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Al Gore always comes to mind when these events occur.
Something like, "AlGore, about 100 people died in South
America the last couple of days, because of extreme low
temperatures, heavy snows, and record setting snows
and other Winter type weather, although they are going
into Springtime down there. What sayest thou?"
AlGore responds, "Do you have the record of studies
and contribution to humanity that I have? Do you know
anything about the greater interrelationship between
Cold Swells in the Pacific and the dry adiabatic rates of
upslope temperature divergence on the east coast of
Greenland? Huh? Huh? Sheesh! There's one born
every minute."
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An unusual cold spell has hit Peru and its neighbour
Bolivia as well as Paraguay.
These events, to be sure are occurring at higher to very high elevations, but for whatever reason, they are occurring. We should remember that in the zones affected, most of them are in the Southern Hemisphere. Most but not all.
The particular place pictured here is fairly close to the Pacific Ocean, perhaps 50 miles by straight line. But it is also in a zone of 12,000 to 14,500 fasl, high in the Andes. This abnormally cold zone does, however, extend over, under, around, and through the highlands all the way to the southeast into the upper Pampas of Argentina, where record cold has killed as many as 50 people in rural areas.
The overall death toll for the last four or five days, updated through my own research of various news fountains in the region, seem to be indicating as many as 300 fatalities directly related to the frigid conditions, and heavy snows are preventing access by relief agencies and organisations to the large affected area. Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina have been affected, along with the extreme upper reaches of the Amazonia drainage area in western Brazil.
This would be a worthwhile event to recall up to good ole' Al Gore the next time you see him down at The Old Saloon. Some people might even call it "a teachable moment".
We might ask him if his love-nest on the California coast is underwater, as he said it would be, by 1996. He bought the place back around 2007, and El Gringo Viejo has never figured out why he would want to buy a house that was underwater for almost 15 years now.
We guess he must have been willing to do anything to get away from his frumpy, old wife (the one he smooched on stage at the Democrat Convention in 2000). But who knows how the dufus new wife likes having to dress like a frogman just to go into the kitchen and make underwater coffee in the morning.
We might ask him if his love-nest on the California coast is underwater, as he said it would be, by 1996. He bought the place back around 2007, and El Gringo Viejo has never figured out why he would want to buy a house that was underwater for almost 15 years now.
We guess he must have been willing to do anything to get away from his frumpy, old wife (the one he smooched on stage at the Democrat Convention in 2000). But who knows how the dufus new wife likes having to dress like a frogman just to go into the kitchen and make underwater coffee in the morning.
Just can't figure that boy out.
El Gringo Viejo
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