United States MAGA Meltdown Over Canadian Wildfire Smoke Is A National Embarrassment

Thick smoke in Chicago last week.
MAGA has been embarrassingly 
whining about the smoke without
offering any real help or 
solutions to the problem. 

Just stop already. 

MAGA is going nuts over the wildfire smoke billowing into theUnited States from Canada, and it has long since become embarrassing. 

Somehow, MAGA thinks Canada can wave a magic wand to stop the fires, or, they're sending the smoke over the border as some sort of deliberate provocation. 

Sigh.

MAGA has spent the past week falling over each attacking Canada for the fires, as if they aren't battling the blazes with everything they have and praying for soaking, widespread rains. 

We have so many, sad disgusting examples. Let's go through a bunch of them, just to wallow in the stupidity. : 

Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio said he is introducing legislation that would require an investigation as to whether the Canadian smoke had harmed U.S. air quality and to sanctions those responsible. Moreno ought to be careful, given the harm the United States has caused Canada.

Moreno's legislation gets worse.

As Daily Beast reports, "The bill reportedly goes so far as to threaten to revoke the visas of those deemed responsible for the 'atrocity.' The legislation also 'expresses a sense' that the Canadian ambassador should be declared persona non grata until the smoke no longer affects the U.S." 

Moreno's legislation would ban U.S. government contracts with Canada and Export-Import Bank assistance and authorize the president to most import restrictions.  

Katie Miller, the wife of the odious White House aide Stephen Miller, posted the wild idea that annexing Canada would have spared the U.S. of the wildfire smoke. "This is why Canada should be the 51st state," she wrote. 

Rep. Lisa McClain, Michigan, had this temper tantrum on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter: "Michiganders shouldn't have to breathe negligence....."YEAR AFTER YEAR the smoke crossed the border while Canada does nothing. Stop exporting your smoke into our skies. Enough is enough!"

Does she expect Canada to erect a wall to block the smoke?

Also on X, Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY, whined, "This is no longer a one-time emergency - it's becoming an annual public health crisis. This is unacceptable."

It's not just MAGA Republicans. I found a Democrat who entered the fray. Michigan State Rep. Alabas Farhat  posted on Threads:

"For four straight years, Canada has failed to get these fires under control, and Michigan continues to pay the price." 

He referred the fires as "Canada forest management failures." He also said if Canada "refuses" to stop the fires (as if!) he said "There should be consequences."

This motive for all this whining? Almost all of it is in service to the Orange Lump of a president. We remember all the anti-Canada blather Trump has belched, the demands to make Canada the 51st state. And, after a couple days of all this, on Friday, all this stupidly and predictable whining culminated with Donald Trump saying he would add to the tariffs he's already imposed on Canada.

The Orange Lump said Canada "has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal."  I guess Canada was supposed to rake its forests, just as he insisted California should have done. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had a devastatingly low key reaction to the MAGA tantrums: "Climate change is everyone's responsibility, truly everyone's including the United States."

ABOUT THAT CLIMATE CHANGE

There have always been occasional years with Canadian or western United States fires that belch smoke into the United States. It used to be infrequent. 

On May 19, 1790 - way back when - was labeled the "Famous Dark Day" in New England, according to the Vermont Weather Book.  Candles were needed to read, and the air had an eerie, brassy hue. That was probably smoke from the western United States or maybe the northern Great Lakes region.

On September 6, 1881, it was the legendary, "Yellow Day,"  Everything took on a yellow hue, and artificial light was needed to read documents and books during the day. Basically the same thing happened in September, 1908, and September 1950.

So we used to have smoky days, but since those days were a rarity, they became legend. 

Now however, smoke attacks are no longer a rarity, but a regular occurrence. So what changed?

Canada has roughly 1.4 million square miles of forest. Most of it is boreal forest, a broad area representing 30 percent of the global forest area in northern areas of Canada, Russia and Alaska. 

Most of the forests are remote, and impossible to manage like forests in more populated areas in the continental United States.

Fires have gotten worse and widespread in recent years for reasons that mostly have to do with climate change. The snow in the spring melts sooner than it once did, leaving more time for the landscape two dry out than it once did Parts of Canada are warming at twice the rate of the global average, creating heat waves that further dry things out. 

The summer heat also destabilizes the air, creating thunderstorms with relatively little rain but plenty of lightning strikes that set off fires.  Invasive bark beetles kills swaths of foresters, leaving behind tinder dry dead trees. 

So, contrary to MAGA, Canada isn't trying to torture Americans by sending choking wildfire smoke into the United States. They are in large part a victim of climate change. And historically, the United States has always been the #1 or #2 greenhouse gas emitters in the world. 

In the end, climate change has us breathing smoke that makes us sick, and will end up killing some of us. 

MAGA has been yelling outrageous things about the wildfire smoke. But just hint to them climate change might have had something to do with it, the screaming just becomes that much louder. 

THE FIRES

On Saturday, 949 fires were burning across Canada, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System.  The intense fires in Ontario were quieter, thanks to some rain.

But those weren't the only fires burning in North America.  As of Saturday, there were 73 large fires burning across the United States, including 17 new large incidents, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Most of these were in the West and in northern Minnesota. There were also a multitude of smaller fires burning around the nation. 

Fires are also burning in the boreal forests of Siberia. In recent days, a fire in Norway spread from a townhouse and into a forest, where it continued on to destroy about 100 homes. It was the largest such fire in Norway's history. 

TRAGEDY, HELP AND HONOR

It's not as if Canada is just gleefully sending smoke to the U.S.  Smoke has choked much of southern Canada, including large cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. 

The Canadian fires have especially hit the First Nations communities in Ontario. Thousands were evacuated. An unknown number of houses have burned, but the number of destroyed buildings is easily in the hundreds. 

Normally, and in the past, the United States and Canada would help each other with emergencies. Canada is still doing that. 

Sometimes, firefighters give their lives to the effort. About a week ago, Nicholas Dale, 56 of Sooke, British Columbia died in a helicopter crash while responding to a wildfire in not too far north of Telluride. 

Dale's death make the vitriol aimed at Canada over the smoky atmosphere especially galling. 

In a demonstration of how much more decent most Americans are, compared to the noxious MAGA crowd, Wyoming Public Radio described this scene as the sad process of returning Dale's body to Canada began. :

"On Monday morning, a line of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency response vehicles flashing their lights stretched for nearly a mile as the convoy passed through the little towns and small cities between Gunnison and Grand Junction. 

In Montrose, hundreds somberly lined U.S. Highway 509 holding American flags to honor Dale."

