HUGE Storms to Hit California, Arizona

"It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?It POURS, Man it POURS"
The words from an old song drift through my head as I read the latest report from the emergency response community: 
Currently, the strong El Nino is reaching its peak in the Eastern Pacific, and now finally appears to be exerting an influence on our weather.  The strong jet has been apparent for quite some time out over the open water, but the persistent block had prevented it from reaching the coast.  Now that the block has dissolved completely, a 200+ kt jet is barreling towards us.  Multiple large and powerful storm systems are expected to slam into CA from the west and northwest over the coming two weeks, all riding this extremely powerful jet stream directly into the state. 
The jet will itself provide tremendous dynamic lift, in addition to directing numerous disturbances right at the state and supplying them with an ample oceanic moisture source.  The jet will be at quite a low latitude over much of the Pacific, so these storms will be quite cold, at least initially.  Very heavy rainfall and strong to potentially very strong winds will impact the lower elevations beginning late Sunday and continuing through at least the following Sunday.  This will be the case for the entire state, from (and south of) the Mexican border all the way up to Oregon. 
Above 3000-4000 feet, precipitation will be all snow, and since temperatures will be unusually cold for a precipitation event of this magnitude, a truly prodigious amount of snowfall is likely to occur in the mountains, possibly measured in the tens of feet in the Sierra after it's all said and done.  But there's a big and rather threatening caveat to that (discussed below). Individual storm events are going to be hard to time for at least a few more days, since this jet is just about as powerful as they come (on this planet, anyway).  
Between this Sunday and the following Sunday, I expect categorical statewide rainfall totals in excess of 3-4 inches.  That is likely to be a huge underestimate for most areas.  Much of NorCal is likely to see 5-10 inches in the lowlands, with 10-20 inches in orographically-favored areas. Most of SoCal will see 3-6 inches at lower elevations, with perhaps triple that amount in favored areas.

This is where things get even more interesting, though.  The models are virtually unanimous in "reloading" the powerful jet stream and forming an additional persistent kink 2000-3000 miles to our southwest after next Sunday.  This is a truly ominous pattern, because it implies the potential for a strong Pineapple-type connection to develop.  Indeed, the 12z GFS now shows copious warm rains falling between days 12 and 16 across the entire state.  Normally, such as scenario out beyond day seven would be dubious at best. 

Since the models are in such truly remarkable agreement, however, and because of the extremely high potential impact of such an event, it's worth mentioning now.  Since there will be a massive volume of freshly-fallen snow (even at relatively low elevations between 3000-5000 feet), even a moderately warm storm event would cause very serious flooding.  This situation will have to monitored closely.  Even if the tropical connection does not develop, expected rains in the coming 7-10 days will likely be sufficient to cause flooding in and of themselves (even in spite of dry antecedent conditions).

In addition to very heavy precipitation, powerful winds may result from very steep pressure gradients associated with the large and deep low pressure centers expect ed to begin approaching the coast by early next week.  Though it's not clear at the moment just how powerful these winds may be, there is certainly the potential for a widespread damaging wind event at some point, and the high Sierra peaks are likely to see gusts in the 100-200 mph range (since the 200kt jet at 200-300 mb will essentially run directly into the mountains at some point).  The details of this will have to be hashed out as the event(s) draw closer.

In short, the next 2-3 weeks (at least) are likely to be more active across California than any other 2-3 week period in recent memory.  The potential exists for a dangerous flood scenario to arise at some point during this interval, especially with the possibility of a heavy rain-on-snow event during late week 2.  In some parts of Southern California, a whole season's worth of rain could fall over the course of 5-10 days.  This is likely to be a rather memorable event.  Stay tuned...

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California Censorship: Pot Ad Banned

Recently we ran an article in which we featured the new TV ad campaign supporting the taxation and legalization of marijuana in California. However, censorship has reared its ugly head in the land of the free and the home of the brave.




The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) kicked off a TV ad campaign aimed at gaining support for a California marijuana legalization bill in the legislature on Wednesday, but ran into problems with several TV stations around the state, which either rejected the ad outright or just ignored MPP efforts to place it. Still, the spots are up and running on other Golden State stations.

source: ALTERNET

















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All Rights Reserved

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

We Want to Pay Our Taxes

This ad discusses the need to tax and regulate marijuana in the state of California as a means to help ease the budget crisis and bring responsible marijuana consumers into the legal tax base. How times have changed.




















Copyright @ 1998-2009
All Rights Reserved

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Schwarzenegger to Terminate Welfare in Callifornia

GOVERNOR PLANS TO COMPLETELY ELIMINATE WELFARE FOR FAMILIES

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.

