UFC Fight At White House Prompts Weather Fight With Forecasters

The big UFX fight outside the White House Sunday
Night. Photo from the Associated Press

Donald Trump's weird, silly UFC fights on the South Lawn of the White House went on last night despite threatening, oppressive, buggy weather. 

The fight was postponed an hour to 9 p.m. because of storm threats, and before the match, attendees wandered around in direct sunshine in humid, 90 degree heat, so I'm sure some people were dangerously dehydrated.

A second fight on Sunday went on between weather forecasters and White House spin doctors and trolls. 

Whether or not you found the whole spectacle an embarrassment, The Weather Channel, echoing other meteorological people, had this to say on the social medial platform X:

"UFC Freedom 250 is facing a chaotic weather setup on the White House South Lawn, with a 60% chance of thunderstorms heavy down-ours and wind gusts up to 34 mph threatening to delay the outdoor fights."

The Weather Channel post on X continued:

"On top of the storm risk, brutal D.C. humidity is driving a triple-digit heat index alongside massive swarms of mosquitoes and gnats that fighters will have to battle inside the cage, While the venue's massive 92-foot overhang will keep the octagon dry, a single lightning strike within eight miles will trigger an automatic 30-minute freeze on the entire event."

The White House "Rapid Response account on X responded with the following:

"This event is about celebrating America's unmatched greatness after 250 years - which apparently doesn't sit well with the friendless loser who wrote this bullshit clickbait headline. Rain or shine, we're celebrating out great country no matter what. GOD BLESS AMERICA!" With a little flag emoji.

I'm not sure how a cage match celebrates American, but whatevs. 

But, despite The Weather Channel's typical ominous end of the world prose, they were basically right. There were a lot of storms near Washington Sunday, but most of the worst ones went north and south of the nation's Capitol 

And there was no question the heat was awful. The high temperature reached a miserable 96 degrees with a heat index just about nudging 100 degrees.

As the fights got under way, it was still 79 degrees with a heat index in the low 80s

Still, the MAGA crowd was seething that The Weather Channel decided to.....forecast the weather. 

One MAGA person in X responded to the White House "Rapid Response" shit post wrote, "I had no idea the Weather Channel hated America so much that they were willing to lie about the weather conditions in hopes of deterring the American people of getting together for this amazing event."

Which is typical. Gaslight people into thinking it was a pleasant evening. I guess forecasters should have lied and said it would be sunny and 70 with low humidity just to keep the Orange King happy on his 80th birthday. 

Other, somewhat more sane people took The Weather Channel's side, laughing at the MAGA uproar over a simple summer weather forecast. 

"Imagine getting this emotional because The Weather Channel checked the forecast. They didn't insult American They reported humidity."

The real scary posts were the ones that said God intervened to split the storms so they didn't ruin the cage match. 

As if God had nothing better to do than ensure a sagging, tired orange makeup addict could watch sweaty men fight from the comforts of the White House. 

Thunderstorms are naturally hit and miss. They pretty much missed the big UFC event. Lucky for the fans, not important to the rest of us. 

 

New York City Rediscovers Winter,And Not Everybody Is Happy About It

This screen grab of a New York City webcam on Friday 
looked peaceful enough, but some New Yorkers are 
not handling the toughest winter in recent memory
very well. It gets very cold again this weekend. 

Snow and winter cold that just won't go away is driving some New Yorkers batty. 

As many of us know, almost a foot snow and sleet fell on New York City back on January 25 and it has just sat there. Stubbornly. Daring for people to say mean things about it as it turns gray, yellow, slushy and gross. 

Mean things are also being said about the air temperatures, which has been consistently colder than it's been in yeats. 

And those mean things are being said. 

Egged on by the New York Post, a right wing, Murdoch owned publication, New Yorkers, mostly of MAGA ilk are enraged that snow is still narrowing sidewalks, making parking difficult and is just plain nasty to look at, now that it's been sitting around getting dirty for more than a week.

Trash bags are still out there too, as the sanitation department focused on clearing snow, so some trash pickups were delayed.

All that snow I'm sure is frustrating to New Yorkers. But it's mostly really about the Post and MAGA trying to do anything to take leftie Mayor Zohran Mamdani down a peg. Because he's - gasp! a democratic socialist. 

Hizzoner probably hasn't done a perfect job with this winter storm. No mayor would. But from my vantage point, he's done pretty well from what I can see. But what do I know? I'm just a hick from Vermont who has plenty of room to throw snow out of the way if I need to. 

The complaints seem to center on the fact that in past big storms the snow disappeared from the streets pretty quickly after big storms. 

Which is true. 

But the whiners don't seem to understand the concept of thawing. 

The temperature in New York has remained near or below freezing since the storm hit on January 25 and 26. Most past storms featured warmer, thawing weather right after the storm.

The complainers point to a 27 inch blizzard on January 23, 2016. That one was more than twice as deep as this year's snowfall, but it disappeared fairly quickly. It was above freezing in New York every day after that snowstorm. It was 47 degrees on January 27, 56 degrees on January 31 and a toasty 60 on February 1

Snow depth fell to just six inches within a week after the storm. By February 2, only a trace remained. 

It's not like everybody is complaining. A lot of New Yorkers just say fughetaboutit

On Threads, a New Yorker very reasonably wrote: "All these people talking about yellow snow and dirty snow. Garbage piled up. This is how it has always been after a snowstorm. For decades. It doesn't make it right. It just makes it true. Don't blame Mamdani. Don't blame the MTA. Understand that it takes time to remove snow in a city this size."

Other people got deliciously sarcastic on line:

"After TWO WEEKS there's STILL snow in Central Park, New York City! When will Mamdani get rid of it! Another epic fail!" 

The writer made clear this was indeed sarcasm, so other people mockingly piled on poor Mayor Mamdani. 

"Why hasn't Mamdani made the temperature go above 40 degrees yet?"

"And when will that monster finally put the leaves back on the trees?"

"Socialism brings snow. Why do you think Russia has so much snow?"

"Snow never existed before he was mayor. He cast a spell to create this thing called snow."

"Wasn't he to blame for the blizzard of '96?"

Mamdani was four years old when the blizzard of 1996, so it of course makes perfect sense that this notorious storm was his fault. 

CLEANUP CONTINUES

 New York has alternate side parking rules in which people need to park on one side of the street some days, and other side on different days. This allows for street cleaning.

The city suspended the rules after the big snowstorm on January 25-26. But the suspension ends on Super Bowl Sunday - this weekend -  and quite a few cars are buried under snow and ice. Those buried cars will need to be moved by then, or there will be towing and serious expenses for those car owners. 

It was fairly mild by this winters standards in New York Thursday and Friday which softened the ice encasing the cars a little. That was everybody's last chance to dig out their vehicles. With another intense blast of Arctic cold surging into New York, the ice around those cars is no doubt hard as concrete again. Good luck getting rid of that.   

I'm sure there will be plenty more whining when the expensive parking tickets and towing hit on Monday. 

