Length of time without rain to significantly rise in some world regions

Through the finish from the twenty-first century, certain parts around the globe can get as much as 30 more days annually without precipitation, according to a different study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC North Park scientists.

Ongoing global warming triggered by human influences will affect the character of methods snow and rain falls areas which are vulnerable to dry conditions will get their precipitation in narrower home windows of your time. Computer model forecasts of future conditions examined through the Scripps team indicate that regions like the Amazon . com, Guatemala, Indonesia, and all sorts of Mediterranean climate regions all over the world will probably begin to see the finest rise in the amount of "dry days" each year, not having rain for as much as thirty days more each year. California, using its Mediterranean climate, will probably have 5 to 10 less damp days each year.

This analysis advances a trend in climate science to know global warming on the amount of daily weather as well as on finer geographic scales.

"Alterations in concentration of precipitation occasions and time period of times between individuals occasions may have direct effects on plant life and soil moisture," stated Stephen Jackson, director from the U.S. Department from the Interior Southwest Climate Science Center, which co-funded the research. "(Study lead author Suraj) Polade and co-workers provide analyses that'll be of considerable value to natural resource managers in climate adaptation and planning. Their study signifies an essential milestone in enhancing environmental and hydrological predicting under global warming."

Polade, a postdoctoral investigator at Scripps, stated that certain from the implications of the finding is the fact that annual rain fall turn into less reliable in drying out regions as annual earnings is going to be calculated on the more compact length of time. The 28 models utilized by they demonstrated agreement in lots of parts around the globe around the alternation in the amount of dry days individuals regions will get. These were in less agreement about how exactly intense rain or snow is going to be if this does fall, although there's general consensus among appliances probably the most extreme precipitation will end up more frequent. Climate models agreed less how the conflicting daily changes affect annual mean rain fall.

"Searching at alterations in the amount of dry days each year is a different way of focusing on how global warming will affect us which goes beyond just annual or periodic mean precipitation changes, and enables us to higher adjust to and mitigate the impacts of local hydrological changes," stated Polade, a postdoctoral investigator who works together with Scripps climate researchers Serta Cayan, David Pierce, Alexander Gershunov, and Michael Dettinger, who're co-authors from the study.

In regions such as the American Southwest, where precipitation is in the past infrequent where a few storms more or less can produce a wet or perhaps a dry year, annual water accumulation varies. Home loan business precipitation frequency means much more year-to-year variability in freshwater assets for that Southwest.

"These profound and clearly forecasted changes make physical and record sense, but they're invisible when searching at lengthy-term trends in average climate forecasts," Gershunov stated.

Other regions around the globe, many of which are climatologically wet, are forecasted to get more frequent precipitation. Most such regions are this is not on land or are largely not inhabited, the equatorial Gulf Of Mexico and also the Arctic prominent included in this.

The authors claim that follow-up studies should stress more fine-scale analyses of dry day occurrences and work at comprehending the myriad regional factors that influence precipitation.

"Climate designs include enhanced greatly within the last ten years, which enables us to appear at length in the simulation of daily weather as opposed to just monthly earnings," stated Pierce.

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For those without power, patience wears thin, tempers flare

Across the Midwest and up and down the East Coast, millions of people are living without power.

By Cliff Owen, AP

Linemen from Gulf Power of Pensacola, Fla., work to replace downed power lines in Middleburg, Va., July 3.

By Cliff Owen, AP

Linemen from Gulf Power of Pensacola, Fla., work to replace downed power lines in Middleburg, Va., July 3.

And they are not happy about it.

More than 900,000 households remain without power early Wednesday in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio, the states hardest hit by the storm Friday night that packed 80-mph winds.

Residents are waiting for power in homes where the heat has risen to 90 degrees. Many have tossed away hundreds of dollars worth of food and sought shelter in hotels.

All the while, they seethe toward electric utility companies they say are taking way too long to make repairs and have not been responsive to their concerns. In Washington, D.C., there are calls to investigate how the local public utility responded to the emergency.

