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| Cliff Harris |
The Dust Bowl days have returned
In answering the many questions that I've received lately concerning my recent statement in this column that global warming may possibly be 'peaking,' I certainly didn't mean to infer that it was 'OVER,' but merely approaching a 'CLIMAX OF INTENSITY,' much like during a similar period seven decades ago during the infamous DUST BOWL DAYS.
For many years now, I've been telling my commodity clients on my daily service on DTN that "2006 would mark the scorching return of the hottest weather in central U.S. history dating back to the blistering summer of 1936."
The National Weather Service this past week reported that "2006 has become the warmest year on record through mid-July in the nation's midsection, at least since the inception of widespread record-keeping in the U.S. in 1895."
Just a week ago Saturday on July 15, the town of Usta, South Dakota soared to incredible 120 degrees, tying the all-time maximum reading for the state originally set back on July 5, 1936, again exactly 70 years ago.
On Wednesday, July 19, the town of Voda, Kansas reached 117 degrees, also an all-time high breaking again the 1936 record. Drought and heat, like during the Dust Bowl era, have killed crops and livestock alike. Kansas this past week completed an unprecedented streak of 11 days-in-a-row with at least 110 degrees or higher somewhere in the state between July 10 and July 21.
This 70-year cycle in intense warming hasn't failed to recur in at least 980 years, since 1026 A.D. to be exact, around the time that a similar period of unusual warmth allowed the Mighty Vikings in their fabled 'long boats' to reach the North American Continent from Greenland, where they were farming plowed fields free of ice at the time. They set foot on ground somewhere along the rugged, barren coastline of today's Labrador where they found grapes, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables currently grown much farther south in milder climes.
Oddly enough, it took another seven 70-year cycles of warming, 490 years to be exact, before John Cabot, the famous English explorer, returned to the same region. England claims that Cabot actually discovered North America, not Leif Ericsson or Christopher Columbus. The jury is still out.
What happened just 'after' the last 70-year peak of extreme warming in 1936 in the U.S. and elsewhere?
Well, it was only a couple of years later that Adolph Hitler invaded Poland. Then in late 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and we were abruptly forced into World War II. I was born a few months later in May of 1942. I was 'in the oven' baking on December 7, 1941.
The 1940s turned very COLD and SNOWY during the winters of 1942 through 1945, both here in the U.S. and in Europe, particularly in Russia and the Baltics. It's my climatological opinion that MA NATURE WON THE WAR!
It could happen again, folks, believe it! World War III may be 'at the doorstep.'
90-DAY OUTLOOK - HEAT REVIEW
This past weekend, as we predicted, was one of the HOTTEST such periods on record across the western third of the nation.
Death Valley on Saturday soared to a sizzling 125 degrees, only 9 degrees cooler than the all-time U.S. record for extreme heat of 134 degrees set some 93 years ago during another cycle of global warming on July 10, 1913. (Nearly 102-year-old Harold Slorp of Hayden remembers this blistering summer well.)
Other record highs this July 2006 weekend included; 120 degrees at Thermal, California, 118 degrees at Blythe, California, 116 degrees at both Yuma and Phoenix, Arizona, 115 degrees at Chico, California, 113 degrees at Las Vegas, Nevada, 112 degrees at both Redding and Red Bluff, California, 110 degrees at Sacramento, 109 degrees at both Hanford and Pasco, Washington, 108 degrees at Omak, 107 degrees at both Boise and Lewiston, Idaho, 106 degrees at both Medford, Oregon and Walla Walla, Washington, 104 degrees at both Salt Lake City, Utah and St. Maries, Idaho, 103 degrees at Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls, Idaho as well as Burns, Oregon, 102 degrees at Missoula, Montana, Sandpoint, Idaho and San Jose, California and 101 degrees at Eugene, Oregon, Kellogg, Hauser Lake and Fernan Lake, Idaho. It was 100 degrees at both Helena, Montana, and Olympia, Washington. Kalispell, Montana. Seattle, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon each reported record 97 degree readings on Saturday.
Following another afternoon on Monday with possible triple-digit readings, the fourth day in-a-row in places, it should begin to slowly cool off as the week progresses.
There will be some isolated showers and a few thunderstorms early in the period with sunny skies between Wednesday and Friday before some additional scattered thunderstorms, mostly over the mountains, arrive later this last weekend of July into the first week of August.
I see another triple-digit heatwave around the August 9-16 'full moon' cycle just prior to much cooler weather and more widespread rains into the 'new moon' phase of August 23-30.
I'm still planning on visiting the 2006 North Idaho Fair and Rodeo between August 23-27, rain or shine. It's my favorite event of the entire year! Plan to visit me at the various booths, including the Coeur d'Alene Press booth and Realtors Tom and Joyce Paschane's 'rocking cubicle.'
