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Showing posts with the label phenomenon

Global Warming: Global Warning

Remember the movie The Day After Tomorrow? When the media interviewed the Director/Producer of that movie, he claims that it should be shown immediately as it will become more of a documentary rather than a movie. The Atlanta governor has declared a state of emergency for 89 counties as a wave of “crippling ice” befalls much of The Peach State in a storm the National Weather Service warns, “may be of historic proportions.” This statewide IcePocalypseMageddon occurs a little more than a week after Georgia’s last devastating ice storm, when the National Guard was called in to aid thousands of people stranded in their homes, vehicles, and schools. The polar vortex dropped temperatures from Chicago to Mexico a few weeks prior, breaking more than 50 records and leaving Minneapolis with sub-zero temperatures for 62 straight hours. That U.S. weather patterns seem more at home in the Book of Revelation than February hasn’t made an impact on Senator Ted Cruz, who joked to attendees of

Steam Devil Caused by a Cold Front in Lake Michigan

An Arctic vortex drifted into Illinois on January 6 and caused an unusual sight – steam rising from Lake Michigan. This phenomenon is known as a steam devil, and it is due to the cold front of the vortex moving over the warmer water and humidifying, causing the visible steam. According to Wiki, a steam devil is a small, weak whirlwind over water (or sometimes wet land) that has drawn fog into the vortex, thus rendering it visible. They form over large lakes and oceans during cold air outbreaks while the water is still relatively warm, and can be an important mechanism in vertically transporting moisture. Because of the very high water temperatures, smaller steam devils and steam whirls can form over geyser basins even in warm weather. Although steam devils are generally quite a rare phenomenon, hot springs in Yellowstone Park produce them on a daily basis. You could probably remember the Yellowstone Park being featured on the movie 2012. A precondition for the formation