Category: EXTREME_WEATHER_MN

Think back to mid-December. It’s not easy.But for the moment forget things like the Christmas, Hannukah, and New Years holidays. And set-side briefly the frightening wind-blown fire that ravaged parts of Colorado near Boulder; the sudden early January heavy snowfall that blanketed the Mid-Atlantic and left hundreds (including U.S. Senator and one-time Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Kaine) abandoned on one of the nation’s most heavily travelled interstates – I 95 from Washington, D.C., area south to Fredericksburg, Virginia; the sub-zero temperatures in Montana and parts of the upper Midwest.

Sometimes climate change is measured in numbers — degrees warmed, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, extreme highs, acres burned.
Sometimes it’s measured in memories — of long-ago December mornings, when the temperature often dipped down to zero or of regular pickup hockey games on cranberry bogs that used to reliably freeze.

From record-shattering heat to frigid waves of cold, torrential downpours to relentless drought, 2021 has been a year of extremes in the United States.

Scores of studies presented this week at the world’s largest climate science conference offered an unequivocal and unsettling message: Climate change is fundamentally altering what kind of weather is possible, and its fingerprint can be found in the rising number of disasters that have claimed lives and upended livelihoods around the world.

Though tornadoes can occur in any season, the United States logs the greatest number of powerful twisters in the warmer months from March to July. Devastating winter tornadoes like the one that killed at least 88 people across Kentucky and four other states beginning on December 10 are less common.

Vicious wind and tornadoes put a deadly exclamation point on the end of an extraordinary year for extreme weather in the United States.

The Midwest is experiencing unprecedented weather with extreme heat and tornado force winds. CNN meteorologist Tom Sater said “this is not December weather.”

A devastating tornado outbreak across five states Friday night left dozens of people dead and reduced hundreds of homes to rubble, and some scientists say this may be the harbinger of future tragedies as the planet warms.

Having lived for more than 20 years in Houston Texas I have experienced some very extreme weather between hurricanes, floods and freezing temperatures with ice and snow. I learned from the 2005 hurricane Katrina that I need to be prepared for a major power outage. I saved money for several years and in 2008 bought a large portable generator for $700. That saved me several times. First when we lost power for 2 weeks following 2008 hurricane Ike. Then again in 2017 following hurricane Harvey when we had no power for a week. Finally in 2021 during the big Texas freeze when we had no power for 4 days. People spend too much money for entertainment and not enough becoming prepared for an emergency. Be prepared for yourself so you are not a victim of societies failures.

For months, supply chain issues and labor shortages have been putting the squeeze on Mike’s Pies, a popular commercial bakery here that’s been selling pies based off owner Mike Martin’s mother’s recipes for three decades. But another powerful factor — climate change — is heightening those challenges. Its impact is less visible but more enduring, and its consequences are playing out right as the food industry is struggling to avoid holiday season shortages.