Trump Preventing Atlantic Hurricane This Year, Says His Sycophant.

Donald Trump, shown here windblown and 
exhausted after blocking all Atlantic Ocean
hurricane this year so far. Allegedly. 

Halliluja! President Trump is singlehandedly preventing hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean!  

Want proof? Just turn to the social media account called Rapid Response 47. It calls itself "The office White House Rapid Response account. Supporting President Trump's America First agenda and holding the Fake News accountable. MAGA!"

As you can imagine, you'll get some wild comments from that account. 

On the social media site X, this all started from a post by meteorologist Chris Martz.  He wrote, "History has been made! No hurricanes have formed in the North Atlantic Ocean so far this year. This is the FIRST time on record in the satellite era (since 1966)."

Fact check: Martz is completely correct. All the hurricane experts are pretty gobsmacked by this lack of Atlantic hurricanes so far this year. 

But then Rapid Response 47 page tagged Martz's post with the message, "Thank you President Trump!"

That's right. The Trump team says Trump has somehow stopped Atlantic hurricanes this year. I haven't seen any indication of how Trump has stopped the hurricanes. 

But everyone on the coastline form Brownsville, Texas to Eastport, Maine must be thanking the Glorious Orange One for protecting their homes and properties and beaches.

But wait a minute. Is Trump really preventing those hurricanes or is something else afoot?

It's probably no accident that Rapid Response 47 tagged Martz.  Martz is a MAGA-friendly climate skeptic, one that the Trump sycophants probably feel safe with. 

But in a post today, Martz posted something else. Not in response to the Trump people, just science. And once again, Martz was completely accurate. Turns out maybe it isn't Trump who is preventing the hurricanes. 

Martz explained that we aren't getting hurricanes in the Atlantic due to shear, which is changes in wind speed and direction with height. The strong winds aloft are tearing apart wannabe tropical storms. Plumes of dust from the Sahara Desert are also working against tropical systems. 

He didn't get into why there is so much shear. It's because El Nino is currently super strong, and it continues to cause that shear over the Atlantic Ocean. 

Responses to the claim that Trump is stopping hurricanes have been predictably brutal.

Some examples:

"Can't believe Trump can control weather but not the debt."

"Holy crap. You're thanking him for the weather? This is some messed up North Korea shit going on."

"Dumbfuck cult members think their Flatulent Fuhrer controls the weather."

"All he had to do was to threaten to change the name to the American Ocean, and the hurricanes are cowering in fear.!"

Even Ted Cruz cryptically posted on X: 

"Since I'm told that he's responsible for everything, I blame Trump."

I have to ask why Trump hasn't stopped the hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean. Two of them have sideswiped Hawaii, and caused a lot of damage there. Another Pacific hurricane stayed offshore, but sent enormous waves crashing into the southern California coast, causing quite a bit of damage there. 

This isn't the first time Trump has been praised for his alleged ability to control weather. Last year, no hurricanes made landfall in the United States, which was a welcomed break from years of destructive storms. 

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a televised cabinet meeting, said, "Sire, you made it through a hurricane season without a hurricane.....Even you kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that."

Sigh.  

The Atlantic hurricane season ends on November 30, so there is plenty of time for such a storm to form. 

The National Hurricane Center says a tropical system could form in the central subtropical Atlantic Ocean later this week. 

Person Fired For Contradicted Trump Is New FEMA Leader; "Teleporting" Administrator Is Ousted

Cameron Hamilton, fired in May, 2025 as acting FEMA
director for contradicting Trump, has now been
appointed the head of that agency. 

The administration had wanted to get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But it's still around. Hobbled, but there. 

Which is a fortunate victory against Donald Trump, who started his second term stridently calling for FEMA's abolishment, or at least seriously downsized. 

So much so that in May, 2025, the acting FEMA administrator, Cameron Hamilton was fired. That came a day after telling Congress FEMA should not be disbanded. 

Hamilton ended up winning out in the end  

He has just been named the new head of the agency

 Per the Washington Post: 

"Hamilton returns after the ouster of ...Noem as homeland security secretary and a significant shift at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA. He will inherit a shrunken agency whose future continues to be uncertain. FEMA has lost thousands of staffers, including many senior officials and veterans, which churning through leaders during a time of low morale at the agency." 

FEMA is a critical agency helping victims of the increasing number and severity of weather and climate disasters in the United States. It's a lifeline that has been hobbled by the Trump administration.  The help the agency provides, which was already bureaucratic and sometimes ineffective before Trump, is even more so now. 

TELEPORTING OUT OF FEMA

Remember the FEMA teleporting guy?

His name is Gregg Phillips, who last December was appointed to FEMA's office of Response and Recovery, a top, consequential position. He was known for the strange things he said, most notably his story that he had been mysteriously teleported 50 miles to a distant Waffle House. We're not sure where he got that. 

Well, he's gone. In June, he was apparently forced out of the agency, according to CNN.  The report gave no particular reason why he's gone, but I imagine because the dude is just strange. 

TV Meteorologist Warns Viewers Of Tornadoes As Fire Burns In The Studio His Reporting From

Meterologist Noah Simmons was engulfed in smoke and
fire extinguisher discharge after a fire in the studio that
broke out when he was warning Fort Smith, Arkansas
area residents of impending tornadoes. At least the
green screen was clear, so you could see the radar images.

Have you ever seen that Gary Larson cartoon that shows a building that's on fire, floating down a river and about to go over a waterfall? The sign on that unlucky building says "Crisis Clinic."  

Meteorologist Noah Simmons must have felt like he was in that Crisis Clinic last Saturday.  He was tracking tornadoes that were menacing the Fort Smith, Arkansas area. Then a studio light caught fire.

Full video is at the bottom of this post, but we'll set you up with the run down. 

Since Simmons was dealing with two tornado warnings on Saturday night June 6. A studio light caught fire during this emergency, and producers worked to put the blaze out. 

