Wildfires

The drought situation is bad here in Kansas and it gets even worse down in Oklahoma and Texas. In fact, 6 month rainfall deficits in north Texas range anywhere from 8-14 inches, with Wichita seeing nearly a 7 inch rainfall deficit.

Wildfires in Texas have been burning out of control now for several days and the smoke is quite visible from space. The attached image shows the different fires burning in the Lone Star state. We can contribute this unusually dry pattern to the La Nina that has been in place across the Equatorial Pacific since early fall 2010. The water temperatures are cooler than average and favor drier than normal conditions in the south.

Storm season has ramped up for areas to our east, with a couple different tornado outbreaks in the last few weeks. The pattern continues to be active for us in Kansas, but we have been missing the best chances for rain because Gulf moisture has been getting pushed off to the east before the storm systems get a chance to do anything with it. As much as it stinks to have to wait, that's about all we can do, waiting for La Nina to go away and the pattern to favor more spring rains in the central and southern US.

Belle Plaine Tulip time

Millie and I participated in the Belle Plaine Tulip Time Festival over the weekend and we rode in a 1950s Chevy truck. It was a little hot Saturday afternoon with temperatures near 90, so Millie did her best to stay cool. A 1950s vehicle model doesn't have AC, so we kept the windows down and the south breeze helped a little. The kids were excited to get candy and Millie was excited for a nap by the end of the day.

We are getting calls on when this pattern will break and we'll start getting better chances for moisture around the area. With the wind and warm temperatures lately, conditions are extremely dry in the west (and have been that way for quite some time) The storm systems are forming right over us and tapping Gulf moisture once they get east of our area. We can hope for this pattern to break down and change, but unfortunately, it may be several more weeks before this will happen.

Tsunami Pictures

BEFORE
AFTER

I was so shocked to see the tsunami hit Japan, and like most of you, trying to imagine a wall of water 23 feet high coming at you is very scary. This serves as a vivid reminder how powerful water can be when it's moving at such a high rate of speed. It nearly swallows everything in its path, and it will take years to clean up with so much debris everywhere.

I am posting satellite pictures of before and after for the area hardest hit by the tsunami. The red covered areas in the images are vegetation covered areas. The dark shades of blue would be water covered areas and it is amazing to see how far inland the water traveled. There is reported to be extensive damage in and around the air field, which is located in the lower left side of the picture. You have to study each picture for a little while to fully understand what you are looking at and how bad the damage is, but if you've been following the national news, you probably already know how powerful the earthquake and tsunami turned out to be. I thought it was interesting to hear that Japan could've survived the magnitude 9 earthquake, but it was the tsunami that they weren't prepared for.

Millie and I visited Explorer Elementary school and the kids had several questions about earthquakes and tsunamis. I am not expert with those kinds of natural disasters, but I was able to help them understand a little bit more about how they happen. I'll post pictures soon.

Have a great week.