Time To Get Up -- January 20, 2019

Updates

Later, 8:39 a.m. CT: now that I've had an hour to reflect on the news coming out of the midwest to New England regarding Winter Storm Harper, the storms in eastern and northeastern New Mexico -- Taos south to Albuquerque  -- were much, much worse than what I've seen so far this morning. The big difference, of course, the number of folks affected, and the ice on trees that will cause huge power outages. But the early morning focus seemed to be on all the good skiing the Kennedy family will have in Vermont.[Later: interestingly, there were no major outages reported as far as I know; except that it was a "bit" cold, Winter Storm Harper seems to have been a bit hyped -- almost as if the weathermen/women are so brainwashed with AGW, they have forgotten what winters are really like. In retrospect, Winter Storm Harper seems to have been fairly typical for a winter storm. The fact that the lead meteorologist was so focused on "postcard Vermont" and beautiful skiing suggests that observation is not far off the mark, if off the mark at all. Posted January 24, 2019.]

Original Post

Australia, link here, air conditioning costs, heat wave:

• NSW: $70;MWh
• VIC: $134/MWh
• SA: $134/MWh

ISO New England, link here, heaing, winter storm Harper:

• coal: 6% 
• spiked to $175/MWh but now back to $50/MWh

Weather Channel

• excited about the skiing in Vermont; that seems to be the lead story on the Weather Channel today -- reporting centered in Vermont
• municipalities appear to be "keeping up"
• ice on trees big concern: power outages
• overall: a big storm but hey! it's winter
• but overall, pretty much a non-story until we start getting reports of power outages
• time for soup? nope, time for coffee ...

Time for coffee, from theglobaleconomy -- after the BBC reported that global warming will lead to shortage of coffee --

Whack-a-mole; it seems that it has come down to this -- everyday we get a new scare what global warming will do to us, and then someone actually checks the data.

By the way, speaking of "mole" -- and yet another definition of mole of which I was unaware. While reading The Campaigns of Alexander: The Landmark Arrian, edited by James Romm, c. 2010, I ran across a line in which the author said Alexander built a mole from the coast to the city. I had no idea what Arrian was talking about. A mole? Built a mole from the coast to an inland city? A mole: