Severe Weather

OK ...  so I'm a worry wart ... I'll admit it.  :

I'm concerned about this unusual weather, particularly in the midwest.  I'm worried about Ned, Lorna, Karl and Russ.  I'm concerned about the Dicks, Brinks, Fosters, Pete Harpin, and others in triple digit weather in the east.  Does anyone know where Terry and Betty are along their route to the Maritimes?  I know there are others in that area, also.  Jeff and Sue Cousins?  Smokey and the Admiral?  John in Detroit? 

I'm also concerned about the 250 workamping couples Adventureland employs each year ... our former coworkers.  Recent weather warnings mentioned similar conditions as 1974 which was the year A-Land suffered major damage and had to rebuild.  We went through some pretty frightening storms the six seasons we worked there, but nothing like this year.

I hope all of our forum members are now safe and stay safe in their travels.  We're also having unusual weather here in Oregon, but not scary.  It's just a little rainier and a little colder than is usual this close to summer.  It seems few places are "normal" this year. 

Margi

When it comes to places being "normal" I think it's not so much abnormal weather as short memories.

Weather follows cycles, There are major cycles and minor cycles, fast and slow cycles.

One cycle happens to follow the sunspot cycle, about 11 years, so about every 11 years it gets kind of stormy out, and/or the snow gets kind of deep in the winter.

Another cycle seems to run closer to a century, (I'm not sure just how long)

Some folks wonder how "Old Farmer's Almanac" can be so often right when it comes to weather predictions. (As weather predictors go they have a very enviable record) when the book goes to press nearly a year before the storm comes to pass in some cases.

Though they are a bit closed mouth about all the details.. They studied the cycles, going back to before this country was a country, and based on that, and a few other things, they make their predictions.

They also predict in "Oracle mode"  Which means the predictions are vague enough as to nearly guarantee a hit

But this is how they can do it.  They have a very long memory.    I do well too but not quite as long as theirs

Margi, we've had a LOT of rain here in the past few days.  Russ was here over the weekend but avoided the big (3") hail that hit some of the western suburbs on Saturday.  The ground is saturated and our 3 rivers are flooding, there have been tornadoes in at least 7 counties of SE WI, but no major damage that I've heard of.  Our street was flooded to the north, but we're on higher ground and didn't have any problems.  Those near the clogged storm drains had 2+ feet of water and it came within a foot flooding some trailers.  I was going to take some photos on Saturday but it started raining again when I went back for the camera so didn't get any shots.

These storms came out of Iowa (of course) and moved out over the lake.  I know Sheboygan had at least as much rain as we had, but I think Karl is still safe.  He was when I talked to him a few days ago and I see his computer is online.  Russ should be up there today sometime.

Terry and Betty are in Mackinaw City right now.

John you could not be more correct (in my opinion ), we must remember in the early 70's the world was in the grips of        "GLOBAL COOLING" ;. Oceans were freezing, whole fleets or fishing boats were frozen in the early ice and sunk. The experts of the day knew the earth was COOLING down!! Just like the latest group of experts know with out doubt that the earth was getting WARMER!! OK so we now know that the earth has cycles of warmer and cooler, The problem is the experts give us (humans ) too much credit for causing it all, cow farts and motor homes are changing the worlds temperature, well lets see what the experts of 2038 have to say! 

Tom and Marji, Relax and enjoy Mother natures show, sometimes scary and sometimes beautiful, but always changing (at least in the north east).

Mark R. said:

Relax and enjoy Mother natures show, sometimes scary and sometimes beautiful, but always changing (at least in the north east).

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Mark:  I do enjoy Mother Nature's show when it's not destructive.  When I see pictures of Parkersburg, Iowa, or when people whose friendship I cherish are in harm's way, I don't enjoy the show at all. 

Ned:  Thanks for the report.  I'm glad to hear you and Lorna are OK and hope that the rest of the troops are, too.  Just saw pictures of houses washed away in the Dells. 

John in Detroit:  I was wondering how you were doing and if you were safe.  I guess a discourse on weather cycles and Farmer's Almanac prognostication passes for fine in "John Speak".    I'm happy to hear you're safe. 

Margi

Well, I did say that here in the city we are fairly well protected from Tornados.. Just one set of storms in 30 years, and those were a good 10 miles or more from where I am

A few small branches down is all here, did not even loose power (Branches were too small for camp fire wood if you wonder what "Small" means.  Finger size, Kindling perhaps)


Now... To be honest.. I would not mind a tornado taking out this house.. But I'd like to be elsewhere when it happens.

My section of NC has broken high temp records that date back to the early 1940s and several of them by over 5? (up to 103? last week which is unheard of for this area during this month). 

A friend in MI near Grand Rapids had a small creek that runs through his back yard overflow the banks and threaten houses for the first time even old time residents could remember.  With Lake Michigan so close and this creek draining into a river that empties directly into it, flooding of any amount is unusual and a rise of over 8 feet in only a few days is way beyond that.

Parts of Indiana are headed toward the Mississippi River.

Certainly we get good years and bad years but this year seems badder than the the usual bad for quite a few areas of the country.

Hi Margi,

We've been just ahead of the major storms.  In fact it was only a couple of days ago that we had to drive the rig in the rain since leaving Yuma on 4/17/08.  We  were heading out of  Kalamazoo and  the thunder clouds just opened up, not drop nor buckets but falls of rain with high winds.  We had fog too and so the first Rest Area we saw, we pulled into and prepared to stay as long as it took for weather to clear. 

