Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015: A Saga of Extreme Weather in Colorado

The story of the year was the extreme wet weather this spring and summer that produced avalanches, flooding, tornadoes, lightning, damaging hail, rockslides and mudslides, high winds and an explosion in rodent populations that fueled plague and tularemia outbreaks. There were a record number of people struck by lightning in Colorado for 2015 and a record number of people that contracted tularemia.

We started out and ended the year with severe winter weather. High winds and snow storms toppled power poles, blew trucks over and caused numerous auto accidents in January, April, November and December.

Avalanches took the lives of 2 backcountry skiers in January and yet another overconfident Aspen skier was done in by an avalanche in the Highland Bowl out-of-bounds area in February. A skier was injured in an avalanche in East Vail in the same chute that killed 1 and injured 3 in 2014. A skier was injured in a self-triggered avalanche on Berthoud Pass in May. In November 2 skiers in the San Juans survived an avalanche and a man was injured in an avalanche near Berthoud Pass. In December, 2 backcountry skiers survived an avalanche they triggered near Breckenridge.

The winter and spring months alternated between huge snowstorms and record warmth in February and March. The warm, dry weather produced a few small wildfires but the record wet conditions in May and June put a damper on Colorado wildfires in 2015. Things were much different on the west coast were record, massive wildfires sent smoke that turned our Colorado blue skies so brown that the state issued air health advisories.

May was a record wet month for Colorado, followed by daily rain all the way through June. Flooding of streets and fields was widespread throughout Colorado along rivers and creeks.  Bear Creek reservoir rose 35 feet, more than the 2013 floods.

A NORMALLY DRY DRAINAGE NEAR MORRISON IN MAY

River runners couldn't resist the high waters and paid the price. 11 people drowned rafting or tubing on rivers all across Colorado. 4 people drowned swimming in lakes or reservoirs. One man drowned fly fishing in Boulder Creek. 2 people drowned after falling through thin ice and an entire elk herd in Pagosa Springs disappeared after the ice gave way.

There were several very localized, high intensity, damaging hail storms. A short stretch of I-25 was closed in Colorado Springs by 8 inches of hail in May. 4 feet of hail hit in an isolated one block area of Denver in June. The photos are very strange indeed of a front end loader removing hail from the street, a yard on one side of the street buried in hail and a yard on the opposite side of the street green grass. In July, an unreported incident of 2 feet of damaging hail hit an isolated block of 6 houses in my neighborhood.

40 people in Colorado were struck by lightning in 2015, the most for records dating back to 1980. May - A teen in Aurora was struck by lightning while walking home from school and remains in a coma. A jogger seeking shelter under a tree was struck and hospitalized. June - 5 construction workers were struck in Colorado Springs. 6 people were struck on Pike's Peak. 15 people were struck by lightning and a dog killed near Mt Bierstadt. One person was struck during a cricket match in Colorado Springs. Lightning struck a home in Colorado Springs and started a fire.  July - A 71 year-old man struck by lightning in Golden Gate Canyon is saved by CPR from his wife. 4 teens in Aurora were injured when lightning struck a tree near a swimming pool. A newly wed couple and their friends were struck by lightning near Mt. Yale. The new bride was killed and her husband was in critical condition airlifted to a hospital. August - A motorcyclist in Aurora was struck by lightning and crashed with serious injuries.

Wet weather always produces rockslides, mudslides and other landslides. A rockslide in Bear Creek Canyon closed Hwy 73 between Morrison and Kittredge in March. May - A mudslide reached the yard of some homes on Table Mesa in Golden. A rockslide in Big Thompson Canyon closed the road. A mudslide closed Hwy 50 near Salida. A rockslide hit Manitou Springs. June- Several landslides hit the Rockrimmon area in Colorado Springs. Another slide knocked trailers off their foundations in Colorado Springs. A landslide hit the Colorado Springs Zoo and the animals had to be relocated.  A rockslide closed I-70 near Hanging Lake tunnel in Glenwood Canyon. A mudslide closed I-70 near Grand Junction in July and a rockslide hit 2 trucks in Glenwood Canyon in November.

