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Well, when the power lines start falling from ice and tumbling branches, when the lights go out and cold seeps in, when you envision pipes bursting in walls and ceilings and crawl spaces and the nightmare of year’s supply of aged Angus spoiling rouses you to action you crawl into the dark living room, find the crank radio and fire it up. “More snow on the way. High winds expected. Freezing rain to follow.”

Some excited announcer will add that I&M reports power outages across the entire Midwest due to the storm and predicts three to five days before crews will get the last customer on line. Estimates range from $15 to $30 million in damage. Crews, he adds, are being called in from areas not effected by the storm, but they may not arrive for two or three days, due to distance, the size of the storm and impassable roads.

So, you shovel out the drive, hop in your car and head for Connelly’s to buy a generator. Cars are in ditches, the sign at Kroger reads “no milk or eggs.” You press on. Last time you waited, this time you will act. In the store you find old women fighting over batteries, guys in stiff Carhartts carrying large boxes to the check out and, not one generator left. Scheisse! Next stop Lowe’s. This time old fat men arguing over the batteries, belly butting for dominance and, not a single generator. Same all across town. Mayor Henry comes on a loud speaker and notes that cars should stay off roads unless it is an emergency. Marty Bender tells you to park and walk home.

Your cell phone still works. You call a friend who has a generator. He answers in Florida. You call another friend who reports his generator is fired up and keeping a nursing home warm. You remember high school shop class and wonder if the damn squirrels would turn the cage fast enough… At least you have a fire place and plenty of wood.

So, the radio keeps you company as the house grows colder, water trickles through each faucet, the tubs are filled with drinking water, albeit with a bit of a bouquet and the hint of apricot rinse, undertones of Neutrogena.

Crank, crank, crank. The radio is your friend, as is the sleeping blanket. Stoke the fire. The mice have left, the dog wants out. You are going mildly crazy and the dog senses danger. You could leave, you walk to the Marriott to join the festivities, only a toothbrush and your credit card would be needed, but that would mean tens of thousands in damage to your house. The pipes will freeze, they will then break and water will buckle the maple floors, bring down ceilings, ruin cabinetry, soak your papers and art and destroy appliances. You remember a neighbor who came home after the last ice storm to such a mess. “$50,000 in damage,” sternly reported the adjuster. “Your house is insured for less than that, a bulldozer will cost a few thousand, the permit will cost a thousand and the landfill will charge $3,000. It is a total. Good luck with your life and we are cancelling your policy. Oh, and remember, you have a $2,500 deductible.”

Truth is that when I&M reports storm losses, your losses, those of businesses, those of your community, are not included. So it was with the last storm a couple Christmases back. Thousands of houses suffered damage, some catastrophic. Those $10 and $20 and $50,000 losses were not a part of I&M’s calculations. I&M does not care about your losses. Of course, they want to get you back on line, but they do not care that your life has been greatly disrupted.

To I&M hanging thin wires on poles, in the most vulnerable of ways, is cheaper than burying them, they will say. They could probably trot out statistics that will show as much in colorful, bar-graph detail. They pay their PR people to speak for their shareholders, not for their customers.

What I&M doesn’t factor in to their self-serving charts is your loss and that of the hundreds of others in the area.

As long as the wires are strung in the air on poles there will be large scale outages, and there will be many, many more small scale personal disasters that I&M will blame on God.

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I managed to join up with them on highway 24 west of Fort Wayne. We sped, (literally) at speeds up to 85 mph down I-69 to the Goshen Road exist, and then on to 30 west. From there we turned north on Flaugh Road and stopped at Washington center Road where I had a chance to talk with the crew and take some pictures.

The chase vehicle may remind you of the Cheech & Chong movie, it did me. It’s called “The Dominator.” Sitting inside its reinforced steel shell is a new fairly new Chevy Tahoe. It’s outfitted with a hydraulic system that lowers it to the ground in high winds to prevent it from being flipped over.

The Jeep that was behind me turned out to be a local person from Fort Wayne. Yesterday his brother, who is on the chase team called from Iowa and said they were heading this way. He hadn’t seen him in two years, so he was out chasing as well.

The vehicles take a tremendous pounding from the elements, sometimes even losing windshields to large hail. You can see some of that damage in the next two photos.

During this stop they had several cameras running, filming for their show on Discover.com

In all we had 10 vehicles in the chase. They left after about 30 minutes and went back to Highway 30 and headed east back towards Fort Wayne, which is where I left them.

