Weird Weather

Well, I dodged that weather bullet yesterday. My sympathies to those who were hit hard by the super storm and those who still get to face it as it chugs eastward. I live north of the city and we were under tornado watch all day long (with me fretting ALL day long). It was relatively mild by me, but the area south of Chicago got hammered. The local meteorologists are still trying to determine whether it was wind sheer or tornadoes that damaged several places in the state.


I woke to the Wednesday weather report warning of an odd set of components that were assembling to make a storm called a derecho. I had to look that one up. I learned a derecho is “a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.” The most severe derechos are given the adjective “super.”
I have a weather radio that shouts weather updates at me interspersed with blaring warning tones just to be sure you’re still listening. If you’re not feeling anxious enough, try listening to that.  They were saying things like: when the storm rolls in, there will be very little time to take cover, minutes only. Well, my husband, daughter, and son were all outside Wednesday and at least two of them would be vulnerable. When weather reports call for baseball-sized hail, I’d say that’s pretty extreme. Baseball sized?? For a visual I held an imaginary baseball in my hand. Good god. They were warning people to get their animals inside. No wonder. Baseball-sized hail could kill.


Here’s last year’s derecho. Notice the characteristic bow shapes.


Some wicked weather that. I found a fairly good explanation:



Yikes.

I remember talk of the greenhouse effect in 1970. I can’t help but wonder if people had taken that seriously then, how 43 years spent reducing our global environmental impact might have made a difference. Would deadly weather of the sort we deal with now be the rarity? A day doesn’t go by without drought, heatwaves, deep freezes, flooding, hurricanes, and assorted terrible weather making the news. I recall Hurricane Camile in 1969, and that was a rare deadly storm. We have so many now, we get 2/3rds through the alphabet naming them.

To believe there is no climate change is a preposterous assumption.

Worth reading about: The period in time known as The Little Ice Age. Youtube has the History Channel program.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞
Join us today at Romance Books ’4′ Us
for author Cindy Spencer Pape’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com
And that’s happening on the blog. Over on the RB4U website http://romancebooks4us.com    we’re having a June Contest. I’ve taken the info off the site:

JUNE WEDDINGS CONTEST! Contest runs 2 June – midnight ET 26 June.

To enter: Find the 20 pages that have a bride and groom couple. Make a list of the names of those pages (ex: Marianne Stephens, Liz Crowe, etc.) and send your list to: contests.rb4u@gmail.com NOTE: Snail mail prizes only shipped to US or Canadian addresses.

PRIZES:

1. Grand Prize: Bag of Books from RT2013 AND $50.00 gift card for Amazon/Barnes & Noble. 2. E-book copy of winner’s choice from romance author, JC Szot. 3. Two ebook copies of Profile of Evil (two winners) from romance author, Alexa Grace. 4. E-book copy of Tail Of The Dragon from romance author, Sultry Summers. 5. E-book set – Victorian mystery/erotic romance – Out of Hell and An Unspoken Betrayal from romance author, Denyse Bridger. 6. E-book ARC of July release Gambling On A Heart from romance author, Sara Ellwood. 7. E-book copy of Serephin, which kicked off Demon Chronicles series from romance author, Lacey Thorn. 8. E-book copy of The Catalyst from romance author, Sandra K. Marshall. 9. E-book copy of “Evernight Vol2″ from romance author, Johanna Rae. 10. E-book copy of The Sin Factor from romance author, Sandy Loyd. 11. E-book copy of the Enigma I & II special edition from romance author, Nephylim. 12. $10.00 gift card for Secret Cravings/Sweet Cravings books from Secret Cravings Publishing.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞
Three June blog hops ahead on the satellite blogs.

I’ll post the details as they come.


۞>>>>۞<<<< ۞

Remember, The Romance Reviews’ Sizzling Summer Reads is a month-long event.

My part is over, but there are still prizes to be had. Click on this banner.