Category Archives: Weather/Climate

No green on TV

Posted on February 13, 2007 | Comments Off on No green on TV

Asked what he learned from his visit to the KVUE television station Monday night with the rest of the Tiger Cubs, Mr. Boy said, "You can’t wear green on TV." Chief meteorologist Mark Murray was our host, showing off and explaining the station’s newsroom, studio and the weather forecasting center. They use a green screen background wall for superimposing electronic maps, radar and other images, and Mark had a handy green sheet to demonstrate how wrapping oneself in it below the neck could make your body disappear on the tube. He was pretty calm, when faced with seventeen raucous first graders, for someone who has no children of his own. When we got home, Mr. B. spent an hour or so making up his Valentines for class tomorrow, before going off to bed.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Weather/Climate

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Global good?

Posted on February 5, 2007 | Comments Off on Global good?

I linked before to this good essay (with 40 plus comments) by Donald Sensing, but it’s worth doing it again. It answers a good question about Global Warming, one you’re not likely to hear in the doomsday "debate" and furor: What if the warming is a good thing? Rising oceans can’t be good, they say, but they won’t rise in an afternoon, but over many decades, allowing plenty of time to build Dutch-like dikes, for one thing. But what if the warming produced more arable land in the Third World, helping them to feed themselves better than they do now? What if, in other words, Global Warming is a good thing?

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Save the planet, 2

Posted on February 3, 2007 | Comments Off on Save the planet, 2

Professor Reynolds’ snarky suggestion to ban private jets and stretch limos to fight global warming certainly appeals to me. Since the celebs and politicos are gathering behind new demands for restrictions to tame the warmth–even if it may be a natural, and benign, process over which humans have no control–by restricting the rest of us, why not have them belly up to the bar, as well? But the Libertarian professor, Instapundit, accused of being merely snarky, makes a good argument of his own as to what needs to be done:

"Energy conservation needs to be something positive. Nothing sells on a "suffer for the future" model very well. Too many environmental activists are hair-shirt types (at least when the hair-shirt is for other people) and that stuff is poor salesmanship…This lesson applies to lots of other things, too. Neo-puritanism, on the other hand, has a certain personal and political appeal to some people, but it doesn’t sell beyond its niche. The less scold, the more sold."

Worth a read.

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Posted in Scribbles, Weather/Climate

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Not near as cold

Posted on January 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Not near as cold

Looks like the meteorologists whose interpretations last week of the computer forecast models showed a rash of bitter arctic air for Central Texas this weekend into next week are waffling:

"I think there will be a secondary reinforcing cold front through the area late in the day Sunday," emails Troy Kimmel. "This front will be colder than the one Friday night/Saturday morning. This will result in highs on Sunday around 50.. lows Sunday night falling into the upper 20s…"

He’ll have an update this afternoon, but so far he’s not foreseeing lows in the teens anymore.

UPDATE  Troy’s no longer concerned about possible unusual low temps, and that’s good.  

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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Save the planet

Posted on January 30, 2007 | Comments Off on Save the planet

Instapundit has the right idea. Since it’s the politicos, the rockers and the actors and other celebs who are all saddling up on the stop global warming hobby horse, let’s start by banning private jets, and stretch limos, then work down to mammoth SUVs. Make ’em put their own lives where their mouths are.

UPDATE  A Gulfstream II releases 10,000 pounds of CO2 an hour, celebs. You need to fly commercial. 

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Arctic air or not?

Posted on January 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Arctic air or not?

Central Texas meteorologists, from the broadcasters to the National Weather Service, are having conniptions trying to figure out what’s going to happen this weekend into next week. Some say the coldest weather in many years, others aren’t sure:

"I’d like nothing more than to tell you that the [computer forecast] models have settled on a reasonable solution regarding the timing and/or intensity of this expected arctic air," writes meteorologist Troy Kimmel. "This, however, is not the case as the models continue to be quite divergent in their solutions which really doesn’t make us feel any more confident regarding exactly how this potential event will unfold."

So we’ll just have to wait a few more days for the computer models and their artful interpreters to decide what’s going to be what and where.

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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No arctic air?

Posted on January 28, 2007 | Comments Off on No arctic air?

So we can hope. We’d certainly like to avoid the single-digit days of the Northeast, if we can. Indeed, the deep-freeze-by-next-weekend prognostications of meteorologists Bob Rose (who left town for a long-scheduled cruise) and Troy Kimmel seem to be defunct. The National Weather Service isn’t buying it, nor is Accuweather, and Austin’s KXAN weather folks have the daytime highs rising into the 60s by Saturday, about thirty degrees warmer than Rose and Kimmel were predicting last Friday. Fine with us here at the rancho, where the sun is out today but the air is in the chilly 40s. We’re already tried of winter, which usually only lasts a few weeks here in Central Texas, which we’ve grown to believe is our natural right.

UPDATE  The weather service has altered its forecast somewhat, saying the arctic air will come next Sunday but is expected to be "modified" before it reaches South Central Texas–their term for Central Texas–and so not as cold as previously advertised. But they’re hedging their bets on how cold. 

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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