Front Range Deluge

Heavy rains along the Colorado Front Range over the past three days have produced flooding from Colorado Springs to Ft. Collins; the worst of the flooding has been in and near Boulder where some foothill locations have received a foot of precipitation and where several canyon streams cut across the city.

This deluge is the product of three atmospheric factors: an upper level low over the Great Basin, high pressure over the Southern Plains and a cold front that dropped south across the High Plains.  Behind the latter, an easterly, upslope flow is pushing moisture toward the Front Range; in addition, monsoon moisture is flowing northward across eastern Colorado, pumped from the Gulf of Mexico and the Sea of Cortez by the combined effects of the Great Basin low and the Southern Plains high.  In the Northern Hemisphere, winds move counterclockwise around low pressure zones and clockwise around high pressure domes; in this case, those wind patterns are merging to sweep abundant moisture toward the north.  As that warm, moisture-laden air encounters the cold front, it rises and condenses, adding copious precipitation to the upslope flow behind the front.

Twelve days into September, Boulder has already set a precipitation record for any given month (exceeding the previous record of 9.6 inches in May, 1995).  Since periods of heavy rain are expected to continue over the next few days, that previous record will be shattered and the risk of flash flooding and mudslides will persist.

Giant Sequoias & Wildfire

During this active wildfire season in California, concerns have been raised about the possibility of damage to giant sequoia groves.  These trees, the largest (though not tallest) in the world, are native to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Range and are found primarily in 68 groves, all at elevations above 4500 feet.  Giant sequoias may exceed 300 feet in height and 50 feet in diameter though most never reach those extremes.

Despite public concerns, these giants, which can live for more than 3000 years, have long relied on wildfires for their survival.  Each mature tree harbors thousands of green cones which contribute to photosynthesis for up to 20 years or more before drying out and releasing their seeds; heat from wildfires is the primary trigger that opens the cones though beetles and Douglas squirrels also play a role.  Fibrous bark, up to three feet thick, protects the lower trunk of giant sequoias and wildfires may damage but rarely kill these trees; the risk of damage rises when fires are fueled by large amounts of dead wood, the result of repeated fire suppression.  Wildfire, which clears the understory and enriches the soil, is also vital to the germination and growth of sequoia seedlings.

Indeed, the primary threat to giant sequoias is regional human habitation which fuels a policy of fire suppression.  Fortunately, many of the largest groves are protected within National Parks and Monuments where natural wildfires and prescribed burns foster conditions that favor the survival of these majestic trees.

The Complex Anadarko Basin

A classic structural geologic basin, such as the Michigan Basin, is essentially a bowl within the deep, Precambrian basement rock into which younger layers of sediment have accumulated.  In that case, the deepest portion of the basin is near its center and, as layers of deposits fill the bowl over the eons, the youngest surface sediments end up above the center as well.

The Anadarko Basin, which covers 50,000 square miles of western Oklahoma, the northern Texas Panhandle and portions of southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado, is not your typical structural basin.  This basin initially formed above an aborted Precambrian rift and began to fill with Paleozoic sediments from the Cambrian into the Mississippian Periods (from 550 to 350 million years ago).  Compression of that region during the Pennsylvanian Period (about 300 MYA), in concert with the uplift of the Ouachita Mountains (a westward extension of the Southern Appalachians), deformed the basin by producing a shallower segment on its northern and western flanks.  Throughout the rest of the Pennsylvanian Period and into the Permian (250 MYA), the Anadarko Basin filled to its brim.  Today, the basin has an irregular topography, with a relatively shallow platform (2000 feet deep) on its western and northern rim and a very deep section along its southern edge; the latter, the deepest structural basin in North America, dips 40,000 feet below the rim of the basin.

The major source of natural gas in the United States and a significant source of oil as well, the Anadarko Basin poses a challenge for energy geologists.  Its irregular floor and steeply dipping layers of sediment make locations of oil and gas relatively hard to predict.  The Woodford Shale, for example, late Devonian to early Mississippian in age, is one of the primary sources of fossil fuel within the basin but has an average thickness of only 125 feet.  As one might expect, there is a great deal of controversy regarding future drilling opportunities within the Anadarko Basin but new technologies, including fracking, have significantly increased the prospects of success.  Of course, for those of us who support a shift toward clean, renewable sources of energy, this is not necessarily good news.