A hiker died after falling off Blodgett Peak near Colorado Springs in March. A rock climber was injured in Poudre Canyon in March. A trail runner in Boulder was severely injured when a large rock rolled over him in May. June- A man was injured after falling off Snowmass Mountain near the summit. August- A man was injured after falling off Pyramid Peak. 2 concert goers at Red Rocks fell trying to free climb the rocks - one died, the other was seriously injured.  September - A prominent Texas surgeon died after falling off Crestone Needle and a man was injured after falling from Pike's Peak

Tornadoes were few and far between in 2015 but there was a rare EF3 tornado in June near Berthoud..


A bear bit campers in a Durango park in May. June - In Snowmass, a grandpa wakes up from a snooze on the porch with his foot in a bear's mouth. Several incidents of bears opening a car door, getting into the car and destroying the interior trying to get out. This happens a lot and makes me wonder why bears, smart enough to figure out how to open a car door, decide to close the door when they get in, and then can't figure out how to open the door from the inside, panic and destroy the car trying to get out. It was a record year for bear problems along the Front Range because the overly wet spring weather ruined berry and acorn crops. There were 4 incidents of bears rummaging through garbage that were shot and killed by angry homeowners.

Large animal incidents were down in 2015.  A woman in Steamboat Springs walking her dogs was hospitalized after being head-butted by a moose in February. Randy, rutting elk rammed a few cars in October and an elk in Rocky Mountain National Park sent a selfie-seeking tourist to the hospital after it used its antlers to hurl him 30 feet through the air to a rough landing. There were numerous incidents of motorcycle crashes with deer or elk causing serious injuries or death.

The usual number of mountain lion sightings were reported in 2015 with one highly unusual Colorado mountain lion discovered to have walked all the way to Connecticut! The usual number of pets being consumed by mountain lions were reported as well as the tracking and killing of the offending young cougars. There were a few hero dog stories.  An amazingly brave Chihuahua in Longmont treed a mountain lion in February.  In June, a Golden Retriever was injured defending his family from a moose attack near Boulder. 2 dogs hiking with their owners in Deer Creek Canyon were bit by rattlesnakes. There were 2 incidents of hikers bit by rattlesnakes in 2015. The owner of a small dog in Grand Junction literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when he rescued his dog from the mouth of a mountain lion.

The wet weather caused disease transmission from wildlife to humans to increase dramatically in 2015. Prairie dog colonies up and down the Front Range tested positive for plague. 6 cases of human plague were reported in Colorado in 2015, 4 of whom died. A dog in eastern Colorado's Phillips County contracted a rare form of plague from fleas on prairie dogs and then transmitted it to the dog's owner and 2 other men - all died. A 16 year-old high schooler in Fort Collins also died of plague. In August, a 7 year old girl contracted plague on a camping trip in southerm Colorado. In September, a woman visiting Salida contracted plague. Officials estimated up to 1/3 of Colorado's bird population was killed by West Nile. There were 101 human cases of West Nile with 2 deaths. 12 horses were diagnosed with West Nile this year. A record-breaking 46 human cases of tularemia were reported with half in the Fort-Collins-Greeley- Boulder triangle. Most of the cases seem to have been caused by contact with rabbit nesting areas.

Unrelated to wet weather, a number of small earthquakes were recorded near Trinidad in 2015, most likely associated with an oil field wastewater injection well. Some small earthquakes were also recorded in the Paonia-Grand Junction vicinity.

Steamboat Wildlife Officials Put Down Mountain Lion After Attacking Dog

News Link
A young mountain lion that didn't figure out how to make it on his own.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Blizzard Cancels 150 Flights to DIA

News Link
Public school and government offices canceled for today - a good idea to stay in and off the roads.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Outbreak of Dengue Fever on Big Island of Hawaii

News Link
112 cases since September 11. If you are a frequent visitor to Kona like I am, this is very bad news.