NO FERRIES

Ferry service on the Hudson and East Rivers have been suspended for a week and that's not going to change anytime soon.  So much ice has built up around Manhattan island that it's too unsafe for ferries to operate.

The ice diminished around Manhattan this week, but it's still there. And those frigid conditions forecast for the weekend mean that you're not going to take the famous Staten Island Ferry or any other ferries for awhile yet if you're around New York. 

At least New York is in for a minor break, anyway. After this cold snap clears out, daytime temperatures most of this week will be in the 30s. 

Two Memphis City Councilors, And A Scary Number Of Other People Say Storm Dropped "Man-Made" Snow

The black stuff left on snow then
trying to melt it with a lighter is
just partly combusted material from the
lighter, not some nefarious plot
in the snow. Despite this fact, 
conspiracy theorists falsely
insist there is something "wrong"
with innocent snow and sleet. 

We've just gotten two big snow and ice storms in the southern United States in a little over a week. 

Which you'd think is bad enough. 

Now we have a bunch of people coming out of the woodwork, including two Memphis City Councilors, telling us all that snow and sleet and ice was fake. Man made for some damn reason none of these nutcases are clear about. 

Our city councilors from Memphis are Pearl Walker and Yolanda Cooper Sutton who took to social media to explain to us the storms weren't meteorology. They were apparently.... oh, who knows what.  

 As memphisflyer.com tells us :

"Cooper Sutton posted a video showing who she says is her husband attempting to melt a chunk of ice with a light. 'It's not melting  (it stinks) the you set fire to it OMG, Jesus Christ what is happening!!!"

The video is a slo-mo showing flame licking snow blue no water drips. Cooper Sutton says "This is not melting" she said. "What is falling from the sky hitting the ground?"

Her colleague on the City Council, Walker, responded to Cooper Sutton's post with the words "Man Made"

OK, I'll take off their tin hats and put on my Captain Obvious hat and explain it.. 

I wasn't there for their little science experiment, but I imagine the smell came from the butane lighter they were using.   There's not much water in a handful of snow, so not much water would drip from it. What little was there probably soaked into the tiny air spaces within the piece of snow. There's a lot of air in there, even if it's hard packed snow.  

Anyway, our friendly Memphis councilors got blow back immediately. 

A local activist named Hunter Demster decided to wade into the social media thread with this reasonable comment: "(Disheartening) to see several sitting Memphis City Council members literally pushing conspiracy theories about 'man made' sow," Demster wrote on Facebook. "Sigh......We are screwed as a species."

That just encouraged more people to double down on the conspiracy, and other to deride it. 

Cooper-Sutton later told WREG she meant her social media statements as light-hearted posts shared with family and friends. She went on to say how much she's done for the community and that she was getting death threats for questioning whether the snow was fake.

I'm sure Cooper-Sutton does a lot for Memphis, and anyone who sends out death threats to someone just because they have a very odd false, unscientific is way over the top. Don't do that! Death threats over this are much dumber than thinking the snow was manmade. 

Still, I have a lot of questions for our esteemed city council members.

If that was a manufactured material that resembles snow, who made it? And how did they make so much? Why? If somebody is sending a message by making that stuff, what is the message? Are there any whistleblowers who could help? Documents? Any other kind of proof? If this stuff didn't melt when you brought it in, why is it slowly melting outdoors when the temperature rises above freezing?  

Many people around Memphis said the stuff that fell on the city in late January  felt different to the touch than in most past winter storms. These many people are right. When Memphis does get winter storms, more often than not it's either the powdery snow that blows around, or wet, heavy cement. 

This stuff felt like small, heavy granules. Because they were. Almost everything that came out of the sky during that storm over Memphis was sleet. 

It wasn't just our city councilors. A now-apparently deleted post on the social media site Threads asked "So what chemicals are in that white stuff on the ground that's called SNOW? I have never seen ice or snow that doesn't break or melt in my life. Now if I'm asking a crazy question just let me know."

Well, I wouldn't call the question crazy, but again, it's not chemicals, either. Where this person was probably got a little snow a lot of sleet and a little freezing rain to turn the mess into something I'd call snowcrete.  

Concrete consists of gravel aggregate and a cement-like water slurry that binds it all together. In the case f that big storm, a bunch of sleet became the aggregate and the freezing rain the cement slurry to form the "snowcrete," 

In other words, millions of people experienced was just a big, strange, oddly widespread mixed precipitation storm 

There's also a TON of videos on line of people, like the Memphis City Councilors, putting the flame of a lighter to the snow. It leaves a black mark every time. That wasn't caused by a weird plastic substance in the snow, which the tin hat crowd would have you believe.   It was soot from incomplete combustion of the butane in the lighter. 

This is just little ole me telling the world to relax, there's no conspiracy to create storms of plastic pellets or chemicals to terrorize the public. The only terror was the amount of sleet and freezing rain, composed purely of frozen or freezing water that came out of the sky. Like it does in every winter storm. 

There are so many conspiracy nuts out there, that my little voice won't make a dent in all this. But I have to try anyway.  

How Shady Social Media Influencers Uses Scary, False Weather Forecasts For Profit

A computer forecast issued on January 23 indicated New
England would be blasted by a historic nor'easter
tonight and tomorrow, February 2/3. Obviously this
will not happen and we will have calm weather instead.
But social media weather "influencers" are using
these scary but false long range forecasts to
scare and mislead the public for fun and profit. 

 That stupid groundhog in Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil, supposedly saw his shadow this morning, and that allegedly means six more weeks of winter. 

The whole thing is silly of course. First of all, up here in Vermont, we're going to have six more weeks of winter no matter what any rodent has to say. And we know a groundhog can't forecast the weather. 

Punxsutawney Phil is a fun little tradition, but that's about it. 

Speaking of long range forecasts, the computer models that forecast two weeks or more in advance have become a problem. 

There's nothing really wrong with the computer models. It's actually how social media weather "influencers" use them to frighten the public to enhance clicks and revenue. 

On social media, I've seen so many dark warnings of storms or cold waves of the century  this year already that if I had a penny for each one, I'd be lounging in my expensive tropical island retreat by now. 

Sadly, if you want to make money online, you scare people. Let's lay the whole scam out:

THE COMPUTER MODELS 

This morning's run of the same model has no storm at 
all in New England. Perhaps the January 23 forecast
was sort of picking up on that storm you see in this 
forecast east of Labrador. On line weather
"influencers" use scary, inaccurate long range
forecasters to scare people for clicks and revenue

If you look at these models, like the American or European that meteorologists refer to, you'll see a string of forecast maps that show storms and fronts and whatnot crisscrossing the U.S., or whatever map location you're looking at. These computer forecasts typically forecast for up to two weeks out. 

The forecast maps in these models for the next couple of days are pretty good, but then they get less and less accurate as you get further and further into the future.

The maps for a week or more into the future should be taken with a big grain of salt.  The specifics are always wrong. The long range forecasts can give you a general idea of the trend in the weather,  but the can't handle things like the placement and strength of storms.  

