All In One Boat

Sydney, Australia’s largest city, has a foreshadowing, anti-celebration, for climate change.

Throughout the city of about 4 million people, residents turned off the lights for one hour in an event organized by environmentalists and supported by Sydney city officials, the New South Wales state government and thousands of businesses.

Restaurants throughout the city announced candlelight-only specials, and families gathered in parks and other public places to take part in a countdown to lights out, sending up a cheer when the switch was flicked at 7:30 p.m. local time.

Saturday’s event kicked off a campaign to encourage Sydney residents to conserve energy by turning off lights, computers and other electrical equipment when they’re not being used — steps that could cut Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent a year.

Lights out in Sydney

“Average temperatures in California rose almost one degree Celsius (nearly two degrees Fahrenheit) during the second half of the 20th century, with urban areas blazing the way to warmer conditions, according to a new study by scientists at NASA and California State University, Los Angeles. ”

Golden State turning Crispy

[thx Agonist and Stirling Newberry]

Tornadoes have swept through Holly, Colorado today, described as “massive,” with all the reportable carnage. I am reminded of the news last week when Clovis, New Mexico was ripped up and the little side-bar.

Tornadoes are common in eastern New Mexico but they might have hit early this year, said Tim Shy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

“We normally would get the first one no later than the middle of April — tax day,” he said.

[Dateline: March 24]

Tornadoes Hitting Early

And that “earliness” is the important part of this news.

Last week, inspectors in Tokyo saw what everyone was waiting for — at least six cherry blossoms on one of the talismanic trees on the grounds of sacred Yasukuni Shrine. They proclaimed “sakura season” officially under way.

Early again. As usual.

The beginning of sakura has been creeping up on the Japanese in recent years. This year’s start was eight days earlier than the average in Tokyo over the last half-century, part of a pattern that many scientists here attribute to global warming.

Climate change “would contribute to the speeding up of the flowering,” said Hiroshi Nagata, professor emeritus of Mie University who has been studying trees for 40 years and says the season is undeniably starting earlier.

Warmer temperatures are also changing the distribution of the species, he says, noting that the habitat of the somei yoshino species that is identified with cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto may be retreating northward, to the colder climate it needs to blossom.

Cherry Blossom Flower Early

While in the Sierra Nevada the timing was so far off the water content missed the wind train.

The water content in the Sierra snowpack is at its lowest level in nearly two decades, leading to concern that California may not be able to fulfill its water obligations to cities and farms if dry conditions persist for another year. …

The water content in the snowpack along the 400-mile-long range averaged 46 percent of normal. That’s the lowest level since 1990, when it was 40 percent of normal.

Water Content Down