Brutal heat wave: 2,000 temperature records have been matched or broken in the past week

Youngblood, it's like this:  While there have been weather extremes throughout history, we are now in a period of increasing, escalating, extreme weather events and those events are occurring globally.  Don't let people tell you this is normal.  It is not.  This is the beginning of some major..  adjustments.  You will need to hang on.  Reuters, via The Extinction Protocol:

July 3, 2012 – CHICAGO- More than 2,000 temperature records have been matched or broken in the past week as a brutal heat wave baked much of the United States, and June saw more than 3,200 records topped, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Monday. From June 25 to July 1, some 2,171 record temperatures were either broken or matched, the NOAA said. For the 30 days of June, that number rose to 3,215. Accuweather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said the number of records broken was very unusual. He said that while some aspects of the heat wave are unknown, much of it is because of a lack of snow cover during the late winter on America’s plains. Instead of the sun’s heat melting snow, it instead heated the ground, which in turn warmed the air. The increase in temperature even made crops grow ahead of schedule until now; Sosnowski said the lack of rainfall has stunted crops’ growth. Sosnowski added that while some areas are not unusually warm, namely New England and the Northwest, the center of the country will experience high temperatures for the next several weeks, possibly into August. Five states had more than 100 record temperatures broken in June. Texas had 237 records broken, followed by Colorado (226), Kansas (164), Missouri (126), and Arkansas (115). The NOAA data comes as a relentless heat grips much of the eastern United States for a fourth straight day. About 2.1 million homes and businesses remained without power on Monday after violent storms and soaring temperatures killed at least 18 people since Friday, many of them when trees fell on their cars or houses.

At least we know this:  It kayn't be global warmun 'kuz it's codde owtsaahhd!

Hey;  HEY:  SOMETHING is happening.  Shut the fuck up about what you call it, and start DEALING  WITH IT.

A Side Note About This Heat..

It's a curiousity.  Every heatwave I can ever remember was always accompanied by news of heat-related deaths.  Even if only a few people died, it was deemed newsworthy.  News reports always included B-roll of elderly people in front of box fans, refrigerator trucks, and a interviews conveying a general sense of alarm from the community. 

With this rather young, but intense heatwave dominating a huge part of the United States, 100 plus temperatures over wide portions of the country, I find it odd that I haven't heard of any heat related deaths attributed to this event.  Not that there haven't been any deaths, but if there has been any, it is not being mentioned (or highlighted) in the media.  And it's a little amazing there haven't been any major power outages of note, either.  Don't get me wrong:  I'm glad there has been neither event, I'm just a little surprised they haven't, as they usually seem to be a side effect from the prolonged heat.

Are we getting more heat-tolerant?  Has our national power grid gotten that much stronger?  Did the media determine heat deaths not newsworthy?  Maybe the focus is soley on Colorado.  This is probably nothing, but I'll let this post stand. 

And yes, I do feel a little better for typing it out, thank you..

The Latest Popo Info..

Volcanic debris from Popocatepetl volcano closes Mexico airport.  Terra Daily via  The Extinction Protocol.  Excerpts:

Ashes from Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano forced officials to close the airport in nearby Puebla for some 14 hours, to allow for cleanup after it spewed out heaps of ash and rock. The Puebla International Airport was able to reopen Wednesday after dozens of workers cleared its runways of volcanic ash that posed a risk to departing and arriving aircraft, said officials. The airport’s closing caused just one cancellation, a flight to Houston, Texas early Wednesday, said Puebla’s civil protection director Jesus Morales. Since Popocatepetl came to life several weeks ago, it has spewed gas and glowing rock as much as one mile (1.6 kilometers) beyond its crater, and has intermittently belched out water vapor and ash.
..
The city of Puebla lies in the shadow of the volcano about 55 kilometers (35 miles) from the federal capital Mexico City. The country’s second highest peak, Popocatepetl, means ‘smoking mountain’ in the indigenous Nahuatl language.


The distance between Popocatepetl and Mexico city is 43 miles, so the airport was about eight miles away.  This was just a burp, but volcanic activity is increasing.  Continuing..

Blowee-oh-weee-ooohh!

The day it was so windy the waterfall ran uphill: Britain battered by 106mph gales which leave two dead - and there's more to come in the next 24 hours

From The Daily Mail:  Bullet points/Excerpts:

*Winds of 106mph recorded in Pennines. Force 11 winds batter Channel



*Atlantic front hits UK with fierce winds and heavy rain


*Van driver, 50, killed by tree falling on his vehicle as gales cause havoc


*Sailor dies after tanker in English Channel is hit by huge wave


*Extreme weather causes misery for millions heading back to work


*Roads closed and trains delayed by fallen trees


*Roof of grandstand blown off at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey


*Trains affected as passengers are urged not to travel

Crazy fucking wind damage pictures at the link..

Mid South Flooding: From Desperate To Devastating

More Rain for Already Flooded Arkansas, Ohio Valley

More flooding is inevitable from Arkansas to the Ohio Valley since the already water-logged region will not be able to handle the additional rain that will pour down through Tuesday.

The potential exists for 3 to 5 inches of rain to soak the corridor from northeastern Texas to the Ohio Valley tonight into Tuesday.

That amount of rain would alone raise concerns for flash flooding. But with the ground already saturated and rivers severely flooding, new flooding issues are inevitable.

Army Corps prepares to blow up Missouri levee

The Army Corps of Engineers on Sunday began moving barges into position to blow up a levee along the Missouri side of the Mississippi River after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene, removing the last legal barrier.

