Friday is Here!
I for one am Thankful it is Friday! I need a weekend pronto!
Of course we are still very concerned about flooding over the Midwest. it seems every day a new levee fails or gets over-topped by water. I was reading one of my favorite Weather Bloggers Dr. Jeff Masters over at www.wunderground.com, and he brought up some interesting points about why we are seeing such massive and historic floods this year. Here’s part of what he writes (and you can check out the full article here:
“The U.S. Geological Survey has preliminary data showing that this month’s floods on four of Iowa’s rivers–the Cedar, Iowa, Shell Rock, and Wapsipinicon–were 500-year floods. Back in 1993, many rivers in the Midwest also experienced 500-year floods, so the region has endured two 500-year floods in the past 15 years. How can this be? First of all a definition–a 500-year flood is an event that has only a 0.2% chance of occurring in a given year, based on available river flow data. Of course, reliable data only goes back a century at most, so designation of a 500-year flood event is somewhat subjective. Still, it seems rather improbable that two such huge floods should occur within such a short time span, raising the question of whether the floods were, in part, human-caused.
In a provocative story in the Washington Post today, it was pointed out that part of the flooding is due to the draining of wetlands for farming purposes. As nature’s natural buffers against flooding are drained and filled to provide room for more farmland, run-off and flooding are bound to increase. Furthermore, as more levees are built to protect more valuable farmland and new developments, flood waters are pushed out of the former areas they were allowed to spread out in and forced into river channels behind the new levees. Even higher levees must then be constructed to hold back the increased volume of water they are asked to contain. “
This is a story that is going to be with us for sometime to come. As for rain in the forecast, there’s a risk for thunderstorm across parts of the Midwest today and tomorrow, but certainly nothing that will bring the kind of floods we’ve seen over the last week.
Our other big story is the heat across the West. As a ridge of High Pressure continues to dominate the area, we have excessive heat warnings for much of southern California into Southwest Arizona where temperatures will top the century mark and shatter records this weekend.
Thank you for your responses to what I wrote last night with regards to changes on the blog, and more specifically to the U-Report features. I do want to give a shout out to our intern Krista who is helping upload the weather photos on a daily basis. I am Thankful to her for taking some of the workload off my plate for the next little while.
Have a great Friday!!
jd
Interesting observations by Dr Masters. I’ve also heard similar theories over the years……especially about man’s quest to control the Mississippi River’s flow over the centuries. All these levees and flood control systems are not allowing the river to flow it’s natural course. By trying to control the flow, we’ve actually weakened the natural barriers that the river creates. Eventually, so the theories go, the river will win out in the end and go where ever she desires anyway…………leaving us to scramble for drier grounds.
We must remember that Mother Nature is still more powerfull than mankind………by a long shot.
I agree JD TGIF!
The first day of summer or the “Summer Solstice” now everyone is saying it happens this evening somewhere around 8:20, but I’m a bit confused with the information out there. Some are saying that tomorrow is the longest day of the year and I thought that happens today, which is correct?
I find it absolutely fascinating how people thousands of years ago understood the movements of the heavens and learned to use that knowledge to their advantage is areas such as farming, fishing, hunting…. all based on survival and living.
Is this also supposed to be the day that an egg will stand on end?
This week in Pittsburgh its been pretty much ok. A little rain, not much heat.
Of course, this is the week I get to take care of my neighbor’s pool while they are on vacation. So much for swimming when its in the seventies and cloudy!!! I hope they pay well.
Enjoy your week-end Janice! Relax and have the hubby do the apartment chores! (I have to do them here
Go out and see a movie! I’d give the Mike Meyers movie a miss though! Saw a sneak preview yesterday. It’s not his best but I enjoyed the Leafs and Hockey Night in Canada aspects. (oh, everybody….Canadians and hockey fans KNOW the spelling of “Leafs” on Toronto jerseys and their team name is not correct…..but it artistically correct
We must have heard that at least 5 times leaving the theatre.