"So we just had a fire in the studio, but we got two tornado warnings....So we got to keep tracking this and covering this live," as he covered his nose with a button down shirt as he was broadcasting. 

Most of the "smoke" viewers saw was discharge from fire extinguishers.

As People reported, Simmons first noticed some lights flickering in the studio "Five, 10 seconds later, I start to smell a bit of smoke....That's not normal.'

A few seconds later the light in the studio caught fire. 

Simmons was the only person in the studio when the fire started. That's why you see him sort of walk off camera a bit and say, "Guys, we have a fire happening in the studio right now." 

A producer came in armed with a fire extinguisher to douse the flames. The smoke and especially the stuff from the fire extinguisher made it hard to breathe, which is why you see in the video that he pulls his white button down shirt up over his mouth and nose. 

"When you're tracking two tornadoes at the time, I felt there was a need to keep going," Simmons told People .

The radar images showing the tornado-producing storms was clear as it was a green screen image not affected by the smoke. But Simmons, pointing out features on the radar screen,  appears to be in a thick haze.

Simmons said he had a tickle in his throat and watery eyes the day after the incident, but was OK. He said the station had been "gracious" in giving him medical attention.

As it turns out, three EF-1 tornadoes touched down around Fort Smith. EF-1 tornadoes have winds of between 86 and 110 mph. 

The television station in Fort Smith was not the only one dealing with very local disasters. On May 25, television station WDHN in Dothan, Alabama was hit by and EF-1 tornado that damaged the building as you can see in this video. 

Here's the video of meteorologist Noah Simmons dealing with tornadoes and in-studio smoke all at the same time.  Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

Top FEMA Official Says He's Been Teleported Several Times. Including To A Waffle House

Gregg Phillips, a top official at FEMA, says he's been
teleported numerous times.  That doesn't add a lot 
of confidence about an agency that's supposed to 
help disaster victims, but has been in disarray
ever since the Trump administration took over. 

A top official at FEMA filling a critical role in disaster recovery, says he is often teleported, and he spreads wild and violent sounding conspiracy theories, we learned from various media sources this month. 

Another case of the inmates running the asylum in Washington, I guess.  And his presence at the Federal Emergency Management Agency probably does not make disaster victims rest any easier. 

The guy's name is Gregg Phillips, and hoo boy, buckle in. 

The piece of his saga that's gotten the most attention is that Phillips blames he was teleported 50 miles to a Waffle House.  Or at least he doesn't remember getting there. Here's his exact quote from a January, 2025 podcast:

"I was with my boys one time and I was telling them I was gonna go to Waffle House and get Waffle House. and I ended up at a Waffle House - this was in Georgia and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was."

I dunno, Show me a person who doesn't remember traveling 50 miles to a Waffle House and I'll show you somebody who was really super drunk. Allegedly. Who knows what was going on?

We cam all laugh, but Phillips has an important role in regards to weather and climate disasters. Per CNN:

"FEMA officials have described Phillips' job as among the most consequential in the agency, involving decisions that affect search-and-rescue-operations, emergency aid, infrastructure restoration and ultimately distributing billions of dollars in disaster assistance."

 Weirdness  seems to be a thing in this administration. Trump is a teetotaler, but Secretary of Defense Pete Kegsbreath, Hegseth has a bit of a frat boy party reputation, despite his newfound devotion to his brand of devout Catholicism. 

Then there's FBI director Kash Patel who is suing the Atlantic for $250 million for what looks like a well-researched account of his, ahem, definite taste for alcohol. Allegedly, of course. 

And I don't even want to get into RFK Jr. 

For a change, I see no evidence Phillips actually has a drinking problem, but he does have a lot of  stories of being teleported.  Which is arguably worse than a drinking habit. 

He says he doesn't like the experience.

"Teleporting is no fun.....It's no fun because you don't really know what you're doing. You don't really understand it it's scary, but yet, um, but so real. And you know it's  happening but you can't do anything about it, and so you just go, you just go with the ride. And wow, what just an incredible adventure it all was."

I'm also not sure who or what supposedly teleported Phillips to destinations like a Waffle House, and why that happened. Ah, the mysteries of life. 

Phillips dropped some hints about where all the came from on Truth Social, the social media platform that Trump calls home. The teleportation had something to do with a "spiritual journey" when he was battling cancer, and that the Bible has lots of examples of supernatural events. 

 OK. I just wish he could have teleported those recent tornadoes that struck cities like Union City, Michigan, .Kankakee, Illinois and Enid, Oklahoma.

There are other things about Phillips you might not like.  He doesn't sound especially.....compassionate. Which is kinda what you need in a time of disaster. 

Phillips apparently went to the Steven Miller school of immigration. Here's what he said about migrants coming to the U.S.

"They want you dead.....They've come here to kill you And if anybody believes it any differently, they're wrong. These people are here to fight. They're here to fight us. They're here at war"

Paranoid much?

He also posted crude, typo-ridden insults against other people on social media, but I won't get into it here. 

This is another example of how Trump seems to let nutcases do the serious business of running the government, with most of them being stupid, arrogant, crooked and just weird. 

Phillips, though, believe it or not, seems to be doing a better job that most Trump appointees. That's not saying much, but that's the world we live in. Phillips took on his FEMA position shortly before a series of destructive winter storms swept much of the nation in January and February. 

The nation needed an effective FEMA, which had basically stopped being effective under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. 

CNN again:

"Multiple FEMA officials speaking candidly to CNN expressed initial concerns about whether Phillips was up to the job. But after a few weeks, several of them told CNN that, to their surprise, Phillips' hands-on involvement during the spate of storms had softened some of their doubts." 

Even so, the Phillips' teleporting claims are keeping FEMA in the midst of upheaval, even as we are now in the heart of tornado and severe storm season. 

