#national oceanic and atmospheric administration

[rjzimmerman]

2 Endangered Whales Found Entangled in Fishing Gear, With 1 Likely to Die. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

Two endangered whales have been found entangled in fishing gear off the coast of Massachusetts, and one of them is likely to die from his injuries, according to the federal agency that monitors the oceans.

The mammals were identified as North Atlantic right whales, one of the world’s most endangered large whale species. They face threats in their habitats from entanglement in gear and collisions with vessels, and there are now fewer than 370 left in the world.

On Dec. 9, an aerial survey spotted the whales swimming about 50 miles southeast of Nantucket, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement on Tuesday.

One whale, identified as male #5110, has serious and most likely fatal injuries. A picture showed that he had a thick line resembling a fishing line that passes across his head and back.

“This designation signifies #5110 is likely to die from this injury,” according to the statement. That whale, which was first seen as a calf in 2021, was last seen in April, swimming in Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts.

Oceana, a conservation group, said that when such an entanglement occurs, a fishing line can be so tightly wound around a whale’s body that it “cuts into flesh and bone” and causes an infection.

The second whale, identified as adult female #4120, has two lines exiting the left side of her mouth and extending half to two thirds of the way down her body, the federal agency said.

Biologists believe the female whale has a so-called sublethal injury, meaning that the injury will not kill her but “can reduce or impair” her well-being.

The female whale was seen in July without any entanglements about 50 miles off the coast of Long Island in New York.

[victusinveritas]

Reminder: the companies and political entities pushing Project 2025 have addresses and go out to lunch a lot and should never eat a spitless meal for the rest of their lives.

Practice bagpipes outside their secure compounds.

Follow them around ringing a bell wherever they go.

If they are going to be farcically evil, be Animaniacally good. Be the definition of chaotic justice.

Also, vote. It might just kick the ball down the road a bit, but that gives people more time to organize a concerted resistance (in no way on any social media platform) to the fascist creep happening in America. It is possible to take this country from the bastards who control it, it will take work, effort, and occasionally going offline and talking to humans though.

[mindblowingscience]

A severe solar storm sparked by an intense flare from the sun could reach "extreme" levels as it bombards Earth, officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned on Thursday (Oct. 10). Scientists with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Group (SWPC) said that a cloud of charged solar material, called a coronal mass ejection, slammed into Earth around midday, triggering a "severe" geomagnetic storm that could impact power grids and GPS and radio communications systems, as well as amplify aurora displays in regions that typically don't see them.

Continue Reading.

[sixbucks]

As Hurricane Helene approaches Florida, is now a good time to mention that Project 2025 calls for an end to the NOAA and the National Hurricane Center?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dharna Noor at The Guardian:

Climate experts fear Donald Trump will follow a blueprint created by his allies to gut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), disbanding its work on climate science and tailoring its operations to business interests.

Joe Biden’s presidency has increased the profile of the science-based federal agency but its future has been put in doubt if Trump wins a second term and at a time when climate impacts continue to worsen. The plan to “break up Noaa is laid out in the Project 2025 document written by more than 350 rightwingers and helmed by the Heritage Foundation. Called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, it is meant to guide the first 180 days of presidency for an incoming Republican president. The document bears the fingerprints of Trump allies, including Johnny McEntee, who was one of Trump’s closest aides and is a senior adviser to Project 2025. “The National Oceanographic [sic] and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories,” the proposal says.

That’s a sign that the far right has “no interest in climate truth”, said Chris Gloninger, who last year left his job as a meteorologist in Iowa after receiving death threats over his spotlighting of global warming. The guidebook chapter detailing the strategy, which was recently spotlighted by E&E News, describes Noaa as a “colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future US prosperity”. It was written by Thomas Gilman, a former Chrysler executive who during Trump’s presidency was chief financial officer for Noaa’s parent body, the commerce department. Gilman writes that one of Noaa’s six main offices, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, should be “disbanded” because it issues “theoretical” science and is “the source of much of Noaa’s climate alarmism”. Though he admits it serves “important public safety and business functions as well as academic functions”, Gilman says data from the National Hurricane Center must be “presented neutrally, without adjustments intended to support any one side in the climate debate”.

[...] Noaa also houses the National Weather Service (NWS), which provides weather and climate forecasts and warnings. Gilman calls for the service to “fully commercialize its forecasting operations”. He goes on to say that Americans are already reliant on private weather forecasters, specifically naming AccuWeather and citing a PR release issued by the company to claim that “studies have found that the forecasts and warnings provided by the private companies are more reliable” than the public sector’s. (The mention is noteworthy as Trump once tapped the former CEO of AccuWeather to lead Noaa, though his nomination was soon withdrawn.)

The claims come amid years of attempts from US conservatives to help private companies enter the forecasting arena – proposals that are “nonsense”, said Rosenberg. Right now, all people can access high-quality forecasts for free through the NWS. But if forecasts were conducted only by private companies that have a profit motive, crucial programming might no longer be available to those in whom business executives don’t see value, said Rosenberg. [...] Fully privatizing forecasting could also threaten the accuracy of forecasts, said Gloninger, who pointed to AccuWeather’s well-known 30- and 60-day forecasts as one example. Analysts have found that these forecasts are only right about half the time, since peer-reviewed research has found that there is an eight- to 10-day limit on the accuracy of forecasts.