You can follow them live online at their web site: http://www.tornadovideos.net/live

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THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED TORNADO WATCH 143 IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM EDT /10 PM CDT/ THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS

IN INDIANA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 23 COUNTIES

IN NORTHERN INDIANA

ADAMS ALLEN IN BLACKFORD CASS IN DE KALB ELKHART FULTON IN GRANT HUNTINGTON JAY KOSCIUSKO LAGRANGE MARSHALL MIAMI NOBLE PULASKI ST. JOSEPH IN STARKE STEUBEN WABASH WELLS WHITE WHITLEY

IN MICHIGAN THIS WATCH INCLUDES 4 COUNTIES

IN SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN

BRANCH CASS MI HILLSDALE ST. JOSEPH MI

IN OHIO THIS WATCH INCLUDES 8 COUNTIES

IN NORTHWEST OHIO

ALLEN OH DEFIANCE FULTON OH HENRY PAULDING PUTNAM VAN WERT WILLIAMS

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF… AKRON… ALBION… ANGOLA… ANTWERP… ARCHBOLD… AUBURN… BASS LAKE… BERNE… BLUFFTON… BLUFFTON… BREMEN… BRONSON… BROOKSTON… BRYAN… CASSOPOLIS… COLDWATER… COLUMBIA CITY… CULVER… DECATUR… DEFIANCE… DELPHOS… DESHLER… DOWAGIAC… DUNKIRK… ELKHART… FAYETTE… FORT JENNINGS… FORT WAYNE… FRANCESVILLE… FREMONT… GARRETT… GAS CITY… GOSHEN… GRISSOM AFB… HARTFORD CITY… HICKSVILLE… HILLSDALE… HUNTINGTON… JONESVILLE… KALIDA… KENDALLVILLE… KNOX… LAGRANGE… LIBERTY CENTER… LIGONIER… LIMA… LITCHFIELD… LOGANSPORT… MARCELLUS… MARION… MEDARYVILLE… MELROSE… MENDON… MENTONE… MEXICO… MISHAWAKA… MONON… MONTICELLO… MONTPELIER… MONTPELIER… NAPOLEON… NAPPANEE… NEW CARLISLE… NEW HAVEN… NORTH JUDSON… NORTH MANCHESTER… OHIO CITY… OSSIAN… OTTAWA… PANDORA… PAULDING… PERU… PLYMOUTH… PORTLAND… ROANOKE… ROCHESTER… ROYAL CENTER… SHERWOOD… SHIPSHEWANA… SOUTH BEND… SOUTH WHITLEY… SPENCERVILLE… STURGIS… SWANTON… SYRACUSE… THREE RIVERS… TOPEKA… TRI-LAKES… UPLAND… VAN WERT… WABASH… WALKERTON… WARSAW… WAUSEON… WHITE PIGEON… WINAMAC AND WINONA LAKE.

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Greg Shoup gave me a heads up today that WANE has a new weather blog, which will have content from all four weather people. If you’re not happy with the speed that WANE.com loads, as I am, you’ll be surprised at how fast their blog loads. It’s built using WordPress and loads quickly.

I’ve added a link under “Old Media.”

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Here’s the map at just before 7:00 tonight. I just got back from th north side of town. It’s a bit slippery out, and there’s a bit of freezing sleet is coming down.

Just take it slow and keep plenty of room between you and the vehicle in front of you. That is, unless you’re a the friggin idiot that passed me a few moments ago.

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Issued by The National Weather Service
North Webster, IN
2:45 am EST, Sun., Dec. 6, 2009

… A SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM TO IMPACT THE WESTERN GREAT LAKES AND CENTRAL PLAINS TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY…

DETAILS CONCERNING THE TRACK OF THIS DEVELOPING SYSTEM REMAIN UNCERTAIN… HOWEVER THE POTENTIAL FOR A MAJOR WINTER STORM AFFECTING THE WESTERN GREAT LAKES REGION MID WEEK LOOMS LARGE. PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON OR EVENING AND PERSIST THROUGH MUCH OF WEDNESDAY… BRINGING A MIXTURE OF FREEZING RAIN… RAIN AND SNOW TO THE REGION. HEAVY PRECIPITATION WITHIN THE GREAT LAKES REGION APPEARS LIKELY BUT IT REMAINS TOO EARLY TO DETERMINE PRECIPITATION TYPE AND POTENTIAL AMOUNTS OVER NORTHERN INDIANA… SOUTHERN MICHIGAN AND NORTHWEST OHIO.

