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Unofficial Start to Summer Banter


dmillz25

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This tornado went within 1-2 miles of me last Saturday (May 23):

 

.SHADY HOLLOW TORNADO...

RATING: EF-0
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 85 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 2.5 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: 200 YARDS
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 0

START DATE: MAY 23 2015
START TIME: 911 PM CDT
START LOCATION: 2 N HAYS / TRAVIS COUNTY / TX
START LAT/LON: 30.1533 / -97.8694

END DATE: MAY 23 2015
END TIME: 913 PM CDT
END LOCATION: 1 NNW TANGLEWOOD FOREST / TRAVIS COUNTY / TX
END LAT/LON: 30.1824 / -97.8443

SURVEY SUMMARY: A NWS DAMAGE SURVEY FOUND EVIDENCE THAT AN EF0 TORNADO
WENT THROUGH THE SHADY HOLLOW AREA OFF BRODIE LANE IN SOUTH AUSTIN.
NUMEROUS STREETS HAD SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE ALONG WITH SOME MINOR ROOF
DAMAGE TO SOME HOMES. THE TORNADO MOVED NE AND APPEARS TO HAVE DISSIPATED
NEAR W SLAUGHTER LANE. WIND DAMAGE WAS REPORTED FURTHER NE INTO THE CITY OF
AUSTIN BUT THIS DAMAGE COULD NOT CONCLUSIVELY BE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS
TORNADO PATH.

 

I had some very strong winds with that storm and there were a few tornadoes around Austin that night. The airport reported wind damage and a gust to 75 mph. 

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While I have seen bunkers chased to the shore and beached in Long Beach by bluefish, this

event coupled with the high nitrogen levlels was brutal.

 

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/emergency-to-be-declared-amid-massive-fish-kill-in-riverhead-1.10490276

Even in CT   http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20150528/connecticut-deep-investigating-large-scale-fish-kills    we'll see what happens after this rain has run off into the water ways. Perfect lawns and dense population next to the shore are not going away

soon.

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Even in CT http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20150528/connecticut-deep-investigating-large-scale-fish-kills we'll see what happens after this rain has run off into the water ways. Perfect lawns and dense population next to the shore are not going away

soon.

There wasn't to much rain out east though. What it could be is that the lack of rain during peak fertilizer season allowed it to build up. Then it was all rapidly released with what rain did fall. Oh and newsday is super annoying it let me read the story for one second before asking you to pay and or sign in (I figured it out)
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Even in CT   http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20150528/connecticut-deep-investigating-large-scale-fish-kills    we'll see what happens after this rain has run off into the water ways. Perfect lawns and dense population next to the shore are not going away

soon.

You guys are eager to blame this on bluefish and nitrogen runoff but there is probably more to the story. Warmer waters create a effective soup for viruses and disease and some regions of the East Coast are quickly becoming anoxic (oxygen dead zones) year-round.

 

color_newdisp_sst_100W_35W_15N_65N_ophi0

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While I have seen bunkers chased to the shore and beached in Long Beach by bluefish, this

event coupled with the high nitrogen levlels was brutal.

 

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/emergency-to-be-declared-amid-massive-fish-kill-in-riverhead-1.10490276

 

That is just Hypoxia. Too many bunker (Menhaden) in a small area causing a lack of oxygen.

Very common and the media is blowing it up without a reason to. Happens every year and throughout NY and the east coast.

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Even in CT   http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20150528/connecticut-deep-investigating-large-scale-fish-kills    we'll see what happens after this rain has run off into the water ways. Perfect lawns and dense population next to the shore are not going away

soon.

lawn culture can be changed. this country has to stop being ridiculous though.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atWbvxYV3vVk

"Steinberg: The perfect lawn is a product very much of the 1950s. One of the biggest problems facing American business in the 1950s was under-consumption: Americans weren't buying enough things, enough products, and the lawn was in some sense a solution to this problem. Turf grass species are by their nature non-native, which means because they're not indigenous to the U.S., they're a high-maintenance proposition. This kept American homeowners going back to the hardware store repeatedly for chemical inputs in the elusive quest for an impeccable yard.

Schatz: What's the environmental downside of this quest?

Steinberg: It's estimated that in the process of refueling their lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other garden equipment that Americans spill about 17 million gallons of gasoline every summer, or more oil than marred the Alaskan coast during the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster.

Guzzling Water

Schatz: And what about water?

Steinberg: Perfect lawns are a water-guzzling institution, and this is a problem in the U.S., where we're finding that fresh water supplies are running scarce.

Schatz: How do you change all this?

Steinberg: I think the alternative is a low-maintenance lawn. You have to somehow deal with the over-treatment problem. We're throwing too many chemicals down on the lawn; you don't need to fertilize as much as you think you do; you certainly don't need to put down weed killer every time you fertilize. My own feeling is Americans should get a little more used to brown. It's not such a bad color."

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lawn culture can be changed. this country has to stop being ridiculous though.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atWbvxYV3vVk

"Steinberg: The perfect lawn is a product very much of the 1950s. One of the biggest problems facing American business in the 1950s was under-consumption: Americans weren't buying enough things, enough products, and the lawn was in some sense a solution to this problem. Turf grass species are by their nature non-native, which means because they're not indigenous to the U.S., they're a high-maintenance proposition. This kept American homeowners going back to the hardware store repeatedly for chemical inputs in the elusive quest for an impeccable yard.

