#National Air Monitoring Program

[rightnewshindi]

नेशनल एयर मॉनिटरिंग प्रोग्राम के तहत हिमाचल में लगेंगे 47 एयर मॉनिटरिंग स्टेशन, जानें कहां-कहां होंगे इंस्टॉल

नेशनल एयर मॉनिटरिंग प्रोग्राम के तहत हिमाचल में लगेंगे 47 एयर मॉनिटरिंग स्टेशन, जानें कहां-कहां होंगे इंस्टॉल #News #NewsUpdate #newsfeed #newsbreakapp

Himachal News: हिमाचल प्रदेश के शहरों में वायु प्रदूषण की मॉनिटरिंग के लिए 47 नए स्टेशन मंजूर हो गए हैं। नेशनल एयर मॉनिटरिंग प्रोग्राम के तहत इन स्टेशनों की मंजूरी मिली है, जिसके लिए केंद्रीय प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड हिमाचल को करीब चार करोड़ रुपए की राशि प्रदान करेगा। इसके जरिए शहरों में वायु की गुणवत्ता को मापा जाएगा। अभी प्रदेश में ऐसे 25 स्टेशन हैं, जिनसे वायु प्रदूषण पर नजर रखी जा रही है।…

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian government scrambles as wildfires devastate world's largest rainforest — here's what's happening

This has been a difficult year for the Pantanal, a region that encompasses the world's largest tropical wetland area.

Brazil's worst drought on record is exacerbating a dire wildfire situation in the Amazon rainforest. The country's government enlisted the help of 3,000 firefighters to put out the blazes at one point, as the Guardian reported.

According to the country's National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, Brazil is enduring its most "intense and widespread" drought on record, as Reuters reported. The drought has helped fuel an intense wildfire season in the Amazon this year.

The Guardian detailed that smoke from fires in Brazil lowered the air quality in São Paulo and Brasília, grounding flights and shutting down schools. 

As Greenpeace shared, the Fire Monitoring Program of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported more than 38,000 fire outbreaks in the Amazon during August, a 120% increase compared to the same period last year. 

Continue reading.

[covid-safer-hotties]

The US is experiencing its largest summer Covid wave in at least two years - Published Aug 16, 2024

It may be time to dust off the face masks and air purifiers.

The US is in the midst of a significant Covid-19 wave, with viral activity levels in wastewater the highest they’ve been for a summer surge since July 2022, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s wastewater dashboard.

The CDC’s measure of national Covid viral activity in wastewater rose to 8.82 on August 10 – falling shy of a peak of 9.56 in July 2022. The CDC says the most recent data is incomplete and may change. Before it started rising again in May, it was at 1.36.

“Currently, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level is very high nationally, with the highest levels in the Western US region,” Dr. Jonathan Yoder, deputy director of the CDC’s Wastewater Surveillance Program, said in an email. “This year’s COVID-19 wave is coming earlier than last year, which occurred in late August/early September.”

Emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths are also ticking up, although not to the same extent as infections, according to the CDC’s Covid dashboard. As of the end of July, the CDC’s dashboard shows about 4 are being hospitalized for Covid for every 100,000 people in a given area, up from a low in May of about one Covid hospitalization for every 100,000 people – the lowest level since the pandemic began.

The CDC’s wastewater data closely aligns with what they’re seeing at the nationwide WastewaterSCAN network, too.

“This is a very significant surge. The levels are very high. They’re the highest we’ve ever seen during a summer wave,” said Dr. Marlene Wolfe, an assistant professor of environmental health and public health at Emory University and a program director for WastewaterSCAN. “We’re detecting SARS-CoV-2 in 100 percent of our samples across the country right now.”

WastewaterSCAN also began monitoring in early 2022 and the number of sites that it monitors has changed over time.

“Despite these changes, it’s notable that levels right now for WastewaterSCAN are much higher than previous summer peaks and yet still below the average concentrations at the height of the winter peaks in 2023, 2022, and 2021,” said Dr. Alexandria Boehm, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and program director for WastewaterSCAN.

Health officials no longer track the coronavirus as closely as they did during the public health emergency, and there are no longer reliable estimates of daily or weekly new infections in the US. Instead, the nation is largely relying on wastewater levels to follow numbers of new cases.

Wolfe says the amount of virus in wastewater doesn’t precisely correlate to numbers of infections. That’s because there are a host of things that can influence how much virus is in wastewater – including how much water is flowing through the sewage system when sampling takes place, as well as how much virus people may be shedding with a given variant. Despite these variables, she says sampling over time has shown there is a strong relationship between the number of people infected in a given area and the amount of virus in local wastewater.

“We can’t say exactly how many more cases that may be compared to previous years, because some of those changes might have happened in the virus in the areas that we’re measuring,” she said.

The rise in cases is being driven by waning immunity in the population and a trio of new variants that have drifted enough from their parent virus, JN.1, to escape the ability of our antibodies to quickly neutralize them.

Cases are also climbing just as children head back to classrooms in many parts of the US, giving the infection plenty of opportunity to spread.

It’s not clear when this surge will peak and start to taper off.

“Here in Houston, Texas, wastewater numbers are still high and not declining. They have reached a plateau at a high level for several weeks,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert who is director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The surge of cases has also come ahead of the availability of an updated Covid-19 vaccine designed to better protect against the new variants, which could help slow the spread of the virus.

“It’s a bit disappointing that these are not available now, as Covid is surging,” Hotez said.

The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the latest tweaks to the Covid-19 vaccines, but experts say they’ve heard that updated shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax should be ready in the coming weeks.

In June, the FDA, following its normal process of reevaluating the need for changes to the Covid vaccines, directed manufacturers to update their shots for the fall to better match the variants that were making people sick.

“We keep hearing rumors that it will be here by the end of September, so we shouldn’t have to wait too long,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University.

The best thing people can do as far as their own personal risk is to get that vaccine when it does become available, Hotez said.

“Next, of course, is a good N95 or KN95 mask when you are in crowded indoor areas,” Hotez said, and seek out the antiviral medication Paxlovid if you test positive. For that reason, it’s also a good idea to stock up on Covid-19 tests to identify whether any coughs or runny noses are being caused by the coronavirus.

