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Flights at JFK airport have been temporarily suspended “due to strong winds and whiteout conditions” caused by Winter Storm Grayson.

Kennedy Airport
✔@JFKairport

Due to strong winds and whiteout conditions, flights at JFK have been temporarily suspended. Travelers are urged to contact their airline carriers for updates on resumption of service

11:05 AM – Jan 4, 2018

“Travelers are urged to contact their airline carriers for updates on resumption of service,” the JFK Twitter account advised.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared an official weather emergency in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County on Thursday as the storm is expected to drop up to a foot of snow on New York City.

Nearly all flights out of La Guardia, New York City’s other major airport, were cancelled late last night in anticipation of the storm.

LaGuardia Airport

✔@LGAairport

Almost all #LGA airport flights are cancelled today (January 4) due to weather. To determine if your carrier may still operate later this evening or what your flight status will be tomorrow (January 5), please contact them directly.#LaGuardia #Winterstorm #Grayson #Blizzard2018

11:08 AM – Jan 4, 2018

Newark Airport warned flyers to double check on the status of their flights because many had been cancelled.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Entire East Coast Needs to Get Ready for “Snow Bombogenesis”

January 4, 2018

The Entire East Coast Needs to Get Ready for “Snow Bombogenesis”

We’re starting the New Year off with a bang in the form of Winter Storm Grayson. The next weather threat heading our way is a phenomenon called a “bombogenesis.” This occurs when a system’s central pressure plummets dramatically — “24 millibars or more — in 24 hours” according to Bloomberg.

Basically, it’s a hurricane. A winter hurricane. The same high winds (up to 80 mph) and the same precipitation, but with snow instead of rain.

Because what could be more exciting than a hurricane and a blizzard all rolled into one kick-bootie storm?

The entire East Coast is at risk, from the northern part of Florida all the way up into Canada. The Southern US will get some snow and wind on Wednesday, and New England will be hit hard on Thursday.

…ice has already formed on fountains in some southern cities, including Savannah, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

In northern Florida and southern Georgia, a dangerous mix of snow and ice are in the forecast for Wednesday morning.

Residents of cities including Tallahassee, Florida, and Valdosta, Georgia, may see up to an inch of snow on the roadways during the Wednesday morning commute…

Through Wednesday the low pressure will ride up the East Coast, bringing a wintry mix of snow and ice through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Georgia and the Carolinas may see 1 to 3 inches of snow…

The storm will strengthen as it moves north overnight Wednesday. By Thursday morning, there will be heavy snow across the Mid-Atlantic coast, including Philadelphia and the New Jersey shore.

The Mid-Atlantic is forecast to have about 3 to 6 inches of snow, with lower amounts inland and higher amounts near the coast.

The snow will continue north Thursday. Long Island and New England — especially Maine — may get over 6 inches of snow. (source)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Even The Penguins Are Panicking: North America Is Entering A Record-Setting Deep Freeze

January 3, 2018

Even The Penguins Are Panicking: North America Is Entering A Record-Setting Deep Freeze

North America is in the grip of a record-setting cold spell that’s set to culminate with the arrival of a “bomb cyclone” along the eastern seaboard late Thursday. The cold front has delivered temperatures that haven’t been seen in decades.

Already, stories about the epic cold snap have proliferated online. As we pointed out yesterday, a group of good Samaritans helped rescue a dozen elk that had crashed trough a thin patch of river ice and were in danger of freezing to death, or drowning. At the time, temperatures were below freezing across a staggering 92% of the US, with temperatures more than 20 degrees lower than their seasonal averages for this time of year.

Winter Storm Grayson, a very large and powerful winter storm is threatening the East Coast of the United States with heavy snow, intense winds, and record-setting low temperatures. Winter storm watches and warnings have been issued for many coastal regions in north Florida to Maine from Wednesday into late Thursday.

This week’s storm may end up being worse than your average nor’easter. That’s because meteorologists say it could produce a “bomb cyclone,” otherwise known as a bombogenesis, a phenomenon that occurs when a system’s central pressure drops steeply – by 24 millibars or more – in 24 hours.

If current computer models hold, that’ll start to happen somewhere off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and continue as the storm moves north. Hurricane-force wind warnings have been posted off the coast where ships could encounter winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour and waves as high as 26 feet on Thursday.