"All the people in my neighborhood are extremely frustrated," says David Scholl, a Bethesda, Md., lawyer who has been without power since Friday. He says Pepco, the electric company that provides service to his D.C. suburb, has been unresponsive.

He says the company provides conflicting information on its website and through its hotline. Over the course of five hours on Tuesday, he says the company went from reporting no outages in his neighborhood to two customers affected to 602 customers affected.

He says at least once a year he loses electricity for several days because of some weather event. And he doesn't understand why.

"Nobody holds Pepco accountable," he says. "This is business as usual."

Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson says no one expected the storm's severity. The majority of Washington, D.C.-area customers are expected to have power by 11 p.m. Friday.

"This was not a storm where tree limbs just fell on our wires," Anderson says. "This was a storm where large mature trees were uprooted and lifted and just thrown into our poles — snapping our poles in half and wrapping our high-voltage wires around homes, businesses and cars."

Power companies that serve the Midwest and East Coast say they are working as quickly as possible, but repairing power lines and transmission stations takes time.

"When trees take down wires and poles come down, we have to physically replace the poles and put those wires back on those poles," Scott Surgeoner, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, which serves Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey.

He says as many as five times the normal amount of the company's regular workers were out working on the restoration efforts.

American Electric Power, which provides service for Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky, said 667,000 customers remained without power on Tuesday. That's down from 1.4 million after the storm, says spokeswoman Terri Flora.

She says most customers can expect to have their power back by this weekend. She says 306 transmission stations, which are mostly in fields or mountains and carry up to 785,000 volts of electricity to smaller stations that distribute electricity to communities, went down during the storm.

She counseled patience.

But customers say they are running out of it.

Jenna Hatfield, 31, of Cambridge, Ohio, has been without power since Friday. She, her husband, Josh, and their children, Nicholas, 6, and Parker, 4, were vacationing in North Carolina when the storms hit and drove home through a very dark West Virginia, she said.

Five days later, all the food in the refrigerator and freezer spoiled. She's heard she won't get power back until July 8.

"I'm very frustrated at this point," she says. "Nobody seems to think that we are a priority. I really don't think it should take over a week to restore power. Two to three days is an inconvenience. Over a week, you're messing with my livelihood."

Hatfield, editor for BlogHer.com, says she's had to take her children to work with her at a friend's house to get some air conditioning and do her job.

The family has a generator, which they use to plug in two fans, the refrigerator and a light at night.

She says American Electric Power needs to find another way to release information, other than online, because most affected people do not have access to the Internet.

Serena Golden, 25, of Washington, D.C., had power throughout the storm, but lost it Sunday night. She doesn't know why or when it will come back.

"I have so little information," says Golden, an associate editor at Inside Higher Ed. "It does make me mad because I feel like there's nothing I can do."

The Fourth of July holiday and the heat wave — when temperatures are expected to reach 99 degrees on Thursday — are making things worse, she says. There's also a looming rate increase from Pepco.

"It seems like if you want to charge even more money then you should provide even better service," she says.

While they wait, Golden and her three housemates avoid the upstairs rooms.

"None of us has been able to sleep because it's so hot," Golden said. "My housemates are really upset and angry — we're all pretty unhappy."

In D.C., Councilwoman Mary Cheh says she plans to ask the council's public services and consumer affairs committee as well as the district's public service commission, which oversees Pepco, to launch an investigation into how Pepco handled the storm-recovery efforts.

Cheh, who was without power for days after the storm, said she's received e-mails from frustrated residents. She said she wants to look into the company's response time during power outages, whether Pepco has enough staff and how it handles communications during emergencies.

"All we have is Pepco's generalities about the kind of job they did," says Cheh, who along with other council members met with Pepco on Tuesday. "I want something more in depth and reliable."

Relatives of seniors Jean and Ray Fitzgerald are boiling over Pepco's response. Anita Henck, of Los Angeles, and her son, Andrew, have scoured information online and called the utility's phone line every day to find out when her parents, who live in Bethesda, Md., will have their power restored.

