Via Bjorn Lomborg: Multiple scientists have pointed out that this year's wildfire activity is well below average. Plus, Canada's temperatures have averaged below  average so far in 2026.  The "global warming caused the Canadian wildfires" is the usual alarmist nonsense. 

Courtesy of one of our alert readers, Canada is ending its weather radio network as of March 16. Canada's network has been patterned after NOAA Weather Radio network in the United States. After more than 60 years, the NOAA network has never achieved market penetration of more than 3% (percent of households actually using it). The reasons are many but the number one reason is that it triggers its loud tone in the middle of the night for storms the users don't care about. I know that's the reason we discontinued using it.  Grok agrees: The advantage of weather radios is that they will let you know (without you doing anything) when a dangerous condition approaches. But they are -- at best -- countywide and they cannot separate hazards (e.g., they alert for a severe thunderstorm warning regardless of whether it is one inch hail or whether it is 90 mph winds).  One would think that NOAA would be moving on to satellite or newer technology with more geographic precision but they s...

We had wildfire smoke from western Canada covering the sky this evening. So we had an unusual sunset. The sun was actually a bit redder than depicted but, still, this was an unusual sky.  Below is a smoke density map and you can see the smoke was quite thick (denoted by red over northern Kansas) at the time of the photo. 

A number of counties in Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas have been removed from the blizzard warning as the storm is moving northeast.  The color code: Orange = blizzard warning Gold = high wind warning Maroon = red flag warning (wildfire conditions) Pink = winter storm warning  Dark blue = winter storm watch Purple = winter weather advisory  Brown = high wind watch More than an estimated half million people are without power.  Below is the radar at 4:38p. Blue is the snow falling with the blizzard with the darker blues corresponding to a higher rate of falling snow. Amber is the NWS's tornado watches. 

There is a tropical storm warning for Bermuda (blue at bottom of map). As the system approaches and United States and Canada there will be strong winds in association with the low non-tropical storm. And, as much as four inches of rain are forecast to fall in eastern Maine. Below is a map of forecast rainfalls.  Inland over Quebec, 7-day rainfall amounts will exceed five inches (13 cm) with flooding a possibility. The U.S. and Canadian hurricane forecast centers have decided not  to issue traditional tropical storm watches and warnings but will be handled with traditional forecasts. 

I was recently "reprimanded" by a reader of the Washington Post  because of my skepticism pertaining to climate models. The fact that the forecast (made in 2001, long enough we could judge its accuracy) was completely wrong didn't seem to matter to him.  So, I'd like to present another piece of evidence. Because of the worldwide ban on CFC's, the ozone hole was supposed to have been "fixed" long before now. It isn't. What predicted this? Climate models.  Long range weather and climate are far  more difficult to forecast than the ozone hole. Climate models are not  used for seasonal (say, winter 2023-24) forecasting because they are so unreliable.  So, with all of the talk of climate change in the news recently (Canadian wildfires, tornadoes), if you see the words, "climate model" in the press release or news story (too often the same thing), be immediately skeptical. 

Conditions in NYC are so bad that "ground stops" are in effect at LaGuardia and Newark International this afternoon causing major  flight delays. That may spread south to Philadelphia during the afternoon. The lights in Time Square have illuminated as if it were night. The amount of smoke is off the chart with today and yesterday's values in red.  The health conditions are literally off the chart.  For those unfamiliar with the usual midday appearance of NYC, below are images of a typical day and from a little while ago. The usual suspects are, of course, blaming this on global warming. My thoughts are here . There is one indirect way climate change (human or natural variability) climate change could have affected the fires and that pertains to the ones that were started by lightning. Lightning seems to be more frequent at the latitude of northern Quebec than it used to be. Because of the remote area and the scale of the fires, humans cannot extinguish them. They will hav...

In the East, smoke from the wildfires in eastern Canada is the big weather news today.  Of course, this is due to global warming. 🙄 It is just a shame that the MSM cannot even report basic facts correctly. If global warming is causing a change in the behavior of Canadian wildfires, that trend is down.  Below is a graph I just took from the official Canadian Wildfire Database .  If you look at some of the reporting, you'll see the phrase, "as measured by satellite." We've only had satellites that could detect wildfires since 2016 -- not even a decade! By using that measurement, they are able to distort the record to justify their reporting. This would flunk Journalism 101 but not many of the MSM these days even attempt to practice traditional neutral reporting. 

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal  had a story about how the Biden Administration is spending three trillion  dollars (that bankrupt America doesn't have) to bribe communities into going along with its global warming 'solutions.' People and organizations believe they can get rich. Unfortunately, as the Obama Administration proved with now-bankrupt solar energy firm Solyndra , battery company A123 , and others, the only people who get rich from this graft are the insiders. Meanwhile, we spend ourselves into energy poverty.  Don't believe me? Winds were light over Alberta, Canada, Friday evening. So, wind power production fell to much less than 1% of capacity. Fortunately, temperatures were mild. But, that less than 1% figure should terrify you. Think about what would have occurred had temperatures been below zero or, in the United States, above 100°F. As they did in Texas in 2021, people die by the hundreds. And, after the initial tsunami of federal cash, the inevitabl...

Here is the forecast snowfall for the Northeast for this weekend. The heaviest amounts are expected to be near the St. Lawrence River from New Hampshire and Maine into southern Quebec.

Here is video from yesterday's tornado in Ottawa, Canada. I was surprised this morning to read the local news media in Ottawa and find that some were calling yesterday's tornado a downburst. It was a tornado. The map below, from U.S. weather radar, shows the path of the rotation. Two were critically injured in the tornado and power was out to more than 200,000 (assuming they define a "customer" = electric meter) people. Based on the damage photos I have seen, I'm sure it was at least an EF-2 intensity tornado and, perhaps, and EF-3. There is more here . ADDITION: The debris cloud can be seen which makes it a tornado. The fact the cloud does not extend to the ground doesn't matter. It is a tornado if the rotating winds make it to the ground.

Tiffany Lizée just finished reading When the Sirens Were Silent  and tweeted, Of course, 'Warnings' is Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather .  Tiffany tells me that storm chasing is becoming more popular in Saskatchewan. The Canadian Prairie Provinces have a similar tornado climatology in summer as the Great Plains of the United States.