Saturday, November 21, 2015

Sunday, November 1, 2015

White House Publishes "Plan" to Deal With Power Outage From Solar Storm

News Link

The plan is how to deal with the aftermath, not how to prevent it.
Here are the areas projected to be destroyed by an EMP similar to the Carrington event


Only the area east of the Mississippi and the Pacific Northwest are expected to have significant damage to the power grid, Colorado, the Rockies, California east to the Mississippi are expected to be OK. The calculations weren't done for Canada but most of their grid will go down. As I posted a few days ago, a study shows that events in 775 and 995 were up to 20 times stronger than the Carrington event but the odds of the earth being in exactly the right position to get a solar blast in the northern-western hemisphere are very low. I would expect that those odds are similar to the odds of a house-sized or bigger meteor hitting the same area, which are about 1 in 20 million.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Research Finds Catastrophic Solar Storms Have Hit Earth More Frequently Than Previosly Thought

News Link
This study, which looked at C14 ratios in ice cores from the Arctic and Antarctic, confirms the worldwide effect of the event in 775 first discovered in a tree ring study in Japan that was cited in my book.  The 775 event was about 20 times stronger than the Carrington event of 1859, which in turn was about 5 times stronger than the Quebec event of 1989. The study found another strong event in 995.  So, it appears that solar storms capable of destroying our power grid today have happened as often as once every 200 years with an average of one every 500 years. It would be very interesting for someone to examine the full ice core record, which goes back 1 million years, to see what the strongest solar blasts have been.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Durango Seeing Above Average Rainfall for October

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On the edge of the tropical storm remnants that were responsible for the flash-flooding fatalities in Utah.

Football Stadium-Sized Asteroid to Pass Within 300,000 miles of Earth on Halloween

News Link
The only scary part of this one is that it was discovered only 15 days ago. NASA's Near Earth Object monitoring program has identified less than half the estimated asteroids that have a near earth trajectory.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

NE Colorado Tops in Number of Tornadoes Per County

News Link

An interesting graphic - it pretty much represents the number of tornadoes per 1,000 sq miles, which is how I presented the data in my book. 



Saturday, October 3, 2015

550 Pound Bear Shot by Colorado Springs Man

News Link
Here's a guy who keeps his trash outside without any bear-proofing, who then claims he shot the bear in self-defense because he couldn't scare it away. No charges just because he says it is self-defense? If you ask me, it look like illegal hunting using bait.

It's obvious this is a rough year for the bears on the Front Range because of the lack of natural foods resulting from the prolonged, very wet conditions in the spring and first half of the summer. A 20 year-old bear that was not tagged for previous garbage incidents didn't get a first strike.

Rockfall Mitigation Work in Glenwood Canyon Next Week

News Link

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Hwy 82 Near Aspen Closed Briefly for Bull Moose

News Link
They weren't too worried about the moose being hit but were worried that a crowd seeking selfies would surround them and end up with head-butted tourists all over the road. Good move by the troopers.

Elk Uses Antlers To Hurl Tourist Trying To Take Selfie Through The Air in Rocky Mountain National Park

News Link
The man was hospitalized, park officials warn others this will happen to you.

Bear Problems Along Front Range Worst In Decades

News Link
Parks and Wildlife stats for this year - 11 relocated, 26 put down and 35 hit by cars. No mention of the number of break-ins, garbage can incidents, bird feeders and pet food but plenty have been reported in the news and probably 10 times that amount goes unreported.

Video of Bear Under Porch

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Joint NASA-ESA Plans Mission To Deflect Asteroid in Practice Run To Save World

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The mission is planned to launch in 2020 and be completed in 2022. I guess everyone is taking seriously the possibility that Apophis will strike the earth in 2036.

Bit By A Squirrel? Now There's a Code For That

News Link

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Moose and 2 Calves Hang Out in Parking Garage in Vail

News Link
These are the moose that Vail Police say they will let roam free. What happens when a mother moose and 2 calves are surrounded by a crowd of people with their dogs?

Elk Rams Patrol Car in Evergreen

News Link
This is a silly story but gives a reminder to steer clear of bull elk during the rutting season.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Record Year For Bear Activity in Boulder

News Link
The article is about a mother bear with 2 cubs that will be euthanized soon, after which the cubs will be put in a rehabilitation camp and then relocated.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Case of Man That Claimed He Was Attacked by Bear on Grand Mesa Gets Stranger

News Link Investigation by Parks and Wildlife concludes whatever happened there was no bear at the scene. Maybe it was Bigfoot.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

A Strange Case - Reported Bear Mauling on Grand Mesa Leads to Criminal Investigation

News Link
No details provided - is Parks and Wildlife finally going to prosecute people for not bear-proofing their food while camping?

