Sometimes I'm surprised which blog postings seem to strike a chord with readers. Many have commented to me (via email) about the posting below involving people putting coins on tracks. I can assure you that, unfortunately, this is not rare behavior at all. AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions , my employer, provides storm warnings and weather forecasts for Union Pacific Railroad. In 2007, they invited us to ride their steam train from Enid, Oklahoma, to Wichita. We stopped in Caldwell, Kansas, to allow a freight train to pass on the siding. I saw the freight approaching in the mirror attached to our car. Our train is at right. The freight is at left with its lights on.  Suddenly, a man jumped onto the tracks, ahead of the moving freight, to place a coin. Even worse,  the man and a friend crawled under the momentarily stopped freight to try to find the coin! Had the train started moving, which it could have at any moment since the passenger train had cleared the sout...

Since part of the goal of this blog is to help people live safer lives, I wanted to bring this to your attention. From Ed at Trainorders.com: click to enlarge At right are two 'gentlemen,' one of which is carrying a beer can (not visible) who decided to rush across the tracks to place coins on the track ahead of the BNSF stack train (at left) coming at them at full speed. One slip and they are ground beef. Not to mention the chance the coin will be ejected by the train's wheel and injure one of them. Please educate your children that train tracks are not recreation areas. 

One of our readers requested a map showing the rainfall for the last month. Because the National Weather Service's computes weekly rainfall as of 7am CDT on Saturdays, here is the rainfall for the 31 days ending Saturday, August 17. From AccuWeather, click to enlarge And, here is a closeup of the area with the heaviest rains which fell from central Kansas to the Ozarks. These amounts truly are extraordinary. While I do not believe there is an official record category for "mid-summer rainfall," if there was I believe this would be a record. As of Saturday, here is the amount of rain-- above the normal amount -- needed to break the drought. White areas are drought-free according to the Palmer Drought Index. ADDITION 2:41pm CDT: Courtesy of Dr. Ryan Maue, here is the European Model's 10-day rainfall forecast. He noted the zero over Kansas and Oklahoma.

At this time Friday, there were two possible storms but both fizzled (a good thing!). Nothing out there now.

Matt Ridley's A Lukewarmer's Ten Tests .   Dr. Ridley outlines what it would take to convince him that global warming is a significant problem. His thoughts almost exactly mirror mine. 

From Cole Cubelic via Twitter, here is a photo of a downburst near the Las Vegas Airport about a half hour ago. Here is a radar image from about 8 minutes ago showing a second microburst over the city. Here is the corresponding reflectivity data:

The Smith Family just took a special vacation to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Here are some reviews that might be helpful in case you are planning to take a vacation later this year. Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. We stayed there for a short vacation in 2012 and were pleased. Last week, they had really stepped up their game. Excellent customer service and good value for the money. Grand Hyatt Kauai. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Excellent customer service. Prices high in Kauai, but worth it. One thing of which to be aware: It is sprawling resort. So, if you have an issue with walking, double check whether it would be right for you. Kauai. The most beautiful of the Hawaiian Islands. We love it. However, if you are looking for nightlife and "action," you would probably prefer Oahu (Honolulu) or Maui.  As always, I read a number of books. Top of the Morning  which is the story of the network morning news programs. If you like an inside story of how networks (dis)functio...