First Day Of Winter And It's A Doozy

Storms Knock Out Power To Thousands In North, Blizzard Dumps Up To 2 Feet In Pacific Northwest

(CBS/AP)  Weekend storms in the northern half of the U.S. knocked out power to thousands of customers Sunday and created nightmarish conditions for holiday travelers coast to coast on the first official day of winter.

Parts of Iowa and Illinois were under blizzard warnings Sunday. Des Moines reported near zero visibility in blowing snow and a midday temperature of 5 below zero Fahrenheit, with a wind chill of 27 below F. Wind gusted to more than 40 mph in parts of Iowa.

Parts of major highways in Oregon and Washington state were shut down for a second day because of a storm that dropped as much as 2 feet of snow.

Subzero temperatures and wind of 20 to 30 mph in central Illinois knocked out power to more than 14,000 customers Sunday, the utility Ameren reported.

Utility officials said more than 70,000 homes and businesses in Indiana remained without power following an ice storm that struck on Thursday.

Blizzard warnings also were issued for northern and eastern Maine. Forecasters warned that strong wind could create whiteout conditions and deep drifts on unplowed roads.

Temperatures in northern Maine early Sunday included 40 below zero Fahrenheit on the Big Black River in Aroostook County and 35 below zero F in Allagash.

In the Pacific Northwest, part of Washington state's main east-west roadway, remained closed Sunday and there was no indication when it would reopen. It was shut down Saturday as a fierce storm blew in from the Pacific.

Seattle was expected to get an additional 2 to 4 inches of snow.

Oregon had closed a stretch of highway in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland, according to the state Department of Transportation Web site.

The storm battering Maine also produced sleet and freezing rain in New York and New Jersey, delaying flights at Newark Liberty Airport by an average of two hours. Some arrivals at Logan International Airport in Boston were delayed by more than three hours.

In New England, this is the third storm this month. Before it's all over, Massachusetts could get 10 inches of snow, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano, forecasts call for up to a foot of the white stuff in upstate New York and up to two feet in parts of Maine.

Even the NFL wasn't exempt, Solorzano reports, as workers at Gillette Stadium cleared seats of snow that may have helped the New England Patriots beat the sun-loving Phoenix Cardnals.

As the weather interfered with airports in northern states, George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston had delays on average of about five hours.

New Jersey state police reported a four-vehicle accident involving two buses left 17 people with minor injuries on the New Jersey Turnpike in Bordentown.

[barbaram99]

That is right. It a mess. Think we will have a white Christmas in Seattle for the first time ever.

[wheelnut53]

is that right the first time for snow up there ?

[ausus-2009]

It makes global warming a hard sell. The US, Western Europe and Australia are all experiencing well below normal temperatures.

[barbaram99]

That''s right I have lived in Seattle since 99 anf in all that tine had never snowed. Seattle it rains. The people who grew up here know Seattle better than I. My friend went to the store and people talked about it. This will be the firdt white Christmas here. As I write this it is snoqing and cold.

[ausus-2009]

My father who is now quite elderly grew up in Seattle. He told me a few years ago he could recall seeing a few snowflakes there in June.

[my2centss]

No one mentioned global warming to mother nature?

[zykracosmos]

It makes global warming a hard sell. The US, Western Europe and Australia are all experiencing well below normal temperatures.


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Posted by ausus at 05:18 PM : Dec 21, 2008
--------------------------

Global warming is about absorption of C02 and excessive atmospheric heat by the oceans (3/4 of the earth''s surface, and the feedback of kinetic energy that speeds up atmospheric winds and causes erratic, extreme weather patterns. It doesn''t mean you can go out with your thermometer each day and measure a slight increase in temperature. It does mean that average temperatures will go up (ten hottest years have all been during the last 15 years), polar ice will melt, sea levels will rise, 1/4 of all the world''s people will have to move, and extended inland droughts will cause global food shortages and starvation, while tropical diseases invade huge subtropical population regions. When you get past the disinformation campaigns you''ve been subjected to by the oil companies and rightwing politicians over the past 10 years, you will not be wishing this catastrophe on yourself. The earth''s atmosphere now has more CO2 in it than it has ever has, and you are like the frog in the pot, who will sit there while the water warms around him to the boiling point, with no instincts to do anything about it until it''s too late.

