-range weather forecasting to this list of things that would never happen but ultimately did! In 2008 on national TV an academic meteorology professor said that "every now and then a blind squirrel finds a nut"when asked by ABC 20/20 Sam Champion whether long range forecasting was even possible. Feel the sarcasm? Obviously the professor was a skeptic but the irony is he actually teaches a course on long range weather forecasting! The rest of the story behind the inspiration of weathertrends360...
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Welcome to the WT360 Blog
September 20th, 2010 | Bill KirkImagine saying to someone that, "you no longer have to leave the weather to chance...there is a place where you can discover your ideal future weather for any day, everywhere in the world 360 days ahead!" While that seems like an impossible statement, it's true...welcome to weathertrends360, bringing the world free, year ahead weather forecasts.
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Winter Outlook 2010-2011 (Northern Hemisphere)
September 19th, 2010 | Bill KirkLast year the Winter in the U.S. was the snowiest in 14 years (25% above average) with the 3rd straight season with very snowy conditions across the U.S. Our neighbors to the North in Canada had a reprieve with much below average snowfall (-30%) and we all remember the helicopters airlifting in snow to the Olympics.
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Woolly Worm Weather Folklore - Fact or Fiction?
September 18th, 2010 | Bill KirkI just saw my first "woolly worm" of the season (also known as the woolly bear for our friends to the North) here in Eastern Pennsylvania (USA) and it was all brown! Folklore suggest this will bring a mild Winter. Legend has it that the a reddish brown color on the fuzzy creature means mild Winter periods while the black areas suggest severe Winter weather. Fact or Fiction?
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