Spring-like weather expected this week

This week will have a decidedly Spring-like feel to it, with temperatures approaching the 50s on several days.

Monday will set the precedent with highs in the mid-50s, according to WTNH meteorologist Sam Kantrow. A morning fog will burn off, Kantrow said, giving way to mostly sunny skies during the latter half of the day.

Clouds will roll in this evening to cool things off a bit: Overnight temperatures are expected to dip into the 40s, he said.

The region could see some intermittent rain tomorrow and early Wednesday, but by the middle of the day Wednesday, the skies will clear and temperatures will rise -- hitting 60 degrees in some places.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Spring-like-weather-expected-this-week-4086607.php#ixzz2E4Eb3pPb

Chicagoans take large waves from Sandy in stride

The city warned people to stay away from Lake Michigan.

But some couldn’t resist the tempation of watching powerful waves fueled by sharp, angry winds slam into the lakefront

Runners, bikers, photographers and dog walkers with nervous pets all roamed North Avenue Beach Tuesday under a gray sky, gazing at what some said were among the largest waves they’ve seen there.

After Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast, the severe weather reached Chicago’s shores in the form of the strong winds and pummeling waves.

“It’s beautiful,” Werner Ott said. “It’s scary and beautiful at the same time.”

Most people on the lakefront Tuesday said they hadn’t heard the warnings to steer clear of the shore. Chicago Police patrolled the beach in squad cars, and officials did their best to keep runners and bikers from zipping past them onto the part of the lakefront trail they was closed. Security at the entrance to the trail bulked up later as wind gusts seemed to blow even harder.

Winter 2012 Forecast Calls For Snowy Season In U.S. Northeast and Rockies

Snow lovers living in the U.S. Northeast and Rocky Mountains are going to love this coming winter, according to AccuWeather.com.

The private weather forecasting firm released its long-range winter forecast on Wednesday, highlighting its predictions for temperature and precipitation trends.

While much of the northern part of the country, stretching from Wisconsin to eastern Washington, will see below-normal snowfall, Accuweather.com said the coming winter will be marked by plenty of big storms in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

The firm's meteorologists are also predicting an early start to the winter season, with above-normal snowfall and below-normal temperatures, in the central and southern Rockies.

Temperatures in the Northeast may start out slightly warmer than normal, the forecasting firm said, but would drop as the season progresses and snow accumulates.

In the Midwest, where the worst drought in 50 years hurt crops this year, Accuweather.com said snowfall levels would fall short of normal levels again this winter.

Temperatures may start out slightly above to near normal in the region, but as the season progresses and some snow accumulates, it will turn colder than normal by February.

With Some Hospitals Closed After Hurricane, E.R.’s at Others Overflow

A month after Hurricane Sandy struck New York City, unexpectedly shutting down several hospitals, one Upper East Side medical center had so many more emergency room patients than usual that it was parking them in its lobby.

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Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn had 1,100 more emergency patients last month than in November 2011; the increase was mostly attributed to a hospital shut by the storm.

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• Times Topic: Hurricanes and Tropical Storms (Hurricane Sandy)

• Storm Victims, in Cleanup, Face Rise in Injuries and Illness(November 20, 2012)

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Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Angel Perez in a makeshift emergency room last week at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, where emergency visits have increased 25 percent.

White and blue plastic screens had been set up between the front door and the elevator banks in the East 68th Street building of that hospital,NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. The screens shielded 10 gurneys and an improvised nursing station from the view of people obliviously walking in and out of the soaring, light-filled atrium.

“It’s like a World War II ward,” Teri Daniels, who had been waiting a day and a half with a relative who needed to be admitted, said last week.

Since the storm, a number of New York City hospitals have been scrambling to deal with a sharp increase in patients, forcing them to add shifts of doctors and nurses on overtime, to convert offices and lobbies to use for patients’ care, and even, in one case, to go to a local furniture store to buy extra beds.

At Beth Israel Medical Center, 11 blocks south of the Bellevue Hospital Center emergency room, which was shuttered because of storm damage, the average number of visits to the E.R. per day has risen to record levels. Visits have increased by 24 percent this November compared with last, and the numbers show no sign of dropping. Hospital admissions have risen 12 percent compared with last November.

Resisted for Blocking the View, Dunes Prove They Blunt Storms

LONG BEACH, N.Y. — Surfers railed against the project because they said it would interfere with the curl of the waves. Local businesses reliant on beach tourism hated it, too. Who would flock to the historic Boardwalk, they asked, if sand dunes were engineered to rise up and obscure the ocean view?

