Grateful Dead

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I predicted that this winter would be a bad one and that has so far come to pass, with a vengeance. In the Dakotas an early blizzard in October killed 75,000 head of cattle. Here in NE winter was slow coming on but 2 days after I got the snow tires on (12/4) the snow started and has come down in typical deep winter fashion, at least a dusting each night and we live in a river valley, not on a mountain ridge. Right now we're in the midst of the worst storm of the season, WS Hercules, which will bring blizzard-like conditions to Boston and the Cape later this evening depositing a uniform 8-12 inches by tomorrow. There would appear to be a pattern of arctic air breakouts that will continue throughout the winter. Many attribute this new winter weather pattern to global warming -- the total of which I count myself them amongst. If winter gives you cold & snow, dress warm and do winter sports. Unfortunately a poor man froze to death in a winter encampment 25 miles to the South. I pray it doesn't happen anywhere else.

Sunny, some clouds, a little breezy in Boca Raton, FL. Awesome!!! I just moved down here from New York.

Even though it's still going to be a sunny day the high is predicted to be only 69 degrees here in Clearwater, Florida. I guess that's why they call us the sunshine state.

It's "Groundhog Day" practically everyday in Los Osos, CA: Sunny, high in the 60's, lows in the 40's. Like San Francisco ( 240 miles to the north), we can get fogged in for weeks in the summer - it's our natural air conditioning. Definitely a climate that suits my clothes!

Early December has really been cold in much of the USA. KC hasn't seen a day above freezing in almost 2 weeks. The beer in my garage is perilously near the freezing point. Storm Electra may give us out first snow Friday night before she moves east to wallop Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and the northeast. I have a nephew near Bozeman, MT: he sent me a photo of the Gallatin River completely frozen and jammed-up with ice chunks....brrr

about how cold it is in the Bay Area (which it is, though a bit warmer today) until my niece in Montana said it was -2 at 1 in the afternoon at her place.

high temps in the single digits and strong winds will make it feel like -20F to -35F for the next couple of days and nights. That damn northwest wind cuts right through the clothes.

For the weather! California has a more than moderate drought on it's hands. Last year there was about 1% and this year it is a 28% area constituting drought in the Sierra Nevada. The rains just aren't getting far enough South to make up the snow pack. Better hope for those Pineapple Expresses to start lining up. (Not the Seth Rogen kind!) This is the life-blood drinking water for SF & LA.

Typhoon Haiyan LIVE: Philippines mass burials begin as corpses clog roads. Nobody had ever heard of Tacloban, a coastal city on one of the islands that make up the 7000 that comprise the Phillipines. Despite the islands acting as a barrier to the sea, a wall of water piled up with the 190 mph winds as the superstorm piled up a storm surge that completely devastated the flimsy buildings of the city. Scenes of interviews with the survivors were harrowing, people climbing trees to survive and such. Current total is 2200 confirmed dead with many thousands more missing. Although the hurricane season was below normal in the US this is a definite sign of things to come with a one foot rise in sea levels in the last 100 years. The ocean has been absorbing the fossil-burning based heating of the atmosphere but nobody has an idea how long this can go on. Low-lying areas everywhere are in peril. Flood insurance will either not be offered or become so expensive as to be prohibitive. Rebuilding the Jersey Shore may have seemed like the "American Way" but it now seems to be a fool's errand. Better to make a realistic survey of the shoreline and give way to the ever-encroaching sea and make a stand with huge sea-walls. That seems to be the more realistic path. I think it's time or a summer holiday at Hatteras National Seashore before this great area disappears and is reclaimed by the sea. It could have all been so much different if the industrialized companies had compromised with the developing countries in the late 80s, early 90s. Nothing but the karma of environmental degradation due to greed is left to harvest.

The Tri-State area of NH/VT/ME peaked today with it's foliage. Without the usual couple of cold-weather spikes the colors haven't been as vivid this year but the artist's palate, fully unfolded before my eyes, is enough to make me weep for life as it comes to this part of the never-ending cycle.