sunshine hours

JAXA Sea Ice Extent (Antarctic and Arctic and Global) – Day 126 – 2016

Published on May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 by sunshinehours12 Comments

JAXA sea ice extent data from Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

4,200 Bald Eagles A Year – Slaughter Approved By Obama

Published on May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 by sunshinehours13 Comments

Environmentalism = Cold Blooded Eagle Slaughterers

Don’t get in the way of crony capitalists making huge subsidies.

The Obama administration is revising a federal rule that allows wind-energy companies to operate high-speed turbines for up to 30 years, even if means killing or injuring thousands of federally protected bald and golden eagles.

Under the plan announced Wednesday, companies could kill or injure up to 4,200 bald eagles a year without penalty — nearly four times the current limit. Golden eagles could only be killed if companies take steps to minimize the losses, for instance, by retrofitting power poles to reduce the risk of electrocution.

More here.

Fort McMurray and Climate Change

Published on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by sunshinehours13 Comments

Fort McMurray Alberta, Canada is burning. 1,600 homes so far.

Some people have already started blaming “Climate Change”.

Here is wikipedia’s list of hottest temperatures ever recorded in Canada. 1937, 1936, 1941 …. You have to go to the bottom of the list to find one from 1960 and one from 1961. Look up dustbowl (but be careful … wikepedia and others blame the following temperatures on bad plowing techniques)

Date Recorded	Location	Temperature
July 5, 1937	Midale, Saskatchewan	45.0 °C
July 5, 1937	Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan	45.0 °C
July 11, 1936	St. Albans, Manitoba	44.4 °C
July 11, 1936	Emerson, Manitoba	44.4 °C
July 5, 1937	Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan	44.4 °C
July 16, 1941	Lillooet, British Columbia	44.4 °C
July 16, 1941	Lytton, British Columbia	44.4 °C
July 17, 1941	Lillooet, British Columbia	44.4 °C
July 17, 1941	Lytton, British Columbia	44.4 °C
July 17, 1941	Chinook Cove, British Columbia	44.4 °C
July 29, 1934	Rock Creek, British Columbia	43.9 °C
July 5, 1936	Midale, Saskatchewan	43.9 °C
July 11, 1936	Emerson, Manitoba	43.9 °C
July 11, 1936	Morden, Manitoba	43.9 °C
July 4, 1937	Rosetown, Saskatchewan	43.9 °C
July 5, 1937	Regina, Saskatchewan	43.9 °C
July 16, 1941	Oliver, British Columbia	43.9 °C
June 23, 1900	Cannington, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
June 25, 1919	Dauphin, Manitoba	43.3 °C
July 31, 1926	Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 24, 1927	Greenwood, British Columbia	43.3 °C
July 25, 1931	Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1936	Estevan, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 7, 1936	Emerson, Manitoba	43.3 °C
July 11, 1936	Waskada, Manitoba	43.3 °C
July 11, 1936	Virden, Manitoba	43.3 °C
July 11, 1936	Brandon, Manitoba	43.3 °C
July 11, 1936	Greenfell, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1937	Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1937	Grenfell, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1937	Francis, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1937	Regina, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1937	Estevan, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 5, 1937	Carlyle, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 12, 1937	Regina, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 27, 1939	Oliver, British Columbia	43.3 °C
July 17, 1941	Oliver, British Columbia	43.3 °C
July 17, 1941	Skagit River, British Columbia	43.3 °C
July 19, 1941	Elbow, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 19, 1941	Lumsden, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
August 6, 1949	Rosetown, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C
July 19, 1960	Newgate, British Columbia	43.3 °C
August 5, 1961	Maple Creek, Saskatchewan	43.3 °C

UK Supermarket Builds Own Power Plants In Fear of Blackouts

Published on May 5, 2016 by sunshinehours1Leave a comment

Wow. Isn’t one of the signs of a first world economy a stable reliable electrical grid?

Not anymore. Green stupidity is amazing.

Sainsbury’s has cast doubt on the UK’s ability to keep the lights on, revealing it has built a string of new power plants for its supermarkets in part due to fears of a looming energy crunch.

Paul Crewe, a senior executive at the supermarket giant, said he had sleepless nights over energy security and feared UK electricity demand could soon outstrip supply.

The new gas-fired power generators – already supplying electricity for 10 supermarkets, and due to be built at a further six this year – would enable the stores to keep trading even in the event of a blackout, he said.

“It gives us energy security,” Mr Crewe said. “Energy security is extremely important, it keeps me awake at night if I’m honest thinking about it – especially as we use just under one per cent of power in the UK. We know UK grid infrastructure is at an extremely stretching period of time.”

He raised concerns about the UK being “reliant on interconnectors from Europe and gas from the Baltic and Russia”.

“Having the ability to generate our own power at a local level gives us surety of supply at these locations as the availability of electricity becomes more stretched across the national grid infrastructure, with demand potentially outstripping supply in the near future,” he said.

– See more at: http://www.thegwpf.com/sainsburys-builds-its-own-power-plants-amid-energy-shortage-fears

JAXA Sea Ice Extent (Antarctic and Arctic and Global) – Day 125 – 2016

Published on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by sunshinehours1Leave a comment

JAXA sea ice extent data from Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Arctic for day 125 is only 168,000 sq km below 2006.

Sixteen Natural Droughts Since 1658 Worse Than Todays

Published on May 4, 2016 by sunshinehours13 Comments

Tree rings are magical. Not only can you reconstruct temperatures from the past, but you can reconstruct droughts (rainfall).

Whenever I see the word “novel approach” I worry we are in for BS.

However, since the authors of this paper are saying things were worse in the past than present I like to pretend I believe them.

They also sort of say that more dendrohydrologists are needed. Surprise.

Recent streamflow droughts in south coastal British Columbia have had major socioeconomic and ecological impacts. Increasing drought severity under projected climate change poses serious water management challenges, particularly in the small coastal watersheds that serve as primary water sources for most communities in the region. A 332-year dendrohydrological record of regionalized mean summer streamflow for four watersheds is analyzed to place recent drought magnitudes in a long-term perspective.

We present a novel approach for optimizing tree-ring based reconstructions in small watersheds in temperate environments, combining winter snow depth and summer drought sensitive proxies as model predictors. The reconstruction model, estimated by regression of observed flows on Tsuga mertensiana ring-width variables and a tree-ring derived paleorecord of the Palmer Drought Severity Index, explains 64% of the regionalized streamflow variance.

The model is particularly accurate at estimating lowest flow events, and provides the strongest annually resolved paleohydrological record in British Columbia. The extended record suggests that since 1658 sixteen natural droughts have occurred that were more extreme than any within the instrumental period. Flow-duration curves show more severe worst-case scenario droughts and a higher probability of those droughts in the long-term reconstruction than in the hydrometric data.

Such curves also highlight the value of dendrohydrology for probabilistic drought assessment. Our results suggest current water management strategies based on worst-case scenarios from historical gauge data likely underestimate the potential magnitudes of natural droughts. If the low-flow magnitudes anticipated under climate change co-occur with lowest possible natural flows, streamflow drought severities in small watersheds in south coastal British Columbia could exceed any of those experienced in the past ∼350 years.