Hurricanes Begin, Europe Fries

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Across much of the Northern Hemisphere is a great heatwave. And the first hurricanes and typhoons are hitting as well as strong freak storms. The Chinese are launching solar weather satellites while the NASA's Earth Climate Observatory sits in a warehouse.

I grew up in a very hot desert so I am accustomed to extreme heat.

BBC: A heatwave affecting much of Western Europe has resulted in several deaths, health officials say.
In the Netherlands, an annual walking event in the city of Nijmegen had to be called off at the half-way stage after two walkers died of heatstroke.

France's health minister linked nine recent deaths to soaring temperatures. In Paris, they hit 36C (97F).

Britain recorded its hottest day of the year so far, as temperatures hit 36.3C (97.3F) near London's Gatwick airport.

In Italy, farm union officials said the country was suffering one of the worst droughts in decades.

I was in Germany during a heatwave in 1968 and yes, the roads really do melt! It is most astonishing to me since it gets to be over 130 degrees in the sun (versus in the shade) in Death Valley and even though eggs cook and our feet felt the heat through the soles of our shoes, the roads never melted. This is probably because of the heavy use of gravel when road building. It still amazes me that Europeans don't change their road techniques after all these years! Humans can be quite stubborn.

The continuous storms running up the East Coast paused for two weeks as extremely hot weather set in. But now they are resuming only now in the form of hurricanes. NOAA called this correctly. The lastest one, Beryl, is barreling towards NYC and will probably roll up along Long Island. Just in time for my daughter's wedding.

Sigh. I had a feeling this would happen.

And there is this freak storm in the Midwest.

By JIM SALTER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 11 minutes ago
ST. LOUIS - Powerful storms left nearly half a million homes and businesses without power early Thursday as the region braced for another day of 100-degree heat.

The summer storm that tore through the Midwest on Wednesday ripped off a section of airport roof and dumped it on an interstate, blew windows out of a hotel restaurant and baseball stadium press box and injured more than 30 people. At least three St. Louis-area buildings partially collapsed.

Even though everyone claims they watch the weather, they really don't. Or rather, they imagine weather can't do anything much so they know a bad storm is brewing and ignore it. Once, many years ago, a terrible, swift line wind storm of 80+mph winds came to NYC. I was out shopping on Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn. I looked to the west, saw the onimous dark line and began to move towards home. Then I looked again and saw it was much, much closer. I immediately calculated how fast it was moving and yelled to the crowd in the streets, 'Run! Run for cover! This is a deadly storm!' Then a lightning bolt shot overhead and the wind rose. I ran as fast as I could and my daughter lost her bag of chips she was eating.

'Run! Everyone run! This is a very bad storm!' I shouted as I pelted down the street. People thought I was nuts. I barely made it to our brownstone. The door was nearly ripped from my hands and I struggled to close it and I ran throughout the building, slamming shut windows as rain poured in and lightning roared. I could hear screams in the streets below as people were struck by flying objects.

Not only did people die in NYC that day, even in Manhattan, this storm killed many sailors at sea, too. It was that bad.

It always pays to keep an eye cocked to the sky.

And the Chinese are launching an eye in the sky.

BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- As China steps up its lunar exploration, some scientists in the country are planning another space project, the "KuaFu Mission", aiming to study the activities of the Sun.

At the ongoing 36th Committee on Space Research Scientific Assembly, Tu Chuanyi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the project, expected to be launched in 2012, will study the complex Sun-Earth system and improve the space weather forecast.

The sun is the ultimate engine of our weather. When it is inactive, we freeze and when it is active, we cook. And it can do many things to us including blowing us to smithereens. Watching the sun closely is of highest importance. And it is a good thing the world is active in these matters for it seems America is flagging in the race to understand our planet, the sun and the cosmos. The fact that our government which spends a fortune killing Muslims can't muster a few bucks to launch the Earth Climate Observatory is a sign of a suicidal country.

I don't care how many space shuttles we launch if we don't launch this tremendously important satellite.

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Comments

[D.F. Facti]

Did you see the Al Gore flick?

***********

Greetings, Fluff.

[cha]

You build the roads for the local circumstances. Building roads that melt in 130 heat is obviously dumb in death valley but is it in Germany?

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

With global warming, yes. Death valley is around every corner.

[cha]

You don't need roads if Death valley is around every corner cause you will be death.

Also the microclimate is very dependend on how high the sun is. Which is in Germany a lot lower than in Death Valley

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Um, sun hours in summer in Germany are way longer than in Southern California which is much nearer the Equator where there is little difference from summer or winter. See?

Alaska, if it is 90 degrees in summer with the sun shining for 24 hours is quite different from Death Valley where the day is not longer than 16 hours, if I remember right.

In Germany, the night lasted for only what, 2 hours on Midsummer's day?