monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

It’s a well-known scientific principle that warmer air holds more water vapor. In fact, the amount of moisture that can be held in air grows very rapidly as temperatures increase. So, it’s expected that in general, air will get moister as the Earth warms – provided there is a moisture source. This may cause more intense rainfalls and snow events, which lead to increased risk of flooding.

But warmer air can also more quickly evaporate water from surfaces. This means that areas where it’s not precipitating dry out more quickly. In fact, it’s likely that some regions will experience both more drought and more flooding in the future (just not at the same time!). The dry spells are longer and with faster evaporation causing dryness in soils. But, when the rains fall, they come in heavy downpours potentially leading to more floods. The recent flooding in California – which followed a very intense and prolonged drought – provides a great example.

Okay so what have we observed? It turns out our expectations were correct. Observations reveal more intense rainfalls and flooding in some areas. But in other regions there’s more evaporation and drying with increased drought. Some areas experience both.

Some questions remain. When temperatures get too high, there’s no continued increase in intense rain events. In fact, heavy precipitation events decrease at the highest temperatures. There are some clear reasons for this but for brevity, regardless of where measurements are made on Earth, there appears to be an increase of precipitation with temperature up until a peak and thereafter, more warming coincides with decreased precipitation.

A new clever study by Dr. Guiling Wang from the University of Connecticut and her colleagues has looked into this and they’ve made a surprising discovery. Their work was just published in Nature Climate Change. They report that the peak temperature (the temperature where maximum precipitation occurs) is not fixed in space or time. It is increasing in a warming world.

As of Sunday afternoon, Buffalo Bayou, a major river near downtown Houston, is one foot above flood stage. It is projected to rise as much as another 12 feet today alone.

Greg Mitchell‏ @GregMitch 6h6 hours ago
My longtime pal, famed EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman, warns me in email re: massive chemicals-in-water threat in Houston area now.

What Donald Trump did on his summer holiday
This week across America, millions of children will be getting ready to go back to school and returning home that evening with their first work assignment - an essay with the title: "What I did on my summer holidays."
Now imagine for a second you're Donald Trump, and you've just been given that piece of homework. I think the first thing you're going to do is ask for a few extra sheets of paper because, what a summer.
From distant, foggy memory, I also seem to remember that the one other instruction you got from the teacher was to make it descriptive, and not too much of a list.
Well, sorry about that, Miss. This is what Donald and his pals in the White House got up to:
Hires a new communications director called Anthony Scaramucci
Press secretary Sean Spicer quits in protest. Says he's happy but is fulminating
The Mooch (aka Scaramucci) gives obscene interview to New Yorker magazine
Trump fires his chief of staff, the hapless Reince Priebus (abandoned at Andrews air force base)
Hires a new one, Gen Kelly, who was the head of homeland security
On Kelly's first day, the president fires the new communications director - Scaramucci has lasted just 10 days - less time than it takes for a pint of milk to go off
He hires a new comms director, his fourth in seven months
He publicly shames his attorney-general, numerous times, but Jeff Sessions clings on
Loses a healthcare bill
Publicly lashes the three Republicans who voted against it, several times
Bans transgender people from the military, via Twitter, without telling the military
Military chiefs say: "Forget it, we don't take orders from tweets; there's a chain of command"
Makes political speech to Scouts aged between 11-18
Claims Scouts leader rang to congratulate him on greatest speech ever made
Scouts leader says there was no such call, and issues statement apologising to Scouts for president's misjudged address
Says the president of Mexico rang to congratulate him on his border policies
Mexican president says no such call ever took place
White House denies the president is a liar, but can't explain the president's claims
Takes days to sign bipartisan sanctions bill and then criticises Congress for making him sign it
Thanks Vladimir Putin for expelling hundreds of American diplomats
Condemns leaks but then says he likes the leaks because it shows people love him
Encourages police officers to be rough with suspects during arrests
Police chiefs condemn statement. White House clarifies that it was a joke
Publicly shames the Republican Senate leader, whom he needs to get anything done, several times
Seems to respond to North Korea by threatening nuclear war
Tells Guam, which has a big US military base which North Korea's leader threatened to attack, that the publicity will help tourism
Chief strategist Steve Bannon contradicts president. Says: "There's no military option in NK"
Threatens Venezuela with a military option
After a neo-Nazi rally in which a woman was killed, the president blames both sides
After backlash, cleans it up. Denounces white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan
Cross at having been forced to do this, erases all of it and reverts to blaming both sides, saying there were "fine people there"
Military high command issue statement condemning all forms of discrimination in thinly veiled attack on commander-in-chief
Promotes his Virginia vineyard when asked if he will - as president - visit Charlottesville
And gets condemnations from Democrats, Republicans, former presidents, world leaders, allies, his own staff, and the Pope.
Publicly shames company bosses who abandon him. There's a mass walkout by execs leading to disbanding of key White House business bodies
Fires Steve Bannon, his chief strategist and architect of Trump victory
Does U-turn on Afghanistan and commits more troops, having repeatedly said he'd pull US forces out
Threatens to close government down if he doesn't get funding for border wall with Mexico
Appeals for unity of American people
Next day lambasts his enemies and critics in highly partisan speech
Day after that appeals for unity again
Pardons ex-Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted for defying court order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected immigrants
And this is the quiet season. This is the still, millpond of August when nothing happens; when days are long and news bulletins are slim, when surfing dogs and the battle of the bake-offs should dominate the news cycle.
Barack Obama's former chief of staff, and now the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, tweeted at one point that he was going to nominate the White House for a Tony award for most drama. Not best drama. Just most.

Rupert Murdoch and his sons are pulling Fox News off the air in Britain.

The decision to jettison the network in Britain could help insulate 21st Century Fox from criticism as it seeks to win approval for its takeover of Sky.
U.K. culture secretary Karen Bradley said in June that she was likely to refer 21st Century Fox's purchase of Sky for an additional review, setting the merger up for many additional months of delays.
Bradley said she was concerned that the transaction could give the Murdoch family too much influence over British media. The Murdochs already control three British newspapers -- The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

Ann Coulter‏Verified account
@AnnCoulter
Ann Coulter Retweeted POLITICO Magazine
I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is more credible than "climate change."

“Katrina breaks my heart...but we must not let Katrina break the bank for our children & grandchildren”

Benjamin Howard‏ @BenHowardOPT 1h1 hour ago
Want to know why liberals are decent people? We're all pretty happy that Sean Spicer got to meet the Pope.

More heat could "generate more storms and more intense hurricanes," he said.

Numerous studies in recent years have found no evidence that the number of hurricanes and their northwest Pacific Ocean cousins, typhoons, is increasing because of the rise in global temperatures.

But a new study in the journal Nature found that hurricanes and typhoons have become stronger and longer-lasting over the past 30 years. These upswings correlate with a rise in sea surface temperatures.

"When that happens we've shown theoretically you get an increase in the intensity of hurricanes," he said.

Mark Berman‏Verified account
@markberman
Up to 30% of Harris County is under water -- an area equal in square miles to New York City and Chicago *combined*