The tree is probably 60 years old. It was not looking well. The nursery suggested a fertilizer mix to spread every three months. The crop was big last year and this year the branches are almost touching the ground thanks to the heavy load of fruit. The tree is easily 30 feet tall and I can see the fruit near the top. They will be bright orange around January 1. The squirrels are going to have a wonderful time.
It has been a long hot summer in southern California. Maybe I am getting older but the humidity dripping off my face is something I do not remember in any past summer. I cut the dogs’ walk to just going to the corner and back. Freddy seemed to understand when we arrived at the far corner and would cross the street for a return down the block. Princess, a ten pound malti-poo, wants to take the regular two block walk no matter how hot it is.
To my surprise my daughter turned on the heater this morning. I understood Fall is here. Now at least the petunias and marigolds won’t wilt if they are watered every two or three days.
The never ending political soap opera has become boring as the reporters and commentators repeat the same information over and over.
It’s time for me to focus more time on my photography.
Praying Mantis on the window
You should stay indoors due to record-breaking heat in Southern California, officials warned today.
While other parts of the world experience tornadoes, heavy rain, hurricanes, and snow storms, Los Angeles is facing another kind of storm that has been coined as “Heat Storms.”
Weather reporters on television in this city are constantly reminding viewers that Southern California has a Mediterranean climate that provides the coastal area with moderate temperatures throughout the year.
Unfortunately the climate has changed continuously over at least the past 30 years or more. Snails and slugs were prevalent in my garden in the early 80s but disappeared entirely by 1990.
This month we have already experienced eight days of 90 degree plus temperatures including a 108 and 104 degree temps. Unfortunately it has been even hotter in the inland valleys of the city. Temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees seven times in the San Fernando Valley this month. One day in the Valley the temp reached 117 degrees. The forecast is for at least another four more days of this current heat storm.
The consequence of the very hot temperatures has been the death of at least one postal worker among others.
A USC study of weather patterns for Southern California confirms my suspicions. The study is titled HISTORICAL TEMPERATURE TRENDS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Departure from average for mean temperature, minimum temperature, and maximum temperature for the South Coast Region in the State of California. The bold line is 11-year running mean and the thin line is the departure from the mean for a region between Point Conception and the Mexico border. Source: Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/monitor/cal-mon/index.html)
The super hot days starting July 5 of this year were called a Heat Storm by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. 29,350 customers out of LADWP’s 1.5 million total customers lost power during that storm according to the DWP.
A Los Angeles Times article dated July 12, 2018 confirms my observations.
The record-breaking heat that baked Southern California and prompted mass power outages last weekend was just a taste of what is to come. Summers in SoCal have already been getting hotter over the last century. Climate change is expected to produce more frequent and more blistering heat waves in the coming years that will put unprecedented stress on the electrical grid and challenge utilities to keep the power on.
Los Angeles, apparently, isn’t ready for the new normal. The demand for electricity Friday, Saturday and Sunday overwhelmed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s aged system, prompting power outages that affected more than 80,000 customers. The unluckiest people went 48 hours without electricity; they and many others had to evacuate their homes in search of air conditioning elsewhere.
The solar panel industry will be booming as we all receive our summer bills.
When we visited Toronto Canada for the first time in 2009 we were astonished by the number of high rise buildings under construction throughout the city. Walking on Yonge Street there were signs announcing plans for more sky scrapers to be built within the coming year or two. When we visited Toronto again in 2017 the construction of new sky scrapers had not diminished.
There is a high rise (skyscraper) construction boom under way in many major cities all over North America.
The Comcast Development Center in Philadelphia is adding a 1,121-foot-tall building to that city’s skyline.
Chicago is adding the Vista Tower. It is an 1,186-foot tall luxury hotel and condo tower. There is actually 50 high rises of 100 feet or more under construction in Chicago.
After 1992, when the California Plaza was built there were no new skyscrapers in Los Angeles until 2003. That new high-rise was just a 35 story building. Then starting in 2009 there has been a resurgence in high-rise construction throughout Los Angeles. The Wilshire Grand was just completed last year as the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It is about to be eclipsed by another high-rise at 1107 feet.
The first phase of a massive redevelopment of the old Boston Garden site will ultimately add 1.87 million square feet of shops, restaurants, offices, hotel rooms, and residences and is set to finish sometime this year. Eventually, the joint project between developers Boston Properties and Delaware North will include a 38-story residential tower, 21-story office tower, as well as new transit connections and outdoor space.
