Dan's Outside

I go, I see, I do, I walk, I think, I like…

Supressing the Facts

From The Daily Scoop:

The journal, Environmental Science and Technology …

The journal,
Environmental Science and Technology
(EST), reports that the White House has
actively repressed
a congressionally mandated study that examines the potential impacts of climate change on the U.S., noting that federal researchers are
explicitly forbidden from referring to the study
.

Begun in 1998 and completed in 2001, the
U.S. National Assessment
is the only study to broadly examine how global warming might affect communities in the U.S. Because of the subject matter, however, the assessment has been
mired in political controversy
since its release, and officials in the Bush Administration have sought to remove any reference to the report from publications coming out of their Climate Change Science Program (CCSP).

The report also says that
outreach efforts
intended to educate the public about climate change has been quashed by the White House.

– pat joseph [Daily Scoop]

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October 13, 2005 Posted by | Environment | Comments Off on Supressing the Facts

Sierra Fall Weather

When contemplating a late-season Sierra pack trip – say a season concluding mid-October trip – one has to think long and hard about forecasts like this one:

“WARMING TREND CONTINUING THROUGH THURSDAY IN THE HIGH COUNTRY WITH HIGHS NEAR 70 THURSDAY AND FRIDAY….UPPER TROF MOVING IN FRIDAY NIGHT WILL BE ACCOMPANED BY GUSTY WINDS FRIDAY EVENING AND RIDGE TOP GUSTS OF 100MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT….. WX TURNING MUCH COLDER SATURDAY WITH SNOW POSSIBLE IN THE HIGH COUNTRY AND EVEN IN THE TOWN OF MAMMOTH….UPPER PATTERN WILL SPLIT AND SO POSITION OF UPPER CUT OFF TO DETERMAN WHERE BEST PRECIP WILL BE. “”IF”” UPPER CUT OFF DEVELOPS LIKE 12Z NAM (ETA) THEN HIGH COUNTRY COULD GET GOOD SHOT OF SNOWFALL OVER THE WEEKEND…3 TO 6 INCHES POSSIBLE BY MONDAY AM. MAYBE 1 TO 3 IN TOWN…THIS IS JUST A “WAG” SO HANG IN THERE…UPDATE TOMORROW AM. [sic]

While October can be, as I’ve no doubt written here previously, wonderfully sunny and beautiful it can also turn in the opposite direction quite quickly – as it looks like it may do this weekend.

Last October I did a short trip to the Cathedral Lakes/Cathedral Peak area in Yosemite right about this time. (See here and here.) The weather was fine with the exception of a little afternoon snow flurry as we climbed a ridge.

However, friends who visited the area the following weekend encountered nice weather on Saturday, deteriorating weather in the evening followed by an incoming Sierra winter storm which closed most of the Sierra hiways.
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October 13, 2005 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on Sierra Fall Weather