I took a tour of the El Camino East-West Corridor across the South this week. Also known as Highway 84, the East West Corridor is a 1,729 mile-long (2,783 km) roadway named for El Camino Real, or "The King's Highway," the historic trail it follows.
The oldest road in Texas, El Camino extends into Mexico. The road started as an Indian trail which the Spanish expanded and improved to link their missions and forts. This is the route that my forefathers traveled to settle the South. There is an El Camino Commission, created in 1989, to 4-lane the length of the route. The project extends through the heartland of the Old South, crossing forty-eight counties and six parishes and directly impacting millions of residents of those areas.
The oldest road in Texas, El Camino extends into Mexico. The road started as an Indian trail which the Spanish expanded and improved to link their missions and forts. This is the route that my forefathers traveled to settle the South. There is an El Camino Commission, created in 1989, to 4-lane the length of the route. The project extends through the heartland of the Old South, crossing forty-eight counties and six parishes and directly impacting millions of residents of those areas.
In many ways the 4-laneing is anathema to conservationists and historians because it bypasses all of the small towns that existed along the highway's 2-lane route and encourages generic corporate sprawl at the interchanges near small towns. The powers-that-be argue that in the post-9/11 and warming world (think Hurricane Katrina) it is necessary to have this scenic highway made more Interstate-like for evacuation and security purposes. Again, some of us would strongly disagree.
However, if one follows my example and veers off the 4-lane into the heart of the Deep South they find a wonder of history and culture lost to Interstate highways and corporate colonization. Out here there is no fast food, no Wal-marts, no strip malls. . . no corporate crap to be found for miles.
Heading east out of Collins, Mississippi (Collins' main street is bypassed by the new El Camino) I took the first country road on my right, Mississippi 588 (aka Ellisville Road). After driving through a massive oil tank farm one comes upon an area referred to as Willowtown near the Willow Grove Baptist Church. There the road veers either north or south and there I found these forlorn-looking cows (cattle; Bos taurus) penned in a pasture.
The weather was sweltering; a buggy, sticky heat of a still, early September afternoon. The temperature was 98° F (37° C) with high humidity making it feel something more like 110° (43° C). The cows were covered with biting flies, but I imagine their tough hide was accustomed to the bugs. No so my hide. Every time a big cow would shake the flies would swarm and cover me and my camera. The biting flies seemed especially fond of human sweat.
The ungulates all came over to talk to me, as if I was bringing food.
Looking into their human-like eyes I wondered what they thought of me. They were obviously as curios about me as I was of them.
Looking into their human-like eyes I wondered what they thought of me. They were obviously as curios about me as I was of them.
Further east on Ellisville Road I came to a several hundred acre clearing. There in the distance were more cows.
Here too it was hot, humid, and buggy, with fire ants waiting to attack with every step in the dusty, orange clay.
Most of the cows are black, though I did spot a few brown and white individuals. I put a 600 mm lens on the camera to bring the cattle in a little closer (below).
Read more about Mississippi Cattle at
Mississippi Cattle and Mississippi Beef Cattle Production
Visit the cattle in the field, look into their eyes, experience the flies, and you'll never eat another hamburger. Guaranteed!
Read more about Mississippi Cattle at
Mississippi Cattle and Mississippi Beef Cattle Production
Visit the cattle in the field, look into their eyes, experience the flies, and you'll never eat another hamburger. Guaranteed!
Where Mississippi 535 intersects 588 and angles back south toward Seminary, Mississippi, I turned south into the Eminence area. At Eminence Cemetery is the final resting place of many of my relatives including my great grandfather and namesake, Felix William Leggett 1866-1948 (pictured below). At sunset the cemetery takes on a kind of otherworldly feel.
Alongside Felix rests his wife and my great grandmother Zipporah Redmon Leggett (1866-1929).
The cemetery is as quiet and serene as these images suggest, with the only sounds a faraway tractor plowing a field or a crow cawing in the distance.
The Cow Is OK!
Continuing southwest on Mississippi 535 toward our farm I spotted this cow in the pond at a neighboring property.
