Weather!

[Ann]

Here's today's view from my balcony. The snow is mostly gone, but one of the "pools" on the dead grass remains.

Ann

[orin stepanek]

Hey Ann! Hope you get a little snow before end of winter! Here our's looking North! It's gone down some! It looks like were done for a while

[neufer]

Erythemal UV-B Daily Dosage (Nov. 18, 2020)

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Record Antarctic Ozone Hole in late (midnight sun) November

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<<Influenced by depleted ozone within the Ozone Hole, surface UV-B radiation amounts can reach levels found only in the tropics. This map shows the estimated daily dosage of erythemally weighted UV radiation. This estimate is based upon the first 24 1-hour NOAA/EPA UV Index forecasts. The UV Index forecast values are assumed constant over the hour of each of the 24 1-hour forecasts. The daily dosage is then the sum of all 24 1-hour forecasts. The UV Index forecast is quite accurate for the first 24 hours. The UV Index forecast takes under consideration the total column ozone amount, the sun-earth orientation, the surface elevation, the enhancement effects of snow and ice, aerosol scattering (using a seasonal global climatology), and cloud UV transmission.>>

2020 Antarctic ozone hole — one of the largest, deepest — closes
By DTE Staff : Published: Thursday 07 January 2021

NASA total ozone over the Antarctic pole.

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<<The Antarctic ozone hole — one of the deepest, largest gap in the ozone layer in the last 40 years — has closed,according to World Meteorological Organization (WMO) January 6, 2021. The annually occurring ozone hole over the Antarctic had rapidly grown from mid-August and peaked at around 24 million square kilometres — one of the largest so far — in early October 2020.

The expansion of the hole was driven by a strong, stable and cold polar vortex and very cold temperatures in the stratosphere. The same meteorological factors also contributed to the record 2020 Arctic ozone hole, which has also closed. A polar vortex is a wide expanse of swirling cold air, a low pressure area, in polar regions. During winters, the polar vortex at the North Pole expands, sending cold air southward.

An ozone hole is the thinning of the ozone layer boosted in size by colder temperatures. As the temperatures high up in the stratosphere starts to rise, ozone depletion slows, the polar vortex weakens and breaks down. By the end of December, ozone levels return to normal. This time around, however, the process took longer.

The formation of ozone hole in the Antarctic has been an annual occurrence and has been recorded for the last 40 years. Human-made chemicals migrate into the stratosphere and accumulate inside the polar vortex. It begins to shrink in size as warmer temperatures dominate. The 2020 Antarctic hole was unprecedented as the polar vortex kept the temperature of the ozone layer cold, preventing the mixing of ozone depleted air above Antarctica with ozone rich air from higher latitudes.>>

Maps of the emissions of CFC-11 from eastern China between 2008 and 2019 as calculated by an atmospheric transport model developed by the study authors.

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Tracing Changes in Ozone-Depleting Chemicals

<<For more than 30 years, nations have been working to protect Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer by banning the new production and trade of ozone-depleting substances. Part of that effort has included tracking the atmospheric concentration of such chemicals.

In 2018, researchers noticed that after years of steady declines, the concentration of a particular ozone-depleter leveled off globally. With deeper investigation, they then uncovered a source of new emissions from eastern China. In research published in February 2021 in the journal Nature, scientists reported that the resurgence in emissions of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11 or freon-11) from China and other unreported sources was short-lived and should not significantly delay the recovery of Earth’s ozone layer.

Stratospheric ozone is a natural sunscreen that helps shield us from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the Sun. In the 1970 and 80s, scientists discovered that chemicals widely used in refrigerants and insulating foams were rising into the stratosphere. Those chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are broken down by UV light into forms that cause the destruction of ozone molecules. Stratospheric ozone concentrations fell globally, and the problem became most acute over the South Pole, where an “ozone hole” started forming annually. In 1987, an international treaty was enacted to prevent additional degradation: the Montreal Protocol banned CFCs, while creating protocols to track their emissions.