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Times Topic: Hurricane Sandy

• Cuomo Travels to Washington to Press for Disaster Aid (December 4, 2012)

• Essay: How the Coastline Became a Place to Put the Poor(December 4, 2012)

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And many residents did not care for the aesthetics of the $98 million plan — declaring that they preferred the beach wide and flat, with the soft, light-colored native sand that they had grown up with.

So, six years ago, after the Army Corps of Engineers proposed to erect dunes and elevate beaches along more than six miles of coast to protect this barrier island, the Long Beach City Council voted 5 to 0 against paying its $7 million initial share and taking part.

Many of Long Beach’s 33,000 residents would come to regret it.

The smaller neighboring communities on the barrier island — Point Lookout, Lido Beach and Atlantic Beach — approved construction of 15-foot-high dunes as storm insurance. Those dunes did their job, sparing them catastrophic damage while Long Beach suffered at least $200 million in property and infrastructure losses, according to preliminary estimates.

Joe Vietri, director of coastal and storm risk management for the corps, toured the damaged coastlines after the 12-to-14-foot storm surge of Hurricane Sandy and came to an inescapable conclusion. “The difference was dramatic for areas with vital and healthy dune systems, which did better than those that did not,” he said in a telephone interview. “You can see the evidence on Point Lookout and Lido Beach, which did much better than Long Beach.”

U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts

Food Prices and Consumers

The ongoing drought has destroyed or damaged portions of the major field crops in the Midwest, particularly field corn and soybeans. This has led to increases in the farm prices of corn, soybeans, and other field crops and, in turn, led to price increases for other inputs in the food supply such as animal feed. Most of the impacts on retail food prices are expected to occur in 2013, but meats and animal-based products such as dairy and eggs may be starting to show increases in the final quarter of 2012.

• We will likely see the earliest impacts for beef, pork, poultry and dairy (especially fluid milk). The full effects of the increase in corn prices for packaged and processed foods (cereal, corn flour, etc.) will likely take 10-12 months to move through to retail food prices.
• The drought has the potential to increase retail prices for beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products first and foremost - later this year and into 2013. Drought conditions led to herd culling in response to higher expected feed costs, and this liquidation led to temporarily reduced prices for beef and pork in the months of August and September. However, the October CPI report indicates that the impact of the liquidation has ended and prices for beef and pork are now expected to increase through 2013.
• Commodity prices are just one of many factors affecting retail food prices. Historically, if the farm price of corn increases 50 percent, then retail food prices as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase by 0.5 to 1 percent. Commodities make up less than 15 percent of the average value of retail food purchases, so even if all commodity prices doubled, retail food prices would increase by no more than 15 percent.
• Retail food price inflation has averaged 2.5-3 percent each year on average for the past 20 years, and 2012 is no different. Next year, we will likely see a slight increase above those historical averages when food price inflation is expected to be between 3 percent and 4 percent, with increases centralized in animal products--eggs, meat, and dairy. That forecast will be updated at the end of the month, but is currently below some of the recent inflation spikes in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2011.

2012 Drought Will Probably Last Through Winter In The Midwest, Says U.S. Monitor

The tenacious U.S. drought that continues to hamper American agricultural output and put water supplies and Mississippi River commerce at risk worsened during the past week, particularly in the Southeast, according to figures released on Thursday. The new U.S. Drought Monitor shows that all categories of drought increased across the country between Nov. 20-27, with the largest increase occurring in an area from Alabama northeastward to Virginia.

The U.S. Drought Monitor released on Nov. 29. Credit: National Drought Mitigation Center

This has already been the most intense and widespread drought to strike the U.S. since 1988, and its severity is on par with the droughts of the 1950s. The drought has also earned comparisons to the devastating droughts of the 1930s "Dust Bowl" era, although those droughts were more intense and longer-lasting than this event, and the impacts this time have been reduced by improved land management practices.

The drought may rival Hurricane Sandy as the most costly U.S. natural disaster of 2012, with damage estimates already ranging between $75 billion to $150 billion.Deutsche Bank Securities has predicted that the drought will be responsible for a 0.5 to 1 percent drop in U.S. gross domestic product this year, a significant drop considering the relatively slow pace of growth throughout the year.

Chicagoans bask in the city’s warmest December temps in 30 years; Midway’s 72 the South Side site’s highest December temp on record

It was a meteorological gift at a time of year better known for cold and snow. The level of warmth observed across the Chicago area Monday ranked among the rarest of the rare in December. Temperatures at 70-degrees and higher are exceedingly rare in December---it's happened only twice before on Dec. 3, 1970 (71-degrees) and Dec. 2, 1982 (71-degrees).