It took the company three days to even post that a power outage occurred in Fitzgerald's neighborhood.

"Pepco's record of poor service is legendary," Anita Henck says. "But their lack of service for the elderly is disheartening."

Jean Fitzgerald is 79 and has breast cancer. She just started radiation therapy. Ray is 81. The temperature in their home reached 86 degrees in recent days. If it gets hotter, the couple will find a hotel, says Jean Fitzgerald.

A Depression-era baby born in the South and raised on a farm, Jean Fitzgerald says they are managing — for now.

"I don't want to live like this for many months," she says. "We have to be patient in this kind of thing and I know that, but sometimes patience wears thin."

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Millions find ways to cope without power after storms

PURCELLVILLE, Va. – With no power at his home, Morgan Smith has been sleeping on the floor where he works at Market Street Coffee. On Monday morning, the barista was joined by people who crowded into the café— one of the few places in this rural corner of Loudoun County with power and free, working Wi-Fi — to charge cellphones and work on their laptops.

By Jeanna Duerscherl, AP

David Robertson and Steve Jones fill their shopping cart with juice at the Mick-or-Mack IGA grocery store on July 2 in New Castle, Va.

By Jeanna Duerscherl, AP

David Robertson and Steve Jones fill their shopping cart with juice at the Mick-or-Mack IGA grocery store on July 2 in New Castle, Va.

Among them was Anna Novaes of nearby Lovettsville, who had spent the night in her basement and showered at a gym. "We've had to be creative," she said.

As record heat cooked states from Indiana to Maryland and more than 2 million people were still without power after weekend storms, the tired, the sleepless and the sweaty yearning for some cool found refuge in odd spots.

Nearly 2.7 million people in 11 states still lack power after a ferocious fast-moving storm, called a "derecho" for its straight-line winds, struck Friday. Authorities say 17 people died, many because of falling trees, as the storms traveled west to east. Power companies say full restoration will take until the end of the week.

The power failures complicated the Monday morning commute as drivers navigated around downed trees and did the four-way stop dance at knocked-out traffic lights. Adding to the aggravation, temperatures topped 100 in the South and hovered in the upper 90s elsewhere.

At The Vine Church in Dunn Loring, Va., air conditioning was a sure-fire inducement for expanding the flock. A hand-painted 3-foot-by-6-foot sign on its lawn beckoned: "We have A/C. Join us."

Power had roared back at the United Methodist church around midday Saturday, pastor Todd Schlechty said. He and his family had taken refuge there after enduring the heat at their powerless house. "If we don't have power, I figured a lot of other people didn't have power," he said.

So with assistance from his son, 8, and daughter, 12, Schlechty painted the sign and invited the community to partake of the cool air. And as things go in a modern-day ministry, Schlechty rigged extension cords and power strips in the sanctuary so people could recharge their electronics along with their spirits. "We had a lot of people come in with cellphones and tablets and laptops," he said.

Yesterday, in addition to worship services, the church organized a cookout and a kickball game. Families stayed until late in the evening, Schlechty said.

"The church is interested in being a help in the time of need," he said.

In the Washington metro area, the now powerless found themselves at loose ends as their BlackBerrys lost juice and their iPad batteries withered.

Simone Rathle of SimoneInk, the Bayou Bakery's public relations firm said that the snaking line of people who descended on the Arlington, Va., site, seconds after the doors opened wanted to know one thing — is the Wi-Fi working?

Bayou Bakery's chef David Guas on Monday offered two drinks designed to beat the heat, cold hibiscus ginger tea and Thai basil mint latté, at half-price along with the free Internet.

"They were slammed for hours," Rathle said.

Other restaurants in the area let customers know their power status on Twitter using the hashtag #WhatsOpen, Rathle said.

In Ohio, entire towns blacked out, but for a handful of emergency generators.

