By Brad Friedman on 1/15/2014, 2:19pm PT  

Very quickly, as I'm scrambling to prep for this week's BradCast on KPFK/Pacifica (where, by the way, my guests this week will be Bryan Murphy, a former employee of David Wildstein, the man at the center of Chris Christie's BridgeGate scandal, and our friend Bob Kincaid of Head-On Radio in West Virginia on the latest in the chemical "Freedom" spill that has poisoned drinking water for hundreds of thousands. | UPDATE: You can now listen to that show right here.)...

I realize folks just thawing out from last week's polar vortex in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. likely hate me for pointing this out, but we've had a week of 80+ degree temperatures here in L.A. While that seems lovely (and, largely, is) it's also very unusual for January to be this warm for this long and, coming on the heels of our driest year in recorded state history, it's also bringing wildfires along with it, even though wildfire season is supposed to be long over by now [emphasis added]...

A dangerous combination of record dry conditions, rare January red flag warnings and the Santa Ana winds could be a recipe for disaster in the fight against California wildfires.

Red flag warnings are in effect for the Sierra Nevada and a huge portion of central and southern California as small fires broke out throughout the state. The National Weather Service office in Hanford says it's the first time they've ever issued red flag warnings in the month of January.

"Following the driest year on record, 2014 is kicking off as what may be the driest January on record in many locations in California," said weather.com Senior Meteorologist Jon Erdman.
...
"San Francisco typically picks up just over 11 inches of rain through early June," said Erdman. "However, December, January and February are the three wettest months, so this complete lack of rain during the core of the wet season is worrisome."
...
The dryness isn't isolated to California. Las Vegas is in the midst of its third longest dry streak on record for the months of December and January.

Meanwhile, in Australia, the unyielding 100+ degree weather continues and a rash of wildfires as well. That comes on the heels of that nation's hottest year on record.

So, if a couple of very cold days last week (arguably caused by, yes, Global Warming) in parts of the U.S. meant that "Global Cooling" is now upon us, as the conned fossil fuel industry-propagandized dingbats and dupes wrongly shouted all last week, what do these record warm and dry weeks and months of temperatures mean?

Expect to NOT see any of that on Fox "News", of course.

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Article Categories: California, Mainstream Media Failure, Climate change, Australia