TROPICAL STORM EDOUARD INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 4A

Why would anyone begin to believe THE ANSWER to the USA's energy and transportation crisis be more Offshore Oil drilling? That makes sense?

I

DON'T

THINK

SO !!

...A STORM SURGE OF 2 TO 4 FT ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS CAN BE EXPECTEDIN THE WARNING AREA IN AREAS OF ONSHORE WINDS....


August 4, 2008
1225z
UNISYS Visual Satellite

The 'sunrise' adds dynamic to the storm. The hot waters of the Gulf fueled the development of the lastest storm this season, but, it is enhanced in dynamics by the solar radiation. The central pressure has stabilized at 1002 millibars, HOWEVER, it is the storm surge of a 'continuous' near shore storm that will plague the Gulf Coast. So long as the storm 'sits and spins' it will be driving tides higher with prolonged pounding of the coastal plains.


August 4, 2008
1440z
UNISYS Visual Satellite Image ( 12 hour loop )


Shell evacuating 40 offshore workers due to storm (click here)
NEW YORK, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Shell Oil said on Monday it would begin evacuating 40 workers from oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico as a precaution due to the effects of Tropical Storm Edouard.
"No further evacuations are planned at this time and based on current information and forecast, we do not expect any impact on Shell operated production in the Gulf of Mexico," the company said in a release. (Reporting by Richard Valdmanis)


Storm Edouard shuts refinery, hits shipping (click here)
Reuters
Monday August 4 2008
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Edouard forced shut a huge offshore oil port, a refinery, some oil production and disrupted shipping as the storm raced toward the Texas-Louisiana coast on Monday.
Energy companies evacuated staff from offshore platforms due to Edouard, the second named storm of the season to threaten oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico, with Apache shutting a small amount of output.
Marathon shut its Texas City, Texas refinery and Valero Energy Corp warned its plants in the region could be affected after the storm halted inbound traffic to the Houston Ship Channel and the Sabine Pass ship channel.
"We have started an orderly shut-down in preparation for the storm," said Marathon spokeswoman Angela Graves.
Packing 50 miles per hour (85 kph) winds, Edouard swept across the northern Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles (135 km) south-southwest of Grand Isle, Louisiana, threatening to come ashore on the Texas-Louisiana coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Edouard had about a 20 percent chance of becoming a hurricane by the time it reaches land.
The Gulf of Mexico supplies about a quarter of U.S. crude oil output and 15 percent of its natural gas, while Gulf Coast refiners make about a quarter of domestic gasoline.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only deep-water U.S. oil port and a major conduit for the country's crude oil imports, temporarily suspended offloading oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico due to high waves and winds.
The port's onshore storage continued to supply refiners with crude on-hand, however, a spokeswoman said....

U.S. Coast Guard closes inbound traffic at Houston channel (click here)
By Steve Gelsi
Last update: 11:39 a.m. EDT Aug. 4, 2008
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Coast Guard has closed ship traffic into the Houston Ship Channel, which provides access to the largest oil and gas operations in the U.S., a spokesperson from the Port of Houston Authority said. Ship traffic within the channel itself is still allowed. The move by the Coast Guard came in response to Tropical Storm Edouard.

First Global Water Vapor Map from OSTM

Tracking Water Vapor is one of the most important mappings NASA can pursue, unfortunately, this is the first and only such map. It would have been grossly helpful if NASA had been doing this for decades of time.

The oceans have high spots and low spots depending on ocean circulation. Here again, we should have had decades of recordkeeping to better understand our troposphere. However, it is better that we have started than not start at all. The unfortunate aspect of the tardiness of this project is that the Arctic Ocean is expected to be 'ice free' by September. While 'sea level rise' is considered 'static' with the meltdown of the Arctic Ice Cap, the reality is that significant ice masses were at the shorelines of the Arctic Ocean and once melted contributes to sea level rise in several ways, including 'continental rebound.'

This is a good start for such ventures by NASA and should continue. I doubt seriously it will add to the dialogue of circumstances now faced by humanity regarding Human Induced Global Warming resulting in Climate Change.



In mid-June 2008, NASA launched the latest of a series of satellites that scientists use to measure sea level from space. The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 uses a radar altimeter to map the height of the ocean surface. The radar sends a pulse of energy down to the ocean surface and listens for the echo. The time delay and intensity of the echo reveal the altitude of the sea surface.

Because water vapor delays the time it takes for the radar pulse to travel to the ocean surface and back, the satellite also carries a sensor to measure atmospheric moisture. The image above shows the first results from this sensor, the Advanced Microwave Radiometer: a global map of the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere beneath the satellite from June 22–28, 2008. The time span was the first week of operations for OSTM’s science instruments. In this image, white and light blue show dry areas; dark blue shows moist regions....

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park ( Crystal Wind Chime) is:

August 2, 2008
Fairbanks, Alaska
Photographer states :: Chena River flooding August 2008

Interior Alaska floods' effect on salmon spawning is unknown (Click on title to entry, thank you.)
By Tim Mowry
Published Monday, August 4, 2008

State fisheries biologists don’t know what kind of effect this week’s flood will have on spawning king salmon in the Chena and Salcha rivers. The flood coincided with the peak of spawning in both rivers.
“Most times when we’ve had floods, they happened later on, after the fish were done spawning,” Dan Bergstrom, the Department of Fish and Game’s regional supervisor for the Yukon River, said. “This year is different because it’s right on top of when they should be spawning.”...

...Female salmon dig holes called reads in the gravel river bottom to lay their eggs in before male fish fertilize them.
Virgil Umphenour, owner of Alaska Interior Fish Processors Inc. in Fairbanks, is worried the eggs will be carried away in the current.
“If you have high water and super fast current, the eggs will just go down the river as she’s laying them,” Umphenour speculated....

Lat/Lon :: 58.8° N 137.0° W

Elevation :: 33 ft / 10 m

Time :: 5:05 AM AKDT

Temperature :: 52 °F / 11 °C

Conditions :: Overcast

Humidity :: 88%

Dew Point :: 48 F/ 9 C

Wind :: Calm

Pressure :: 30.25 in / 1024 hPa (Steady)

Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

UV :: 0 out of 16

Clouds :: Mostly Cloudy 2400 ft / 731 m

Overcast 4400 ft / 1341 m
(Above Ground Level)

Flight Rule:
MVFR (PAGS)
Wind Speed :: 4 mph / 6 km/h / 1.5 m/s
Wind Direction :: 140° (SE)
Ceiling :: 2200 ft / 670 m