BOMBOGENESIS?

Is it just me? I am 60 years old. I grew up on the East Coast. I am sure that I have never heard the terms: bombogenesis or bomb cyclone ever before.  Is this weather phenomenon a new discovery? Is this phenomenon caused by Global Warming? (please insert sarcasm here) Oh wait, what am I thinking...It's probably Donald Trump's fault!

Bombogenesis: What's a 'Bomb Cyclone'?Andrea Thompson, Live Science Contributor | January 3, 2018 10:45pm ET.

"Bomb cyclones" or "weather bombs" are wicked winter storms that can rival the strength of hurricanes and are so called because of the process that creates them: bombogenesis.

It's a mouthful of a meteorology term that refers to a storm (generally a non-tropical one) that intensifies very rapidly.

Bomb cyclones tend to happen more in the winter months and can carry hurricane-force winds and cause coastal flooding and heavy snow..

How bombogenesis works

The word bombogenesis comes from combining "bomb" and "cyclogenesis," or meteorology speak for storm formation. Technically speaking, a storm undergoes bombogenesis when it's central low pressure drops at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (A millibar is a unit of pressure that essentially measures the weight of the atmosphere overhead. Typical sea-level pressure is about 1,010 millibars.)

Storms occur when a rising column of air leaves an area of low pressure at the Earth's surface, which in turn sucks in the air from surrounding areas. As that air converges, the storm starts to spin faster and faster, like a twirling ice skater who pulls in her arms, which leads to higher wind speeds. The closer you are to the center of the storm, the stronger the winds..

If a storm is strong enough or deepens (drops in pressure) rapidly enough, its winds can reach hurricane-force, or 74 mph (119 km/h) or higher. Of the 43 North Atlantic storms that achieved hurricane-force winds during the winter of 2013-2014, 30 underwent bombogenesis, according to NOAA.

Bombogenesis tends to occur when a strong jet stream high in the atmosphere interacts with an existing low-pressure system near a warm ocean current like the Gulf Stream. The jet stream pulls air out of the storm's rising column of air, causing the surface low to deepen.

When and where bombogenesis occurs

Bombogenesis tends to occur more often in winter in what are called mid-latitude (or extra-tropical) cyclones. These storms are driven by the collision of warm and cold air masses, whereas as tropical cyclones are driven by convection, or the transfer of heat upward (though they can also undergo rapid intensification and sometimes the term bombogenesis is used to describe that process as well).

The western North Atlantic is one of the prime areas for bombogenesis since cold air over North America collides with warm air over the warmer ocean water (which holds onto heat for longer than land does) in the colder months, giving rise to nor'easters (so-called because the winds along the coast are blowing from the northeast), according to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. The moisture from the ocean combined with the cold air can lead to heavy snows.

Bombogenesis is also common in the northwest and southwest Pacific and the South Atlantic. Weather bombs seem to be more common in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere.

Notable weather bombs

The 1993 Superstorm (also called the Storm of the Century), which dumped record amounts of snow across parts of the eastern United States from March 12-13 of that year, was a particularly impactful bomb cyclone, Accuweather reported. The storm's pressure dropped 33 millibars in 24 hours

A storm that bombed out over the Great Lakes in November 1913, dubbed the White Hurricane, sank at least 12 ships and killed at least 250 people.

A February 2017 snowstorm that hit the Northeast led to blizzard conditions and snowfall rates up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) per hour in some places, according to NOAA.

Hurricane Charley in 2004 is a good tropical example. The hurricane, which hit southwest Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, dropped 23 millibars in pressure in less than 5 hours, the National Weather Service said.

Original article on Live Science..

