Tag: weather

Kentucky Monsoon Season?

Posted by – May 2, 2011

How many inches of rainfall is required before we can officially call this monsoon weather? I think sixteen inches is enough isn’t?

April 2011 Rainfall16 inches is equal to 406 milimeters.  More than 300 milimeters per month is very common in India during the wet monsoon season.

little river downtown hopkinsville

River in Hoptown - Credit to Lou Willis.

monsoon flood

Thailand monsoon - Credit to Frederic Poirot

Close enough to monsoon weather for me!

The Snow I Wished for…

Posted by – February 9, 2011

Conservatively, Hopkinsville has had twelve inches of snow fall within the last three days. There is more snow on the ground now than I ever had when I was growing up. The 90s was a decade of mild winters and light snowfall. I envy the kids today when school districts cancel classes at the mere threat of snow. Now, I have to drive in it. It is not so much fun anymore.

scary icicle

14 inch icicle

Man-made Global Warming is a joke. Cue the fool himself, Al Gore. He explains to us how a warmer planet creates more severe snowstorms.

“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

ice covered roads

Ice-covered roads

Assuming that the pendulum is swinging back toward more severe winters over the next 10 years. What are school districts going to do if this is the new status quo? This could be the excuse for eliminating the long summer break; except when kids pass out because they were caught riding the bus in triple digit temperatures. There is no right answer when the district leadership has to consider the possibility of sue-happy parents looking to get their payday.

Snow days were nice when I was in school but I think Christian County calls off school way too often. Especially when main roads are clear and only secondary roads are slick. It doesn’t matter if twelve inches of snow fell this week I still have to drive in it. There were plenty of semi-trucks still driving today. If a truck driver can still haul his load then so can a school bus. The school buses should have a snow route and parents would meet the bus half way on a main road. My plan is not rocket science but it does require adults to act like adults.

Shock: The Weatherman Got it Right

Posted by – November 26, 2010

snow on the hood of my car

First snow of Winter

Shock! Really! There was snow in the forecast and when I woke up this morning there was snow on the ground. Amazing!

The general rule in Kentucky is to believe the opposite of what the forecast tells you when there is the possibility of snow. Significant snow accumulation is usually nixed when temperature and moisture don’t come together simultaneously. If it’s cold enough there will not be enough precipitation or it will be too warm and it falls as rain.

Watching the rising water

Posted by – May 1, 2010

Hopkinsville is forecast to get up to 10 inches of rain in two days. This prediction may yet come true because we’ve received 4 inches just on Saturday. There will be still more rain  tonight and Sunday.

rain gauge

4.5 inches in the Rain Gauge

You can watch the Little River grow to be the not-so-little river online. Your tax dollar at work.

Snowy Farmland

Posted by – February 3, 2010

I had a chance on Tuesday to take some photography of an open field on the outer limits of Hopkinsville. The barn and buildings in the distance belong to the Amish that live in the area.


While I was writing the blog post for the church I found a passage in the book of Job that speaks directly to the winter weather we have received. It was very fitting to post on a day when church services were being canceled wholesale.

Snow delayed but not Denied

Posted by – January 30, 2010

I measured four inches on the ground at my house. Trigg county received six inches. Hopkinsville is fortunate that ten inches of total devastation did not occur but there’s always next year.

I said yesterday I would build a snowman if I had enough material to work with but what fell turned out to be dry powder not very suitable for packing together. Interesting note that there was more snow on my car than on the ground. The hood actually had 7 1/2 inches.

Snow Roulette

Posted by – January 28, 2010


Let’s spin the wheel another time, the weather man has foretold that Hopkinsville will have devastating snow fall tomorrow. The winter storm warning published by the national weather service guarantees a minimum of four inches and up to 10 inches of the cold white stuff.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 7 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ALONG AND SOUTH
  OF A LINE FROM MARBLE HILL MISSOURI TO CALHOUN KENTUCKY. CLOSER
  TO THE ARKANSAS AND TENNESSEE STATE LINES BORDERING KENTUCKY AND
  MISSOURI...AMOUNTS MAY APPROACH 8 TO 10 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY
  HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. SOME SLEET MAY MIX IN WITH THE SNOW AT
  THE BEGINNING OF THE EVENT...BUT PREDOMINANTLY SNOW IS EXPECTED.

With that kind of forecast I expect to be building a very fat snowman tomorrow. In my lifetime Hopkinsville has never had 10 inches of snowfall at one time. It’ll suck though if after all the hype and scaremongering we only get a measly inch or less.

Climate Failure

Posted by – October 15, 2009

Mullins, a retired state employee, was one of seven landowners who shared $65,000 in what is believed to be the first sale of carbon credits for trees in Kentucky. That means they were paid for allowing their trees to do what comes naturally: Absorb carbon dioxide. [...]

Here we have the other half of the carbon trading marketplace. The Blue Heron buys carbon credits to sooth their guilty conscience. Then that money is paid out to men like Rodney Mullins who are laughing all the way to the bank. For those who live on this planet men are paid for their time and labor but in BizarroWorld men are paid for the work they are NOT doing. When the coal plant burns fuel to produce electricity the trees will absorb it for as long as they remain alive. This mechanism has worked for a very long time without need for a government subsidy. The Blue Heron should ask why are they paying to finance another man’s lifestyle of NOT doing something.

MACED had been planning to sell credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange. But carbon credits are trading very low there now as that emerging market waits to see what Congress will do about climate legislation.

Proponents say that if that legislation includes a cap-and-trade plan, it will bolster a market in which companies that put carbon into the atmosphere pay landowners for allowing their trees to absorb carbon.

Translation: The carbon credit market can’t sustain itself unless it is made mandatory by government fiat. Again I ask how does taxing carbon producers and subsidizing landowners improve the carbon absorption on the landowners’ property.