Even after production ceased, scientists still expected chemicals like CFC-11 to continue leaking from existing products for years, but at a gradually declining rate. The gases are monitored by groups like the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), a network of monitoring stations funded by NASA and environmental agencies and headed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In 2018, NOAA first reported that atmospheric CFC-11 had declined less than expected, hinting that something had changed. “The slow-down in the rate of decline indicated that somebody was emitting again, or in larger quantities than we were expecting, we just didn’t know where,” said Matt Rigby, a University of Bristol scientist and one of the lead authors of the new studies.

“This is very much like detective work,” said Qing Liang, a co-author of the study and an atmospheric chemist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We figured out there was a problem, then we tracked down the problem regionally, and it seems that the actions taken in China, and perhaps elsewhere, have resulted in a big drop in the unexpected emissions.”>>

[Ann]

It's amazing what a week can do...

Last weekend, people were out walking on the ice in Malmö by the hundreds. One of the many places where people were walking was on the ice of the downtown canal.

Today, no one was even trying to walk on the ice! Don't even think of it!

But if there were no people on the melting ice on the canal today, there were winter aconites by the thousands in the old downtown churchyard. You can't see them well at all in the picture I've attached, because my cell phone is lousy at telling the difference between the little yellow flowers and all the dead grass surrounding them.

Ann

[bystander]

On the way to above freezing for the first time in almost two weeks. They're talking 60s (°F) by Tuesday and lows above freezing. I've got almost no water pressure with multiple water main breaks around the city but managed to keep my lines from freezing.

[orin stepanek]

On the way to above freezing for the first time in almost two weeks. They're talking 60s (°F) by Tuesday and lows above freezing. I've got almost no water pressure with multiple water main breaks around the city but managed to keep my lines from freezing.

Wow my water lines froze one time in the 1970's! this was on the addition we built on the house when we needed an extra bedroom! We didn't put a basement under the addition! It's just a crawl space! Borrows heat from the rest of basement through the opening where the basement window was! they built screened vent windows with aluminum covers! One winter the wind blew open the cover; and froze my pipes! I put spray foam to keep the cover closed! As cold as it gets here; I still worry about the pipes freezing! I cracked open the faucets while thawing out the pipes; spending time in the crawlspace!

[bystander]

The local electric company, in their infinite wisdom, decided to relieve the demand on the grid by inducing rolling black outs. They shut off power to one of the pumping stations, resulting in broken water mains downstream of the station. The power was off at my house for about an hour and a half. Temperature in the house dropped by 10 degrees. When the power came back on the heater was working overtime to recoup the lost heat. I'm not sure they thought this through. They abandoned the rolling blackouts the next day.

[orin stepanek]

Some states didn't produce enough electricity to get through the power crunch; so they borrowed from states that had more! That was alright; but I not sure the rolling blackouts were necessary! We were down for about an hour!

[Chris Peterson]

Some states didn't produce enough electricity to get through the power crunch; so they borrowed from states that had more! That was alright; but I not sure the rolling blackouts were necessary! We were down for about an hour! :ohno:

Of course, Texas couldn't borrow, because their power grid is independent from the rest of the country's.

When a system can't provide enough power, some kind of blackouts are necessary. It's obviously better if they are controlled ones. But, as always, the exact choices with respect to who keeps power and who loses it can be good or bad. And sometimes that's only apparent in retrospect.

Climate change is putting our energy infrastructure at risk. That is apparent in California and in Texas. We'd better get to work making the system more robust (which we certainly have the ability to do), or events like these are going to become routine rather than rare.

[KayBur]

Some states didn't produce enough electricity to get through the power crunch; so they borrowed from states that had more! That was alright; but I not sure the rolling blackouts were necessary! We were down for about an hour!

Of course, Texas couldn't borrow, because their power grid is independent from the rest of the country's.

When a system can't provide enough power, some kind of blackouts are necessary. It's obviously better if they are controlled ones. But, as always, the exact choices with respect to who keeps power and who loses it can be good or bad. And sometimes that's only apparent in retrospect.

Climate change is putting our energy infrastructure at risk. That is apparent in California and in Texas. We'd better get to work making the system more robust (which we certainly have the ability to do), or events like these are going to become routine rather than rare.

I am outraged by the fact that the power plants were built without considering possible weather difficulties. And it is even more incomprehensible why now, with such climate changes, no action is being taken to improve the power plants.