For example, I've been saying lately in this here blog thingy that we'll have generally cold weather until mid-February, then some sort of change might be in the works. I'm being purposefully vague. 

The computer models have been consistently saying the first half of February will be generally chilly. But future nor'easters and cold fronts a week or more beyond the date the forecast is issued appear and disappearlike puffs of snow in a chilly February breeze. 

A classic example:  On January 23, I could have frightened the pants off of you with an American model forecast that showed what practically looked like the worst, biggest nor'easter EVER in New England that would hit tonight and tomorrow (February 2-3)

The next run of the American model a few hours later on January 23 didn't have much of anything in New England. Since then, the computer models have not been forecasting anything particularly scary around here. 

Sure enough, instead of the Storm of the Century tonight, we're going to have basic normal, boring early February weather.  It'll get down to near 0 degrees tonight with light winds. Tomorrow will be generally sunny and seasonable (highs in the 20s) with light winds. 

So much for most destructive nor'easter in memory. 

 It looks like the computer models on January 23 did manage to sniff out a storm two weeks in advance. But at such a long range, it was way off on location, strength and orientation of the system.  It was probably the nor'easter that hit North Carolina over the weekend. Which is now the nor'easter that tonight will be somewhere east of Labrador, not over New England. 

The long range models sometimes spit out scenarios a week or two down the road that are virtually meteorologically impossible. It's a case of garbage in, garbage out.  They'll predict a storm in the Bahamas that ends up in New York a week later. Or a hurricane that impossibly strengthens over Pennsylvania. The computer models don't have a lot of information to work with in their predictions for something like 10 days from now. So you get off the charts forecasts.

THE HARM

Those boffo, bizarre long range forecasts would just be a source of weird harmless entertainment for strange weather geeks like me. Except now, some of us are putting these horrifying forecasts online for the public to be, well  horrified by. 

Here's an example. North Carolina, and many other areas of the South have had a rough winter so far. North Carolina had a bunch of freezing rain on January 25-26, stopping road travel in parts of the state and cutting power to many. Then, this past weekend, a nor'easter dumped up to 17 inches of snow in eastern parts of the state. That's an area where it's kind of shocking to receive two inches. 

North Carolinians can be forgiven if they desperately want February to turn out to be sunny, warm and pleasant. 

Well, along comes a Facebook account which I won't name that gives us a forecast for insane amounts of snow during the first half of February in North Carolina and elsewhere.  

This forecast has central North Carolina receiving about four and a half feet of snow over the next couple of weeks. Under this scenario, Atlanta, Georgia would receive three feet or so, and snow would once again dust the ground in places like northern Florida and New Orleans. 

The person who posted this wild forecast wrote, "Definitely not my forecast but when fantasy snow keeps showing up there is probably a reason why."

Yeah, the reason was a bad computer run.  This dude needs to just shut up. 

By the way, I've looked up the seven day National Weather Service forecast for Raleigh, North Carolina. Other than a little bit of light rain and perhaps a thin scrim of snow Wednesday and Wednesday night, no stormy weather is in the forecast for at least the next seven days. 

I'm picking on this one particular social media post with the epic North Carolina snow, but there are zillions of them out there. On YouTube, the headline will be "MAJOR STORMS COMING" with AI images of destroyed cities. Then when you click into the video, the narrator finds ways to hype routine weather. 

Not only do these weird, extreme forecasts scare people, it makes the public lose confidence in meteorologists and weather forecasting in general. Maybe this type of scaremongering is feeding the conspiracy theories that somebody is trying to "control the weather" somehow. 

It also encourages the "cry wolf" syndrome. People see so many forecasts of impending doom that turn out to be fabricated. Then, when a bonafide major weather threats finally arrive, people just say, 'Meh, another false alarm.' These false alarms can endanger lives.  

My rants on this aren't going to stop the fear forecasts on line. There's too much money, and too few morals involved.  

But the next time you see a forecast that says your community will be destroyed by the Storm Of The Century in two weeks, relax. Take a deep breath. Find a reliable weather source like the National Weather Service or your local television meteorologist, and just take their word for what's going to happen. 

 

AI Images For Weather Disasters Now Prevailant, Risks Misinformation And Misrepresenting Victims' Needs

An AI image of Nashville's recent
ice storm. It doesn't look like this
and this image has been used to
"show" what it's like in the ice
storm south. Fake images like
this can foster mistrust in 
disaster news, and potentially
direct aid to the wrong places. 

 Each big disaster has just an iconic image or two, ones that capture the breadth and emotion and tragedy of the event. 

The big Lost Angeles wildfires in January, 2025 has the vintage blue Volkswagen bus gleaming seemingly unscathed in a large, completely leveled, blackened neighborhood. Or the resort towns in western North Carolina wiped out by Hurricane Helene. Or, here in Vermont, downtown Montpelier inundated by the summer floods of 2023. 

Now, we have that horrible ice storm in the south. I've seen so many dramatic photos and videos of collapsed trees, tangled, destroyed electrical systems, damaged houses and highways that resemble miles long skating rinks, 

But the photos that arguably circulating the most on social media do not at all capture the real tragedy, scariness and power of the ice storm. 

The photos I see the most are AI generated. Definitely not the real deal. 

One account on Facebook called Meanwhile in Delco posts a lot of AI generated images of bad weather, and really went to town with the southern Ice Storm. Sometimes images from this account and others get a community note explaining that it's a fake image. 

But most of the time, when I see the AI images the comments are all, "OMG the destruction!" and "Pray for Nashville."

I'm 100 percent in favor of praying for Nashville and anybody else affected by the winter storm. However, I don't think AI helps. 

One person posted this genuinely thoughtful comment under one of Delco's  AI-generated Nashville ice storm images. She wrote: "For those saying this is AI... Does it really matter since this is scary close to what Nashville and the surrounding areas are surviving through the week? 

My answer is a respectful yes. It does matter. 

DANGERS OF AI PICS

Fake images breed distrust.  If it gets hard to tell which images of a disaster are fake and which are real, you start to lose trust in everything. Some people might wonder if the whole ice storm disaster is fake. AI, used incorrectly, can hurt, rather than help recovery efforts after disasters.

I'm picking on Meanwhile in Delco, but that Facebook account holder doesn't' seem intent on causing harm. The text parts of their posts seem accurate when they discuss power outages, recovery efforts or storms elsewhere. So overall, they're probably doing a little more good than harm. Or at least they're not adding much to the chaos. I've seen a LOT worse on Facebook.

But other people on social media can use AI to be misleading. Here's a theoretical: The winter storm was huge and caused misery and danger really from New Mexico to Maine, right?

I can envision efforts to use AI to exaggerate the effects of a particular storm in one area, while saying other areas that were hit hard are fine. For example, somebody could post AI images of New Orleans just obliterated by an ice storm, even though they're fine, while posting AI images of Nashville looking just ducky.  