Further underscoring the rarity of such unseasonable warmth is the fact that of the possible 4,405 December days that are part of the city’s 142 year observational record, there have now been just 3 days on the books with temperatures at or above 70-degrees!

Chicago’s temperature reached the 70-degree mark at 2:14 pm at Midway Airport and at 2:44 pm at O’Hare.

Midway’s peak reading was to end up reaching 72-degrees, blowing past all of the South Side site’s previous highest December temperatures to become the month’s warmest on record since observations began there in 1928.

Hurricane Sandy blows through the Caribbean

Hurricane Sandy grew into a major potential threat to the Northeast on Thursday after hammering Cuba's second-largest city and taking aim at the Bahamas.

Strengthening rapidly after tearing into Jamaica and crossing the warm Caribbean Sea, Sandy hit southeastern Cuba early on Thursday with 105-mph winds that cut power, damaged homes and blew over trees across the city of Santiago de Cuba.

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/25/14700608-hurricane-sandy-blows-through-the-caribbean?lite

We Survived Hurricane Sandy. Now What?

I live on the Texas Gulf Coast. I have lived through a lot of hurricanes and tropical storms. Yet last month, I flew into New York City for a hurricane. Why? Following my recent book launch, I had a lot of important media events, including a potentially game-changing TEDx talk, scheduled starting on October 30. This SQ work is my passion and mission. I didn't want to miss these events because of cancelled flights.

So I left on the second-to-last flight out of Houston to Newark, and arrived at my hotel hoping that Sandy would be more hype than horror. As a storm veteran, I brought a flashlight, extra batteries, boxes of granola bars, and other food with me. I verified that the hotel had a backup generator just in case. I confirmed we were not in the Zone A evacuation area. I stocked up on some bottled water, filled the tub, and hunkered down. Over the next few days, the local news crew became my primary companions.

Hurricane Sandy exceeded the worst expectations. Tragedy was everywhere. I watched the local news for hours and hours a day. I prayed like crazy through the storm and afterward for those who were suffering. I am still praying.

My appointments were cancelled, the conference postponed. Yet I was glad to be there in Manhattan for the week. Why? Because it was a chance to experience (not just think about) life, and what really matters. Here are a few of the truths I was grateful to re-experience. Perhaps you experienced this too?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cindy-wigglesworth/recovering-from-sandy_b_2105847.html

Hurricane Sandy recovery: What about the Caribbean?

Before Hurricane Sandy -- one of the most powerful storms in recent history -- made landfall on the Jersey Shore, there was total devastation in the Caribbean. While frustration is mounting in the northeast with continued power outages, fuel shortages and, on Staten Island, lack of any sort of support, the Caribbean recovery has fallen off the edge of news coverage.

Most of the Caribbean countries are already impoverished, and the storm created unimaginable damage, including the scare of cholera.

Haiti reported the most storm-related deaths in the Caribbean with 52. Still suffering the after effects of a powerful earthquake, the threat of a cholera outbreak or other water-borne diseases will remain high for weeks in Sandy’s aftermath, meaning the storm’s death toll could rise higher still.

In Jamaica, where most of the population lives in bauxite housing, the building effort also continues. Jamaica depends on tourists from the Northeast. Individuals from such places as New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. account for 40 percent of Jamaica’s tourism industry.

With frustration mounting in New York's Staten Island and New Jersey due to lack of fuel and continued power outages for at least nearly 900,000 in New York, it will take many months, if not years for people to rebuild their lives. Some may never completely recover. The rebuilding of lives will continue long after the cameras have left the area.

Staten Island residents feel neglected, with some suggesting that it is a matter of economics and that Manhattan gets everything while they are left in the dark. Residents feel that they are on the bottom of the totem pole with the continued lack of services.

Hurricane Sandy draws a line in the sand; future of disaster relief policy hinges on election

An elderly couple clings desperately to the roof of their home as storm-whipped waves pull at their feet and carry off their neighbors’ cars and houses. They need help, they need it soon. Just days before the election, Hurricane Sandy drew a line in the sand and focused national attention on vastly different government policy offered by Republicans and Democrats.

On the left side of the line stands the progressive ideal of strong central government with an ability to coordinate and deploy resources on a national scale. At the right of the line is the conservative ideal of small central government and strong states rights. The question provoked by disasters like Sandy is straightforward: Which works better? Or, more importantly, which works to the benefit of whom?

The conservative position on disaster relief was expressed by Republican nominee Mitt Romney in a debate last year. When asked if states should take on more of the role that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has traditionally filled, Romney answered, “Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better.”csmonitor.com, 2012/1030.

