Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Bruce Was Wondering About The California Drought
Bruce dropped a note:
Marc,Well, the drought is still very much with us!
My sister sent me this link of CA drought photos taken in October. Does Mt. Shasta Lake and Lake Orville have more water in them now? Nancy was shocked at how low the water levels were in October and these photos brought it home for her. ....
Bruce
Hi Bruce:And now that Really Resilient Ridge has reappeared too! Enough to make one despair....
There is a little more water in the lakes now, but not dramatically more. Lake Oroville is now at 37% capacity (after falling to 25% capacity in late November), but the snowpack is still only half normal (the weather has been too warm for snow). The heavy rains in early December mostly just soaked into the extremely-dry ground and runoff wasn’t impressive. We are in the middle of a very-dry, two-week period of high pressure now. I hope it ends soon. It had better end soon.
Last winter, snowpack was only 18% of normal. It was a catastrophic total failure of the wet season. California very rarely sees this kind of phenomenon. According to a recent report in Geophysical Research Letters, the last three years have been the driest in 1,200 years.
One consequence is that certain birds, like the tri-colored black bird, which used to number in the millions just twenty years ago, and tens of millions fifty years ago, may go extinct within the next five years. The drought’s impact on natural systems has been absolutely overpowering, and if it continues even just a little longer, it will be irreversible.
Basically, the California drought is the same phenomenon New Mexico experienced in 2012-13, with worse consequences, because of the natural fertility of the land and the larger number of animals, plants, and people affected. The extreme drought just shifted west in 2013-14.
Marc
Pop Tunes 2014
Time to start assembling lists. Let's see, Top 11 favorite pop tunes of 2014. Here's a start:
Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj - Bang Bang
Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX - Fancy
Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat
James Newton Howard ft. Jennifer Lawrence - The Hanging Tree
Pharrell Williams - Come Get It Bae
Cobra Starship ft. Icona Pop - Never Been In Love
Junior Brown - Better Call Saul - Extended Song
OneRepublic - Love Runs Out
Kylie Minogue - If Only
Young the Giant - My Body
Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj - Bang Bang
Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX - Fancy
Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat
James Newton Howard ft. Jennifer Lawrence - The Hanging Tree
Pharrell Williams - Come Get It Bae
Cobra Starship ft. Icona Pop - Never Been In Love
Junior Brown - Better Call Saul - Extended Song
OneRepublic - Love Runs Out
Kylie Minogue - If Only
Young the Giant - My Body
I Got A Bad Feeling About QZ8501
I've got a bad feeling about this AirAsia QZ8501 crash. It may be a scandal once they get to the black boxes and figure out what caused the crash.
The crash of Air France 447 (AF447) on June 1, 2009 showed the Airbus A330 aircraft had a total, complete vulnerability to icing in thunderstorms. AF447's pilots were forced to fly through the thunderstorm wall of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) - they had no choice, because the thunderstorm wall over the eastern Atlantic was so big and long. The aircraft had three-fold redundancy with their air speed indicator Pitot tubes, and all three tubes failed, because they all work the same way and all three tubes experienced heavy icing and stopped working. A huge vulnerability was exposed by this crash.
And so, what has been done about the vulnerability? Maybe nuthin'? Indonesia sits within the ITCZ - they can't avoid it. They are forced to fly through thunderstorms from time to time. Early reports were the last recorded airspeed of QZ8501 (an Airbus A330-200) was unusually low. Perhaps the pilots were misled by their instruments about airspeed? Perhaps it's Pitot tubes icing up again?
Which may mean that modern aircraft - at least the Airbus A330, and maybe all modern airliners - are extremely vulnerable to thunderstorms. Like maybe you shouldn't even think about taking a trip in them, especially if you are traveling through the ITCZ, which means travelers to and from the Southern Hemisphere, or anywhere around the Equator, should beware.
I've got a bad feeling....
The crash of Air France 447 (AF447) on June 1, 2009 showed the Airbus A330 aircraft had a total, complete vulnerability to icing in thunderstorms. AF447's pilots were forced to fly through the thunderstorm wall of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) - they had no choice, because the thunderstorm wall over the eastern Atlantic was so big and long. The aircraft had three-fold redundancy with their air speed indicator Pitot tubes, and all three tubes failed, because they all work the same way and all three tubes experienced heavy icing and stopped working. A huge vulnerability was exposed by this crash.
And so, what has been done about the vulnerability? Maybe nuthin'? Indonesia sits within the ITCZ - they can't avoid it. They are forced to fly through thunderstorms from time to time. Early reports were the last recorded airspeed of QZ8501 (an Airbus A330-200) was unusually low. Perhaps the pilots were misled by their instruments about airspeed? Perhaps it's Pitot tubes icing up again?
Which may mean that modern aircraft - at least the Airbus A330, and maybe all modern airliners - are extremely vulnerable to thunderstorms. Like maybe you shouldn't even think about taking a trip in them, especially if you are traveling through the ITCZ, which means travelers to and from the Southern Hemisphere, or anywhere around the Equator, should beware.
I've got a bad feeling....
Monday, December 29, 2014
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