There 14 high-rises under construction in San Francisco right now. The Salesforce Tower will be that city’s new tallest building beating the famous TransAmerica Tower.
Meanwhile Toronto Canada is trying its very best to be second to New York City with traffic, subways and over 60 high rises over 500 feet. Most of them are jammed into their downtown area. The tallest is 978 feet. A 1,043 foot tall 85 floor building is under construction now an even taller 98 story building is awaiting approval of their city council.
Artist conception – Tallest building tower “Yonge Street Living” is proposed for downtown Toronto
Most of these projects are a combination of offices, hotels, stores, and residences. Living closer to the center of the city means less commuting. That translates to less traffic on our congested roads and easier access to museums, entertainment centers, and hospitals. Add to that is we like living in busy cosmopolitan cities. The proof is the tourism to NYC, Las Vegas, and downtown San Francisco.
The year is 2058. America’s greatest foreign relations challenge in the 21st century, North Korea’s desire to obtain a nuclear weaponized ICBM that can reach the United States has been stopped thanks to American and Chinese negotiators. The real threat has become nature. Rising sea levels and a warming climate has resulted in the United States becoming a super advocate for controlling all things that can further harm the environment.
Those that questioned the theory that climate change is real and doubted the effects that will result have largely become silent. They have become as rare as those who claim the world is flat.
Former Vice President Al Gore (deceased in 2036) is remembered as the man who first rang the warning bell about global warming. While his dates and impact were incorrect, his prediction that the world would be experiencing major changes thanks to global warming were correct.
There is now a 6 meter (20 foot) wall at the beach around much of southern Florida. Coastal plains have become part of the sea everywhere that is not protect by a sea wall.
Back in 2017 there were three successive years of Houston, Texas flooding that were called once in 500 years or once in a thousand year events. Even those who grew up there were trying to decide whether it was worth the fight to live in that flood plain. Most people have abandoned that city along with those who have left New Orleans.
Phoenix, Arizona summer temperatures now reach 120 Fahrenheit (49C) or more on the very hottest days. The population has grown because there is now an abundance of water and farming has become a significant industry in that state.
Los Angeles still has a Mediterranean climate along the coast but inland high temperatures now frequently reach 115 Fahrenheit (46C) in the summer. The highest temperature in the San Fernando Valley in 2057 was 120 Fahrenheit and the National Weather Service says more days close to that record are anticipated in the future. The humidity is now more similar to the east coast of the United States.
Solar panels are everywhere. Without them the cost of air conditioning would be too expensive for most families. Even now in 2058 many families have moved into communes to afford living in southern California.
The last Firefall was on Thursday, January 25, 1968. Since it was winter, no crowd was present. The cameras I owned in those days could not capture the image. The Firefall was a daily event that occurred in Yosemite Valley. Traffic stopped and so did everything else at 9 PM every night. It took an hour for the traffic to clear. It was a pollution problem for Yosemite National Park,
The Yosemite Firefall was a summer time event that began in 1872 and continued for almost a century, in which burning hot embers were spilled from the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park to the valley 3,000 feet below. From a distance it appeared as a glowing waterfall. The owners of the Glacier Point Hotel conducted the firefall. History has it that David Curry, founder of Camp Curry, would stand at the base of the fall, and yell “Let the fire fall,” each night as a signal to start pushing the embers over.
Now to replicate the past artificial lighting has brought back the effect. It is a challenge for photo hobbyists. It is claimed that it is a natural phenomenon.
Global mean temperatures in July 2016 were the warmest on record not just for July, but for any month dating to the late 1800s, according to four separate newly-released analyses. A state of the climate report issued by NOAA Wednesday said that July 2016 was Earth’s warmest month in records dating to 1880.
The average temperature for the globe was 0.87 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average. This beat the previous warmest month on record set in July 2015 which was 0.81 degrees Celsius above average.
Of course global warming deniers will find a way to explain these facts. The realities of smog will also be denied. Los Angeles has seen major declines in smog thanks to ever increasing smog control regulations. China appears to understand the need to impose regulations.
Look at the map below. Alaska is in the Record Warmest category.
I worked in Yellowstone National Park when I was a college student. That was a long time ago. The place is gorgeous. It’s the scenery and wildlife that cannot be found in many other places in the United States.
