Here is the latest Palmer Drought Index as with data through July 9th.  Brown is driest; blue is wettest The NWS's 5-day rainfall amount forecast shows little drought improvement with the possible exception of near the Illinois-Wisconsin border.  While I do not have much faith in the 6 to 10-day outlooks, there is a pretty good chance this one is correct.  While the rain forecasted for the 4-corners area will be helpful, it will not be a drought breaker, unfortunately. The rain area for the coastal Carolinas will be most helpful. Little rain is forecasted to fall where it is most needed. 

...by yours truly is available at the Survive-A-Storm website .  The piece about "Tornado Myths" is pretty popular.

This is an absolutely huge win for Kansas that will create thousands of jobs. My sense is the people are starting to realize the outstanding quality of life we have in our state combined with a low cost of living.  I want to congratulate Gov. Laura Kelly, the legislature, and the eco/devo people who worked so hard to get this done.  Hat Tip: Fox4KC and John Holt. 

We didn't have a required reading in June. As I don't want to recommend pieces I don't believe are worthy of everyone's valuable time.  This month, a second required reading link is posted below.  From Bari Weiss, link here . Read it, you won't regret it -- regardless of what side of the political spectrum you fall.  My earlier, July 8, required reading, link here .

Following up on my story ( immediately below ) about a lack of wind power putting a strain on the Texas electrical grid, there was a nation news story quoting  Climate Central -- an advocacy organization -- that says Dallas-Ft. Worth's summers are getting hotter. Per official NOAA data, that isn't true. Using Dallas County as an example, summer temperatures are cooler in spite of the huge increase in population and corresponding urbanization. Here is the data from 1900 to 2021. The cherry on the cupcake is that Dallas Co. is also wetter in summer (and the year around). That is not to say the summer of 2022 hasn't been hot -- it has. But, one summer does not a climate make. That is known as weather. 

The 2015 Projection: Absurd 2015 headline from "Scientific American" The Reality: Yesterday's headline Friday, I wrote about wind energy operating at less than 9% of capacity during a hot day in Texas. Things have gotten worse since. The Scientific American  article quotes costs of 2¢/mWh. Of course, those are on windy spring days when it is 65° and the power isn't needed. Today, wholesale costs soared to $750 (increase of 3500%).  The reality: Yesterday's headline At one point yesterday, after the Bloomberg story was posted, wind power dropped to  less than 4%  of capacity. Put another way, out of 1000 hypothetical wind turbines, 985 were just standing there. More or less, the same was true at times in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas yesterday.  Is this was we ratepayers have paid billions for? So, I started wondering if we are forced to pay for so much expensive and unreliable wind energy, do they use it in NYC and Washington? If it is the great idea they say it ...

You'll find it in my stock photography collection at Adobe Stock Photography . Please check them out.  Did you know that many of the weather-related photos in stock photography catalogs are mislabeled? For example, few of the pictures labeled microbursts actually are the real thing? With my photographs, you get curated images that are scientifically accurate.