We have this epilogue from CNN:

"After CNN first reported on Philipps' teleportation claims, the White House contacted the Department of Homeland Security - FEMA's parent agency - urging officials either to remove Phillips or keep him out of public view, a White House official told CNN"

I just wish whoever it is who does all the teleporting could just move the bozos out of FEMA and replace them with at least semi-competent people to ensure people can recover after the inevitable next spate of weather and climate disasters.

 

Vehicles Emerge In Somerville, Massachusetts After Massive Piles Of Snow Dumped On Them In Winter Storms

A junked car emerges from an enormous snow pile melting
this month in Somerville, Massachusetts. The cars were
buried intentionally because they were junk and city
officials didn't have tine to move them when two
enormous snowstorms covered the city this winter, 

 Back in those horrible snowy days in January and February, some cities, especially in hard hit southeast New England, hauled the snow off of clogged streets and piled it up into immense piles in empty lots and back alleys until it all melted in the spring. 

About two weeks ago, something odd began emerging from the massive snow pile in Somerville, Massachusetts.

A vehicle. Actually vehicles. Plural. Six of 'em. 

The first vehicle anyone notices was an old Ford Escape, which clearly did not escape the clutches of this past winter. It turns out the car belongs to the city of Somerville Department of Public Works.Did it belong to someone who's been looking for their vehicle since a blizzard struck last February. 

Actually no. Somerville buried the cars. On purpose.   

According to CBS Boston/WBZ:

"The Somerville Department of Public Works says these cars are inoperable and awaiting disposal. With back to back major snowstorms this year, they didn't want to divert storm resources to move the cars. With dwindling places to put snow, burying them was their best choice."

Somerville is one of the most densely populated cities in New England, so there were very few places to put the feet of snow that fell on the city this past winter. The relatively large lot comprising four acres at 90 Washington Street with the junked municipal cars was the most logical places to put the snow. 

The weight of the snow took their toll on the cars, it seems. Meteorologists at CBS Boston estimated there might have been 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of snow and ice on top of the cars

News video of the Ford Escape that had been most exposed from the melting snow showed. Its tires were flat and it appeared the axles might have broken under the weight. The rear window is broken out and the entire body of the vehicle appears somewhat flattened. 

Even though the vehicles were buried on purpose, the jokes about the situation raced through social media. 

"Hey boss, I found that car we've been missing for  4 months," someone deadpanned on Reddit. 

A photo on the WBUR website of a person peering inside a still-half buried vehicle had a caption that read, "Oh, that's where left my wallet."

About a week ago, the city used equipment to pull some of the cars out and break apart sections  of the snow pile, which might hasten its melt a little. But snow piles as big as the one in Somerville can stick around until June.

There might not be any more snow dumps or vehicles hidden under the snow at that lot in Somerville. The city is planning to sell the property for redevelopment, WBUR reports.  

Western Drought Creates Weird New Hazard: Lake Powell Quicksand

A person in the danger zone around quicksand on the 
shores of Lake Powell on the Utah/Arizona border

 The lake level in drought-stricken Lake Powell has dropped so low that it has left behind a weird danger: Quicksand. 

Actually, there's alway has been quicksand around Lake Powell, which straddles the Utah/Arizona border.

But now it's everywhere it seems, due to the crashing lake level from drought. 

Sediment flows into Lake Powell and collects as a wet sand near the bottom or on rock shelves on or above the lakebed.  These sediment areas are now above water and in many instances have taken the form of  quicksand along shorelines and drainages in Lake Powell. 

The lake is part of the popular Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. 

All those old time movies or cartoons depicting quicksand is something that pulls people in until they're buried and dead and gone forever is a myth. Someone who get stuck in quicksand typically stop sinking once they're in waist deep. 

But it can still trap people, and can be dangerous if they're alone and can't get out of it. If a person is alone and can't get out, they'll likely die of hypothermia if help doesn't arrive. 

But once you're in that far, it's incredibly hard to get out. To pull one leg requires the amount of force need to lift a small car, notes Livescience.com

The more you move around, the more you'll sink. A disturbance such as a person entering quicksand will liquify it. "The wet sand sediment becomes so densely packed that it's harder to move than cold molasses. Once the victim's foot becomes stuck in it, the situation is dire," notes Livescience.com

You're left with the densely packed sand keeps you in place with water on top. 

After some experiments with quicksand, experts have devised a way for people to get out of quicksand. Remember this if you're ever tempted to try the Lake Powell quicksand experience.  

 Livescience.com  tells us: 

"Stay calm and eventually, you'll float Stretch out on your back to increase hour surface area and wait until your legs pop free," At this point, moving your legs around at this point to stir in water, and that will help you float.

Of course, people panic, so it's always best to have somebody with you who could seek help. 

So far, I haven't heard of anybody getting into serious, life-threatening trouble with the quicksand. But Lake Powell is getting busier. Spring breakers have invaded the area and the summer tourism season is right around the corner, 

The National Park Service suggests hikers stay close to canyon walls and hike with a buddy. People should check suspicious ground with a walking stick to test the area.

The quicksand will appear as wet, loose, or unusually smooth ground, or unexpected water seepage or pooling, vibrating soil, surfaces that look soft or spongy, NPS spokesperson Heidi Grigg said. 

If you see something like that, it's best to go around it. Preferably on hard rocks. 

OTHER LOW WATER ISSUES

Lake Powell's low water levels is having another impact on summer recreation: The lake is so low, and thus so much smaller, that there's not as much room to launch boats.  That means long lines and a lot more time spent getting boats in and out of the water.

Obviously, the western drought and Lake Powell's troubles aren't limited to isolated quicksand crises or boating inconveniences 

Water managers' goals is to keep the lake level in Powelll to at least 3,525 feet above sea leave. If it gets to 3,490 feet, Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back Lake Powell, can no longer generate any electricity. 

That means utilities will need to turn to more expensive and often more polluting sources to generate electricity. 