STUPIDITY WORSENS

Meanwhile, he whining from MAGA kept getting louder and even more bizarre gets even worse in some circles  

Right Wing Watch posted on X (formerly Twitter) posted this gem of a clip from MAGA activist Eric Metaxas: 

"Who's telling me how to live my life?  I'm an adult man in a free country, and you're telling me, 'limit your outdoor activity.'' he said, "How dare they say that. Who has the right to tell me or you or anyone anything? It's a free country. I can do whatever I want."

Never mind this was just an advisory, kind of like telling people to drive carefully in a winter storm. But the guy isn't very bright. The comments section was glorious

"He should definitely go outside ad jog for HOURS!

"Fine, Eric. Please go outside and put your mouth over a diesel bus exhaust. It will benefit all of us."

"Eric doesn't understand the difference between a suggestion and an order Poor guy."

"Oh the humanity! This dude is the victim of receiving information! Will the abusive alerts never stop enslaving him?"

"Getting asthma to own the libs."

"Dear Eric - I forbid you from running out in front of traffic on the expressway."

Metaxas is a great example of the low, ignorant, tragicomic  MAGA mentality. They can do anything! They are all powerful!  While the rest of us roll our eyes and laugh at them. 

MAGA seems to think the abuse they've hurled at Canada is a flex, showing how powerful they are. Trump and his minions are actually demonstrating exactly how weak they are. Their pathetic insults and whining is a precise demonstration of how impotent MAGA really is. 

We should all remember that despite their bluster, the rest of us hold most of the power. We ought to use it. 

  

Friday Evening Update: Volatile U.S. Weather, Quick Forecast Changes Here In Vermont, Icy Overnight?

A tornado tearing up buildings today in
southern Michigan. More volatile weather
is creating the risk of additional tornadoes
over a large area of the Midwest into 
this evening. Photo via Facebook/
Michigan Native Photography 

We're doing a quick Friday evening update today because the combination of near record warm humid air coming up from the south, lots of frigid air still lurking in Canada, and storminess in between is keeping U.S. weather volatile. 

It's also making the weather change fast here in Vermont, and meteorologists really need to stay on their toes over this. 

First, the national picture.

TORNADOES 

The storms have already turned tragic. A mother and daughter died last evening in Major County, Oklahoma, northwest of Oklahoma City, when a tornado hit their van. 

The mom was on the phone with the rest of her family at the time to warn them to take shelter from the approaching tornado

The daughter was a a seventh grader at a local school.

There were 11 reports of tornadoes in the central and southern Plains last evening. 

This evening looks even more volatile. Tornadoes are possible from southern Wisconsin to northeast Texas, with northeast Kansas, eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas the principle targets.

Also, a tornado or tornadoes unexpectedly developed in southern Michigan this afternoon. Early reports are this twisters seriously damaged some buildings, including a Menard's. 

Additionally, ssome more severe weather is possible from western New York to central Texas tomorrow.  

Hopefully we do not see any more deaths from this robust early season severe weather outbreak

VERMONT

Ice accumulation map for early tomorrow. Areas of the
Northeast Kingdom and southeast Adirondacks can
expect areas of icy roads. The freezing rain looks
like it will be a little more extensive 
over in New Hampshire

We've got no severe thunderstorms or tornados in our forecast. However, yet another round of light freezing rain is in the cards for the Northeast Kingdom late tonight. 

 Forecasters have increased the amount of rain that will be coming through, so a winter weather advisory is in effect for most places east of the Green Mountains and north of White River Junction. 

Most of the freezing rain would come through between midnight and dawn. 

Those of you who end up with icy weather will only have to deal with slick roads. There won't be any issues with trees or power lines getting too weighed down.

Northwest Vermont will get a little more rain than expected too, but it won't freeze there. Southern Vermont will only get some light rain, 

The rain will tend to taper off during the middle of the day. Strong south winds are still in the cards for the Champlain Valley. 

High temperatures in the 40s to low 50s should hit by later in the afternoon, especially if we see some breaks in the clouds. Another round of showers should come through in the evening.

I'll have much more in tomorrow morning's post. 

Remembering The Most Extreme January: Fatal Snows And Floods, January, 1996

The weather map on January 18, 1996. An intense storm 
centered near Wisconsin was already starting to drawn
record warmth into the eastern United States, By the
time the storm's cold front arrived the next day,
the winter heat and torrential rains immediately
melted deep snow, resulting in one of the
region's worst floods on record. 

Overall, this January so far in Vermont hasn't been that wild. We haven't had any record temperatures. It's been stormy, but not overly so. 

It's quite a contrast to exactly 30 years ago. 

January, 1996 is easily one of the most extreme weather months I can remember, here in Vermont and for pretty much everywhere else in the Northeast.

The month gave us everything. Deep snows, record cold, then record warmth and torrential rains, and widespread tragic flooding. Both in Vermont and throughout the Northeast. 

The month opened cold.  The low temperature in Burlington on January 6, 1996 was 23 below. It hasn't been that cold since. Down in Rutland, it was 29 below. Over in Island Pond, it got as cold as 32 below.

THE BIG SNOW

As those temperatures froze Vermont solid, a storm was lurking further down the East Coast. The storm would ultimately mostly miss the Green Mountain State, but make snowy history from southern New England to North Carolina. 

On January 7-8, a broad area from southwestern Virginia to southern New England were buried beneath 20 to 30 inches of snow. Some parts of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and West Virginia had more than 30 inches. A couple spots in West Virginia reported 48 inches. 

Philadelphia had 31 inches of new snow, easily its largest snowstorm on record.  Baltimore clocked in with 27 inches. New York's Central Park, had 21 inches. 

High winds whipped the snow into five to eight foot drifts. Travel was impossible in the urban corridor stretching from Washington DC to Boston. The storm contributed to 60 deaths and caused $500 million in insured losses. That's 1996 dollars. In 2026 dollars, it's a little over $1 billion.  

Another smaller, but still substantial storm hit the Mid-Atlantic States on January 12, adding to the deep snowpack. 

Hagerstown, Maryland had 34.7 during the January 7-8, 1996 blizzard with a water content of 2.82 inches. Another snowstorm on January 12 left an additional water content of 0.69 inches. That was a lot of water ready for what would happen next.

Up here in Vermont, though that big blizzard missed. A few inches of snow dusted the far southern end of the state, but that's about it.

Nevertheless, we were pretty much buried in snow, too.  December in the Green Mountain State was among the snowiest on record.  Both Burlington and Montpelier had nearly four feet of snow in the last month of 1995. There were pretty much no thaws between early December, 1995 and mid-January, 1996. Much of the state had more than two feet of snow on the ground by mid-January.

The water content of that snow was quite high. I can remember pine trees and forests sagging dangerously under the weight of the snow in late December and early January that winter. 

Throughout the Northeast, the water locked in the snowpack amounted the equivalent of two to five inches of rain. Here and up and down the ridges in the Northeast. 

Then the weather made a complete and dramatic turnaround, with horrific results. 