[gumjrop]

The Weather

This week we see a sharp increase of COVID in all regions, likely due to increased travel around the recent holiday long weekend and dropping temperatures that bring a lot of gatherings indoors. As the holiday season continues, we remind our readers to use layers of protection — such as ventilation, air purification, masking with a KN95/N95 or better, and testing via PCR or NAAT or testing serially with rapid antigen tests — to protect themselves and their loved ones both during travel and at your holiday gatherings.  Repeat COVID infection has serious implications for everyone, not just the elderly or those with preexisting conditions. Even if you experience a mild case, COVID is a vascular disease that causes multiple organ damage, autoimmune conditions, inflammation and immune system dysregulation that you might not necessarily experience at the time of your infection. It’s important to note that if you or your loved ones have experienced previous COVID infections, you may have entered a high risk group for severe effects and hospitalization without realizing it.  Some people may feel worn down by the current state of the virus, by fatigue of lack of resources, or from the energy spent protecting one’s self from an infection; with increasing wastewater levels and the onset of a new dominant variant this week, now is really the crunch time to stay strong and endure. For those who have stopped precautions, we invite you to return to masking and other levels to minimize transmission. This is the most important time to return to masking to protect yourself and others.

The Current Wastewater Viral Activity Map shows viral activity by state. As of 12/02/23, many states are reporting “very high” to “high” COVID levels with 5 states reporting low levels. Seven states reported no data. The CDC currently rates our nationally reported COVID wastewater viral activity levels as “high”.

Levels are at an incline in all regions, but the Midwest takes a strong lead with a viral activity level of 10.94. This is a wastewater value that surpasses all readings for the Midwest in the past 2 years, and is the third highest of any reading since the onset of the Omicron variant in January of 2022 where we saw the highest levels of spread we have experienced in the entirety of the pandemic. Current Midwestern wastewater levels were surpassed only by a viral activity level of 13.02 in the South on 12/31/2022 and of 11.79 in the West on 07/02/2023. As with Biobot data, the most recent two weeks (indicated by gray shading on the graph) are subject to change due to reporting delays. As we enter the cold and flu season when many in-person gatherings are held, we encourage you to continue monitoring local reports for a more accurate measure of levels. Also, please continue to use and support others in using layers of protection. And as we continue to report on advocacy successes, remember that our actions and voices can enact change — this level of unchecked spread is unacceptable and we must demand better resources and protections from our policy makers!

Deaths

Percentage of total deaths in the US caused by COVID has risen 25% in the past week. Remember that these numbers are an undercount related to reporting delays in place since the Biden Administration ended the Public Health Emergency. Alarmingly, the current increase in deaths is large enough to show despite these changes.

COVID remains the third leading cause of death according to the CDC in the US. COVID is the highest single cause of death, only second to Heart Disease and Cancer which are both umbrella headings for more specific diseases. We mourn all those who have died due to COVID, and in that mourning, call you to take measures to prevent death and disablement for yourself, your loved ones, and your communities.

Ventilation and Air Filtration

Moving activities outdoors or ensuring your indoor setting has consistent fresh airflow is key to ensuring high quality ventilation. We recommend monitoring carbon dioxide levels and making adjustments as needed. Air filtration is important as well. If you’re looking for a HEPA air purifier or Corsi-Rosenthal Box for your family, it is important to get a filtration device that is powerful enough to change out the air for your particular room size. Clean Air Stars has created a free tool to calculate which filter could be right for you depending on the size of the rooms that you wish to clean and how many people will be attending your gathering.

Testing

Whether you are making the trip home or staying in one place this holiday season, with the current level of spread it is important to know your COVID status before engaging in social activity. Rapid antigen tests are designed to be “the most rapid” at telling those who are symptomatic whether the symptoms they are experiencing are or are not caused by COVID. If you are asymptomatic, presymptomatic, or less than 5 days out from your COVID exposure, using one single rapid test is not an effective way of determining whether or not a person is currently infected with and contagious with COVID. Persons using rapid antigen tests should take at least 2 rapid antigen tests 48 hours apart from one another and isolate in between, in order to avoid spreading their unconfirmed case as well as avoid exposure to COVID during this waiting period, which could produce a false test negative result. Persons who are experiencing COVID symptoms but test negative on an initial rapid antigen test also need to isolate themselves from others, assume they have COVID, and test again in 48 hours. Persons who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic who experience 2 negative serial tests must mask or isolate and wait a final 48 hours to test a third time in order to confirm a negative COVID case. For this reason, rapid antigen tests are only ideal to use in preparation for events where the user has a week prior available to test multiple times and isolate. FDA approved home Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests or NAATs are a more sensitive home test option, some brands of which have been found to, with only one test, verify both positive and negative results at 92.9% and 98.7% respective accuracy. NAATs can be a more sensitive, quicker option to use in preparation for events. Another more recent clinical trial found that performing a combined throat and nose sample increased sensitivity for healthcare worker and self-collected specimens. When testing at home with a rapid antigen test, it is worth it to take a combination sample like this one. To ensure the most sensitive results for both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, get a PCR test. No-cost PCR testing sites that are available via the federal ICATT program can be found via this search tool. Remember to also check for regional offerings such as NYC’s COVID express test centers that test for COVID, RSV, FLU A and FLU B free of cost with results typically returned by end of day, that could be a more convenient option for you. PCR testing is the gold standard if you are making plans to be in a social setting.  If you do not have fast free PCR testing in your area, demand that it be made publicly available by the government at all levels!

Wins

Grassroots organizing group and “Mask Blocs” continue to take to social media encouraging Pro-Palestine protesters to continue to wear masks in their organizing spaces and during protests highlighting historic use of unrestricted and eugenic viral spread as a weapon of occupation and colonization. The National Institutes of Health’s Home Test to Treat program has upgraded its free test offerings and now instead of rapid antigen tests, will provide LUCIRA by Pfizer home NAAT tests can that effectively detect asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic COVID infections as well as Flu A and Flu B. Those who are uninsured or underinsured can sign up for this program to access free NAAT testing, telehealth services, and treatment medications for COVID and the Flu. If your household has not placed a new order for more rapid tests from the federal government through covidtests.gov, you can still place an order for 4 free rapid antigen tests here.    