The quicksand, the boats, the electricity generation is just the edges of the deep crisis developing in the Southwest. Drought had already been established for years. Then mountain snowpack was the worst on record in many areas, thanks to the warmest winter in the West on record. 

Then, this month, by far the most intense, record shattering March heat wave ever seen settled in for a long visit in the Southwest. This prematurely melted whatever paltry mountain snow pack there was, and further dried out the region much more than anybody anticipated for so early in the season. 

You're going to see a lot of posts this year in this here blog thingy about western drought, western water shortened, western wildfires, and all sorts of big time problems associated with a climate-changed, hot, dry landscape. 

Video: 

Experienced hikers encounter quicksand at Lake Powell.  They knew how to get out of the situation  and you can see them do so in the vid. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that:

 

 

 

Trump Says Cuba Doesn't Have Hurricanes. Cubans Beg To Differ

Damage in Cuba last October from Hurricane Melissa.
Donald Trump's assertion that Cuba gets no hurricanes 
appears to be very untrue

 It seems like Donald Trump loves his conquests, or threatened ones. I've lost track of the nations he says he wants to take over, but one of his latest targets appears to be Cuba.  

Since this isn't so much a geopolitical blog, we'll get into another excuse to pick on our Orange One

As the Miami Herald reports:

"Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that Cuba would be ideal for the U.S. to take over because of pleasant weather and it is not prone to hurricanes."

The cockwomble's exact quote was:

"I think Cuba, in its own way, tourism and everything else, it's a beautiful island great weather. They're not in hurricane zone, which is nice for a change, you know? They won't be asking us for money of hurricanes every week."

The alleged lack of Cuban hurricanes might come as news for those living on the island.  

We have to harken all the way back to October, 2025, yes, a whole five months ago to find an example of Cuba being hit by a hurricane 

That was Hurricane Melissa. After it finished up in Jamaica, where it was tied for the strongest landfalling hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin, Melissa roared on through Cuba.

It wasn't as strong as in Jamaica, but it was strong enough, with part of eastern Cuba seeing sustained was of 115 mph with a gust to 136 mph. Melissa wrecked an electrical grid in eastern Cuba that had already been trashed by previous hurricanes and not yet fully repaired

Melissa was definitely not a one-off

Cuba is historically one of the hardest hit countries in the Western Hemisphere during hurricane season.

Josh Morgerman, a veteran hurricane chaser and one of the world's leading hurricane experts, said on Facebook that he's been getting a LOT of questions about how many hurricanes hit Cuba. He didn't say why everybody's asking, but thanks to the Miami Herald and other media outlet, we now know.

Anyway, Morgerman has the stats:

"Just since 2000 the island nation has had 16 hurricanes, include a rare Category5 (Irma, 2017) and five Cat 4s. In Gustave, 2008, Cuba measured a sustained 1-minute wind of 135 knots (155 mph) gusting to a whopping 184 knots (212 mph) - one of the highest official wind readings ever recorded in a hurricane."

Our Orange Whopper has said he believes  he'll "have the honor of taking Cuba" soon. Oh, great. 

If he does somehow make Cuba part of the United States - good luck with that - Trump is probably right that Cubans "won't be asking for money for hurricanes every week."  

Trump still seems intent on reducing money for FEMA are giving up on it entirely. Which raises the possibility that nobody in the actually now-existing United States would receive disaster relief. 

Let's just make things more dystopian, shall we?

  

Michigan Family Gets In Zoning Trouble Over An Igloo

Here is an igloo a Southfield, Michigan family built in
February. Efforts to delay melting got them in 
trouble with the municipal zoning office. 

A family in Southfield, Michigan built a colorful igloo in their yard during a spell of cold weather last month. 

Eventually the sun came out and threatened to melt the igloo

So they put a canopy on the igloo to block the sun. It was one of those cheap portable pop up canopies small groups of people sit under for shade during summer visits to the beach.

And that, my friends, got the Roberts family in trouble from the Southfield with the city. They got a notice from the city that read: "Zoning and building approval is required for the canopy in the front yard," the notice read. "Please obtain proper approvals or remove this illegal structure."

Remember, this wasn't a permanent structure. The family just sort of leaned the canopy against the igloo, and moved it during the day periodically to block the sun. 

The city of Southfield responded with this predictably bureaucratic response:

"City Ordinance requires permits for all accessory structures, including temporary ones. These requirements are in place to keep residents safe, especially during winter weather, and to ensure structures meet placement regulations such as setbacks and front-yard restrictions"

The pop up canopy leaning against the igloo was meant
to prevent the sun from melting, However, Southfield
Michigan officials declared the canopy an
illegal structure and threatened the family with fines.

To keep residents safe? Safe from what? A piece of plasticky canvas and some flimsy aluminum poles? Safe from allowing the three Roberts girls, all under the age of 5, and neighborhood kids from having a great tine outdoors. Gotta keep those kids indoors tied to their devices instead of getting fresh air, I guess. 

And what are the fees for these permits? Are these permits just a sneaky way to siphon more revenue from the fine citizens of Southfield? 

I'm surprised Southfield officials didn't order the family to take down the igloo as an illegal structure. Each block of ice on the igloo was made of water infused with food coloring frozen into lasagna pans. 

In the end, the Roberts family removed the pop-up canopy, which apparently satisfied the zoning staff for now. Since it was removed the city graciously opted not to fine the Roberts.    

 “If their priorities are a shade that’s clearly over a kids igloo on a warm day for the last couple of days it was going to be frozen, I have got to kind of reconsider the city I live in or who I vote for,” said dad Justin Roberts said.

I heard you, brother!

Read further details on this story by clicking here on clickondetroit.com

"Frost Quakes" Another Aspect Of Harsh Winter Of '26 Not Seen In Ages

Frost quakes rarely cause damage, but in this recent case
it caused a bulge underneath a Michigan  convenience
store that damaged some of the flooring.   