Already, the unusual weather patterns are causing all sorts of strange phenomena around the country. According to the New York Times, it’s too cold for many zoo penguins, which have been taken inside as a precaution ahead of the storm. Meanwhile, sharks have washed up dead on the Atlantic coast.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Jose Expected to Regain Hurricane Status and Gun For Northeast Coast

September 15, 2017

Jose Expected to Regain Hurricane Status and Gun For Northeast Coast

Get your generators ready NY, Jose might be heading up here to blow away your over valued hovels. Recent models indicate Jose is making a comeback near the Bahamas and is expected to regain ‘Cane status today, then jog on towards the northeast in an attempt to destroy it.

From Dr. Masters

Jose is now completing its expected loop between the Caribbean and Bermuda, and the track forecast has become more straightforward. Our top track models—the European, GFS, and UKMET models—agree that Jose will continue west-northwest until about Saturday, then head northward toward a upper-level trough that will be sweeping through eastern Canada. By midweek, this northward movement is expected to segue into a more northeasterly track.

The main forecast challenge is how close Jose will get to the U.S. and Canadian coast. The 00Z Thursday runs of the three top track models all place Jose within several hundred miles of North Carolina’s Outer Banks by next Tuesday. Later in the week, Jose could make an even closer pass by Cape Cod and the Canadian Maritimes. At this point we can’t rule out the possibility that Jose will make landfall somewhere along the east coast of the U.S. or Canada. Of the 50 members of the 00Z Thursday ensemble run of the European model, a substantial minority bring Jose inland across the eastern U.S. (see Figure 3). However, only about 20% of the GFS ensemble members produce an eastern U.S. landfall (see Figure 2). The model guidance trended slightly westward overnight, so we’ll need to keep a close eye on any further trends in model guidance. NHC’s 5-day forecast on Thursday morning placed Jose about 250 miles east of North Carolina on Monday, and the “cone of uncertainty” included the Outer Banks.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Peak oil in Latin America

September 11, 2017

Peak oil in Latin America

This post is using mainly BP’s Statistical Review published in June 2017. Although these statistics put Mexico under North America, it is included here and added to South and Central America’s data at the end of this article. We start with 2 big oil suppliers: Brazil and Venezuela.

Brazil_oil_prod_cons_biofuels_1965-2016 Fig 1: Brazil’s oil production, net imports and bio fuels

Brazil’s oil production (crude plus NGLs) has not yet peaked. BP’s consumption data include bio fuels which are a very important contributor to liquid supplies (data taken from EIA’s international energy statistics). We can see that net oil imports have been reduced and even turned into net exports (145 kb/d in 2016) by using biofuels (ethanol and bio diesel, around 560 kb/d in 2016).

Venezuela_oil_production_vs_consumption_1965-2016 Fig 2: Venezuela’s oil production and net exports

Venezuela’s oil production peaked in the 70s and more recently in 2006. Conventional oil fields in Maracaibo peaked in 1997 while extra heavy oil production from the Orinoco belt cannot offset that decline. Low oil prices have worsened this situation. The impact on the economy is devastating as can be seen in media reports every day. They usually blame Maduro’s socialist government for this malaise but rarely mention the oil geological problems. A separate article on this is under preparation. Since 2006, Venezuelan production declined by 930 kb/d, more than Brazil’s growth of 800 kb/d in the same period. Recent monthly data from JODI show these different trends. Venezuela’s sharp drop in 2003 was caused by a PDVSA strike. Can that happen again?

Brazil_vs_Venezuela_crude_2002-Jun2017 Fig 3: Brazil vs Venezuela monthly crude production

In its August 2017 oil market report the IEA showed declining exports from Venezuela.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Economic Collapse Is Erupting All Over The Planet As Global Leaders Begin To Panic

April 11, 2016

Economic Collapse Is Erupting All Over The Planet As Global Leaders Begin To Panic

Mainstream news outlets are already starting to use the phrase “economic collapse” to describe what is going on in some areas of our world right now. For many Americans this may seem a bit strange, but the truth is that the worldwide economic slowdown that began during the second half of last year is starting to get a lot worse. In this article, we are going to examine evidence of this from South America, Europe, Asia and North America. Once we are done, it should be obvious that there is absolutely no reason to be optimistic about the direction of the global economy right now. The warnings of so many prominent experts are now becoming a reality, and what we have witnessed so far are just the early chapters of a crushing economic crisis that will affect every man, woman and child in the entire world.

Let’s start with Brazil. It has the 7th largest economy on the entire planet, and it is already enduring its worst recession in 25 years. In fact, at the end of last year Goldman Sachs said that what was going on down there was actually a “depression“.

But now the crisis in Brazil has escalated significantly.

