I want to get this Alaska storm nailed down, too.

North America is at the center of this satellite image.  It is an infrared image.

March 17, 2012

1745 utc

The satellite shows a major heat transfer system over the Pacific. The system is trapping the air over Alaska into a cycle of chronic storms and that is why the snow storms are as substantial as they are with growing snowfall.

March 17, 2012
1556 utc

The bottom of this infrared image from today shows clearly the heat transfer in the Pacific and the NON-interaction with air masses over Alaska. 

March 18, 2012
0030z
UNISYS Infrared GOES West Satellite

And for clarity:


March 18, 2012
0030:00 z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES West Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)

The reason there is so much percipitation is because there is equatorial moisture condensing over the Arctic.

Alaska's largest city eyes snow record (click title to entry - thank you)

By RACHEL D'ORO

Associated Press

Published: Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 5:18 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 5:18 a.m.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A near-record snowfall this winter has buried Anchorage neighborhoods, turning streets into snow-walled canyons and even collapsing some roofs.

But some residents are hoping for more, at least another 3.3 inches. Then they could say they made it through the winter when the nearly 60-year record of 132.6 inches was broken.

"I want it destroyed," resident Melissa Blair said. "I want to see another foot and knock that record out of the park."

Even by Alaska standards, this winter is unusual for the hardy residents of the state's largest city. But extreme weather isn't just affecting Alaska, it has also hit the Lower 48....

Departures from Normal Temperatures across the USA. Now what was that about global warming, exactly?

March 17, 2012
0900 GMT

For those jerks looking at the west coast of the USA expecting to pull out a meaning other than Human Induced Global Warming, what is it we know about Arctic Air when there is a heat transfer from the Equator?  I don't know  how many times I wrote it on this blog, what do we know about heat transfers from the Equator that end up over the Arctic Circle?


When there is a heat transfer from the Equator to the Arctic Region the hot, less dense air displaces cold, dense air DOWN to the lower latitudes.


What then happens when the hot air cools over the Arctic?


There is melting of the polar cap.


Record high temperature set for fourth consecutive day (click here)
SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE
March 16, 2012 7:26AM

...This is the fourth straight day a record high temperature has been set in Chicago.

Friday’s high of 82 degrees beat the old high temperature record for March 16 of 78 degrees, set in 1945, as well as setting the record for the earliest 82-degree day in Chicago, which had previously been set in 1945.

The new record comes on the heels of high temperatures of 81 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, which smashed the record highs for March 14 and 15, according to the weather service.

The normal high temperature for March 16-18 in Chicago is 47 degrees, according to the weather service....

Weather records shattered as temperatures in the Northland reach the 70s (click here)

Warm-weather records are being crushed in the Northland today as temperatures away from Lake Superior have reached into the 70s

By: News Tribune staff
Duluth News Tribune
Warm-weather records are being crushed in the Northland today as temperatures away from Lake Superior have reached into the 70s.

It was 73 degrees at the Duluth airport at 3 p.m., shattering the previous record of 61 degrees, set in 1968.

In International Falls, the temperature was 75 degrees at 3 p.m. - 20 degrees above the previous record of 55 degrees, set in 1968. According to National Weather Service data, that's is the highest temperature ever recorded in International Falls in March; the previous record high for the month was 73 degrees, set on March 31, 1963.

This will be the fifth day in a row of record daily high temperatures in International Falls, and seventh day in the past eight....

March 12, 2012

The sound in the background sounds like hail.  Toluca, Mexico.  It is near Mexico City.

Toluca (click here for Wiki)  is located in the economic center of Mexico. Toluca has become an important economic city because of its industries and infrastructure that produce drinks, food, textiles, cars, electric products and such. Since 1944, many industries have settled in Toluca rather than in other cities. In 1965, the industrial zone of Toluca-Lerma-Tianguistenco, which is located on the north side of Toluca, began to attract industries to the area. The city now has five additional major industrial parks: Corredor Industrial Toluca, Parque Industrial Lerma, Parque Industrial Exportec I., Parque Industrial Exportec II and the Parque Industrial El Coecillo.

The lights are still on, but, no one is home.

This July 25, 2011 (click title to entry - thank you) photo shows the radiation-contaminated and abandoned town of Namie, Japan at dawn. (AP Photographer David Guttenfelder on assignment for National Geographic Magazine)

Namie, Japan joins Chernobyl in abandoned cities due to nuclear contamination. 

It reminds me of one of those disaster films where speculation regarding what happens when human beings no longer inhabit Earth plays to everyone's fears.  It would seem in some cities in the world it is no longer speculation.