Imagine this was being done by a crook who wants to use the sympathy of social media viewers to steer donations toward New Orleans (really the crook's pocket) and away from Nashville, which really needs the help. 

I know in the real world under my scenario, Nashville would still be getting help. But a little bit of that potential aid could get diverted from Nashville, or other areas of the South that were blasted by the ice storm. And the crook with the AI account would pocket the money.

My dream is to require all AI images to clearly state they are in fact AI.  I'd like to see that rule in social media terms and conditions. But, their algorithms are so bad that such a rule would probably ban real, unadulterated photos, or legitimate AI art that is not pretending to be news.

So yea, a solution to this isn't easy. 

Don't get me wrong. There's a place for AI on social media and elsewhere. It can be entertaining, even illuminating at times. 

But if there's some weather event or disaster somewhere, I, and I think most people, want to know what really happened. Not just some AI representation that at best is a guess, and at worst, a scam. 

 

Normal Jet Contrails Send A Florida Congressman Into A Chemtrail Conspiracy Tizzy

The alleged chemtrails Rep. Greg Steube said were
over Florida "sky's" over the weekend. These 
are standard issue jet contrails, but I guess
weird conspiracy theories are moree fun. 

 I'm in an abusive mood today, so I'm going to pick on somebody you don't know, but it'll be worth it.

We're talking about Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida), an esteemed member of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. 

We're going after Steube because over the weekend he took a short video of a beautiful blue sky streaked with a few jet contrails.

To most of us, those contrail streaks are bits of frozen water from the exhaust of passing jets. They are just long, streaky clouds. To Steube, the white streaks in the sky were the dreaded chemtrails. (insert ominous music notes here).

Steube, posted on X  three times on Saturday, with photos and a video of the sky.  Steube wrote the following on one of the post; "Was a clear sky this a.m., now this. Didn't Florida ban spraying chemicals in our sky's (sic). We need to ban it nationwide. There is no way that water vapor would stay that long in the sky." 

Um, then how do other clouds stay in the sky for hours or even days?

Most of the contrails in Streube's photos seemed to be heading in the same direction, suggesting an established flight path. So it shouldn't have been surprising to see contrails. The video included a jet leaving behind a fresh contrail, which I guess to Steube was "proof" of the chemtrail attack. 

To illustrate how ridiculous the post was, a community note was added to it, noting chemtrails are just a conspiracy theory, and what Steube saw in the sky was standard issue contrails.  

Chemtrails don't exist, no matter how often some people insist otherwise  A few people who see the enemy everywhere think jet contrails are a secret government plot to spray chemicals into the air for some nefarious purpose. Mind control? Population control? Who knows?

The debunked conspiracy theory dates back to at least the 1990s. But with an ever-widening social media audience, people are still cranking out the idea that harmless ice crystals are out to kill us. 

Most of those posting about chemtrails probably know they don't exist, but spreading weird, scary false stories is great for clicks and views, I suppose. 

Speaking of scary it's more than a little frightening that a U.S. Congressman believes in chemtrails.

As Raw Story tells us:

"Given the important role Steube plays as a sitting member of the influential House committee, that frequently receives highly classified briefings on national security threats, helps shape intelligence laws and policy and oversees intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI, his apparent reference to a decades-long debunked conspiracy theory alarmed some onlookers." 

Note in Steuben's X post that reference to Florida banning spray chemicals in, as Steube, put it, the "sky's."

Florida, and some other mostly Republican states, have passed laws banning or restricting geoengineering and weather modification. The impetus behind these laws is, surprise! chemtrails.

Around the time Florida passed its law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier talked breathlessly of Florida being under attack from "toxic particulates being sprayed into our atmosphere."

The toxic particles beings sprayed into the atmosphere are thse chemtrail screamers. You'd think an allegedly educated politician would know better.

But apparently not.  

 

Vermont's Jay Peak, Not Open For Season Yet, Dealing With Too Much Of A Good Thing

Jay Peak Resort in northern Vermont posted to social
media this photo of resort crews prepping the slopes
for next week's opening amid heavy snow. People
have already been flocking to the resort, and
some of them have been causing serious
headaches and dangers for the resort. 

The people who run Jay Peak Resort, in far northern Vermont, say they have had - incredibly - nearly   four feet of snowfall in the past two weeks. 

The problem is, the resort is not open for the season yet. They were planning on opening at the very end of the month, around Thanksgiving. But the resort is pushing up the opening date to this coming weekend, given the unexpectedly snowy circumstances.

But the crew up there has to first get everything set up and running to accommodate those skiers. 

Meanwhile, all that fresh natural snow is too tempting to ignore, and people are heading up to the mountain to ski and ride, even thought the lifts aren't operating yet. 

Which leads us to Skiers Behaving Badly. 

In a Facebook post today, Jay Peak Resort General Manager Steve Wright reported that over the weekend, there had been two break-ins at lift shacks, two fires, two groups of lost skiers and "an injury severe enough to wipe out the entire season for someone who thought adding backflips into their early season matrix was a good and swell idea."

People were also ignoring pleas to stick to the Tramside part of the resort so that crews could get the Stateside, where crews were operating winch cables. Skiers and riders were running over the winch cables, which is a BIG no-no.

That's a big danger to the skiers and riders, AND the crews operating them. The Facebook post states: "We care a hell of a lot for the Mountain Ops team, who while grooming/winching /snowmaking in near whiteout conditions, also have to navigate folks ignoring pretty simple requests."

Uphilling and skinning - attaching skins to skis so you can climb uphill and not slide backward - is pretty much a pre-season tradition at ski resorts when there's a ton of snow before the resort opens.

Since lifts aren't open yet, people climb ski slopes, then blast down from the top on the not-officially-open trails 

Some resorts, including Jay, tend to tolerate this as long as uphillers don't get in the way of work crews or otherwise violate rules. Jay Peak refers to a culture of watching out for each other and respecting basic rules of engagement and civility in the sport as having been "Raised Jay." 

The Facebook post acknowledged experienced uphillers who are behaving fine, but the early winter weather has "brought out new folks owning an attitude resembling altogether different from Raised Jay." 

My guess is some of these troublemakers have brought their phones so they can shoot scenes for clicks on social media. 

By the way, since Jay Peak isn't open yet, there's no ski patrol there yet to rescue anyone who does something stupid. 

Here's another thing. It's hunting season. Deer hunters aren't going to do their thing on the Jay Peak trails. It's stupid, plus they know the deer woh't be there. 

But one person commenting on Jay Peak's Facebook post said he saw back country skiers hiking up the hills near Route 242, passing by a deer hunter's truck. The skiers were not wearing blaze orange, so there's an accidental shooting in the making.  

I noticed the comments on Jay Peak's Facebook posts were supportive of the resort's warnings, but cautioned that you can't easily stop a mix of stupidity and entitlement. "What are the chances a jersey joey or Mickey Montreal will listen to this?," one person asked. 

Another said this type is the scourge of most resorts, warning of another type of ski resort jerk, the "Killington Karen."  