Take Action

If you are out protesting this weekend or planning your trip home to visit family for the holidays, connect with your local COVID advocacy group to pick up high quality masks for yourself and to pass on to those around you. This Tuesday, December 12th, the director of the CDC and the American Medical Association are hosting a virtual fireside chat to discuss Fall & Winter Respiratory Virus Season (prior registration required). We encourage you to attend. You might ask the CDC why they aren’t ensuring precautions in healthcare settings? Or you could ask why they’re relying on a reactive, vaccine-only approach instead of layers of protection to proactively prevent COVID?

[quaranmine]

A long ramble about hand held radios, and Firewatch AU

I'm playing fast and loose with two-way radios in Firewatch AU, lol. But to be fair, I knew that going in and so should you have. My dad's got a HAM radio license so I asked him some questions earlier in the week which he's more than happy to talk about.

Firstly, and I already knew this, but there is little chance Grian and Scar would be able to talk to each other from anywhere. VHF (very high frequency) radios are very much line of sight, and things like mountains will easily block the signal. VHF is the type of radio that would be found on top of fire towers, though. A fire lookout's height is dual purpose: not only is it tall enough to keep watch from, but it's talk enough for an antenna, repeater, etc for the Forest Service to communicate on. So, Grian and Scar would easily communicate from the tower but not from the ground.

I think it's a better story to just stretch reality a bit and have them been in communication more easily, though. The game of Firewatch did the same. But I have to admit it's an interesting narrative challenge if they could only communicate from their towers. However, I prefer the story as it is, even without this aspect of realism. There are places in the story where I've attempted to acknolwedge this by mentioning that the signal is weaker.

UHF (ultra high frequency) is also an option for them, perhaps? My dad did not talk as much about it. It seems like these are used more by emergency services (police, fire, etc.) My brief google searching says they're slightly better for ground communications where there's stuff in the way, like concrete buildings. But they can still be blocked, though since they are also mostly line-of-sight based. VHF was better at open distance, hence my dad telling me the lookout would use that. I found a document from the National Interagency Fire Center with approved radios for wildland firefighting and it listed both UHF and VHF with no notes on which was preferred.

If you're wondering why the difference is important, it's mostly the frequencies they work at. VHF band radios work at 30-300 MHz and UHF is 300 MHz to 3 GHz. Honestly though, I'm not sure the true differences between these--is a specific range of frequencies better than others, or just different? Anyway, FM radio (like in your car) is in the same range as VHF if you were wondering.

Unfortunately I still don't understand frequencies very well. I've used frequency and channel interchangeably in the fanfic but channel is more so "the programmed/designated number on the radio" and the frequency is the actual...wavelength? Mostly, I want to know if it is possible for Grian and Scar to actually have their own channel to talk on.

In the game Firewatch, this specifically is never acknowledged or covered IIRC. What does happen is that Henry and Delilah realize someone is listening in on their conversations, since anyone with a radio can tune into that channel and monitor it. The person on the other end accidentally makes a sound (would have had to be transmitting while doing so) and gives themself away. So Delilah brings Henry a new radio on a different channel so they can speak "freely" again (only if their new frequency wasn't discovered.)

What the game doesn't acknowledge, that I have acknowledged, is that the radios that fire lookouts use go out to the entire Forest Service. Fire lookouts do not have chill chats with each other. That is not how the job works. Fire lookouts give reports as needed and otherwise monitor the channel for other updates. When a lookout reports a fire, there is another Forest Service employee on the other end who takes that report. If a fire is happening, important information will be shared on the line. If there is some other issue a ranger needs to report, it will be shared on the line. There is no space for personal chats because it is business-only, and the air needs to be clear if someone in the National Forest has to radio in an emergency. This was pretty much immediately clear to me when I picked up Philip Conor's memoir about being a lookout.

In fact, here's the radio frequencies used by the Wapiti Ranger District in Shoshone National Forest:

But, we like radio chats! We want our characters to be able to speak to each other freely! That's one of the things that makes Firewatch such a magical game, and it's basically the core plot-moving piece of my story as well. So I improvise, and thus in chapter one of my fic Scar tells Grian to note down their personal channel that is different from the Forest-wide one.

So why am I concerned if it's actually possible for them to have a channel? What I've written seems plausible enough?

Well, I am inexperienced. I do not know much about radios and even my chats with my dad didn't illuminate this much for me. I know that there are channels within frequency bands that are locked from use (i.e. your VHF radio can't intercept someone's cell phone call) and channels with designated use. You are also supposed to have a license to transmit on many channels, but things like a Wal-Mart walkie talkie or a CB radio can be operated by non-licensed individuals only on the specific channels they are programmed on, the national license-free channels. I don't personally give much mind to whether Grian and Scar are licensed or not, I feel like they operate under the FS and are just doing their little thing on the side (legal or not.)

What channel are Grian and Scar using, if it is a labeled one? Do "random" channels exist, if you just tuned your radio to a random frequency? Do all channels have designations? And where do things like repeaters fall into this? I read mention of TX tone and RX tone and immediately got lost. AFAIK some radios literally cannot transmit on certain frequencies without modification. I'm just not savvy enough on the subject to answer my own questions, unfortunately!

When my dad gives me and my mom radios when we hike, he told me we're just using the National Calling Frequency, 146.520. Since our VHF hand held radios have little power, it's unlikely that we will be intercepted. I can confirm though that I have used this radio and heard pieces of other people's conversations come through, though.

So back to channels, and what I do know, and what I'm working with. The 2M band (144-148 MHz) is the most popular for radio operators to talk on, so it's probably something in that range that they use. Honestly, the list of frequencies adjacent to the National Calling Frequency in this article below is the closest I have come to getting an answer.

Basically...I think Grian and Scar are just using a random 2m band talk frequency, that anyone could intercept if they wanted. But since they are in such a remote area, there is little to no chance of their conversations being overpowered by someone with a stronger radio. They more or less have privacy simply because so few people are in that area using that frequency. They are using a talk frequency separate to the National Forest frequency in order to have personal conversations and not cause interference with their jobs. In my AU, Grian has only his one radio and mostly keeps it on the frequency where he can talk to Scar. Scar has more senority in the job and more equipment at his lookout, so he monitors several frequencies at once.