BY LATE WEDNESDAY… A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL BLAST ACROSS THE AREA FOLLOWED BY VERY WINDY CONDITIONS AND SHARPLY COLDER TEMPERATURES WITH LAKE EFFECT SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW EXPECTED IN ITS WAKE ACROSS FAR NORTHERN INDIANA AND ALL OF LOWER MICHIGAN WHICH WILL CONTINUE FOR MUCH OF THURSDAY.

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THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED TORNADO WATCH 716 IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM EDT /MIDNIGHT CDT/ THURSDAY FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS

IN INDIANA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 24 COUNTIES

IN NORTHERN INDIANA

ADAMS ALLEN IN BLACKFORD CASS IN DE KALB ELKHART FULTON IN GRANT HUNTINGTON JAY KOSCIUSKO LA PORTE LAGRANGE MARSHALL MIAMI NOBLE PULASKI ST. JOSEPH IN STARKE STEUBEN WABASH WELLS WHITE WHITLEY

IN MICHIGAN THIS WATCH INCLUDES 5 COUNTIES

IN SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN

BERRIEN BRANCH CASS MI HILLSDALE ST. JOSEPH MI

IN OHIO THIS WATCH INCLUDES 8 COUNTIES

IN NORTHWEST OHIO

ALLEN OH DEFIANCE FULTON OH HENRY PAULDING PUTNAM VAN WERT WILLIAMS

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF… AKRON… ALBION… ANGOLA… ANTWERP… ARCHBOLD… AUBURN… BASS LAKE… BENTON HARBOR… BERNE… BLUFFTON… BLUFFTON… BREMEN… BRONSON… BROOKSTON… BRYAN… BUCHANAN… CASSOPOLIS… COLDWATER… COLUMBIA CITY… CULVER… DECATUR… DEFIANCE… DELPHOS… DESHLER… DOWAGIAC… DUNKIRK… ELKHART… FAYETTE… FORT JENNINGS… FORT WAYNE… FRANCESVILLE… FREMONT… GARRETT… GAS CITY… GOSHEN… GRISSOM AFB… HARTFORD CITY… HICKSVILLE… HILLSDALE… HUNTINGTON… JONESVILLE… KALIDA… KENDALLVILLE… KNOX… LA PORTE… LAGRANGE… LIBERTY CENTER… LIGONIER… LIMA… LITCHFIELD… LOGANSPORT… MARCELLUS… MARION… MEDARYVILLE… MELROSE… MENDON… MENTONE… MEXICO… MICHIGAN CITY… MISHAWAKA… MONON… MONTICELLO… MONTPELIER… MONTPELIER… NAPOLEON… NAPPANEE… NEW CARLISLE… NEW HAVEN… NILES… NORTH JUDSON… NORTH MANCHESTER… OHIO CITY… OSSIAN… OTTAWA… PANDORA… PAULDING… PERU… PLYMOUTH… PORTLAND… ROANOKE… ROCHESTER… ROYAL CENTER… SHERWOOD… SHIPSHEWANA… SOUTH BEND… SOUTH WHITLEY… SPENCERVILLE… ST. JOSEPH… STURGIS… SWANTON… SYRACUSE… THREE RIVERS… TOPEKA… TRI-LAKES… UPLAND… VAN WERT… WABASH… WALKERTON… WARSAW… WAUSEON… WHITE PIGEON… WINAMAC AND WINONA LAKE.

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http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=188169The New York Times [NYT] fires a shot today at Al Gore and his Academy Award-winning global warming film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” saying it involves “hype” and shoddy science. 

“Hollywood has a thing for Al Gore and his three-alarm film . . . So do many environmentalists, who praise him as a visionary, and many scientists, who laud him for raising public awareness,” the Times reports. “But part of his scientific audience is uneasy . . . these scientists argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous.”

Wow, the New York Times says so?

 Now ain’t that a bitch?

Posted by Tim Zank

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MINNEAPOLIS – A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite. The explorers, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, on Saturday called off what was intended to be a 530-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:

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Top 10 ‘Global-Warming’ Myths

Given Al Gore’s proclivity for invoking Winston Churchill in this drama, it is only appropriate to summarize his claims as such: Never in the field of political conflict has so much been asked by so few of so many … for so little.

9. Global-warming proposals are about the environment.

Only if this means that they would make things worse, given that “wealthier is healthier and cleaner.” Even accepting every underlying economic and alarmist environmentalist assumption, no one dares say that the expensive Kyoto Protocol would detectably affect climate. Imagine how expensive a pact must be — in both financial and human costs — to so severely ration energy use as the greens demand. Instead, proponents candidly admit desires to control others’ lifestyles, and supportive industries all hope to make millions off the deal. Europe’s former environment commissioner admitted that Kyoto is “about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide” (in other words, bailing them out).