In a sign that this is why we can't have nice things, Jay Peak is threatening to block uphilling or any other activity on the mountain for everybody until the resort officially opens. Because of the entitled few that are wrecking things. 

I haven't checked in with other Vermont resorts that aren't open yet, but if I had to guess, they're seeing some of the same problems Jay Peak Resort has seen in recent days.

Do better, folks!  

Clickbaiting A Disaster: How Social Media "Influencers" Spread Weather Panic For Profit. .

Various forecasts for the track of Hurricane Melissa,
issued last Friday evening. Most of the predicted
paths accurately predicted the hurricane would
miss the U.S. East Coast by a wide margin. One
of the forecasts had it swerving toward New York
and some online hyped that. The black line is
the average of all the forecasts, and it was
quite close to the actual track of Melissa. 

Hurricane Melissa was bad enough, right?  

At least 50 people have died in the hurricane The destruction is immense in Jamaica. Haiti is a flooded, disastrous mess. Parts of the Bahamas are trashed, too. 

It was all super frightening. And fascinating in a horrifying way. 

As terrible as Hurricane Melissa was, people found ways to make everybody's distress over the tragedy worse.  

The means? Alarming people for online revenue.  . 

CLICKBAITING A DISASTER

A classic example came as Melissa was building up its strength last weekend. 

We knew then things would get bad, really bad in the Caribbean. The natural question was, would we in the United States suffer the wrath of Melissa?

By last Saturday, meteorologists were unanimously saying no, the United States was safe. 

But that didn't stop the folks on social media. One example came in a  Facebook post from Southern Maryland Weather Center  which called attention to this stupid scheme. 

Unlike Southern Maryland Weather Center and reputable meteorologists, social media scum scumbags This outfit tried to drum up fear on the East Coast, by suggesting Melissa would probably slam into the U.S. East Coast, probably near New Jersey.

This Facebook post said the person or persons they saw who showed the path toward New Jersey tried to clarify that the New Jersey scenario was unlikely, but who reads the fine print nowadays? 

Here's the deal: 

Each computer model has dozens of runs showing the projected track of storms. On Saturday, almost all those predicted tracks took Melissa over the Atlantic Ocean, very far from the East Coast. One of the tracks, on one of the models took Melissa to a landfall near New York City.  When you see a model track like that different from the others, it's known as an outlier. Probably bad data. Don't pay attention.

Most meteorologists and weather geeks ignored that outlier and accurately told the public that Hurricane Melissa would miss the East Coast by a wide margin. They figured it was better to be accurate than a lying carnival barker. 

Social media thrives on instilling fear, anger, strong emotions. You're going to get a stronger reaction if you tell New Yorkers a hurricane is going to destroy their homes. So more clicks, more revenue. 

This phenomenon isn't unique to Hurricane Melissa. Clickbaiters always pull looming weather catastrophes out of their hats whenever there's the slightest hint of a strange storm or temperature extreme. 

The average doomscroller on social media is not a weather geek. It's often hard for people not steeped in meteorology to figure out which source is reliable and which isn't.  

Go with the tried and true. The National Weather Service, or in the case of hurricanes, the National Hurricane Center.  

For local weather, the TV meteorologists in your area tend to be quite reliable. And use your judgement. If the weather source you're using always seems to tell you extreme weather is coming, beware. 

Blogs like this will report on severe weather when it's happening. Or before it happens. But if the forecast looks like a yawner, we'll tell you that, too.

Speaking of false Melissa information, I have another post coming on the flood of fake AI images about Hurricane Melissa and the harm that does. 

 . 

Organizers Of New Website, Climate.us Hope To Replace Deleted, Politicized Government Climate Site

A new website, climate.us is being set up by 
to replace climate.gov the climate change 
information website all but destroyed by 
the Trump administration. Climate.us
plans to put up information erased from
the old web site, and add info. 

Before the Trump administration took over, the Climate.gov site was one of the most widely used places on the internet to find climate information. 

That site is now gutted. You can still access it, but most of the information has been removed or redirected to government websites more in line with Donald Trump's climate denial mindset.

Thanks to some volunteers, though, much of that missing information might be coming back. Welcome to climate.us

The website's mission statement says in part: "Our goal is to build an enduring, independent, and scientifically rigorous platform that the world can rely on for climate communication, education and engagement." 

Reports The Guardian:

"Now, a team of climate communications experts - including many members of the former climate.gov team - is working to resurrect its content into a new organization with an expanded mission.

Their effort's new website, climate.us, would not only offer public-facing interpretations of climate science, but could also begin got directly offer climate-related services, such as assisting local governments with mapping increased flooding risk due to climate change."

The climate.us web page is up, and its home page tells us the following:

"From climate.gov to the National Climate Assessment, climate information you can trust is being hidden, erased, and replaces with misinformation. We're not letting that happen. We're building Climate.us - independent, nonprofit and immune to politics. But we can't do it without you."

It is a non-profit, so they are asking us to donate. 

Climate.gov was a sort of clearinghouse for climate change information, helping the public interpret what the science meant for them. Now, under Trump, Climate.gov has essentially gone dark, redirecting users to a different NOAA website controlled by political appointees, Rebecca Lindsey told CNN. 

Lindsey is climate.gov's former managing editor. She was fired last winter along with other employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is now among the group of former colleagues starting up climate.us. 

"The things that were most popular on climate.gov were things that basically just taught people about climate, both natural climate and climate change..... There is a need for content that helps people achieve basic climate literacy independent of an agency," Lindsey said. 

She went on with this good point: "This is information that the taxpayers already paid for... This administration is trying to hide it and take it away from us. It's an abuse of government. It's a waste of resources. People should be indignant. That's not the way the government should work."

The effort to establish climate.us is gaining support, including legal help and a short-term grant to help develop the overall vision for the website. 

Other organization are trying to preserve government data sets going dark because of the Trump administration. Climate.us is different because it plans to keep building on the old climate.gov content.  

Hurricane Erin Slightly Weaker But Still Mighty. Also, Ignore The Hype Machine

Satellite view of Hurricane Erin just after dawn this
morning. You can't really see the eye as it's going
through what is known as an eyewall replacement
cycle. The hurricane is reorganizing. 

Monster Hurricane Erin as of this morning continues to behave itself about as well as a powerful hurricane can.  

It is still resolutely on course to avoid direct hits on any land, though of course the storm will continue to cause its share of trouble.  

Hurricane Erin has calmed down ever so slightly from its flashy strengthening on Saturday. You'll remember it was an extreme hurricane - Category 5 with top winds of 160 mph.

Early this morning, Erin was down to a top wind speed of 125 mph, the National Hurricane Center tells us.  That's still wicked dangerous, but it's no longer quite at the top of the scale. 

Last night, Hurricane Erin looks like it is going through  began to go through what is known as an eyewall replacement cycle. You might be familiar with the eye of a hurricane, that small clear center surrounded by the storm's most powerful winds.

That circle of powerful winds around the center of a hurricane is called the eyewall. The eye of a hurricane.  An eyewall replacement cycle is when it sort of collapses and forms a new eyewall, often larger than the original.

