The Wart Hog Survives; From Weather.Com: Gulf Of Mexico Hurricane Drought Now The Longest In 130 Years -- August 14, 2016

This is really cool. The deal has been okay'ed! The USAF is finally getting its new tanker. From Bidness.etc:

The US Department of Defense finally granted the Air Force permission to sign two initial contracts with Boeing Co. Thanks to this contract, the airplane manufacturer will start the production of its KC-46 military tanker aircraft. The agreement is expected to be valued at $2.8 billion under which the aircraft manufacturer would manufacture 19 KC-46 aircraft.

And look at this:

The current news would mean a big achievement for Boeing, as its troubled KC-46 tanker project has faced long delays due to technical issues. With the company resolving all its issues last month and conducting a successful refueling test flight for the A-10 Warthog military aircraft, Boeing can now look ahead to initiate full production of the aircraft once it signs the agreement with the US Air Force.

I don't know how accurate this remains, from wiki:

On 23 April 2014, the USAF announced that the KC-46 Pegasus will be based at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas. The base will start receiving the first of 36 tankers in 2016. The KC-135 Stratotanker is currently stationed at this base.

McConnell AFB was chosen because it had low construction costs and it is in a location with a high demand for air refueling. Up to 10 operating bases are to be chosen for the KC-46 fleet. Pegasus crews will be trained at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Altus AFB was also chosen for its limited construction needs and for other training programs for the C-17 Globemaster and KC-135 already at the base.

On 29 October 2015, the USAF announced that Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, was chosen as the preferred alternative for the first Reserve-led KC-46A Pegasus main operating base.

The KC-46As will begin arriving at Seymour Johnson in fiscal year 2019. Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts; and Grissom Air Reserve Base, Indiana, were named as the reasonable alternatives. The Air Force plans to begin the Environmental Impact Analysis Process (EIAP). Once the requirements of the EIAP are complete, the Air Force will make its final basing decision.

My hunch is that the EIAP will favor the state with the best "political" incentives.

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Florida Kids Could Grow Up Never Seeing A Hurricane

The old Patrick Kennedy: our kids will grow up never seeing snow.

The new Patrick Kennedy: some Florida kids will grow up never having seen a hurricane. Except on the History Channel. 

This is truly incredible. The story was posted by Weather.com a couple of weeks ago.

No hurricanes have entered or developed in the Gulf of Mexico since September 2013, a stretch of well over 1,000 days. This streak is now the longest on record, dating to the late 1800s. The last hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico was Hurricane Ingrid, which made landfall in northeast Mexico in September 2013.

For the record: hurricanes gain their energy from the warm waters of the Atlantic. Warm waters. Warm.

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Warning! Higher Math Involved

From ClimateDepot. This really is quite incredible. But this, too, won't make the mainstream media because "higher math" is involved:

Antartica is one of the most ice-covered locations in the world, but it is also one of the world’s largest land masses. Previous estimates by researchers placed the level of uncovered land in Antartica at about 1%. However, a new survey in part by NASA shows that this estimate was rather generous and the continent is covered in a lot more ice than previously thought.

Researchers from Cryosphere have shown that only.18 percent of the entire continent is not covered by ice and snow, which is surprisingly low. With this new figure, researchers will monitor this survey over time to see the effects of climate change and global warming.

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Brexit

Remember the panic over Brexit just a few weeks ago? Britain will move to the end of the queue -- so sayeth the president. It now turns out that the "soonest" Britain can exit is ... drum roll ... late 2019.

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From The Region That Bans Fracking, Bans New Natural Gas Pipelines

"1,000s" Without Power

Tri-State Blackout

CBS Local is reporting:

As of 6:30 Sunday, about 723 Con Edison customers were without power. JCP&L reported more than 1,000 customers remained in the dark.

In Orange and Rockland counties, about 708 were still without power, and PSEG Long Island said 282 customers were still experiencing outages. PSE&G in New Jersey said more than 574 customers were still affected.

On Saturday, Con Edison crews worked to restore electricity at West 146th Street in Harlem after a primary feeder cable failed during a record-setting demand for power.

From CBS New York:

However, that can’t come soon enough for New Yorkers who lost power, as there are more than 4,000 outages for New York City and Westchester County, according to Con Edison.

The heat is putting a big strain on the power supply.

In Jackson Heights, Queens, residents escaped their hot, dark homes and jammed into a city bus that had air conditioning on high.

From BreakingNews:

New York City and Westchester County Con Edison customers urged to conserve energy after state power grid pushed to limit.

They need to turn on the wind towers.

You know, why didn't I think of that? They need to install electric motors on wind towers to keep them turning when the wind dies down.