Author Archives: Pat Turnbaugh

Winter Storm Pushes North Pole Temperatures Past Freezing Point

The same storm system that caused widespread flooding and other extreme weather in the United States also pushed temperatures at the North Pole to abnormally high levels, according to a new report from The Washington Post.

The newspaper reported Wednesday that temperatures at the northernmost point on Earth were about 50 degrees warmer than historic averages for late December. The temperature was even above the freezing point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit at one time, according to the report.

To put that in perspective, the Post noted it was actually colder in parts of the United States on Wednesday than it was at the North Pole. Temperatures in parts of Colorado and Wyoming reached 15 degrees below zero on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Controversial Open Carry Law Set to Take Effect In Texas

Texans could soon see a lot more handguns in public places as a new open carry law takes effect.

Beginning on New Year’s Day, the state will allow people to openly carry handguns, provided they first obtain a license. The guns can be loaded or unloaded, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, but carriers must keep them holstered on their belt or shoulder.

Texas residents were already allowed to openly carry long guns — like rifles and shotguns — in public, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and the state also permitted those with licenses to publicly carry concealed handguns. But the state is now poised to become the latest — and largest, by far — to allow anyone with a license to carry handguns in plain view.

According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, when the New Year arrives and the Texas law goes into effect, there will be only five states that totally bar handguns to be carried openly. They are California, Florida, Illinois, New York and South Carolina, plus the District of Columbia. Several states place some limitations on how and where people can openly carry the guns, the center says, but by and large open carry is already legal in the vast majority of states.

Texas, though, is drawing some attention because it’s the biggest state to take this step, and the law is taking effect just weeks after the San Bernardino terrorist attacks caused Internet searches for concealed carry permits to surge to record levels. But the state Legislature actually passed the law much earlier in the year, and Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law back in June.

With a population of about 27 million people, Texas is the country’s second-most-populous state, trailing only California. Texas has just shy of 826,000 concealed carry permit holders, according to the state Department of Public Safety, which represents one of the highest totals in the nation. Everyone with a valid concealed carry permit will be allowed to openly carry their handguns once the new law takes effect, the department says, though it will still be illegal for people to carry guns in places like schools, hospitals, courtrooms and in some parts of airports. Businesses and private landowners can also post signs that would prohibit weapons on-site.

The law has created some divide among gun advocacy groups and those who favor gun control.

Proponents of the bill, such as the gun rights group Open Carry Texas, are planning a celebration on the steps of the state Capitol in Austin to celebrate. They say the law is a step toward their goal of “constitutional carry,” which would ultimately allow anyone who legally purchased a gun in the United States to carry the weapon without government interference.

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a critic of open carry laws, say that the sight of handguns in public often intimidates people, and they hinder public safety more than they help.

People must undergo safety training before they can obtain a license, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

FBI Thwarts ISIS-Inspired Terror Attack in Upstate New York

Authorities foiled a New Year’s Eve terror plot by arresting a man who allegedly planned to commit an attack in upstate New York on behalf of the Islamic State, federal prosecutors said.

The Department of Justice alleges Emanuel L. Lutchman, a 25-year-old from Rochester, was planning an “armed attack” at a restaurant and bar in the city tonight, according to a news release. Prosecutors said Lutchman claimed the attack was ordered by a member of the Islamic State overseas, and the attack was to be “on behalf of (ISIS) and in furtherance of his plan to join” the group.

“The FBI thwarted Emanuel Lutchman’s intent to kill civilians on New Year’s Eve,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Charles Cohen said in a statement.  “The FBI remains concerned about people overseas who use the Internet to inspire people in the United States to commit acts of violence where they live.”

The formal charge against Lutchman is attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, according to the news release, and he faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

The arrest comes in the wake of the of revisions to the National Terrorism Advisory System, which the Department of Homeland Security uses to warn Americans about terrorist threats.

