SOME STRANGE WEATHER NEWS

Written by: Brian Neudorff

The first story come out of Abu Dhabi. Apparently scientists there created 52 artificial rain storms in the desert this past summer. This now not so secret project to control the weather in the Middle East cost 11 million dollars. It involved putting ionizers that looked like lampshades out in the desert. These ionizer created negatively charged ions that rose with the hot air, attracted dust. Then any moisture in the air would then stick to the dust (these kind of aerosol particles are needed to create clouds). The moisture condensing onto the dust particles would form clouds, lots of clouds that would later rain out.

Obviously bringing rain to a desert where rain is hard to come by makes sense if you want to make crops and not rely on outside sources for food. Of course many people could think of a lot of ways to use weather modification. I have said this numerous times on this blog, I am not a fan of weather modification. There are just things we should leave alone and this would be one of them. When you start trying to control what I consider the uncontrollable bad things can happen even though I understand a lot of the why's behind doing it.

Of course the other story may or may not have anything to do with weather, although it has been used as a possible theory. From Arkansas to Louisiana thousands of red-winged blackbirds have fallen from the sky just days apart. This on top of 100,000 fish over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near a dam in Ozark , 125 miles west of where the birds fell dead. The fish were discovered on Dec. 30.

It appears that the cause of death in Arkansas for the birds is currently being ruled due to stress:

"Loud noises were reported shortly before the birds began to fall from the sky," the commission's statement said, adding that blackbirds seldom fly at night. "The blackbirds were flying at rooftop level instead of treetop level" to avoid explosions above, according to Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. "Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."

The reason that I mention this as a weather story is that there was severe weather in the area on New Year's Eve. So the loud sound could have been from thunder. Many have discounted thunder because the storms had moved out of the area but thunder and lightning can continue and be heard even after a storm passes. That's why they tell people to wait 30 minutes after the last lightning strike before going outside.

The same occurrence took place on Monday in Louisiana. Again it was red-winged black birds that were found littering the ground and their death a mystery. What are your thoughts on why this happened. Is it natural or something more. I am waiting for someone to claim HAARP.

UPDATE ON WEATHER:
I guess I need to update our local weather. Not much change here. The light snow today will be just that. Some will get a coating maybe an inch. Some places will see little or even none as the clipper passes to our north. I think our best shot for some snow (only an inch or 2) comes when the cold front associated with the clippers passes later this afternoon and evening.

The next clipper will also bring a couple of inches of nuisance snow. (What is nuisance snow? I classify it as an inch to maybe four inches. Something that can cause slick spots but not enough to warrant an advisory.) Then behind that system as a new storm takes over along the east coast into New England, colder air will arrive. Highs will be in the mid 20s as lows are in the teens and some lake effect or even lake enhancement is possible in the wake. It should be too much but we will have to wait and see how it plays out.