OT - Weather Worries?

Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Texas is know for it's cattle ranching, but now ranches are losing
record numbers of cattle from their herds because there just isn't
enough ground water and growth to keep them alive! Farmers are losing
*billions* of dollars in dying crops. The city of Houston has created a
controversial run-off from Lake Conroe to supplement its needs. Most
fountains in the city have been turned of and are not scheduled to be
turned back on in the foreseeable future. Water mains are breaking
because the ground is drying out and shifting, which is making the
situation worse. People's wells are drying up and they having to drill
deeper wells - that means that the *groundwater* is disappearing! This
may take *centuries* to fully replace *IF* the drought ends.

Along with the drought is the worst heat wave in recorded history. The
"heat index" here just now is 114F!! Power plants are unable to keep a
continuous supply of electricity to all of their customers and the whole
city is experiencing "brown-outs" (the electricity will suddenly go off,
flicker, go off again and then come back on - it's playing hell with our
electronics, it's burned out one of our hard-drives and screws up DVR
recorders). This has been happening on an average of 5 to 6 times a
day. There are some areas that are experiencing black-outs for hours or
more.

Of course the cost of all this will trickle down to higher food prices
and other things and that will cause individual problems. But just now
I'm talking about global problems on an apocalyptic scale.

Is anyone else as worried about this as I am? Is the news media just
causing another panic or is this really something to be afraid of?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, created by "Yowie", maintained by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.net/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

On 8/18/2011 5:34 PM, hopitus wrote:
On Aug 18, 3:10 pm, CatNipped wrote:
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Texas is know for it's cattle ranching, but now ranches are losing
record numbers of cattle from their herds because there just isn't
enough ground water and growth to keep them alive! Farmers are losing
*billions* of dollars in dying crops. The city of Houston has created a
controversial run-off from Lake Conroe to supplement its needs. Most
fountains in the city have been turned of and are not scheduled to be
turned back on in the foreseeable future. Water mains are breaking
because the ground is drying out and shifting, which is making the
situation worse. People's wells are drying up and they having to drill
deeper wells - that means that the *groundwater* is disappearing! This
may take *centuries* to fully replace *IF* the drought ends.

Along with the drought is the worst heat wave in recorded history. The
"heat index" here just now is 114F!! Power plants are unable to keep a
continuous supply of electricity to all of their customers and the whole
city is experiencing "brown-outs" (the electricity will suddenly go off,
flicker, go off again and then come back on - it's playing hell with our
electronics, it's burned out one of our hard-drives and screws up DVR
recorders). This has been happening on an average of 5 to 6 times a
day. There are some areas that are experiencing black-outs for hours or
more.

Of course the cost of all this will trickle down to higher food prices
and other things and that will cause individual problems. But just now
I'm talking about global problems on an apocalyptic scale.

Is anyone else as worried about this as I am? Is the news media just
causing another panic or is this really something to be afraid of?
CatNipped
OT long and boring if you have no water/power issues
Please try not to get too worked up over this; I've been watching the
TX drought news every night
on weather channel plus channel news; media news focuses on what will
get viewers excited and
watching every word and weather map fearing the worst. Media news is
not high on cred to me.
You are now in same boat (no pun intended) with FL which has even less
fresh water sources than
you do; FL has one huge lake right in middle loaded with bass fish; it
is also polluted. You probably
have more lakes for runoff tribs than FL does but not as much rainfall
(rainfall is the lifesaver in FL).
AFA the brownouts and blackouts: welcome to the club of that
too....rollling brownouts go on all
summer in FL with all those a/c units cranking away in the high heat
and humidity of this, the worst
month, August. Didn';t bother me to be outside then but I grew up like
that: no a/c; but I wouldn't
send my worst enemy to south FL this month. Of course, no power
problems there in winter, that's
the greatest weather there; I dunno about Houston.
Brownouts and blackouts, rolling or not, are a big PITA and mostly
dealt with by closing blinds and
drapes to keep cool air in, and *avoiding opening entrance doors for
more than a sec*; of course
all windows shut. South FL does *not* cool down at night like here,
and I also dunno about Houston.
If your upstairs tenant loves heat, the higher you get indoors the
hotter you get so he'll be loving it.
What he *won't* love will be LOLOLOL no computer to play on and will
have to go acoustic with his
gittars.
Don't worry I seriously believe TX authorities of both water
conservation and power sources are smarter
than both FL and CO put together. Your lawn may also get brown and
ugly as the ones here are with
watering restrictions severely limiting lawn care/sprinkling. Heavy
fines. We in condos could care less.
Hoping to have reassured you somewhat.


Thank you, yes. I sorta figured the media was, as usual, blowing things
out of proportion (I still blame them for the worldwide financial crisis
- they caused a panic that was bigger than "Black Friday"!) - and I
haven't been reading anything similar from other members here and in
other places (and you really need to talk to "real people" if you want
the "real truth" about things).

But, you know, there's always that little voice in the back of your mind
saying that global warming is here and getting too real!

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, created by "Yowie", maintained by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.net/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

CatNipped wrote:

But, you know, there's always that little voice in the back of your mind
saying that global warming is here and getting too real!

