This year, for National Heatstroke Prevention Day, there is a lot of focus on children perishing in the back seats of cars. Based on my research, the root problem is that children are stuck in the back seat due to unnecessary passenger side airbags. Three weeks ago, I wrote the above piece for this blog after a child heat death occurred outside of Wichita. I strongly recommend removing passenger side airbags. Details here .

An unusually heavy rain event is likely  between today and noon Saturday.  As much as eight inches, total, could occur in spots with flash flooding the result.  The Kansas City metro area is especially at risk with the heaviest single rainfall event forecast for tonight.  Moderate rains have already fallen in some areas. Here is the rainfall up to 7am this morning. If you encounter flooding, remember: Turn around, don't drown.

This is amazing. Contact lenses that zoom in and out. Story here .

Yep. Details here . Have these people -- allegedly concerned about humans putting CO2 into the atmosphere -- ever heard of Skype?

9:45pm Tuesday. "Fake Temperatures" post deleted.  My thanks to Zeke Hausfather for pointing out an error in my comparison between the USCRN and the GISS data. For those of you who read the post before it was deleted, the correct information is here.  My point that the USCRN should be the only U.S. climate network referenced going forward remains valid.  That said, I apologize for my error. 

I played Candyland  over and over with my children as they were growing up. It was created for children who were polio victims. Fascinating article for its 70th anniversary .

A fascinating article about an unsung hero of science . An excerpt: Doctors were missing signs that a baby was, for example, starved of oxygen, a factor in half of newborn deaths. Some doctors assumed that babies that were underweight or struggling to breathe should be left to die. “It was considered better not to be aggressive. You dried them, you shook them and some doctors patted them on the backside and that was it,” said Professor Alan Fleischman, professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.  There was a dire need for a system that checked vital signs, such as heartbeat and breathing rate, from the minute a baby was born. That way, the appropriate special care could be put into place before it was too late.  Virginia’s eureka moment occurred one morning while she was having breakfast in the hospital canteen. One of her medical students asked her how to evaluate newborn babies’ wellbeing. Virginia replied, “That’s easy. You would do it li

Last week's rainfall. click to enlarge And, here is the forecast rainfall for the rest of this week.

Yes, Wichita. " Wichita isn't nearly as braggy as it could be about its incredible arts scene ." Last week, we took my son's sister-in-law and her sons, who were visiting for a concert, out for casual dining. We took them to: Piacasso's Pizza . Milkfloat (dessert restaurant). Tanya's Soup Kitchen .  To say they were pleasantly surprised about these dining options was putting it mildly.  Come and see us before the kids go back to school!

June 15 over eastern Kansas

...while the great reviews keep rolling in. Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather   is an uplifting, non-technical read that will both inspire and inform. It is the perfect book for that late summer vacation. 

The busiest day in commercial airline history.

I have been working with the Irlen Clinic  for the central United States which is in east Wichita. They do some very fine work with children who have difficulty reading and with arithmetic. There are no drugs associated with their treatment. If you know a child with those issues, please click here for an overview .

Photo of United Airlines' check-in area at the Honolulu Airport I love this story. American and United are such crappy airlines that they cannot compete with foreign carriers. So, they try to grease the skids with President Trump directly to see if he will stop their foreign competitors. What happened next is delicious . Hey American and United: FIX YOUR AIRLINES and you won't have to worry about the competition because customers will actually want to fly on them!!

Geez. I'm certain gluing oneself to a door will improve the global climate. Addition: Another question, how is it these left-wing activists -- whether it is this, the Kavanaugh hearing, or whatever -- seem to always be able to get through the supposedly tight security at the Capitol? You or I would be arrested if we tried this.

Hi everyone, I'm Mindy East, head of Baron Ridge Productions and I represent Mike Smith's speaking business . If you are a planner working on a meeting, please give me a call. Mike is in demand literally from New York to San Diego and we will work to put together the perfect presentation for your meeting that will educate and inspire -- while, making you look good. So, give me a call and let's talk. You'll be glad you did!

Great story by a Democratic party-affiliated professor and how he came not  to believe that global warming is a crisis . He's right. A warmer climate, so far, has been a net benefit.

...was discussed by the administrator of NASA and other heavyweights in Wichita yesterday. Details here . Also, here . You may be surprised by what they say.

...regarding the tornado warning for Cape Cod this evening (radar at that time, below), with "We didn't have tornado warnings in Massachusetts before climate change," keep in mind that one of the worst tornadoes in U.S. history occurred in Massachusetts . New England Historical Society It killed 94. And, six died in Vermont later that same day. Bottom line: there is nothing unprecedented about a tornado warning in Massachusetts. 

Taken yesterday evening in the Kansas Flint Hills  While many areas could use a good rain, the next five days should be dry with low humidity -- ideal summer weather. The above graphic shows no rain or less than .05 inches throughout the central Great Plains through the end of the week.