When this happens, a hurricane will usually weaken. They can re-strengthen after the cycle is complete. That might happen with Erin, but predicting the strength of a hurricane is even harder than forecasting its path. 

Hurricane Erin continues more or less on its predicted path, says the National Hurricane Center.  Its turn to the north might be a little more gradual than some previous forecasts, but it's happening.

The hurricane is getting larger in size, so islands pretty far from its center will see some rough weather. 

The Turks and Caicos Islands are under a tropical storm warning and the eastern Bahamas are under a tropical storm watch because the outer bands of Hurricane Erin will lash those places as it passes by to the east.  

AVOIDING THE HYPE

Ignore any clickbait you'll see on social media regarding Hurricane Erin. It's not going to hit Florida. And at worse, it's only going to give a glancing blow to North Carolina's Outer Banks. 

There will probably be some big waves and dangerous rip currents from Hurricane Erin on Florida's east coast,  and the rest of the U.S. East Coast for that matter, but that's about it. 

Floridians have some very understandable PTSD when it comes to hurricanes, given the storms they've had in recent years.  Telling everyone online that Florida is going to get hit by Erin is great for clicks and revenue, but pretty cruel and unethical when you know that's not going to happen. 

To be clear, my dear Floridians: Don't worry about Erin unless you plan to go swimming at Daytona Beach or something like that. 

If you want the best, most accurate forecasts about storms like Erin, go to the National Hurricane Center. 

Almost all the information I share about Hurricane Erin, or any tropical storm or hurricane I mention in this here blog thingy comes almost completely from the National Hurricane Center.

That's by far the most reliable source of information and forecasts for any tropical storm. Yes, Trump budget cuts have hurt the National Hurricane Center, but they're still doing fantastic work keeping us safe with their storm forecasts. 

Other great and reliable sources of hurricane information are The Weather Channel and a lot of local meteorologists near where you live. If you're in Florida, especially near Miami, pay attention to John Morales, who is really just about the top hurricane forecaster out there. If you're in Texas, especially the Houston area, rely on Matt Lanza, he's also top of the line. 

Lanza has a tropical weather blog called The Eyewall, which is a must-read for anyone worried about hurricanes and tropical storms. 

Meteorologists Are Human, Let Them Be Human, Karen!

KTTC Meteorologist Nick Jansen briefly interrupts
his on air forecast on July 28 to text his wife,
warning her a dangerous storm was headed
their way and to get into the basement.
While most people praised Jansen, a few 
criticized him for caring about his family.

 Gawd, there's always somebody who has to complain about everything. 

Such was the case on July 28, when television meteorologist Nick Jansen was on the air at KTTC in Minnesota, warning viewers about dangerous storms passing through the region. 

Then he did what a few losers regarded as unthinkable.

After spending hours explaining how the storms packing 70 mph winds and threatening to drop some tornadoes were approaching, Jansen paused, and  pulled out his cell phone. He texted someone, taking all of maybe ten seconds to do so. Then he told viewers,  "Sorry, just had to text my wife, baby was sleeping,"

He wanted to make sure his family was safe, sheltering in their basement. 

That, apparently, was a high crime to a couple KTTC viewers. Apparently, Jansen's quick text was the height of unprofessionalism, because he dared think about his family while at work. The nerve!

 The person wrote to the station, saying "That he has to call his wife to make sure she takes the baby to safety? Maybe some people think it's noble or cute..... I don't."

Another email from someone, "You should  have told your wife before you went to work."

Well, tough shit, viewer. 

Jansen, to his credit, clapped back on Facebook. "That's not me being unprofessional... It's me being human. I am a husband and a father FIRST."

The person who complained was clearly in the minority, but still a pain in the butt.

Other viewers who saw Jansen text his wife on air took it as a public service, and a cue to take the storm seriously.   "I have heard from a couple of neighbors... They said once you said that about Angie heading to shelter, we're like, 'All right, we better take this seriously if Nick think it's going to impact our little community," Jansen wrote.

I probably would have thought the same thing. 

The incident went viral, mostly because the legions of normal people out there know Jansen did exactly the right thing, and complaining about him was dumb.  Outlets like Inside Edition, People, E! News and Today picked up the story 

Other meteorologists have had on air moments similar to Jansen's   Four years ago, James Spann, a legendary Alabama meteorologist and tornado expert, stopped on air during a severe weather outbreak to text his wife. The reason? A tornado was heading right toward his house.

Spann's wife did go into a tornado shelter, and Spann later told viewers after the storm had passed that his wife was safe.  Their house was damaged but largely intact.  

Television meteorologists - along with other newscasters - are routinely criticized for idiotic things that have nothing do do with their ability to deliver weather forecasts or the news. ABC Meteorologist Ginger Zee earlier this year was told by some dummy on social media, "You're not aging well." Zee replied, "What a privilege to be aging in any manner, thanks for your opinion, though."

A pregnant Seattle meteorologists was insulted by someone who believed her baby bump "distracted from her presentation."  

My answer to that viewer is "Stop staring, you pervert."

And don't even get me started on those who whine bitterly that their scheduled viewing of "The Real Housewives of Enosburg Falls" or whatever is interrupted by a meteorologist cutting into the broadcast to tell you a tornado is heading your way. 

TV meteorologists are there to tell you whether you need an umbrella tomorrow. Or more importantly, warn you when the weather gets dangerous. That's it. 

If you don't like they way they're  dressed, or have a family, or a personal life, or private personal opinions, shut up already. Nobody wants to hear it. 

 

 

 

 he explained to viewers 

When Tornadoes Get Romantic

The bad pun people among us are calling
this a whirlwind romance. Storm chaser
Bryce Shelton proposes to Paige
Perdomas recently as a large
tornado loomed in the background
near Clark Lake, South Dakota.
She said yes 

 Nobody could resist calling this a whirlwind romance. 

On June 28, Bryce Shelton got down on one knee to propose marriage to Paige Berdomas. She said yes.

The reason why everybody knows about this is because of where the proposal took place. It was on a rural road near Clear Lake, South Dakota, which is no big deal. Except for the fact a large tornado was swirling nearby at the time.  

The now viral photo shows the proposal.

Both Shelton and Berdomas are storm chasers, two of the now-seemingly zillions of people who roam the Plains, South and Midwest in the spring and early summer, hunting down tornadoes and severe storms. 

The two first found each other online in the chaser community then finally met up one day in Iowa. They've been partners in storm chasing since. 

On the day of the tornado/proposal, the couple had been hanging out around Fargo, North Dakota, waiting for forecasted storms to develop. 

Finally, a promising storm popped up near Watertown, South Dakota about halfway between Fargo and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the chase was on. The storm eventually spun off the Clear Lake tornado, and by extension the proposal. 

The proposal had to be near a tornado. That was the rule.  

"She has always told me that if I was gonna ask her to marry me, she wants it be in front of a tornado," Shelton told USA Today. 

