While Jim Hall and I don't agree on everything (we had an 'interesting' conversation the morning of a hearing into the crash of an airliner and on other occasions), he is right on the money with this piece pertaining to the FAA's botching of the grounding of the 737-8MAX. I appreciate President Trump taking matters into his own hands and grounding the plane. In fact, he doesn't go far enough. The airlines can literally beat up an innocent passenger, cancel flights for economic reasons (only), sue you for saving them money (see below), forbid a customer to board with an approved  (by the airline, TSA and FAA) medical device, etc., etc., and you have no genuine recourse. There is no accountability because Congress and the FAA have been essentially captured by the airline industry. This needs to stop but I am not hopeful.

Via Twitter within the hour Here is a summary of flood gage status. A number of river stage records have already been set. Purple = major or record flooding. Here is why I am concerned things will get worse before they get better. All of the applicable computer models show moderate to heavy rains over the affected areas. And, there is still a lot  of snow on the ground. That, combined with frozen ground, will amplify the effects of the rain. While not especially heavy, the rain Monday through Wednesday night will be falling on the already flooding Missouri River and nearby tributaries. Things look dicer farther out.  This map shows 6 to 9 inches of water (pinks) locked up in the snow cover over the northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest. Here is the 2-week forecast from the model I believe will be the most accurate in this situation. These rains are likely to prolong or initiate flooding, especially as temperatures warm and the snowpack melts. In addi...

The Catholic Church's intolerable behavior in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals continues to puzzle. Rather than actually reform the Church with ironclad measures, members of the hierarchy continue to dribble out half-measures. This latest proposal, to put Archbishops in charge of Bishops, falls into this category. Catholic and UCLA professor of law, Stephen Bainbridge, explains here . As Steve argues, there is no solution that does not involve a significant role for the laity and further accusations must be handled on a national, rather than local, level.  I recommend Steve's piece at the red link. 

Above is a screen capture from a Twitter video showing a rancher desperately shoveling out his head of cattle to allow them to breathe. At this point, we have no idea as to the number of cattle killed in the blizzard earlier this week. Most fear it will be substantial.

A dike has broken west of Omaha and the NWS office there has been evacuated, and its radar turned off, until further notice. This is especially unfortunate because there is no overlapping radar coverage in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Fortunately, the weather looks relatively calm the next few days. Addition: here is a photo of the mess. The NWS office is in the center. The NWS building is brown. The radar is the white ball. At right, with the white dome, is a rawinsonde (weather balloon) launch facility. The loss of radar and weather balloon data could cause issues if a major storm should present itself.

A well done report is here . The headline: The sun exerts far more influence on earth's climate than most climate scientists want to admit.