Extreme weather in the USA

This is the quote of the week - from Max Keiser, in response to the article below.

"Really? Are you that f****** stupid! Climatologists predicted 20 years ago that AGW will cause huge fires and huge torrential downpours within 20 years. Colorado and Florida are example of this today. 

Hell holds a special place for AGW deniers"

AGW = anthropogenic global warming 

America On Fire: Why Is The Number Of Wildfires In The United States Increasing?

Economic Collapse Blog,

As America watches large sections of Colorado literally burn to the ground, many are wondering why all of this is happening. There have always been wildfires, but what we are experiencing now seems very unusual. So is the number of wildfires in the United States increasing? As you will see later in this article, the answer is yes. 2011 was a record setting year for wildfires and this wildfire season is off to a very frightening start. Right now the eyes of the nation are focused on the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado. It doubled in size overnight and it has consumed more than 300 homes so far. It is threatening the city of Colorado Springs, and at this point more than 35,000 people have been forced to evacuate - including the U.S. Air Force Academy. On Twitter and Facebook residents are describing what they are seeing as "the apocalypse" and as "the end of the world". But this is just the beginning of the wildfire season. We haven't even gotten to July and August yet.

The Waldo Canyon fire is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive and destructive wildfires in Colorado history. The historic Flying W Ranch has already been burned totally to the ground by this fire. Local authorities are struggling to find the words to describe how nightmarish this fire is. The following are a couple of quotes from a CNN article....

Richard Brown, the Colorado Springs fire chief, described it as a "firestorm of epic proportions."

Gov. John Hickenlooper surveyed the Waldo Canyon Fire, telling reporters it was a difficult sight to see.

"There were people's homes burned to the ground. It was surreal," he said late Tuesday night. "There's no question, it's serious. It's as serious as it gets."

But this is not the only wildfire that is raging in Colorado. Right now there are 10 wildfires burning in the state. Overall, there are 33 large wildfires currently burning in twelve U.S. states.

If you will remember, New Mexico just experienced one of the worst wildfires that it has ever seen. Conditions throughout most of the western United States are ideal for wildfires right now. As USA Today reports, much of the western half of the country is under a "red flag warning" right now....

Throughout the interior West, firefighters have toiled for days in searing, record-setting heat against fires fueled by prolonged drought. Most, if not all, of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana were under red flag warnings, meaning extreme fire danger.

But wait, didn't this kind of thing happen last year too?

Yes it did.

In fact, 2011 was one of the worst years ever for wildfires in America. The following is a short excerpt from an EarthSky article....

Thousands of wildfires raged across the United States last year, 2011, burning a record amount of land, especially in the southern U.S. In fact, 2011 the third-most-active fire season since 1960 (when this record-keeping began) with respect to acres burned, according to preliminary data released from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in late December 2011. The NIFC will be releasing an official summary report detailing the 2011 wildfire season later in 2012, but for now you can read some of the details in the State of the Climate Wildfires 2011 report from NOAA.

During 2011, a total of 73,484 wildfires burned an estimated 8,706,852 acres (35,235 square kilometers) of land across the United States. Wildfire activity during 2011 was exceptionally high and was only exceeded in the historical record by wildfire activity during the years 2006 and 2007.

We have seen highly unusual wildfire activity throughout America in recent years. In the article quoted above you can find a chart which shows that wildfire activity in the United States has been far above normal during the past decade.

Wildfire records have only been kept since 1960. The 6 worst years on record for wildfires in the U.S. have all happened since the year 2000. The following is from an Earth Island Journal article that I found....

In the United States, where some of the most accurate wildfire statistics are kept, the six worst fire seasons in the past 50 years have occurred since 2000. In Texas, nearly 4 million acres were burned in 2011, double the previous record. This included the Bastrop Fire last September that destroyed 1,600 homes and became the most destructive fire in Texas history. In Arizona more than one million acres were burned in 2011, a new record. The Wallow Fire, which destroyed nearly a half million acres, was the largest fire in Arizona history. The Pagami Creek Fire in northern Minnesota became the third largest fire in state history when it burned 100,000 acres in September 2011, most of this in an unprecedented 16-mile run on a single day.

So what does all of this mean?

It means that the number of wildfires in the United States is increasing and wildfires are becoming more powerful and doing more damage.

So what is causing all of this?

The truth is that this is happening because we are seeing exceptionally dry conditions throughout the western half of the United States. In fact, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.

The eastern half of the country also gets very hot during the summer, but they don't have as many wildfires because they get a lot more rain.

Many areas in the western half of the country have been experiencing drought conditions for quite a few years, and there seems to be no end in sight for the drought.

If you go check out the U.S. drought monitor, you will see that almost the entire southwest United States is experiencing some level of drought right now.

So what will July and August bring?

It is kind of frightening to think about that.

Earlier this year I wrote an article that postulated that we could actually see dust bowl conditions return to the middle of the United States. Many readers were skeptical of that article.

But as much of the western United States continues to experience bone dry conditions and continues to be ravaged by wildfires, perhaps more people will understand how bad things are really getting in the interior west.

Just because we have made great technological advances as a society does not mean that we know how to tame nature. We can attempt to contain the massive wildfires that are popping up all over the place and we can attempt to deal with the drought, but in the end we cannot stop what is happening.

So do you live in any of the areas that are being affected by these wildfires?

Do you have an opinion about why so much of America is on fire?

Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below....