The hospital in Newark, a city of 40,000, got power Monday, but little else did. In nearby Granville, Denison University closed and sent students home. Still, the village's four-day July Fourth fair will go on as planned Wednesday, organizers said, powered by generators supplied by the amusement ride company.

The lack of air conditioning sent Terry Ann Grove, 71, on a trip down memory lane, but only for a moment.

"It makes me remember what life was like when I was a kid," Grove said as she bought ice, bread and peanut butter at one of a handful of open stores in Newark. "It's worse now because we're used to air-conditioning and McDonald's any time you want it."

Grove spent a day with a daughter who had power in Columbus, 45 minutes away, but she returned to be home even though power wasn't expected until this weekend. "That's what porches are for, I guess," she said.

Lines for gasoline, which lasted as long as an hour on the weekend, were gone by Monday. A custom of treating broken traffic lights as a four-way stop sign had taken over. And while most businesses and nearly all homes were without power, pockets of all services could be found within a 5- or 10-mile drive.

"It's hard on the wallet," said Becky Latham, a fast-food worker who will lose several days' pay because her restaurant is closed. "Less money earned and more money spent. That's what the storm brought me."

Others say they feel trapped by the heat and lack of power.

Emma Patrick, 91, said she feels like she's living inside a giant booby trap. When the storm tore through her town of Beckley, W.Va., on Friday, it toppled a tree onto her roof, bringing with it a tangle of electrical wires.

"These electrical wires are all in my house, all in my roof, all over the doors," Patrick said. "I just don't know what to do. I am terrified to move around because the tree is through the roof and the wires are connected to it."

The power is out, but she doesn't know whether the wires dangling from the rafters are live. Meanwhile, her food is rotting and she says she hasn't eaten in two days.

"What do you do? I am a nervous wreck. I am terrified. What if I die here?" Patrick said.

To the power company, Patrick is one of thousands in precarious, powerless situations. Nearly 60% of Appalachian Power's customers are without electric service as a result of Friday night's storm.

"The electric company is saying, 'You just have to wait,' " she said.

To pass the time, Patrick, who has cancer, says she prays.

"I don't have anywhere to go. I can't see the news. I can only pray to God," she said. "I am praying and asking God, 'Please Lord, don't let this house burn up.' "

Contributing: Dennis Cauchon in Granville, Ohio, and Natalie DiBlasio in McLean, Va.

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Thousands remain without power week after October snowstorm (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of homes remained in the dark on Sunday a week after a historic snowstorm paralyzed the Northeast and cut power to more than three million customers.

In Connecticut, more than 112,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers were still in the dark.

Governor Dannel Malloy said the power company was not going to meet its goal of 99 percent restoration in each city and town by midnight on Sunday.

Malloy has called for an investigation into the massive and lengthy power outages that peaked at more than 830,000 customers statewide without heat and electricity during the monster October snowstorm.

"As soon as everyone's lights are back on, we need to have a very timely, thorough review of the power companies' performances, to identify what went wrong, why it went wrong, and most importantly identify solutions for the short-term before the next winter storm impacts Connecticut," said Malloy in a statement.

The deadly snowstorm that barreled through the Northeast last weekend and dumped more than two feet of snow in parts of the region has been blamed for well over a dozen deaths.

In Masssachusetts, where about 11,000 customers remained in the dark, Attorney General Martha Coakley has also called for a formal investigation of the power companies' restoration efforts.

A couple thousand customers were still without power in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Power restoration crews were aided by dry and sunny weather over the weekend expected to continue into the upcoming week.

Temperatures across the Northeast were forecast to climb into the 60s by Tuesday, according to AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Tom Kines.

Some areas may reach 70 degrees on Tuesday or Wednesday, possibly challenging record highs, he said.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Midwest storms leave thousands without power (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power in the Midwest on Wednesday, a day after severe weather tore through the region and parts of the South.

A slow-moving storm system drenched the central part of the nation, bringing large hail and winds of up to 100 miles per hour from Chicago to Dallas, grounding planes, stranding passengers and delaying commutes in Chicago.

