Jaff's stupid shit

[JAFF]

Maui fires not just due to climate change but a ‘compound disaster’
The fires were a textbook case of many different agents acting together

By Scott Dance
August 12, 2023 at 9:47 a.m. EDT

Wildfire devastation outside Lahaina, Hawaii, on Thursday. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

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As scientists weigh the influence climate change may have had in fueling Hawaii’s wildfires, there isn’t one standout factor they point to. Rising temperatures likely contributed to the severity of the blaze in several ways. But global warming could not have driven the fires by itself.
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Maui is facing a compound disaster, where many different agents acted together to make the fires so horrific. As human influences on the climate and environment grow, the risk of these disasters is escalating.
Hawaii utility faces scrutiny for not cutting power to reduce fire risks
Recent floods in China, fires in Greece and deadly heat in the Southwest U.S. are other recent examples of how extreme weather, human-caused climate change and changes to the local environment can converge in devastating fashion.


A survivor of the Lahaina, Hawaii wildfire describes how the inferno engulfed homes, as people 'burned alive.' Days later, relief supplies were trickling in. (Video: Zoeann Murphy, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post)
“If you add together a whole bunch of influences, that’s how you get a disaster,” said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections. “No one thing makes it happen.”

The links between human-caused climate change and fires are well-established. Global warming means plants can more easily dry out, because warmer air hastens the evaporation of water. As the air sucks more moisture from the land, fire risks are increasing.


Wildfires across Hawaii have killed more than 50 people, displaced hundreds of families and trapped thousands of tourists. These maps show where the wildfires are burning. As blazes continue, follow live updates.
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Hawaii is, on average, two degrees warmer than it was in 1950, according to state climate data. Scientists said that likely provides the strongest connection between humans’ fossil fuel consumption, which emits greenhouse gases that warm the planet, and the likelihood of fires in Hawaii and elsewhere.
In photos: The scene as deadly wildfires devastate parts of Hawaii
Rising temperatures have also intensified the heat that has baked the Southwest this summer — and which sent hot, dry air toward Hawaii this week. And climate change is helping to strengthen hurricanes like the one that passed south of the islands this week, probably increasing the strength of winds that fanned the flames.

But scientists have also prominently mentioned the role of non-climate influences in the intensity of the firestorm, such as the introduction of highly combustible nonnative plants, as well as weather patterns that happen naturally.
What we know about the cause of the Maui wildfires
Among factors that made the fire so destructive — severe winds and ongoing drought — the influence of climate change appears indirect, at best.
As wind sent fires spreading out of control Tuesday, many meteorologists pointed out that Hawaii found itself between a strong area of high pressure over the North Pacific and Hurricane Dora, a cyclone that rapidly intensified into a major Category 4 storm. That pressure difference meant Hawaii was in the middle of winds flowing intensely from high pressure to low, gusting over the islands like air being released from a balloon at more than 80 mph in some spots.

A Hawaii Army National Guard Chinook drops buckets of water on wildfires on Maui on Wednesday. (Andrew Jackson/AFP/Getty Images)
Research has shown more tropical cyclones have rapidly intensified in recent decades, and that those rates of intensification have accelerated. Warmer temperatures provide more energy for storms.

But some immediate analyses of the winds observed in Hawaii have found Dora’s presence may have only increased the gusts’ speed by about 5 mph, Masters said. The high pressure — aided by a flow of hot, dry air from the Southwestern U.S. into the Pacific — could have been enough to stir damaging winds on its own.

The hurricane and its intensity were “certainly not the main effect” fueling the fires, Masters said, though its presence could have contributed to the disaster.
After five hours in ocean, Maui fire survivor is ‘blessed to be alive’
As for the drought conditions that covered more than a third of Maui County, where the most destructive fires burned, there is no direct sign that they are the product of climate change, said Abby Frazier, an affiliate faculty member at the University of Hawaii now based at Clark University

While there is a long-term trend of declining precipitation in Hawaii, there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that is the product of anything besides normal climate patterns and fluctuations in the Pacific, she said. Precipitation patterns there are heavily influenced by El Niño, which returned in June, and by a longer-term pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

El Niño is known for bringing drier winters, but its arrival doesn’t explain the current conditions, Frazier said. In the summer, it can bring more precipitation than normal because of increased tropical cyclone activity, she said.
“We can’t officially say it’s climate change that’s causing all this drying,” Frazier said. “Natural variability is just so strong in Hawaii.”

Smoke blows across the slope of Haleakala volcano on Maui, Hawaii, as a fire burns in Maui's upcountry region on Tuesday. (Matthew Thayer/AP)
That is not to say human activity didn’t directly contribute to the fires in ways that don’t involve the climate.
They are increasingly spreading by burning invasive and fire-prone grasses brought to the islands for ornamental use or for cattle grazing. As agricultural activity has declined on the islands, the grasses have spread across fields that were once regularly watered and maintained, said Alison Nugent, an associate atmospheric scientist at the University of Hawaii’s Water Resources Research Center.