[orin stepanek]

Some states didn't produce enough electricity to get through the power crunch; so they borrowed from states that had more! That was alright; but I not sure the rolling blackouts were necessary! We were down for about an hour!

Of course, Texas couldn't borrow, because their power grid is independent from the rest of the country's.

When a system can't provide enough power, some kind of blackouts are necessary. It's obviously better if they are controlled ones. But, as always, the exact choices with respect to who keeps power and who loses it can be good or bad. And sometimes that's only apparent in retrospect.

Climate change is putting our energy infrastructure at risk. That is apparent in California and in Texas. We'd better get to work making the system more robust (which we certainly have the ability to do), or events like these are going to become routine rather than rare.

I am outraged by the fact that the power plants were built without considering possible weather difficulties. And it is even more incomprehensible why now, with such climate changes, no action is being taken to improve the power plants.

Well they are installing wind mills and Solar Panels; but not happening fast enough! Has to be more push to geter done!

[bystander]

Well they are installing wind mills and Solar Panels; but not happening fast enough! Has to be more push to geter done!

Of course it doesn't help that at least some of the wind turbines froze.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16 ... es-frozen/

[orin stepanek]

Well they are installing wind mills and Solar Panels; but not happening fast enough! Has to be more push to geter done!

Of course it doesn't help that at least some of the wind turbines froze.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16 ... es-frozen/

Need to have a little fire under them!

[Chris Peterson]

Well they are installing wind mills and Solar Panels; but not happening fast enough! Has to be more push to geter done!

Of course it doesn't help that at least some of the wind turbines froze.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16 ... es-frozen/

And why did they freeze? Because Texas ignored the climate change models that quite accurately predict a growing number of ice storms at their latitude. Wind turbines that are designed to operate under those conditions do quite well, clear up into the Arctic.

[neufer]

Well they are installing wind mills and Solar Panels; but not happening fast enough! Has to be more push to geter done!

Of course it doesn't help that at least some of the wind turbines froze.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16 ... es-frozen/

Need to have a little fire under them!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<Wind turbines need regular maintenance to stay reliable and available. In the best case turbines are available to generate energy 98% of the time. Ice accretion on turbine blades has also been found to greatly reduce the efficiency of wind turbines, which is a common challenge in cold climates where in-cloud icing and freezing rain events occur. De-icing is mainly performed by internal heating, or in some cases by helicopter spraying clean warm water on the blades.

Wind turbines produce electricity at between two and six cents per kilowatt hour, which is one of the lowest-priced renewable energy sources. As technology needed for wind turbines continued to improve, the prices decreased as well. In addition, there is currently no competitive market for wind energy, because wind is a freely available natural resource, most of which is untapped. The main cost of small wind turbines is the purchase and installation process, which averages between $48,000 and $65,000 per installation. The energy harvested from the turbine will offset the installation cost, as well as provide virtually free energy for years.

Wind turbines provide a clean energy source, use little water, emitting no greenhouse gases and no waste products. Over 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide per year can be eliminated by using a one-megawatt turbine instead of one megawatt of energy from a fossil fuel.

Environmental impact of wind power includes effect on wildlife, but can be mitigated if proper monitoring and mitigation strategies are implemented. Thousands of birds, including rare species, have been killed by the blades of wind turbines, though wind turbines contribute relatively insignificantly to anthropogenic avian mortality. Wind farms and nuclear power stations are responsible for between 0.3 and 0.4 bird deaths per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while fossil fueled power stations are responsible for about 5.2 fatalities per GWh. In 2009, for every bird killed by a wind turbine in the US, nearly 500,000 were killed by cats and another 500,000 by buildings. In comparison, conventional coal fired generators contribute significantly more to bird mortality, by incineration when caught in updrafts of smoke stacks and by poisoning with emissions byproducts (including particulates and heavy metals downwind of flue gases). Further, marine life is affected by water intakes of steam turbine cooling towers (heat exchangers) for nuclear and fossil fuel generators, by coal dust deposits in marine ecosystems (e.g. damaging Australia's Great Barrier Reef) and by water acidification from combustion monoxides.>>

[orin stepanek]

Of course it doesn't help that at least some of the wind turbines froze.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16 ... es-frozen/

Need to have a little fire under them!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<Wind turbines need regular maintenance to stay reliable and available. In the best case turbines are available to generate energy 98% of the time. Ice accretion on turbine blades has also been found to greatly reduce the efficiency of wind turbines, which is a common challenge in cold climates where in-cloud icing and freezing rain events occur. De-icing is mainly performed by internal heating, or in some cases by helicopter spraying clean warm water on the blades.

