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| Cliff Harris |
Cliff
Harris
Cliff's Weather Gems'Wild Weather Extremes' took planet by stormIt's true, folks, 2004 will go into the record books as "the most catastrophic year on record on a global scale," according to the World Meteorological Organization in a report issued in Buenos Aires, Argentina last week at the annual Environmental Conference.
This past year has been punctuated by an all-time record number of deadly Pacific typhoons in Asia, with Japan alone registering10 damaging storms. The death toll from the recent back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines is approaching 1,000 people.
The hurricanes of 2004 caused more than $43 billion in damage in the U.S. and several Caribbean nations. The worst hit area was dirt-poor Haiti, where as many as 1,900 persons perished as the result of disastrous mudslides and flooding attributed to Tropical Storm, later Hurricane Jeanne, last September.
Statistics released at the climate seminar showed that "natural disasters across the world during just the first 10 months of this year cost the insurance industry just over $35 billion, up from $16 billion in 2003, which was the previous record for losses."
Munich Re, one of the world's biggest insurance companies, said that the losses in the U.S. alone tallied "an all-time record $26 billion." Many small developing nations such as Grenada, Jamaica and the Grand Cayman Islands were likewise hard-hit by this year's four powerful Category 4 or 5 status hurricanes, only the fourth time ever for such a catastrophic storm total.
Most scientists claim that a sustained increase in global temperatures will disrupt the planet's climate, raise ocean levels and dry up farmlands, thereby creating massive worldwide food shortages.
These renowned climate experts added, "temperatures across the globe have risen more than 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century, mostly since 1976. The average global temperature (mean) in 2004 rose above 57 degrees, just under the 57.4 degrees in 1998, the hottest year on record."
The month of October worldwide was the warmest it has ever been, at least since accurate records began in 1861, some 143 years ago. This past summer saw all-time record July/August highs between 104 and 113 degrees in Spain, Portugal and Romania. Then came a massive infestation of locusts. Most of Europe had their sixth warmer than normal summer season in the past 7 years.
But, the World Meteorological Organization left out many RECORD COLD statistics, the "opposite" EXTREME weatherwise. (Apparently, it didn't fit their global warming scenario.)
The Summer of 2004 was in fact the coldest such season ever in parts of southern Canada and the northern U.S. north of I-90. Even the Chicago area shivered in spring-like conditions until it finally warmed up and dried out in September and early to mid-October.
The mid-August HARD FREEZES in the Prairie Provinces of Canada and the northern U.S. Great Plains led to Saskatchewan's "worst natural disaster ever." They had a 19-day growing season! One can't produce very many tomatoes in less than three weeks!!!
In next week's installment of "Gems" I will review what happened on the less wild local weather scene in North Idaho during 2004. Stay tuned...
LONG RANGE OUTLOOK
Many months ago in our daily service reports on weather and commodities on DTN, which goes out to the world by both the Internet and satellite, Randy Mann and I predicted that, despite the new warm and moist EL NINO phenomenon in the tepid waters of the Pacific Ocean, "RECORD COLD and SNOW would push by Christmastime all the way south east of the Rockies through Texas to the Gulf Coast and beyond."
Well, folks, like the worst earthquake this past weekend in more than 40 years in Asia, which killed at least 12,000 people, IT HAPPENED!!!
South Texas awoke on Saturday to an extremely rare blanket of snow. Between 12 and 16 inches of the white stuff was measured around Victoria, which had its first white Christmas in 86 years, since the pandemic of influenza in 1918.
In the past 120 years combined, Victoria had previously received a mere 2.3 inches of snow, including the scant one-tenth of an inch on December 25, 1918, and a similar amount 31 years ago in 1973. In fact, Sacramento, California and Jacksonville, Florida have each seen more total snowfall in the same 12-decade time span. In 1932, Sacramento gauged 3.6 inches of snow and another 2.4 inches in 1972, 40 years later.
But, what is almost unbelievable, is that Victoria now boosts a 2003-04 winter snowfall total that is greater than some normally snowy cities up north like Fargo, North Dakota, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Spokane. Even our 11.7 inches for the season is LESS than Victoria's 13.4 inches. GO FIGURE!!!
Locally, we likewise had a white Christmas (of sorts). But, it was exactly like the one in 1918 in Victoria with just one-tenth of an inch measured at my Player Drive station in the northwestern corner of Coeur d'Alene. But, as Lynn Berk said in her column on Sunday, "it was just enough to make the world sparkle, a dusting on the grass, a glaze on the trees, seen through my brand-new eyes." (And, best of all, we didn't have to shovel it!!!)
It is certainly true that snow-lovers of all ages want some of that shovelable-type snow down here in the "Banana Belt" of North Idaho. But, when it's 40 degrees like it was on Sunday, we tend to get more rain than anything else. As I've repeatedly said over-and-over again for literally months now, it's our temperature and ELEVATION. We are just TOO LOW and TOO WARM, at least partially due to that aforementioned EL NINO in the Pacific Ocean.
BUT, KIDS, BE PATIENT! The winter season isn't even a week old yet. Soon, it will be OUR TURN to brag to our friends in California and elsewhere about OUR RECORD SNOWS! Remember, I'm still predicting that the 90-day period locally between December 29th, this Wednesday, and March 31st will see DOUBLE the normal 38.5 inches of snow that is usually measured in the Coeur d'Alene area.
Could I be wrong in this snowy outlook? Yes, but the odds are on my side this time around. I will never forget what happened after Christmas 36 years ago in the harsh winter of 1968-69. I was living and working in the Flathead Valley as a TV-weatherman on KCFW in Kalispell, and they made me do several of my shows in TEN-FOOT SNOWDRIFTS outside the studio. (I've never been SO COLD in all my life!)
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.....even the "sNIDe REMARKS" guy. But, let me ask you, M.F., are those "leaks from Hell" merely LETTERS FROM HOME? That was the WEIRDEST Christmas Eve column I've ever read! I can't wait to see what you're going to write on GOOD Friday, March 25. (I'll bet that you're going to CRUCIFY THOSE RED HOT MAMAS AGAIN!!!)