HEAT WAVE/FLOOD

An intense storm on January 18 moved up through the central Plains into the western Great Lakes. A major blizzard struck west of the storm track.

In the Plains states, in places like Nebraska, the wind was strong enough to blow out store windows, damage grain bins, snap trees and cut power. On the east side of the storm a broad, deep flow of warm, humid air pulled direct from the Gulf of Mexico. 

Temperatures throughout the northeast rose into the mid 50s to upper 60s. The humidity was around 90 percent. The higher the humidity,, the more rapid the snowmelt.

As AccuWeather describes the event, some Pennsylvania residents went to bed on January 18 with over a foot of snow on the ground and waking up on the 19th to find bare ground.   

Then on the 19th, the storm's strong cold front began moving into the Northeast. It wrung out the moisture in that warm, humid air, dumping 1 to 3 inches of rain, with locally higher amounts. Almost all the rain came within a six-hour period in any given location, so the runoff was intense. 

The Delaware River reached its highest state since Hurricanes Connie and Diane in 1955. The Hudson River reached its highest level since 1977. The Ohio River at Pittsburgh, the Susquehanna River at Wilkes-Barre and the Potomac River at Little Falls, Virginia crested at its highest level since the epic Hurricane Agnes floods of 1972, notes the National Weather Service.

Countless small streams and rivers blasted down slopes in the central and northern Appalachians. 

The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. Flood crests from the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers reached Pittsburgh at the same time, resulting in one the highest and one of the fastest flood crests in that city's history. 

People who parked their cars on streets well above water in the morning found them submerged in the afternoon.  

The floods claimed 33 lives and caused $1.5 billion in 1996 dollars, which is nearly $3.2 billion in today's dollars

In Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Basin alone, there were 14 deaths and more than half a million dollars in damage. Ten deaths occurred in New York, mostly in and near the Catskills. . 

 VERMONT FLOOD

Temperatures on January 18 and especially the 19th soared to record levels across Vermont.   Burlington's temperature rose to 65 degrees, which would have been a record for the entire month of January had the record of 66 degrees not been set almost exactly a year earlier.

St. Johnsbury and Rutland reached 60 degrees, St. Albans reached 62 degrees. 

Water in Vermont's rivers were running high and beginning to flood in some areas by early afternoon, January 19.  Snow that had been one to more than 2.5 feet deep was down to a few inches by mid-afternoon of the 19th. .

Then, in the late afternoon and evening, the storm's cold front arrived with torrential downpours. Small streams and brooks became torrential the evening darkness. Roads were blocked as smaller rivers, then the main ones, quickly burst their banks. 

The flood turned to tragedy in Franklin County. According to accounts in the Burlington Free Press, David Ryan, 50 was driving with his two teenage daughters on West Street, a rural dirt road in Fairfield. A raging brook caught the car and sent it more than 500 feet downstream. 

Ryan was trapped inside the car. Both teenagers tried to pull their father from the car, but one of them fell into the water and drowned.  The other teenager was somehow able to escape the water and debris and sought help at a nearby home. Ryan was rescued, but his hypothermia was so severe he died two days later. The surviving teen suffered minor injuries. 

In the end 11 of Vermont's 14 counties were declared disaster areas. 

There's surprisingly little information online about the flood in Vermont,  possibly because it was overshadowed by more dramatic and bigger floods in 1997, 2011, 2023 and 2024.

The weather in Vermont finally settled down toward the end of January after a wild few weeks. Another warm rainstorm hit on January 27. More than an inch of rain fell on Burlington. But with little snow left to melt in Vermont, no real flooding hit in this second rainy episode.

The weather in February, 1996 in Vermont was blessedly unremarkable. 

Winters have certainly turned more variable in Vermont under the effects of climate change. We still get strong cold waves, but also springlike warmups. Snow still quickly accumulates, but dissolves in oddly warm nights. 

Winter storms are dumping deeper snows and heavier rains. 

All this is to say that January, 1996 was as extreme a winter month as we've had. But the bad news is, under the influence of climate change, we could have a repeat of January, 1996. Or something even worse. 

 

Antarctic Glacier Yields Body Of Long-Missing Meteorologist

Dennis Bell, right, celebrating Christmas, 1958 in
Antarctica. The next month, he died when he
fell into a glacier crevasse. His body was not
recovered  until earlier this year. 

 Climate change might have had a had in bringing a closure to an Antarctic tragedy that occurred more than six decades ago.  

In 1959, Dennis Bell, a 25 year old meteorologist, fell to his death into a glacial crevasse in Antarctica. Early this year, a Polish team found Bell's remains at the end of a melting, receding glacier. 

Bell was part of a group that climbed onto Ecology Glacier on King George Island, Antarctica to do some field research. 

Gizmodo picks up the story:

"The group split into pairs, and Bell and surveyor Jeff Stokes set off before the others. During the ascent, Bell moved ahead of the sledge without his skis to encourage the tiring dogs and disappeared into a crevasse. Bell survived the fall, however, and Stokes threw a rope down to him to pull him back up. 

Bell, however, had tied the rope around his belt rather than around himself. When his body reached the top of the crevice, he got stuck, the belt broke, and this time he fell to his death."

Bell's body was to found until this January, when a Polish team found bones near their base. Eventually, more than 200 personal effects were found nearby, including radio equipment, a torch, ski pols, an inscribed Erguel wristwatch, a Swedish Mora knife and an ebonite pipe stem, The Guardian reported. 

The remains were eventually taken to London, where DNA tests confirmed the remains belonged to Bell. 

The following will seem a little crass, since this involves a tragic death. But, I'll say it anyway. I'm not sure if the discovery of Bell's remains last January was the result of climate change melting the glacier enough to expose the the remains, or whether it was just the natural progression of the glacier that allowed humans to discover it all. 

As a memorial, Bell Point on King George Island was named in the honor of that meteorologist who died in 1959.   

Deadly Typhoon Slams The Philippines, And Another One Is On The Way

Cars piled up in the Philippines in the aftermath of
deadly Typhoon Kalmaegi.  Another typhoon is
gathering strength and could hit the northern
Philippines by next Monday. 

The Atlantic hurricane season is sputtering to its end, which officially comes at the end of this month. 

But elsewhere in the world, tropical systems are still causing trouble, as they often do in the closing couple of months of the year. 

The latest was Typhoon Kalmaegi, which has spread death and destruction in parts of the Philippines. 

According to the Washington Post:

"By Thursday afternoon, officials said Typhoon Kalmaegi had killed at least 114 people in the Philippines, where it was also known as Typhoon Tino. Photos and videos showed submerged cars, toppled trees and mud-strewn streets. At least 127 people were also reported missing, the government said."

The typhoon struck the Philippines on Tuesday, displacing more than 560,000 residents. 

