Put Ou The Fire

First: While we missed on most of the potential storms Sunday- Essex (Southeast Baltimore County) reported large hail with the one storm we did get in the afternoon.
The cold front a of this morning, was stalled over central Maryland. It will be a slow mover, and likely kick up more storms this afternoon. There is a large pool of cool air over the Great Lakes that will roll east. Our temperatures will cool down tomorrow. The computer models sometimes have a hard time handling this type of set up, but I see the likely hood that a lot of us north and west of the beltways stay in the 70s on Tuesday.

While there has been a lot of national coverage of the Midwest floods, and fires out west- we continue to have a rather uneventful June. Sure we had a few 90 degree days, but nothing out of the ordinary. Even the strong storms we have had, while damaging... have not been too widespread.
That is with the disclaimer that May did send us over the top with rainfall. This map shows how the spring translated into excessive rainfall or drought. It should be noted that the flooding along the Mississippi River in Iowa/Missouri/ Illinois was in part due to heavy late season snowfall. The eyesore in red- California having it's driest spring on record. If we averaged the extremes it would be close to normal rainfall. However, average is normal. This proves the extremes on one end are balanced by extremes on the other.
Secondly, but still important: On Friday a story came out from CNN, that say, " The North Pole might go ice free this summer." When did speculation become news? Oh, that's right, oil prices! But aren't we all complaining about that? If I said something like that in this blog- I would certainly become a story- just because it sounds impressive. The scientist quoted- Mark Serreze- speculates in the story, and says that this is not cyclical! I must argue that point! We don not have true ice records before 1979 at the north pole, but we do have archaeological records from nearby Greenland. In fact the dramatic change and cycles have affected the local population and culture.
Below is an online report...please keep this in mind. There has been patterns of growth and demise of cultures in the arctic circle. Records of livestock and crops have been uncovered in places where they could not survive today. Obviously there was a force at play that resulted in these temperature swings. Results that have been documented for the past 1500 years. Again my disclaimer: I don't discount some warming, but I discount humans causing it. I support alternative, clean, renewable energy, but not scaring people unjustly to get there. New reports often shock, but don't provide accurate, balanced reporting. That is the biggest shame of all.

A graphical description of changes in temperature in Greenland from 500 – 1990 A.D. based on analysis of the deep ice core from Greenland and some historical events. The annual temperature changes are shown vertical in ˚C. The numbers are to be read horizontal:
1. From 700 to 750 A.D. people belonging to the Late Dorset Culture move into the area around Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island and Greenland north of Thule.
2. Norse settlement of Iceland starts in the second half of the 9th century.
3. Norse settlement of Greenland starts just before the year 1000.
4. Thule Inuit move into northern Greenland in the 12th century.
5. Late Dorset culture disappears from Greenland in the second half of the 13th century.
6. The Western Settlement disappears in mid 14th century.
7. In 1408 is the Marriage in Hvalsey, the last known written document on the Norse in Greenland.
8. The Eastern Settlement disappears in mid 15th century.
9. John Cabot is the first European in the post-Iceland era to visit Labrador - Newfoundland in 1497.
10. “Little Ice Age” from ca 1600 to mid 18th century. 11. The Norwegian priest, Hans Egede, arrives in Greenland in 1721.