And that's the end of this world's most confusing post on radios, thanks!

[mariacallous]

On a Wednesday afternoon in August, Daniel Posada and his girlfriend were screaming at each other at a bus stop when someone called 911. From a rooftop a mile away, the Chula Vista Police Department started the rotors of a 13-pound drone.

The machine lifted into the air with its high-resolution camera rolling. Equipped with thermal imaging capabilities and a powerful zoom lens, it transmitted a live feed of everything it captured to a sworn officer monitoring a screen at the precinct, to the department’s Real-Time Operations Center, and to the cell phone of the responding officer racing to the scene.

It flew northwest at 392 feet above the southwestern border town, a suburb of San Diego, passing near a preschool and a church, then near a financial services center used by Chula Vista’s immigrant communities to send money to their families. En route to Posada, the drone—a Matrice 300 RTK��would cross the airspace of 23 blocks, potentially exposing thousands of Chula Vista residents to the gaze of law enforcement over an incident that had nothing to do with them.

Posada was riding his bike down the street when he heard it—the distinct buzz of a police drone’s rotors over his head. Within seconds, a police car pulled up alongside him, and an officer was soon rummaging through his pockets, he would later tell WIRED. For Posada, who’s known as “Focal” in the homeless encampment where he stays, this was neither the first nor the last time he would feel singled out by the cops or their drones.

Police department records show that no one—neither the officer monitoring the drone feed nor the person who called 911—observed any kind of physical altercation between Posada and his girlfriend that day. He says the argument wasn’t serious and that it didn’t warrant such a high-tech police response. (His girlfriend could not be reached for comment.) The money would be better served feeding and clothing unsheltered people like himself, he says, whose lives are upended every time officials break down their encampments, tossing their worldly possessions into a dumpster.

“I could understand sending a drone for something serious,” he says, shaking his head. “I feel like a target.”

As police departments look to expand their use of unmanned aerial aircraft, no agency has embraced the technology quite like the CVPD. A model for police departments around the United States, “some police officers joke that visiting the Chula Vista Police Department is like visiting Mecca,” says Jay Stanley, author of a 2023 American Civil Liberties Union report on police use of drones.

In October 2018, the city became the first in the nation to start a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, where department teleoperators listening to live 911 calls decide when and where to dispatch the department's growing fleet of drones. Now those devices criss-cross the skies of Chula Vista daily—nearly 20,000 times since 2018—and are often first to appear above the sites of noise complaints, car accidents, overdoses, domestic disputes, and homicides.

The department says that its drones provide officers with critical intelligence about incidents they are responding to ahead of initiating in-person contact—which the CVPD says has reduced unnecessary police contacts, decreased response times, and saved lives. But a WIRED investigation paints a complicated picture of the trade-offs between public safety and privacy.

In Chula Vista, drone flight paths trace a map of the city’s inequality, with poorer residents experiencing far more exposure to the drones’ cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts, a WIRED analysis of nearly 10,000 drone flight records from July 2021 to September 2023 found. The drones, often dispatched for serious incidents like reports of armed individuals, are also routinely deployed for minor issues such as shoplifting, vandalism, and loud music. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the city even used drones to broadcast public service announcements to homeless encampments.

Despite the police promoting the benefits of the DFR program, residents who encounter the technology day-to-day report feeling constantly watched. Some say they are afraid to spend time in their backyards; they fear that the machines are following them down the street, spying on them while they use the public pool or change their clothes. One resident says that he was so worried that the drones were harassing him that he went to the emergency room for severe depression and exhaustion.

The police drones, equipped with cameras and zoom lenses powerful enough to capture faces clearly and constantly recording while in flight, have amassed hundreds of hours of video footage of the city’s residents. Their flight paths routinely take them over backyards and above public pools, high schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, immigration law firms, and even the city’s Planned Parenthood facility. Privacy advocates argue that the extensive footage captured by the drones makes it difficult to distinguish between flights responding to specific incidents and mass surveillance from the sky. Department secrecy around the recordings remains the subject of ongoing litigation.

The CVPD insists that its drones do not conduct random surveillance, do not go out in search of suspicious activity, and that the technology is deployed only in response to 911 calls or lawful searches. An analysis of Chula Vista’s dispatch logs supports this claim: The vast majority of drone flights could be linked to corresponding 911 calls. But not all of them.

At the time of our analysis, approximately one in 10 drone flights listed on the department’s transparency portal lacked a stated purpose and could not be connected to any relevant 911 call; for 498 flights, the department lists the reason as an “unknown problem.” For residents we spoke to, the discrepancy raises serious concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the department's transparency efforts—and experts say the use of the drones is a classic case of self-perpetuating mission creep, with their existence both justifying and necessitating their use.

[rjzimmerman]

Pollution from East Palestine train derailment rained down in 16 states, study says. (Washington Post)

On Feb. 3, 2023, a train carrying toxic chemicals crashed in northeastern Ohio, sending up a large black cloud over Ohio and Pennsylvania after officials decided to burn off the hazardous materials. As the chemicals lofted into the air, the pollution spread as far as 16 states, according to a new study.

“I didn’t expect to see an impact this far out,” said David Gay, lead author of the study. “There’s more going on here than most people would have guessed, including me.”

Toxic chemicals rained down from South Carolina to Wisconsin to New England following the accident, according to the new analysis in the Environmental Research Letters journal. Overall, the pollution spread over 540,000 square miles, or 14 percent of U.S. land area.

People closer to the accident reported rashes, nausea and headaches — but Gay said the low chemical concentrations farther away from the accident weren’t “toxic, but are pretty unusual at a lot of places.” Many of those pollutants can run off and affect marine and plant life.

The accident occurred around 9 p.m. on Feb. 3 near East Palestine, a town of almost 5,000 residents on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. The train, operated by Norfolk Southern, experienced a mechanical issue that caused more than 50 cars to derail. Some of the trains were carrying hazardous materials, including a known human carcinogen called vinyl chloride.

In an emergency decision, officials authorized a controlled burn of the hazardous chemicals to prevent a catastrophic explosion. But as the vinyl chloride burned, it broke into separate chloride and hydrogen ions in the atmosphere that got carried by the wind to other locations.