[downsteamjim]

ausus: You can go to Washington, D.C. and see flakes year round.

[thcarson-2009]

Global warming is about absorption of C02 and excessive atmospheric heat by the oceans (3/4 of the earth''''s surface, and the feedback of kinetic energy that speeds up atmospheric winds and causes erratic, extreme weather patterns. It doesn''''t mean you can go out with your thermometer each day and measure a slight increase in temperature. It does mean that average temperatures will go up (ten hottest years have all been during the last 15 years), polar ice will melt, sea levels will rise, 1/4 of all the world''''s people will have to move, and extended inland droughts will cause global food shortages and starvation, while tropical diseases invade huge subtropical population regions. When you get past the disinformation campaigns you''''ve been subjected to by the oil companies and rightwing politicians over the past 10 years, you will not be wishing this catastrophe on yourself. The earth''''s atmosphere now has more CO2 in it than it has ever has, and you are like the frog in the pot, who will sit there while the water warms around him to the boiling point, with no instincts to do anything about it until it''''s too late.


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Posted by ZykraCosmos

keep on believing the lies, global warming is a myth to spread fear and give government more control.

[ausus-2009]

ZykraCosmos,

Nice try, spouting all of the global warming propaganda. It contains all of the usual ridiculous statements such as the earth''s atmosphere has more CO2 that it ever has. There is no way of measuring such a proposition. The temperatures in the Middle Ages are still the subject of controversy. People have tried various methods of measuring it, but of course there were no thermometers back then. English and European castles were open to the elements because the weather was milder then than it is now. The Vikings came to America across Greenland (it didn''t get its name from today''s ice cap). Look at the record temperatures for every continent on earth. In EACH CASE the record low temperature has been recorded SINCE the record high. As far as I am concerned, the global warming argument is not a closed book.

[ausus-2009]

IamHungry68,

Have you ever looked at motive? For a start it is nothing like 95%, it is a much lower figure. Second, creating global warming hysteria guarantees them an income stream. There is more money for research, public speaking, writing articles, etc. In some cases, this is more subconscious than deliberate. There is no glamor in saying global warming is overhyped. Nobody wants to fund you, provide you with a platform for your views or even hire you. It is a form of scientific fascism.

[mrbrill]

The people who don''t believe in global warming are the same type of people who didn''t believe the poll numbers... There is a science and you can''t take one data point to make a conclusion.

[prelgovisk]

The Moon has global warming AND global freezing. The point is: The more we screw up the Earth, the more like the Moon the Earth will become. - Rev Steve Prelgovisk

[lloydbest1]

Global warming. Global cooling. Global whining. Whatever.
I will not join in the debate on whether our climate is changing but I will offer up this:
We are either warming up or we are not. If we are not warming up, as some say, then we don''t have much to worry about. At least from overheating. We still have to contend with excess CO2 playing merry h&ll with our VERY delicate pH balance in our oceans.
But if we are warming up, as others say, then this is either a natural event or we are driving the climate change. If the agents of global climate change are mostly natural there isn''t much we can do to slow or stop the change - and maybe we shouldn''t try.
But....If mankind''s activities ARE the overwhelming driver, then we owe it to our descendants to do what we can to eliminate or reduce those activities.
The way I see it, there is a 25% chance we are heating up and our activities are the primary cause of the temperature rise. I can''t speak for everybody but I would not be too comfortable with business as usual if there was a 25% chance that doing nothing or not enough would result in a mass climate catastrophe.
How about you? How lucky do you feel?

[vcofreason]

No one mentioned global warming to mother nature?

Posted by my2centss at 06:20 PM
------------------
Hahaha, good one! With all this global warming talk, I was surprised to read all the articles about normal, average winters everywhere. We cannot help the natural cyclical changes happening on Earth. Back in the late 19th century when the world was choking on carbon dioxide, why wasn''t the global warming steamrolling the earth to ruin?