‘Flooding of record severity’ in Florida, thousands evacuat

Reuters,

26 April, 2012

27 June 2012 (CNN) – Thousands remain evacuated from their flooded homes in sodden Florida as a weakened Tropical Depression Debby was set to move off the state's Atlantic coast and back over water.

In Florida's Pasco County alone, 7,000 homes and commercial properties remained under evacuation order, county spokesman Eric Keaton said Wednesday. Seventy-three county residents stayed in shelters Tuesday night, Keaton said.

Authorities were allowing residents who present identification at checkpoints to enter their homes temporarily on a case-by-case basis, he said. Pasco County is north of Tampa.

Debby, which made landfall as a tropical storm on Florida's northern Gulf Coast Tuesday, dumped roughly 2 feet of rain on parts of the state.

Rain had finally moved out of the region Wednesday, according to National Weather Service radar, but flood warnings remained in effect across northern Florida, although all tropical weather watches and warnings were canceled.

Evacuations, either voluntary or mandatory, were also in place in many areas.

More than 100 people scrambled to escape rapidly rising water Tuesday near the St. Marys River on the Florida-Georgia border, according to CNN affiliate WJXT. Some men had to use a boat to get back to their homes and rescue their children.

"I'm the furthest one out (from the water), which means I'm the last to go under, and I'm going under," resident George Rhoden told the station.

"Everybody behind me is in bad shape. It's rising 10 inches per hour. We got to go. Everybody got to leave."

Debby paralyzed whole neighborhoods for days.

"Sadly, my car didn't make it through the flooding. My car was just too low, and (the water) ended up hydro-locking the vehicle," Magalie Caragiorgio of New Port Richey, who missed two days of work because of the flooding, said Tuesday. "I haven't been able to get my car towed due to the amount of cars being stranded."

As of 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, Debby was centered about 25 miles southeast of St. Augustine, Florida, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving east-northeast at 10 mph, carrying maximum sustained winds of 35 mph.

"Additional isolated rainfall amounts of up to 1 inch will be possible in some of the lingering rain bands, mainly over southern Florida," the weather agency said.

While Florida is no stranger to tropical weather, many residents said they had never seen flooding like that resulting from Debby.

"It's astonishing," Keith Blackmar of the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. "… Our soil is sandy, so it handles water well, but not this much rain."

In Sopchoppy, authorities rescued 57 people from homes surrounded by rising water, Blackmar said.

"The water levels came up so fast, some of the folks didn't have time to actually pack their things and move out," Wakulla County Undersheriff Maurice Langston said.

Florida State University researcher Jeff Chanton said the area's low-lying terrain has contributed to the misery.

"The coastal gradient -- the rise of the land -- is very, very low here," Chanton said. "If you were to go swimming here and walk out from shore, you could walk out half a mile." That means a relatively small storm surge can push water "tens or hundreds of feet onshore," he said.

More than 26 inches of rain was recorded in Sanborn, south of Tallahassee, by Tuesday. Nearby St. Marks saw nearly 22 inches. […]

After Days of Flooding, 'Debby' Set to Leave Florida

By Miguel Llanos

26 June 2012

River flooding form Tropical Depression Debby -- downgraded from a tropical storm late Tuesday -- forced up to 20,000 people out of their homes in one Florida county alone, while another area had already seen more than 26 inches of rain, topping the official forecast calling for up to 25 inches in a few areas by the time Debby moves out.

In Pasco County near Tampa Bay, a mandatory evacuation was ordered between the Anclote and Pithlachascotee rivers, Reuters reported. The Anclote rose from 9 feet before Debby's approach to more than 27 feet on Tuesday, flooding areas with water head-high in places.

Boats were used to reach stranded residents, and 106 homes had been damaged.

Wakulla County, meanwhile, has seen more than 26 inches of rain, weather.com said in a Twitter alert Tuesday morning. Authorities there advised people to stay in their homes due to washed out and flooded roads.

Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of northern Florida and southern Georgia as Debby moved eastward. By midday, Debby picked up speed to 6 mph and winds had dropped to 40 mph, but that didn't stop the rain.

Parts of Interstate 10 in north Florida were closed due to flooding on a 50-mile stretch between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. The Florida Highway Patrol warned motorists to use extreme caution on other parts of the highway.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been impacted, many having to leave flooded homes in Florida's Panhandle on Monday and others losing power or having property hit by twisters. […]

On Monday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a statewide emergency as five inches of rain in the course of an hour fell on some areas.

President Barack Obama called Scott on Tuesday and the federal government stands "ready to provide additional assistance if necessary," the White House said.

St. Marks, Fla., saw 21 inches in a two-day period while other areas got around 20 inches, weather.com noted.

Parts of Live Oak, Fla., were evacuated Tuesday due to flooding, it added.

Some areas of northern Florida and southeast Georgia could see up to 15 inches of rain Tuesday through Thursday, weather.com stated.

The National Hurricane Center predicted parts of northern Florida could see 25 inches of rain by the time Debby crosses Florida and exits into the Atlantic.

Weather.com noted that 2012 broke the record for the most named storms so early in the Atlantic season. Debby makes four so far, "leapfrogging Dennis from July 5, 2005.

"In an average year, the fourth named storm would have occurred by August 23," it added. "In terms of named storm counts, we're roughly two months ahead of the pace. That said, there is no correlation between a fast start to the season and the degree of activity of the rest of the season." […]