Evacuated residents of Fukushima no-go area set up temporary town nearby (click here)

March 18, 2012\

FUKUSHIMA -- The town of Okuma, which entirely falls within the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, is planning to establish an "out of town" community as residents' forced evacuations are expected to last a long time.
On March 16, the town's reconstruction planning committee held a meeting in Aizuwakamatsu, drawing up a draft plan to set up a "temporary town" in Iwaki or elsewhere in Fukushima Prefecture, equipped with town office functions, schools and houses by 2016. Some 11,100 residents of Okuma have been evacuated out of the town in the wake of the outbreak of the nuclear disaster in March last year....

The environmental risks for the Keystone XL Pipeline are too high. There is no need for it.

There are refineries all over Canada that can receive North Dakota crude and Tar Sands crud.

There is also a refinery in North Dakota.  The Keystone Pipeline is about a very wealthy man from Oklahoma that wants to be wealthier at the cost of clear air, water and agricultural security for the USA. 

Hamm owns a one third interest in a pipeline company based near the headquarters of his own company in Oklahoma.  There is no need for it.  A spill in the center of the USA agricultural industry will put ethanol in jeopardy and the answer of our children for energy security for a long time if not forever.

Tesoro Corporation, (click here) a Fortune 150 company, is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products. Tesoro, through its subsidiaries, operates seven refineries in the western United States with a combined capacity of approximately 665,000 barrels per day. Tesoro's retail-marketing system includes over 1,200 branded retail stations, of which over 375 are company operated under the Tesoro®, Shell® and USA Gasoline™ brands....

There is energy accumulation over Missouri that could prove problematic.

March 17, 2012
1730:00z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Satellite of north and west hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop)

The consolidation occurred in the past two hours and it is connected to a moisture front from the equatorial regions.  The added water vapor will supply a place for energy to build.

March 17, 2012
02:20 PM
Local radar for Missouri (click here)

March 17, 2012
1730:00z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Satellite of USA (click here)


All the more reason to see this project work and work well.

Weather service pilot project in Missouri, Kansas seeks better warnings (click title to entry  - thank you)

Friday, March 16, 2012 | 6:00 a.m. CDT

BY STAN FINGER/Wichita Eagle

WICHITA, Kan. — When weather radios start sounding warnings in the Wichita area this spring, the computerized voice nicknamed Chance Storms won't just alert listeners to severe thunderstorms or tornado warnings. It will tell people how bad the storm will be and what type of damage to expect.

In addition to saying a tornado warning has been issued, Storms might say, "Life-threatening situation. Extensive damage to homes and buildings. Uprooted trees and debris will restrict access into many areas."
The change is part of a pilot project testing "impact-based warnings" in five National Weather Service offices: Wichita, Topeka, Kansas City, Springfield and St. Louis....

This was murder and Zimmerman is the perpetrator. There isn't anything else to debate.

I am unarmed.  I am always unarmed.


Two weeks ago I was with a friend and we were leaving a department store and walking to our car when we noticed a man, a black man walking near where our car was looking in the adjacent cars.


We knew the deal.  We knew this individual was seeking a car with unlocked doors and something of value inside.  We had no proof, we only observed what was going on.  As we approached we could have been the victim of violence, but, instead we conducted ourselves in a normal fashion and guess what happened?


The black man looking in the cars stopped.  He had been discovered, he hadn't committed a crime, he carried nothing with him and he didn't even wear a hoody.


If I were armed and wanted to be a vigilante I could have become confrontational, sought to protect myself and my friend over a potentially unlocked, empty car and I could have shot the man and called it self defense.


I didn't do that.  The black man walked as quick as he could away from the parking lot and out of sight.  He lived to lust after unlocked cars for another day.


Trayvon Martin was unarmed, he was walking away from George Zimmerman, he was not confrontational, Zimmerman was confrontational and is guilty of murder.  If Zimmerman ended up dead, then Martin would have had aggravated reasons to do so, including self-defense.  Zimmerman is intimidating the law and it needs to stop now!


...On February 26th, (click title to entry - thank you) 28 year-old neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman was patrolling the gated community of Twin Lakes in t Sanford Florida. When he spotted an unarmed Trayvon Martin walking to his father's house from the convenience store, he called Sanford police and reported that a suspicious person was in the community. He told the dispatcher that he was following him and that he "looked like he was up to no good." The rest is history. Some time between the first phone call to authorities and their arrival, Trayvon lie dead 70 feet away from his father's town-home with Zimmerman claiming self defense. Sanford police charged him with nothing; arguing that there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.... 



Zimmerman is a zealot, out of control and will do it again.


End of discussion.