Late Summer Heat

After a relatively mild summer across the American Midwest, excessive heat has settled in over the past two weeks.  And, like an unwelcome houseguest, the late summer heat seems reluctant to leave.

High pressure, currently centered over Missouri, is responsible for the unseasonable temperatures, deflecting Pacific storm systems to the north and allowing intense sunshine to bake the region; afternoon highs have been in the mid to upper 90s (F), more than 15 degrees above average.  While precipitation was excessive in late spring and early summer, drought has returned to the Heartland and both crops and woodlands are wilting in the oven-like heat.

Fortunately, a pair of cold fronts are poised to drop southeastward from the Canadian prairies and cooler temperatures are expected by the end of the week.  Until then, we are reminded that the astronomical summer has not yet run its course and the season seems intent on dominating the region until the fall equinox (if not beyond).  On the positive side, the dry, sunny weather may intensify the autumn colors in October, that glorious month which always rewards our patience; in addition, for those in the Mountain West, the persistent high pressure dome over the central U.S. has prolonged the monsoon moisture flow from the Gulf of Mexico and Sea of Cortez.

Katydid Season

Reading next to a picture window last evening, I was startled several times by a thud against the glass.  In each case, a large katydid, attracted by the lamp, had jumped to the window from an adjacent shrub or tree.

Commonly known as bush crickets or long-horned grasshoppers, this diverse family of insects (numbering some 6500 species worldwide) is represented by more than 200 species in North America.  More closely related to crickets than grasshoppers, most are medium to large sized orthopterans and, in most species, the female is significantly larger than the male.  Most are green in color, blending with the vegetation on which they feed; remaining inactive for much of the day, their loud, scratchy fiddling begins at dusk and they spend the night feasting on leaves and flowers (some species also consume small insects).  Katydids move about by jumping and climbing and are best observed on window panes or on vegetation lit by outdoor floodlights.

Female katydids lay their eggs directly on leaves or within the soil.  Adults and juveniles succumb to the first hard freeze while the eggs overwinter in soil or leaf litter; those not consumed by birds, mice or shrews hatch into nymphs the following spring.  Following several molts throughout the spring and summer, juveniles that avoid predation by birds, snakes, mantids and toads reach adult size by August; it is then that their annual season of fiddling and mating begins, peaking in September and dying out as autumn chill sweeps across the Heartland.

E.D. & World Hunger

When I posted The E.D. Epidemic in January, 2009, I expressed my conviction that drug companies were flooding the airwaves to cash in on the plight of aging males with young mistresses or second wives.  Little did I know that, more than four years later, the frequency of those advertisements would be undiminished (as if we have not memorized their content by now); one can only begin to imagine the cost of that campaign and, in my opinion, it is outrageous that remedies for erectile dysfunction have garnered so much funding by companies purportedly devoted to human health.

Meanwhile, children across this country and throughout the world are going hungry for lack of adequate resources.  While politics, war and corruption significantly exacerbate that problem, the maldistribution of wealth within and between human societies is shameful, to say the least.

There must be some way to balance the positive aspects of capitalism and socialism without stifling entrepreneurship and competition; we should be able to reward creativity and productivity without ignoring the needs of society as a whole.  Addressing the massive income disparity is an important first step, a goal that could be accomplished without reducing profits.  Whether we will ever value companies by measures more substantial than the bottom line (i.e. by their contributions to human society) seems unlikely at present but we must develop policies which encourage that transition.

Male & Female Healthcare

Ask any adult (or child for that matter) to enumerate differences between males and females and they would have little trouble coming up with a sizable list.  Of course, most of those differences would be superficial, relating to anatomy, clothing, behavior and other socially-evident traits.

In fact, the differences between men and women extend to the level of cellular functioning.  Yesterday, I attended a conference that focused on microvascular differences between males and females, including the reactivity and permeability of small blood vessels in response to various agents.  As it turns out, a significant difference exists in many cases and does not always relate to the presence or absence of sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen); indeed, some cellular functioning appears to be influenced by the genome itself, which affects the level and or sensitivity of various chemical mediators.  To further complicate the picture, these gender differences are often organ specific; for example, a difference may occur in the kidneys but not in the heart muscle (or vice versa).

