The Sunday Night News
Monday, 6 January 2014 00:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physics2315 hours
• I-94 is closed from Michigan City, just across the border in Indiana, to the Illinois state line. "If you're driving to Chicago you won't make it."
• An Amtrak train west of Kalamazoo has stalled near Niles for over seven hours. Brake line froze. They've tried to thaw it, but it didn't go. An eastbound train stopped and took anyone who wanted to return to Kalamazoo, and left some drinking water. A passenger on the phone to the TV station said they were waiting for the next westbound Amtrak train and they would combine, then proceed to Chicago.
• Kalamazoo started the day with 5-5½" of new snow. Places in West Michigan were getting a foot to a foot and a half during the day and overnight.
• A band of heavy lake effect has established itself down the length of Lake Michigan. It is slowly moving east, intersecting the coast along the southwest corner of Michigan. Expecting an inch or more per hour.
• Monday will see another 3-6" west of US-131, the main road between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. But the winds will be picking up. Gusts of 35mph will produce drifts, and with the much colder air behind the front, severe wind chills. Tuesday will see a high maybe of 0°F, and be sub-zero all day.
However, it will be 35°F and raining by the weekend.
• CNN is showing a movie tonight -- huh? -- March of the Penguins. Is CNN trying to tell us something? Or have they just run out of news or money to pay anyone to read the news?
What Does It Mean?
It is easy to read too much in this, other than taking more care and keeping up with the results.
Weather is not climate. One storm, or even a series of cold, snowy, icy storms, does not mean global cooling. At least not by themselves. Remember, global climate studies involve science. And science dictates that we study as many variables as we can and couch results in predictions and uncertainties.
Global cooling? A new ice age? Puh-lease, just last week the heat pump was running and we've got the system to switch from the LP furnace to the electric heat pump at 42°F. And by the weekend we'll have rain. Yeah, it'll be damned cold, but it does that sometimes around here. And unlike International Falls MN which gets really, really cold, or the U.P. where we could go two weeks with temps below zero, the extreme stuff doesn't tend to last around here.
What we do get is a lot more ice. And that's why we own 4WD and AWD vehicles here and never did in the U.P.
Too much weather news for you, especially when conditions are, as usual, much worse elsewhere? Remember that part of the purpose of this blog is for me. To remember. To compare. Sorry.
Dr. Phil
• I-94 is closed from Michigan City, just across the border in Indiana, to the Illinois state line. "If you're driving to Chicago you won't make it."
• An Amtrak train west of Kalamazoo has stalled near Niles for over seven hours. Brake line froze. They've tried to thaw it, but it didn't go. An eastbound train stopped and took anyone who wanted to return to Kalamazoo, and left some drinking water. A passenger on the phone to the TV station said they were waiting for the next westbound Amtrak train and they would combine, then proceed to Chicago.
• Kalamazoo started the day with 5-5½" of new snow. Places in West Michigan were getting a foot to a foot and a half during the day and overnight.
• A band of heavy lake effect has established itself down the length of Lake Michigan. It is slowly moving east, intersecting the coast along the southwest corner of Michigan. Expecting an inch or more per hour.
• Monday will see another 3-6" west of US-131, the main road between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. But the winds will be picking up. Gusts of 35mph will produce drifts, and with the much colder air behind the front, severe wind chills. Tuesday will see a high maybe of 0°F, and be sub-zero all day.
However, it will be 35°F and raining by the weekend.
• CNN is showing a movie tonight -- huh? -- March of the Penguins. Is CNN trying to tell us something? Or have they just run out of news or money to pay anyone to read the news?
What Does It Mean?
It is easy to read too much in this, other than taking more care and keeping up with the results.
Weather is not climate. One storm, or even a series of cold, snowy, icy storms, does not mean global cooling. At least not by themselves. Remember, global climate studies involve science. And science dictates that we study as many variables as we can and couch results in predictions and uncertainties.
Global cooling? A new ice age? Puh-lease, just last week the heat pump was running and we've got the system to switch from the LP furnace to the electric heat pump at 42°F. And by the weekend we'll have rain. Yeah, it'll be damned cold, but it does that sometimes around here. And unlike International Falls MN which gets really, really cold, or the U.P. where we could go two weeks with temps below zero, the extreme stuff doesn't tend to last around here.
What we do get is a lot more ice. And that's why we own 4WD and AWD vehicles here and never did in the U.P.
Too much weather news for you, especially when conditions are, as usual, much worse elsewhere? Remember that part of the purpose of this blog is for me. To remember. To compare. Sorry.
Dr. Phil