If you have never read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff ,  now -- with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 -- would be the perfect time to do it. There is one caveat based on what we have learned since the book was written: the author was too tough on the late Gus Grissom. The Kansas Cosmosphere raised Grissom's sunken capsule and they learned that Grissom's account of the hatch "just blowing" was true . Regardless, the book is terrific. And, my all-time favorite compliment about my book, Warnings,  was when it was favorably compared to The Right Stuff  by critic Tom Fuller . So, read TRS and then read Warnings  and you'll end your summer with two great books!

A fascinating story I was not aware of. From the Capital Weather Gang .

According to the NWS's Storm Prediction Center, there is a significant risk of tornadoes in Kansas late this afternoon (the brown area) and, more likely, early this evening. This includes Topeka, Manhattan, Salina, Abilene and Peabody. Please keep an eye on the weather in these areas, especially after 2pm.

Answer: Cumulonimbus Decongestus. [a meteorologist joke]

This morning, more than 750,000 people in two states are without electricity as a result of last night's storms. It may be days before all of them have electricity again (keep in mind that one customer = 3.5 people). Addition: Some of yesterday's damage. Resume original posting: On this blog and elsewhere yesterday, meteorologists were urging people to prepare. While we cannot prevent the damage storms like this create, we can help people mitigate their effects. I believe you'll agree the above was good advice in view of the extensive damage created.  Please take weather forecasts and corresponding recommendations seriously. 

Including the forecast of widespread power failures. About 72,000 customers are without power. That is about 250,000 people. It will be quite a while before they all have power again.

Tornadoes and a derecho -- which is a long-lived, destructive windstorm -- are forecast for the Upper Midwest. Tornado Risk The significant threshold is the brown, 5%, area. The 15% is a high risk of tornadoes. The hatched area is where violent tornadoes are forecast to occur. Damaging Thunderstorm Winds On this map, the significant threshold is the yellow (15%). The peak probability is 45%, which is high risk of damaging winds of more than 60 mph. The hatched area is where thunderstorm winds gusts of more than 75mph are forecast to occur. Recommended Actions In this situation, the tornadoes and thunderstorms will move quickly. So, you will need to begin monitoring the weather and gathering children and friends/relatives who need assistance getting to shelter when a tornado or severe thunderstorm watch is issued.  Power failures are likely and some could last an extended period of time. Charge your phone and computer throughout the day but take then off the charger befor

Hat Tip:  Instapundit. Read this cautionary tale from Marketwatch   here . Especially given the ability to edit photos in a nearly seamless way, I think anyone who wants to have a future in public service or management would be crazy to use this app.

I can hardly believe what I just read: the National Weather Service (NWS) is going to extend its awful 'impact-based' tornado warning concept to its flash flood warnings. There is so much wrong with this, I hardly know where to begin. Before we go further, I am basing what I am writing about the new flash flood warnings on  NBC News'  and  The Washington Post's  coverage of this announcement. "Impact-Based" (paraphrasing: 'you will die if not in shelter') tornado warnings (IBW) were/are designed to scare people into taking action (since their introduction, they've toned down the language just a bit). The motivation for IBW was the National Weather Service's failure to grasp what actually went wrong in the Joplin Tornado catastrophe. In the wake of the worst death toll in more than sixty years, the worst of the tornado warning era, the NWS issued a highly flawed report (and that characterization is giving them the benefit of the doubt) abo

click to enlarge I'm happy to report the heat wave of 2019 will break soon.

The good news is that Saturday evening's power failure in NYC was relatively small. The bad news is that we are building windmills rather than upgrading and securing (from terrorism) the United States' electrical grid. In fact, renewables make the grid less  reliable . There is a good essay on the subject here . The bottom line: we need to get started.

Posted on Twitter a few minutes ago. Notice how the tweet states that global warming will  (no doubt expressed) make hot droughts worse. Yet, if you go to the actual Abstract of the paper, it states something very different. Although the link between droughts and heat waves is widely recognized, how climate change affects this link remains uncertain. This seems hardly seems as certain as the tweet would indicate. The Abstract goes on to state: Applying a statistical model that is based on pair-copula constructions, we find that anthropogenic warming leads to enhanced soil moisture–temperature coupling in water-limited areas of the southern Great Plains and/or southwestern United States and consequently amplifies the intensity of extreme heat waves during severe droughts.   The above stated another way:  during a drought, daily temperatures are raised due to baked soil (something every Great Plains farmer has known since day one) per another climate model study. The climate

The Biggest Bust in the History of Science?? Oh, good grief. Noted climatotologist, Prince Charles, tells us we only have 18 months to save the world. Yet another global warming "tipping point." Six years ago, I wrote a piece for the blog called Tipsy From Tipping Points . As that article documented, the global warming doomster tipping points go back to 1989. Yet, here we are: Agricultural production sufficient for the world's population. The lowest level of extreme poverty in the history of the world.  Weather and climate deaths at the lowest level ever. In the history of science, has there ever been a bigger bust than the forecasts of doom of the last 30 years??