Gotta run, these "global cooling" warning archives I''m reading are real page turners. What a bunch of lemmings some people can be.

[ausus-2009]

mrbrill,

I believe in election numbers, not necessarily poll numbers.

As to global warming, you would have a case if all of the data pointed the same direction. Unfortunately, those who advocate it and those who think it is a myth can be selective in what they choose and where they look. It is interesting to note that one group of scientists points to the less ice in the Antarctic as proof of global warming while another points to more ice in the Antarctic as proof there is no global warming.

[debinok1]

Ah, more billion dollar grant funded global warming hogwash, the climate on this planet has shifted many times, look at greenland, melting ice revealed that at one time people lived there and grew food, OMG, they must have had a bad bought of global warming for that to happen.

[titletrack]

The way I see it, there is a 25% chance we are heating up and our activities are the primary cause of the temperature rise. I can''''t speak for everybody but I would not be too comfortable with business as usual if there was a 25% chance that doing nothing or not enough would result in a mass climate catastrophe.
How about you? How lucky do you feel?

Posted by LloydBest1 at 09:30 PM : Dec 21, 2008

How do you figure 25%? Or is that the number he magic 8-Ball told you to use? The way I see it 50% of my descendants enjoy warmer weather. So if there is global warming, they won''t mind.

[titletrack]

Uh huh.

95% of the GLOBAL scientific community is lying to us.

Got it.

Posted by IamHungry68 at 07:57 PM : Dec 21, 2008

Get off your computer and save the earth hippie.

[ausus-2009]

I would like to see the breakdown of opinions scientific community pro, undecided and negative on the question of global warming and in which categories they fall. How many are meteorologists, chemists, botanists, physicists etc. It''s wonderful for people to pull figures out of the air without the raw numbers to back them up.

[jowand]

Follow the, mega, money trail it all leads to the "Carbon Credit Trading Companies". Al Gore and Hank Paulson (Treasury Sec'') formed one several years ago. It''s going to be a bigger swindle than the "Bailout".

[jowand]

would like to see the breakdown of opinions scientific community pro, undecided and negative on the question of global warming and in which categories they fall. How many are meteorologists, chemists, botanists, physicists etc. It''''s wonderful for people to pull figures out of the air without the raw numbers to back them up.

Posted by ausus at 12:51 AM : Dec 22, 2008

"There''s lies, *** lies and statistics"
Mark Twain

[daniel1004]

It has been quite a storm. I was traveling through Oregon and the storm was literally blinding.

[mediawatch50]

The wingnut Denialists here are a pretty sad bunch. A fun game to play: Ask them to give specifics regarding their sources, research, evidence, etc. A quick search will ALWAYS show that the "gem" they think they have is a ***. ALWAYS.

Poor, silly wingnuts. Reality is so cruel.

[downtowner97]

The arctic is littered with stinking, rotting, fly-covered wooly mammoth carcasses. They died 30,000 years ago. They have been beneath the ice since they died. Why are they on the surface? How did they get to the surface? If things aren''t getting warmer over the long term, why has the ice melted and brought them to the surface? Who stands to lose from having you think about these facts and what they mean? Where do they get their money?

[pepperwood2]

Apparently we the people just don''t get it. Let me try to explain Global Warming. This abnormally cold & snowy weather we''re having in Washington, Midwest & Maine is because of Global Warming & GB.

Anartica, Mosst of Greenland, Siberia, & The Frozen Tundra was made uninhabitable because of Global Warming & GB (Global BS)

Global Warming is respondsible for making the Cold weather Colder & the Hot weather Hotter. Heads I win & Tails you lose. Not so hard to understand is it...?

Responsible for the World Banking Frauds, Economic Collapse, Loss of Jobs, Cut back in Consumer Spending, etc.

Just get back to the basics. When prices become affordable we may be able to buy more. More trash with more cash.