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Your Food Diary For:

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Essential Everyday - Butter Flavored Grits	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
Bacon	200	0	15	15	875	0
Special K - Chewy Nut Bar	150	20	6	3	60	12
	850	125	26	28	2,635	17
L U N C H
Costco Cheese Pizza Slice, 2 Slice	1,400	140	56	88	2,740	14
	1,400	140	56	88	2,740	14
D I N N E R
Subway Turkey Breast	560	92	7	36	0	14
Kirkland Coconut Water	180	45	0	0	75	45
	740	137	7	36	75	59
Totals	2,990	402	89	152	5,450	90
Your Daily Goal	2,067	258	69	104	2,300	77
Remaining	-923	-144	-20	-48	-3,150	-13
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 137 extra calories from exercise today

FAKE WEATHER

Fake news is nothing new. There was another example of fake news just last night as MSNBC touted their scoop of obtaining the tax records of President Donald Trump.  What they did get their hands on was a two page summary of the President's taxes from 12 years ago. They have proved that the lies leveled at him (and similarly Mitt Romney four years ago) that he did not pay taxes was a bit off the mark. They were able to prove that Donald Trump paid 38 million in federal tax in 2005. What a news flash.  Multimillionaire pays millions in taxes. Pardon me, I am getting unfocused. Today we are talking about fake weather.

Weather forecasters can make a mistake. Forecasts are predictions. If a forecast turns out to be wrong - that does not make it fake. However, if the forecasters KNOW IN ADVANCE that their forecast is wrong and fail to provide the new information - they are guilty of a a FAKE WEATHER REPORT. What a shock, the government peddles in fake weather.  Just read the firsts two sentences in the AP story that I duplicated below.

Mar 14, 6:37 PM EDT

WEATHER SERVICE DECIDED LAST MINUTE NOT TO CUT SNOW FORECAST

BY SETH BORENSTEIN

AP SCIENCE WRITER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Before the first snow fell, U.S. meteorologists realized there was a good chance the late-winter storm wasn't going to produce giant snow totals in big Northeast cities as predicted. But they didn't change their forecasts because they said they didn't want to confuse the public. National Weather Service meteorologists in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington held a conference call Monday afternoon about computer models that dramatically cut predicted snow amounts. They decided to keep the super snowy warnings. "Out of extreme caution we decided to stick with higher amounts," Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations at the Weather Prediction Center in suburban Maryland, told The Associated Press. "I actually think in the overall scheme that the actions (by states and cities) taken in advance of the event were exceptional." On Monday, the weather service predicted 18 to 24 inches of snow in New York City. By late Tuesday afternoon, Central Park was covered with a little more than 7 inches of snow with rain and sleet still falling. Other areas, including upstate New York and Connecticut, received more than a foot and a half of snow. Swaths of Pennsylvania were walloped by 20 to 30 inches of snow. Carbin said a last-minute change downgrading snowfall totals might have given people the wrong message that the storm was no longer a threat. It still was, but real danger was from ice and sleet in places like New York City and Washington, he said. Dramatically changing forecasts in what meteorologists call "the windshield wiper effect" only hurts the public, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist for the private Weather Underground. Carbin stood by the decision. "The nature of the beast is that there's always uncertainty in every forecast and we have to get better at describing that," Carbin said. The right amount of precipitation fell, but it came down as rain and sleet because the rain-snow line moved inland, according to Carbin and private forecasters. The rain-snow line is a 50 mile wide north-south swath where cold Arctic air from the north and west clashes with warm, moist air from the Atlantic. West of the snow line saw heavy snow while east had rain and sleet. The snow line happens to center on New York City so it was a bigger deal than if the line had been over a rural area, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue of WeatherBell Analytics. Private forecast outfits said the National Weather Service did a good job forecasting a tough storm despite the beating the federal agency took on social media. "Overall the range of the forecast was very solid. It ended up being on the low end," Henson said. "I understand why people can be frustrated when the expectation is the big storm." University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd, host of the television show "Weather Geeks," said the public focused too much on worst-case scenarios. "The perception of 'bust' is that it didn't materialize for New York in the manner expected. Much of the expected snow fell as sleet," Shepherd said in an email. "To me, ice is a far greater hazard. If a pitcher throws a strike down the center of the plate or just off the outside corner, it's still a strike. "

This makes me wonder about GLOBAL WARMING (which in recent years morphed into CLIMATE CHANGE) PERHAPS AUTHORITIES NOW KNOW THAT THIS PREDICTION IS FALSE, BUT LIKE THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE YESTERDAY, THEY DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE THIS PREDICTION AS THEY ARE AFRAID OF CONFUSING THE PUBLIC.