It's a frigid winter night, and all of a sudden you hear a boom and the house shakes.

An earthquake, right? 

No, not in the traditional sense. People in several places in the eastern United States in recent weeks have experienced what are known as frost quakes. 

The Associated Press explains what these things are: 

"These noises are known as frost quake for cryoseisms, a cold-weather phenomenon that occurs when rain or melted snow in the ground quickly freezes, expanding as it solidifies, when temperatures rapidly fall below freezing. As the ice expands, pressure builds around the surrounding soil, causing it to crash  and make booming sounds and light shaking." 

Frost quakes can damage water mains due the shifting ground. However, most winter water main breaks come because frost shifts the ground without shaking it or making noise. Or water freezes in the water main itself, causing it to burst. 

More ominously, on extremely rare occasions, shifts in the ground can cause gas leaks.

However, frost quakes almost never cause appreciable structural damage, but there was recently such a case.  

 A frost quake in st. Claire Shores, Michigan  was strong enough to cause damage. At a 7-11 store on 11 Mile Road in St. Claire Shores, surveillance video shows a ridge suddenly rising across the floor in the middle of the shop.  An eight-foot long section of floor tile inside the store was destroyed. 

When the deep cold of this winter hit states around the Ohio River Valley, frost quakes were heard and felt across much of  Tennessee and Kentucky.  It usually doesn't get cold enough long enough there to get frost quakes, but this year was different. 

Frost quakes have also been reported in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states this winter.

With a somewhat warmer weather pattern settling in now, more frost quakes are gotten less and less likely, unless you're in the relatively chilly air up near the Canadian border. 

It Rained Rocks In Hawaii

Tephra or light weight volcanic rock and ash,
covers this car in Hawaii after a Kilauea 
eruption sent debris into populated areas.

 OK, this isn't really a weather or climate story, but close enough. It involves rain, but not the type of rain made up of water, frozen or otherwise. 

This rain, in Hawaii, was rocks. 

The uber-active Kilauea erupted again last Saturday, pushing fountains of lava 1,000 feet into the air. 

But what goes up must come down. And people around the park ended up enduring a tephra storm. 

Tephra is rocks and ash ejected from a volcano. Kilauea regularly discharges both lava and tephra, but the material usually lands on areas that are too dangerous for people. Saturday, unusually light winds made the tephra fall in populated areas near the volcano.

The debris fell on summit overlooks, trails, roads and even some residential areas. A section of Route 11 was closed. 

According to Hawaii News Now

'Some debris close to the size of a grapefruit was reported in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, including at Uekahuna, the Steam Vents, Volcano House and Keanakako'i, where the rocks were reported to be still hot when they fell.

'I haven't seen this one yet. This is uncharted territory for the Volcano Village,' said Eli Schonbrod, general manager for the Lanikai Brewing Company. 

Colleen Gifford, a cashier at the Kilauea General Store, has lived on Hawaii Island for 40 years, and she she has 'never, ever seen it like this.'"

Some very small tephra - basically bits of ash - was spotted as far away as Hilo, more than 25 miles away. 

Video showed what looked like a black hailstorm, thunking down on car roofs, and littering roadways, parking lots, lawn and roofs with what looked like millions of pieces of crumbled black paper.

Tephra is more light weight than rocks, so it wasn't smashing cars and roofs. It was kind of remotely a storm of falling Brillo pads. But tepha can be sharp, pointy enough to scratch paint. A few people who were out in the tephra storm were scratched enough to bleed slightly. 

Of course, the tephra made a big mess. The day after the eruption, people were seen sweeping and shoveling piles of it away. Plows had to clear one section of a road as if there were a tropical snowstorm. Many roofs remained littered with the stuff. It'll probably come down from the roofs the next time it gets windy or it rains. 

Although more Kilauea eruptions are inevitable, the tephra is unlikely to be a problem again. Almost always, trade winds veer this stuff away from people, as mentioned. This was basically just a one-off. 

Videos

News report of what it all looked and sounded like. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

Cleanup from the eruption looked like it was quite a chore. Again, click on this link or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

 

FEMA Struggling With How To Keep ICE Out of Ice In Winter Storm Messaging

That now-famous image of an ICE agent slipping
and falling on the ice in Minneapolis earlier this
month. FEMA officials have reportedly been
banned from using the word "ice" when 
referring to the giant winter storm now in
progress because the word could generate
mockery of ICE agents. They have a point. 

 Our government has gotten tragically, absurdly silly, and we have the latest examples, thanks in part to our latest winter storm. 

The biggest danger with this storm is ice. Freezing rain is or will be coating trees and power lines from Texas to Georgia to Virginia. 

This will lead to power outages, tree destruction, blocked roads and carbon monoxide deaths from poorly placed or maintained generators.  

The problem is all that ice out there - as in frozen water - and all that ICE out there - the gestapo-like storm troopers terrorizing people in places like Minnesota and Maine - are ripe for social media ridicule if you put them all together.  

Here's the silliness, as CNN explains:

"Homeland Security officials have urged disaster response staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to avoid using the word 'ice' in public messaging about the massive winter storm barreling toward much of the United States, according to two sources familiar with the directive."

CNN says that officials should reference "freezing rain" and not "ice" in their public statements. The fear is using the word "ice" to describe the storm will sow confusion or online mockery.

All I can say to that is, "Oh, honey, there's going to be mockery no matter what you do."

I can agree with Homeland Security officials who think that if FEMA released innocuous statements like "Keep off the roads if you see ice." it would lead on social media to lots of laughs and giggles and pointed arguments and anger toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.  o 

Whether or not FEMA uses the word "ice," I bet there will be memes galore about ICE agents in winter weather, if they're not there already. Mockery is one of the best weapons against tyranny.  I imagine that widely circulated photo and video of that ICE agent slipping and falling on Minneapolis ice earlier this month will get a lot of traction, pardon the pun. 