I want to share with you an excerpt from a recent article entitled “Brazil: Economic collapse worse than feared“. I know, that title sounds like it comes directly from The Economic Collapse Blog, but I didn’t write it.

It actually comes from CNN…

Amid political chaos, Brazil’s economic collapse is worse than its government once believed.

In the midst of rising calls to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s central bank announced Thursday that it now expects the country’s economy to shrink 3.5% this year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Canada Sold All Its Gold Reserves – Who Will be Next?

March 13, 2016

Canada Sold All Its Gold Reserves – Who Will be Next?

Question: Hello Martin,

I saw a couple of days ago that Canada seems to have sold all its gold.

http://www.fin.gc.ca/n16/16-030-eng.asp

Is it just a way to find short-term easy money?

Or is it part of a global process to sell any tangible asset that the government could have ?

I personally don’t think this to be a smart move, as in my opinion a government should mix between tangible and non tangible assets. After all, they’re using OUR money…

Thank you.

REPLY: You have to look at this from their perspective. They are moving to electronic money. Gold is a throwback to an ancient economy to them. We should expect other countries to follow Canada. They see no use for gold, and they are dead broke. George III was broke and began charging people with any petty crime, right down to stealing an apple. He then used that as the excuse to sell citizens to farmers in the United States as an indentured servant for their time of sentence. The historian Charles Hibbert recorded the sentence handed down by a judge on this issue in his classic work “Roots of Evil”:

Because you have committed this offence, the sentence of the court is that you shall no longer be burdened with the support of your wife and family. You shall be immediately removed from a very bad climate and a country overburdened with people to one of the finest regions of the earth where demand for human labour is every hour increasing and where it is highly probable you may ultimately regain your character and improve your future. (Roots of Evil, 145)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

GPM Global Forecast (01-18-16)

January 19, 2016

GPM Global Forecast (01-18-16)

Middle East Header

Iran Enters a New Era as Nuclear Sanctions are Lifted

Background

The United States and EU have lifted economic sanctions on Iran following confirmation from the United Nations that the country is following through on its obligations set out in last year’s nuclear accord.

Outlook

Implementation Day arrived earlier than many expected, probably because the Iranian government wanted to rush sanction relief ahead of February elections, which won’t just determine the next parliament but also the Assembly of Experts – the clerical body that might be called on to pick Iran’s Supreme Leader should Ayatollah Khamenei die or step down in the next eight years.

One immediate impact of sanction relief is an increase in global oil supply. Iran used to be OPEC’s second-largest producer, and although its energy infrastructure is aging and investment-starved after years of sanctions, the country expects to sell an additional 500,000 barrels a day right out of the gates. The lifting of sanctions caused an immediate plunge in the stock markets of oil-producing Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia seeing a drop of 5.4% and Qatar 7% in Sunday trading.

While EU companies will now be free to trade and invest in Iran, many US sanctions will remain in place beyond the full implementation of the deal. These pertain to Iran’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism and its human rights record. New sanctions are also a possibility following Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests. As a result, in the global rush to get a foothold in Iran’s untapped market of some 80 million people, US companies will be at a distinct legal disadvantage vis-à-vis their European and Asian competitors.

The nuclear deal and the future tone of US-Iran relations will feature prominently in the upcoming US presidential race, evident in Hilary Clinton’s declaration that she supports new sanctions against Iran mere hours after the deal was officially implemented.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“It’s Hot Out There” – Here’s Why In One Visualization

December 19, 2015

“It’s Hot Out There” – Here’s Why In One Visualization

It’s not just warm, but very warm,” exclaims one east coast ski resort owner, adding “I can’t remember it ever being like this here.” But why? As WSJ reports, two weather occurrences – the Arctic Oscillation and El Niño – are combining to shake up temperatures from coast to coast in the U.S., bringing springlike conditions to the Northeast for much of this month and leaving parts of the West colder and wetter than usual.

Typically this time of year, Arctic Oscillation would bring cold air to the Eastern U.S., bringing temperatures down. But so far this year, the oscillation has stayed much farther north, allowing warm air from the south to fill the void, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate prediction center.

The other factor is El Niño, a periodic climate cycle in which sea surface temperatures over the eastern Pacific become warmer than usual. The effects from changes in Arctic Oscillations generally last only a few weeks, but the balmy weather in the Northeast could continue because of the El Niño effect, experts say.

El Niños push the subtropical and polar jet streams, which help define weather around the world, to the north. The result is that the southern U.S. gets rain that normally falls in Central and South America, while the Northeast and Midwest get a reprieve from winter as the polar jet stream is pushed up into Canada.