Perhaps the most damaged area was in the province of Cebu, popular with tourists because of its beautiful beaches. 

Parts of Cebu received a month and a half worth of rain in just a day. 

Per WaPo again. 

"Striking drone footage taken in the province's Talisay city showed houses along a riverbank, flattened and covered in mud, as residents tried to recover what was left of their homes. 

According to the military, army rescuers were racing to locate those missing from Cebu's low-lying communities- which were particularly vulnerable to flooding."

They typhoon moved on to strike Vietnam with winds up to 82 mph.  Three fisherman were reported missing in Vietnam.  Officials there feared extensive flooding, especially since heavy rains there had preceded the typhoon. 

The Philippines is now being threatened by another storm. Tropical Storm Fung-Wong has developed over the Pacific Ocean and is heading toward the northern part of the nation. It could be a super typhoon by the time it reaches the Philippines next Monday. 

Super typhoons have winds of at least 150 mph.  

Video:

Aftermath video of Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Huge Plume Of Dense Smoke From Kentucky Plane Crash Tragedy Tracked On Radar

National Weather Service
doppler radar detected the
huge smoke plume from
the plane crash near
Louisville, Ky
yesterday. The smoke looks
like an elongated rainstorm
spreading north toward
southern Indiana. 

The tragic plane crash yesterday in Louisville, Kentucky was made even worse by the massive amounts of jet fuel involved.  

That burning jet fuel, and burning oil from a petroleum recycling plant that was hit by the crash, created one of the most intense smoke plumes I can remember. At least aside from big wildfires and volcanoes. 

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 UPS cargo plane was taking off from Louisville en route to Honolulu when it crashed into an industrial area during the late afternoon rush hour. 

At last report, nine people were reported dead and up to 16 are missing. At least 11 people are injured. There were three people aboard the plane, meaning the rest of the casualties were victims on the ground. 

The plane, and exploding jet fuel slammed into several businesses. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said one of the businesses, Kentucky Petroleum Recycling, was hit "pretty directly," as he put it. 

This implies that in addition to the 38,000 gallons of jet fuel, weighing 233,000 pounds on the ill-fated plane, a large quantity of some type of petroleum products were at the business that was hit. The plane itself was carrying as many as 20,000 packages. 

Video images also showed dozens of cars on fire after the crash. 

All this created epic amounts of thick, black smoke. The wind was blowing from the south at about 7 mph, so the huge plume billowed northward. The smoke plume passed downtown Louisville just to the east, and greyed out the sky in the city's northern and eastern suburbs and on into southern Indiana.

The smoke was so dense and so extensive that National Weather Service radar showed the plume extending more than 20 miles from northwest of Okolona, Kentucky on up to River Bluff, in southern Indiana. 

Other than in large forest fires, it's unusual for weather radar to track a plume of smoke over that distance. Most fires don't create enough smoke to create as big a return on Doppler radar. 

The smoke was so thick that a shelter in place notification was in effect for a time from the airport all the way north to the Ohio River. 

A satellite system designed to detect heat from forest fires (helping firefighters assess the intensity and direction of fires) detected the explosion and blaze from the Louisville plane crash. 

The pixels in the heat detecting satellite are large, but even if a very small portion of that area is burning, the satellite imagery can detect it and display it as a large gray square. A loop in this link shows the initial dark square south of downtown Louisville at about the time of the crash. The grey square fades as the fire begins to subside. 

As horrible as this plane crash was, it could have been worse. The crashing plane narrowly missed a convention center where people were gathering for a livestock show. The crash also just missed the crowded bar and restaurant. Staff and patrons got out safely. The crash also just missed a huge Ford assembly plant with hundreds of workers inside.

Video:

Aerial video of the crash aftermath shows the extent of fire and smoke billowing over the Louisville area. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

Hurricane Melissa Slams Jamaica, Now Waiting To Learn The Toll. Likely Will Be Awful

 Hurricane Melissa kept strengthening right until landfall. 

Hurricane hunter planes measuring the strength of
Hurricane Melissa had this view of the storm
inside the eye yesterday 

Sustained winds blew at 185 mph at landfall, something very few people in the world have had the trauma of experiencing.

 In the western hemisphere, perhaps only a couple of hurricanes have made landfall with winds that strong. 

Melissa came ashore midday near New Hope, about 75 miles west of the Kingston, the Capitol of Jamaica. 

It had to be terrifying. Safe here on a bright, blue sky gorgeous late fall day here in Vermont, my heart rate is up just thinking about what those Jamaicans are going through today. 

Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet service, will be free for now in Jamaica and the Bahamas so people can get the word out, and tell loved ones who lived, who died. 

Still, won't get a lot of details on death toll, the extent of damage, and recovery right away. In western Jamaica, it's too dangerous to go outside and look.  People will also be just trying to survive. Most won't have time to chat with reporters or post updates online. 

Where Melissa hit square on in southwest Jamaica, the storm was the equivalent of a high end EF-3 or EF-4 tornado. Except tornadoes last only a few minutes and are usually no more than a mile wide  This "tornado" probably lasted more than an hour at least, and was probably 20 to 30 miles wide. 

Imagine your house getting hit by a tornado with 185 mph winds. There wouldn't be all that much left. Now imagine your house getting hit by a dozen or more of such tornadoes, one after another. 

How do you even survive such a thing?

Houses surely disintegrated in the midst of Melissa.   I don't know how many people made it to a hopefully safe shelter and how many stayed in their vulnerable homes.

Most people would be blown off their feet in winds and knocked to the ground in winds of 80 mph.  I don't know for sure if this is accurate, but Google AI says a 180 mph wind is enough launch a person into the air. 

Then those people would become like the rest of the debris flying through the air, trees, branches, planks, sheet metal, siding, roofs. The chances of surviving outdoors in that are pretty much zero. 

The National Hurricane Center was advising people near the eye of Hurricane Melissa to hide under mattresses in an interior room and wear a helmet.  "The best thing you can do is put as many walls as possible between you and the outside," the NHC said. 

Satellite view of Hurricane Melissa late this
afternoon shows the eye has filled in with
clouds as the mountains of Jamaica 
begin to weaken the still
formidable storm. 

Hurricane Melissa had been forecast for a couple days to make landfall in southwestern Jamaica. I'm hoping everyone who could fled to eastern Jamaica. 

The eastern part of the island is having an incredibly tough go at it too. But at least the winds in the east are probably not strong enough to destroy all buildings. Sturdy ones should hold up.   

Images that are coming out of Jamaica are showing catastrophic flooding, with rapidly flowing water in some

As of 5 p.m., Hurricane Melissa was still centered over western Jamaica, heading northeast with top winds of 145 mph.  The mountainous terrain is starting to damage the hurricane, thank gawd. That's down to an intense category 4 hurricane, no longer, a category 5. 