Floodwaters could be released as early as Monday afternoon.

Missouri had tried to stop the levee's destruction but lost in lower courts. The high court decided not to hear the state's appeal, said Robyn Ziegler, spokeswoman for the Illinois attorney general's office. ..
Army Corps Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh ordered a start to preparations to blast a 2-mile-wide section of the levy near Birds Point, Mo., as rain continued to swell the Mississippi past already record levels, spokesman James Pogue said.

 No place else for floodwaters to go -- Mississippi now past 41 feet

The officials emphasized that the last chance to stem the rising Mississippi River ran out today, as reservoirs that hold the Tennessee River back from the Ohio River filled to capacity

The Ohio flows into the Mississippi River, which is expected to crest Wednesday in Cairo at 61.5 feet.

The perfect storm of heavy rain combined with the rising Mississippi River is causing the local tributaries to flood areas around the county. The Mississippi was at 41.44 feet as of 6 p.m. Sunday, and its high waters are now colliding with the inflow from swollen tributaries, giving that surge of water no place to go.

Remember, this is only the first days of May.  There will be much more water in our future.  The situation is way past dire, and the outlook continues to deteriorate as the water continues to rise.. 

Mass Animal Deaths Continue. The Government Can't Be Poisioning Them All, Can They?

The cavalcade of whimsy continues, as about a million jellyfish and hundreds of thousands of fish all over the world all decided to go off-planet this week. Clustered as a two month event from mid-December to mid-February(or the three weeks from New Year's Day until January 21), millions of birds and fish died under a variety of circumstances, some mysterious or controversial. While some observers/ blogger/ scientifical types continue to state(quite correctly) that mass animal deaths aren't uncommon, a cursory Bing search of "mass animal deaths biggest" turned up no Master List of this type of phenomena within the parameters of "biggest" for any kind of comparison.

A list, though, of Creepiest Casualties of mass animal deaths show only one event to be bigger in scope: The comet or asteroid impact on earth 65 million years ago. Granted, this isn't enough to make a solid assertion about the severity of these death clusters as a warning to some future apocalypse(again, based on Internet information availability..), but it also makes these recent events harder to dismiss. While there surely have been bigger specific-event animal die-offs in the past, this cluster-event continues to grow. Due to global conditions facilitating more of these events(extemes in cold and heat, along with the Gulf oil spill and Corexit poisoning, seems likely to continue. Again, die offs occur; but the scope of these combined events are disturbing when viewed as a whole.

Theories? Good post here detailing some possibilities, but it omits one of the strongest contenders, at least for the southern U.S. events: Corexit. I'm curious as to whether any alternative news organizations are tracking these events for a comprehensive piece detailing events, locations, connections, and possibilities that can fit all these disparate puzzle pieces into perspective. I'm leaning towards geomagnetic distortion/ pole shift, New Madrid activity, and Corexit, with the answer somehow involving them all, but in what ratio, and including other factors, I have no idea. This doesn't seem to be going away..

We Can't Say We Weren't Warned..

Life on this Earth Just Changed …The North Atlantic Current is Gone… Excerpt in italics:
The latest satellite data establishes that the North Atlantic Current (also called the North Atlantic Drift) no longer exists and along with it the Norway Current. These two warm water currents are actually part of the same system that has several names depending on where in the Atlantic Ocean it is. The entire system is a key part of the planet’s heat regulatory system; it is what keeps Ireland and the United Kingdom mostly ice free and the Scandinavia countries from being too cold; it is what keeps the entire world from another Ice Age. This Thermohaline Circulation System is now dead in places and dying in others.

Global Warming; or Hoax? My Problem With Either/Or

Antarctic glacier melt maybe 'not due to climate change'. (Note all the what's-happening-is-normal stories on this page. The tone isn't necessarily Nothing's happening, as much as it is This is Cyclical.)

The entire Climate debate is framed so shittily on both sides, but clearly, the Deniers are the worst. As a general observation, the vocal representation of Global Warming Deniers seem to discount any increases in weather extremes, claiming this is always how it's been, we just hear about it more now. And, ClimateGate is a legitimate scandal. But neither is true.

Global Warming advocates, on the other hand, seem to cling to mainstream interpretations of available data, or data that might have a different context in light of other discoveries and observations suppressed or dismissed by conventional science. Alternate science has observable data, too. And, at the end of the day, the majority of both groups agree: Something is going on. While there seems to be some support for some GW Deniers to acknowledge something's happening, the opinion still seems to be the minority within the movement.

The linked article is an interesting case in point. It wasn't an outright attack on Global Warming (Which I think is different than Climate Change--Climate Change is more agnostic in its "I don't know why it's happening, but it is happening" perspective. To me, anyway..), but it was written towards that opinion. Awesome. But it also managed to downplay the importance of the event itself. Ok, so Global Warming might not have caused this underground ice river to speed up, and cause a significant change in the amount of Antarctic water contributing to sea rise. Fine. So what are you doing to protect the populace with that information? Not much, as that's not the thrust of their research. Waters are rising: Are we using this information to buttress our coastlines? Naw, it's being used just to win an arguement and keep the status quo.

Something is fucking happening. Anyone can see that, if their eyes aren't covered and their tounges aren't powered by corporate payoffs. If we can't stop it(which we probably can't), we should be preparing for some pretty disaterous scenarios. But we are not, as we seem to be polarized within an arguement between headstrong, retarded schools of thought.

Time is tight, folks, and the clock is running out..