These facts might be dismissed as scientific mumbo-jumbo by the general public but they are highly significant when it comes to healthcare.  Since most studies on the benefits and side-effects of medications are conducted on male populations (prisoners or impoverished young males, for example), the conclusions drawn may not apply to the female population.  Yet, an assumption is often made that males and females respond to a certain drug in the same manner and that the pathophysiology of a given disease is independent of gender.  As modern research is beginning to reveal, that is often not the case and gender specific therapies may be indicated.  Whether fiscally-minded governments and profit-focused drug companies acknowledge the need for such research remains to be seen.

The Stable Continent

Though it appears static during our brief human life spans, Earth's surface is continually molded by natural forces and many of these ongoing events place the lives of humans at risk.  Those who live in geologically active regions are at most risk; such areas include subduction zones, continental collision zones, rift valleys, transverse faults and active volcanic hotspots.

Most of the Continents harbor a number of these high risk areas.  Subduction zones (where oceanic plates dip beneath the Continents), which produce earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanism, line the Pacific rim, including the west coasts of North and South America and the eastern edge of Asia; they are also found along the southeast coast of Asia and in isolated areas of southern Europe and southwest Asia.  Collision zones are prominent across southern Asia (at the northern edge of the Indian Subcontinent), across the Middle East, through the Alps of southern Europe and in eastern Siberia.  Rift Valleys, sites of earthquakes and volcanism, are found in East Africa, in the Rio Grande Valley of the American Southwest and across Iceland.  Transverse faults, where one tectonic plate is scraping past another, include the San Andreas Fault of southern California and faults along the east and west sides of the Arabian Plate.  Potentially catastrophic volcanic hotspots are found in North America (Yellowstone) and Indonesia.

Though it is subject to floods, droughts, tropical storms and wildfires, Australia, which sits near the center of its tectonic plate (far from active margins), is relatively immune from earthquakes and volcanism; in that respect, it might be considered the most stable Continent on which to live (excluding Antarctica which, at least for now, does not invite human habitation).  On the other hand, old suture lines, potential sources for earthquakes, criss-cross the bedrock of all continents, new volcanic hotspots (resulting from mantle plumes) may develop almost anywhere and no place on Earth is immune from cosmic collisions with asteroids.

Communal Bird Roosts

Last evening, waves of starlings passed over our yard in Columbia, Missouri, moving toward a roost site somewhere northwest of our neighborhood.  Though not native to North America, these maligned immigrants are among the most numerous and widespread of our avian species and are infamous for their massive communal roosts.

Most blackbird species, including grackles, red-winged blackbirds and starlings, utilize communal roosts, as do pigeons, robins, swallows, many wading birds, vultures and some waterfowl.  The reasons for this behavior remain uncertain though most ornithologists believe it diminishes the risk of predation and improves foraging success; indeed, birds that forage in large flocks are more likely to roost in colonies than are those that feed alone or in small groups.  While heat conservation has been suggested as a possible benefit of communal roosting, the above birding groups retain this behavior in warm southern latitudes.

 Some birds that use communal roosts also nest in colonies (e.g. waders, swallows) but most abandon the practice during the breeding season, when territorial instincts take control.  By late summer, as winter flocks reform, communal roost sites are established once again, not to be abandoned until the lengthening days of spring (or until angry humans, tired of the noise, smell and droppings, intervene).

September Mornings

Though warm (or even hot) days may lie ahead, the longer nights of September bring cool mornings across the American Heartland, generally free of the haze and heavy dew of July and August.  It will now take more time for the annual cicadas to strike up their late summer din and turkey vultures must wait until mid morning for thermals to develop.

Autumn color is spreading through the stands of sumac and patches of yellow and rust dot the forest.  Snakes and box turtles appear on our trails and roadways, soaking in heat after the long, cool nights and the morning songbird chorus has regained its vigor as the heat and humidity of summer slowly fade to the south; among our more vocal residents are Carolina wrens and white-breasted nuthatches, species that, like many humans, seem to relish the crisp weather to come.

Free of both oppressive August heat and numbing October chill, September mornings are among the more pleasant periods of the entire year.  Rarely blemished by severe weather, they rescue us from the inertia of summer and lead toward the glorious days of autumn.  And, for many parents, having endured a long stretch of domestic chaos, September mornings seem to be especially peaceful.  

