Billion Dollar Weather Disasters

Climate change is taking it's toll, every year the varying cycles or oscillations, whether it is "La Nina" or "El Nino" alternately causes floods, drought and or heightened storm activity.

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, has released data from years of it climate data.

Here is the first graph showing information from 1980 to the present.  (click image below to enlarge)

The next image shows number of significant events, notice that PA has 17-24 events. Looking at the previous graph you can see that the number of events has increased in the last 25 years.

Looking at this information, it would be wise not to ignore the possibility of a serious weather event.
This week alone, Scotland had category 5 hurricane force winds, we are talking of winds from 100 to 165 Miles per hour!     (Data from NOAA http://www.noaa.gov/extreme2011/compare.html  )


Now I would like to ask folks to take a pic of any local weather event and send them by email to us.  We would like to post the pic and give credit to our readers.  Send your weather pics  to: feedback@theweathervane.us

In the email please include the folowing;

• Your name (the photographer,)
• If you want us to post the picture with your name publicly (your permission) or anonymous
• The time and date of the weather event
• Basic location of the picture taken, (Intersection, town city, state)

Updated Flood Maps & Daylight Savings Time

As I wrote before regarding flood awareness, I mentioned about homeowners should reevaluate the need for Flood insurance.  Yesterday I received in the mail a copy of the Horsham Township report, which clearly states that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued new maps to replace the ones listed out there that are 14 years old.  I suggest for anyone residing in Montgomery County or anywhere else that has been affected recently by flooding, to contact your local Township Building and review the new Flood Maps.  This is needed to determine the rate you would pay for flood insurance.

Another reminder, that November 6th is when we turn the clocks back one hour (if not done automatically)

For more information about flooding visit.  www.fema.gov or www.floodsmart.gov

Thank you for reading my blog, and don't forget to return for more..