“If people are nervous, they should be nervous.”

The current El Niño is on track to rank among the top three strongest since record-keeping began in 1950, according to federal climatologists.

“The El Niño impact is not dominating yet,” said Bill Patzert, a climate scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “It’s like the tale of two climates here.

And since every failure of central planning to achieve its seasonally-adjustedeconomic targets must be blamed on something, even something as ridiculous as the weather, regardless if it is “too cold” like in the past two years, or “too hot”, now we know why Q4 GDP will be crap!

Fukushima Radiation Increasing In North American Waters … Detected Along a Stretch of More Than 1,000 Miles

December 7, 2015

Fukushima Radiation Increasing In North American Waters … Detected Along a Stretch of More Than 1,000 Miles

Painting by Jonathan RaddatzKen Buesseler – head scientist at Woods Hole in Massachusetts, one of the world’s top ocean science institutions – has been measuring Fukushima radiation off of the coasts of Japan and North America.

Because governments ditched their radiation testing programs after the Fukushima nuclear accident, Buesseler has to crowdfund his monitoring efforts.

Woods Hole announced last week:

Scientists monitoring the spread of radiation in the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear accident report finding an increased number of sites off the US West Coast showing signs of contamination from Fukushima. This includes the highest detected level to date from a sample collected about 1,600 miles west of San Francisco. [Fukushima is a little more than 5,000 miles from San Francisco. So this bit of radiation has already made it some 68% of the way from Fukushima to the West Coast of California] The level of radioactive cesium isotopes in the sample, 11 Becquerel’s per cubic meter of seawater (about 264 gallons), is 50 percent higher than other samples collected along the West Coast so far, but is still more than 500 times lower than US government safety limits for drinking water, and well below limits of concern for direct exposure while swimming, boating, or other recreational activities. [However, the government raised allowable radiation levels after Fukushima … “moving the goalposts” on what is safe. A well-developed body of science actually says that no amount of radiation exposure is safe.]

***

Through a citizen science sampling effort, Our Radioactive Ocean, that [Buesseler] launched in 2014, as well as research funded by the National Science Foundation, Buesseler and his colleagues are using sophisticated sensors to look for minute levels of ocean-borne radioactivity from Fukushima. In 2015, they have added more than 110 new samples in the Pacific to the more than 135 previously collected and posted on the Our Radioactive Ocean web site.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fukushima Radiation in Pacific Reaches West Coast

October 14, 2015

Fukushima Radiation in Pacific Reaches West Coast

shutterstock_286493465

“[W]e should be carefully monitoring the oceans after what is certainly the largest accidental release of radioactive contaminants to the oceans in history,” marine chemist Ken Buesseler said last spring.

Instead, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency halted its emergency radiation monitoring of Fukushima’s radioactive plume in May 2011, three months after the disaster began. Japan isn’t even monitoring seawater near Fukushima, according to a Sept. 28 story in “The Ecologist.”

The amount of cesium in seawater that Buesseler’s researchers found off Vancouver Island is nearly six times the concentration recorded since cesium was first introduced into the oceans by nuclear bomb tests (halted in 1963). This stunning increase in Pacific cesium shows an ongoing increase. The International Business Times (IBT) reported last Nov. 12 that Dr. Buesseler found the amount of cesium-134 in the same waters was then about twice the concentration left in long-standing bomb test remains.

Dr. Buesseler, at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, announced his assessment after his team found that cesium drift from Fukushima’s three reactor meltdowns had reached North America. Attempting to reassure the public, Buesseler said, “[E]ven if they were twice as high and I was to swim there every day for an entire year, the dose I would be exposed to is a thousand times less than a single dental X-ray.”

This comparison conflates the important difference between external radiation exposure (from X-rays or swimming in radioactively contaminated seawater), and internal contamination from ingesting radioactive isotopes, say with seafood.

Dr. Chris Busby of the Low Level Radiation Campaign in the UK explains the distinction this way: Think of the difference between merely sitting before a warm wood fire on one hand, and popping a burning hot coal into your mouth on the other. Internal contamination can be 1,000 times more likely to cause cancer than the same exposure if it were external, especially for women and children.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

West Coast of North America to be Slammed by 2016 with 80% As Much Fukushima Radiation As Japan

June 10, 2015

West Coast of North America to be Slammed by 2016 with 80% As Much Fukushima Radiation As Japan

A professor from Japan’s Fukushima University Institute of Environmental Radioactivity (Michio Aoyama) told Kyodo in April that the West Coast of North America will be hit with around 800 terabecquerels of Cesium- 137 by 2016.

