DC snowstorm not enough for a white inauguration; extreme heat in Southern Hemisphere
It's snowing in Mississippi and Alabama, thanks to strengthening Winter Storm Iago. Iago is poised to bring up to a foot of snow across the Central Appalachians, and 3 to 8 inches of snowfall across Mid-Atlantic metro areas including cities such as Richmond, Raleigh and Roanoke. Washington DC is on the northern edge of the accumulating snow, and is only expected to see an inch of wet, sloppy accumulation. With sunny skies and high temperatures expected to be in the mid-40s over the weekend in the nation's capital, it appears unlikely that we'll see a white Inauguration Day on Monday, when President Obama is scheduled to be sworn in at noon. Temperatures should be in the low 30s at the time, but there is a 30% chance of some snow flurries brightening up the scene. According to the National Weather Service's Presidential Inaugural Weather web site, the normal high temperature for 12 pm EST on January 21 is 37°F, with partly cloudy skies, a 10 mph wind, and a wind chill of 31°F. During President Obama's 2009 inauguration, the noon temperature was 28°F under partly sunny skies, with a wind chill near 15°F due to breezy northwest winds of 15 mph, gusting to 25 mph.
Figure 1. Snow in Starkville, Mississippi, on January 17, 2013. Image credit: wunderphotographer JDA.
Famous Inauguration Day weather events
The most infamous inauguration day weather occurred in 1841, when President William Henry Harrison was sworn in. Harrison, 68, gave a one hundred minute speech in cold, wet weather without wearing a coat or a hat. He spent a lot of time talking about ancient Rome to a mostly unappreciative audience. The new president then attended a parade and three inaugural balls, possibly in the same wet clothing he wore outside during the speech. Within a month, Harrison was dead from pneumonia and pleurisy. While there's a debate about what exactly killed Harrison, the inauguration was linked to his death.
Almost as bad--1853: President Franklin Pierce was sworn into office on another cold and snowy day. He awoke to heavy snow in the morning which continued until about 11:30 am. Skies looked to be brightening by noon. Shortly after Pierce took his oath of office, as he began his inaugural address, snow started again. It came down heavier than ever dispersing much of the crowd and ruining plans for the parade. Abigail Fillmore, First Lady to the outgoing President Millard Fillmore, caught a cold as she sat on the cold, wet, exposed platform during the swearing-in ceremony. The cold developed into pneumonia and she died at the end of the month.
Worst Weather Day--1909: President William H. Taft's ceremony was forced indoors due to a storm that dropped 10 inches of snow over the Capital city. The snow and winds began the day before. Strong winds toppled trees and telephone poles. Trains were stalled and city streets clogged. All activity was brought to a standstill. Sanitation workers shoveled sand and snow through half the night. It took 6,000 men and 500 wagons to clear 58,000 tons of snow and slush from the parade route. See pictures. Despite the freezing temperatures, howling wind, snow, and sleet, a large crowd gathered in front of the Capitol to view the inauguration, but the weather forced the ceremony indoors. Just after the swearing-in, the snow tapered off.
Warmest January Inauguration: 1981, Ronald Reagan; 55°F under mostly cloudy skies.
Coldest Inauguration: 1985, Ronald Reagan. His second swearing-in ceremony on January 21 had to be held indoors and the parade was canceled. The outside temperature at noon was only 7°F. The morning low was 4° below zero and the daytime high was only 17°. Wind chill temperatures during the afternoon were in the -10 to -20°F range.
Figure 2. Photo taken in front of Presidential Reviewing stand during President Taft's inauguration in 1909. Image credit: National Weather Service, Baltimore/Washington D.C.
Wicked hot in South Africa
The mercury soared to 48.4°C (119°F) in Vioolsdrif, South Africa on Wednesday January 16, marking the third hottest temperature ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere portion of Africa, according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera. The two hottest temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere portion of Africa were also measured at Vioolsdrif: a 48.8°C (119.8 °F) reading on Jan 3, 1993, and a 48.7°C reading in January, 1995. Clouds moved in yesterday just as the temperature was peaking in Vioolsdrif, or else a new record would have been set.
Another super-hot day in Australia
Unusually hot weather continues in Australia, where a two-week heat wave has brought some of the hottest weather in the nation's history, including the Southern Hemispheres's hottest temperature measured so far in 2013--a 49.6°C (121.3°F) reading from Moomba Airport in South Australia on January 12. The record for all-time hottest temperature in Australian history is the 50.7°C (123.3°F) reading on 2 January 1960 at Oodnadatta, South Australia. The nation's average high temperature exceeded 102°F (39°C) for seven consecutive days January 2 - 8, 2013--the first time that has happened since record keeping began in 1910. To put this remarkable streak in perspective, the previous record of four consecutive days with a national average high temperature in excess of 102°F (39°C) has occurred once only (1973), and only two other years have had three such days in a row--1972 and 2002. Part of the reason for the extreme heat this year is the presence of a stubborn ridge of high pressure that has delayed the onset of the yearly monsoon by three weeks. Extremely hot high temperatures reaching into the mid-40s over eastern Western Australia, South Australia, western Queensland and large parts of Victoria and NSW are expected today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday), causing continued problems for firefighters. However, the monsoon is now pushing southwards across Australia, and is expected to bring cooler and wetter conditions to northern Australia this weekend. The monsoon will gradually work its way southwards next week, helping flush out the heat that has accumulated in Australia's interior.
