Nation's weather extremes may be the new normal

[XemaSab]

Reporting from Los Angeles and Marshall, Okla.— Oklahomans are accustomed to cruel climate. Frigid winters and searing summers are often made more unbearable by scouring winds. But even by Oklahoma standards, it's been a year of whipsaw weather.

February was so cold — with the wind chill it felt like 16 below — that Tim Gillard installed a door in the long hallway of his home in the small farming town of Marshall, walling off three rooms to more affordably heat the rest of the house. Now, in this summer's unrelenting heat, his family huddles in the air conditioning behind that same door.

The Gillards' respite ended this month when a windstorm knocked out the town's electricity. That sent many of Marshall's 290 beleaguered residents out to their porches at night to sleep, cooler than inside but still sweltering. In July, Oklahoma's average statewide temperature of 89 was the highest ever recorded for any state.

Oklahoma's misery has been writ large across the country this year, which federal climate scientists have labeled one of the worst in American history for extreme weather. With punishing blizzards, epic flooding, devastating drought and a heat wave that has broiled a huge swath of the country, the 2011 weather has been unrelenting and extraordinary.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-extreme-weather-20110824,0,940647.story

[truebrit71]

1. They are obviously not praying hard enough...

...because we know that global climate change is a man-made myth...:sarcasm:

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Prayer won’t stop myths

Education can occasionally stop myths.

[madrchsod]

3. lots of water in the iowa/northern Illinois region and lots of heat

looks like the this trend is`t going away. tuesday rainfall across northern illinois was 1-2 inches. a new year record could be set this year for heat and moisture....maybe we should start planting rice.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. k&r

[SheilaT]

5. Yep.

Back some time in the late 60's or early 70's I recall reading that we had recently come out of a very long (maybe 80 years) period of relatively mild climate, and we were now heading into an undetermined length of time in which we could expect more extremes of all sorts.

Wish I could recall where I read this, but it may have been as far back as when I was in high school, and I read nothing but mainstream publications, so this would have been in something like Time Magazine, not some esoteric journal of some sort.

And even during the harsh winters of the late 70's, when some were predicting that a new ice age was imminent, I know I read stuff that said no, this is part of the new unpredictability.

[dtexdem]

6. I dont' believe it for a minute:

no, it'll get worse and we'll think of 2011 as the good old days.