New England Jackets – Midwest “Heat Spike” (remembering America’s deadliest storm: 1900 Galveston Hurricane)

A Chilled Big Apple. Residents of New England are digging out their jackets and sweatshirts, buzzing about “an early autumn”. Right. A far cry from the central USA. The New York office of the NWS is predicting wake-up temperatures in the low and mid 40s away from the city and coast.

The Great Galveston Hurricane Of 1900. This is still the greatest loss of U.S. lives from a single storm. NOAA Magazine has a slightly different perspective recapping this amazing display of hubris and nature at its worst; here’s a clip: “…By the turn of the century, Galveston’s population approached 40,000 and it seemed destined to become one of the biggest and most important cities along the Gulf Coast. Destiny, however, can be a capricious mistress, a fact that would become painfully clear on September 8, 1900. On that fateful day, the Great Galveston Hurricane roared ashore, devastating the island city with winds of 130 to 140 miles per hour and a storm surge in excess of 15 feet. When its fury finally abated, at least 8,000 people were dead, 3,600 buildings were destroyed, and damage estimates exceeded $20 million ($700 million in today’s dollars). To this day, the 1900 Galveston hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in the nation’s history...”

Scientists Assess Damage From Yosemite-Area Fire. Here’s the latest fromusnews.com: “Scientists are assessing the damage from a massive wildfire burning around Yosemite National Park, laying plans to protect habitat and waterways as the fall rainy season approaches. Members of the federal Burned Area Emergency Response team were hiking the rugged Sierra Nevada terrain Saturday even as thousands of firefighters still were battling the four-week-old blaze, now the third-largest wildfire in modern California history. Federal officials have amassed a team of 50 scientists, more than twice what is usually deployed to assess wildfire damage. With so many people assigned to the job, they hope to have a preliminary report ready in two weeks so remediation can start before the first storms, Alex Janicki, the Stanislaus National Forest BAER response coordinator, said…”

Photo credit above: “In this photo provided by the U.S. Forest Service, members of the Horseshoe Meadow Interagency Hotshot Crew, from Miramonte, Calif., walk near a controlled burn operation as they fight the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park in California Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013. The massive wildfire is now 75 percent contained according to a state fire spokesman.” (AP Photo/U.S. Forest Service, Mike McMillan).

The World’s Worst Weather! Yes, the summit of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire is certainly in the running for that great honor. It makes Minnesota look like Club Med. I grabbed this image Sunday evening, when the air temperature at the Weather Observatory was a crisp 27F with sustained winds of 45.5 mph, creating a chill factor of +8F. Lovely.

26 Maps That Show How Ethnic Groups Are Divided Across America. This was interesting – a clip from a story at Business Insider: “The United States may be a melting pot, but many ancestry groups still stick together. Take German-Americans, the country’s largest ancestry group with 49 million members. While they make up more than 30% of the population in the Midwest, they account for less than 10% of the population in the Deep South and California….Maps of the largest ancestry and racial groups in America based on the American Community Survey can be found in a book called “Ancestry & Ethnicity in America.” With permission from Grey House Publishing, we’re posting them here...”

Climate Stories…

Climate Change Leaves Hare Wearing The Wrong Colors. Snow is on the ground for less of the year in the Rockies, and that has implications, as explained in this NPR story– here’s a clip: “The effects of climate change often happen on a large scale, like drought or a rise in sea level. In the hills outside Missoula, Mont., wildlife biologists are looking at a change to something very small: the snowshoe hare. Life as snowshoe hare is pretty stressful. For one, almost everything in the forest wants to eat you. Alex Kumar, a graduate student at the University of Montana, lists the animals that are hungry for hares. “Lynx, foxes, coyotes, raptors, birds of prey. Interestingly enough, young hares, their main predator is actually red squirrels…”

Photo credit above: “A white snowshoe hare against a brown background makes the animal easy prey.” L.S. Mills Research Photo.

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