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Group of Visiting Firefighters Saves Colorado Springs Woman Bitten by a Rattlesnake

News Link

Jefferson County Couple Find Bear Inside their Car

News Link
This happens a lot and makes me wonder why bears, smart enough to figure out how to open a car door, decide to close the door when they get in, and then can't figure out how to open the door from the inside, panic and destroy the car trying to get out.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

West Nile Victim in Pueblo Dies

News Link
The first West Nile death this year, 61 cases of West Nile reported in Colorado so far this year.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Friday, September 11, 2015

Momma Mountain Lion and Cubs Visit State Patrol in Colorado Springs

News Link

Study Reveals Western Forest Wildfires At Similar Or Slower Rate Than in 1800's

News Link
Natural cycles of dry warming and wet cooling span 3 generations, so of course when we reach the maximum of either a warm or cool cycle that generation thinks it is something new. Tree ring studies that go back as far as 2,000 years in western North America show that severe droughts like the ones we experienced in 2002 and 2012 in Colorado have happened many times in the past. In California, the tree ring record shows that droughts like the current one are the normal situation. What has happened in the past 100 years is fire suppression. Prior to settlement of the west, fires that consumed the undergrowth but did not affect the taller mature trees happened every 5 to 10 years.  Early settlers in the west were able to ride their horses through any forest because the understory was clear and mature trees were spaced relatively far apart. Fire suppression has allowed newer trees to grow in the spaces between mature trees resulting in an unhealthy tree density that provides a ladder for pine beetles to make it into the upper canopy and for flames from ground fires to reach the upper canopy.

More Cute Bear Cubs on Video in Boulder

Video

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Research Shows 2013 Floods in Boulder County Are More Common Than Previously Thought

News Link
I posted many times right after the flood that a review of historical floods in that area showed it was in the range of a 50 to 100 year flood when the media kept screaming it was a 1 in 500 or 1 in 1,000 year event. The good news is that this research will allow the 100 year flood plain limits to be expanded, requiring flood insurance for homes within the flood plain. As I posted at that time, part of the problem was that Boulder and Larimer Counties counties have allowed extensive high density residential development over the past 50 years within the true 100 year flood plain.

Campers Near Winter Park Shoot and Kill Bear

News Link
Park and Wildlife decided not to file any charges in this case - kind of curious since the bear was not attacking them but simply did not respond to warning shots like the guy in Evergreen that shot 2 bear cubs last week.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

3 Wildfires on Bobcat Ridge Near Lyons Contained

News Link

Wet Weather Blamed for Increase in Plague Cases

News Link
Same thing with tularemia - wet weather more rodents, more fleas, ticks, flies.

Bear Sightings in Douglas County

News Link
In one case a bear broke into a house News Link

I forgot to close my garage door last Sunday night and a bear came into the garage, took the garbage cans outside and tipped them over, then proceeded to open and consume each bag at various places on the lawn.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Delta Flight Damaged by Hail Makes Emergency Landing at DIA

News Link

25th Case of Tularemia for 2015 in Colorado

News Link
Tularemia cases in the US peaked in 1939 at over 2,000 and have declined to about 100 cases per year in the past 20 years. There aren't good records going back to the 1930's in Colorado which may have had 40 cases if Colorado was 2% of the national total..The most cases reliably reported before this year is 20 in 1983.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Fleas Test Positive for Plague in Fremont County

News Link

Chaffee County Reports Resident Contracted and Recovered from Plague

News Link

A Map of US Lightning Fatalities by State for the Past 10 Years

News Link
Colorado is in the top 5 for both number and per capita. In Colorado, the number of people struck by lightning that survive is 4 to 5 times the number of fatalities. In just the past week, 3 people have been killed and 8 injured by lightning strikes. 40 people have been struck by lightning in Colorado this year, the most ever in a year with a month of lightning weather left to go.  The previous record was 34 in 2004.

Monday, July 20, 2015

71 -Year Old Man Struck by Lightning in Golden Gate Canyon Saved by Wife

News Link
He was trimming trees with a chain saw. Holding a metal object during a lightning storm is not a good idea.The wife performed CPR, incredibly it took 20 minutes before he responded. His dog was next to him and also struck and died. There have been several cases in the past in Colorado when people have stopped breathing after being struck by lightning and been resuscitated with CPR.

4 Teens in Aurora Injured When Lightning Strikes Tree Near Pool

News Link

Friday, July 17, 2015

Wildfire Smoke Can Increase Risk of Heart Attack

News Link
Based on a study of Australian wildfires.

Unprepared for the Really Big One in the Pacific Northwest

News Link
This won't affect Colorado directly except for the loss of fruit production but is an excellent review of how the history of big earthquakes and tsunamis off the northwest coast came to be understood. A comparison of the 2011 9.0 earthquake in Japan with what will happen between Portland and Vancouver when the really big one hits is chilling. An entire civilization has been built along the northwest coast since the last really big one hit and in that sense Colorado is in a similar situation of being unprepared for a Magnitude 7 earthquake along the Front Range.

Record Strength El Nino Forecast for Next 9 Months

News Link
This article takes an in-depth look at the previous strong el Ninos of 1982-83 and 1997-98. Looks like it will be a good ski season!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Monday, July 13, 2015

2.5" of Rain Floods Fields and Drainage Ditches in Logan County

News Link

Scientists Predict Mini Ice Age Between 2020 and 2030

News Link
Scientists have developed a new method of predicting solar flare activity and forecast something similar to the Maunder minimum in the 1600's will happen soon. Another research report in the news today shows that west Antarctica ice cap melting is due to high heat flow from volcanoes located under the ice. This is great news as it appears that natural forces will offset the warming trend of the past 30 years.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Florida Has Some of the Strangest Natural Hazards

News Link
A 5-year old girl was killed by a sturgeon jumping while the boat was traveling at high speed. Apparently this happens all the time, like cars hitting deer in Colorado.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Tick Bites Can Cause Severe Allergic Reactions to Eating Red Meat

News Link
I ran across this article while researching spider bites. I had a bite on my leg 10 days ago and have had an allergic reaction that continues to cause pain and swelling in my lower leg. I've been to the doc and it is not infected. There is very little information about allergic reactions to bug bites, so I found this article with this unheard of effect from a bug bite. It was a lone star tick, which is not native to Colorado but good to know if you visit Texas.

Another article where researchers ithink other types may cause red meat allergy also  News Link

Camp Site At Cottonwood Lake Evacuated After Mudslide

News Link
More fallout from El Nino.

Bear Rips Off Garage Door in Durango, Takes Off With Garbage

News Link
This same thong happened in Pagosa Springs a few years ago. Those San Juan bears must have some grizzly in them.

Monday, June 29, 2015

15 People Struck by Lightning, Dog Killed Near Summit of Mt Bierstadt

News Link
8 people airlifted to hospitals, one man blown out of his boots. This is the second highest number of people struck by lightning in Colorado in a single event. 19 people were injured when struck by lightning on a mesa near Granby in 2004.

Here is an article from last year after 2 fatalities in Rocky Mountain National Park that provides guidance on how to avoid being hit by lightning.
News Link

Photos of Sever Thunderstorm in Colorado Springs

News Link
Some awesome lightning shots and plenty of hail.

Record Spring Rainfall Fills John Martin Reservoir on the Arkansas River

News Link
The severe drought in SE Colorado has been completely reversed with the reservoir storing 10 times more water than this time last year.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

NWS Confirms EF1 Tornado Touched Down in East Denver and Aurora on Wednesday

News Link

Bear, Not Dog, Attacked Elk Calf Near Steamboat Springs

News Link
So, will the dog owner who was fined get a refund?

Prairie Dog With Plague Shuts Down Bear Creek Lake Parking Lot

News Link
There is a very large prairie dog village on the south side of the lake that should be a concern for people that use the park. Letting your dog run off-leash could expose them to fleas on prairie dogs that carry the plague or direct exposure to the remains of rodents killed by the plague. 3 men in eastern Colorado contracted plague from their dog earlier this year.

Deer in Colorado Springs Tests Positive for Plague

News Link

CSU Wrestler Drowns Tubing the Arkansas River Near Pueblo

News Link
Colorado's rivers continue to run at at dangerously high and fast levels that can claim the lives of even the most fit among us.