The whole thing at first glance looks kind of AI-generated, but in this case the proposal - and the tornado behind them, was very real. The tornado was more photogenic than most. In fact, it was among the most photographed twisters of 2025 so far. 

Which made the proposal photo perfect. 

To be fair, the real proposal was captured on a live stream with a tornado in the background. Storm chaser Brian Copic re-created the moment a short time later after a second tornado touched down. That's the photo you see in this post. 

The couple are hoping for calmer weather on their actual wedding day. "No tornadoes for the wedding. I want to wear a pretty dress," she said. 

Another romantic tornado. This time at a wedding 
ceremony in eastern New Mexico back in late May.

 I do have mixed emotions about this. The tornado also destroyed somebody's house, damaged others and injured a man. I guess people can find both joy and tragedy in the same event. 

This isn't the first marriage-related tornado incident I've seen. 

Tornadoes have been been known to be wedding crashers every once in a great while. 

On May 25, during an outdoor wedding in eastern New Mexico, a tornado touched down some distance behind the venue. 

Wedding photographer Chesnea Clemens spotted the tornado, then realized it wasn't headed in their direction, so they didn't have to take cover now if not sooner.

Instead, she hustled the couple to spot with a view of the tornado. The happy couple kissed under dark skies while the tornado twirled behind them. "Nothing says for better or worse like saying I do with Mother Nature throwing down in the background," Clemmons posted on social media.

As cool as these incidents are, if there are wedding bells in your future, I hope  your big day has clear, calm weather. 

 

 

A Grieving Family Gets Their Father's Sunset, Thanks To The Kindness Of Strangers

Sunset over Mankato, Minnesota on January 16. After a
gloomy two month period in Minnesota, the sky lit up
on the day Vietnam veteran Craig Wilson passed away,
Photo from Sparrow Media via Facebook

In this (in my opinion) dark age of America, I'm always looking for the light. 

So, too, was a grieving Minnesota family this winter

Vietnam veteran Craig Wilson was laid to rest this winter on a dark, overcast day at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Preston, Minnesota.

In the final couple months of his life, as his family gathered with him at a Minnesota hospital, they couldn't help noticing how gloomy and cloudy the weather had been, darkened their mood even more as the family patriarch faded. 

Wilson died on January 16.  Late that afternoon, the Minnesota sky lit up with what locals say was one of the most spectacular sunsets in memory. Wilson's family took it as a sign.

Wilson's daughter, Emily Canney, took in that sunset. But after it was over, she realized she never took a photo of it. Which was important, given her father's memory 

"'All that night and all the next day, I'm kicking myself because I didn't get a picture,' Emily said. 'How could you not capture this stunning glorious sunset?'"

Sunset over rural Minnesota on January 16. Photo by
Sandy Zimmer Gaulke

Canney went to the "That's so Minnesota" page on Facebook and wrote: "I'm wondering if any of you amazing photographers happened to capture last night's sunset. My dad passed away yesterday and I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture."

Canney hoped that maybe one photographer would respond.

Instead, 883 people did. A few of them offered condolences without a photo. But the overwhelming majority of respondents posted photos of that January 16 Minnesota sunset. 

There were pictures of the sunset over cities. The sunset over the prairie. The sunset over the north woods. Sunset over an informal ice hockey rink. You get the idea. 

Then there were comments like this: "Your dad must have been special for God to have painted such a beautiful sky."

In this age when there's too much darkness around, it's gratifying that so many people want to literally show each other the light. 

It might seem like a small gesture, posting a sunset photo to raise the spirits of a grieving daughter.  But every positive, "small" gesture is really a big one.

It's wonderful that the weather cooperated to create this beautiful sunset, this beautiful tribute. Even better were the people who went outside in the middle of a Minnesota winter to capture a sky glowing in all those colors.  

It's all about finding the light. 

  

Southern California Still In Grave Danger As Fires Continue, As Do Arid, Strong Winds. Also, Please Stop Abusing Victims

The huge wildfire that originated near Pacific Palisades,
California Tuesday was spreading into fairly distant
Brentwood Saturday, as this image from the
Los Angeles TV affiliate shows. 

There's still much to talk about regarding the ongoing Southern California wildfire tragedy,  more than we can fit in a single post. 

But, as always, we have some thoughts. 

At last report, at least 13 people have died in the fires. Unfortunately, I still expect that toll to rise. This was a quick ferocious and incredibly fast moving firestorm.  With that many people living there, I can't imagine just 13 people were not able to get out of the way in time. 

I hope I'm wrong about this. 

At least 180,000 people have evacuated. At least 12,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed, and I think that's a conservative figure. 

And the crisis is far from over. 

At last report, there were six active blazes. There's no reason why more can't break out, though again, I hope not.

The weather is not going to cooperate. The normal winter rains that should be in California are still nowhere to be found, and not in any forecasts I've seen. Even worse, the strong, dry desert winds are forecast to keep blowing at least until next Wednesday. 

Those winds might not once again get extreme as the 60 to 100 mph gusts we saw during the worst of the firestorms. But with tinder dry conditions, the winds will be more than strong enough to fan the flames.  

We're going to see even more destruction, even if it won't be at the same fast past we saw Wednesday. More houses, perhaps maybe more neighborhoods are seriously at risk of burning down over the next week. 

The wind is forecast to pick up for a time late tonight and Sunday. Then, a lull in the wind is anticipated Monday. But then, very strong winds, possibly in the 45 to 60 mph range in some areas near L.A. are anticipated Tuesday and Wednesday. 

That could easily just make a catastrophic situation that much worse.  

The largest, the Palisades fire, with more than 20,000 acres burned, was only 11 percent contained as of late Friday. Last night, the Palisades fire shifted and flared up, threatening new heavily populated neighborhoods, this time in Brentwood and parts of Encino, Bel Aire and Sherman Oaks, forcing new evacuations. 

At least one home in Brentwood has burned, though firefighters have been able to protect many other homes because winds are lighter than they were Tuesday and Wednesday.

News video this afternoon showed a pitched battle between intense flames at the edge of a dense Brentwood subdivision versus an army of fire trucks and helicopters trying to dump water on the flames. 

 Meanwhile, the so-called Eaton Fire around Altadena and Pasadena is only 15 percent contained. 

Another fire erupted the other day around Calabasas and Hidden Hills was largely contained and hasn't damaged many homes. That fire might have been an arson. 

Another fire broke out in the Granada Hills Friday. Two other fires, one in the Antelope Valley and the other near San Fernando, are largely contained at last report, thank goodness. 

 GOOD PEOPLE, HORRIBLE PEOPLE

As in every past national tragedy, I'm gratified to see so many people reaching out to Californians. They all need our support

That said, there's more 

There's so much hate in right wing MAGA circles for the "elite" - whatever that is - that they're ecstatic that their houses burned down.  Some of the homes destroyed belonged to millionaires and celebrities, and somehow, that fact makes them deserve the wildfires' destruction. 