The changes, implemented about two weeks after the San Bernardino mass shootings, give Homeland Security officials the ability to issue bulletins about the general risk of terrorist attacks, according to a news release from the department. Under the previous system, officials could only issue alerts if there were credible or imminent threats against the United States, the department said, and the circumstances never once warranted issuing an alert.

The current bulletin, issued Dec. 16 and still in effect, says the department has concerns about attacks from “self-radicalized actor(s) who could strike with little or no notice,” especially because foreign terrorist groups are using the Internet to spread their messages globally.

Grand Jury Indicts Friend of San Bernardino Shooter

The man accused of purchasing two of the assault rifles used in the San Bernardino terrorist attacks was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

Enrique Marquez Jr. was indicted on charges that he lied about buying some of the weapons that his longtime friend, Syed Rizwan Farook, and Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, used when they killed 14 people during a holiday party for Farook’s coworkers on Dec. 2 in southern California, the Department of Justice announced. Prosecutors also said Marquez was indicted on charges that he conspired with Farook to plot two other attacks in 2011 and 2012, which were later called off.

Prosecutors previously announced those plots involved using pipe bombs and explosives at Riverside Community College, where both Farook and Marquez studied, and a stretch of highway during rush-hour traffic. Prosecutors allege Marquez bought two assault rifles in 2011 and 2012 and claimed they were for his own use, when he was actually giving them to Farook for the attacks.

Marquez and Farook allegedly visited gun ranges to practice shooting, prosecutors have said, but Marquez ultimately distanced himself from his friend after other people in Southern California were arrested on terrorism charges. But the Justice Department has said the guns Marquez bought were among the four weapons authorities recovered after Farook and Malik died in a shootout with police, and forensic testing confirmed that those two rifles were used in the deadly rampage.

“Mr. Marquez is charged for his role in a conspiracy several years ago to target innocent civilians in our own backyard with cold-blooded terror attacks, and with providing weapons to an individual whose endgame was murder,” David Bowdich, the assistant director of the FBI’s office in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Marquez was indicted on two counts of making a false statement about the gun buys, one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and two counts related to marrying one of Farook’s family members, which prosecutors allege was a sham to help the woman’s immigration status. The indictments came about two week after Marquez was charged.

Marquez, 24, is being held without bond pending a Jan. 6 court appearance, according to prosecutors. If he’s convicted of the most serious offense, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, prosecutors said he faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

NASA: Potent El Nino Shows No Signs of Slowing

The United States likely will not see the full force of a powerful El Nino until early next year and the weather phenomenon has not shown any sign of slowing down, NASA announced Tuesday.

El Nino occurs when part of the Pacific Ocean is warmer than usual, setting off a far-reaching ripple effect that brings atypical and often extreme weather throughout the world. A variety of weather experts, including those with the United Nations, have said this year’s pattern is shaping up to be one of the three strongest in the past 65 years, but NASA said that the latest satellite images suggest the United States probably has yet to see the worst of the weather.

The images show “a striking resemblance to one from December 1997,” captured during the strongest El Nino on record, according to NASA. While the National Weather Service previously said that the pattern “matured,” NASA said Tuesday that the latest images indicate El Nino “shows no signs of waning,” and the fact that some elements of the Pacific Ocean are different now than they were 18 years ago could mean the weather pattern might actually intensify.

“Although the sea surface height signal in 1997 was more intense and peaked in November of that year, in 2015, the area of high sea levels is larger,” Josh Willis, a project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told NASA’s website. “This could mean we have not yet seen the peak of this El Niño.”

The announcement comes in the wake of deadly flooding throughout the central United States that has sent multiple river gauges to historic levels and forced mandatory evacuations. This El Nino has already been blamed for historic flooding in coastal India, widespread wildfires in Indonesia and several crop-damaging droughts and floods across the globe, according to NASA.