Man Drowns in Lake at the Broadmoor

News Link

Black Bear Claws Through Tent and Bites Man at Ruedi Reservoir

News Link
The man was sleeping in the tent with his wife and 1-year old. Food and trash was openly available at the camp site, this guy should be prosecuted for criminal negligence.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

2 Oregon Men Attacked by Beaver Are Hospitalized

News Link
The first time I have seen a beaver attack reported in the news. The men climbed on top of the beaver's dam.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Colorado Health Officials: Tularemia Cases on Record-Breaking Pace

News Link

Texas Mom Has Flesh-Eating Bacteria Enter Through Her Eye After Competing in a Mud Run

News Link
Mud runs have become a big business in Texas and other southern states with several companies hosting races with 750,000 participants and making hundreds of millions in profit. In that context, this case of flesh-eating bacteria is very rare. Here is an in-depth article about the industry
News Link

Pueblo Teenager Struck By Lightning, 10 Years Later

News Link
Directly hit in the head by lightning, she suffered partial paralysis and burns over the left side of her body. This news piece tells of her long journey back.  Perhaps there is hope for the teen struck in Aurora a few months ago who is still in the hospital.

Delta County Sees First Case of Tularemia in 2015

News Link
The wetter than normal conditions since 2013 has resulted in a bunny boom.

Flooding Closes Hwy 144 Near Fort Morgan

News Link

Saturday, June 20, 2015

2 Weld County Men Diagnosed with Tularemia, 1 Hospitalized

News Link
79 and 80 years old. Last month an elderly Boulder County resident had tularemia. All doing yard work. Rabbit nests or places where rabbits dig a hole to cool off can provide enough contaminated material to transmit the disease.

Owner Pays Fine for Letting Dog Off-Leash Attack Elk Calf

News Link
The calf had to be put down because of its injuries. There is a culture in Steamboat Springs of letting your dogs run free that has led to many moose, elk and bear attacks on peoople.

77 Year Old Man Naps on Porch Near Snowmass, Wakes Up With Foot in Bear's Mouth

News Link

Man Drowns in Boulder Creek Fly Fishing

News Link

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Flooding, Hail and Tornado Hit SE Colorado

News Link

Here's some video of a tornado in SE Colorado from a storm chaser that I think was in SE Colorado.
Video

Greeley Wastewater Injection Well Quiet 2 Months After Sealing Off Bottom of Well

News Link
I certainly don't know the geometry of the fault that was activated by the wastewater inject but I doubt it is horizontal. Therefore, it will only be a matter of time before this well starts triggering quakes again.

50th Anniversary of Biggest Flood in Colorado History

News Link
This narrative gives an interesting account of the 16 foot wall of water that swept through Littleton after 14 inches of rain fell in 4 hours in the Plum Creek watershed near Castle Rock. It states that 28 people lost their lives (which I will have to check out) but the official death toll was 8. Chatfield Dam and Reservoir was constructed for flood control as a result of the 1965 flood, as was Bear Creek Dam. They have yet to be tested with a downpour anywhere near what happened in June, 1965.

Bear Finds Way Into Pickup Truck, Gets Locked In and Honks for Help

News Link
The bear tore apart the truck trying to get out. Undoubtedly, there was some food in the truck.  There is a history of similar events in the area between Larkspur and Colorado Springs in the past 5 years. Could it be the same bear?

Heavy Rain Causes Street Flooding from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs

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Friday, June 12, 2015

NOAA Forecasts Moderate to Strong El Nino to Last Into Winter of 2015-16

News Link
Not good news. We can expect more record rain, flooding, hail, tornadoes, and landslides. On the bright side, skiers might enjoy a 60 inch base on Halloween.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Berthoud Tornado Classified EF3

News Link
A rare occurrence.  Tornadoes are classified much like hurricanes on a scale of 0 to 5 but the wind speeds are not measured directly.  A team of NOAA experts surveys the area of tornado touchdown immediately afterward and estimates wind speed from building and tree damage. EF3 is the strongest tornado that has been observed in Colorado with only 21 tornadoes that strong recorded since 1950 prior to this one.

Colorado Has a Ton of Volcanoes

News Link
Some of the remnant hot spots could become active again. A volcano in Dotsero last erupted only 4,100 years ago.

