you are driving down the highway in February and bugs are hitting the windshield.  

(this posting is an update to the essay below) Since the Heartland Institute was the party wronged in "Fakegate" (as some are calling it), here is their response to the deception. 

Earlier today, genuine climate scientist and IPCC member Dr. Judith Curry wrote on her blog, Understanding the limits of predictability is the key challenge.  The arrogant species [man] is fooling itself if we think we can ‘project’ the state of the climate in 50 years or 100 years, even if we somehow knew what the anthropogenic forcing would be.  Yes, it seems that all other things being equal, the climate would be warmer with more CO2, but there is no reason at all to expect all other factors to remain the same...  Personally, I am in awe of the complexity of the climate system and don’t want to anger the gods with the arrogance of claiming to understand climate change.  Today, the Los Angeles Times  published an outrageous editorial comparing the Heartland Institute to Hitler...based on a fake document, no less. This is what they wrote Monday: Leaked documents from the Heartland Institute in Chicago, one of many nonprofits that spread disinformation about climate science in hopes...

Don't normally do severe thunderstorm watches here but since it is early in the season and since two major metro areas (Oklahoma City and Wichita) and it is close to a third (Tulsa), I'm going ahead.  A severe thunderstorm watch means to watch for large hail (≥1") and or damaging winds (≥58mph).  Here is the two warnings that are in effect. The first is a severe thunderstorm warning out just southwest of Wichita until 3:30pm. This storm is moving in the general direction of the Wichita/Sedgwick Co. area and has produced two reports of hail between 3/4" and 1". Radar at 3:16pm: The second looks like it has large hail and damaging wind potential as is moves NE to ENE through northern Oklahoma. Here is the severe thunderstorm watch until 10pm.         

One would think with the thousands of wind towers that have been erected in the Great Plains and elsewhere the last few years and all of the solar installations, we would be seeing conventional power plants decommissioned with all that new electricity, right? Not a single U.S. power plant has been replaced by all of the recent wind and solar construction due to excess alternative energy. Because the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't always shine, the plants are needed for backup with their generators still spinning ("spinning reserve" as it is called in the industry).  There has been a fair amount of news pertaining to the end of the U.S. government's subsidy for wind power expiring the end of the month .   Turns out we are not the only nation losing its enthusiasm for "alternative energy ." In the words of the German Association of Physicists, “solar energy cannot replace any additional power plants.” On short, overcast winter days, Germany’s 1.1 mi...

When I was at our home office in State College ten days ago, I was interviewed by AccuWeather's Megan Evans. That interview is here . 

My friend Anthony Watts has created a reference page with just about everything you ant to know about climate. Whether a scientist or just an interested citizen just about everything you would want to know is there.