Brain Trauma Season

It's that time of year when I look forward to the start of college football season but must acknowledge that I am a reluctant fan.  Just days after the NFL reached a financial settlement with victims of football related brain injuries, young, healthy college kids are risking serious injury to raise millions of dollars for their universities, hoping to reap their own fortune as professional players after (or before) graduation.

Recent scientific evidence leaves no doubt that repeated head injuries (even mild concussions) can lead to both structural and functional changes in the brain, sometimes resulting in early dementia or other neurologic disorders.  Of course, this is above and beyond the acute injuries that, in some cases, lead to paralysis or even death.

While football is just one of many sports in which participants wear helmets, most of the others (with the possible exception of hockey) require them in case head impacts occur; in football, helmets are worn because repeated head impacts are expected.  As we intoxicate ourselves with food, drink and football fever, standing to cheer the team and to join in our college fight song, we must acknowledge the price that many of the young athletes will pay for our entertainment.  This is one American tradition that should be relegated to history but its financial benefits to universities, networks, sports equipment companies and the NFL will surely prevent that from happening.  Highly paid professional gladiators may choose to assume the risk but encouraging high school and college students to do the same is not in their best interest; to date, preventive measures have been limited and, without significant changes in the nature of the game, they will never be adequate.

Amphibious Armies

Following two weeks of hot, dry weather, the seasonal lake at the Forum Nature Area, in Columbia, Missouri, is rapidly shrinking.  Broad mudflats now border the lake and even the deepest pools hold less than a foot of water.

This morning, thousands of froglets crowded the shallows, peering from the surface or basking on the muddy shoreline.  Having recently morphed from tadpoles, they seemed to relish their amphibious talents, hopping in and out of the water, oblivious to the dangers that lurked nearby; indeed, great blue herons, green herons, snapping turtles and northern water snakes are common residents of that wetland and all dine on amphibians.

For now, the legions of froglets would overwhelm any predator and their first (and perhaps only) season in the sun is reason enough to throw caution to the wind.  Within six weeks or so, an autumn chill will descend on this floodplain refuge and those that have escaped predation will retreat to a mud-caked tomb, there to await the warm rains of spring.

Sunflowers on a Sea Bed

Leaving for Missouri this morning, we headed east across the vast bed of a Cretaceous Sea, which stretched from Texas to British Columbia, some 100 million years ago.  Along the base of the Front Range and out across the High Plains, the ancient bed is covered by a veneer of younger, Tertiary sediments, eroded from the Rockies as they pushed skyward.  However, Cretaceous Pierre shale is exposed along the South Platte Valley, where the river has removed the overlying deposits; it is this marine sediment that enriches the soil and supports agriculture across the Colorado Piedmont.

Further east, in central Kansas, the Cretaceous sea deposits become more evident.  There, throughout the post rock country from Hays to Russell, marine limestone lies near the surface, outcropping at road cuts and widely used to construct farm houses and to support barbed wire fencing.

By late summer, as the intense sun takes a toll on the Great Plains greenery, prairie sunflowers adorn the landscape.  Rising in scraggly clumps across the High Plains, these wildflowers become more abundant on the lower, wetter terrain of central Kansas, where they blanket fallow fields and sprawl along stream valleys.  More than offering welcome color to the drying plains, prairie sunflowers provide food for a wide range of grassland mammals, game birds and open country songbirds.  For those of us driving across the semiarid landscape of the Great Plains, once occupied by a Cretaceous Sea, the bright yellow sunflowers are food for the soul as well.

The Atlantic Hurricane Drought

Tropical depression is setting in at the Weather Channel.  Despite early forecasts for a reasonably active hurricane season, none of the named storms have met hurricane criteria and none are expected to develop over the next week.

While tropical waves continue to move westward off the African coast, they have been dissipating amidst a flow of dry air from the Saharan Desert.  Those that have managed to avoid annihilation in the central Atlantic have encountered unfavorable winds over the Caribbean, dismantling their structure and sending their remnants out to sea.

As a result, the hourly tropical updates on the Weather Channel have morphed into repetitious explanations of why nothing is happening.  Though conditions may change in September, the annual peak of the hurricane season, it appears very unlikely that their revised forecast of eight hurricanes will be anywhere close to accurate.  And while the TV meteorologists, like the rest of us, do not want to see any destructive storms, their disappointment is obvious; after all, they live to explain the dynamics of hurricanes, to keep us tuned in for the latest path projections and to report from the scene of a landfall, standing in the wind and rain like human weather vanes.