The Trump Administration is delivering a big gift to climate crisis denialism as part of Project 2025 by proposing the dismantling and privatizing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) in his potential 2nd term.

This should frighten people to vote Democratic up and down the ballot if you want the NOAA and NWS to stay intact.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

xxx

[atlantichurricanes]

Atlantic Tropical Weather Outlook issued by the National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL, USA

2024-11-03, 19:00 EST

Active Systems: The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Subtropical Storm Patty, located over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean east of the Azores Islands. The National Hurricane Center has also initiated advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Eighteen, located over the south-central portion of the Caribbean Sea.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...high...near 100 percent.

* Formation chance through 7 days...high...near 100 percent.

Southwestern Atlantic: An area of disturbed weather could develop from an interaction of moisture with an upper-level trough digging near the northern Leeward Islands around the middle of this week. Some slow subtropical or tropical development of this system is possible after that time as it moves generally westward over the southwestern Atlantic.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.

* Formation chance through 7 days...low...20 percent.

Near the Southeastern Bahamas: A trough of low pressure continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms along with gusty winds over the southeastern Bahamas and adjacent waters. This system is expected to be absorbed into Potential Tropical Cyclone Eighteen (AL18) over the Caribbean Sea by late Monday, and development before that time is no longer anticipated. Regardless, locally heavy rains are possible during the next couple of days across the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.

* Formation chance through 7 days...low...near 0 percent.

&& Public Advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Eighteen are issued under WMO header WTNT33 KNHC and under AWIPS header MIATCPAT3. Forecast/Advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Eighteen are issued under WMO header WTNT23 KNHC and under AWIPS header MIATCMAT3.

$$ Forecaster Papin

[historysurvivalguide]

NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Posters

Free for download!

[wisdomfish]

Jesus and his disciples are on a boat. It’s evening. Tired from a day of teaching, Jesus falls asleep. But then a massive storm comes up. Waves are breaking into the boat and filling it. Several of Jesus’s disciples were fishermen, and even they are terrified. But Jesus just sleeps on. They wake him up with, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). What did they expect Jesus to do? Perhaps he’d be an extra pair of hands for bailing out? Or maybe he’d pray to God for the storm to start dying down? But Jesus, fresh from sleep, speaks to the wind and the sea: “Peace!” he says, “Be still!” (Mark 4:39). The wind stops, and there is a great calm. Then Jesus asks, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:40). We might expect the disciples to be relieved. “Phew! The storm is over. Jesus saved the day!” But they’re not. Mark tells us they’re “filled with great fear” and say to one another, “Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41).

In Genesis God spoke the oceans into being. In Exodus, he drove the Red Sea back with a strong east wind and made a path so that his people could walk through on dry ground. Here, Jesus speaks to the wind and the sea, and they obey. This is no gradual calming of a storm. The brakes are crammed on suddenly, and his disciples are jolted from one fear to another...

Once again, he is telling us.

~ Rebecca McLauglin

[deepbreakfast]

Please, please, please vote.

This is especially frustrating because the only reason we know the wind speed is because NOAA's Hurricane Hunters literally fly into the hurricane and collect vital data. They fly in and out of the storm over and over in 8 hour shifts.

This brave team flies two identical Lockheed P3s called Kermit and Miss Piggy.

You can see the dangling ornaments in the videos to determine which plane they are in.

And when I say they fly into the hurricane, I mean they fly *into* the hurricane.

Here they are in the eye of Milton.

And here they are in the eye of Irma.

As you may notice, this flight was in Kermit.

So the next time you see live data about a hurricane's wind speed and pressure, just remember how that was collected and don't be a giant turd about it.

And please vote because conservatives want to kill NOAA.

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"Today, the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring opened applications for communities across the U.S. to monitor and evaluate factors influencing local #heatrisk, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

Funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, selected communities will receive $10,000 and technical support to collect heat distribution data through community-led campaigns."

NOAA Climate Program Office

[whats-in-a-sentence]

This index along with the carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalent concentrations is shown in Fig. 8.12. For 2015, the AGGI d 1.37, meaning that there has been a 37% increase in RF since 1990.

"Environmental Chemistry: A Global Perspective", 4e - Gary W. VanLoon & Stephen J. Duffy

[victusinveritas]

[wausaupilot]

What's behind the northern lights that dazzled the sky farther south than normal

“It was a pretty extensive display yet again,” said Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

By The Associated Press Another in a series of unusually strong solar storms hitting Earth produced stunning skies full of pinks, purples, greens and blues farther south than normal, including into parts of Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City. “It was a pretty extensive display yet again,” said Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at the U.S. National Oceanic and…

[marklakshmanan]

Until 1979, hurricanes were named after women only. At a National Oceanic and Atmospheric conference in 1972, celebrated civil rights activist and feminist Roxcy Bolton proposed naming the storms after US Senators, instead. She also preferred the term him-i-canes. After these two options were dismissed, she proposed to include the names of men. This was finally accepted 7 years later with the second hurricane of 1979 named Bob.