Wind turbines produce electricity at between two and six cents per kilowatt hour, which is one of the lowest-priced renewable energy sources. As technology needed for wind turbines continued to improve, the prices decreased as well. In addition, there is currently no competitive market for wind energy, because wind is a freely available natural resource, most of which is untapped. The main cost of small wind turbines is the purchase and installation process, which averages between $48,000 and $65,000 per installation. The energy harvested from the turbine will offset the installation cost, as well as provide virtually free energy for years.

Wind turbines provide a clean energy source, use little water, emitting no greenhouse gases and no waste products. Over 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide per year can be eliminated by using a one-megawatt turbine instead of one megawatt of energy from a fossil fuel.

Environmental impact of wind power includes effect on wildlife, but can be mitigated if proper monitoring and mitigation strategies are implemented. Thousands of birds, including rare species, have been killed by the blades of wind turbines, though wind turbines contribute relatively insignificantly to anthropogenic avian mortality. Wind farms and nuclear power stations are responsible for between 0.3 and 0.4 bird deaths per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while fossil fueled power stations are responsible for about 5.2 fatalities per GWh. In 2009, for every bird killed by a wind turbine in the US, nearly 500,000 were killed by cats and another 500,000 by buildings. In comparison, conventional coal fired generators contribute significantly more to bird mortality, by incineration when caught in updrafts of smoke stacks and by poisoning with emissions byproducts (including particulates and heavy metals downwind of flue gases). Further, marine life is affected by water intakes of steam turbine cooling towers (heat exchangers) for nuclear and fossil fuel generators, by coal dust deposits in marine ecosystems (e.g. damaging Australia's Great Barrier Reef) and by water acidification from combustion monoxides.>>

Thanks Art! that was very interesting! They are very efficient indeed!

[bystander]

What a difference a week makes. A week ago the overnight low was -15 °F, 5 inches of snow on the ground, and another 4 inches expected. Today it's expected to get to 73 °F, the warmest day of the year, so far.

[neufer]

What a difference a week makes. A week ago the overnight low was -15 °F, 5 inches of snow on the ground, and another 4 inches expected. Today it's expected to get to 73 °F, the warmest day of the year, so far.

• I don't agree with the sentiment but that's really great
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf270rFwLyU&t=77

[Ann]

February was cold until it got mild in the end, but now it's rather cold again.

There is some ice on the canal again, though not much. And there are a million yellow winter aconites in the old downtown cemetery.

Ann

[Ann]

Chris, this one is for you. You have told us that your wife is a dancer.

Well, this Russian ballerina danced "Swan Lake" in -15°C to protest against plans to turn an untouched bay into a busy port, destroying a lot of aquatic and land life in the process.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Ann

[orin stepanek]

Ahh! Spring, happy solstice everyone!

download.jpg (11.6 KiB) Viewed 25007 times

[Ann]

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Ahh! Spring, happy solstice everyone!

Happy solstice, Orin! Even though its grey, overcast, chilly and drizzly here in Malmö!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

A perfect early spring day here in the Colorado high country. We had a heavy snowfall a few days ago, but it melted off fast. We need the water! Temperature today was up over 50°, with the usual sunshine. It was our first day out this season moving cows, which have just had their calves over the last few days, and are enjoying the little shoots of green grass that are starting to poke up underneath last year's stubble.
_

[orin stepanek]

Ahh! Spring, happy solstice everyone! download.jpg

Oops! Did you all catch my error? Solstice er Eqinox!

[Chris Peterson]

Ahh! Spring, happy solstice everyone! :D download.jpg

Oops! Did you all catch my error? Solstice er Eqinox! :oops:

What's three months among friends?