Half of the top 10 snowiest Decembers in Grand Rapids have occurred since 2007

 The result, no doubt, of the generally wetter conditions in the Great Lakes over the long haul as predicted by slightly cooler Pacific Ocean waters indicated by the Oceanic Nino Index.

We've had 14+ inches so far in Dec 2022 with 2 feet expected in the latest storm, so this December might break into the top 5. 

Winter. It's what's for Christmas.

 

Temperatures in Grand Rapids, MI collapsed from 85 to 71 after 1:53am Saturday July 20th as storms knocked out power to thousands in West Michigan

The Sams Club in Kentwood lost power in the early morning storm, closing down the store and gas station for the day Saturday, which is quite unusual.

Workers there were observed after 1:00pm at the rear of the building tossing no longer refrigerated and frozen foods.

Consumers Energy crews were observed near the intersection with the store attempting to restore power in the sweltering heat.

The heat index not much later soared to 108 by 2:53pm.

A second round of storms after 4:00pm Saturday crashed actual air temperatures from 89 to 74, complicating the on-going power restoration efforts.

More than 500,000 without power in Michigan a day after ‘worst storm’ of the year:

While there are outages across the state, the Southeast Side of Michigan has the highest concentration. DTE Energy this morning said 375,000 of its customers remain without electricity after what it called the “worst storm” its line workers have dealt with this year.

" ... The weather event downed 1,100 power lines, making this the worst storm our region has experienced this year and one of the largest since the March 2017 wind storm," the utility said. ...

In West Michigan and the central part of the state, Consumers Energy was reporting about 122,000 customers without power today. Great Lakes Energy added to the tally with nearly 5,000 outages, mostly in Lake, Oceana and Osceola counties. ...

While there were strong wind gusts across the Lower Peninsula on Saturday, the most damaging happened in the areas of Kent and Ottawa counties [in West Michigan], the National Weather Service said. The damaging winds that took the house apart in the Jenison area were described as a “microburst.”

People found Hillary so revolting in 2016 she underperformed Obama 2008 in 39 states

Count 'em.

Hillary underperformed Obama in:

NY by 655,000 votes

MI by 604,000

OH by 549,000

MO by 387,000

PA by 381,000

IL by 336,000

IN by 335,000

WI by 295,000

TN by 218,000

MN by 206,000

IA by 175,000

KY by 123,000

WV by 115,000

CT by 101,000

KS by 100,000

AL by 87,000

NM by 87,000

OK by 82,000

NJ by 78,000

MS by 71,000

ME by 70,000

HI by 59,000

MT by 54,000

SD by 54,000

NE by 50,000

ND by 47,000

ID by 46,000

RI by 44,000

AR by 42,000

VT by 40,000

NH by 36,000

WY by 27,000

DE by 19,000

UT by 17,000

OR by 11,000

WA by 10,000

AK by 8,000

SC by 7,000

LA by 3,000

That's 5.6 million former Democrat votes alienated from Hillary Clinton in 2016 in 39 states, 60% of which came from the 8 Great Lakes states (3.361 million), according to the latest numbers this morning, three weeks after Election 2016.

Trump underperformed John McCain in 13 states and DC by 1.1 million votes, 63% of which were in California:

In CA by 727,000 votes
NY by 113,000
UT by 81,000
KS by 44,000
AK by 31,000
NM by 27,000
MA by 26,000
MS by 25,000
MD by 25,000
NJ by 18,000
OK by 11,000
WA by 9,000
VT by 4,000
DC by 4,000

The Great Lakes states found Hillary Clinton revolting: She underperformed Obama 2008 by 3.389 million votes in all eight of them

MN: 206,000

WI: 295,000

IL: 336,000

IN: 337,000

MI: 604,000

OH: 549,000

PA: 407,000

NY: 655,000

Trump outperformed McCain 2008 in every one of them except NY where he underperformed by 113,000 votes. Hillary beat Trump in MN by just 45,000 votes, in IL by 943,000 votes, and in NY by 1.51 million votes.

Liberals have finally figured out how close the vote was here in the Great Lakes States, want Hillary to ask for recount

Suddenly Democrats say the election was rigged!

I love the part of the story that claims Hillary won the precincts using paper ballots but not the machine precincts. 

As everyone knows, stuffing ballot boxes with paper ballots is the oldest Democrat trick in the book, from Texas to Illinois.

Here:

Three computer scientists are asking the Hillary Clinton campaign to ask for a recount in three states Donald Trump won, which may change the outcome of this year's presidential election.

Great Lakes average ice cover climbs to 88.75% after 59 days of 2015

Here's the recent history of day 59 data for average ice cover in the Great Lakes:

2011: 34.87%

2012: 06.09%

2013: 18.67%

2014: 85.40%

2015: 88.75%.

Ice cover conditions can change rapidly in the Great Lakes as temperatures drop.