A FEMA spokesperson denied the "freezing rain" directive and said CNN's reporting is "a desperate ploy for clickbait."

Still, early indications are that FEMA is avoiding saying the dreaded "i" word in their public messages regarding the storm.

Since Thursday, FEMA has posted several statements and pieces of advice regarding the storm on the social media platform X.  None that I could find used the word "ice." However, FEMA did repost a National Weather Service statement that referenced "widespread heavy snow & dangerous ice accumulations."

If only one kind of ice, the kind that falls from the sky or freezes on the ground, was the worst thing we were facing this winter.  

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.  

 

Why Trying To Save Money During The Winter Can Be A Bad Idea

Here's what the top of a washing machine in Quebec 
looked like after they shut off the heat in the apartment
while away to "save  money" The pipes burst, and
this was some of the result

Heating a home in the winter is expensive, we all know that. 

We're all torn between keeping warm and affording to keep the furnace on. But somebody in Quebec took the desire to save money way too far. 

In Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, along the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, an apartment tenant recently left for an extended period, probably on vacation.  

That tenant apparently thought to themselves,  "Why pay for heat in my apartment when I'm not going to be there?"

It appears they said this. In January. In Quebec. 

You guessed it! The inevitable happens. Pipes froze and burst. The toilet cracked, sending water through the floor into the living space below.  The results are captured in a video at the bottom of this post. 

Pretty much everything ended up being covered in ice inside that building. The landlord said the ice on the kitchen floor was nearly a foot thick. The washing machine looked like an elaborate ice sculpture. Clothes folded atop the dryer were just one big frozen mass. 

Put it this way, the apartment "ice castle" in Trois-Rivieres is not nearly as grand as Elsa's castle in the movie "Frozen," as the CTV reporter dryly notes. 

The landlord seemed to be taking the mess in pretty good humor, if we can judge from his CTV interview. He said the whole apartment will need to be ripped apart and rebuilt. That is, after the ice eventually melts. He's got heaters in there to bring a spring thaw to the apartment, but as you'll see in the video, it'll take awhile.

The former tenant whose name is on the lease was formally evicted earlier this month after having moved out several months ago without paying rent. It's unclear who was living there and turned off the heat just prior to their departure. 

The "ice castle" apartment is part of a triplex, but the tenants living in the other two units within the building were not affected.

Here's the video. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Energy Department Bans Words Related To Climate Change, And Embraces (Cough, Cough) Coal As America's Energy Future

Energy Secretary Chris Wright doesn't want you says
"climate change" but he'll be thrilled if you
talk about coal around him. 

Once and if the government shutdown ever ends, employees at the Trump U.S. Energy Department are faced with a list of words they had better not use or ELSE!   

The Trump administration figures any words that are even sort of related to climate change just can't be uttered or written down, or his world would just end.

Or something like that.  I don't know how people will get around this one, but the Trump U.S. Energy Department has a new list of banned words that employees can't use when communicating with each other or to the public. 

Those banned words that Energy Department employees can't use when talking to or writing to teach other or the public include "climate change," "green," "energy transition," "sustainability/sustainable,: "clean" or "dirty" energy, "Carbon.CO2 footprint," "decarbonization" and "tax breaks/tax credits/subsidies." 

"Please ensure that every member of your team is aware that this is the latest list of words to avoid - and continue to be conscientious about avoiding any terminology that you know to be misaligned with the Administration's perspectives and priorities," said Energy Department Director of External Affairs Rachel Overbey.

Kinda weird if you ask me. And unwieldy. Even if you drank the Kool-Aid and are a real Trumpian "climate change is a hoax" type of guy or gal, how do you rail against climate change if you can't even say the words?

Will even Donald Trump be reduced to referring to climate change as "that thing that Democrats think is making us sweaty." 

To be honest, he has said stranger things than that in the past. 

To be fair, I doubt anybody at the Energy Department will complete avoid using these words and terms. Sometimes it's unavoidable.  I mean, "emissions" can be used a lot of ways to describe Trump.  

Trump has certainly got himself a loyal minion in Energy Secretary Chris Wright, to help carry out the ban. Wright, along with the Orange One, insists that climate change is not a thing. 

Wright, a former CEO of the nation's second largest fracking company, says we should rejoice in the "benefits" of a warmer world. 

Wright was pretty haughty  himself when talking about allegedy haughty opponents to more coal mining and burning. He had this to say to, as JoeMyGod accurately put it, MAGA scream queen Maria Bartiromo on Fox: 

"We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It as out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado and New York City. Coal just makes the world go round and they tried to strangle it, particularly with the Biden administration. We're stopping the strangulation. Let's stop pretending it's going away," he said.  

Say what you wail about Wright, he puts his money where his mouth is. Or more accurately, our money.  The Department of Energy recently said it will spend $625 million to "expand and reinvigorate" the U.S. coal industry. Wright called it "beautiful, clean coal," as "essential to powering America's reindustrialization and winning the AI race."

Christmas is coming up in a couple months. Wright could sure use a lump or two or more of coal in his stocking comes holiday time!  

 

Missouri Sunflower Man Battles City For Years For Inexplicable Reasons

The city of St. Peters, Missouri has been battling for
four years to force homeowner Chris Bank to get
rid of the annual sunflower display in his yard.

OK, I admit this post is only tangentially related to climate and weather, but it is about nature, so close enough.   

It's also one of the most inexplicable, infuriating legal battles I've ever seen.

Chris Bank of St. Peters, Missouri has grown a whole bunch of sunflowers in his yard since 2020.  And why not? They're pretty, pollinators love them, birds probably do, too, and it's a nice alternative from a boring lawn. 

The city of St. Peters doesn't feel the same way. All this hysteria against Bank and his sunflowers originated in 2021 as complaints from a homeowner's association. 

(Pro tip: NEVER buy a house in a neighborhood with an HOA.)