"Little voice"? LOL. Make it a trumpet. Quite real, IMHO, no doubt about it.

--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
*
Whoever bans a book, shall be banished. Whoever burns a book, shall burn.

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's not
just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in recorded
history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This in a part of
the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Nope, no drought here. I'd send you my rain if I could. Last weekend we
had a thunderstorm and 60MPH wind that knocked down trees in one of my
elderly neighbor's front yard. I unpacked my oil lamps just in case I lost
power. It was sunny on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. But we got more rain
today. I heard thunder but it wasn't enough to knock out the power.

Jill

On 8/18/2011 9:07 PM, jmcquown wrote:

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Nope, no drought here. I'd send you my rain if I could. Last weekend we
had a thunderstorm and 60MPH wind that knocked down trees in one of my
elderly neighbor's front yard. I unpacked my oil lamps just in case I
lost power. It was sunny on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. But we got more
rain today. I heard thunder but it wasn't enough to knock out the power.

Jill

We just now had another brown-out. It fried my DVR! We had already had
a technician scheduled to come out Sunday, so I only have a few days of
thumb twiddling. Actually I'm trying to write something so it's just
one more distraction and excuse eliminated. ;

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, created by "Yowie", maintained by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.net/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

On Aug 18, 4:10*pm, CatNipped wrote:
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? *I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. *We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! *This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Texas is know for it's cattle ranching, but now ranches are losing
record numbers of cattle from their herds because there just isn't
enough ground water and growth to keep them alive! *Farmers are losing
*billions* of dollars in dying crops. *The city of Houston has created a
controversial run-off from Lake Conroe to supplement its needs. *Most
fountains in the city have been turned of and are not scheduled to be
turned back on in the foreseeable future. *Water mains are breaking
because the ground is drying out and shifting, which is making the
situation worse. *People's wells are drying up and they having to drill
deeper wells - that means that the *groundwater* is disappearing! *This
may take *centuries* to fully replace *IF* the drought ends.

Along with the drought is the worst heat wave in recorded history. *The
"heat index" here just now is 114F!! *Power plants are unable to keep a
continuous supply of electricity to all of their customers and the whole
city is experiencing "brown-outs" (the electricity will suddenly go off,
flicker, go off again and then come back on - it's playing hell with our
electronics, it's burned out one of our hard-drives and screws up DVR
recorders). *This has been happening on an average of 5 to 6 times a
day. *There are some areas that are experiencing black-outs for hours or
more.

Of course the cost of all this will trickle down to higher food prices
and other things and that will cause individual problems. *But just now
I'm talking about global problems on an apocalyptic scale.

Is anyone else as worried about this as I am? *Is the news media just
causing another panic or is this really something to be afraid of?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped

I'm worried; but not longterm. The drought will eventually break and
the heat with it. Weather
cycles. In 1936, I'm sure they thought it was the end of the world
then. Another severe
drought came along in the mid-fifties, and another in 1980. So I think
it's just "time" for
another one in our part of the country. In fact, if it weren't for
better farming practices we'd
be in the middle of another dust bowl.
We are extremely frugal with water. It actually annoys me to see a
lush, green lawn this summer.
It just shows incredible waste of a commodity that's particularly
precious this year.

So, yeah, I think it's definitely cause for concern and extreme
conservation but not real fear.
Here's a link that you might find interesting: it's a map of the
"exception drought" areas of the US-
nearly all of Tx. is included -- and a short explanation of the
extreme heat/drought correlation.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=climate-drought

Sherry

On 8/18/2011 11:09 PM, Sherry wrote:
On Aug 18, 4:10 pm, wrote:
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Texas is know for it's cattle ranching, but now ranches are losing
record numbers of cattle from their herds because there just isn't
enough ground water and growth to keep them alive! Farmers are losing
*billions* of dollars in dying crops. The city of Houston has created a
controversial run-off from Lake Conroe to supplement its needs. Most
fountains in the city have been turned of and are not scheduled to be
turned back on in the foreseeable future. Water mains are breaking
because the ground is drying out and shifting, which is making the
situation worse. People's wells are drying up and they having to drill
deeper wells - that means that the *groundwater* is disappearing! This
may take *centuries* to fully replace *IF* the drought ends.

Along with the drought is the worst heat wave in recorded history. The
"heat index" here just now is 114F!! Power plants are unable to keep a
continuous supply of electricity to all of their customers and the whole
city is experiencing "brown-outs" (the electricity will suddenly go off,
flicker, go off again and then come back on - it's playing hell with our
electronics, it's burned out one of our hard-drives and screws up DVR
recorders). This has been happening on an average of 5 to 6 times a
day. There are some areas that are experiencing black-outs for hours or
more.

Of course the cost of all this will trickle down to higher food prices
and other things and that will cause individual problems. But just now
I'm talking about global problems on an apocalyptic scale.