NASA says it’s still not clear when El Nino will make its full presence felt in the United States, or the effects it could have. Generally, the National Weather Service has said the southeast is likely to see more precipitation and colder temperatures, while the northwest is expected to see hotter temperatures and less precipitation. However, that’s not an all-encompassing forecast, and NASA noted past El Ninos have been known to produce extreme storms such as a massive ice storm that slammed the northeast United States and parts of Canada in January 1998.

The National Weather Service has said El Nino is likely to linger into early summer.

Widespread Tree Deaths Could Threaten California Forests, Researchers Say

A four-year drought has endangered the lives of millions of trees in California, perhaps to the point that even heavy rains may not be able to prevent significant changes to the ecosystem, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Carnegie Airborne Observatory.

The scientists say about 58 million trees suffered severe drops in their canopy water content, an important statistic in determining a tree’s overall health. In a news release, the researchers say those trees lost enough water over the past four years that they hit levels that were “extremely threatening to long-term forest health,” and any future droughts could spur “substantial changes” to forests — even if a particularly strong El Nino leads to heavy rainfall in California.

“California relies on its forests for water provisioning and carbon storage, as well as timber products, tourism, and recreation, so they are tremendously important ecologically, economically, and culturally,” Greg Anser, who headed Carnegie’s research team, said in a news release. “The drought put the forests in tremendous peril, a situation that may cause long-term changes in ecosystems that could impact animal habitats and biodiversity.”

While 58 million trees reached critical levels, Anser’s team says millions more have lost “measurable” amounts of canopy water. According to a news release, the study indicated about 888 million trees in roughly 41,000 square miles of forest saw their canopy water levels fall.

The research appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It provides a glimpse into the extent of the damage, though California has long been aware there was an issue.

In late October, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced a state of emergency in an attempt to facilitate tree removal. In a news release, the governor’s office said the drought has led to an infestation of bark beetles, who are killing trees weakened by the lack of rain. The release, citing the United States Forest Service, says some 22 million California trees have died.

The dying trees have markedly increased the risk of wildfires, according to Brown’s news release.

Scientists Warn of Geomagnetic Storm Affecting Earth

Scientists say parts of the lower 48 states could witness the Northern Lights and some other effects tonight as the aftermath of a powerful explosion on the sun travels toward the Earth.

The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G3 (Strong) warning for Wednesday evening, saying a geomagnetic storm could cause the Northern Lights to be seen as far south as Oregon and Illinois. The scientists say recent events on the sun could trigger the storm in the night sky.

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the sun underwent a coronal mass ejection on Monday and released a significant amount of plasma and magnetic material into space. That material is expected to impact the Earth’s magnetosphere tonight, according to the scientists, creating conditions ripe for a geomagnetic storm that could possibly linger into Thursday.

Geomagnetic storms involve the disruption of Earth’s natural magnetic elements, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. The scientists caution storms of this strength can impact satellites, radio transmissions and necessitate some voltage corrections in power supplies.

Historic Floods Continue to Devastate Missouri, United States

Significant portions of the United States remained under flood warnings on Wednesday morning as the fallout from a powerful storm system left their communities waterlogged.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in at least 18 states in the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast and Ohio Valley. Most of the warnings were concentrated in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, three of the states that received the highest rainfall totals during the recent storm.

According to the National Weather Service, the storm dropped six to 12 inches of rain across those three states and northwest Arkansas, where additional flood warnings were in effect.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said 379 river gauges across the country were in flood stage Wednesday morning, including 48 that reported “major flooding.” Those were down from Tuesday’s respective totals of 438 and 53, but that decline likely provided little relief to the regions that were still underwater, or where floodwaters were expected to rise.

Those river gauges don’t necessarily include lakes or other smaller bodies of water, like creeks or streams, that were also flooding. The rivers alone reached historic levels in several communities.