About 220,000 customers in Chicago and its suburbs were without power Wednesday afternoon, down from 430,000. Many could remain so for at least another day.

"We anticipate 90 percent will be restored by midnight tomorrow," said ComEd spokeswoman Tabrina Davis.

In Mount Prospect, a Chicago suburb, large trees snapped or were uprooted, and roofs were damaged, according to the National Weather Service. "This damage is consistent with straight line winds of 90 to 100 mph," the service said.

Commuters on Metra trains in the Chicago area experienced delays due to fallen trees and branches on tracks, as well as power outages that knocked out signals.

Airlines operating at O'Hare International Airport canceled more than 250 flights due to the storms and some flights were delayed, the Chicago Department of Aviation reported on Wednesday morning.

The severe weather hit hardest in Illinois, southeastern Wisconsin up into northern Indiana and southern Michigan, according to AccuWeather.com.

Tornado warnings were issued for parts of the Midwest ahead of Tuesday's storms.

Early storm reports included four possible tornado sightings in Minnesota and Wisconsin and several reports of funnel clouds, according to the weather service.

The agency said it was not yet clear if the sightings were multiple reports of the same potential twister.

Storm damage teams were in Blaine and Coon Rapids, Minnesota on Wednesday to assess the damage and determine if there were any tornadoes, spokesman Chris Vaccaro said.

As the storms track east, the threat for severe weather on Wednesday was expected to move into the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Paul Walker.

Residents in Tennessee also felt the wrath of severe weather as thunderstorms and high winds rolled across the region on Tuesday striking most intensely in Knoxville.

Thousands remained without power in that east Tennessee city on Wednesday.

Further south in Dallas more than 22,000 customers were without power after storms shattered a rain record set in 1926, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The severe weather is set to continue as high temperatures are expected to reach triple digits in Dallas and other areas of Texas and nearby states in the coming days.

Areas in Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Louisiana, Vermont and New York remain at risk from flooding, and thunderstorms, hail, and strong wind are forecasted across the country, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

(Reporting by Timothy Ghianni; Writing by Mary Wisniewski, Lauren Keiper and Molly O'Toole; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

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Storm lashes southern Michigan, 30,000 without power (Reuters)

DETROIT (Reuters) – Residents of southern Michigan were cleaning up on Monday after a violent storm ripped through the region, leaving at least 30,000 people without power, authorities said.

The Sunday storm hit northern Illinois with heavy rains and lightning, canceling at least 400 flights at Chicago airports, before raking a stretch of southern Michigan from Kalamazoo to Detroit. No deaths or injuries were reported, officials said.

The storm's 60-mile-per-hour winds drove heavy rain, uprooted hundreds of trees, ripped the roofs off buildings, and twisted billboards in and around Battle Creek, a city of 50,000 about 120 miles west of Detroit.

"As of right now we are going around taking trees off of houses, clearing out roadways, and pushing all of the debris aside so emergency vehicles can get to people who need it," said Tyler Upston, 24, who owns a landscaping business in Battle Creek. "Tomorrow we will start the full clean up."

About 34,000 people were still without power in Battle Creek's Calhoun County on Monday and "a significant number of Michigan residents are without power throughout the area hit by the storm," said Bob Dukesherer, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"The storm was racing and moving over 50 miles per hour at times and with that forward speed it comes up on you very quickly," Dukesherer said.

Upston was at a friend's lake house as the storm swept in.

"It looked like a huge blanket coming across the sky," Upston said. "The rain was coming harder than hard. Everything was kicking up. Scrubs and trees were flying everywhere. Lawn chairs were flying from one neighbor's house to another."

Skies on Monday were clear in the Midwest from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico as hot, humid air pushed temperatures into the low 90 degree range, forecasters said.

But they warned that conditions for possible severe thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes could return on Monday night in the central Plains and upper Midwest.

(Reporting by Eric Johnson; Editing by Peter Bohan)

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