Jeff Masters
Jan 16 2013 Ice Storm (
JNCali)
Reader Comments
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A couple of questions for you:
1. Is this a laptop or a desktop?
2. What version of Windows are you running?
I agree with Neapolitan that part of your problem could just be a bad keyboard. Try a different keyboard and see if that corrects this part of your issues. You can connect a USB keyboard to a laptop and use it. Should the replacement keyboard solve this issue then you are home free on a desktop.
On a laptop, this may not be so easy. You are either stuck with using an external keyboard or replacing the laptop keyboard. Also, a keyboard issue on a laptop is not always a problem with the keyboard. Sometimes this a motherboard problem and this is usually too costly a repair to justify.
Since you are using a library computer now, then it would suggest to me that you do not have a second computer at your ready. Not to fear, if you have a near friend that has a desktop computer. You can remove the hard drive from your computer and take it to your friend to "slave" your drive into their desktop. Yes, even a laptop hard drive can be done this way as long as it is a newer (3 to 4 years old) laptop with a SATA hard drive. You can boot the computer and perform the needed scans on your hard drive from your friend's desktop operating system. Virus, malware and hard drive integrity scans. .... Before you start these scans, this would be an excellent time to back up any data that you need to save. Do NOT worry about backing up any programs. These would have to be reinstalled anyway if you have to do a reload of the OS. Just back up the data that you may created using these programs. Do not forget to backup your "Favorites" and e-mails.
The scanners that Neapolitan and others have suggested you use are all very good scanners. I would add to the list "Spybot Search & Destroy". This malware scanner does not run active in the background. You have to manually update the malware definitions. You have to manually run the scanner. So, what is so great about the scanner? One word, "Immunize". This scanner has an "Immunize" feature that uses some of the malware tricks of redirection of your browser. Some malware will rewrite the HOST file to have scanner programs look at the local computer for its updates.
Example:
127.0.0.1 mcaffe.com
The IP address - 127.0.0.1 is the local computer's loopback address and directs sent packets back to the local computer. So, when McAfee tries to access its update site it is looking at the local computer to do so. It sees that there are no updates available. You also could not get to McAfee's website using your browser because it is looking at the local computer for the webpage.
We could go into the OSI Model, but let's not.
What Spybot Search & Destroy does is to write to the Host file to redirect malware requests back to the local computer and thus blocks it from sending and receiving any new data for itself.
When all else fails, take your computer to a reputable computer repair shop.
41 degrees, couldn't have reached the ground?
Actually, that would go to Venus.
Oregon Lawmakers Propose Mileage Tax On Fuel Efficient Vehicles
____________________________
Light to moderate snow for the northern States in the next 2 days
click pic for larger size
The fact that elected people can come up with these ideas reflect very badly on the Electorate, does it not ?
This actually a great example of unintended consequences. The state depends on a certain level of revenue from gasoline taxes. As people buy more fuel efficient cars, that source of revenue will decrease, assuming the tax isn't raised for everyone. The state could, of course, cut spending to offset the decrease in revenue, but that's about as likely as the Artic sea ice returning to normal this year. I have no idea how they would enforce a per mile tax, but the state is very good about finding ways to increase revenue (and spending) while they seem baffled about how to actually balance a budget.
Really ...
How many of these vehicles are even on the road as of now. Probably not enough to have made an impact on any revenue thus far. Just looked at an article that said there were about 2000 electric cars on the road in the northwest
Not just electric cars, take any high mileage hybrid and those will mess with
amount of money they get in taxes vs a mileage based tax scheme.
I drive a 1997 Mercedes E300D,,,this car weighs in at 4000lbs and gets 40mpg around town.
Basically that is what toll roads do. Tax the mileage. And now with electronics, it would be easy for the state to install a "reading" station.
TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 4
Issued at 10:59 am EST on Saturday 19 January 2013
The Cyclone WATCH between Mornington Island and Aurukun has been CANCELLED.
At 10:00 am EST a Tropical Low was estimated to be
410 kilometres west of Mornington Island and
710 kilometres west southwest of Kowanyama and
moving west southwest at 27 kilometres per hour.
The low has continued to track inland overnight and is no longer expected to
develop into a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours. In the medium term
the low is likely to move into the Gulf of Carpentaria early next week where it
may develop further. The situation will continue to be monitored and further
advices will be issued when necessary.
A separate Severe Weather Warning is current for coastal areas in the Gulf of
Carpentaria.
Details of Tropical Low at 10:00 am EST:
.Centre located near...... 17.3 degrees South 135.4 degrees East
.Location accuracy........ within 55 kilometres
.Recent movement.......... towards the west southwest at 27 kilometres per hour
.Wind gusts near centre... 90 kilometres per hour
.Severity category........ below cyclone intensity
.Central pressure......... 1000 hectoPascals
No further advices will be issued for this system unless it is expected to
reintensify.
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