14 November 2024
Seven years ago this month, on 5 November 2017, a cold front spawned 24 tornadoes as it passed over Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The one that hit Williamsfield, Ohio was documented by the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
The November outbreak was unusual for its location and intensity, described in this vintage article.
So far, this year’s November tornadoes are less numerous and are well south and west of here.
11 November 2024
In late October all of Pennsylvania went into a Drought Watch. We are not alone.
Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought, an unprecedented number.
More than 150 million people and 318 million acres of crops are affected by drought after a summer of record heat.
— Guardian: Nearly all of US states are facing droughts, an unprecedented number
As of 5 November the drought is Severe to Extreme in Southeastern Ohio, West Virginia, western Maryland and the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.
The amazing thing is that it took only four months to get that way.
In April the Monongahela River flooded the Duck Hollow parking lot — twice — when we had two downpour days of more than 2.6 inches each.
Then it stopped raining in June and the weather turned exceptionally hot. A drought began in July that became Severe that month in West Virginia and western Maryland.
By late August the boating season was over at Youghiogheny River Lake due to low water. On 1 November when Judy Stark took these pictures, the lake had dropped so far that an old bridge and the foundations of a submerged town were revealed above low water.
In just four months the Monongahela River switched from flood to drought. Since it flows from West Virginia to Pittsburgh, it’s useful to look at precipitation in Morgantown, WV to understand these extremes.
The graph below shows Morgantown’s 2024 monthly precipitation through yesterday, 10 November. Normal precipitation is in green, Actual is in blue. Notice it was at or above normal until July and severely below normal in September and October. (“Normal” precipitation in August came in two downpours that ran off rather than soaking in.)
Yesterday it rained in the Monongahela watershed for the first time in weeks, a long soaking rain that lasted all day. In Morgantown it accumulated just over an inch (1.02″) and was enough to match their month-to-date “normal” for November.
We’re so thankful for yesterday’s soaking rain but we’ll need more than one day to end the drought.
Fingers crossed. Thursday looks good for rain.
p.s. Yes, Sunday’s rain was not enough. This evening KDKA TV News showed footage of brush fires over the weekend, including one that was burning while it was raining.
The NWS meteorologist in this video, Colton Milcharek, says that it will take a rainy day like yesterday every week for 5 weeks for us to get out of this long term drought without mishaps.
1 November 2024
In 1944 the US Army Corp of Engineers completed a flood control dam across the Youghiogheny River that created a lake into Maryland. The project included a new bridge for US Route 40 because the Great Crossings Bridge at Somerfield would be submerged and so would the town’s low lying streets and buildings.
Normally the lake is full and beautiful. You would never know there was a bridge underneath it.
But this year a drought in the Youghiogheny watershed has lowered the lake so far that you can walk out on the old Great Crossings Bridge.
This Google Map shows both bridges.
embedded Google Map showing submerged Great Crossings Bridge north of US Route 40
Pittsburgh is not in severe drought so it’s hard to understand how this lake could drop unless you know where the river comes from. The Youghiogheny is a north-flowing river with headwaters in the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland. Notice that the rest of the Monongahela river basin starts in West Virginia as well.
The headwaters of both the Youghiogheny and Monongahela have been in drought since early July. At this point the drought is Extreme to Exceptional in western Maryland and West Virginia.
Water levels have dropped in both rivers but the Monongahela cannot afford to get too low because it carries a lot of barge and boat traffic.
However, there is water upstream to feed the Monongahela. Releases from Youghiogheny River Lake have, in part, kept the Mon navigable.
And so the old bridge emerges from the deep.
p.s. This isn’t the first time the old bridge has been exposed.
24 October 2024
Yesterday I saw a video of a scientist choking up at the prospect of Atlantic Ocean circulation failing. Why is he sad?
