A Change in the Wind
Scientists now are closely watching the Pacific and will know with more certainty in two or three months what the winter should bring. For now, all the trend lines are showing a greater likelihood of a wet winter than a dry one, particularly with the massive Kelvin wave still moving.
“Don’t hyperventilate yet,” Patzert said. “It’s a little too early to say the drought will be over, but this Kelvin wave is no dud. This is a stud.”
So suggests the probabilistic outlook from NOAA: Doesn't look so good for SoCal, unfortunately. From Matt Weiser at the Sacramento Bee. John Fleck at the Albuquerque Journal suggests reporters watching 6-10 outlooks for rain are drought-obsessed. Weiser cheerfully admits it (on Twitter).
Sometimes the news you would like to cover is not the news you encounter in a day at work — but it's still news. Here's just such a fact which tumbled, unannounced, from a 127-page assessment of Ventura County's overall health by its healthcare agency, in a major report released in December (2013), whose fundingContinue reading “Ojai has the oldest population in Ventura County: Study”
For California, the Department of Water Resources releases an "experimental" long-term forecast, based on ocean indices. Lead forecaster Dr. Klaus Wolter of NOAA predicts — as he did last year — dryness, but opens the door to the possibility of an El Nino developing in spring. The forecast's three central predictions for the 2014 waterContinue reading “SoCal 2014 water year forecast: Dryness, but…”
Wondering why you don't like flying as much as you used to? If you're a member of the middle class, Harold Meyerson — a left-leaning columnist for the Washington Post — has an answer for you. Airline seating may be the best concrete expression of what’s happened to the economy in recent decades. Airlines areContinue reading “Flying today: the dominance of the upper class”
It's a little shocking to see experts turn aganst modern society, but it happens: Regarding smartphones, a NYTimes op-ed — Your Phone vs. Your Heart — argued that smartphones can alter our lives on a genetic level, for cryin' out loud. The human body — and thereby our human potential — is far more plasticContinue reading “Experts: Smartphones and sugarsaltfat are changing us”
"To walk across the country is to fall in love with mankind." So argues Ken Ilgunas, the first walker quoted in a NYTimes news analysis about walking as a spiritual quest (by Kate Murphy). Story looks at a number of examples, the anthropology ("a limnal realm outside of and yet proximal to society"), the possibleContinue reading “To walk across the country is to fall in love with mankind”
From a typically first-rate NYTimes magazine story by Pulitzer winner Michael Moss: In 2011, The New England Journal of Medicine published a study that shed new light on America’s weight gain. The subjects — 120,877 women and men — were all professionals in the health field, and were likely to be more conscious about nutrition,Continue reading “The suburban form of crack — the potato chip”
This press conference at the AGU (American Geophysical Union's fall meeting) this year is brilliantly timed, coming just two years after a series of big AR storms surprised Southern California, and a week or so after one hit Northern California. Improving forecasts of “Pineapple Expresses”Monday, 3 December1:30 p.m. NOAA scientists and colleagues are installing theContinue reading “Atmospheric River press conference at AGU 2012”
From the brilliant Jessica Hagy:
Kit Stolz