Is anyone else as worried about this as I am? Is the news media just
causing another panic or is this really something to be afraid of?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped

I'm worried; but not longterm. The drought will eventually break and
the heat with it. Weather
cycles. In 1936, I'm sure they thought it was the end of the world
then. Another severe
drought came along in the mid-fifties, and another in 1980. So I think
it's just "time" for
another one in our part of the country. In fact, if it weren't for
better farming practices we'd
be in the middle of another dust bowl.
We are extremely frugal with water. It actually annoys me to see a
lush, green lawn this summer.
It just shows incredible waste of a commodity that's particularly
precious this year.


Yep, this is the only time our brown, neglected lawn is an *asset*. LOL!

So, yeah, I think it's definitely cause for concern and extreme
conservation but not real fear.
Here's a link that you might find interesting: it's a map of the
"exception drought" areas of the US-
nearly all of Tx. is included -- and a short explanation of the
extreme heat/drought correlation.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=climate-drought

Sherry


Thanks, I'll go take a look at it.

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, created by "Yowie", maintained by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.net/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

On 8/19/2011 1:19 AM, hopitus wrote:
On Aug 18, 9:28 pm, CatNipped wrote:
On 8/18/2011 9:07 PM, jmcquown wrote:
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Nope, no drought here. I'd send you my rain if I could. Last weekend we
had a thunderstorm and 60MPH wind that knocked down trees in one of my
elderly neighbor's front yard. I unpacked my oil lamps just in case I
lost power. It was sunny on Monday, Tuesday& Wednesday. But we got more
rain today. I heard thunder but it wasn't enough to knock out the power.
Jill

We just now had another brown-out. It fried my DVR! We had already had
a technician scheduled to come out Sunday, so I only have a few days of
thumb twiddling. Actually I'm trying to write something so it's just
one more distraction and excuse eliminated. ;
CatNipped

Uh.....hopitus forgot to mention that any electronic appliance/device
that you value should be
plugged into a better-class *surge protector* as what fried your DVR
was not the brownout; it
was the "surge" of power when the power returned to the electronic
device. Please send the
upstairs tenant out tomorrow to buy several and not the cheapest ones;
surge protector should
have an "on-off" switch at the very least: the cheap ones don't.
If he needs a horror story to go do this, I got one for you. One of my
close pals, fellow NFL fan,
had two huge big-screen tvs in her house we watched games on; one was
her son's. They went
on vacation (it was summer) and the usual blackouts and rolling
brownouts went on in their absence
while they were in Rochester, NY two weeks.
Upon their return, *both* tv's were totally fried and they were beside
themselves; luckily her French
Canuck SO (who watched hockey instead of NFL) gifted them all with
replacements.
I have many surge protectors here only because lightning will do the
same thing and lightning has
been an ever-present PITA here since winter quit.

Oh he has top of the line surge protectors for all *his* stuff IOW, the
*important* stuff. We can't get any to protect *my* stuff. The 69" TV
that takes up half the wall space in the great room is on one, my puny
42" has none.


--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, created by "Yowie", maintained by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.net/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

CatNipped wrote:
Is anyone else worried about the weather we're having? I'm sure it's
not just Texas that is effected. We hare in the worst drought in
recorded history and it is expected to go on for another *year*! This
in a part of the world that usually sees more rain and humidity than sun!

Texas is know for it's cattle ranching, but now ranches are losing
record numbers of cattle from their herds because there just isn't
enough ground water and growth to keep them alive! Farmers are losing
*billions* of dollars in dying crops. The city of Houston has created a
controversial run-off from Lake Conroe to supplement its needs. Most
fountains in the city have been turned of and are not scheduled to be
turned back on in the foreseeable future. Water mains are breaking
because the ground is drying out and shifting, which is making the
situation worse. People's wells are drying up and they having to drill
deeper wells - that means that the *groundwater* is disappearing! This
may take *centuries* to fully replace *IF* the drought ends.

Along with the drought is the worst heat wave in recorded history. The
"heat index" here just now is 114F!! Power plants are unable to keep a
continuous supply of electricity to all of their customers and the whole
city is experiencing "brown-outs" (the electricity will suddenly go off,
flicker, go off again and then come back on - it's playing hell with our
electronics, it's burned out one of our hard-drives and screws up DVR
recorders). This has been happening on an average of 5 to 6 times a
day. There are some areas that are experiencing black-outs for hours or
more.

Of course the cost of all this will trickle down to higher food prices
and other things and that will cause individual problems. But just now
I'm talking about global problems on an apocalyptic scale.

Is anyone else as worried about this as I am? Is the news media just
causing another panic or is this really something to be afraid of?

IMO, the news media is way behind the times in "causing another panic"
- especially when too many of our politicians just plain aren't
interested! You don't mention the growing shortage of edible fish and
seafood, or the increasing pollution of our drinking water by mining
methods and "fracking" to obtain the allegedly "plentiful" natural gas.
(But never mind - at the rate our rain forests are being destroyed,
we'll probably run out of oxygen before famine wins out.)

Patok wrote:
CatNipped wrote:

But, you know, there's always that little voice in the back of your
mind saying that global warming is here and getting too real!

"Little voice"? LOL. Make it a trumpet. Quite real, IMHO, no doubt
about it.

And you can't really fault "third world" countries for wanting to
improve their standard of living to match that of the industrialized
world, but the rain forests produce most of the world's oxygen. Wipe
them out, and ALL life disappears!