In the aftermath of Sandy, Romney reversed himself and expressed his full support of FEMA. He may have changed his mind. He may have realized that restating his belief about cutting FEMA, while the disaster-struck region was accepting desperately needed federal assistance, would be unpopular. Worse, it could provoke reporters to ask unwanted questions about disaster relief under a Romney administration. Reporters remembered his earlier remarks and asked anyway. huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30.

The Democratic position on disaster relief policy was illustrated when President Obama mobilized the nation’s resources to aid the victims of Sandy. Federal funds for state relief have been allocated from FEMA, Health and Human Services and other federal agencies. According to hamptonroads.com, 2012/10 (a military blog), three military ships were deployed and are positioned off the coast with needed supplies for victims of Sandy. This effort could not be accomplished by states acting alone. It requires the collective cooperation of all states working together under a central government. Through the federal government, the American people act as one to provide coordinated aide to citizens in need of assistance.

Obama Thanks First Responders, Agencies for Hurricane Sandy Response

American Forces Press Service

President Barack Obama today thanked and praised first responders, volunteers and members of federal and nongovernment agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Red Cross, the National Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard, for their efforts in aiding citizens living along the Eastern Seaboard who were impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

This weekend, millions of our fellow Americans are still picking up the pieces from one of the worst storms in our history, " Obama said in his weekly video address to the nation. I toured New Jersey on Wednesday with Governor Christie, and witnessed some of the terrible devastation firsthand. "

It`s heartbreaking. Families have lost loved ones. Entire communities have been wiped away, " the president continued. Even some of the first responders who repeatedly put themselves in harm`s way to bravely save the lives of others have suffered losses of their own. Today, I ask everyone to keep them in your prayers. "

The Category 1 superstorm had marched north off the U.S. East Coast until making landfall Oct. 29 near Atlantic City, N.J. Sandy is responsible for more than 100 deaths nationally. The storm devastated oceanside areas in New York and New Jersey and other coastal communities along the Eastern Seaboard and the storm knocked out power for millions of residents -- paralyzing New York City and much of the surrounding area.

The president called upon all federal agencies to lean-forward to help impacted communities during Hurricane Sandy response and recovery efforts led by FEMA. The Department of Defense has been mobilized to support Sandy response and recovery efforts. Nearly 7,400 Army and Air National Guard soldiers and airmen in nine eastern states are performing communications, engineering, evacuation, medical, security, search and rescue, sheltering, debris removal and transportation missions.

The amount of Power outages, the result of Hurricane Sandy

Sandy is a major storm, previously a hurricane, that has caused extensive flooding, power and transportation outages, and physical damage to the US East Coast and Caribbean. More than 100 deaths have been linked to the storm. 
Click Here:http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy

Free gas fiasco fuels frustration, chaos in N.Y. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/04/free-gas-fiasco-fuels-frustration-chaos-in-ny/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2BIFSNz7r

Free gas came with gallons of chaos.

Thousands of fuel-starved New Yorkers were able to get much-needed gasoline from the government at no cost yesterday, but not without a high-octane fit of confusion and double talk from state and federal authorities.

The trouble-plagued giveaway began when Gov. Cuomo’s office announced in the morning that officials would try to ease the post-Sandy gas crisis by giving out free fuel to both “emergency vehicles and the general public.”

The gas was to be dispensed from trucks at five locations around the area — and throngs of desperate drivers showed up to fill their tanks.

But by the afternoon Cuomo spokesman Matt Wing rolled back the offer of free gas, announcing that fuel was intended for emergency vehicles first and foremost.

The change came after the U.S. Department of Defense — which provided the gas in coordination with the National Guard — said the gas was only for first responders.

A Cuomo administration source blamed the mixup on the military.

Undeterred by Hurricane Sandy, Disney's 'Wreck-It Ralph' tops box office with $49.1 million

NEW YORK –  The weekend box office was not only undeterred by aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, it was buoyed by it.

Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" opened strongly with $49.1 million and Robert Zemeckis' "Flight," starring Denzel Washington, soared to a $25 million debut. Both opened above expectations, capitalizing on East Coast audiences looking for distraction amid the recovery from the storm.

"Wreck-It Ralph," a 3-D animated family film about a video game villain who tries to break free of his role, is the largest box-office opening ever for Walt Disney Animation, which has produced countless cartoon classics (though doesn't include Disney's lucrative Pixar Animation).

Though the hurricane had forced the closure of hundreds of movie theaters in the New York, New Jersey area, most were open for business by the weekend. As many as 100 theaters were still closed on Friday, but many of those were restored during the weekend.

"We didn't really have a playbook for this," said Hollywood.com box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "But the numbers show that audiences across the country, and particularly in the Northeast, wanted to go to the movies and they did."