Have a great weekend Goddess,
It has been hotter than heck in Houston and Puerto Rico may be much the same (only prettier)
I will be there until July 3rd.
I’ll be in touch
Hang in there Janice! It is not easy wanting to do things 110%, but it is always worth it.
Thanks for linking the After the Show Show in your earlier blogs. It was great!
I hope you and the Captain have a great weekend.
JD,
Didn’t read your blog last night, but am catching up this morning. Please don’t stress yourself and your health worrying about us bloggers. We are a hardy bunch and will try to hang in there with you as you iron out any bugs in the blog world. We all congregate here because we love you and your infectious personality so much. Plus, we all seem to be weather junkies–at least a little bit. Your posting our pictures has been fantastic and has brought us closer together. (I may have started it with the picture of the C135 fueling the Thunderbirds planes months ago–or was it the pictures of the tornado that hit Caldonia, MS and deposited the school bus on the roof of the school.) So many good things and good feelings have come from this blog for me, and I have enjoyed getting to know my blogging friends. If I tried to name them all, I’d surely leave someone out; but this has just been so much fun for me. Thanks for the opportunities you have given all of us to share and become blogging buddies. The main thing is that we want it to be fun for you, too. We are truly concerned about you and don’t want you under any undue stress because of us.
Take care and have a restful weekend! Hope all my blogging buddies have a great weekend, too!
Gwen
Fascinating story Janice…thanks….
I passed in on to others in my family
Ditto to everything Gwen just said! This blog is like a family and it has been a lot of fun.
I’ll have to read Dr. Masters’ entire article but what you posted is very interesting. Before I make a couple comments I want to say that my heart aches for what those people are going through in the Midwest. I’ve been watching a lot of coverage over the past few days and I’ve been keeping those people in my prayers. With that said, I have to comment on a couple things. Besides what Dr. Masters said about the farmers draining the wetlands, etc., there was an interesting article in the Cumberland Times-News this morning. The article told about people who canceled their flood insurance because they were assured the levees would hold. (Does New Orleans ring a bell to anyone?) I guess they thought, like the people in New Orleans, that it could never happen to them. First of all, I would never build a house or move to a house that is situated in the flood plain. Second, I would never trust anyone that says there is no risk of flooding because the levees were sturdy. There has been so much development on the flood plains and the people have been messing with the natural way of things; what do they expect? I hope this will cause people to re-evaluate where they choose to build and keep in mind that you cannot control nature!
It does warm my heart to see people out helping their neighbors. During one of the live spots a couple days ago, I heard someone say that since they couldn’t do anything more to save their house, which was underwater, they were working to try to save their neighbor’s house. I thought that was great!
Janice, I hope you have a restful weekend. I need to get outside to do some work around my house since I’m finally feeling better and I’m not heading out of town. I looked at my weather diary last night and it was almost 30 degrees cooler yesterday than it was the same date last year. Go figure! Have a great weekend everyone!
Margie
Hey Janice..
Dr. Masters info is very interesting..thank you..
You have a wonderful and restful week-end..try to relax your mind, body and spirit..
Deb
Thanks to Krista..for helping out our dear friend Janice.
Thanks to your intern Krista, who is a great asset to you managing this blog on a daily basis. I hope you have an relaxing weekend.
I used to live in CA, and i know how it feels like to be in those heat wave conditions. Thats why its best to always drink a lot of water and stay indoors in a cool environment until this blows over. I sure hope no wildfires will flare up there because of the sweltering tempuratures.
JD thanks for sharing this. I have watched many times how people think they can hold back mother nature, and for a time you can. But she always seems to find a way to claim back the land. We are not anywhere near a levee for farming, but then again there is no way for water to run uphill either so irrigation is out the question. Farming is and will continue to be a huge gamble, if only I knew the full extent of that before I married! I know that it wouldn’t have made any difference though.
Hope you are resting up JD.
Or out doing something very relaxing. 