POLAR VORTEX (2)

On January 22, 2019, I wrote about the coming Polar Vortex. I also explained how the usual suspects will try to blame this on global warming. That is, of course, absurd but 75% of Democrats will still believe. Well the Polar Vortex has arrived and it is even worse than expected:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/polar-vortex-to-drive-record-smashing-cold-across-much-of-nation/ar-BBSQqeC?ocid=spartandhp

I notice with great interest that this is shattering records that are 50 years old. Hmmm. Records that are 50 years old.  That would be records dating back to 1969. Hey kids. Guess what? These temperatures are very similar to conditions your DAD described occurring while he was growing up in Upper Michigan. You know, all the jokes about walking to school, uphill both ways, in temperatures that were 40 degrees below zero. Remember laughing when I said we got “walk warnings” cautioning us about breathing in that cold air.  Remember me talking about walking backwards to work, a block away, because otherwise it was too cold to breathe? You laughed and assumed I was exaggerating. It couldn’t possibly be “THAT” cold, right. It was must my imagination gone wild. Except, I wasn’t exaggerating at all. It is just that these severe type of weather situations run in cycles. This has been going on for as long as we have records.

Remember the Donner Party. They named Donner Pass and Donner Lake after them. They got stuck in the snow and some of them allegedly resorted to cannibalism to survive. To those of us who live here and who drive across Donner Pass all year long, this seems unbelievable. I mean, yes we get storms up there and it can be impossible to travel over the pass for several says in a row, but nothing like what the Donner Party experienced. Yet, if you check the historical accounts it is obvious that it did happen, long before global warming, and IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Maybe not this year, or next year or even while any of us are still alive, but it has happened before and it will happen again.

By the way, we got these kinds of winters several years in a row. Don’t assume that this is a one off event for places like Chicago. This is just a good reminder that our weather moves in cycles, and sometimes these cycles last a long time. That can lull people into thinking it never changes. That is what is happening in California, where a lot of people think we are in a permanent drought. We already have more snow that normal in the Sierra Nevada, so that theory is showing signs of strain.

When Folsom Dam was built in 1956, “experts”: thought it would give 200 year flood protection. That is because they used weather modeling from the previous 30 years, which history records as the “dust bowl.” It was very hot and dry and the experts thought that was the new normal. Note: This was before global warming, so stupid and absurd predictions are hardly new. They expected it would take at least a year for Folsom lake to fill completely. It actually took about a week. Then, 30 years later, in 1986, we got another wet winter and the water in Folsom Lake allegedly rose to within about six inches from overflowing the Dam. Now do the math. 1956 plus 30 = 1986. 1986 plus 30 = 2016. The federal and federal government spent over a billion dollars to build an emergency bypass at Folsom Dam that can release about 300 cubic feet of water per second. It was completed in, you guessed it, 2016. Does that look like they were expecting a permanent drought?

Whether or not you believe in global warming, the real question is whether or not you believe in weather.

TDM