Combating Genocide

When a dictator and his regime embark on a course of genocide, as appears to be happening in Syria, the civilized world must intervene.  The question is always how that should be done.

Military strikes or shipping arms to the insurgents, which may soothe our sense of impotence, only worsen the situation for innocents who are caught in the struggle.  Rather, it seems to me, our focus should be on providing safe zones, funding refugee shelters and arranging emigration opportunities for those under siege and on doing whatever we can to cut off the economic and military resources that fuel the regime.  Whatever actions might be required in reaching those goals must be coordinated with as many allies as possible; that coalition (the U.N., NATO or other alliances) must be willing to put economic and political pressure on countries that support the genocidal regime; to do so, we must be willing to accept whatever economic consequences might result from that policy.

Some opine that America and other wealthy countries cannot police the globe and should only act if it is in our nation's interest.  In my opinion, the welfare of humanity as a whole is directly tied to our willingness to combat genocidal forces wherever they may arise.  Economic, not military, war is the answer; while military hawks (many of whom have never experienced combat) want to send our youth to war, it is better that we all participate by living with higher fuel prices, by accepting a drop in the value of our stocks, by welcoming refugees into our countries and by donating to the legitimate relief organizations that serve the innocent victims.  Of course, the arrest, trial and punishment of the dictator and his generals will follow in due time.  

Southwest Flooding

Tropical moisture, swept into the Desert Southwest by Tropical Depression Ivo (now off the Baja Peninsula), has been caught in the Southwest Monsoon flow.  As a result, heavy rains are falling from southeastern California and western Arizona, northward and northeastward across the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau.  Precipitation is expected to reach 2-3 inches in many areas and flash flooding is likely, especially in desert canyons and across mountainous terrain.

Checking the radar this evening, the moisture plume extends from the Sea of Cortez to southeastern Wyoming; while the heaviest rains will fall west of the Continental Divide, a few thundershowers have dropped across the Colorado Front Range, bringing more rain to our Littleton farm.

High pressure over the Southern Plains, a vital component of the monsoon flow, produced clear skies over southeastern Colorado today, pushing afternoon highs near 100 degrees F.  Over the next few days, that high pressure dome is forecast to shift westward; in turn, the monsoon flow (which parallels its western rim) will shift westward as well, leaving the Front Range urban corridor with sunny, dry weather.  After four days of welcome precipitation, we have little reason to complain.

Nighthawk Exodus

As the first hint of autumn penetrates the heat of summer, common nighthawks prepare for their long journey to South America.  Dedicated insectivores, they are early fall and late spring migrants, taking no chance that a sudden blast of winter will annihilate their prey.

By late August, their numbers increase in the evening sky, circling southward before summer fades from temperate latitudes.  Their exodus will gain momentum through mid September as their annual parade extends across the southern U.S., Mexico and Central America, bound for the tropics.  If conditions permit, a few stragglers may linger into early October, snaring prey over sports stadiums where moths and other insects are drawn to the lights.

After a winter in the balmy rainforests of South America, the nighthawks will begin to head north in April, reversing their autumn journey and reaching the American Heartland by early May.  Nesting on the ground in open woodlands or on flat roofs in urban areas, they will raise their young just in time to take them on a great adventure to distant landscapes.

Monsoon Reprieve

After more than a week of hot, dry weather, monsoon rains swept across the Front Range over the past two days and, last evening, our Littleton farm received its due.  Torrential rain, accompanied by light hail and spectacular lightening, arrived about 5:30 PM and lasted for more than an hour.

Our parched "lawns" and pastures should green up quickly as sunny, warm weather resumes, complemented by cool, late summer evenings.  While the monsoon pattern will soon shut down, milder conditions generally follow in September, when the first snows dust the higher peaks and the annual aspen display begins to unfold.

Indeed, once the heat and monsoon rains of August have dissipated, the Front Range urban corridor enjoys its best weather of the year.  Though snow showers may arrive in September, they generally hold off until October, when autumn colors adorn the Piedmont under crisp, blue skies.  Yesterday's rain will hopefully mark the turning point from the intense heat of summer to the invigorating splendor of fall.