RECORD SETTING

It's unusual for a hurricane to keep on strengthen right up until landfall, but Melissa did. The most recent, dramatic example of a hurricane doing this that I can think of was Category 5 Hurricane Michael, which hit Florida in 2018. 

It looks like Hurricane Melissa probably tied the record for the Atlantic basin for the highest winds and lowest central air pressure at landfall. The air pressure was 892 millibars in the eye, which is an incredibly intense hurricane. 

The reason I say "probably" is because scientists will need to study data after the fact to determine whether the sort of off the cuff measurements taken today are accurate.

WHAT'S NEXT

Hurricane Melissa is still headed toward eastern Cuba, where it will hit tonight with winds as high as 145 mph.  Obviously incredibly nasty flooding is going to happen there, too. 

The hurricane will be weakening, and increasing its forward speed tomorrow as it blasts the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. But it will still be a dangerous storm. 

Hurricane Melissa is still throwing lots of moisture at Hispaniola, so Haiti and parts of the Dominican Republic should continue to experience catastrophic flooding tonight. 

The weakening hurricane should sideswipe Bermuda early Friday. As Melissa finally dies over the North Atlantic Friday, it will send some moisture into an otherwise unrelated storm over the Northeast, which will probably make rainfall heavier than it otherwise would be. .

CLIMATE CHANGE STRIKES AGAIN

Hurricane Melissa is the latest in a remarkable string of Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic in recent years. Melissa was the third such hurricane this year. The other two missed land, but our luck ran out with Melissa. 

This hurricane meandered over record warm Caribbean water for days before striking Jamaica, allowing it to strengthen as it did. I mentioned this yesterday, but it's worth repeating. Expect plenty more Melissas in the future. 

Per CNN:

"Hurricane Melissa's intensification into the strongest storm on Earth so far this year, and one of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic Ocean, was field buy unusually hot ocean temperatures in the Caribbean. 

The storms underwent two periods of rapid intensification, with its maximum sustained winds first jumping from 70 mph on Saturday morning to 140 mph just 24 hours later. Then, from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon its peak winds spiked again, going from 140 to mph to 175 mph.

Such bouts of rapid intensification are becoming more frequent as the climate warms. Hurricane Melissa is only the latest in a sting of intense Atlantic hurricanes this year to undergo such extreme rapid strengthening. 

According to the climate science research group Climate Central, the ocean temperatures in the vicinity of Hurricane Melissa's path were about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average for this time of year. 

The group calculated that along the entire path of the storm so far, the unusually hot sea surface temperatures were at least 500 to 800 times more likely due to global warming."

 

Trump Administration Feeling Heat On Texas Flood Response

The grim search for bodies continue after
the July 4 catastrophic floods in Texas,
as our early look at Trump era FEMA
response is not great, 

 The Trump team is finding out it's harder to manage major disasters than they thought.

And the public is learning why a fully staffed Federal Emergency Management Agency might not be such a bad idea after all. 

Let the state's handle it, FEMA isn't necessary,  the Trumpers said.  This Texas flood will manage itself, they must have thought. Or at least disappear in the next news cycle, so it won't be a problem for them anymore. 

We know that if something doesn't directly benefit Trump or his minions, it's not worth dealing with it. So to their minds, why mess with that Texas mud pit?

But when disasters get this big and stay under the media spotlight like the Texas floods have done, it gets harder and harder to control the narrative.    

At last check, at least 134 people were confirmed dead  in the Texas flooding   Huge swaths of the Texas Hill Country are devastated, with houses washed away, others with flood damage up to the ceilings 

The Trump folks are publicly patting themselves on the back about what a good job they're doing with the Texas flood, but the evidence suggests otherwise. 

CALLS UNANSWERED

The New York Times on July 11 reported the now-really short-staffed FEMA was answering very few calls for help after the Texas disasters. Answer rates to the FEMA disaster assistance hotline fell to roughly the 35 percent rant on July 6 and just 16 percent on July 7. 

As USA Today reports: 

"The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contract expired. FEMA is part of Department of Homeland Security."

It appears to me ICE Barbie, as I call her, did not worry about this mess-up until it appeared there might be a public relations problem brewing. 

ICE Barbie, who is much better at cosplaying and posing for the media, naturally went on TV.  Here's her quote from her appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press with Kristen Welker."

"No employees were off of work....... Every one of them was answering calls, so false reporting, fake news and it's discouraging. It's discouraging that during this time, when we have such a loss of life and so many people's lives have been turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this because the response time was immediate."

Notice the careful wording.

A lot of employees had been let go. The ones that were left were answering calls. I'm sure every one of the few remaining did answer calls, as Noem said. She just left out the part that a bunch of people who could have helped handle the big call volume weren't there anymore. 

Any criticism is supposedly "playing politics."  The crisis in Texas is far from over, so you'd think prodding an agency to actually help people is the definition of caring about "so many people's lives."

MICROMANAGING

Noem's micromanaging - reviewing any expenditure over $100,000 - also slowed the response to the Texas flood in other ways. As CNN reported:

"For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially 'pennies' requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.

In essence, they say the order has stripped the agency of much of its autonomy at the very moment its help is needed most.  

'We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,' a longtime FEMA official told CNN. 'That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.'"

This for instance meant FEMA couldn't pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally around the country. Noem reportedly didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of  the Urban Search and Rescue teams until more than 72 hours after the flooding started.

For their part, the Noem team used other search and rescue assets and didn't need this Urban Search and Rescue Team. 

The head of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue branch,  Ken Pagurek, resigned Monday over frustrations with Noem and other Trump appointed FEMA heads. CNN reported that he quit after months of frustration with the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency.

Another talented, needed person leaving because of this idiotic bunch.  Said a DHS spokesperson: 

"FEMA is shifting from a bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens......The old processes are being replaced because they failed American emergencies for decades."

The spokesperson has it exactly backwards. Until now, FEMA has been praised for its rapid response I'm the immediate emergency in the hours and days after the disaster strikes.

UNEVEN DIRECT RESPONSE

The very valid criticism of FEMA comes in the recovery phase, where applying for assistance and money for rebuilding roads, other infrastructure, homes, and businesses, and girded for the next disaster, always seemed to become a horrible, bureaucratic slog. 

That's where the FEMA reform coulda, shoulda happened. 

FEMA has ultimately arrived in Texas, and they do seem to be trying to help. Parts of the old, better FEMA infrastructure are still there. At least for now.  

Victims are being encouraged to contact FEMA, despite the phone issues to start claims. The agency has set up a help center and has started processing claims. 

Some Texas flood victims said that FEMA has been helpful so far, which is a glimmer of encouragement here.