“Over the last few decades those managed agriculture lands have progressively become more and more unmanaged,” Nugent said. “There’s grassland right next to very expensive houses.”
The wildfire risks that introduces demonstrate that “it’s more than climate change,” Masters said. “Humans are messing with the system.”
As long as that continues, he said, “We should expect these sorts of catastrophes to increase.”
These maps show where wildfires are burning in Hawaii
Clay Trauernicht, a fire researcher at the University of Hawaii, said he and others concerned about wildfire risks have for years been working to raise awareness about the importance of better managing the grasses and taking other efforts to harden homes.
He said he hopes the devastation on Maui is enough to spur action so that the fires’ burden isn’t left solely to firefighters.
“We don’t have to be at the mercy of these weather events, but the way we’re operating right now, we are,” Trauernicht said. While climate change is a global problem, the grasses are a local one. “This is a thing we can manage.”

This is a good example of a lot of little things add up. This fire was years in the making.

[JAFF]

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...nt-camouflage/

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Sunday he thinks the appointment of special counsel David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, in the Hunter Biden investigation is “camouflage” and a “cover-up.”
“This appointment is camouflage, and it’s cover-up. I think it’s disgraceful,” Cruz said in an interview with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo on her show “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Listen, David Weiss was the U.S. attorney hand-picked to lead this investigation, who spent the last five years covering it up. David Weiss, who was personally selected by the two Democrat senators from Delaware, Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced last week he will be appointing Weiss as special counsel to oversee the investigation into the alleged tax and gun crimes of President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The appointment came as a pending plea deal for the president’s son appeared to be falling apart.
“The investigation [into Hunter Biden] has gone nowhere, other than to protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden,” Cruz said.
Cruz is among numerous Republicans who have criticized the appointment, pointing to claims from two IRS whistleblowers that Weiss was blocked from seeking special counsel status, which both Weiss and the Department of Justice have repeatedly denied.
“They [two IRS whistleblowers] said they’d never seen an investigation like this in their time in law enforcement,” Cruz said, citing the whistleblowers’ claims that Weiss “protected the Biden family.”
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“The result of all that is that David Weiss was either an active participant in covering up this criminality and protecting Joe Biden in engaging in obstruction of justice,” Cruz said. “That’s option one. … Option two, he wasn’t the driver — he was just complicit.”
Cruz went on to call the choice of Weiss as special counsel “wildly inappropriate,” saying that a special counsel should be investigating Garland for whether he lied under oath to Congress when questioned by Cruz. The Texas senator said a special counsel should also investigate uncorroborated allegations of the Biden family’s corruption and bribery while Biden served as vice president.

“That is bribery; it’s not a little gun charge on Hunter,” Cruz said. “It is bribery of the president of the United States, is what these allegations are. And this special counsel, he ain’t going to do anything to get to the bottom of that.”

[JAFF]

Trump stiffed his alleged co-conspirators, whose false claims brought in $250 million

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...8b194439&ei=18

Life long grifter.

[JAFF]

The Gulf Coast is used to storms, the west coast, not so muc

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/17/weath...day/index.html

[JAFF]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/ameri...day/index.html

They dont have enough people to control this fire. Too much square miles and not enough firefighters

[JAFF]

Update 8/18

Looks as if it will make landfall early Friday. It could get as far to the northern boarder of Nevada.

Good news, the ocean gets colder the further it gets north. The good and bad is that California/Nevada/Arizona could get 2-3 years of rain, only its going to happen in 2-3 DAYS. Anyone inland and in low elevation may need to seek higher ground

I want to see the water level of Lake Meade after the storm.

[Racehorse]

The West could use some help to keep fires from having a good run, but hurricanes are a tricky way to get it.

[JAFF]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

The West could use some help to keep fires from having a good run, but hurricanes are a tricky way to get it.

Mudslides are just a byproduct of the drought, all that rain on sleep mountain sides with less foliage. The plants are dead from lack of rain or due to fires.

The region needs the rain, but all at once? One year of rain in 2 days.

[JAFF]

Cherry on top, they just had a minor earthquake

SORT BY



25 New Updates
8 hr 41 min ago
Magnitude 5.1 earthquake shakes Southern California
From CNN’s Cheri Mossburg
As Southern California braced for a highly unusual summer storm Sunday afternoon, residents were struck by a much more familiar phenomenon: a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.

The epicenter of the quake was in Ojai, between Santa Barbara and Ventura, and it occurred along the Sisar fault, USGS data showed.

There were no immediate reports of damage, the Ventura County Sheriff said in a social media post. County aviation units later reported no damage after flying over the Lake Casitas and Matilija dams and the city of Ojai.

Shaking was felt throughout Los Angeles and surrounding communities, according to a USGS tool that allows residents to self-report their experience.

There were no initial reports of injuries or structural damage in Los Angeles, according to the city's fire department. First responders from all 106 stations are in "earthquake mode," surveying their areas and looking for damage to power lines, transportation infrastructure, apartment buildings and large gathering sites.

About 50 miles away in Valencia, the quake felt like a slow roll, lasting about 20 seconds. Residents reported a slow-rolling effect in the Hollywood area, as well.

At least two aftershocks — measuring 3.1 and 3.6 — followed the initial quake.

Earthquake expert Dr. Lucy Jones said it appears to have been preceded by a small foreshock sequence that began Saturday morning.

USGS seismic reports are preliminary and are sometimes adjusted.

[JAFF]

Trump has yet to help his Georgia co-defendants with their legal bills, a risky test of their loyalty


https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/22/trum...gal-bills.html