When it began to rain in various places, the pollutants were pushed from the air and deposited on the ground. The National Atmospheric Deposition Program, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, collects these ground depositions weekly across 260 sites across North America. Gay, who serves as coordinator of the program, routinely analyzes the data to monitor air pollutants.

He and his team analyzed ground depositions from the week of and following the train accident (Jan. 31 to Feb. 14), and then compared them to the previous decade or so. Many samples taken during the week of the accident in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and New York were flagged for contamination, showing soot, ash and dirt.

Initially, Gay expected to see only a few abnormally high chloride signals nearby in Pennsylvania, but the impact was much higher than he anticipated. High chloride concentrations spanned as far as Virginia, South Carolina and Wisconsin. The highest concentrations were located near the Canada-New York border, which was downwind of East Palestine.

The pollutants disappeared within two to three weeks after the accident.

[generallemarc]

What's actually in the Ukraine bill-a breakdown

Military Assistance

Military Personnel(no, this does not mean troops are being deployed) to respond to the situation in Ukraine and for related expenses: $238,190,000, subdivided into

Army: $207,158,000

Marine Corps:$3,538,000

Air Force: $23, 302,000

Space Force: $4,192,000

This is literally what it sounds like: paying for people to do things, as opposed to the next item...

Operations and Maintenance: $34,243,729,000, subdivided into

Army:$4,877,581,000

Navy:$976,405,000

Marine Corps$69(nice),045,000

Air Force: $371,475,000

Space Force:$8,443,000

Defense-wide(bolded for being important): $27,930,780,000. Of this, $13,772,460,000 is directly for aid to Ukraine, and $13, 414,432,000 is for replacement and reimbursement for both physical aid and service aid(ie training) given to Ukraine. In other words, only the first half is actually going to Ukraine(mostly in the form of physical things like vehicles, guns, ammo and equipment and not just money) while the second half never leaves America.

Procurement:$13,276,910,000, subdivided into

Missile Procurement, Army:$2,742,757,000

Ammunition Procurement, Army:$5,612,900,000,

Other Procurement, Army: $308,991,000

Weapons Procurement, Navy:$706,976,000

Other Procurement, Navy:$26,000,000

Marine Corps:$212,443,000,

Missile Procurement, Air Force:$366,001,000

Other Procurement, Air Force:$3,284,072,000

Defense-wide:$46,780,000,

Research Programs

Research and Development:$633,387,000, subdivided into

Army:$18,594,000

Navy:$13,825,000

Air Force:$406,834,000

Defense-wide:$194,125,000

Other Military Aid

Office of the Inspector General(this is funds for oversight): $8,00,000.

Related Agencies

Intelligence Community Management Account:$2,00,000

Energy Programs

Science for the production of medical, stable, and radioactive isotopes(no idea why this is here): $98,000,000

Atomic Energy Defense Activities

Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation for etc etc:$143,915,000

Federal Salaries and Expenses for etc etc: $5,540,000

Health and Human Services

Refugee and Entrant Assistance: $481,000,000. This provision specifically allows the relevant agencies to use this money for grants or contracts with nonprofits, which imo means it's likely that most of this will go towards aiding Ukrainian refugees in Europe, and thus that this isn't just money for moving Ukrainians to America.

Department of State

Diplomatic Programs to respond to the situation in Ukraine and countries affected by said situation: $60,000,000

United States Agency for International Development

USAID operating expenses appropriated to the President for response to etc etc: $39,000,000

USAID Office of Inspector General: $10,000,000

Bilateral Economic Assistance

Transition Initiatives(meaning transition to democracy): $25,000,000

Economic Support Fund(for Ukraine's government): $7,899,000,000. A provision states that none of this money may be used for pensions(as an anti-corruption measure) and that at least $50,000,000 of this amount must be used to respond to food insecurity caused by the war.

Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia(for Ukraine's private sector):$1,575,000,000

International Security Assistance

International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement(for Ukraine and other countries affected by the invasion):$300,000,000

Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs(for Ukraine and other countries affected by the invasion): $100,000,000

Foreign Military Financing Program(for Ukraine and other countries affected by the invasion): $1,600,000,000

Some of the more impactful general provisions of the act:

The transfer of long-range ATACMS to Ukraine was required by the act, and that appears to have already happened. The President was given the option to not do so if he determined it would be detrimental to America's national security interests, but it appears he didn't.

The Secretary of State was directed to insure as much in-person monitoring as possible for funds appropriated for Economic Support, Assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia, International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, and Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and Related Programs

The amount of money spent out of the total amounts budgeted for Economic Support and Assistance for etc etc may not exceed half the total amount of funds given by all donors to Ukraine. This basically means that, in terms of economic assistance, Europe has to do at least as much spending as we do.

The two headings for economic assistance mentioned above(totaling to $9,474,000,000) are loans that the President may only forgive in the following circumstances: up to 50% of the debts incurred by these loans may be cancelled by the President at any time after November 15th, 2024, while the remaining 50% may be cancelled at any time after January 1st, 2026. Both cancellations would be subject to Congressional approval.

[learnwithmearticles]

RNP on Climate Change

The idea of a Republican winning the United States 2024 presidential election is disastrous for many people. It would result in the loss of human rights, increased violence in many states, and even more deaths from worse public health conditions.

It would also be deadly because of its expected effects on the environment

Both during and in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential term, we saw numerous violations of policies, demagogy, and loosened regulations. This was even before three Supreme Court Justice seats were filled by him.

Now, the Republican party also has a firmer guideline for their governmental plans called Project 2025. It plainly explains their intentions and how they wish to achieve them. These include measures to end many policies and rules regarding environmental responsibility.

With this solidified roadmap, popular opinion is that these changes will happen much faster and more forcefully if Trump wins again.

The EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency concerned with environmental policies. When violations of things like the Clean Air Act occur, the EPA works out the relevant charges and settlements, providing penalties to companies that harm the environment.

The actions of the EPA go far in protecting both the environment and human health. They measure greenhouse gases, work with industries to reduce those emissions, monitor water quality, and much more.