Yesterday 44 of the world’s leading climate scientists wrote an open letter about collapse of the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation (AMOC)
— Philip Boucher-Hayes (@boucherhayes) October 22, 2024
When I interviewed one of them about the consequences of AMOC reaching a tipping point he could barely keep it together. ? pic.twitter.com/Xsu0po5iZs
(If you don’t see the video above, click on this link.)
The speaker is one of 44 climate scientists who released an open letter this week warning that by 2050 a tipping point will likely cause the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) to fail, making northeastern Europe much colder and ushering in a host of other adverse effects. He is from Britain and 2050 is just 26 years away.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is the main ocean current system in the Atlantic Ocean and a major component of Earth’s ocean circulation. It transports heat and salinity northward and returns cold water to the south. —- paraphrased from Wikipedia
Climate scientists have been studying AMOC for decades because they realize that as Greenland melts, it dumps freshwater into the North Atlantic. The freshwater influx slows the northern end of the AMOC and that messes up the whole system.
We (Americans) haven’t paid much attention to this because we think it will only affect Europe but “messing up the whole system” will change the planet completely. Adverse effects include:
This 13-minute video from PBS describes what AMOC is, how it affects us, and what will go wrong when it fails.
For a relatively quick synopsis, see The Guardian: ‘We don’t know where the tipping point is’: climate expert on potential collapse of Atlantic circulation.
18 October 2024
I have heard that mangroves protect coastlines during hurricanes and tsunamis but I could not imagine how they did it until I saw this video from Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK), Special Envoy for the President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and 13 year old climate activist.
This is actually why we plant mangroves trees pic.twitter.com/0rNwkkbRZU
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) October 13, 2024
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is the eastern half of Timor island, located north of Australia. The other half of the island is part of Indonesia.
Timor was created by volcanoes so its mountains are steep and nearly everyone lives on the coast. It is good to live by the sea, but they need mangroves to protect them.
Timor island is located in the region with the highest diversity of mangroves in the world — 26-47 species in one place. Compare this to just one or two species in Louisiana.
When a hurricane hits Louisiana we often hear that the damage would not have been so great if they had more mangroves. Louisiana is now trying to restore their mangrove forest but it is slow going.
Learn more about mangroves in this award-winning video from The Marine Diaries.
15 October 2024
Many crops around the world are irrigated but this inevitably leads to salty soil. Eventually the land becomes useless for agriculture.
USDA explains:
What happens when you irrigate?
Irrigation inevitably leads to the salinization of soils and waters. In the United States yield reductions due to salinity occur on an estimated 30% of all irrigated land. World wide, crop production is limited by the effects of salinity on about 50% of the irrigated land area. … Concern is mounting about the sustainability of irrigated agriculture.Where does all the salt come from?
— USDA Agricultural Water Efficiency and Salinity Research Unit: Riverside, CA: Frequently Asked Questions About Salinity
Application of irrigation water results in the addition of soluble salts such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfate, and chloride dissolved from geologic materials with which the waters have been in contact. Evaporation and transpiration (plant uptake) of irrigation water eventually cause excessive amounts of salts to accumulate in soils unless adequate leaching and drainage are provided.
Salt residue makes the soil hostile for everything, even weeds.
This worldwide problem will get only worse as climate change increases drought, so a team of researchers looked for salt tolerant crops.
Focusing on the tomato’s closest wild relative, the tiny currant tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium), they selected “over 2,700 cultivars, raising the seedlings in two environments: a greenhouse, and an open field.”
The best results came from five cultivars from Peru.
What genes do these plants have that make them thrive? That’s a question for the next study.
Read more in Anthropocene Magazine: A tiny tomato may harbor the secret to salt-tolerance in a climate-changed world. “The closest living wild relative of the common tomato holds untapped genetic secrets thanks to its large diversity.”
1 August 2024
On Tuesday 30 July after a period of abnormally dry weather Pittsburgh had a series of gully washers that scoured the creeks and greened up the grass. The downpours were sudden and stupendous. In just three brief episodes — fortunately spaced seven hours apart — we received 0.85″ of rain.