Schatz: What's the environmental downside of this quest?

Steinberg: It's estimated that in the process of refueling their lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other garden equipment that Americans spill about 17 million gallons of gasoline every summer, or more oil than marred the Alaskan coast during the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster.

Guzzling Water

Schatz: And what about water?

Steinberg: Perfect lawns are a water-guzzling institution, and this is a problem in the U.S., where we're finding that fresh water supplies are running scarce.

Schatz: How do you change all this?

Steinberg: I think the alternative is a low-maintenance lawn. You have to somehow deal with the over-treatment problem. We're throwing too many chemicals down on the lawn; you don't need to fertilize as much as you think you do; you certainly don't need to put down weed killer every time you fertilize. My own feeling is Americans should get a little more used to brown. It's not such a bad color."

 

 

 

 

Agree with low-maintenance yards. No fertilizer or watering of the lawn here. It's mostly brown now, but who cares, it'll come back. Only if we were in dire straights drought wise would watering be a consideration, just to keep it alive.

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That is just Hypoxia. Too many bunker (Menhaden) in a small area causing a lack of oxygen.

Very common and the media is blowing it up without a reason to. Happens every year and throughout NY and the east coast.

The bunker schools off jones beach last summer were by far the biggest I have seen in 16 years of lifeguarding there. They were hundreds of feet wide and several miles long. So thick that they made it look like an oil spill. The species is doing fine. It's also the largest catch by net weight on the east coast as they are ground for fish oil and other products.

They are also super important as they live strictly by filtering the water. Without them we would be really really screwed

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Fish migrations and algae blooms from tropical waters will kill off or outlive/outnumber native species, it's just a matter of time. The native species will also attempt to move out to more cooler waters.

 

 

 

The photos are appalling. Dead bunker fish by the thousands in the Peconic Estuary, their carcasses massing in the waters and piling onto shores. The culprit, experts say, was excessive nitrogen that fueled algal blooms, which reduced oxygen in the water to the point that the fish could not survive. The die-off came a month after some 100 diamondback turtles washed ashore in the same general area of the East End, killed by a biotoxin produced by a different nitrogen-related algae. Shellfish that eat the algae poisoned the turtles that ate them.
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Agree with low-maintenance yards. No fertilizer or watering of the lawn here. It's mostly brown now, but who cares, it'll come back. Only if we were in dire straights drought wise would watering be a consideration, just to keep it alive.

Never fertilized or watered a lawn. Sure it's not golf course perfect but the "weeds" let it stay green in dry times when others have to water or have brown. Dandelion tap roots also thatch the lawn the natural way. I am a chemical and landscape companies worst nightmare if only the sheeple could be deprogrammed

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Never fertilized or watered a lawn. Sure it's not golf course perfect but the "weeds" let it stay green in dry times when others have to water or have brown. Dandelion tap roots also thatch the lawn the natural way. I am a chemical and landscape companies worst nightmare if only the sheeple could be deprogrammed

I try and design landscapes around drought tolerant plants. Personally I have never done lawns despite being in the landscape business. It's an extremely low margin extremly high competition business for obvious reasons. But yes those guys do foster the idea that a lush green lawn is the only way. Which is by its very definition wrong.

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I'll be honest... this cool, dimly moonlit night really makes me miss hanging outside on the subzero evenings over the past couple winters. My soul needs cold air.

1.49" storm total rainfall

Something special about those arctic nights, glistening snow pack and clean air. I walked home from the gym last night and enjoyed the last of the cool air.
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That is just Hypoxia. Too many bunker (Menhaden) in a small area causing a lack of oxygen.

Very common and the media is blowing it up without a reason to. Happens every year and throughout NY and the east coast.

 

The important part which no one is blowing out of proportion is that high nitrogen levels aren't healthy

for the marine enviornment. No disputing that bunkers get chased into the shallows by

predator fish. 

 

 

http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/Flanders/108815/Bunker-Fish-Die-Off-Investigated-In-Peconic-River-Reeves-Bay-In-Flanders

 

Dr. Christopher Gobler, a marine science professor at Stony Brook University, went into the Peconic River, Terrys Creek, Reeves and Flanders bays and Meetinghouse Creek on Thursday to check out the situation and said that while it wasn’t a surprise, this year’s fish kill was “significantly more intense” than is typical.

“It’s down in the whole area, well beyond Reeves Bay,” Dr. Gobler said, adding that the fish kill started a couple of weeks ago. “These areas are starting with lower levels of oxygen because of heavy nutrient loads. Along with the fish-kill, there are intense algal blooms. Some people call it the mahogany tide. The Peconic River has been sick with this stuff for several weeks.”

Dr. Gobler explained that this particular tide makes oxygen during the day and at night sucks it back in. He said that at midday on Thursday, he measured 1 milligram of oxygen per liter of water. The state Department of Environmental Conservation says that oxygen should never go below 3 milligrams of oxygen per liter, he said. He said it was likely at night the oxygen level was even less.

 

“This is just a sign of what’s going on with heavy nitrogen loads, which have a bunch of cascading effects on coastal water. It’s emblematic of one of those effects,” he said of the fish-kill. “In that artery, it’s no surprise because the sewage treatment plant is there, its outflow is under the bridge, there is the golf course and the duck farm, and cesspools. In the end it’s this kind of thing that motivates people at the end of the day … enough is enough.”

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