Project 2025 discusses reducing the EPA’s control in these areas. This includes repealing the AIM Act of 2020, which works to reduce HFC use and facilitate the transition to alternatives that are not greenhouse gases and not harmful to human health.

Another targeted policy is the Inflation Reduction Act. Specifically, Project 2025 calls for undoing the grants from this Act given towards the development of zero-emission vehicles. The US Department of the Treasury has stated that the Inflation Reduction Act is the largest investment in reducing carbon emissions in US history.

Plans for the Climate

In addition to affecting the EPA, a Republican presidency would repeal many other important policies.

For example, in addition to HFCs, it would reduce regulations on PFAS, another group of pollutants that cause a wealth of health issues including liver damage, cancers, and birth defects. PFAS can take over 1000 years to begin to break down, and build up in water, food, and many other everyday amenities.

Energy-efficient lightbulbs, household appliances, and showerheads are ways that individuals have been able to make a difference environmentally. They have specific requirements they have to meet in order to be advertised appropriately. Those requirements are also a target of Project 2025.

Many authors of Project 2025 also benefit from the oil industry. In addition to ending clean energy programs and offices, they intend to increase drilling for oil and gas in the US.

Overall, environmentalism is an enemy to the Republican party. They claim that many environmental acts and policies have been misused for political motives by the Left. Regulatory barriers such as the Endangered Species Act would be lowered. Even the most basic policy that took years of fighting to enact, the US Global Change Research Program, responsible for the National Climate Assessment, would be eliminated.

We would see a complete overhaul of current conduct, with many EPA departments being downsized or dismantled. Oil and gas production would increase drastically, and toxic chemicals would become far more abundant than they already are.

These actions are dangerous. Toxic chemicals are banned for a reason. Emission regulations exist for a reason. This plan is constructed by people who don’t believe that climate change or historic damage to the ozone layer are real. They do not understand how the environment works or do not care because profit and power are more important to them than a healthy, long-lasting future for the world.

The Republican party wants to continue -and worsen- our reliance on fossil fuels, claiming that this will make the US more energy independent. It will actually make us far more dependent because of its finite amounts and the damage it does to the environment.

The long-term efforts of the Republican party to build a biased government have created an extremely tenuous situation. The election in 2024 will be catastrophic to the future of this country if Republicans win. If they don’t, it still doesn’t mean the fight is over. The Democratic party also has a lot of work to do and needs a lot of change. Most importantly, we need to maintain momentum for electing officials who will champion the rights of people. If Republicans lose this election, their plans will simply move forward to be tried at the next opportunity. This is a continual fight for a reliable future.

Additional Resources

1. Changes to the EPA

2. EPA

3. Project 2025 on the EPA

4. The Inflation Reduction Act

5. Additional Targets of Republicans

6. Assault on Environmentalism

7. Oil and Gas Drilling Plans

[heystovepipeboys]

hey thanks again @im-chinese-believe-it-or-not for the WIP tag, I will continue to post WIPs whenever given the opportunity lol

Here is the start of black widow babe, which is obviously a Marvel au with nix as the winter soldier.

Babe's on a mission. He has an aspiring politician to honey trap, get information out of and then take out of play, his discretion as to what that means. It's not the first time he's ever been out in Washington DC. But he’s not being closely monitored this time. He’s already proven himself with a handful of successful missions, working with another Widow and then by himself. It's mostly been information retrieval, with a couple of assassinations, and two other honey pot operations. He's had enough field experience that they say he doesn’t need a full-time babysitter anymore.  It's enough that he gets a little leeway, anyway. He’s got cash and he hasn't taken the DC sights in all that much. What harm could it do to take an extra couple of days? All his handlers need to know is that it took longer to get the guy alone than they wanted. That happens all the time. He’s not going to take so long that they start asking more questions than that. So Babe decides to enjoy himself a little. He walks down the National Mall, looks at the monuments, and pokes around in the Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum. He gets a hot dog from a food truck. He goes to a movie, goes out to dinner, gets drinks in a bar. It’s nice. He lets himself indulge the fantasy a little. It feels like he could just be a normal American twenty-something, maybe a college kid, taking a vacation. Like he really is just Edward Heffron who grew up with his mom and dad and little sister Anna in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He takes another day, and after getting pancakes and bacon for breakfast, he wanders into the Smithsonian Museum of American History. That’s where he finds out that the Soldier has a name.  The Winter Soldier, it turns out, was called Lewis Nixon. Lewis Nixon III, if you want to get technical, and he grew up ultra-rich—and American—in the 1920s and 30s. Babe discovers this when he spots the Soldier's face smiling back out at him from one of the panels. It says he was Captain America's best friend, and that they met while training for the super soldier program where Captain America got his superpowers.  And it says Lewis Nixon died in 1945, the only one of the Howling Commandos to give his life for his country. If the Soldier died in 1945, who was it drilling hand-to-hand into Babe in the Red Room just a few weeks ago?

Aaand I'm p sure everyone is being tagged already lol but if you wanna do it, do it. I will also throw tags to my wife and bff @batmanschmatman and @toastandvegemite just in case you wanna take it to your fandom lol

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Smoke Fills South American Skies

Intense fires burning in several South American countries draped large swaths of smoke across the continent throughout August and early September 2024. In Brazil and Bolivia, fire activity reached levels not seen since 2010 as a prolonged drought parched landscapes in both countries.

From about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth, NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) imager on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite captured this view of smoke billowing from the blazes on September 3, 2024.

Smoke from fires in Brazil swept over the country’s capital city in mid-August and early September. For several days, São Paolo’s air was clouded with smog, and air quality was unhealthy for sensitive groups, according to AirNow. The smoke grounded flights and forced schools to close in the most populous city in Brazil, according to The Guardian.

The fire season in the southern Amazon, which generally ramps up in August and peaks in September and October, has been intense this year. According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a component of the European Union’s space program, emissions from fires have been exceptionally high in Bolivia and the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul.

CAMS estimates near-real-time wildfire emissions using its Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), which aggregates observations made by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Compared to the previous 21 years, these areas have registered their highest year-to-date total emissions, at 44, 22, and 13 million metric tons of carbon, respectively.