We had lunch and within 2 hours skies were clear, roads were clearing so we headed to Higgins Lake.  We were glad we stopped as we saw accidents and trucks who had slide into ditches.  On Saturday it was beautiful and we were able to take a nice boat ride with friends out on the lake.  Yesterday was misty and cold all day so we took a day off and I've started to read Pillars of Life.  Today it was misting so we bundled up in our rain gear and toured Mackinaw City.  By the end of the day I had peeled off all coats , sweaters and was hot .  I sampled fudge, pasties and wine in the city.  Then we  toured the Fort and watched a canon go off and watched a musket demo.  Life is good, even though we are swatting mosquitoes the size of small hummingbirds .  We are now sitting in rig watching the waters of Lake Huron right in front of us.  It is 70 degrees and 73% humidity.

Tomorrow we plan to take the ferry to the island and tour some more.  Weather has not been an issue for us, but thanks for thinking  of us.  We  watch the weather channel every day and adjust travel accordingly.  Oh the joy and blessings of being retired. We will meet up with Russ in Sault Ste. Marie  in 2 days(Wed 6/11)

Betty,

Russ dragged this weather with him from Iowa and he's headed your way   Our mosquitoes all drowned and washed out into the lake.  I just hope it dries up before the next hatch.  With the ground so saturated, there's lots of standing water.

Betty:  Glad to hear you and Terry outrode the storms ... so far.  Keep up the good work!  Thanks so much for the update.  I really miss your travelogues.   Helaine has just finished reading Pillars of the Earth on her electronic gizmo.  I'm so intrigued by her enthusiasm that I plan to pick up a copy soon and dig in.  I didn't read it when it was first published and can't imagine 900+ pages about building a church, but everyone raves about it and says they can't put it down, so I'm game. 

Newt and Jan:  Thanks for checking in with more information.  Since we were fortunate enough to have crossed the US at least three times when we were traveling, more places feel like "home" to me when I read news stories.  We rode out a wicked ice storm in Durham/Chapel Hill when we were staffing a See's Candy kiosk at the Streets of Southpoint mall in December 2001.  Power was out for about a week and a half.  Other than that minor little detail, I loved the time we spent in North Carolina. 

Margi

Margi

Even though I am not with Ned at the moment but in St Paul MN we too are safe.  I am taking care of my granddaughters this week and today was a busy one going to Como Zoo and the rides that are there.  Then it was on to swimming at a new indoor facility three blocks away.  It is so much fun to be with them.  The weather in the Twin Cities has been ok and today it is sunny but a little cool for me but ok for the ones that live here all the time.  Thanks for thinking of us.  Be sure to read Pillars of the Earth, it is great.

Margi,

We've had a lot of rain since we left Oregon.  But so far no severe weather.  We monitor the weather channel on our CB. We landed in Coeur D'Alene, ID a little while ago.  And the skies waited until we got set up before the down pour.  We are safe and do'n great.

Barb

Barb said:

Margi,

We've had a lot of rain since we left Oregon.  But so far no severe weather.  We monitor the weather channel on our CB. We landed in Coeur D'Alene, ID a little while ago.  And the skies waited until we got set up before the down pour.  We are safe and do'n great.

Barb

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Barb,
Will you and Frank be stopping by Sam's Camp?  I can give you directions.

Lorna and Barb:  Good to hear from both of you and glad to hear you're both safe and sound. 

Tom and I just returned from a block party here at Timber Valley.  We're leaving our lot soon and moving to one across the street and down about four.  While the new lot was sitting empty, we all brought chairs, tables, drinks and snacks and got together to give the summer season a proper send off.  Rain was predicted, but nary a sprinkle fell on our party. 

Margi

We're having weird weather here, too. But our weird weather is that one day it's 20 degrees below normal and the next day it's 15 degrees above normal, then the next day it's 15 degrees below normal and the day after that it's 20 degrees above normal. My poor vegetable plants don't know what to do. Of course, this is better than eastern Colorado where they had tornadoes in the morning (VERY unusual). Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?

Wendy

Margi:

After living in the Midwest for 40 years this is more of the same. Tornadoes are fairly local in nature, not like the earthquakes, fires and floods you endure in the West. 8)

The funnel clouds around here in Illinois didn't touch down so everyone is back to worrying about the price of fuel.

You folks should come out west. We're experiencing severe calm and warm temps.

We were really disturbed when we watched the news and saw houses float off their foundations.

A few weeks ago our neighbor had visitors from Oklahoma; They sat watching TV news as the torandos ran rampant close to their homes. Fortunately, their houses were not hit.

We are have weather like we would expect in the Northwest.  Rain and cloudy most every day.  Today was nice and sunny till about 16:00 then we had a light thunderstorm with rain come through.  Lawn is getting past time for mowing but it is just too wet.  Maybe Friday.

Glad to here from our members in the storm/flooding areas are OK.

There is another fine group of folks enduring some unpleasant weather who's safety should be first in our thoughts and prayers.
The average day/night temperatures are 120/95 this time of year in IRAQ.  JMHO, lou

OnaQwest said:

There is another fine group of folks enduring some unpleasant weather who's safety should be first in our thoughts and prayers.
The average day/night temperatures are 120/95 this time of year in IRAQ.  JMHO, lou

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When the do gooders were complaining to Sheriff Joe about housing prisoners in tents in AZ with all the heat He mentioned that our troops in Iraq were living in tents at higher temps and if it was good enough fo our troops then it was good enough for criminals in AZ.