This past weekend CBS Sunday Morning  unveiled its selection of 250 songs representing America. They call it "The Essential American Songbook" and it can be found here .  I have a few comments. First, their list of "American music experts" {Hillary Clinton?!} left something to be desired: it was narrow and the East Coast was overrepresented. Second, a number of songs (three [!] versions of New York, New York)  and artists (Bob Dylan) are over-represented.  Here are some songs I believe should have been included, in no order. I believe I have all of the original artists. You may play them at the colored links.  16 Tons ,  Tennessee Ernie Ford Christmas Song , Nat King Cole Theme From 'Hawaii 5-0' , Mort Stevens and His Orchestra  Can't Take My Eyes Off You , Frankie Valli (note: there are other "love songs" on the CBS list) Freight Train ,  Elizabeth Cotton Street Life , Randy Crawford We've Only Just Begun , Carpenters Hound Dog , Elvis Pre...

There was a lot of controversy in the Midwest Wednesday morning as to whether the forecast tornadoes in the Midwest would develop because of heavy morning rains in the region. Tornadoes require "instability," defined as air rising -- perhaps violently ( > 100 mph) in extreme cases -- if it is warm and humid near the ground and cold aloft. Conventional wisdom is that extensive morning rain diminishes tornado potential.  But that's often not true. Take look at the radar of the same region eight hours later.  While the morning rain may keep the air less unstable, I've documented that some of the very biggest tornadoes and tornado outbreaks are preceded by after midnight on the day of the event. My speculation is the evaporating rain lowers the "lifting condensation level" (LCL). Lower LCL's = tornadoes more likely, other factors equal.  Here are just some of the events I have examined: April 27, 2011 (see radar image nearby from 4:49am).  April 3, 1974...

It is always a pleasure to be able to review a book that is well written and has a fresh point of view. One might call Dr. Joel Myers' book,  Invisible Iceberg,  the first biography of weather. It begins with the role of weather in the extinction of the dinosaurs and “Noah’s” flood and gradually takes us into modern times including a fascinating look at how weather affected the sinking of the Titanic , the assassination of President Kennedy, and September 11 th .    Joel is a brilliant man and the meteorological entrepreneur of AccuWeather (AW) and I had hoped for years he would write a book. It was worth waiting for. Joel was my boss when I sold the assets of WeatherData, Inc. to AW in 2006 and went to work for his company (I retired in 2018).   Each chapter is an easy read; usually 2-6 pages and I’ve learned a lot reading it. I thought I knew, for example, how the weather affected the sinking of the  Titanic,  but it turns out there is much more than...

On a discussion group this week, there has been discussion about the early days of Doppler radar. That was a topic we covered a while back. Here is a piece about the first time a Doppler detected a tornado (the F-4 El Dorado, KS Tornado) with a link to KAKE-TV's outstanding documentary on the topic. 

How did our modern tornado warning program begin? It started in Oklahoma in 1972 with plucky meteorology students and experimental radars. With the huge success of Twisters  this summer and 1996's  Twister before it, it is likely most assume storm chasing has been around forever. Not true! Storm chasing began in 1972 in a classroom of stinky Felger Hall at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Joe Golden, a scientist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory addressed a meeting of the OU student chapter of the American Meteorological Society.  Joe asked us to chase tornadoes so the efficacy of two experimental Doppler radars could be tested. I was going through some files in my office last week and found the original plans of the storm chase program.  This was well before the era of cell phones. That first season, we spent a lot of time running around Oklahoma under blue skies or cumulus-filled skies -- with few intercepted thunderstorms, let alone tornadoes. But, we lear...

Today is Kansas Day, the anniversary of Kansas being admitted to the Union as a free state. I thought, given events in the world, this story of a Kansan and anti-semitism was appropriate.  At the U.S. Capitol, each state has two statues representing their citizens.  Kansas' statues are Eisenhower and Amelia Earhart.  General Dwight Eisenhower, who grew up in Abilene, Kansas, was utterly shocked by the death camps Hitler created during World War II. As commander-in-chief of the allied forces, he gave these orders after touring Buchenwald: ...Eisenhower was shocked after seeing one in person and realizing what that system actually was. He recognized that this was what his men were fighting against, that liberation was more than just freeing territory – it was about the very survival of civilization itself against a barbarism few had thought existed in the heart of modern Europe. Eisenhower issued a series of orders. The camps were to be documented, photographed, and filmed...