[whitewolf60]

Nawwww.... ya THINK?? Winter is only one day old and I wish it would go away already!!! : -P

[thcarson-2009]

Oh here we go another idiot blaming George Bush for global warming. The earth has been in a warming trend for 10,000 years, well before cars, George Bush or the idiot that is blaming him for something that the some claim is destroying the earth. If you have major credit card debt and bought a house you can''''t afford you are as much to blame as anyone else for the economy. If you can''''t afford to pay cash or pay your credit card balance in full every month then don''''t buy what you don''''t need. Idiots that want to blame George Bush for everything that is wrong must have went broke and don''''t want to blame themselves for bieng unable to save money.


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Posted by wvu7462

Amen

[koalabeer1]

wvu7462 at 01:23 AM - yes the Earth has been colder and warmer in the past; there havebeen Ice Ages in the past. The CO2 levels have been MUCH higher at times in the past.

But these changes happened slowly, over geological timescales, so the animals and the plants, which aren''t so bright (especially the plants which are dumber than even some Republican voters) had time to adaptand change, to move to new habitats.

The current changes are happening much faster. It''s not THAT there has been change in the past, it''s HOW FAST the change is happening now.

[koalabeer1]

wvu7462 at 01:23 AM - also, humans evolved and have become adapted, to how the planet is now. We are not adapted to living in a freezing cold climate, a very much hotter climate, or one where CO2 levels are much higher than they are now.

So I guess in that regard we''re not much different from all the other animals and plants. We probably wouldn''t cope well if sudden violent changes started happening, either.

[pepperwood2]

Why this is just awful. This logic just goes to show that man & plants alike are just going to have to stay put and come up with ways in which to evolve faster.

Work on developing wings to fly instead of building planes & destroying vast amounts of valuable real estate for airports that is disappearing before our eyes.

Develop & grow fur coats like our animal friends do to keep warm or cool. Practice developing hibernating during these cold times, etc. Instead of building & heating houses that is contributing to this rapid Global destruction. Save our forests & stop burning these deadly toxic fuels that contributing to this rapid destruction.

We must evolve ways when eat food to limit the amount of this rapid waste polution that man is contributing to our beloved Planet.

Al Gore, has it right. This rapid castrophe will overtake all mankind in 1 - 2 years if we don''t evolve ways to save the planet. We don''t have billions or trillions of years to speed up this evolution process. We must speed up this process. We can do it.

[runningralph]

Earth has existed 4.5 to 5 billion years. Life has existed only the last few hundred million years. All that time Earth has been warmed by the sun. Organisms absorbed the sun''s energy and died. Hundreds of millions of years the sun is still shining down. Modern organisms have learned to burn fuel made from ancient organisms. Modern organisms have unleashed millions of years of stored energy in addition to the sun''s present energy. Modern organisms need to learn how to live without burning fuel or modern organisms won''t survive. Earth will survive but modern organisms won''t.

[Renegade.Rivers]

Global Warming is just another one of those subjects that some people buy like they do soap for their laundry.

To those that cry about heir being more CO2 in the air, I wonder did it ever occur to them that the number of trees being cut around the world is astounding. If I didn''t wear my tinfoil hat all the time, and the *** thing keeps falling in my eyes, I would be a lot more concerned about the possibility of another "Dust Bowl," than I am Global Warming. Yet, I never hear any mention of that.

I can go on the internet and find page after page of information about the dangers of fluoride in the water, and how what it does to the brain, but no one seems to care. Yet they buy this Global Warming scam like it is the latest fashion statement.

Well I got to run, I am getting signals from Xarus 10, and the red lights are lighting up on my tinfoil hat so I had better take the message. Maybe they got some information on global warming I missed. Out.

[ausus-2009]

koalabeer1,

How did the dinosaurs adapt to climate change? I haven''t seen any in my neighborhood lately.

Seriously, I see the climate change scam as the greatest thing the socialists have had going since before the Soviet Union fell. It gives them the opportunity to impose onerous taxes on industry and the average consumer (through utility and gasoline prices)to create a huge pool of money to hand out to their supporters. In the meantime American industry shuts down and China and India while paying lip service to the concept will prosper and continue to pollute to their hearts'' content.