2014 began the year with just 20% coverage, surpassing 60% by the first of February as the average air temperature plunged in January. For example, Grand Rapids, Michigan finished January 2014 6.3 degrees below normal on average. Ice coverage peaked above 92% by the end of the first week of March after a much colder February than normal. Again for example Grand Rapids air temperature finished February 2014 9.1 degrees below normal on average.

2015 is repeating this pattern to a significant degree. Beginning the year with just 5.65% ice coverage, the average cover climbed to only 38% by the first of February 2015 as January was not as cold as the previous year. For example, average air temperature in Grand Rapids was only 3.2 degrees below normal vs. 6.3 degrees the year before. Ice cover rocketed up on average in February, however, as the temperature plunged to finish the month 13.5 degrees below normal on average in Grand Rapids vs. 9.1 degrees below normal the previous year. It took just 11 days in February 2015 for average ice cover to surpass 60%, and just 16 days to surpass 80%.

Average ice cover in the Great Lakes may well surpass 92% as average air temperatures have averaged 1.3 degrees colder in the first two months of 2015 than in 2014.

Great Lakes Ice Cover is 25% ahead of this time last year: a warning for GDP?

Last year on this date the total ice cover was just 67%, when GDP was going negative supposedly because of the terrible winter we were having. The year before, ice cover on this date was 74.3%. As of yesterday, ice covers 84.4% of the Great Lakes, 25% ahead of last year.

Will GDP tank in 1Q2015 because of this?

We won't have what passes for complete knowledge about this until the end of June.

Data here.

Senate Dems Pull All-Nighter Talking Global Warming As Lake Michigan Posts All-Time High Ice Cover

The Christian Science Monitor reports here:

Twenty-eight Democrats and two left-leaning Independents, including Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his top lieutenants, are scheduled to speak in shifts until about 9 a.m. Tuesday. The event is not a filibuster, nor is it related to any legislation. The intent is to urge a divided Congress and nation to “wake up” on this issue.

Meanwhile Lake Michigan broke a record on Saturday for ice coverage at 93.29%, as reported here:

The National Weather Service says more than 93-percent of the lake was covered in ice on Saturday. A rapid build-up of ice came with a stretch of cold weather from late February into the first week of March. The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory measured the ice cover at 93.29 percent. That's the most since record keeping started in 1973, breaking the record of 93.1 set in 1977.

The Great Lakes Are 91% Ice Covered, Second Highest Percentage Since The 1979 Record Of 94.7%

Story here.

Stealing Food From the Future Depends on Stealing its Water

After reading this important story from Charles Laurence for the UK Telegraph, you will understand the necessity of industrial scale farming and genetically modified seeds, except that even after all that, the water beneath the High Plains isn't coming back, 20 percent of the world's food supply will disappear, the Colorado River will be the West's last lifeline, and T. Boone Pickens aims to make a mint in the process.

Here's an excerpt:

[I]t was only in the 1940s, after the Dust Bowl (the result of a severe drought and excessive farming in the early 1930s), that the US Geological Survey worked out that the watering holes were clues to the Ogallala [Aquifer], now believed to be the world's largest body of fresh water. They were about to repeat the dreams of man from the days of Ancient Egypt and Judea to turn the desert green, only without the Nile or Jordan. With new technology the wells could reach the deepest water, and from the early 1950s the boom was on. Some of the descendants of Dust Bowl survivors became millionaire landowners.

'Since then,' says David Brauer of the US Agriculture Department agency, the Ogallala Research Service, 'we have drained enough water to half-fill Lake Erie of the Great Lakes.' Billions upon billions of gallons – or, as they prefer to measure it, acre-feet of water, each one equivalent to a football field flooded a foot deep – have been pumped. 'The problem,' he goes on, 'is that in a brief half-century we have drawn the Ogallala level down from an average of 240ft to about 80.'

Brauer's agency was set up in direct response to the Dust Bowl, with the brief of finding ways to make sure that the devastation never happens again. If it does, the impact on the world's food supply will be far greater. The irrigated Plains grow 20 per cent of American grain and corn (maize), and America's 'industrial' agriculture dominates international markets. A collapse of those markets would lead to starvation in Africa and anywhere else where a meal depends on cheap American exports. 'The Ogallala supply is going to run out and the Plains will become uneconomical to farm,' Brauer says. 'That is beyond reasonable argument. Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do.'

Global Warming Freezes Lake Erie For First Time in 14 Years

Accuweather.com has the story:

Following a cold snap in the Northeast, Lake Erie's surface is virtually frozen over for the first time in about 14 years.

The ice ranges in thickness between paper thin along the northern shore and several inches along the southern shore, where many people are ice skating.

GoErie.com reports that the lake hasn't completely frozen since the winter of 1995-1996. ...

Lake Erie, with an average depth of 62 feet, is the most shallow of the five Great Lakes, which is why it is the only one that completely freezes over.

There's more at the link.