FAKE NEWS.
FAKE WEATHER.
REAL PROBLEMS.

Your Food Diary For:

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Essential Everyday - Butter Flavored Grits	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
L U N C H
Lundberg - Tamari and Seaweed Organic Rice Cake	780	169	0	13	975	0
	780	169	0	13	975	0
D I N N E R
Jack In the Box - Taco, 4 taco	760	68	44	24	1,280	12
	760	68	44	24	1,280	12
S N A C K S
Protein Plus Protein Bar - MET-Rx	400	37	13	41	123	1
	400	37	13	41	123	1
Totals	2,440	379	62	88	4,078	18
Your Daily Goal	1,955	244	65	98	2,300	73
Remaining	-485	-135	3	10	-1,778	55
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g

   

UNPRECEDENTED MARCH BLIZZARD

It is now Tuesday morning. Apparently our fellow Americans on the East Coast are hunkering down for the worst snowstorm ever. Surely this is a result of climate change. Nothing like this has ever happened before! Surely there have been snowstorms and blizzards on the east coast - but this is March! Spring officially starts in one week! Carbon emissions have changed the natural order of things. This is what climate change is.  This is unprecedented. This has never happened before! 

Except for the inconvenient truth that it has happened before.

from history.com

1888

Great Blizzard of ’88 hits East Coast

On this day in 1888, one of the worst blizzards in American history strikes the Northeast, killing more than 400 people and dumping as much as 55 inches of snow in some areas. New York City ground to a near halt in the face of massive snow drifts and powerful winds from the storm. At the time, approximately one in every four Americans lived in the area between Washington D.C. and Maine, the area affected by the Great Blizzard of 1888. 

On March 10, temperatures in the Northeast hovered in the mid-50s. But on March 11, cold Arctic air from Canada collided with Gulf air from the south and temperatures plunged. Rain turned to snow and winds reached hurricane-strength levels. By midnight on March 11, gusts were recorded at 85 miles per hour in New York City. Along with heavy snow, there was a complete whiteout in the city when the residents awoke the next morning.

Despite drifts that reached the second story of some buildings, many city residents trudged out to New York’s elevated trains to go to work, only to find many of them blocked by snow drifts and unable to move. Up to 15,000 people were stranded on the elevated trains; in many areas, enterprising people with ladders offered to rescue the passengers for a small fee. In addition to the trains, telegraph lines, water mains and gas lines were also located above ground. Each was no match for the powerful blizzard, freezing and then becoming inaccessible to repair crews. Simply walking the streets was perilous. In fact, only 30 people out of 1,000 were able to make it to the New York Stock Exchange for work; Wall Street was forced to close for three straight days. There were also several instances of people collapsing in snow drifts and dying, including Senator Roscoe Conkling, New York’s Republican Party leader.

Many New Yorkers camped out in hotel lobbies waiting for the worst of the blizzard to pass. Mark Twain was in New York at the time and was stranded at his hotel for several days. P.T. Barnum entertained some of the stranded at Madison Square Garden. The East River, running between Manhattan and Queens, froze over, an extremely rare occurrence. This inspired some brave souls to cross the river on foot, which proved a terrible mistake when the tides changed and broke up the ice, stranding the adventurers on ice floes. Overall, about 200 people were killed by the blizzard in New York City alone.

But New York was not the only area to suffer. Along the Atlantic coast, hundreds of boats were sunk in the high winds and heavy waves. The snowfall totals north of New York City were historic: Keene, New Hampshire, received 36 inches; New Haven, Connecticut, got 45 inches; and Troy, New York, was hit by 55 inches of snow over 3 days. In addition, thousands of wild and farm animals froze to death in the blizzard.

