Brief Note by Kip Hansen — 20 October 2021

Channel 4, a British free-to-air public-service television network, sent a three-person TV crew to the Heartland Institutes’ 14th International Conference on Climate Change held this last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. I met and spoke with the two journalists. It took me less than ten seconds to realize that they had been sent to gather material for a scurrilous hit job piece on the conference. And that is exactly what they did.

The news clip (well, really just bit of video-climate-alarmism masquerading as journalism) exposes the featured Channel 4 reporter when, instead of asking questions and reporting the answers, her role is shown to be arguing for the alarmist viewpoint on camera.

I only mention this because the Smoking Gun of Climate Disaster in the broadcast news clip was Lake Mead, with its lowest water level “ever”.

The weather almost never co-operates . . . ask any sailor.

Atmospheric river storms to soak Bay Area, Northern California — biggest in 9 months

“Three successive storms will surge in from the Pacific Ocean this week, forecasters said Tuesday, bringing what may be the most rain in nine months to drought-stricken Northern California and offering a promising start to winter after two years marked by record wildfires and dry conditions.

Two of those storms look like atmospheric rivers — narrow, moisture-rich storms that play a critical role in the state’s water supply. The first, which was set to arrive late Tuesday night and continue into Wednesday morning, is likely to be a moderate storm. But another big one shaping up for Sunday night was upgraded to a category 5 on Tuesday, the highest in a five-level scale.

“On average Northern California might get 1 or 2 of those a year,” said Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at UC San Diego. “We are looking at prolonged rain and some heavy rain.”

The storms will dramatically reduce fire danger across Northern California, possibly all but ending it in some places. But they could also cause a risk of mudslides in some burned areas, particularly the Dixie Fire near Mount Lassen and the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe.”

The last time California and the American Southwest had such an event was January 2021.

This new series of storms are predicted to drop up to two feet of snow in the high Sierras. 2017, which was the wettest year on record in much of California, also began with a series of similar soaking storms soaking in October. The incoming storms are predicted to be so serious, bring so much water and snow, that CalTrans has closed Highway 1 through the Big Sur area.

The weather is on our side and will help to debunk the Channel 4 nonsense.

This one series of three or four storms will not, of course, refill Lake Mead to historic levels, but a they are a good start to a wet winter for the parched and fire-scarred American West.

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