I pray 2024 is the best year ever for the world, the United States, and for my readers. Per Google Analytics, we have hundreds of thousands of new readers and I appreciate every one of you! I would like to begin the year with a quotation from the late Robert Heinlein: Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all 'right-thinking' people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as 'bad luck.' Keep this in mind as 2024 unfolds -- that we should be assisting and celebrating the people who make positive accomplishments and maybe vote the professional leaches out of office.  Have a great year! All blog content and my photography: © 2024 Mike S...

The United States used to dazzle the world when it came to construction: whether it was the Chrysler or Empire State Buildings, the astounding materiel ramp-up during World War II, the atomic bomb (for better or worse), the Panama Canal (when other nations failed), and the interstate highway system are just a few of the many, many examples.  Wikipedia When it came to railroading, consider "The Overseas Railroad" from Miami to Key West (also known as "Flagler's Folly"). Amazingly, that railroad was built and financed by a single entrepreneur, Henry Flagler. The government wasn't involved.  Then, there was the Transcontinental Railroad. It was chartered by Congress and the Lincoln Administration and built in the 1860's between Omaha and Sacramento. Its 1,928 mile length crossed  two  mountain ranges (including the Sierra in California with its abominable winters). The entire railroad was completed in just six years  using picks and shovels.  A train on the...

#15, Tommy DeVito headed for the end zone From a DuckDuckGo search earlier this week: Same name, same state,   different generations.  Tommy DeVito was the founding member of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons , by far the #1 early 1960's pop music group in the USA until Beatles "invasion" in 1964. He grew up in Belleville (northern) New Jersey and lived with his family until he dropped out of school after the 8th grade. When you watch Goodfellas  (starring his lifelong friend Joe Pesci) and hear the name "Tommy DeVito," it was named after this TDeV. CNN Tommy DeVito is the starting quarterback for the New York Giants and lives with his parents in northern New Jersey ...just eight miles from NJ's MetLife Stadium and 9 miles from Belleville.  When I am watching a Giants game and (frequently) hear Tommy DeVito's name, the sound of the Seasons' #1 hit Walk Like a Man runs through my mind. But, when they call a play for the Giants' #15, I suspect t...

Thursday is the 60th anniversary of that horrible event. An outstanding essay and history lesson is here . I recommend it for everyone not old enough to remember that day. 

“Your life is filled with miracles of science and technology because Western civilization has repeatedly beaten back the forces of barbarism, totalitarianism and ignorance. For most of history, most of humanity lived as slaves in poverty. Free enterprise and hydrocarbons ended that.” -  Andrew Côté While these two specifically pertain to Australia, they apply equally to the United States: “… destroying the landscape with inferior technologies that cost more and do not achieve the desired policy aim of Net Zero is insane."   -  Michael de Percy "I am not sure many people are fully aware of the massive engineering changes currently underway in our rural landscape. The changes are on a scale never attempted in this country before, and it is swallowing obscene amounts of money for minimal benefit and, indeed, no proof it will improve the climate." -- Robert Onfray

I'm so old I remember that it was supposed to be hot in the summer. 

A lot of historical revisionism has been floating around social media since Friday's release of Oppenheimer  -- much of it claiming (paraphrasing), "invading Japan would have been no big deal." I believe this pretty much settles the issue. 

Five days before, a highly damaging tornado struck Tinker. Seventy-five years ago today, an experimental and successful forecast of a tornado.  ...the first successful tornado forecast of the modern era* occurred at Tinker AFB outside of Oklahoma City.  I tell the emotional and humorous story of two Air Force meteorologists ordered to make an impossible forecast in  Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather .  My book tells the "human" side of the story (I was privileged to know then-Col. Bob Miller and we talked about the forecast on more than one occasion). There is a shorter summary of what occurred, here . With that forecast, Miller and (then) Lt. Ernie Fawbush made what would have been the first tornado "watch." The meteorological details are here .  As Wiki (orange link) describes it, the forecasts were kept secret for quite a while. When word got out, WKY-TV and their chief meteorologist Harry Volkman came up with a surreptitious way of g...

