Monday, January 9, 2012

State of the weather, Jan 2012

Mark Twain said “We all grumble about the weather….but nothing is done about it”. We have been having a very sunny, but cold, winter. My grandmother Ruby always said that, “A dry winter is a cold winter”. The weather has been a sure topic to get a response lately. Try saying something like, “wow, what a beautiful day”. If you are in a crowd, everybody will have a different remark. I was by a person the other day when the thought that we were having wonderful weather was mentioned, he actually got angry. He said that “if we don’t start getting some rain, it is going to be a disaster.” Than he went on to ramble something about fish runs and gardens and not to mention drinking water. Most people are slightly worried, but they don’t let it ruin an otherwise nice day.

Justt for the record, (if I had access to records) we’ve had dry winters before. Sometime in the early ‘70s, we had 22 inches of rain, shortly thereafter we had over 100 inches. In 1964 we had snow in May, the river dried up that summer to the lowest flow that the south fork ever recorded, then that winter we had the worse flood in recorded history.

In the early ‘70s we had temperatures so cold that it froze and broke the fire hydrants in Redway. Every exposed pipe, and some not so exposed, froze and broke. It was a plumbers nightmare. So be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

Back in history the world weather got so warm that people moved from Europe to Greenland. Greenland was so warn and fertile that they grew produce and grain there. They had many years of competition free prosperity. Then the mini ice-age hit. Greenland froze over. Most people starved, the rest made it back to Europe.

Ten thousand years ago the Great Lakes of America were covered with a glacier. The British Isles were also covered with ice. Global warming happened very rapidly between then and now. The only reason that I mentioned that is because I don’t think that mankind had anything to do with the global warming that melted the Great Lakes and defrosted England. But it did happen. As I said, it got so warm that they farmed Greenland. But, for some strange reason it all reversed and the world got cold again. We are on a warming cycle again, the world weather is changing. I think that we are just too comfortable taking all the blame for the weather warming.

I was looking at a chart of Antarctica the other day. The chart showed areas in brilliant red shade, that were melting, and the ice was disappearing. In the same chart, in a very faint light blue color it showed the areas where the ice was gaining and getting deeper. I thought at the time, if the colors were exchanged, and the light blue was change to brilliant red and the red was changed to light blue, it would have looked like a very dramatic increase in the ice thickness.

When I was a kid I used to pick mussels on a rock at shelter cove. We would take a twelve foot long board with us as a bridge to get out on that rock. When I go out to that same rock today. I never have any trouble getting out to it. So, either the sea level hasn’t risen, or the world has raised it out of the ocean. The sea seems to have dropped at least a foot. Shelter Cove may have lifted in elevation from some of the earthquakes. Plus, I don’t think that Shelter Cove is in the subduction zone of plate tectonics. If it is, it is on the side of the San Andreas fault that would be diving, because the fault line is east of the cove at the base of the mountain.

So, there is just a lot about the weather that I just don’t know. But like Mark Twain said. Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

10 comments:

Ben said...

Remember that the earth rose three feet at the mouth of the Mattole after the Ferndale earthquake... Maybe Shelter Cove popped up too. We had the la ninya last year as well as this year. Totally different weather...
I must say that I have never seen anything like this in my 40 years in SoHum. A powerful high pressure ridge has been stationary over us and refuses to move out.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Yeah, we have highly volatile weather patterns here on the north coast. It's true, if you don't like the weather here, just wait ten minutes, it will change.

Ben, you lived here long enough to see some strange stuff with the weather. In the 70's did you believe that we were going into an ice-age???

The thing that worries me is how susceptible to suggestion that we are. There were those of us who were convinced that we were surely entering and ice age back then, now we are seeming to be entering a period of increased global warming.

Surely the world is warming up. It has been for thousands of years. Scientist say that there will be a period of warming before we enter back into an ice age. When the Earth gets so warm, the oceans will stop circulating and that will start another ice age.

Who really knows?

Ernie Branscomb said...

I saw the rotten seaweed that was hanging high and dry after the up-thrust in the last major Quake, there was a band between 4-6 feet wide at the beach just south of Cape Mendocino. Kings peak lifted 16 inches, so I can fully believe that Shelter Cove could have lifted. But, it is on the subduction side of the fault. Go figger.

Anonymous said...

what do you mean, you aren't going to do anything about the weather?

spyrock said...

"An elder from the Yucatan joined me on a walk one day and he said he was happy to see I was out enjoying the rain. His experience of most "westerners" was that we put out energy that was saying 'rain please stop' by complaining when it rained. He said he has seen the effects of these thought forms in his area as more "westerners" came to visit. Interesting. Now get out there and wash your car. The surest way I know to ask for rain!"

Ernie Branscomb said...

I'll go you one better Spy... I'm going to Yucatan in March. What are you, a freakin' mind reader???

Maybe I can find your elder and ask for rain. How's that for doing something about the weather?

Anonymous said...

Maybe you should pray to the one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ.

spyrock said...

if you run into some guy down in the yucatan named jesus who asks you, "manos ariba", he is not asking you to glorify god, he wants your dinero. just fyi. it's been awhile since i've been down there but there aren't any mayan elders named jesus. trust me on this. i don't know where you are staying but most hotels and resorts in the yucatan are owned by the spanish. the tourist zone is alot like south florida. in other words, they keep the mexicans out. but their cheap transportation will be right at your doorstep. just hop on any bus and for cheap you can go up and down that coast. the tourist buses will cost you around $100 per person to go anywhere. but for cheap you can ride the local bus to playa del carmen, take the boat to cozumel for cheap, take a taxi to the park 4 miles from town for some great snokeling at a cheap price. the key to the yucatan is to stay by the beach or on the ocean going to isla de las mujeres or cozumel. if you go into the jungle, take some real good deet, mosquito repellant. the jungle and the temperature there even in march is no joke. for a north coaster like you, its like being in a sauna or new age sweat lodge all the time down there. close to the ocean, there are no bugs and relief is just a few feet away in the water. i would recommend you see tulum and cozumel. if you want to go to chicken itches or anywhere else, vios con dios. take anonymous with you, he might have some sway with the born again christian bandidos.

Anonymous said...

CHRISTIAN BANDIDOS WHAT CABLE CHANNEL IS THAT OWN? C2C

spyrock said...

univision. the spanish church stole the americas from the indigineous people. cortez's story about routing moctezuma makes frank and pierce asbill's raid on round valley sound completely accurate. pierce asbill should have gone down as the daniel boone of california according to his son frank. of course, they didn't have the catholic church justifying their genocide of the local inhabitants. thus, loco christian bandidos is another name for conquistador or mission slavery