Strange weather...

[Shrug53]

Has anyone noticed that the winter seems especially harsh this year?
I spent the first 38 years of my life living in Los Angeles, and never remember seeing rainfall or flooding, or winds like they have right now.
I saw on the news that a large part of Thousand Oaks, which I used to live near, is completely flooded. I never saw that happen.
Here in Phoenix the new says that the rainfall has been 'unprecedented'.
Seems like every pleace the news talks about is getting more rain, more snow, colder temperatures, than ever before.
Nobody else seems to think much of it, but it sure seems strange to me. Like some kind of huge shift in global weather patterns. Perhaps global warming has finally started to shift us in to a new ice age.
Something is not right though.
Perhaps we are entering another Manuder Minimum period. For those not familiar with the summaries of Maunder on sunspot activity, here is a great article:
http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/libraries/li ... kmanj.html

Comments?

[mikeschn]

Oh sure, I'll comment on it. We are living in end times.

Here's just one page that I found on this subject...
http://www.prophecyupdate.com/

I can't remember ever having this much snow in Michigan. It seem as though every day there's another dusting (or more) of snow on the ground, making my drive to work miserable.... Today, for example, there were cars splattered all over the hillsides, and clogging up the ditches... geesh!!!

but look at this list of strange weather and other strange events...

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Toll in Philippine Floods Tops 1,000
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Israel Hit by Worst Locust Plague Since 1950s
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Pink Locusts from North Africa Swarm Through Cairo
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Strong Earthquake Strikes Colombia
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Massive locust swarm threatens crops in northern Egypt
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Hurricane Jeanne Floods Battered Florida
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Worst floods in decades hit Dhaka
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Japan battered by record number of typhoons

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Floods in West Bengal make over 650,000 homeless
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Giant storm waves growing
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Dazed Floridians Cope After 'Hell of a Storm'
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Rain and stormy weather batter UK
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Hurricane Alex Floods Homes on North Carolina Island
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25 killed in monsoon downpour in western India
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Bangladesh: 20 million need food aid
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Three Moderate Quakes Shake Turkey
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North Korea crops hit by heavy rains
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Turkey Earthquake Injures Six People
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Disease Spreads Death in Flood-Ravaged South Asia
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Alaska Volcano Stirs From 12-Year Slumber
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Suicides in Japan Hit Record High in 2003
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Drought warning adds to India woe
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Ship-sinking monster waves revealed by ESA satellites
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Locusts have a field day in starving Africa
*

Aids reduces African life expectancy to 33

Mike...

[Shrug53]

The last Maunder Minimum caused what is known as a "Little Ice Age" which lasted from the 1500s to the 1800s. This may be happening again, or we may be prolonging the current one.
The actual process of 'global warming' is anything but warm. The amount of contaminants which go in to the air from our industry, combined with volcanos and believe it or not, buildings, will reflect more and more sunlight thereby causing a cooling trend.
The explosion of Mt. Tambora in 1815 led to the year 1816 being called "the year without a summer" across much of Europe.

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 provided a good example of how a large low-latitude eruption can quickly influence global climate. This picture shows how in nine days the sulfur dioxide plume had spread into both hemispheres and around half the planet.



The result was an estimated 1oC global cooling that lasted two years. It is unlikely that a single eruption can cause long-term cooling over hundreds of years such as during the LIA. Robock (1979) has shown that there was an increase in the frequency of large eruptions during the LIA (little ice age) that corresponds quite well with the coolest years during this time period.

So I suppose if mankind is doomed, we are dooming ourselves.

Scary huh?

[Woody]

I guess it is time to put in a heater in the Teardrop Last time was in 1997 the "El Nino" year. It caused the lows to focus more south than usual causing the weather to be further south than normal. Last time it happened Mid-State Florida was hit with a large amount of Rainy weather and a high number of tornados in the spring. They say it going to be an "El Nino " year this year so look out. Gobal Warming is a theory, It is more climatic change cycle, which explains why one moment Minnesota was a tropical rainforest and other times it was covered with a mile thick sheet of galcial ice. Mankind might be helping along now, but back then our anncestors were still swinging from the branches. A high fiber diet could produce alot of methane, so maybe we did help after all

[emiller]

It was colder last year this time I think, because I wasn't cold at the Pioneer gathering this weekend like I was last year. Maybe the cloud cover kept it warmer.

[TomS]

Oh sure, I'll comment on it. We are living in end times.

Here's just one page that I found on this subject...
http://www.prophecyupdate.com/

IMHO that's a load of bunk.

Climatic shifts are nothing new. Neither are natural disasters. We only remember the most recent ones. Also, as the World's population increases, more people are affected by these events, particulary in the third-world where the infrastructure is weak to begin with.

Is the climate changing? Sure it is. The climate has been continously changing for as long as the earth has existed. I do believe that we're hastening the process by cutting the rain forests, emitting large quantaties of greenhouse gasses, etc. Everything is inter-related.

Does any of this mean the end of the World is at hand? Hardly.

-----------
Tom "Doubting Thomas" Swenson
[email protected]
www.tomswenson.com

[David Grason]

I guess it is time to put in a heater in the Teardrop

.......and maybe some floats on it too.

Here in Tennessee, we get rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain during the El Niño phenomenon. Since I'm in the lawncare/landscape business, it's GREAT for me. It keeps all the grass growing and during the rain I get to work on my teardrop.

[emiller]

sunshine would be nice now. Did I hear right that southern california has had 21 inches since november wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Boodro]

WOW 21 inches of rain ! I lived in Texas for 14 years , & in 1989 we had 18 inches of rain in 3 days! But to be optimistic about it , now that I live in Ohio , I know that 1 inch of rain equeals 10 inches of SNOW!!! Just think 210 INCHES OF SNOW! WWEEEEEEEEE!!

[Chip]

Well the winter here is awful so far and today is no better,, can you believe its going to be carolina blue skys and 70 degrees, its just terrible, I cant hardley sleep at night because the frogs have already started singing around tha fish pond in the backyard,, next thing ya know the grass will need cutting,, I hate winter,, It just never seems to stop, Guess I'll just have to plan a winter camping trip just so I can get out of the house

chip

[Shrug53]

Oh I miss the sound of frogs. I spent a year living in Memphis (a little town called Munford) and we had these tiny little tree frogs, no bigger around than a quarter. That was such a comforting sound.

[Larwyn]

Oh I miss the sound of frogs. I spent a year living in Memphis (a little town called Munford) and we had these tiny little tree frogs, no bigger around than a quarter. That was such a comforting sound.

The tree frogs win out over the tv and radio daily here in Planterville. Nothing like "live music" (the frogs) and a Guinness to take the edge off the day.

[Shrug53]

See that is why I am so anxious to build a trailer and start doing somme camping. I miss the sounds of nature.
I like a few modern conveniences and a tear is just the right step up from tent camping without being a behemoth like a motorhome.
To me that almost defeats the purpose of hitting the open road. Who wants to lug an entire house around with them?
Oh but cooking up some chow chuckwagon style, and then relaxing next to your own snug little den, that's the life!

[Woody]

Shrug53,

Your missing out, it is fun to camp teardrop style. We tent camped for many years and enjoyed it. With the teardrop it is a far cry from tent camping and now I look back and wonder if only I had discovered the teardrop sooner in my life it would have made some decent times a hell of alot better.

[ALAN GEDDES]

We DO have fun. Deep Fried Turkey, Smoked Ham, My Smoking Teardrop, putting up with pickle juice.