Are You Ready For A Major Power Outage? – Series Part 1

Learn what you should have ready in case the lights go out for an extended period.

Have you considered how your life would freeze to a standstill if a general outage cut electric power for more than two or three days? As every summer arrives, it’s a question more and more people ask, because demand for electric power is growing inexorably, and summertime is when the grid always gets strained to the max. Many experts say all it will take is one unusually bad heat wave and a single computer glitch. The last major outage happened in the summer of 2003, and it affected over 55 million people.

Once your cell phone’s battery runs down, how will you recharge it? Think you can run down to the local Starbucks to get some coffee (your coffeemaker is dead, remember) and recharge your laptop, cell phone, tablet, iPod, toothbrush and shaver? Think again. All your neighbors will have descended on that little coffee shop en masse because they’ll be without power too.

Here’s a list of but a few things that go away in the event of a general power outage:

            ·   Lights (obviously)

·     Heat and cooling — even gas heating requires electricity to pump the air

·     Baths and showers — no heat means cold washing (assuming you can get running water)

·     Medical support systems

·     Food storage — refrigerators and freezers

·     Food preparation — microwaves, stoves and ovens (even gas ovens use electricity)

·     Food availability — stores need electricity too

·     Entertainment — television and radio (not to mention video games)

·     Communication — cell towers and Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) exchanges require electricity

·     Gas for your automobile — gas pumps run on electricity

5 Things Everyone Misunderstands About Weather - Series Part 5

After centuries of weather forecasting study and research, the human race knows a thing or two about storms.  We know that hurricanes and typhoons will spin out of the oceans every summer and ravage certain coastlines.  We know that tornadoes will strike thousands of times per year, causing significant localized damage, and we generally know where they will appear and why.  We can even predict which years will bring particularly strong weather patterns and what those patterns will mean for farmers, ranchers and others.

But, the truth is, we don't know everything. At least the general population doesn't. In fact, although there is plenty of meteorological research out there for reference, a wide swath of the population clings to a number of weather myths that, although they sound correct, just aren't true. Earlier this month, AccuWeather.com set out to put some of these weather myths to bed by explaining some of the most widespread and misinformed. Click through this week to  earn fact from fiction.

Myth #5: Lightening doesn't strike the same place twice

Of course it doesn't, right? There is so much space out there for it to strike, why would lightening repeat?  But it does, according to AccuWeather. 
The Empire State Building gets struck repeatedly [on average of 100 times a year]. It all depends on how much an object sticks up in the sky.

5 Things Everyone Misunderstands About Weather - Series Part 4

After centuries of weather forecasting study and research, the human race knows a thing or two about storms.  We know that hurricanes and typhoons will spin out of the oceans every summer and ravage certain coastlines.  We know that tornadoes will strike thousands of times per year, causing significant localized damage, and we generally know where they will appear and why.  We can even predict which years will bring particularly strong weather patterns and what those patterns will mean for farmers, ranchers and others.

But, the truth is, we don't know everything. At least the general population doesn't. In fact, although there is plenty of meteorological research out there for reference, a wide swath of the population clings to a number of weather myths that, although they sound correct, just aren't true. Earlier this month, AccuWeather.com set out to put some of these weather myths to bed by explaining some of the most widespread and misinformed. Click through this week to learn fact from fiction.

 

Myth #4: Today's cars can drive safely through flood waters

It never fails during flood season to see news coverage of at least one driver who was been swept away after trying to drive through minor flood waters.  Truth is, as little as two feet of water can float a car.

 

 

5 Things Everyone Misunderstands About Weather - Series Part 3

After centuries of weather forecasting study and research, the human race knows a thing or two about storms.  We know that hurricanes and typhoons will spin out of the oceans every summer and ravage certain coastlines.  We know that tornadoes will strike thousands of times per year, causing significant localized damage, and we generally know where they will appear and why.  We can even predict which years will bring particularly strong weather patterns and what those patterns will mean for farmers, ranchers and others.
 

But, the truth is, we don't know everything. At least the general population doesn't. In fact, although there is plenty of meteorological research out there for reference, a wide swath of the population clings to a number of weather myths that, although they sound correct, just aren't true. Earlier this month, AccuWeather.com set out to put some of these weather myths to bed by explaining some of the most widespread and misinformed. Click through this week to learn fact from fiction.

Myth #3: Red sky at night, sailor's delight...

Kinda true, kinda not.

 

The idea behind the classic axiom -- "red sky at night sailor's delight, red sky in morning sailors take warning" -- is that red skies are most common when the atmosphere is dry, meaning that it appears at night when the dry are is to the west. Dry air to the east means a red sky in the morning.  Since weather patterns in North America generally move from west to east, this stands up most of the time, but it isn't a guarantee because systems can move in any direction