Upper Mesa Falls, Henrys Fork of the Snake River, Idaho.

Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, September 11, 2007

One of the injured, pants shredded by the blast from behind, watching as more seriously injured are being helped prior to transport to area hospitals.

I noticed, watching some of the television coverage today, many, many people running to help, climbing over marathon route barricades, tearing down the barricades with their hands, all to get help to those who were hurt by the explosions.

Regardless of the motivations of those who carried this out – no one has claimed responsibility yet – this was truly an evil, senseless act.

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Remembering the victims.

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Image adapted from photo by Aaron “tango” Tang under creative commons license, 4/15/2013 – my thought, in adapting this photo, was to portray a sense of the horror and despair of the moment by focusing on a single anonymous individual, while cropping and blurring the rest of the carnage

Lightning from Thursday’s storms in Alabama. Handheld camera video by Dr. Roy Spencer.

Roy Spencer: “This 1,000 ft tall TV tower routinely gets struck by lightning. The video segment was made with a Sony Handycam, with considerable zoom, from a fairly steep angle close to the tower. The lightning makes a right-angle turn and comes in sideways at the tower top because (I suspect) the conductive channel of air is being blown sideways by the wind.”

Lightning striking the top of Ch. 48 tower, Huntsville, AL from Roy Spencer on Vimeo.

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During the winter of 1948 and 49, storms covered the Rocky Mountain and upper Great Plain states with snow that isolated farms, ranches, towns and cities.  Along with temperatures dropping as low as -40°F ( -40°C), there was so much snow that as many as 2 million snowbound cattle and sheep were threatened with starvation. Some ranchers lost entire herds.

The first major storm was on November 18th.  Roads were blocked, snow drifted over rooftops and trains, a major means of transportation, were forced to stop.  Available hotels were overflowing with stranded travelers.

Then came the blizzard.

The Blizzard of 1949 was the worst winter storm seen since 1888.

The weather forecast from radio station KOA in Denver, a powerful station that could be heard for hundreds of miles, predicted another nice day with a possibility of snow flurries.  It began with rain that first day.  The temperature and barometric pressure dropped and the rain turned over into snow.  That evening the snowfall became heavy, with 12 or more inches soon accumulating and snowdrifts piling up over roads where obstacles blocked the wind.  The storm continued for three days.

In South Dakota, howling winds reduced visibility to less than 5 feet and piled drifts as high as 30 feet. Winds averaging 56 mph gusted to 72 mph or higher. An Ellsworth AFB wind indicator registered gusts above 90 mph.

In Nebraska, 50 to 60 mile an hour winds drove the heavy snow over snow that remained from November and December.

Cold and snowy weather continued after the  blizzard ended.  In March, another major snowfall dropped 20 inches on North Platte.  Streams and rivers flooded because of ice jams.  The last big storm left 12 inches in part of Nebraska in the middle of April.

Canyondlands National Park, Utah, September 25, 2011

Trail to Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, 9/21/2011

Rocky Mountain National Park, Sept. 15, 2011.