Tularemia Risk Low in Larimer County Despite Bunny Boom

News Link

May Was the Wettest Month Recorded

News Link

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Teen in Austin Takes Lightning Bolt Through Refigerator

News Link
A rare occurrence, a lightning bolt grounded through the entire electrical system in the house. This was in Texas but there have been 2 cases like this in Colorado in the past 60 years.

Friday, May 22, 2015

How To Protect Your Pets and Animals From Rabies

News Link
 Last year, 130 animals tested positive for rabies in Colorado, including 93 bats, 32 skunks, and five others. Of these, 76 animals were known or strongly suspected of exposing 101 domestic animals and 57 humans to rabies.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Live Updates of Flooding in the Colorado Springs Area

News Link
Forecasts of 1/2 inch of rain for this afternoon will almost certainly produce flash flooding all along the Front Range. The ground is completely saturated from 3 straight weeks of daily rain and all precip hitting the ground now will immediately run off. Here is a photo of a normally dry drainage in the Open Space near my house.


















With 10 days forward of daily rain forecast, there is no end in site. An upslope condition that goes on for 4 weeks has to be a record for Colorado.

Swedish Man Shows How to Avoid A Bear Attack

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In addition to "getting big" and yelling at the bear, clapping your hands sharply above your head to make a sound like a rifle shot causes the bear to run away. I have personally experienced this, as well as several people in my neighborhood.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Strong El Nino Could Produce Severe Flooding in Colorado

News Link
The last strong El Nino was in 1997 when 14 inches of rain fell in less than 8 hours in Fort Collins.

Monday, May 18, 2015

A Training Program for Your Dog to Avoid Rattlesnakes

News Link
A tough love approach using electric shock collars.

Weld County Road 5 Closed Because of Flood Damage

News Link
Flooding can happen with sustained low rates of rainfall. May rainfall for the Morrison foothills area was 2.72 inches.  2.36 inches is forecast over the next 10 days which will certainly produce flooding. If we get a sudden warmup in June that sends snowmelt rushing down from the mountains, there could be major flooding this year. If a major upslope event followed that we could see a catastrophic event like the June, 1965 floods.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Brain Damage from Lightning Strikes Causes Rare Savant Syndrome

News Link
This report includes some examples of people with brain injuries that suddenly developed extraordinary art talent. Tony Cicoria was struck by lightning in 1994 in Colorado and developed an intense interest in piano playing and composition afterward.

Flooding Closes Many Popular Trails In Colorado Springs Area

News Link
The daily rainfall for weeks on end has produced the wettest conditions ever in our local Open Space Parks. The El Nino of 1998 was the only time I remember similar conditions but this year has been wetter than 1998 and the forecast is for 10 straight days of rain going forward from here. The El Nino that began in March appears to be on track to be one of the strongest observed.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Moose Season Is Underway - Are You Prepared?

News Link

Congress Warned About Solar Flare EMP That Could Destroy Power Infrastructure

News Link
Protection for the whole country would only cost about $2 billion but our brilliant politicians think this is too much.  The problem with the advocates' approach is the low probability of a powerful solar flare. If they instead said it would protect against EMPs from nuclear warheads ignited in the atmosphere above major cities launched from Russia, they might have better luck getting this done.

Storm Caused Landslide Damages Homes in Rockrimmon Area

News Link

Tourists Stand Next to Volcano in Nicaragua While It Erupts

News Link
Some candidates for the Darwin award.

Outlook for West Nile Virus This Year

News Link

Jogger Seeking Shelter Under Tree Is Injured When Lightning Strikes Tree

News Link
Didn't I just post a few days ago about don't seek shelter under trees?

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Severe Weather Hits Colorado

News Link
Golf ball sized hail, tornadoes, snow, freezing temps and flooding - the whole tamale. I rode at Bear Creek Park yesterday and the water level in the reservoir is up 10 feet.  The bathrooms at the boat ramp are completely submerged and the road along the inside base of the dam and the parking lots along Bear Creek are also under water. The only other time I have seen this since 1996 was during the great floods of 2013 when the water level in the reservoir rose over 30 feet.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Flesh Eating Bacteria Contracted at Florida Beach

News Link
I knew Florida's ocean water quality wasn't great but this is the first report I am aware of that flesh-eating bacteria are in the sea water. In Colorado there are  at most a few cases per year usually caused by a bike crash that scrapes open a wound with soil ground into it.