In the image above its hard to see the cow but she comes into focus with 250 mm zoom below,
and zooming in with a 600 mm lens I could see that the cow was as curious about me on the distant hill as I was about her. The cow's owners were a little less amused with me. They raced out on ATVs to find out what I was doing photographing their property. Parts of Mississippi remain a very closed society and outsiders are treated. . .well. . .as such.
I told our "neighbors" that we owned the adjacent property but they seemed unconvinced as I quickly retreated. Me with no gun for protection in backwoods Mississippi, imagine that. . .
Next up, more of Mississippi's El Camino environs and then Alabama's El Camino, still largely 2-lane and picturesque.
SUPER EL NIÑO
NOAA’s monthly update on El Niño confirmed we are on the upswing of one of the strongest El Niño events—very possibly the strongest—of the past 65 years of record keeping. As of last week (see PDF), sea-surface temperatures across a key part of the eastern tropical Pacific called Niño3.4 were running 2.1°C above the long-term average for this time of year.
Every El Niño is different, but the strongest events have some very distinct characteristics. Now that the atmosphere and ocean are in the mutually reinforcing pattern typical of strong El Niños, the course of the next few months is relatively predictable. Niño3.4 anomalies (departures from seasonal average) should continue to rise until peaking sometime around December or January, then subside early in 2016.
Since we’re now in the second winter of El Niño conditions (albeit borderline conditions in 2014-15), it’s very unlikely that we’ll see El Niño continue past next spring. There are rising odds of a developing La Niña in upcoming forecasts as they extend further into 2016. If a La Niña were to develop by mid-year, it would favor a more active Atlantic hurricane season than usual in 2016.
Some of the impacts from El Niño across the United States are fairly straightforward: hurricane suppression in the Atlantic, for example. Then there’s snowfall in the Northeast, where El Niño is just one of several big factors.
Drought-easing rains for California? Likely, but not certain
Some of the most eager interest in El Niño lies with Californians, who are suffering through Year 4 of an extreme drought that’s left Sierra snowpack at record lows and pushed statewide average temperatures far above anything on record over the last few months not to mention contributing to wicked fires (see below). The state needs a very wet winter just to get soil moisture back to near-normal levels, and a good deal more than that to bring California’s reservoirs and groundwater close to their long-term average.
Like other strong El Niño events, this one will almost certainly last just one winter. But at least for the coming wet season, it holds encouraging odds of well-above average precipitation for California. During a strong El Niño, the subtropical jet stream is energized across the southern U.S., while the polar jet stream tends to stay north of its usual winter position or else consolidate with the subtropical jet. This gives warm, wet Pacific systems a better chance to push northeast into California. During 1997-98, downtown San Francisco scored its largest number of days with measurable rain (119) and its second wettest rainfall season (47.22”) since records began in 1849, coming in behind only 1861-62 (49.27”). The 1982-83 event was the fifth wettest in San Francisco annals, with a wet-season total of 38.17”. In downtown Los Angeles, the 1982-83 and 1997-98 seasons came in as fifth and sixth wettest, respectively, with 31.25” and 31.01”. Records began in L.A. in 1877.
Californians will need to be patient, as the biggest drenchings from a strong El Niño can take till the midwinter peak of the wet season to arrive (December can actually be drier than average). The 1997-98 season didn’t produce much more than sporadic storms until January in northern California and February over the state as a whole.
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| A brush fire burns across a dry lake in Deltona, Florida the first week of September 2015. East Central Florida desperately needs a very wet winter after years of drought. |
Juiced-up Subtropical Jet Brings
Rainy and Cool Conditions across the Gulf Coast
According to NOAA, the single most reliable El Niño outcome in the United States, occurring in more than 80% of El Niño events over the last century, is the tendency for wet wintertime conditions along and near the Gulf Coast, thanks to the juiced-up subtropical jet stream. (The same upper-level jet also tends to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity by fostering subsidence and stable air and boosting the upper-level wind shear that inhibits tropical cyclone formation). Severe weather is often associated with El Niño during the winter months across the southeast fringes of the nation. The risk of tornadoes across south Texas and Florida is roughly doubled during El Niño. Florida's worst outbreak on record occurred on February 22-23, 1998, during the intense 1997-98 El Niño. A total of 12 tornadoes killed 42 people, mainly in a
swath running along Interstate 4 through central Florida.