But private and church groups are leading the way, searching for victims, mucking out damaged homes and setting up field kitchens for people whose houses have washed away or otherwise have been left uninhabitable. 

Still the Texas FEMA stumbles are disconcerting. 

I doubt FEMA and the Trump administration will change course much, but the bad Texas disaster response is certainly being noticed. 

"Heck of a job, Secretary Noem," the Houston Chronicle editorial board sarcastically wrote. The remark is a throwback to former President George W. Bush's notorious and highly inaccurate praise for then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as New Orleans flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Several Democratic members of Congress demanded an investigation into Noem's response to the disaster. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts called for her resignation. None of this will happen, given the Republican fealty to whatever Trump and his minions do, but it's notable. 

The irony is that Noem, acting FEMA director David Richardson and the Trump administration is undoing what had been badly needed FEMA reforms after the Katrina debacle.

Speaking of Richardson, he didn't make any public statements and appearances for more than a week after the floods. Usually, FEMA directors are splattered themselves all over the news when there's big disasters, giving overviews of the federal response to these calamities. 

Richardson, who famously seemed unaware that the U.S. has a hurricane season, does not have five or more years of disaster management experience. The post-Katrina reforms require FEMA directors to have such experience, but the Trump administration is getting around that by keeping him as the so-called "acting" director. 

Another indication how unseriously the Trumpsters take disaster responses

And remember, this terrible flood happened in a red state.  Trump is the probably the most sinister transactionally motivated person in the world. He'll help his supporters until he doesn't need them anymore. 

But he'll attack his perceived enemies and try everything he can not to help.  What if the Texas disaster happened in a blue state?

We got a taste of that during and after the immense and deadly California wildfires back in January.  

Trump threatened to withhold disaster aid to California unless the state enacted voter ID laws. Never mind that those ID laws have nothing to do with wildfires. That casts doubt on whether he will approve $40 billion California Gov Gavin Newsom has requested to help pay for fire recovery costs.  

Meanwhile, other disasters have hit since Texas and more loom, Wildfire season is ramping up.  Forecasts point toward weather conditions in the coming days and weeks across much of the West that favor large fires. 

Hurricane season has started. The big ones usually hit soon - mostly in August and September. Those flash floods keep hitting all kinds of communities in the United States.

We've known for months that Trump and his loyal band of sycophants are not inclined to help their fellow Americans. Again, because there's nothing in it for them. No profits, no monetary gain. And gawd forbid any of this crew to help disaster victims because it's the right thing to do.

Trump, according to numerous reports, at least once called fallen military service members "losers and suckers."

I think he believes disaster victims are losers and suckers, too.  

Texas Flood Tragedy News Keeps Getting Worse, Dozens Dead, Many Missing; And How It Happened

Aftermath of the Texas flood. At last report at least
27 people had been confirmed dead, and that toll
was expected to rise

 I don't even know where to begin to start with the immense flood tragedy in the Hill Country of Texas, northwest of San Antonio. 

As I wrote this early Saturday afternoon, CBS was reporting 27 deaths so far - 18 adults and nine children. 

A lot of people are still missing -- officials haven't yet told us how many. We know about a dozen people, mostly children are missing from a Camp Mystic, a childrens' camp along the Guadalupe River.

If you try really hard you get glean some good news out of the tragedy. As of Saturday morning, around 850 people had been rescued. There have been 160 air rescues, and as of this writing, swarms of aircraft, drones and boats were looking for more people. 

There have been some amazing tales of survival. KENS in San Antonio reported one woman had been swept 20 miles downstream and over four dams before being rescued from a cypress tree today. The woman reportedly had just minor injuries. 

While I'm sure there will be other tales of survival, I'm dreading what the final death toll might look like. Not to mention the extreme damage to homes and businesses through a big part of central Texas. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Texas tragedy had its roots in Tropical Storm Barry, a completely forgettable, weak tropical storm that splashed ashore in northeastern Mexico last Sunday. 

Barry drew extremely humid air into Texas - extraordinarily steamy even by Texas standards. A small drifting low pressure system over central Texas drew in and consolidated that moisture.  This is Texas Hill country, so the winds were forced to rise upward as ti traveled from the Gulf of Mexico to the   rising elevations west of San Antonio, helping to unleash the floods.

This upslope flow has happened there frequently and has often caused floods,  Enough to this area of Texas is sometimes known as flash flood alley. 

The upslope flow, the remnants of Barry, the subtle low pressure system, the extreme humidity all converged over the Guadalupe River drainage basin and its surroundings. And just sat there. The result was extreme rainfall. 

The fact that a crucial ingredient to this tragedy was a former tropical storm shows that people are not necessarily safe after a tropical storm or hurricane makes landfall.  These things can produce floods far from the where the system came ashore. 

Even here in Vermont. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl were a key ingredient of the extreme floods last  July 10-11 in the Green Mountain State.  

Back in 1995, another fairly lame tropical storm named Dean came ashore in Texas, much like Beryl did. Even though Dean was weak, its remnants interacted with a stalled weather front to produce severe flooding across northern and central Vermont - nearly 2,000 miles from where it made landfall. 

We also have to remind ourselves that climate change has made downpours and storms often more intense than they otherwise would have been decades ago. I do not know to what extent climate change influenced this flood, but I suspect it was at least a small factor. 

THE FLOOD FORECAST AND NOAA CUTBACKS

Some officials in Texas are blaming cutbacks at NOAA and the National Weather Service because of the Trump administration and is DOGE federal worker slash and burn program earlier this year.  Their claim is the forecast underplayed the amount of rain that ultimately fell. 

Those DOGE cutbacks might well cause forecasting errors and in fact might have already done so in other circumstances.  

As Texas meteorologist Matt Lanza explains in his blog The Eyewall, the flash flood was well forecasted, even if the amount of rain that actually fell was unimaginable. 

National Weather Service Forecasts on Thursday gave the region a slight risk of flash flooding, which might have created a false sense of security. Lanza said some high resolution forecast models predicted the huge amounts of rain that in fact materialized.  In hindsight (my opinion here) those models should have perhaps been taken more seriously. But hindsight is of course 20/20.

In any event, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings shortly before midnight Thursday as the rains began to fall in earnest. In the early morning hours, the NWS declared issued flash flood emergencies, which triggers automatic warnings on everybody's cell phones.

Lanza said the NOAA budget cutbacks did not appear to play a role in this tragedy. Much has been made of cutbacks in weather balloon launches, which offer critical information on impeding storms. The National Weather Service office in Del Rio, Texas, and data from those launches helped prompt the NWS issue those dire "hair on fire" flash flood warnings. 

Then the question was, how were those flash flood warnings received? Or were they?

A blame game has already started. 

