VISION OF THE END OF THE U.S. !!! Options

[ABLAT Staff]

Record October cold has folks scrambling to winterize
KAHRIN DEINES Of The Gazette Staff | Posted: Monday, October 12, 2009 11:45 pm



A record-breaking cold snap that has made this the most frigid start in memory for October has people scrambling to winterize home, car and self.

"This really has never that happened in the time that most people have been here, so it's really remarkable," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Solum.

In Billings, record lows were set each of the last three days, while on Friday a low temperature of 18 degrees tied the record from 1993. Each consecutive low has been more frigid still, with Saturday bringing a record of 16 degrees; Sunday, 14 degrees; and Monday, 13 degrees.

The record-breaking streak ended Tuesday morning, with a low of 25 degrees. The record cold for Oct. 13 is 20 degrees, set in 1969.

The biting cold has people scurrying to amass winter gear.

"We see a lot of farm and ranch clients, and they're usually out working, so, when it gets cold, they can't work and they start coming to town and shopping," said Nancy Reichert, assistant manager at Shipton's Big R.

A surge in demand at Shipton's for insulated bib overalls and jeans, thick Carhartt jackets and ice scrapers always follows the first temperature dip, but this year the dip has come earlier than usual.

According to the National Weather Service, Oct. 28 is the earliest date that temperatures of 16 or lower have hit Billings in the past. October's start is turning out to be the coldest ever, with an average daily temperature that is almost 6 degrees lower than previous benchmarks.

Record-breaking cold has also swept through to the south, where thermometers in Sheridan, Wyo., dove as low as 5 degrees on Friday, the first time that single-digit lows have been reached before Oct. 29.

The suddenly subfreezing weather has meant suddenly swift sales of snow tires, along with the gloves and insulating layers.

"People procrastinate. They never fix their roof until it leaks or there's a rainstorm," said Wiley Taylor, owner of B&B Tire Co. on Montana Avenue.

The rush for tires began at B&B Tire Co. last week after the season's first snow, and it has continued into this week.

Other winter preparations, such as sprinkler system blowouts, have been literally frozen by the latest downward temperature swing.

"About one out of every 10, I can do them," said John M. Rigney, owner of Horizon Landscaping and Sprinklers Inc. "So, what's happening is you drive around all day until you can find one you can blow out."

Normally, Rigney would be closing out about 20 sprinkler systems a day at this time of year. But the arctic cold threatens sprinkler breaks and are forcing work crews to wait.

"In the years I've been doing it, I don't recall one like this to come in this quick and this hard," he said.

Trees, still full with their leaves and some still holding sap, also have been stunned by the suddenly brutal temperatures.

"We'll lose a lot of our coloring," said Jonine Smith, owner of Field of Dreams Garden Center. "You might see some winter burn on some of the spruce and pines, but you won't be able to tell until the spring."

Until snow blankets the ground in a protective layer, Smith said, it's important to keep watering trees and shrubs.

For today, the National Weather Service is forecasting a tie for the record low temperature of 20 degrees, with temperatures moving back into a normal range before the end of the week.

"I just tell people, 'You got to relax,' " Rigney said. "It's the first freeze, probably in two weeks we'll be back in the 60s again."

Contact Kahrin Deines at kdeines@billingsgazette.com or 657-1392.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/arti...1cc4c03286.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Prominent Russian Scientist: 'We should fear a deep temperature drop -- not catastrophic global warming'

http://climatedepot.com/a/3515/Prominent-R...-global-warming

[ABLAT Staff]

Libya is first Mid East recipient of Russian top-line S-300 denied Tehran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 27, 2010, 11:42 AM (GMT+02:00)

http://www.debka.com/article/8556/

Russian S-300 PMU-2 Favorit

Libyan defense minister Younis Jaber arrived in Moscow Tuesday, Jan. 26 to sign a $2 billion military acquisitions deal that makes his country the first in the Middle East to obtain the top-of-the-line S-300 PMU-2 interceptors which Russia is holding back from Iran.

debkafile's military sources report that Tripoli has purchased two brigades of four missile batteries each, conditional on their delivery by the end of 2010.

Although a three-way deal for the supply of S-300 missile-air interceptors to Syria for transfer to Iran (which foots the bill) has been signed, Russian leaders are holding back on its implementation in response to US and Israeli pressure.

Tehran hoped that Director of the National Security Council Saeed Jalili would clinch an agreed timeline for delivery during his three-day Moscow trip starting Tuesday, Jan. 26. But when Moscow said that the time was still not ripe for the missile's handover, although it is the missing key component from the defenses of Iran's nuclear facilities, Tehran cancelled Jalili's trip at the last minute.

Iranian leaders were further incensed by being beaten to the post by Libya. At a recent military hardware fair in Bahrain, Iran noted that sales agents of the Russian Rosoboronexport openly touted S-300 PMU-2 systems promising would-be buyers their early supply.

Regarding additional unfinished business between Moscow and Tehran, Jalili and Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation, stressed recently that the unfinished Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr would finally go on line before the end of this year after endless delays.

Monday, Kiriyenko came out with the bombastic statement: "2010 would be the year of the Bushehr reactor."

But after being burned many times, Tehran is shy of Russian promises and wants an exact timeline for the reactor's completion.

The Russian-Libyan military transaction also provides for 15 long-range Su-35 bombers, at least 8 Su-30MK2 fighter-bombers, as well as 50 T-90 tanks and Russian upgrades of Libya's T-72 fleet.