St. Peters officials enthusiastically joined the fray on the side of the HOA. Bank keeps finding loopholes that allow him to keep the sunflowers. The city also keeps changing the rules to coerce Bank into getting rid of all this sunny blooms,  but he won't budge.

I don't blame him. I don't know about you, but a sunflower always puts me in a better mood. The more sunflowers, the better the mood. 

The first year of the battle was in 2022.  St. Peters officials said he violated a rule in which the property need to have at least 50 percent grass coverage. But the property did have that much grass. It was just that sunflowers were also growing up through the grass.

Talk about micromanaging! A city telling people exactly how much lawn they should have?  Do they dictate which flowers, trees must be planted? What color car is parked in the garage? Where does it end? 

In 2023, Bank said the city revised the ordinance to allow enforcement via interpretation rather than measurement. A municipal judge find him. Bank appeared and the case was going to go to a jury in St. Charles County, Missouri. 

The city then withdrew its charges, probably because no sane jury would object to Bank's sunflowers, though St. Peters officials said they withdrew because the sunflowers had been removed. By the time they got around to the jury trial, it was November, so the sunflowers were gone for the season. 

Last year, a miserable woman trespassed and cut down at least 600 of the sunflowers in Bank's yard. She was caught on surveillance tape. He contacted police but prosecutors refused to take action, even though the identity of the vandal is known. She got away with it scot free. 

Because I'm sure some cranks in town thought the woman was a hero not the villain she was. 

This year, the city tried again by classifying sunflowers as a crop and limiting them to 10 percent of a  front yard. He's refused to remove his plants and is scheduled for another court appearance in September.  

Bank is the kind of rebel I can really get behind. He told Fox 2 in St. Louis that he won't give up, no matter how many times the city of St. Peters tries to change the ordinances. "I'm not going to quit this fight until this gets settled - at least settled the correct way," he said. 

 

Delete Old Emails To Save Water? Despite UK News, It Probably Won't Help.

UK environmental officials advocated for people to
delete old emails to save water, as data centers'
use a lot of water. Technology experts 
questioned whether this would help much.

 I'm terrible at deleting old and unwanted emails. 

It's just such a tedious pain to do, as I keep getting deluged with junk. If you try to get off email lists, it just creates a larger tidal wave of this junk.  

Does that make me a person that wastes water?

I know you wouldn't think a full email box means I make droughts worse somehow, but apparently that's a thing. Or at least some people think so. 

Via The Verge, here's an excerpt form a press release from Helen Wakeham, UK Environmental Agency Director of Water: "Simple, everyday choices - such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails - also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife."

Your accumulated emails supposedly make drought worse because data centers use a lot of water to keep power servers cool, which is necessary to allow them to work properly.  According to The Verge,    a small data center can use more than 25 milliliters of water per year, if it uses old-school methods of allowing water to evaporate.

But there are a lot of reasons why the UK Environment Agency's worries about accumulated email might be misplaced, at least in terms of water usage. Tech companies are using new cooling methods to try and limit the amount of water they use.

That in itself might be a losing battle, since surging AI technology uses enormous amounts of water due to the big elaborate data centers AI and other technologies demand. 

But several other sources say deleting your emails, which might improve your efficiency a bit, might not help much at all with limiting water usage. 

 According to ZME Science:

"Most cloud data, especially your old photos and emails, lives on  high-density, low-power hard drives or archive tape. These use very little energy, and in some cases, almost none at all when idle. Secondly deletion isn't immediate. Files persist for weeks or months after deletion, usually (in a) system  similar to a "recycle bin." Only when data is overwritten, and only if it leads to hardware decommissioning is any energy (or water) actually saved."

Additionally, says ZME Science, 

"Perhaps most importantly, it's the 'flows' of data that use up the most resources, not the 'stocks.'  In other words, the real environmental cost of digital life comes not from what you keep, but what you do

Watching an episode of a Netflix show uses as much energy as storing 50 GB of photos for a year. Using AI tools, video conferencing, TikTok scrolling - these 'live' activities are far more resource-intensive."

So, if you want to be environmentally friendly, and save water in a drought, there are things you can to that are much more effective than deleting old junk emails from some clothing company you bought a scarf from umpteen years ago. 

Up here in Vermont, we're gotten into a burgeoning drought. It's not severe, at least not yet.  So, we're trying not to take long showers, making sure faucets are shut tight. When I can, I let what little rainfall we get accumulate in containers and use that water to soak down plants a little bit. 

I could spend my day deleting the zillions of old emails I have. But that's boring. So, I'll take my chances. I don't think those old emails will drain Lake Champlain 

 

 

 

UK water managers also don't appear to know how much water deleting emails would save,

"The Environment Agency didn't immediately respond to an inquiry from The Verge about how much water it thought deleting files might save, nor how much water data centers that store files or train AI use in the UK's drought-affected areas."

  

Lightning Doesn't Play! Some Examples

A lightning strike in Ferrisburgh, Vermont in 
August, 2023. Photo was taken through a windshield
while I was inside a truck with windows rolled up
Much safer inside a vehicle than standing
outside during lightning storms. 

 I'm always amazed at how destructive in strange ways lightning can be. 

We've all seen videos of lightning blowing up trees, or starting forest fires, or setting homes ablaze.

But it's still always fascinating to hear survival stories. They're better than hearing about lightning deaths, right?  

This post might end up making you paranoid the next time you hear thunder. 

Nap Interrupted

A couple weeks ago, a man was taking an afternoon nap in his Ormond Beach, Florida home when the building was struck by lightning. By some miracle, the house didn't catch fire, but the bolt was so strong it caused the ceiling and part of the roof to collapse on him 

Judging from the video, it almost looks like a tornado hit the house, not lightning. It wasn't even storming over the house. The lightning appears to have come out laterally from a nearby thunderstorms and the down on the house.