The proposals to sharply scale back the assistance that California provides to its neediest residents came in testimony by the administration this afternoon at a joint legislative budget committee hearing. It followed comments by the governor earlier today that he would be withdrawing a proposal to help balance the budget with billions of dollars of borrowing and replacing it with program reductions.

The proposals would completely reshape the state’s social service network, transforming California from one of the country’s most generous states to one of the most tightfisted. The proposals are intended to help close a budget deficit estimated at $21.3 billion.

source: LA TIMES

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Legalize Marijuana in California

California Assembly Bill 390 would legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana for adults over 21.

AB 390 would

Create jobs Contribute $1.2 billion in new direct tax revenue to California Reduce crime Reduce prison overcrowding Cut funding to drug cartels Reduce police corruption Protect our public lands Let farmers grow industrial hemp

AB 390 was introduced by California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano on Feb 23, 2009.



If you live in California, you can make it happen:

Email your representatives to support AB 390

Telephone your Assemblymember to support AB 390

Learn more about ending cannabis prohibition

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FORECLOSURES: THE OTHER CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE

Less dramatic than the wildfires is the foreclosure tidal wave that's overtaking California.

* Over 700 families lose their home EVERY DAY

* "Nice" neighborhoods where every other house is vacant

* Families walking away from their homes leaving all the furnishings

It's mind boggling...



Contrary to anti-social, right wing propaganda, "sub-prime" loans were not made to help poor people get their first homes. They were created to help new home builders, especially in states like California, Nevada, and Florida, sell out their new home inventory at super-inflated prices.

Home buyers were told by the Fed chairman...by the President...by Fox News...by every idiot financial reporter on TV...that the loans they were taking out were a "good deal." The loans were very simple:

Very little down, very low payments and then, a few years out - when theoretically the property would be worth much more - the monthly payments would rise dramatically. The idea was that long before then the home buyer would have sold out at a handsome profit and moved onto their next home. Free enterprise at work.

It's easy to call these people foolish, but they are really the victims of a scam.

The home builders got paid lavish premiums for their inventory...real estate companies and loan brokers got rich from these sales...the Wall Street banks that packaged these scam loans and sold them throughout the world made hundreds of billions of dollars...and the psychopathic Bush administration got to fund its wars without raising taxes based on the illusion that the economy was good and could afford it.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

This is EXACTLY the same scam that Bush Sr. ran in the 1980s using the Savings and Loans real estate fraud bubble to pay for the Contra war and God only knows how many billions he and his fellow crooks siphoned off on the side. Bush Sr. even had the same Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan running the central bank. The only difference is this disaster is 1000x larger.

The California Wildfire Scam

Deliberate Ineptitude

It was only four years ago almost to the day that we experienced the Cedar fire, which at that time was one of the biggest fires in California history. After investigation it was proven to be Arson.

Every year at this time the weather in Southern California becomes very dry and dangerous for fire. You would think our government agencies would have learned something from it. You would think that in four years... they would have figured out how to be prepared for this, but as you can see, the response has been totally inadequate. The numbers are staggering whether you are talking about money, homes, animals or the environment. It's all devastating.

There is no reason for these fires to be so out of control. Governor Arnold ("my Dad was a Nazi") Schwarzenegger knows it and so does George Bush (grandson of a Nazi bagman and banker.) The technology exists RIGHT NOW to knock these fires out with minimal loss of life and property. Instead, the government crooks play at being "leaders," praising the (very real) heroism of the fire fighters (how 9-11-like).

Did this tragedy have to happen? The answer is -- No. The technology to put out these monstrous fires already exists, but "our government" refused to use it in 2003, because it was made in Russia. Years ago, the Russians adapted a massive transport plane that is designed to combat just such fires. The Russians designed the Ilyusian IL76 Water-Bomber plane with the capacity to carry 16,000 gallons of water, able to put out a fire the size of 10 football fields lined up end to end, in fifteen seconds. Reloading is fast and easy and cheap.

Instead, on TV we see little wisps of EXPENSIVE and ineffective chemicals being dropped and the fires getting larger and larger. What's going on? Why did we refuse it then? Did politics and historical animosity get in the way of saving our land, our animals, and our homes? Why was it not called in for this fire?

These are questions that the citizens should be asking Governor Schwarzenegger and their other Government representatives. Wake up Californians, and start asking the tough questions.

While you are asking, here is an article you can read about the offer from Russia to have two planes available on notice to anyone who asks:

Big Russian Waterbomber Refused by Embattled U.S. Forest Service