Per the Associated Press: 

'AccuWeather, a private weather forecasting business said it also issued flash flood warnings and blamed camp directors for the tragedy. "These warmings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,' "

As noted, this part of Texas is particularly prone to flash flooding. Lanza asks a great question: "Do we need to start thinking of every risk of flooding as a potential high-end event we should pre-evacuate the highest risk people (like children and elderly in floodways) for? Is that even practical?"

Some variation of that question is a great one to ask anywhere in the U.S., including here in Vermont. Climate change is helping make downpours more intense, and more likely to cause floods, or make floods worse than they otherwise would be.  

FLASH FLOODS DANGEROUS

We do know that flash floods are extremely dangerous, and the United State has a long history of flash flood tragedies.  

Perhaps the most famous and deadly flash flood in U.S. history was the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889, which killed more than 2,200 people. Johnstown was hit again in 1977 in a flash flood that killed 84 people. 

Other examples of horrible flash floods include one that hit Rapid City, South Dakota and adjacent areas of the Black Hills in 1972, resulting in 238 lives lost. A flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon, Colorado in 1976 claimed 144 lives. 

Flash flooding in Kentucky killed 45 people in 2022.  Another flash flood in San Antonio on June 12 killed 13 people. 

Additional flash flooding has hit parts of central Texas today. As of early this afternoon a new flash flood emergency was in effect for Burnet County, Texas and parts of Williamson and Travis County. Six to 14 inches of rain fell there last night and this morning. 

This includes parts of the Austin metropolitan area,   The latest update is two people are dead and 10 are missing from this new round of flooding. 

It goes on and on. 

 

BREAKING: Multiple Fatalities Reported In Catastrophic Texas Flood

Extreme flood damage in Kerrville, Texas today. 
Multiple fatalities feared from flash flood overnight
and today after 10+ inches of rain fell in just hours.

 An extreme, catastrophic flash flood killed an unknown number of people northwest of San Antonio, Texas. Early reports suggest the death toll could be high. 

Local media confirmed six deaths as of early this afternoon. 

But many more are missing, including an unknown number of  children who were at more than a dozen summer camps along the Guadalupe River in and near Kerrville, Texas.

Kerrville is about 60 miles northwest of San Antonio. .

Thankfully, many of the summer camps along the river reported all children at their respective locations were accounted for and had been moved to safe places. 

Around 10 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours overnight. The river rose 22 feet in over three hours. Downstream in Comfort, Texas, the river rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. 

The Guadalope is usually not much more than a trickle over the summer. Its banks are lined with RV parks, summer camps and vacation cabins. Most of which were busy for the Fourth of July holiday.

The storm's timing could not have been worse, catching people unaware in the pre-dawn hours as they slept.  The river in many cases rose too fast to get out of the way in time. 

Video on social media and witness accounts described houses, cars and RVs racing along the rapids of the Guadalupe River. Video also showed rescuers on boats plucking people clinging to trees just above the fast flowing water. 

The flooding was still unfolding this afternoon as a powerful flood crest blasted downstream.  Hasty evacuations were ongoing. 

The Guadalupe River flood last night and today comes less than a month after another extreme rainstorm unleashed a flash flood in San Antonio that swept numerous cars away, killing 13 people. 

In that case, about four inches of rain fell in just one hour. 

These two Texas tragedies are part of an increasing trend toward extreme flash floods in the age of climate change. The warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and under the right conditions, can unload torrential rains much heavier than most storms in the past. 

We saw something like this last July 30 in Vermont, when a local storm across the Northeast Kingdom dumped more than eight inches of rain in a few hours, causing catastrophic floods in and near Lyndonville. 

The Texas Guadalupe River flood is a developing story. We'll have more in future posts. 

VIDEO

Scenes of destruction around Kerrville, Texas in a news video. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Weather Mayhem In Midwest, South, East: More Than Two Dozen Dead In Tornadoes, Other Extreme Weather

Aerial view shows a row of damaged
homes in St. Louis after a tornado
passed through the city on Friday

Friday was a classic, tragic weather mayhem day in the nation 

Millions of people had to keep on their toes dodging tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, high winds, temperature extremes. Even dust storms in unlikely places.  

The worst of it was the tornadoes. So far 28 have been confirmed on Friday, with the count expected to go higher as damage is assessed. That's on top of the tornado tally for Thursday, which so far stands at 24. 

Worse, the death toll from the tornadoes had risen to 29 as of this morning. 

At least 23 people died in and near London, in southeastern Kentucky after a powerful tornado swept through that community. 

Video from London, Kentucky shows numerous houses completely leveled. Some were swept clean away, leaving behind a floor and nothing else, 

 Five of the storm-related deaths so far were in St. Louis, where at least one tornado swept through the city. One of those people died when a church collapsed.

As many as 5,000 homes in St. Louis were affected by the storm. Dozens of buildings in St. Louis lost roofs or walls.  Streets were littered and blocked with debris,f allen power lines and poles and wrecked cars.    

A brew pub in St. Louis collapsed with 20 people inside, but they all escaped with minor or no injuries. 

The Mid-Atlantic States didn't escape nature's wrath either. Several severe storms hit. At least one tornado touched down in New Jersey. Baltimore, Maryland  and southern Delaware were under tornado warnings at various points yesterday. 

The roof of the Merritt Athletic Club in Baltimore blew off, wrecking the building and damaging some surrounding structures. A possible tornado damaged several homes and buildings in Dundalk, Maryland, southeast of Baltimore. 

DUST STORM

Strong winds behind the storm's cold front stirred up winds gusting to 60 mph or more. These swept over newly plowed farm fields in Illinois. This created a wall of dust along a 100 mile line that eventually swept into Chicago.  

Approaching dust storm in Illinois Friday. Chicago was under
a first-ever dust storm warning on Friday.

So yes, Chicago had the first-ever experience of being under a dust storm warning Friday evening. 

 During the height of the dust storm, Chicago's Midway airport reported gusts to 59 mph and a quarter mile visibility in blowing dust. 

The poor visibility led to several traffic crashes in Illinois. Sections of Interstates 74 and 55 were shut down by the dust near Bloomington, in central Illinois.

Big dust storms have been usually common this spring in vast areas of the Plains States,

TEMPERATURE EXTREMES

The Northern Plains have certainly been on a wild temperature roller coaster. 

One example in Minot, North Dakota. On May 10-12 they had daily highs of  94, 99 and 95 degrees. On Friday, the high temperature there was just 41 degrees and there was a freeze warning in effect this morning. 

Overall, the northern tier of states will have cool conditions for the next several days at least, Summer is still not here yet! 

OUTLOOK

The bad weather isn't over yet. More tornadoes and severe storms are likely in and around Texas today. Other severe storms might be scattered over northern New York and New England, including here in Vermont.

A new tornado outbreak is possible in the central Plains Sunday and Monday and in the Southeast Tuesday, 

 

Winter Storm Battering Flood Ravaged Kentucky As Nation's Intense Winter Weather Continues.