The Pantanal region—which straddles the Brazil-Bolivia border and is home to one of the world’s largest tropical wetlands—has been especially hard hit in 2024. Early and intense blazes spread over the wetlands in late May and continued into August. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), there were a record number of fire detections in the biome in June 2024, and fires have continued to burn at high levels since.

The false-color image above, acquired by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, shows fires near Ascensión de Guarayos, in the Bolivian state of Santa Cruz. The false-color image emphasizes the burn areas (brown) from several fires on September 3, 2024. Unburned vegetation is green. Near- and short-wave infrared bands help penetrate some of the smoke to reveal hot areas associated with active fires, which appear orange.

Through September 6, blazes tore through more than 10 million hectares of Bolivia, or roughly 9 percent of the country’s total area. Out of the 42 million metric tons of carbon emitted in Bolivia between May and August, 33 million metric tons came from fires in the state of Santa Cruz, according to Mark Parrington, CAMS senior scientist with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Large parts of South America have seen significant rainfall deficits over the past three months. According to ECMWF, this has led to “exceptional drought” (the highest drought ranking) over much of the central and northern parts of the continent. Brazil’s Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts Center noted on September 5 that shifted rainfall patterns from El Niño, increased temperatures from climate change, and reduced humidity from deforestation have all contributed to the drought.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from DSCOVR EPIC and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Emily Cassidy.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Fires ravage Brazil’s Pantanal, threatening its unique biodiversity

A series of wildfires is turning the world’s largest tropical wetland into an open-air inferno. Home to over 3,500 plant species, more than 600 bird species, 124 mammals, 80 reptiles, 60 amphibians, and 260 freshwater fish species, Brazil’s Pantanal is burning as never before recorded in history.

June came to an end with 2,639 fire outbreaks, the highest number since the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) began monitoring fires in 1998. So far, 2024 has seen over 3,538 fire points detected by the agency. The fires have already consumed at least 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres), causing unimaginable devastation to the biome’s flora and fauna.

The situation is exacerbated by a severe water crisis affecting the region.

Dr. Ibraim Fantin, a professor in the graduate program for water resources at Brazil’s Federal University of Mato Grosso, told Brazil Reports that the lack of rain is one of the main factors contributing to the fire’s spread. It is the most severe drought the biome has faced in 70 years.

Continue reading.

[usafphantom2]

The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System (aka R2-D2) worked by tracking the stars and was so powerful that it could see the stars even in daylight

Mounted behind the SR-71 Blackbird RSO’s cockpit, this unit, (that was affectionately dubbed “R2-D2” after the Star Wars movie came out in 1977) computed navigational fixes using stars sighted through the lens in the top of the unit.

SR-71 T-Shirts

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” was a long-range, Mach 3+, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft.

The first flight of an SR-71 took place on Dec. 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., in January 1966.

The Blackbird was in a different category from anything that had come before. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” Skunk Works legendary aircraft designer Kelly Johnson recalled in an interesting article appeared on Lockheed Martin website.

Experience gained from the A-12 program convinced the US Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely required two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) system that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar and the Nortronics NAS-14V2 Astroinertial Navigation System (ANS).

The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System (aka R2-D2) worked by tracking the stars and was so powerful that it could see the stars even in daylight

SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System

According to the Smithsonian Institution website, the ANS provided rapid celestial navigation fixes for the SR-71.

Mounted behind the SR-71 RSO’s cockpit, this unit (that was affectionately dubbed “R2-D2” after the Star Wars movie came out in 1977), computed navigational fixes using stars sighted through the lens in the top of the unit. These fixes were used to update the inertial navigation system and provided course guidance with an accuracy of at least 90 meters (300 feet). Some current aircraft and missile systems use improved versions as a backup to GPS.

About the ANS RSOs were known to say, “no one can jam or shoot down the sun, the moon, the planets or the stars.”

Piloting the Blackbird was an unforgiving endeavor, demanding total concentration. But pilots were giddy with their complex, adrenaline-fueled responsibilities. “At 85,000 feet and Mach 3, it was almost a religious experience,” said Air Force Colonel Jim Watkins. “Nothing had prepared me to fly that fast… My God, even now, I get goose bumps remembering.”

The SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System, aka R2-D2, was crucial in Blackbird mission. Here’s why.

But once the SR-71 reached cruising speed and altitude, it was time to focus on the mission, which was to collect information about hostile and potentially hostile nations using cameras and sensors. The pilot’s job was to handle the aircraft and watch over the automatic systems to make sure they were doing their jobs properly. Meanwhile, the RSO handled the cameras, sensors, and the all-important ANS. The ANS was the 1960’s version of GPS, but instead of using satellites to locate itself, the ANS used the stars. This is because before the invention of the modern satnav networks there wasn’t a way to navigate the SR-71 in the areas where it operated. The SR-71 needed to be able to fix its position within 1,885 feet (575 m) and within 300 ft (91 m) of the center of its flight path while traveling at high speeds for up to ten hours in the air.

The ANS provided specific pinpoint targets located in hostile territory. It was a Gyro compass that was able to sense the rotation of the earth, while still on the runway before the SR-71 would take off. The RSO could use his coordinates of the spot ….of one place …on the runway …then read of the ANS. They were almost always exactly the same. Not always were the same stars were used on every mission, as they used the stars depending on what part of the world they were going to fly to. If flying in the southern hemisphere* they used only the stars that were seen there.

SR-71 print

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

On Jul. 2, 1967 Blackbird crew Jim Watkins and Dave Dempster flew the first international sortie in SR-71A #17972 when the ANS failed on a training mission and they accidentally flew in to Mexican airspace.

The ANS works by tracking at least two stars at a time listed in an onboard catalog, and with the aid of a chronometer, calculates a fix of the SR-71 over the ground. It was programmed before each flight and the aircraft’s primary alignment and the flight plan was recorded on a punched tape that told the aircraft where to go, when to turn, and when to turn the sensors on and off. The stars were sighted through a special quartz window (located behind the RSO cockpit) and there was a special star tracker that could see the stars even in daylight.

*It is not confirmed if the SR-71 ever flew in the southern hemisphere.