In the wake of the storm, officials realized the dangers of above-ground telegraph, water and gas lines and moved them below ground. In New York City, a similar determination was made about the trains, and within 10 years, construction began on an underground subway system that is still in use today.

Your Food Diary For:

Monday, March 13, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Essential Everyday - Butter Flavored Grits	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
L U N C H
Maki - Maki Tuna Roll	501	95	4	23	100	0
	501	95	4	23	100	0
D I N N E R
Bobaks - smoked polish sausage	690	3	63	30	1,950	0
Broccoli - Broccoli	100	20	1	7	115	4
	790	23	64	37	2,065	4
S N A C K S
Dang - Toasted Coconut Chips, Original Recipe	400	41	24	2	400	27
	400	41	24	2	400	27
Totals	2,191	264	97	72	4,265	36
Your Daily Goal	2,796	349	93	140	2,300	104
Remaining	605	85	-4	68	-1,965	68
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g

Your Exercise Diary for:

Monday, March 13, 2017

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Matrix Treadmill	60	844
Daily Total / Goal	60 / 30	844 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	60 / 210	844 / 4,130

WORKOUTS ARE CHALLENGING AND FUN AGAIN

It snowed all day on Sunday.  When the snow in Chicago finally stopped on Sunday night, it was reported that we had accumulations of 19 inches.   It was said to be the fifth biggest storm in Chicago history.  My daughter was happy as her school was closed due to weather for the third time this winter.  The cartoon below indicates that the obesity epidemic is widespread. A couple of sunny days when the temperature rises above freezing will solve the snowman's problems.  Most of us will have to work a little bit harder get into shape.

A few warm days, and this snowman will no longer be obese.  Most of us are not so lucky.

For a few weeks I had been simply 'walking' on a treadmill. In order to amuse myself while I was 'walking' I was watching a myriad of TV shows in the fitness room.  I hardly watch any TV at all in the home - so this was not very compelling entertainment.   It was even worse when I got up to the fitness room and someone was already watching something even more boring that what I would have selected.

Just two days ago I started using the elliptical and this is now my exercise machine of choice.  On Sunday my exercise routine got a jolt when I made a terrific purchase at the Micro Center computer store. BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES. (no wires)  I am a guy who owns more than 10,000 songs.  I have about half of them loaded right on my iPhone. I have had some past experience with wired headphones while working out and I always managed to swing my hand into the wire and crash my iPod onto the floor. This can no longer happen. I have been having great fun creating playlists and listening to artists that I have not heard in ages. With 10,000 songs in my arsenal it will take me a very long time to re-discover all of my own music.

This is the single most important device for me to enjoy my workouts: BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES

The reason that I am enjoying my workouts so much now is that I am finding the elliptical machine very challenging.   I still have not gained enough stamina to spend more than 30 minutes on the machine.  When I can, I am working out for 30 minutes at the crack of dawn, and 30 minutes more before or right after dinner.   In just three days, I have noticed a slight improvement which shows up as calories 'burned.'   When that last 5 or 10 minutes arrives and I feel like I am floundering, a great rock song can perk me up to get to the finish line.  Eventually, I will hope to increase my time, my speed, the levels of resistance and ultimately the number of calories burned.   The elliptical machine is low (or no) impact.  I am really enjoying this new exercise.   The workouts are very challenging and the music makes it fun.

MONDAY MENU

breakfast 3 poached eggs, two slices turkey 'bacon'                                                 280 CALORIES

lunch       3 oz Salmon filet, iceberg lettuce, balsamic vinaigrette, pumpkin soup     302 CALORIES

dinner      8 oz seafood blend, baby spinach w/balsamic vinaigrette, Potato bisque  337 CALORIES

total calories 919 CALORIES

calories burned

6AM   elliptical 30 minutes       350 calories

6PM    elliptical 30 minutes       360 calories

total calories burned 710 calories

NET CALORIES 209 CALORIES

Seafood Blend on a bed of baby spinach with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, Potato Bisque Soup  337 CALORIES