Severe Weather
The Midwest is bracing for still more rain while a hiker has died on Mount Ranier - after becoming stranded in a blizzard. In June.
Ranger Sandi Kinzer the three went on a day hike Monday and got caught in a blizzard on the Muir snowfield.
In a recorded message, park spokesman Kevin Bacher said rangers received a call at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday that the three hikers were trapped.
Weather prevented a rescue attempt at that time, but one of the hikers reached Camp Muir at 7:15 a.m. and directed rescuers to the other hikers near Anvil Rock, a large outcropping at the edge of the Muir snowfield. The surviving hiker was brought back to Camp Muir, a staging area for climbers, is at about 10,000 feet elevation on the 14,410-foot mountain.
On the flooding in the Midwest, meanwhile.
GAYS MILLS, Wis. - For nearly a year, this tiny southwestern Wisconsin village has struggled to survive after a devastating flood. A new deluge may have sealed its fate.
Flash floods inundated the town of 625 over the weekend, just 10 months after residents worked to rebuild their homes and businesses.The swollen Kickapoo River engulfed nearly the entire town Monday morning, forcing about 150 people to evacuate. By evening, the village was a grid of canals with cars submerged up to their windows and parking lots looking like lakes, just as it was in August.
The flooding was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that displaced thousands of Indiana residents and were blamed for 15 deaths in the Midwest and elsewhere.
The downpours in states like Iowa, Illinois and Indiana flooded corn fields and made it difficult for farmers to plant, pushing corn prices to record highs on commodities exchanges this week.
The corn situation is very bad out my way. Many fields are flooded outright. In those that are not, the corn is yellow - not green. It is also only a few inches high, not thriving at all. It has been a very cold, wet spring and the corn does not respond favorably to those conditions. Here’s a map that shows the current flood warnings in the Midwest. The warnings roughly correspond to much of the corn belt. (Map link may not last.)
Environment | Gaius Tuesday, 10 June , 2008
By chuck, Tuesday, 10 June , 2008 @ 9:59 pm
And there was frost here Sunday: 08 Jun 5:30 32. I think food prices might be headed skyward.
By Patm, Tuesday, 10 June , 2008 @ 10:44 pm
Yes, it sounds like famine is going to be a real problem, worldwide, and our prices will go through the roof. Time to stock up on things.Too bad the sun has stopped flaring and spotting. It’s affecting our weather.
By Woodsprite, Wednesday, 11 June , 2008 @ 5:13 pm
In the northwest we are calling this month Junuary. Today Seattle tied it’s 1917 record for the most consecutive days in June below 65 degrees.
By martian, Thursday, 12 June , 2008 @ 12:51 pm
Brace yourselves, the corn production problem is going to affect many other areas (ethanol production, animal feed, corn and tortilla chips, etc.) and prices will rise on many other things. Between the gas prices and the corn crisis this could be a very bad year! And to top it off, we could end the year with President Obama ready to be sworn in!