MikJournal Monday 10/05/15

October is a beautiful month...most times. Don't tell that to residents in South Carolina and parts of North Carolina this morning. Late last week, forecast amounts of 15 - 20" for some unfortunate areas placed the region under siege. Days later, they were under water, with a few locations breaching 24".

"A once in a thousand year event." Okay, put it to rest already. It's another one of those 'sensational' expressions that is designed to misinterpret what the actual expression really means. Kinda like Polar Vortex, oh don't get me going about that, but the media loves that word combination.

Scientifically, there is a 0.1% chance that, in this case, flooding rains of this magnitude happen in any given year. Of course, the decimal equivalent of 0.1% is 0.001 or one-thousandth or one in a thousand. The expression 'once in a thousand year event' does not literally mean such an event will not happen again until the year 3015. It's just all about probabilities.

A couple of years ago, Boulder CO also experienced a once in a thousand year flood event.

Check out the latest snow cover map...more white recently.
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif


The map above does not show Alaska, but parts of the state saw  record snowfall ending the month of September.

But you know what? The weather for this week looks absolutely delightful. After an almost cold feel for the last few days, I think I can put winter off for a little bit longer.

MS