EneNews notes that this is 80% of the cesium-137 deposited in Japan by Fukushima, according to the company which runs Fukushima, Tepco:

(a petabequeral or “PBq” equals 1,000 terabecquerels.)

This is not news for those who have been paying attention. For example, we noted 2 days after the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that the West Coast of North America could be slammed with radiation from Fukushima.

We pointed out the next year that a previously-secret 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accidents, and there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation.

The same year, we noted that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna tested in California waters were contaminated with Fukushima radiation.

In 2013, we warned that the West Coast of North America would be hit hard by Fukushima radiation.

And we’ve noted for years that there is no real testing of Fukushima radiation by any government agency.

Indeed, scientists say that the amount of the West Coast of North America could end up exceeding that off the Japanese coast.

What’s the worst case scenario? That the mass die-off of sealife off the West Coast of North America – which may have started only a couple of months after the Fukushima melt-down – is being caused by radiation from Fukushima.

North America Crude Oil Production Remains Strong

March 15, 2015

North America Crude Oil Production Remains Strong

There are signs that crude oil production in the US remains strong, despite the strong correction in prices recently.

The American Association of Railroads (“AAR”) publishes rail traffic data for a variety of commodities in the US and Canada. The subset for petroleum and petroleum products can provide a sense of crude oil volumes being railed across North America (although it also includes refined products like gasoline, distillates, jet fuel and so on).

Here’s the latest monthly data for the US.

Monthly Average of Weekly Railcar Loads, Petroleum and Petroleum Products, US: Jan12 – Jan15 (in 000’s)

Source: AAR.

Monthly volumes up until last January remained strong, far higher than January of the prior year, although slightly below the high recorded last September.

Volumes in Canada were even stronger.

Monthly Average of Weekly Railcar Loads, Petroleum and Petroleum Products, Canada: Jan12 – Jan15 (in 000’s)

Source: AAR.

Last January was a record year in Canada. No signs of low oil prices impacting volumes there.

We also track the weekly data published by the AAR, which is more up to date. This is shown in the following graph.

Weekly Railcar Loads, Petroleum and Petroleum Products, USA: 2015 YTD (Green Line) versus Last 5 Year Range (in 000’s)

Source: AAR.

2014 is at the top of the previous 5-year range (grey cloud), given the strong growth in volumes since 2009. As we can see, 2015 (green line) remains near those highs, at one point even surpassing them.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why the GOP’s Vision of North America’s Energy Future Should Scare All of Us

February 13, 2015

Why the GOP’s Vision of North America’s Energy Future Should Scare All of Us

It will be a nightmare of environmental degradation and global conflict.

It’s a ritual long familiar to observers of American politics: presidential hopefuls with limited international experience travel to foreign lands and deliver speeches designed to showcase their grasp of foreign affairs. Typically, such escapades involve trips to major European capitals or active war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, however, has broken this mold. Before his recent jaunt to London and into the thickets of American vaccination politics, he chose two surprising destinations for his first trips abroad as a potential Republican candidate. No, not Kabul or Baghdad or even Paris, but Mexico City and Alberta, Canada. And rather than launch into discussions of immigration, terrorism, or the other usual Republican foreign policy topics, he focused on his own top priority: integrating Canada and Mexico into a U.S.-led “North American energy renaissance.”

By accelerating the exploitation of fossil fuels across the continent, reducing governmental oversight of drilling operations in all three countries, and building more cross-border pipelines like the Keystone XL, Christie explained, all three countries would be guaranteed dramatic economic growth. “In North America, we have resources waiting to be tapped,” he assured business leaders in Mexico City. “What is required is the vision to maximize our growth, the political will to unlock our potential, and the understanding that working together on strategic priorities… is the path to a better life.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

New satellite data analysis reveals areas of forest loss in the Yellowstone to Yukon region | Global Forest Watch Canada

November 16, 2014

New satellite data analysis reveals areas of forest loss in the Yellowstone to Yukon region | Global Forest Watch Canada.

“The good news is that the entire area of Y2Y incurred a net forest loss of 2.4% during this period, an amount substantially less than for Canada as a whole,” said Peter Lee, Executive Director of Global Forest Watch Canada. “The bad news is that there are substantial regional differences between the North, Central and South zones of Y2Y, with the Central zone exhibiting significantly more net forest loss during the 2000 to 2012 period.”

…click on the above link to download the article…

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