Bat Tests Positive for Rabies in Pueblo

News Link

Colorado Springs Family Worries About Their Children After Mountain Lion Kills 2 Deer in Their Yard

News Link
Parks and Wildlife won't try and relocate the mountain lion since deer are their main source of food. If it attacked pets, it would be relocated.

Video of Super Flare on Sun

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The first concrete evidence of a super flare from the sun. If a flare of this size shoots off in the direction of earth, there would be a huge EMP that would cause havoc to all electrical systems where the radiation blast hits. The chances that this will happen are very, very small. Since this is the first super flare that has been recorded, they probably happen once every 50 years or less often. The chances that a flare of this size would occur on the surface of the sun directed at the earth at the precise position in its annual orbit around the sun I haven't calculated but I would guess the odds of that are similar to the chances of being struck by a large meteor which is about once every 1 to 10 million years.  The 24 hour rotation of the earth's surface facing the sun would give a 50-50 probability to whether the radiation blast would hit land or be over open ocean. The seasonal tilt of the earth for winter or summer would also come into play. You can worry about this if you want, but chances are that you won't see it in your lifetime.

Teen Struck By Lightning Still in Coma, Struggling To Survive

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Colorado should require education about natural hazards as part of the elementary school program.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

How to Avoid Being Struck by Lightning

Colorado's Front Range is particularly prone to lightning with over 500,000 ground strikes between Pikes Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park every year. 2 to 3 people are killed and 13 injured on average each year in Colorado. In reviewing all the documented casualties of lightning strikes in Colorado dating back to 1950 for the book, I have observed there are several common situations which result in people being struck by lightning.

People are human lightning rods. A living person is a highly charged bundle of electrical activity because of our nervous system.  A group of people obviously multiplies the effect. Put an individual or a group of people in a large, flat open field where their bodies are the high point, or standing on a high, exposed ridge line greatly increases the chances of being struck by lightning when thunder can be heard or lightning seen in the area. Add some metal to the equation like standing next to a car or small airplane, power poles, tent poles, golf clubs, fishing poles, rifles, boats, bikes, umbrellas, backpacks and whatever other situation involves metal and the chances of being struck go up even more. Some common situations that result in people being struck by lightning during a storm include sports teams practicing in an open field, golfers, hikers along open, exposed high points and bike riders. Hikers are the most frequent victims of lightning strikes. Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and Pike's Peak outside Colorado Springs are two places that people (mostly visiting tourists who are unaware of the danger) are regularly struck by lightning. 2 visitors were killed and 7 injured on hiking trails just off Trail Ridge Road on 2 successive days last July despite large signs warning of the danger posted at the trail heads. The most unusual situation involving metal was a couple of skiers killed in an April lightning storm at Vail. The most unusual group situation that was documented in 2004 was a group of college students in an annual event where golf balls were driven off into the distance from the edge of a high mesa near Granby. Over 30 students with golf clubs standing in the open on a high spot during a lightning storm! 19 were injured when a lightning bolt struck. So, what to do if you find yourself in this situation? Groups should disperse, head down hill or indoors and ditch any metal objects. For those that climb 14ers, when the static electricity gets so high that your hair stands on end, forget bagging that 14er and head downhill.

Avoid natural lightning rods. Trees are the most common natural lightning rod. Large solitary trees in the middle of open fields, or on or near ridge lines look like a great place to take shelter. Don't do it! or even be close to a tree in that situation.  There are many examples of people being struck by lightning while seeking shelter under a tree. Lightning often-times causes a tree to completely explode sending wood shrapnel out at high velocity.  The air blast from a lightning bolt can also cause injuries. The other natural lightning rod of significance is exposed ridge tops, especially above tree line.

Your chances of being struck by lightning are very low, even if you are in an exposed, higher risk situation. For Colorado, I have estimated the odds at about 1 in 650,000 in any given year.

Hail Shuts Down NB I-25 in Colorado Springs

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Friday, April 24, 2015

Colorado Baby Recovering From Botulism

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Few people realize that infant botulism is contracted from soils or dust by babies handling it then putting their hands in their mouth.

Emergency Rockfall Mitigation Closes I-70 Between Floyd Hill and Idaho Springs

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CDOT is staying on top of things - it has been some time since there has been a vehicle hit by rockfall on I-70.