Global Warming since the year 1880

It sure looks like it is getting warmer doesn't it?

Click image to enlarge.

Is it from human activity or a natural cycle?  Or a combination of the two?  Will it continue?

Winter for 2010/2011

A drier winter seems likely since the El Nino has weakened considerably.  More to come later this summer.

4th of July weekend begins a 10 day heatwave.

We already have had 1 hurricane in the Gulf, so the forecasts for an active hurricane season appear to be on track, so far.  According to Weatherunderground, there have been only 11 hurricanes in June, since 1945.

We are in for a hot weather spell which will last through the end of next week.

HAPPY 4th of JULY !

Forecasters see a hot summer this year, not like last year.

Both the National Weather Service and Joe Bastardi at Accuweather see a hot summer ahead.  They also agrre on a hurricane season that will be more active than usual.

5 star General , Dwight D. Eisenhower and the weather connection to the Normandy invasion.

General Eisenhower who commanded the Normandy Invasion.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was selected to be the commander of all the forces that gathered for the Normandy invasion.  His easy going, mid-western ways were key in his appointment.  He was seen as a man who could get along with such forceful personalities as Patton and Montgomery.

Weather was immensely important for the invasion.  On the advice of the weather forecasters, the invasion was launched during a brief lull in a spell of stormy June weather.  The NAZI forces did not believe that an invasion could take place that week. 

As the invasion drew nearer,  General Eisenhower got little sleep and smoked cigarettes constantly.  He was, perhaps, the most nervous soldier of all.

As the invasion approached, he said that before the battle commences, the plan is everything.  Once the battle begins, he said, all the plans are worthless.

D Day brought all the confusion that could be expected.  A key flaw in the plan for first wave of soldiers, to hit the beach, was that the Captain of each group was placed at the front of the landing craft.  It was felt that the officer should be in front to lead his men.  As a result, all of the officers were killed or wounded immediately.  The enlisted men had no officers.   Many were hopelessly distant from their planned landing area.  All were seasick, from a rocky crossing of the English Channel.

 Fortunately, the initiative and improvisational skill that Americans were known for, enabled them to regroup and devise a battle plan on the fly.  They did not wait for new orders to come from higher up.

Meanwhile, the reserve NAZI forces were frozen in place, not responding.  No one dared to awake a sleeping Adolph Hitler, who would give the command to counter attack.

More below.

The greatest generation. World War II vets.

My dad, who served in the army and took part in the invasion of Italy. 


 That campaign was the first direct assault on Nazi controlled Europe.  His assignment was to an anti-aircraft battery, as a machine gunner and truck driver.  He was awarded the Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound he received.


 Italy was supposed to be the easy invasion.  It wasn't. It helped pave the way for the Normandy invasion. 1944 photo. Died August 24,1951.


See below for one of my favorite quotes from General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of the Normandy Invasion.

NASA Photo from the Solar Dynamics Laboratory

A composite photo of 5 different wavelengths.

Who said that? 5 star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953. Shortly after taking office as President.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."






We don't make them like that anymore.  It has been said that the returning GI's from WWII, did not ever take any joy, boast or brag about what they did.  They were simply glad the war had ended.  In fact ,I have heard, many times, that they never talked about it at all.  God bless them all.


How ironic, that the top military leader of WWII, became one of the most strident voices against war.  Eisenhower was also famous for his warning about the dangers of "the military industrial complex" 


 We are now, I feel, in the grips of that complex, where endless war is itself, the goal. 


 A nation once united by the Great Depression and World War II, is here no longer.  The Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War,  Kennedy assassination, Martin Luther King assassination,Watergate, Clinton impeachment, Iraq War have all left us as a polarized nation. 




The USA is in a Polar Vortex, with no way out, so far.

COSTOFWAR.COM - The Cost of War

COSTOFWAR.COM - The Cost of War

Posted using ShareThis

 New Jersey has spent 45 billion dollars on wars since 2001.  Our budget shortfall this year is 8 billion.  Think about it.


That is $12,000 a minute folks, just for New Jersey.


IN TOTAL, WE ARE NOW VERY NEAR THE 1 Trillion dollar mark.

I am a winter weather enthusiast, so I won't have much to say until we get indications on the 2010-2011 winter season.

BLIZZARDS AND HURRICANES, IS THERE A CONNECTION?


Record warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic, portend a very active hurricane season.  A diminishing El Nino, is expected to add to the potential for strong hurricanes.  And, should this trend hold, another rough winter may be coming up next season.


The past winter weather pattern is connected to the set up of this hurricane season pattern.

Summer-like Easter Weekend, Rain next Saturday.

Several locations had a record rainfall for March, of about 10 inches of rain.

2 to 3 inches of rain in the last 8 hours will cause moderate flooding.

Accuweather .com reports that we had 22 storms this winter with 30 to 40 inches of water.  ( be that rain or snow )  No wonder we are so worn out!


1 inch of snow in Tobyhannah PA, Tuesday afternoon.




My own long range outlook is for mild to warm weather for 10 days then, cool weather will re-appear.

Through much of the day, the heaviest rain has missed northeast NJ.  Rain may build back in overnight and cause flooding Tues. ,Wed.

3 to 6 inches of rain! Flooding almost certain.