 Kentucky just can't catch a break.

Flooding with snow on the ground in
Kentucky on Sunday. A winter storm
is dumping several inches of
additional snow on the flood-
ravaged state this morning. 

The death toll from this past weekend's flooding in the state has risen to 14. An additional three people died from the flooding in adjacent West Virginia. 

The flooding hit all of Kentucky, from near the Mississippi River in the west to the Appalachians in the east.

The flooding prompted something like 1,000 water rescues, and at least 300 roads were shut down by the high water.  

The flash flooding from the weekend is over, but some rivers haven't crested quite yet. Moderate and sometimes major flooding was still going on along at least three Kentucky rivers as of early Tuesday morning. 

Now, a winter storm is about to hit Kentucky, with two to six inches of snow falling on the flood zones tonight and Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to fall into the single numbers Wednesday and Thursday nights

This weather misery comes as Kentucky has endured other outsized disasters in recent years. 

In December, 2021, a swarm of tornadoes in Kentucky killed more than 80 people and left trails of destruction behind. 

An enormous Kentucky flash flood in July 2022, left 45 people dead and left widespread destruction. 

Now this.  

It's hard enough to start digging out from a flood in warm weather. Imagine trying to do it while temperatures are well below zero and there's a few inches of snow on the ground. The mud freezes into a hard concrete, so you can't shovel it away. Wet items that need to be removed from wrecked buildings are frozen together. 

People trying to deal with all the wet, destroyed property are especially prone to hypothermia and frostbite. 

It's really a tough week in Kentucky,

The rough late season winter blast isn't just affecting Kentucky. Winter storm warnings extend to the Carolina and Virginia coastlines, where five to nine inches of snow is forecast.

Extreme cold warnings and advisories extend from Montana and North Dakota all the way down to the Gulf Coast.

Minot, North Dakota was enjoying a comparatively mild morning today as it got down to 23 below.  It was 33 below there Tuesday morning and 30 below Monday.  Those are actual temperatures, not wind chill. 

The frigid temperatures and snowstorms are forecast to at least temporarily relax over the next few days, giving some places, mostly areas west of the Mississippi River an early taste of spring next week.

VERMONT EFFECTS

For once, a storm is going to miss us completely. First time that's happened all month\

The winter storm that's been hitting from the Midwest to North Carolina and Virginia is going to eventually evolve into a pretty substantial nor'easter. But it will be far, far off the coast, passing about a couple hundred miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Instead, it'll stay very cold today and to extent tomorrow before a slow warming trend arrives. A weak disturbance could put down a dusting to two inches of snow Thursday, but nothing big for a change. 

We will still probably get into a brief warm-ish spell Sunday through to the middle of next week, where valleys should get above freezing daily, maybe even 40 degrees in the banana belt towns. 

But this does not herald spring.  The overall trend is for colder than average weather well into March, at least as it looks now. 

California Fire, Week 2: More Wind, More Fire, More Heartache,

A firewhirl forms this week in
the giant Palisades fire in
Los Angeles County, CA.

Lately this blog feels like it's turning into all California wildfire, all the time.

But this is such a big deal, such a wide ranging, incredible national disaster that you can't ignore the updates, the changes, the effects it has on all of us.  

Nobody can cover everything in one article or a few, of course. But it's important to stay at least a little informed about what's happening.  

At last check this morning, the death toll from the ongoing California fire calamity keeps climbing, and at last report was up to 16.

As the fires continue to rage, they'll find more bodies in many of the hard hit areas. Now that the ashes are beginning to cool in some hard hit areas, search teams say they will bring in cadaver dogs to do systematic grid searches in destroyed neighborhoods.

The above paragraph is easily among the most grim I've ever had to write in this blog. 

NOW WHAT?

Meanwhile, an incredible number of people are watching and waiting to see what the fires do next. At least 150,000 people are still under mandatory evacuation orders. Naturally, pretty much all of those evacuees want to go back to either see the ruins, or if they're lucky, return home. 

That desire has led to frustration as people are blocked from going back due to the dangers.  Authorities said there are downed power poles, live electrical wires, smoldering fires and unstable debris. 

Police initially worked with people to provide police escorts for those who wanted to go back to retrieve medications and pets. But they're stopping that because the number of people requesting the escorts is overwhelming. 

Which of course doesn't help for people worried about pets potentially starving to death in evacuated homes, or people skipping necessary medications. 

I hope that gets straightened out soon.

A Volkswagen bus appears to be the only thing left in
this California neighborhood in this Associated Press photo.

Winds temporarily diminished Saturday afternoon, though they picked up again early this morning. Another lull is in the forecast later today, and that should help firefighters with containment efforts ahead of the next blast of wind. 

The forecast for strong, arid winds in the fire zone over the next several days continues to look bad, possibly even worse than previous forecasts.

 At least now, there's more resources in place. Armies of firefighters from as far away as Idaho, Washington, New Mexico and the nations of Mexico and Canada are in southern California battling away. 

According to the Associated Press:

"Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes 1,354 fire engines, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel."

I noticed in one threatened Brentwood neighborhood on Saturday, there was a fire truck parked in every third driveway.

The firestorms are likely the costliest and U.S. history. One estimate from AccuWeather pegged damages so far at between $135 and $150 billion. 

The strings of disasters - made worse than they otherwise would be by climate change - are likely a drag on the United States economy. 

The U.S. suffered 27 weather disasters in 2024 each costing more than $1 billion, with a total cost of $182.7 billion, the fourth highest on record, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Assessments of these disaster are still ongoing, so that figure could rise. 

Everybody is of course watching what's going on in California, and there's obviously a market for video of this terrible event. I keep posting videos of the fires, so there you go.

Unfortunately, there's always people who want to monetize the disaster. Some people are flying drones into the fire zone, which is both illegal and dangerous. Unauthorized drone incidents into the fire area are now "well into the double digits," a FBI official said. 

One drone hit one of those big Super Scooper planes from Quebec. They're those big planes that you might have seen skimming the Pacific Ocean off of Santa Monica to fill tanks with water, then flying into the disaster zone to dump the water onto the flames. 

These planes are pretty damn cool. Unfortunately, the drone that hit the plane put that critical piece of firefighting equipment out of commission. I'm just glad the crew on that plane were able to land it safely.  

There's so much more to report and update, and watch this space for some of the more interesting and pertinent ones. 

VIDEOS

The best sources of news about the California fires is local.  Los Angeles television station KTLA has been an especially excellent source. This Saturday evening newscast is a master class in useful information, insights, emotion and comprehensive reporting. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

A sad, post-fire drive down the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. You see pockets of intact buildings, but most of them for  miles are gone. Click on this link to view or of you see the image below, click on that: