Honeybees may have lost their 'magnetic compasses' and vanished

By mere coincidence, Sholeh Patrick wrote a column this past Thursday concerning "the alarming rate of the killing off of our honeybee colonies."

As Sholeh pointed out, these honeybees are responsible for pollinating at least $15 billion worth of U.S. crops each year.

In the past several years, particularly since 2006, honeybees have vanished on a global scale. Some scientists have blamed global cooling and various resulting deadly viruses. Others say that the farmer's usage of at least 121 different pesticides are the root cause of the collapse of the honeybee colonies.

Sandy Kelso, a Press subscriber from Coeur d'Alene, in early March gave me an article that blamed "the recent sudden shifts in the Earth's magnetic fields for the honeybees sudden disappearance."

A beekeeper friend of Sandy's once told him to "remember the THREE-FOOT, THREE-MILE RULE" when it comes to bees." They LIVE BY it, or DIE by it."

Bees do not see very well and heavily rely on the magnetic field lines for guidance back and forth from the hive. If one moves the hive just three or four feet while the bees are away, the bees will return to the spot where their 'magnetic memories' takes them and miss the hive. They will often fly around aimlessly and become hopelessly lost, much like birds that lose their magnetic bearings and fly headlong into the ground or buildings. We mentioned these increasing bird deaths in a recent 'Gems' column. Aircraft headings and runway signs are constantly being adjusted for the ever-increasing magnetic shifts of more than 40 miles per year.

Also, bees will always fly to the nearby supply of flowers, less than a mile away, according to Sandy. So, if one moves the hive by more than three miles while the bees are away, they will return to the wrong place, the original hive location, they become lost, again bearing out "the three-foot, three-mile rule."

If our magnetic field keeps shifting towards Russia at more than 40 miles per year, more than 3 miles per month, this likewise means that "the three-foot, three-mile rule" has again been violated by uncontrollable natural forces that could eventually doom mankind to extinction. Maybe Albert Einstein was right when he said decades ago:

"If we were to suddenly lose the world's supply of bees, mankind would disappear from the face of the Earth in as little as four to five years."

Science tells us that these expanding magnetic field shifts in the position of the Magnetic North Pole will continue to have "an increasing negative impact on both aircraft navigation and the migrating patterns of wildlife, including the birds and the bees."

Stay tuned for additional updates on this subject. It may be the case of "TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE." That's indeed a SCARY QUESTION!

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

If you thought that March was an exceptionally wet month, you were right. In fact, only March of 1916 was damper with 5.37 inches of precipitation compared to 5.02 inches this soggy March of 2011. Our normal March precipitation is just 1.94 inches.

There were 24 days with measurable moisture this March, a new record since at least 1895, the inception of regular local daily weather statistics. The previous record was 23 days with precipitation in 1974, which likewise still holds the mark for the most January through March precipitation at 13.62 inches. This March ended in fourth place since 1895 at 12.11 inches. A new record for the date of 1.09 inches was gauged on March 10, which produced minor local flooding in the area.

As far as snow was concerned, we measured just 7.9 inches the entire month of March following an extremely snowy February with 26.2 inches. As of Friday, April 1, our 2010-11 seasonal snowfall total in Coeur d'Alene stood at a healthy 113.4 inches, 43.6 inches above normal and a whopping 95 inches more than the puny 18.4 inches that I measured on Player Drive in northwest Coeur d'Alene during the warmer than normal 'El Nino' winter of 2009-10. Our normal seasonal snowfall in town is 69.8 inches, so the two-year snowfall total during 'El Nino' and 'La Nina' was 131.8 inches, actually a bit below normal overall, from 'famine' to 'feast.'

The current winter of 2010-11 would have been quite normal without the 38.3 inches, an all-time record, of snow last November and the much above 26.2 inches in February. The December, January and March snowfall totals this winter combined were just 48.9 inches, some 9.8 inches below normal.

This time around, we actually had 'two' winters, one in November and a second in February. The rest of the winter of 2010-11 wasn't bad at all, despite the chilly 'La Nina' in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

April will continue to be wet and cool as the 'La Nina' is tenaciously holding on to life in the Pacific Ocean regions.

Longer-term, Randy Mann and I are still hopeful that we'll see a warm and dry summer season in 2011 as 'La Nina' finally dies off in the tepid waters of the Pacific.

A very strong stationary ridge of high pressure could begin in June lasting through July, August and at least early September. This should mean lots of 'Sholeh Days' this summer with afternoon highs near or above 90 degrees. At least three or four days may see afternoon maximum readings near or above the century mark in the Inland Empire.

But, if we do see unusually hot, dry and windy weather this summer, it could spell BIG TROUBLE for this region's parched grasslands and forests. Fires could rage over wide areas of the Far West later in the season. Stay tuned.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. E-mail sfharris@roadrunner.com