Ten years ago we were amazed by these episodes because they were so different from our usual slow, soaking rains. Back then the only place I’d experienced this weather prompted me to call it “Texas rain.” In 2014 climate.gov predicted an increase in heavy rain episodes on this map. Pittsburgh registered an uptick but not the worst.
Five years later climate.gov revised their prediction and it was worse.
From climate.gov: Prepare for more downpours: Heavy rain has increased across most of the United States, and is likely to increase further.
The two maps are not “apples to apples.” On the 2019 map the prediction time frame is longer and change is expressed as a percentage rather than an absolute number of days.
However the map is scary and it lit a fire under Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) to fix the sewers now before things get worse. Since then they’ve been systematically digging up city streets to replace ancient storm sewer lines while Alcosan (sewage treatment) is implementing their EPA-approved plan to keep sewage out of the rivers.
We don’t need a prediction map to tell us it’s getting wetter in Pittsburgh. Frequent heavy downpours are now a way of life.
Read more — though 10 years old — in this vintage article:
30 July 2024
Today in Pittsburgh we’re looking forward to a week of heavy downpours.
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK, Pittsburgh, PA, 30 July 2024— National Weather SErvice Hazardous Weather Outlook for Pittsburgh, PA, July 30 through August 5,2024
Scattered showers and thunderstorms could produce heavy rainfall that creates localized flooding concerns, favoring low lying or urbanized areas.
It’s hard not to notice that Pittsburgh’s climate is changing fairly rapidly into hotter, wetter weather. Climate predictions indicate that 60 years from now, Pittsburgh weather will feel a lot like McCormick, South Carolina does today.
This is bad news for trees that are on the southern edge of their range. Not only do they live a long time but they cannot adapt as fast as our climate is changing. For example, quaking aspens, which prefer cooler weather, will disappear from Pittsburgh by the end of this century. Meanwhile eastern cottonwoods will do just fine.
Pittsburgh’s urban forest and parks are feeling the heat, too. If we do nothing we’ll have fewer and poorer trees in the city 100 years from now.
Fortunately the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is planning for our future forest by testing southern tree species at Fezziwig Grove in Schenley Park. Read about the tree nursery project and Kentucky yellowwood, pictured below, at TribLive: Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy forges forest of the future in face of global warming
To visit Fezziwig Grove, use the map at this link.
Wondering what our climate will feel like in the future? Check out this vintage article.
15 July 2024
Excessive heat from the western U.S. is now in the East and the next two days promise to be brutal.
Right now I’m in Tidewater Virginia where today’s high temperature will be 97°F and “feel like” 107°F. Just after dawn the turkey vultures warmed their wings in my sister’s backyard. I’m sure they know where and how to stay cool later today.
We humans, however, are not always in control of our time and some humans are not as smart as turkey vultures so every newscast reminds us to be careful and stay cool.
Yes, today will be hot but tomorrow will be worse. There will be Extreme Heat even in the mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Fortunately Wednesday will bring relief. Watch the heat for 15-17July on these maps.
18 June 2024
When a heat dome persisted over the Central US. last August my reaction was “At least it isn’t happening here.” Well, now it is.
A high pressure system that was overheating the Southwest moved in on Monday and put a cap over us that’s circulating hot air and trapping heat at the surface.
Meanwhile there are very few clouds to block the sun. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter. Climate Central says the metro areas of Indianapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston are experiencing:
Pittsburgh’s forecast is all orange.
Meanwhile all of us are under stress, especially plants, animals, outdoor workers, people without air conditioning and homeless people.
In addition to all the physical changes, heat makes us irritable, even angry.
Last evening severe thunderstorms knocked out power to more than 100,000 electric customers in southwestern PA. I’m fortunate to have both electricity and air conditioning so I’m staying indoors.
I can hardly wait for it to end.
p.s. US weather maps never show Canada. Did the heat just cease at the border? Nope. It’s hot in Canada, too!