8. Climate change is the greatest threat to the world’s poor.

Climate — or more accurately, weather — remains one of the greatest challenges facing the poor. Climate change adds nothing to that calculus, however. Climate and weather patterns have always changed, as they always will. Man has always best dealt with this through wealth creation and technological advance — a.k.a. adaptation — and most poorly through superstitious casting of blame, such as burning “witches.” The wealthiest societies have always adapted best. One would prefer to face a similar storm in Florida than Bangladesh. Institutions, infrastructure and affordable energy are key to dealing with an ever-changing climate, not rationing energy.

7. Global warming means more frequent, more severe storms.

Here again the alarmists cannot even turn to the wildly distorted and politicized “Summary for Policy Makers” of the UN’s IPCC to support this favorite chestnut of the press.

6. Global warming has doomed the polar bears!

For some reason, Al Gore’s computerized polar bear can’t swim, unlike the real kind, as one might expect of an animal named Ursa Maritimus. On the whole, these bears are thriving, if a little less well in those areas of the Arctic that are cooling (yes, cooling). Their biggest threat seems to be computer models that air-brush them from the future, the same models that tell us it is much warmer now than it is. As usual in this context, you must answer the question: Who are you going to believe — me or your lying eyes?

5. Climate change is raising the sea levels.

Sea levels rise during interglacial periods such as that in which we (happily) find ourselves. Even the distorted United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports refute the hysteria, finding no statistically significant change in the rate of increase over the past century of man’s greatest influence, despite green claims of massive melting already occurring. Small island nations seeking welfare and asylum for their citizens such as in socially generous New Zealand and Australia have no sea-level rise at all and in some cases see instead a drop. These societies’ real problem is typically that they have made a mess of their own situation. One archipelago nation is even spending lavishly to lobby the European Union for development money to build beachfront hotel resorts, at the same time it shrieks about a watery and imminent grave. So, which time are they lying?

4. The glaciers are melting!

As good fortune has it, frozen things do in fact melt or at least recede after cooling periods mercifully end. The glacial retreat we read about is selective, however. Glaciers are also advancing all over, including lonely glaciers nearby their more popular retreating neighbors. If retreating glaciers were proof of global warming, then advancing glaciers are evidence of global cooling. They cannot both be true, and in fact, neither is. Also, retreat often seems to be unrelated to warming. For example, the snow cap on Mount Kilimanjaro is receding — despite decades of cooling in Kenya — due to regional land use and atmospheric moisture.

3. Climate was stable until man came along.

Swallowing this whopper requires burning every basic history and science text, just as “witches” were burned in retaliation for changing climates in ages (we had thought) long past. The “hockey stick” chart — poster child for this concept — has been disgraced and airbrushed from the UN’s alarmist repertoire.

2. The science is settled — CO2 causes global warming.

Al Gore shows his audience a slide of CO2 concentrations, and a slide of historical temperatures. But for very good reason he does not combine them in one overlaid slide: Historically, atmospheric CO2, as often as not, increases after warming. This is typical in the campaign of claiming “consensus” to avoid debate (consensus about what being left unspoken or distorted).

What scientists do agree on is little and says nothing about man-made global warming, to wit: (1) that global average temperature is probably about 0.6 degree Celsius — or 1 degree Fahrenheit — higher than a century ago; (2) that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have risen by about 30% over the past 200 years; and (3) that CO2 is one greenhouse gas, some level of an increase of which presumably would warm the Earth’s atmosphere were all else equal, which it demonstrably is not.

Until scientists are willing to save the U.S. taxpayer more than $5 billion per year thrown at researching climate, it is fair to presume the science is not settled.

1. It’s hot in here!

In fact, “It’s the baseline, stupid.” Claiming that present temperatures are warm requires a starting point at, say, the 1970s, or around the Little Ice Age (approximately 1200 A.D to the end of the 19th Century), or thousands of years ago. Select many other baselines, for example, compared o the 1930s, or 1000 A.D. — or 1998 — and it is presently cool. Cooling does paint a far more frightening picture, given that another ice age would be truly catastrophic, while throughout history, warming periods have always ushered in prosperity. Maybe that’s why the greens tried “global cooling” first.

The claim that the 1990s were the hottest decade on record specifically targets the intellectually lazy and easily frightened, ignoring numerous obvious factors. “On record” obviously means a very short period, typically the past 100+ years, or since the end of the Little Ice Age. The National Academies of Science debunked this claim in 2006. Previously rural measuring stations register warmer temps after decades of “sprawl” (growth), cement being warmer than a pasture.

Posted by Tim Zank

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