Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 02 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Sun

Uh Oh, Global Warming Loons: Here Comes Climategate II!

polar bears on ice
© n/a
Breaking news: two years after the Climategate, a further batch of emails has been leaked onto the internet by a person - or persons - unknown. And as before, they show the "scientists" at the heart of the Man-Made Global Warming industry in a most unflattering light. Michael Mann, Phil Jones, Ben Santer, Tom Wigley, Kevin Trenberth, Keith Briffa - all your favourite Climategate characters are here, once again caught red-handed in a series of emails exaggerating the extent of Anthropogenic Global Warming, while privately admitting to one another that the evidence is nowhere near as a strong as they'd like it to be.

In other words, what these emails confirm is that the great man-made global warming scare is not about science but about political activism. This, it seems, is what motivated the whistleblower 'FOIA 2011' (or "thief", as the usual suspects at RealClimate will no doubt prefer to tar him or her) to go public.

As FOIA 2011 puts it when introducing the selected highlights, culled from a file of 220,000 emails:
"Over 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day."

"Every day nearly 16.000 children die from hunger and related causes."

"One dollar can save a life" - the opposite must also be true.

"Poverty is a death sentence."

"Nations must invest $37 trillion in energy technologies by 2030 to stabilize
greenhouse gas emissions at sustainable levels."

Today's decisions should be based on all the information we can get, not on
hiding the decline.

Bad Guys

Attorney Says Macondo Well Still Leaks Oil From Seafloor

oil gushing from BP’s Macondo well
© Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An image from a live video feed shows oil gushing from BP’s Macondo well on May 28.
An environmental attorney said oil is still leaking from BP's Macondo Formation more than 16 months after the well was declared sealed. The attorney said the only explanation for fresh oil bearing the Macondo fingerprint that's washed ashore on barrier islands is that the seafloor was damaged during the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and oil is seeping through.

The April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 people and dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days, until the well was declared capped, on July 15, 2010.

But attorney Stuart Smith told Courthouse News that new oil is washing up on barrier islands in Louisiana and Mississippi. "There's a deafening silence on the issue," from the Coast Guard and from BP, Smith said.

"We've been doing environmental testing, we've been spending a lot of time and resources doing what's called 'fingerprinting' the oil," Smith said.

"Oil from different reservoirs contains different concentrations of various stuff, and so each reservoir has a fingerprint. If you test it, you can tell where it's coming from. The Macondo well was the only well that was completed into that particular reservoir.

Cloud Lightning

US: Heavy rain, strong winds drench Western Washington

Image
© KING 5 News
Seattle - A late November storm is blasting Washington with high winds, drenching rains and heavy snow.

A high wind warning is in effect on the coast until noon Tuesday, along with flood watches through Wednesday night for rivers that easily flood in Western Washington, and a winter storm warning for the north Cascades until 6 p.m. Tuesday for up to a foot of new snow.

"We've had a lot of rain and a lot of wind," said KING 5 Meteorologist Rich Marriott. "The good news is the winds will begin to die down a little bit."

Moderate to heavy rain was blanketing Western Washington Monday morning. Between 1-2 inches of rain fell in the lowlands overnight, and Marriott predicts about 1-3 inches more for Tuesday. The rain will stick around through Wednesday morning, possibly causing some urban flooding due to clogged drains. Read Rich's complete forecast.

The Olympic Peninsula could see as much of 10 inches of rain, which could lead to some river flooding. A Flood Warning is in effect for Mason County on the Skokomish river at Potlatch.

Bizarro Earth

Fuego volcano - Guatemala: increasing explosive activity, ash plumes up to 2 km high

Image
© Unknown
Fuego Volcano
The Guatemalan geophysical survey SERNAGEOMIN reports increasing explosive activity from Fuego volcano, one of the country's most active volcanoes. Fuego was observed producing ash clouds reaching 1500-2000 m above the summit crater (at ca. 3600 m altitude) which drifted SW and reached up to 20 km distance where they produced some ash fall, reported in the communities of Panimaché, Morelia, Sangre de Cristo, and Santa Sofía.

The explosions were accompanied by moderate to strong booming noises and shock waves that could be felt in up to 15 km distance. Near-constant rock avalanches are observed on the upper slopes beneath the summit crater, some of which reach the vegetated areas.

Bizarro Earth

Kenneth Becomes Latest Major Hurricane Ever Recorded in Eastern Pacific

Hurricane Kenneth
© NOAA
Hurricane Kenneth, as seen in this GOES West satellite images taken today (Nov. 21), becomes the fourth tropical system on record to form in the eastern Pacific Ocean after November 18, and the second-latest hurricane after Hurricane Winnie on December 5, 1983.
Just one day after first reaching hurricane status, Hurricane Kenneth has strengthened into a Category 4 storm. The rare mid-November hurricane is now the latest occurring major hurricane ever observed in the eastern North Pacific basin.