According to the NOAA, the Meramec River, which runs just south of Saint Louis, had already surpassed its record crests in two different locations on Wednesday morning. That included a whopping 45.33-foot total near Eureka, which was about 2.5 feet above a 33-year-old record and more than 25 feet above the threshold for what the NOAA considers to be major flooding. The waters were expected to continue to rise, reaching an all-time high of 46.2 feet later Wednesday.

Those rising waters were also forcing some mandatory evacuations and road closures.

City officials in Valley Park, Missouri, ordered residents to leave their homes and seek higher ground as the Meramec River reached 40 feet, according to the city’s Facebook page. The Missouri Department of Transportation shut down a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 44 near St. Louis because of flooding, according to a news release. That road is expected to be closed several days.

The National Weather Service reported that Union, Missouri, received more than a foot of rain in the storm. According to the NOAA, the Bourbeuse River reached a historic height of 34.31 feet on Tuesday before receding to 29.3 feet on Wednesday morning. Still, that was three feet above the threshold for major flooding in the city, located some 55 miles southwest of Saint Louis.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard, according to a news release from his office. The National Guard will assist evacuation efforts, as well as ensure traffic stays away from the numerous closed roads. Floods have killed 13 people in the state alone, according to the governor’s office, 12 of whom died when rushing waters swept vehicles off roads. St. Louis County officials also declared a countywide state of emergency, writing in a news release that the waters trapped people in businesses and homes.

Some locations along the Mississippi River were also expected to see record flooding, according to the NOAA. But even in areas where records weren’t broken, the waters were still very high.

The NOAA indicated there was major flooding along several rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Minor or moderate flooding was occurring in parts of the southeast.

Earthquakes Rattle Southern California, British Columbia

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake during rush hour on Tuesday evening triggered multiple aftershocks in southern California, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The initial quake occurred at 5:48 p.m. local time about 2.5 miles outside of Devore, California, a small community in San Bernardino County. Three aftershocks followed within 30 minutes, the USGS reported, and a fifth earthquake occurred at 6:14 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

According to the USGS, the initial quake was widely felt throughout the greater Los Angeles area though there were no reports of significant damage. The aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 2.7 to 3.8, were not as widely felt, though they still caused some light shaking in the Devore area.

San Bernardino is located about 12 miles southeast of Devore. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan wrote on his Twitter page that no damage or injuries had been reported to the department, though the earthquake did set off several alarms. Police were responding to those.

Meanwhile, the USGS also indicated that a magnitude 4.8 earthquake occurred about 11 miles outside of Victoria, British Columbia, late Tuesday night. There were no significant aftershocks.

The quake, which occurred at 11:39 p.m., caused light-to-moderate shaking in parts of Canada and throughout northwest Washington, the USGS said. There were no reports of heavy damage.

Victoria is located on an island off the Canadian mainland. While the earthquake did occur in a coastal area, The National Tsunami Warning Center said there was not any threat of a tsunami.

Coalition Kills ISIS Leader With Alleged Ties to Paris Mastermind

An Islamic State official with close ties to the leader of the Paris terrorist attacks was killed, a spokesman for the United States-led coalition against the terrorist organization said Tuesday.

Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, wrote on his verified Twitter account that Charaffe al Mouadan died on Dec. 24. Warren wrote Mouadan, who was based in Syria, had “a direct link” to Adbelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of last month’s deadly attacks.

Warren said al Mouadan “was actively planning attacks against the west,” but did not elaborate.

The Islamic State has said it was responsible for executing the Nov. 13 attacks, during which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people at various locations throughout Paris.

Authorities are still searching for accomplices, and several countries have ramped up their military operations in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to shut down the terrorist organization.

Al Mouadan was one of 10 Islamic State leaders that coalition airstrikes killed in the past month, Warren told reporters at a news briefing. He said several of those killed were planning attacks.

“As long as ISIL external attack planners are operating, the U.S. Military will hunt them and kill them,” Warren wrote on his Twitter page, using a different name for the terrorist organization.