"The Hollywood Hills are on fire....It's almost poetic," one far right poster hideously wrote on X

Just because you're rich, doesn't mean you deserve to have your house burned down. Sure, people with money have more resources to recover, but they still have lost a lifetime of memories, not to mention their sense of security. 

By the way, if you still don't care about the rich people who lost their homes, maybe you should care about their landscapers, personal assistants, housekeepers, nannies and others who just lost their jobs because the multi-million dollar mansions where they worked just burned down.

Also, lost in this "rich people suck" narrative is that most of the people who lost homes and businesses in California were not particularly loaded with cash. Lots of lower and middle class families lost their homes..

Me being of the somewhat liberal persuasion, as anybody who reads this blog knows, I still winced back in September when a few people started making fun of people in deep red GOP counties in North Carolina and Tennessee and Florida who lost everything in Hurricanes Helene and Milton. 

This following should be obvious to everyone: You, or I, might hate somebody's politics, we might think some of them are terrible people that we can never respect, never mind be friends with. 

OK, fine. But they still do NOT deserve to have their lives lost or at the very least completely upended by a tragedy like a wildfire in California, or a hurricane in Florida, a flood in North Carolina or a tornado in Oklahoma. 

I can't believe I have to lecture y'all on this, but I have to say it. 

Most people who are reacting to the California firestorm have been very kind, and there's been a wonderful outpouring of support. But the jerks making snide comments really just need to shut up at this point. 

 Videos:

The massive Palisades fire spread into Brentwood Saturday. While firefighters managed to save scores of houses in threatened Brentwood neighborhoods, this house succumbed. Click on this link to view, or if  you see the image below, click on that:

In the next video, firefighters take a stand against massive flames on the attack in Brentwood, California, Saturday (Notice the many fire engines parked ion the streets).   Again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 :

 

Stress Of Recovering From Weather/Climate Disasters Compounded By Politics And Ideology

Recovery from weather and climate disasters like 
Hurricane Helene in western North Carolinas is being
made much more difficult and stressful due to
political preening and ideological rigidity. 

The good news from that mess of a time last week in Washington is $110 billion in disaster relief was ultimately include in a government funding bill that averted a government shutdown. 

For the many victims of recent weather and climate disasters, the stupid battle in Washington just added to the stress and exasperation of those just trying to get a semblance of their old lives back. 

Especially since there was wide, bipartisan Congressional support for the disaster relief, but the whole thing was unnecessarily hijacked by ideologues, narcissists, politicians and hangers who believed getting in front of TV cameras and on social media is more important than actually doing their jobs. 

The result was the disaster relief package went through, but caused a lot of unnecessary stress among those who are counting on the federal help. 

"This is ridiculous," North Carolina restaurateur Katie Button told the Washington Post, with considerable understatement. 

The disaster relief is needed in a whole bunch of American places, including here in Vermont, but perhaps especially in Hurricane Helene-trashed western North Carolina. 

People in these disaster zones did receive immediate relief right after the calamities, such as temporary housing or reimbursements for staying in hotels.

But what they really need now - be they in Hawaii, or Vermont, or Florida, or North Carolina - is help rebuilding roads, loans to keep businesses afloat, aid to farmers to recover from the destruction stuff like that. 

These are the types of aid that got held up in the government shutdown battle last week.  It's also the type of help Congress should have approved months ago. 

According to the Washington Post:

"...the problem isn't limited to any one state of catastrophe - those recovering from the past two years of floods and fires say a faster and more permanent solution is needed for victims of the next tragedy.

At a news conference at the U.S. Capitol this month, disaster survivors from across the country asked lawmakers to not just approve the current recovery bill, but to permanently authorize a pot of money that can go out right after a disaster."

Here's just one tiny example of what a small town has to do when it's hit be a weather/climate disaster and Congress and politicians posture instead of do their job. 

Another section of Interstate 40 in western North Carolina
recently collapsed due to damage from Hurricane 
Helene back in September. This is another delay to
storm recovery, demonstrating just how hard it can
be to recover from weather and climate calamities

An intense July flash flood in the tiny, mountainous town of Bolton, Vermont suffered immense road damage. Many of the roads are gravel, on steep hills, so they were especially susceptible to damage.

Bolton was still waiting for federal aid to pay for the road fixes, and those bills are due. So, voters there on December 17 passed a $3 million bond to pay for the contractors who repair the road. They couldn't wait any longer for the FEMA aid to come that would fund the road repairs. 

It's a 10 year bond, so this will fall at least to an extent on already stressed Bolton property taxpayers.   Eventually, FEMA will provide money for those repairs. We think. But we have no idea how long that will take. And will the incoming Trump administration screw that up somehow?  We hope not. 

Now magnify Bolton, Vermont's experience many times over when you go to North Carolina. 

At least in Vermont, despite have a Republican governor and a Democratically controlled legislature, the lawmakers more or less cooperated and did what they could in the wake of the series of destructive floods that started in July, 2023.

No such luck in North Carolina, where partisanship got in the way of flood relief.  Washington Post explains:

"When North Carolina lawmakers passed their latest recovery package for the Hurricane Helene - ravaged western part of their state this month, it didn't feel like relief to residents there, many hoping for small business grants or eviction bans.

"Most of the aid bills 132 pages focused on stripping powers from state offices that will soon be held by Democrats. 

Gov. Ray Cooper (D) proposed a $3.9 billion relief package, with $650 million for economic assistance including all business grants, and another $650 million to address housing needs. That would go along with more than $25 billion that Cooper requested from the federal government for Helene recovery efforts. 

.....but the Republican-controlled state legislature didn't follow that plan."

The Republicans did pass three relief bills. One provided $100 million for water and wastewater infrastructure repairs, $50 million for public school repairs, $50 million in small business loans, $25 million for mental health resources and $9 million for utility fixes.

Local leaders in western North Carolina have said they appreciate any kind of assistance, every little bit helps, but they are frustrated the Republican state package did not include more direct assistance to people struggling after the calamity. 

I do like the $25 million North Carolina is allocating for mental heath services in the disaster zone, but I think it should be more. 

The trauma of enduring a weather and climate disaster is tough on mental health. Investing in mental health services in the aftermath of such an event probably benefits the whole region or state. After all, the better people are able to get back on their feet, but physically and emotionally, the more everybody benefits. 

 In Vermont, the state's Agency of Human Services mental health division has the Starting Over Strong VT program to help people and communities recover from recent disasters. It covers the counties declared disaster areas from last year's flooding - Addison, Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Lamoille, Orleans and Washington counties.

It seems to have been a success, as state officials say it has helped 14,000 or so participants since it was launched shortly after devastating floods in the summer of 2023.  Since then, we have had more destructive, home and business-destroying floods.

This program was slated to end this past October, but state officials have decided to extend it through July, 2025.  I'm hoping we don't have any further Vermont calamities between now and then.

Of course, the way the federal government is handling things, and seems destined to essentially not handle things over the next few years, I'd probably advocate for the Starting Over Strong program to continue indefinitely.