June 30th, 2009 at 6:47 pm by Kevin Orpurt under Weather
This is a week full of festivals and fireworks. The question is, how will it shape up? I’m not too concerned about a slight chance for rain tonight, but the weekend might bring a better change for rain. Don’t worry, though, rain this time of year tends to be widely scattered, so don’t cancel your plans. However, an umbrella might be a handy item to have.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:00 am by David Wire under Weather
Partly cloudy skies will be around today with scattered rain showers in northeastern Indiana. A 20% chance for scattered rain exists here this afternoon, tonight, and tomorrow but most of the rain will stay to our northeast. Temperatures will stay cooler than average topping out near 80° today, into the upper 50’s tonight, and only into the mid 70’s for Wednesday afternoon.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:24 am by David Wire under Weather
Mostly sunny skies will be around today with gusty west winds. Temperatures stay comfortable today topping out in the lower 80’s and will cool off into the upper 50’s tonight. Partly cloudy skies will be around for Tuesday with a 20% chance for scattered rain showers. Temperatures again stay pleasant and below average topping out in the upper 70’s near 77° Tuesday afternoon.
June 28th, 2009 at 5:48 pm by Pamela Gardner under Weather
Today felt cooler than it has been in a while. Temperatures were in the mid 80s and there was a west, northwesterly breeze bringing in mild air.
Tonight expect clear skies, and a mild low of 58. Breezy with the wind from the west at 10mph.
Tomorrow will be mostly sunny and a little cooler than today. Highs in the lower 80s and winds up to 20mph, with gusts of 30mph.
Tomorrow night, the wind will subside a bit, out of the west at 15mph. It will be a mostly clear night with lows in the upper 50s.
Looking ahead to the week, Tuesday will have highs in the mid 70s, and a chance for pop up showers and storms in the afternoon. Same for Wednesday. Then partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid 80s Thursday through the 4th of July.
June 27th, 2009 at 6:58 pm by Pamela Gardner under Weather
Tonight will become partly cloudy ahead of a cold front. This front will give us a chance for scattered thunderstorms, strong wind, and cooler temps for next week. Tonight’s low will be 68 with wind from the southwest at 10mph.
Tomorrow scattered showers will linger until midday, then the skies will be mostly clear. High of 85 wind from the northwest at 20mph, gusting up to 30mph.
Sunday night will be mostly clear, mild and breezy…low of 59, wind from the west at 10mph.
Looking ahead to the week, cooler temperatures and less humidity. Scattered thunderstorms on Tuesday only, otherwise mostly sunny and highs in the low to mid 80s.
June 26th, 2009 at 5:57 pm by Kevin Orpurt under Weather
Heat will continue to be a problem this weekend, as will poor air quality. Only slightly less humid conditions will be with us, but a chance for storms Saturday night will end the break in the humidity (and that’s only a slight break
)!
June 26th, 2009 at 5:13 am by David Wire under Weather
Mostly sunny skies will again be around today with temperatures climbing back into the lower 90’s. Mostly clear skies are expected tonight as temperatures drop into the upper 60’s. Saturday looks to be the warmest day of the week as temperatures warm up into the mid 90’s near 95° under mostly sunny skies. Rain showers move in for Saturday night and Sunday with temperatures expected to be less humid and slightly cooler for Sunday through next week.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:03 pm by Kevin Orpurt under Kevin Orpurt's Blog
For quite some time, I have written about the implications of urban development and how it may impact ‘global warming’, flooding, water shortages and famine. Now, an article from The Daily Galaxy echoes my previously stated concerns and offers some startling information to consider:
Imagine a planet dominated by cities like Mega-City One, a megalopolis of over 400 million people across the east coast of the United States, featured in the Judge Dredd comic or “San Angeles,” formed from the joining of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and the surrounding metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake featured in the 1993 movie “Demolition Man.”
Don’t hold your breath: the 21st century will soon have 19 cities with populations of 20 million or more.
The history of the human species is a history of migration. In 1000 A.D. Cordova, Spain was the largest city. By 1500, Bejing began its rise to power, and 300 years later it was the first city to be over a million people. By 1900 London emerged the world’s supercity with over 6 million people. In 1950 New York was proclaimed the first “megacity” with a population of over 10 million people in the greater metropolitan area.
How is increasing mass urbanization affecting the quality of life? 1.4 million people are moving into cities each week. How will this vast migration change the way we live and die; how we treat the elderly, the poor, the way work, trade, learn, the way we eat, consume, recycle, power, engineer, innovate?
“While some say the world is flat, supercities are rising – vast, intensely urban hubs will radically redefine the world’s future macroeconomic and cultural landscape. Most of the world’s population right now lives and works in cities. Many more will. It’s critical to gain a truer understanding of what’s happening: the rise of supercities is the defining megatrend of the 21st century,” says futurist Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the TED Conference and 19 20 21.org -devoted to the effect of mass urbanization on the planet.
In 1800 only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities; 47% by the end of the twentieth century. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; by 2007, this had risen to 468 urban areas of more than one million.
If the current trend continues, the world’s urban population will double every 38 years. The UN forecasts that today’s urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities. By 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, up from about 50% right now.
The world’s population of “slum” dwellers increases by 25 million every year. The majority of these numbers come from the fringes of urban margins, located in legal and illegal settlements with insufficient housing and sanitation. This has been caused by the massive migration, both internal and transnational, into cities.
The greatest population increase will be most dramatic in the poorest and least-urbanized continents, Asia and Africa. Surveys and projections indicate that all urban growth over the next 25 years will be in developing countries, where one billion people, one-sixth of the world’s population, now live in slum-level conditions -breeding grounds for crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty and unemployment. By 2030, over 2 billion people in the world will be living in these mega-ghettoes.
In the video below Jon Kamen describes the impact of the rise of the cities in a” flat world.” It’s a fascinating, if not a pretty picture.
Posted by Casey Kazan.
June 25th, 2009 at 5:33 pm by Kevin Orpurt under Weather
After a number of days of heat and humidity, there doesn’t appear to be much relief for the weekend. A very weak cold front may drift through, but it won’t cool us off much. It may, however, lessen the humidity a little.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:10 am by Ryan Oilar under Healthy Living
If you’re like most active people, you stay within a certain effort when you train. This can be running, swimming, biking, walking, elliptical…whatever. That effort becomes extremely comfortable for you and you can maintain it for a large amount of time. Most would call this your aerobic training zone. But, the human body is an amazing machine and it will, over time, adapt to those levels. This adaptation makes the benefits and improvements that you once saw in training or weight loss minimal. This low-end effort is great for fat burning, but for added benefits, try mixing in some high intensity efforts. These bursts only need to be 20-30 seconds long. Try 4-6 of them within a “normal” workout. This will tax other systems in your body and you will boost your fat burning! Once or twice a week is all you need to mix things up. Afterall, variety is the spice of life.