In addition to the damage to the roof and bedroom, all the electronics in the house were fried, and pieces of roofing tile were scattered all over the pool deck. 

Which proves the adage that if you can hear thunder,  even if it seems like it's in the distance, you're close enough to get struck by lightning. 

Alligator Zap

Now, staying in Florida (Of course!) an alligator farm of all things was struck by lightning this past week. The strike collapsed the largest oak tree in the St. Augustine alligator farm lagoon.  It appears the alligators survived the strike just fine. More importantly, the fencing surrounding the alligator enclosure held, which is nice. 

Somebody commenting on Facebook said whoever has to go in with a chainsaw to clean up the collapsed tree will have an interesting day.  Yeah, glad that's not my problem. 

Streamer Shocked

In another case, a streamer was hit by lightning while viewers watched. 

Luckily, it wasn't that bad, for the streamer and gamer, Chris Howard of North Carolina.  I kid you not, his handle on Twitch is Chrispymate. He's OK.

The electricity went into both the streamer's earbuds while he sat inside his house and caused an audible crackle and flash. The streamer looked stunned, obviously, and he then briefly staggered away. 

He came back on to explain what happened, though his microphone glitched a little, apparently due to lightning damage. The streamer is OK though. 

Electric Avenue

Also recently, a motorist was driving along a highway and filming the storm he was plowing through when lightning hit the vehicle. The video shows that the SUV he was in kept going after the strike, which is remarkable. 

The motorist said the lightning strike also blew chunks of pavement out of the road. 

All these incidents ended with no serious injuries, but remember - to be Captain Obvious here - lightning is exceptionally dangerous. So far this year, 13 people have died in lightning strikes. 

Being in or near water seemed to be the common denominator. Seven of the deaths involved people who were fishing, on boats or at the beach. 

Far Fetched But Possible It Turns Out: Northern Lights Can Cut Your Winter Heating Bill

Geomagnetic storms, which cause northern lights, might
lower your fuel bill, believe it or not! 

 Since our brains might be still on celestial mode, given the wonderful eclipse we had this week, another event in the sky is making some science news.

Northern Lights.  None are in the immediate forecast, but hope springs eternal. 

In any event, this is a good excuse to lay out some new science that seems very strange, but quite possibly true:

The northern lights can lower your winter heating bill.

It's a convoluted, Rube Goldberg kind of process, but here goes, courtesy of an article in the Washington Post: 

The sun spews charged particles toward Earth, especially when there's a solar flare, basically an eruption on the sun. 

Those charged parcels bang into the extreme top of the atmosphere, where it excites molecules, which emit light. Those lights are the aurora borealis. 

Those particles eventually start falling toward Earth very slowly, and create molecules of nitric oxide and other chemicals. Once these fall into the stratosphere gradually over weeks and months. The stratosphere is where the ozone layer is, and those molecules can destroy ozone. 

If you destroy ozone in the stratosphere, it can cool that layer of the atmosphere. If scientists are correct, solar flares and the aurora can prevent something called a  "sudden stratospheric warming."

When that happens, it can disrupt the the polar vortex. The polar vortex, you might recall, is a swirling pool of intensely cold air in the atmosphere that lives in various places, usually in the Arctic during the winter.

If the polar vortex is tightly wound and near the North Pole, winter weather in places like the United States and Europe is usually relatively mild. 

If the polar vortex is disrupted buy a sudden stratospheric warming, it can stretch, weaken and move to weird areas. When that happens, it very often opens the door to Arctic blasts invading North America, Europe and/or Asia. 

Cold waves in the mid-latitudes increase electric and other utility bills. Which means if solar eruptions and the northern lights are more active than usual, it might keep money in your wallet.  

Colorado Farmers Create Fake Drought To Rake In Federal Money. Ends VERY Badly For Them

Two Colorado farmers tampered with a 
federal weather station like this one,
damaging rain gauges to make it look
like less rain fell than actually did.
The scheme was organized so they
could receive federal drought payoffs.

 Two Colorado farmers learned an extremely expensive lesson when they faked a drought by tampering with federal rain gauges, the Washington Post reports. 

Prosecutors said Patrick Esch and Edward Dean Jagers II cut wires, poured silicone and loosened bolts in an effort to keep those rain gauges empty so they could make false crop insurance claims for "drought."  

Federal officials were not amused, according to WaPo:

"Under the criminal pleas, Esch was ordered to pay $2,084,441 in restitution and Jagers was ordered to pay $1,036,625. Those amounts have been paid, Colorado federal district attorney's office spokeswoman Melissa Brandon told the Washington Post on Monday. 

But wait! There's more!

"The civil settlement from a whistleblower involved in the case requires Esch to pay an addition $3 million - $676,871.74 of which is restitution, per court records - plus 3 percent interest over the next 12 months, Brandon said. Jagers has paid his required additional $500,000."

Esch, 72, also spend two months in prison. Jagers, 63, spent six months in the slammer. 

Some of the details get juicy, according to CBS Colorado.

Apparently, Jaber and Esch had two other people involved in this fake drought conspiracy. This takes on the air of a bad TV crime drama. Says CBS Colorado:

".....one of the co-conspirators turned on the group and extorted Esch in particular. The unidentified male threatened to expose the entire enterprise to authorities in exchange for Esch paying the man's bond for release from jail and giving several five-figure payments to he man's girlfriend.

Esch, according to his plea agreement, even shrugged off the man's admitted theft of an all-terrain vehicle from Esch in exchange for the man's silence. 

In August of 2023, a month before Jager and Esch reached their plea agreements with prosecutors, this unidentified male co-conspirator escaped from prison. This triggered a nationwide manhunt and caused Esch and his family 'to go into hiding,' as stated in a court document Two weeks after the escape the co-conspirator was found dead."

Inquiring minds want to know what the co-conspirator died of. 

And I bet Esch in particular really, really regrets his fun and games with rain gauges, given how screwed up his life is now.