Kenneth has punishing winds of 145 mph (230 kph), but is currently not considered a threat to land as it pushes westward some 750 miles (1,210 kilometers) south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Category 4 is the second-highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength. The storm is expected to remain a hurricane through Thursday before weakening.

Though the official hurricane seasons for both the eastern Pacific and Atlantic last until Nov. 30, it is rare for storms to form this late in the year, as tropical ocean waters are cooler than they are at the height of the season in August and September and therefore less likely to fuel the storms.

Bizarro Earth

Canada: Satellite Captures Unusual "Cloud Streets"

Cloud Streets
© NASA
NASA' Terra satellite captured cloud streets in Hudson Bay, Canada on November 20, 2011 at 12:25 p.m. EST (17:25 UTC).

I love looking at unusual cloud formations, and these have to be some of the most intriguing. These long, horizontal rolls of clouds are called "cloud streets" and NASA's Terra satellite had a "drive by" of these clouds, observing them over Hudson Bay, Canada on November 20, 2011 at 12:25 p.m. EST (17:25 UTC). These rows of clouds stretch from northwest to southeast over the Hudson Bay.

Cloud streets are long lines or bands of cumulus clouds that usually form within the lower one to three kilometers of the atmosphere, and come from eddies in the atmosphere.

According to NASA's Earth Observatory and the Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr page, cloud streets form when cold air blows over warmer waters, while a warmer air layer - or temperature inversion - rests over top of both. The comparatively warm water of Hudson Bay gives up heat and moisture to the cold air mass above, and columns of heated air - thermals - naturally rise through the atmosphere. As they hit the temperature inversion like a lid, the air rolls over like the circulation in a pot of boiling water. The water in the warm air cools and condenses into flat-bottomed, fluffy-topped cumulus clouds that line up parallel to the wind.

Hudson Bay is a large body of saltwater located in northeastern Canada. Also in the image, are several snow-covered islands in Hudson Bay. The larger island to the north is South Hampton Island, and the smaller island east is Coats Island, and further east is Mansel Island.

Bizarro Earth

Rare Mid-November Hurricane Roars to Life in Pacific

Hurricane Kenneth
© NHC/NOAA
The forecasted path and intensity of Hurricane Kenneth over the next five days.
A rare mid-November hurricane has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean and could be followed by an equally rare tropical storm in the Atlantic basin.

Tropical Storm Kenneth became a hurricane today (Nov. 21) after first forming as a tropical depression on Saturday.

Though the official hurricane seasons for both the eastern Pacific and Atlantic last until Nov. 30, it is rare for storms to form this late in the year, as tropical ocean waters are cooler than they are at the height of the season in August and September and therefore less likely to fuel the storms.

The average number of tropical storms seen in November between the years 1851 and 2010 amounted to half a storm; the average number of hurricanes is only 0.3, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The last Atlantic hurricane to form in November was 2009's hurricane Ida. Hurricane Tomas was still swirling in the Atlantic as of Nov. 7 last year, though it formed in October.

The latest a hurricane has ever been observed in the Atlantic basin was the second Hurricane Alice of the 1954 season, spotted on Dec. 31, according to the NHC. The latest hurricane to hit the United States was a storm that made landfall near Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 30, 1925 (this occurred before storms received names).

Attention

US: Californian road slides into the sea after heavy rains

A large chunk of a Los Angeles coastal road slips into the Pacific ocean following a mudslide caused by heavy storms.


Bacon

Mexico to Cull 50,000 Wild Boars Invading from US Border

Image
© (AFP/DPA/File, Patrick Pleul
Mexican officials have unveiled plans to slaughter some 50,000 wild boars that have crossed the border from the US
Mexican officials have unveiled plans to slaughter some 50,000 wild boars that have crossed the border from the United States and now threaten agriculture in Mexico.

The Ministry of Environment in Chihauha state said some 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of farmland in the border town of Ojinaga have been affected by the large number of feral pigs that have come from Presidio County, Texas.

"We must get rid of these European wild boars because they sleep overnight on US soil during the day and cross over to the Mexican side to feed," Ignacio Legarreta, a state official, told local media.

Cloud Lightning

Kenneth becomes late-season hurricane in Pacific

Forecasters say Kenneth has strengthened into a rare late-season hurricane in the eastern Pacific, although there is no current threat to land.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday that Kenneth had maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kph). The storm was centered about 705 miles (1,135 kilometers) south of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico, but was moving away from the coast. It could become a major hurricane in the next day or so.

It is moving west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph)

Projections show Kenneth moving west out to sea, away from land. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

The eastern Pacific hurricane season ends Nov. 30.