@Habubrats71 via X

[eopederson2]

Smoke in the Northwest

"Extreme heat, bouts of strong winds, and a prolonged drought are fueling large forest fires in western Canada and the United States.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image of smoke spreading across parts of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Montana on August 16, 2023. That same day, astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured the detailed photograph below, which shows smoke in valleys in British Columbia near the towns of Golden and Revelstoke.

The surge in fire activity follows the peak of an extreme heat wave that broke dozens of heat records in British Columbia on August 14. But even as temperatures cooled some in the following days, lightning storms triggered new fires, and strong winds turned small blazes into fast-moving, smoky infernos. Authorities in both the United States and Canada issued air quality alerts and, in some cases, calls to evacuate as smoke and fire threatened communities.

The recent heat and winds add to the existing problem of a prolonged drought that has affected the area since last year and primed vegetation to burn. According to the North American Drought Monitor, much of the Pacific Northwest was either abnormally dry or in moderate to extreme drought in mid-August 2023.

Canada is facing one of the worst fire years it has seen in decades, according to data published by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. More than 13.7 million hectares (33.9 million acres) had burned as of August 17, more than seven times the 25-year average. The United States has had a quieter wildfire season, with 1.7 million acres burned by mid-August. On average, 4.4 million acres have usually burned by mid-August, according to the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Astronaut photograph ISS069-E-61356 was acquired on August 17, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 50 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 69 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Adam Voiland."

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

[justbeingnamaste]

For decades, those with eyes to see have been aware of Chemtrails in our skies. And for decades we were called conspiracy theorists. But in 2016, while serving as Director of the CIA, John Brennan admitted that Chemtrails are real at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Another example is the array of technologies, often referred to collectively as geo-engineering, that potentially could help reverse the warming effects of global climate change. One that has gained my personal attention is stratospheric aerosol injection. Or SAI. A method of seeding the stratosphere with particles that can help reflect the sun's heat, in much the same way that volcanic eruptions do. An SAI program could limit global temperature increases, reducing some risks associated with higher temperatures, and providing the world economy additional time to transition from fossil fuels. This process is also relatively inexpensive. The National Research Council estimates that a fully deployed SAI program would cost about $10 billion yearly.” ~ John Brennan

Smartdust is a system of tiny microelectromechanical systems that can detect light, temperature, vibration, magnetism, or chemicals. They are operated wirelessly on a computer network, can be used for medical or military surveillance purposes, and can be dispersed through the air via Chemtrails. Which would greatly go unnoticed by the sleeping masses who have come to accept them. When combined with the mesogen soft robot technology, which has already been found in several blood samples of unwitting victims, they could create a means of monitoring and controlling the entire human population.

Research more ~ https://gregreese.substack.com/p/smart-dust-biosensors-and-chemtrail?publication_id=706779&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&r=wvz2h&initial_medium=video

[nationalfacilitiesdirect01]

The Ultimate Winter Facility Management Checklist

The winter season poses a whole new set of challenges when it comes to facility management. Freezing temperatures, along with snow and ice, have the potential to disrupt operations and affect the safety of occupants. Taking a proactive approach with some preventative maintenance and proper planning can help you mitigate these risks, avoid emergency repairs, and ensure a safe and comfortable environment for visitors during the colder months. From HVAC maintenance to snow and ice removal, here’s a checklist of helpful reminders to help you plan and prepare your facilities for winter.

Maintain HVAC Systems

Preventative HVAC maintenance ensures your heating systems work when you need them most. While you most likely have a preventative maintenance plan in place, these basic preparations can improve system efficiency and help get your system ready for winter.

Check and replace any air filters

Clean ductwork

Check for leaks

Calibrate thermostats

Check heat pumps

Inspect electrical connections

Clean out drain lines and pans to present freezing

Test humidity and temperature controls and monitors

Inspect Plumbing

Freezing temperatures can occasionally cause facility water system leaks and even flooding. Therefore, it’s important to be proactive and prepare plumbing and irrigation before winter.

Check for leaks at all fixtures and piping

Ensure pipes are insulated and sealed to prevent freezing, bursting, or flooding

Check operation of valves and shutoffs

Prepare for Power Outages

Strong storms, ice build-up on power lines, and other winter weather-related problems can lead to inconvenient power outages. Taking the necessary precautions to ensure the functionality of a secondary power source, like a backup generator, can help you avoid costly downtime.

Perform regular and preventative maintenance on power generators, like fluid changes and electrical connection checks

Test generators for operation and switchover before the incident

Ensure proper fuel supply for generators

Check for exposed wiring and remediate – especially in areas exposed to freezing temperatures and melting ice or snow

Make sure emergency lighting systems work properly and check all lightbulbs

Examine the Exterior of Your Buildings

Avoid emergency repairs in the middle of winter and give buildings and surrounding areas a thorough inspection to spot any potential trouble spots before winter sets in.

Inspect roofing for holes or damage that could cause leaks during snowmelt

Check for loose shingles and repair damage to existing seals and flashing

Clean debris from roofs and gutters to ensure proper drainage

Make sure all windows and doors have proper insulation

Regularly check the parking lot and sidewalks for cracks and potholes

Inspect siding

Keep an eye on possible landscaping threats like hanging tree limbs

Have a snow removal plan in place that includes walkways and parking lots

Keep entryways clean and safe with a deicer solution

Designate a spot to pile snow or have it professionally hauled away

Ensure lighting is operational or installed in these spaces to improve visibility

One Partner for All of Your Facility Management Needs

Facilities management is a year-round responsibility that involves careful planning and preparation. However, winter poses a new set of challenges that can strain even the most well-maintained facilities. Harsh winds, chilly conditions, heavy snowfall, ice, and lack of daylight can add extra stress to an already busy workload.

Partnering with an FM provider can help alleviate some of the stress that comes with the wintertime. From reduction of costs to optimizing your facility management programs for increased efficiency, the right partner can provide the support you need to take your operations to the next level this winter.

At National Facilities Direct, your problems are our problems, and we will work with you to provide a solution that meets your needs. Our customer-centric environment means we’ll stop at nothing to ensure you and your organization have the tools necessary to succeed. If you’re ready to cross items off your list with a facilities management partner you can trust, contact National Facilities Direct today!

Visit Our Website - https://nationalfacilitiesdirect.com/