Synopsis: There is an approximately 95% chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, gradually weakening through spring 2016.
We've Read:
California’s largest wildfire continues to grow in the Sierra Nevada, where it has triggered mandatory evacuations in Fresno County while flames pushed east and south along rugged mountain faces and burned through tall chaparral. The Rough fire has burned 97,844 acres, or nearly 153 square miles and was 31% contained Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The blaze sparked evacuation orders Monday for campers in Kings Canyon National Park and the nearby communities of Crabtree, Cherry Gap, Dunlap and other surrounding areas. Also: Valley and Butte Fires Leave Miles of Destruction: Butte Fire Torches Dozens of Homes in Sierra Foothills, Incredibly Fast Valley Fire Destroys Estimated 1,000 Homes.
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| Valley Fire Photo: Kent Porter, The Press Democrat Kent Porter Photography |
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| Valley Fire, Middletown, California Photo: Kent Porter, AP Kent Porter Photography |
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| Butte Fire Photo: Marcus Yam, LA Times Marcus Yam Photographer Website |
It doesn't take much to understand why California is so worried about drought. Reservoirs are ever-dwindling. Rainfall is sporadic at best. It's so bad, Governor Jerry Brown imposed mandatory water restrictions throughout the state. The majority of California is experiencing extreme to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and the state's condition isn't expected to improve in the near future. The Drought Monitor, which collects data from 50 different weather indicators, have shown an increasingly red California since 2011, the last time the drought map was clear.
In waves that reportedly were larger than 25 feet, Dollar, 34, broke his neck in four places and suffered a concussion. Despite the injuries, he was able to get himself to safety, allowing fellow surfers to care for him before he was taken a hospital, where he was in stable condition Tuesday.
Burning of Available Fossil Fuel Will Be Sufficient to Eliminate the Earth's Ice Sheets
Burning the earth's currently attainable fossil fuel will result in 10,000 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC), resulting in ice-free Antarctica and Greenland. Resultant ocean rise would likely exceed 200 feet. A sea level rise of 200 feet would put almost all of Florida, much of Louisiana and Texas, the entire East Coast of the United State, large parts of Britain, much of the European Plain, and huge parts of coastal Asia under water. The cities lost would include Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Washington, New York, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, Paris, Berlin, Venice, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, Rome and Tokyo.
Humanity as a Geologic Force
The ice sheets in both Greenland and the low-lying, western part of Antarctica are already showing serious signs of instability. How much of the world's ice will melt is closely linked to how much total fossil fuel humans burn. Read also: Warming caused by cumulative carbon emissions towards the trillionth tonne.
Novak Djokovic Workout Diet
He writes of a strict diet, dropping from 182 pounds to 172 in the wake of switching to a gluten-free diet, meditation and visualization.
Burning the earth's currently attainable fossil fuel will result in 10,000 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC), resulting in ice-free Antarctica and Greenland. Resultant ocean rise would likely exceed 200 feet. A sea level rise of 200 feet would put almost all of Florida, much of Louisiana and Texas, the entire East Coast of the United State, large parts of Britain, much of the European Plain, and huge parts of coastal Asia under water. The cities lost would include Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Washington, New York, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, Paris, Berlin, Venice, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, Rome and Tokyo.
The ice sheets in both Greenland and the low-lying, western part of Antarctica are already showing serious signs of instability. How much of the world's ice will melt is closely linked to how much total fossil fuel humans burn. Read also: Warming caused by cumulative carbon emissions towards the trillionth tonne.
He writes of a strict diet, dropping from 182 pounds to 172 in the wake of switching to a gluten-free diet, meditation and visualization.