I've never liked the term "gaslighting" but that is exactly what is occurring with regard to the history of the absurd reaction to the COVID outbreak in the spring of 2020.  The Atlantic   wants us to believe the following fiction: We didn't know?!  Utter, utter nonsense. From this blog at the very same time, April 2020 .  I made the point that we were all safer outdoors many, many times in the spring and summer of 2020. This gaslighting, just before the election, is intended to get people to forgive and forget the vast, authoritarian overreaction from the left that has persisted the last three years. Just today, I went to a physician's office that required all of the patients wear masks even though, as usual, not all of the employees were doing so.  Note the date of this item from the New England Journal of Medicine  November 19, 2020: There is insufficient evidence to support the claim that masks reduce the infectious dose of SARS-CoV-2 and the severity o...

Ruskin Heights 65 years ago this evening was the Ruskin Heights Tornado (F-5) which launched my career in meteorology. The photo above (used with permission) was when the tornado was near Ottawa. It was on the ground nearly 80 miles with the south of the Kansas City area comprising the last 20 miles. Forty-four people were killed and about 500 injured. It was the first time what we would, today, consider a tornado warning was issued by the government.  Codell The town of Codell, in north central Kansas north of Hays, was a prosperous community at the turn of the 20th Century. One hundred five yers ago today, was the middle of three freaks of nature: the town being hit by tornadoes on May 20, 1916, May 20, 1917 and May 20, 1918. In 1977, Weatherwise  magazine published an article I wrote (above) about the history of the torn and its tornadoes.  The worst of the tree was the last: Ten people died in the area. Below is a photo of the destroyed high school after the last of t...

I have been a big fan of Jason Whitlock's since he was a sportswriter for the Kansas City Star.  While I would sometimes -- strongly -- disagree with him, I liked that he was objective and told us what he really thinks.  Jason posted a piece about Black History Month that I found provocative. While there are items in it about which I disagree, I think it is worth passing along to you . 

Recently, I have written about scientists hyping global warming by calling recent storms " super-extreme ." Of course, none of the recent storms have been extraordinary -- just regular winter occurrences.  Want to read about the extreme winter storm? The Blizzard of 1899 is the one to beat on the East Coast. AccuWeather has a wonderful write-at at the link. As to temperatures,  Note there were below zero temperatures in Florida. More than 100 people died due to the cold. Many of these temperature records still stand 120+ years later. 

Some friends on Twitter made me aware of a Scientific American  article I missed when it was first published in 2013. It is the true story of a mega-flood that occurred throughout California (especially) and the West in the winter of 1861-62. The story is remarkable.  Below is an image of the flooding in Sacramento along K Street. The map the map depicts the almost unbelievable extent of the flooding. The story should be read by anyone interested in weather (especially weather forecasting), California history or emergency management.  Climatologists tell us that this type of flood occurs in California roughly every two hundred years.  An "Ark Storm" refers to Noah's Ark. The 1861-62 flood would certainly qualify! Except, it would be worse today because so much of the area -- especially Southern California -- is paved over and there would be exponentially more people to rescue as compared with the 500,000 people who lived in California at that time.  I do take i...

                         While Vito Corleone's actions were deplorable, his lessons on family and manhood were excellent. I've been pondering why so much has gone so terribly wrong in America in the twenty years since the turn of the century. On January 1, 2000, America and the world were full of optimism. The Soviet Union had fallen. Democracy seemed to have won. The economy was doing well. In the U.S., the endless Bill Clinton scandals -- including the fact he did not take out Osama Bin-Laden when it would have been easy to do so -- seemed over. Y2K was no big deal.  In just nine months, it all went to merde . Below is a recap (you can skip over if you wish). President George Bush made one disastrous decision after another: to "nation build" in Afghanistan rather than laser-focusing on taking out the Taliban, getting us into the Iraq War, failing to veto the monster that has become the Department of Homeland Securit...