I remember the issues related to feeding the bears who stood in the middle of the roads begging for food. Traffic would be lined up for a mile of more as cars drove slowly past the bears. About every third or fourth car would stop and the passengers would lower their windows just an inch or two to give a begging bear some food. Employees at the park called these events “bear jams.” Every once in while a bear became angry and ripped open a window. There were lots of frightened tourists.
Abyss Pool, Yellowstone National Park, Water temperature 192 degrees
Taken with a Kodak Pony 35MM Camera.
The board walks in the geyser areas all had signs warning visitors not to leave the walks. You could see the water in those pools and geysers was boiling hot. Steam was emitting from them. Some pools had signs by them indicating the temperature of the water.
Mammoth Hot Springs. A dirty old slide taken with a Kodak Pony 35MM Camera.
Similarly there were signs warning visitors to stay away from close encounters with wild life. So when a Black Bear approached our patio dining area in Sequoia National Park we quickly went into the cabin. The bear broke open a can of tomato sauce and ate the contents as we watched through a window.
There have been deaths as a result of exiting trails and climbing on rocks in the Merced River near Yosemite Falls.
So when someone is killed as a result of not following the posted instructions who is to blame?
Twenty three year old Colin Nathaniel Scott thought he was wiser than park rangers.
Humans are destroying planet earth! It’s happening slowly enough that most of the people alive today will not realize the consequences of their behavior.
It’s not just the atmosphere that is being polluted. We are fouling the water, the seas, and the soil. Almost everything we do on this planet has a negative effect.
Business and government, in general, are only mildly concerned. Their primary concern is providing products and services to the population.
What are the long term consequences of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? What are the long term consequences of the Aliso Canyon methane gas and oil leaks in Los Angeles?
Oklahoma has experienced a major increase in earthquakes in recent years, including a 5.7-magnitude temblor that injured residents and damaged 200 buildings in November 2011. Swarms of quakes have continued in 2015. There is general consensus among scientists that the spike in Oklahoma’s earthquake activity has been triggered by disposal wells, used to dispose of waste from oil and gas drilling operations — including hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — a phenomenon known as “induced” seismicity.
“Inside the Billion-Dollar Dig to America’s Biggest Copper Deposit” is the report in Bloomberg Businessweek that tells of the One Billion Dollar investment by the world’s two largest mining companies to drill down more than a mile to a copper deposit that is believed to justify the investment. The problem is that a forest is being destroyed and that land, about 2 miles in diameter (2,400 acres), and the removed soil could result in a 1,000 foot deep crater.
The issue of pollution isn’t just an American problem. Think Beijing’s air pollution is bad? There 10 cities that are worse. 13 out of 20 cities on world’s worst air pollution list are in India according to CBC News.
The Fukushima Daiichi reactors impacted by an earthquake will result in areas around the crippled nuclear plant could remaining uninhabitable for 20 years. But no one really knows. After all the crippled Chernobyl 4 reactor now is enclosed in a concrete structure that is growing weaker over time. Ukraine and the Group of Eight industrialized nations have agreed on a plan to stabilize the existing structure by constructing an enormous new sarcophagus around it, which is expected to last more than 100 years.
In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.
The polar ice caps have melted faster in last 20 years than in the last 10,000. What will they call GLACIER NATIONAL PARK place once the glaciers are gone?
Of course all of this information can be found on the web. The problem is that no one wants to confront the reality that over time all of mankind is destroying the planet. Global warming deniers, pollution deniers, habitat deniers are leading the band wagon.
Fear for your grandchildren!
The trees and other spring blooming plants at my home are confused. Everything is blooming. American Robins were in the front yard splashing in the water from the sprinklers. It was supposed to be one of the wettest Februaries on record. Instead, by one measure at least, it became the hottest on record. We turned on the air conditioning for about 30 minutes this afternoon as the temperature approached 90°F. Underground Weather reports the temperature reached 94°F. The forecast is for a rainy period with temperatures in the 60s starting Sunday.
All photos taken with Panasonic FZ200 camera
The downside of this summer weather in February is my concern that next summer’s temperatures will be beyond healthy extremely hot. That might be a good excuse to head to the mountains or the beach for cooler weather. It’s foggy in Newport Beach, California today. Is this part of El Niño/La Niña? The weather bureau seems to be unable to provide reliable information.
Coast Contact 