Trailer: The Buffalo Miracle is a Reminder of Weather Surprises to Come

New HBO movie has Josh Allen, Quarterback Of The Buffalo Bills, as Executive Producer. Fun fact, he’s married to actress Hailee Steinfeld, so that’s might explain how he got in the movie business.

The topic is a human story in the context of a severe weather event – a genre that might be getting new currency. An unprecedented Arctic weather event, currently unfolding, is a reminder that surprises are getting more common.

Webwire:

For three days in December 2022, a catastrophic blizzard with hurricane force winds and over four feet of snow caused a complete shutdown of infrastructure and emergency services in the Buffalo region. At the height of the storm on Christmas Eve, a longtime McDonald’s manager made a heroic decision to defy corporate rules and keep her restaurant open as a refuge for people who had lost power and needed food and warmth.

As police desperately try to rescue survivors in whiteout conditions, an unlikely group finds shelter inside the McDonald’s – an injured single father caring for his infant daughter, a young man with Down syndrome spending his first Christmas away from his mother, a bride-to-be and her fiancé separated from their families, and immigrant nail salon owners unable to speak a word of English.

As the deadly storm rages, the strangers gather around a laptop to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Chicago Bears, finding hope and comfort in a team that, like them, won’t make it home for Christmas morning.

American Meteorological Society:

The December 2022 snow was shocking, but not surprising. The pattern was easy enough to recognize, even 7–10 days earlier: a large high-pressure ridge forming over the western U.S., with a major trough in the east. “We knew something big was coming,” said Zaff. Five days before the storm, even low-resolution models suggested a major event. Four days ahead, the NWS started ringing the alarm bell. “We started saying, ‘A powerful storm will impact the region heading into the holiday weekend.’”

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Florida’s Severe Weather, Flooding on the Ground, Terror in the Air

Did climate enhanced weather extremes contribute to the crash of a LearJet in Florida yesterday?

Fox Weather reported ongoing storms as a “1000 year event”, while a business jet caught in a violent thunderstorm lost control, leading to this terrifying audio and video.

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Ethiopia’s EV Push Based on $ – Not Climate

Bloomberg video updates on the progress of Ethiopia’s world-leading EV transition.

We hear from Trump Energy Secretary and fossil fuel grifter Chris Wright about how much they care about the poor people in Africa, who want nothing more than to become dependent on unreliable and predatory US companies for their economic lifeline.

Turns out, what Ethiopians want is to be free from Fossil fuel blackmail, and they can’t afford to wait to make it happen.

Description:

In 2024, Ethiopia became the first country to ban imports of new gasoline-powered cars, and the main reason wasn’t global warming. Ethiopia was spending billions of dollars every year on imported fuel it couldn’t afford, and subsequently defaulted on its debt. Cheap hydropower from Africa’s largest dam made electric vehicles a practical alternative, and Chinese-made EVs — some assembled locally — quickly filled dealership lots. Today, Ethiopia’s EV share outpaces the global average. But sticker prices are too high for most, the grid remains patchy and armed conflict is flaring in the country and across the region. Can Ethiopia make its unprecedented bet on EVs pay off?

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Below, not just Ethiopia. Other African countries following the same logic to leapfrog the fossil fuel industry.

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Is Trump Planning the Mother of All Miscalculations?

Alarm bells ringing all over about Trump’s post election plans to expand an already catastrophic Oil war.

One way the fossil fuel industry could end civilization even faster than catastrophic climate change – would be if greed and delusional leaders drive an Oil war into a kinetic nuclear conflict.

Senator Chris Murphy (D – Connecticut) says he’s been briefed, and the plans being considered are madness.

WSAW (Wausau, Wisconsin)

The United States Army is now practicing mass battlefield graves, a practice not done since the Korean War.

The Army reported that soldiers in North Carolina completed a “test-of-concept” exercise for large-scale battlefield temporary interment.

“This exercise allowed us to take a critical look at how we respect, honor, and systematically manage our fallen in a high-intensity conflict,” said Sgt. 1st Class Delbert Ruede, the senior fatality management NCO for the 3rd CSC, in the release.

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Americans Paying Biggest Price for Hormuz Oil Shock

Graph: Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air

New York Times reports this morning that “The war with Iran has been very lucrative for American oil companies, which have earned more than $130 billion in profit as people pay much higher prices for gasoline, diesel and other fuel.”

Citing a Brown University Climate Lab study, the Times reported “As of this week, Americans had spent an extra $147 billion on gasoline and diesel since the United States and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28.”

Drill, Baby Drill does not get you what they want you to think it does.

Meanwhile a new study from a Finnish think tank adds that Americans have paid more in additional costs than any other country.

Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Finland):

This is because of America’s exceptional oil consumption due to high reliance on inefficient, oil-burning private vehicles and a slow transition away from petrol and diesel – leaving households, truckers and farmers particularly exposed to global fuel market shocks.

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UK Tells Citizens “Be Ready” for Climate, Energy Disruptions

The UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting has warned that citizens should be ready for emergencies related to climate extremes, or cyber attacks on energy infrastructure. According to the BBC, Streeter reminded the country of wildfires that burned this summer, and flooding expected this winter.

In response, many citizens are adopting some form of “prepper” lifestyle.

Just sayin’ – a lot of the needed preparations for any type of emergency involve accelerating the transition to clean, distributed energy.

BBC:

Some retailers have seen a dramatic increase in sales of essential goods after the government called for people to stock up in case of a crisis, according to figures obtained by Newsnight.

The Iceland supermarket chain said it was “clear” consumers had listened to warnings after it saw a 40% increase in sales of tinned products over the weekend.

The rise in sales came after Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said that people should stockpile goods to prepare for an emergency such as a cyber attack or an extreme weather event.

BBC:

Streeting said the public need to be prepared for “increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks” on businesses, or supply chain disruption caused by “hostile state actors or terrorists”.

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African Oil Rig Collapse Revives Memories of Deepwater Horizon

One dead and five missing as giant oil rig collapsed in the Atlantic off Gabon.

Yahoo News reported that “…a pollution response team had been deployed to protect the coastline and nearby Mayumba National Park.”

Because this rig was not in an active phase of extraction, and was in much shallower water than the infamous Gulf Oil Spill at Deepwater Horizon in 2010, the potential for that scale of catastrophe is remote.

But, oh yes, tell me again about the threat of offshore wind turbines.