With many East Coast children out of school on Friday, Disney saw an uptick of business for Friday matinees to the well-reviewed "Wreck-It Ralph."

"'Wreck-It Ralph' became something of a distraction and an opportunity for families to do something separate of the storm," said Dave Hollis, Disney's head of distribution. "Schools being shut down on Friday also played a role as parents were looking for things to entertain the kids and keep them out of the cold."

Hurricane Sandy recovery becomes more urgent as temperatures fall

NEW YORK — Falling temperatures on Sunday put more people at risk in a region already battling gasoline shortages, stubborn power outages and spasms of lawlessness in the wake ofSuperstorm Sandy.

With temperatures in the 30s and more than 700,000 people still without power in the area, some who were planning to run in the canceled New York City Marathon instead headed to Staten Island on Sunday morning to volunteer to help storm victims.

Other disappointed runners staged impromptu races of their own. Thousands poured into Central Park shortly after dawn including teams of runners from Italy, Germany and Spain who began running their own personal marathons. A little more than four laps around the park will do it.

It's a throwback to the beginning of New York's marathon, which was run inside the park.

"A lot of people just want to finish what they've started," said Lance Svendsen, the organizer of a group called Run Anyway.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was reluctant to plunge back into the controversy over the last-minute cancellation. He put off questions about the marathon at a Saturday briefing and focused on what he said were more pressing matters.

"I spoke with many people who were worried and frustrated and cold," Bloomberg said. "There is no power there and temperatures are dropping. Even those who have generators are having a hard time getting fuel."

Northern Plains Seeing Plenty of Fall Colors

Just in time for the first day of fall, the leaves are quickly beginning to turn across parts of the Upper Midwest. Cool weather and the continuing drought will help this process along. Meanwhile, increasingly large concentrations of color can be found in the East.
Astronomically, the first day of fall is September 22, when the sun`s perpendicular rays cross the equator. Each day is getting shorter and this causes a chemical reaction in the leaves that leads to the color changing. As days become cooler and shorter, the trees ability to make chlorophyll, a pigment that keeps the leaves green, decreases and causes the leaves to become red, orange and purple. Click here for more information on the science of fall foliage.
The fall splendor of color is starting to paint the countryside in depth across parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and this will be where to find the best fall colors. Some of northern Minnesota`s state parks will be home to near-peak color, including Ft. Snelling and Savanna Portage. Reports of bright yellows and oranges have been reported in these parks, with a green-and-yellow mix surrounding the Twin Cities. While the rest of the Midwest is just starting to see colors changing, low color is still reported across central Wisconsin and northern Michigan.

Severe Storms Eye Mid-Atlantic, Northeast

Even though fall has arrived, summer time thunderstorms are targeting large stretches of the East Coast early this weekend. Just like the weather this past Tuesday, the Interstate 95 corridor is right in the crosshairs of a powerful cold front that will bring gusty storms.

A cold front screaming across the Upper Midwest will quickly dart to the East Coast later today. Ahead of it, warm 80s will ripen the atmosphere enough to generate a long line of thunderstorms from Upstate New York into the northern Mid-Atlantic.

Storms will rapidly develop from western New York into West Virginia early this afternoon, intensifying and making a beeline in the unstable air bubbling from Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula all of the way into New York`s Hudson and Mohawk valleys this afternoon and evening. Places like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Utica, Albany, N.Y., and Scranton, Pa., will all need to keep a watchful eye to the sky for threatening weather.

http://weather.weatherbug.com/weather-news/weather-reports.html?zcode=z6286&story=14055

Categories Basics Biofuels Business Carbon Storage Causes Climate Drought Efficiency Energy Extreme Weather Extremes Flooding Flora & Fauna Food & Agriculture Fossil Fuels Geoengineering Greenhouse Gases Health Heat Hurricanes Impacts Landscapes Nuclear Oceans & Coasts Policy Projections Renewable Energy Responses Sea Level Snow & Ice Society Solutions States of Change Trends Water Weather Wildfires Places Antarctic Arctic & Greenland Global International Mid-Atlantic Midwest New England Pacific Northwest Plains Rockies South Southwest United States US National West With Extreme Weather, Will Insurers Come to the Rescue?

Following a damaging episode of extreme weather, communities turn to insurance companies to help them rebuild, but with costly extreme weather and climate events on the rise as the climate continues to warm, insurers may stop coming to the rescue, a new report warns.                   

The report from Ceres, a nonprofit group that advocates for sustainable business practices, calls attention to the threat that extreme weather events pose to the sustainability of the insurance industry, which has been hit hard by record-breaking extreme weather in recent years, on top of lower profits due to other reasons.