Storm strength leading to extreme weather is increasing, such as the power dissipation index of hurricane intensity. Kerry Emanuel writes that hurricane power dissipation is highly correlated with temperature, reflecting global warming. Hurricane modeling has produced similar results, finding that hurricanes, simulated under warmer, high-CO2 conditions, are more intense; there is less confidence in projections of a global decrease in numbers of hurricanes. Worldwide, the proportion of hurricanes reaching categories 4 or 5 with wind speeds above 56 metres per second has risen from 20% in the 1970s to 35% in the 1990s. Precipitation hitting the US from hurricanes increased by 7% over the twentieth century. The extent to which this is due to global warming as opposed to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is unclear. Some studies have found that the increase in sea surface temperature may be offset by an increase in wind shear, leading to little or no change in hurricane activity.

Catastrophes resulting from extreme weather are exacerbated by increasing population densities. The World Meteorological Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have linked increasing extreme weather events to global warming, as have Hoyos et al., writing that the increasing number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes is

directly linked to increasing temperatures. Thomas Knutson and Robert E. Tuleya of NOAA stated in 2004 that warming induced by greenhouse gas may lead to increasing occurrence of highly destructive category-5 storms. Vecchi and Soden find that wind shear, the increase of which acts to inhibit tropical cyclones, also changes in model-projections of global warming. There are projected increases of wind shear in the tropical Atlantic and East Pacific associated with the deceleration of the Walker circulation, as well as decreases of wind shear in the western and central Pacific. The study does not make claims about the net effect on Atlantic and East Pacific hurricanes of the warming and moistening atmospheres, and the model-projected increases in Atlantic wind shear.

A substantially higher risk of extreme weather does not necessarily mean a noticeably greater risk of slightly-above-average weather. However, the evidence is clear that severe weather and moderate rainfall are also increasing. Increases in temperature are expected to produce more intense convection over land and a higher frequency of the most severe storms.

Stephen Mwakifwamba, national co-ordinator of the Centre for Energy, Environment, Science and Technology - which prepared the Tanzanian government's climate change report to the UN - says that change is happening in Tanzania right now. "In the past, we had a drought about every 10 years", he says. "Now we just don't know when they will come. They are more frequent, but then so are floods. The climate is far less predictable. We might have floods in May or droughts every three years. Upland areas, which were never affected by mosquitoes, now are. Water levels are decreasing every day. The rains come at the wrong time for farmers and it is leading to many problems".

Greg Holland, director of the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said on April 24, 2006, "The hurricanes we are seeing are indeed a direct result of climate change," and that the wind and warmer water conditions that fuel storms when they form in the Caribbean are, "increasingly due to greenhouse gases. There seems to be no other conclusion you can logically draw." Holland said, "The large bulk of the scientific community say what we are seeing now is linked directly to greenhouse gases." (See also "Global warming.

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Afternoon temperatures continue to run above-average.  Look for highs around 83 degrees; thats about 10 degrees above the 30-year average for this time of year.
If youve got outdoor plans for Columbus Day, the weather will be nice, with sunshine and highs back in the lower 80s.
After the soaking rains last Tuesday and Wednesday, well stay dry through mid-week.  A chance of rain arrives late Wednesday and lasts through Thursday, perhaps even sticking around for parts of Friday.
Lows the next several nights will dip to the lower 60s, though a slight cool down is expected by the end of the work week.

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Welcome to Round 16 of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship, the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway.

After the heat and humidity of Singapore, the weather will be decidedly cooler here in the shadow of Mount Fuji. Showers are anticipated both on Thursday and Friday, with ambient temperature highs of 20 and 22 degrees Celsius respectively. Thereafter it should be cloudy on Saturday and Sunday, with respective temperatures of 23 and 17 degrees.

The race will run over 67 laps of the 4.563-kilometre (2.835 mile) circuit, or 305.416 kilometres (189.780 miles). It starts at 1330 hours local time, which is nine hours ahead of GMT.

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ABSTRACT:
Weather and Climate of Nebraska is a colorful new atlas describing the seasonal variations of weather in the central High Plains. Published as the January-February 1996 issue of NE
ASKAland magazine, it can also stand alone as a general reference text. The title's layout emphasizes over a theme that pervades much of the atlas.

The publication contains seven major chapters plus introduction, almanac, glossary, and index. Following the Introduction, which sets the stage in Nebraska, Chapter One describes the reasons for the seasons and how seasonal variations affect the state. Chapters Two through Five highlight weather and climate features particular to each season: Chapter Two (Spring) describes severe weather and tornadoes; Chapter Three (Summer), drought and heat stress; Chapter Four (Fall), the autumnal transition from summer to winter; and Chapter Five (Winter), blizzards and types of precipitation. Following these seasonal descriptions, Chapter Six lists sources of weather and climate data and explains how these data are collected, while Chapter Seven discusses Nebraska's past climates and possible changes in the future. Geographers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are responsible for all the chapters except the first, which is by a geographer at Kansas State.

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By Dave Hirschman
Avidyne Corp., an avionics firm that specializes in integrated cockpits, has joined with WSI Corp. to provide worldwide, datalink weather to aircraft in flight.
The companies will provide the datalink weather via Avidynes MLX770 transceiver and the 66-satellite Iridium constellation. The new service will provide graphical weather as well as METARs, TAFs, temperatures, and winds aloft. A premium service will add WSIs proprietary radar images and lightning data.
The combination of Avidynes MLX770 and WSIs exceptional weather data services will provide a broad range of aircraft operators with the industrys most comprehensive coverage, regardless of where they fly, said Patrick Herguth, Avidyne chief operating officer.
Most existing cockpit weather data services are limited to North America.
Through this partnership with Avidyne, international aircraft operators can now enjoy the safety and operational benefits of WSI aviation weather that was previously available only in North America, said Mark D. Miller, general manager of WSIs aviation business.
Prices for the new service were not immediately available.
Both Avidyne and WSI are based in Massachusetts.

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We have been warned, twenty-three flood warnings were issued after nearly two inches of rain in some parts of the country on Saturday night. The environmental Agency says it's keeping an eye on Midlands and Wales. We have had some of the worst weather here in the UK, there was no meaningful summer weather to talk about at all. Forecasters predicted that the London will see everything from rain, mist and wind to sunny spells and warm temperatures.

A spokeswoman for the environmental agency said: "If we have more rain, things could develop quite quickly."
The most rain was received in Capel Curig, North Wales with just under 2 inches of rain in 12 hours.

More unsettled weather is expected this week, with strong winds and rain likely. Oh my God, what can I do to escape this not so good weather in UK? Is living this country the answer.

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After heavy rains on Sunday in some parts of the area thanks to last week's coastal low, the weather week was pretty mundane around the Delaware Valley. Temperatures became cooler as the week progressed, with some rains on Wednesday as a front moved through the Delaware Valley for Game 1 of the NLDS. Temperatures dropped into the 60's for the remainder of last week, with clouds in place on Thursday and Friday and some additional sunshine on Saturday.

Some weak showers crossed the area from west to east on Friday and Saturday due to the upper level flow aloft in the atmosphere. Most of these showers were to the north of Philadelphia.

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Outside of a few sprinkles it looks like another miss on the rain today. Last night I specifically outlined why the rain would be hit and miss. There was not one cloud in the Gulf of Mexico. This is usually the moisture source that most Midwest fronts love to tap. Without much moisture to work with and a high barometric pressure of 30.00 inches as of early afternoon it looks like we are in the clear for tonight's big high school football games. The ground will be rock hard in many locations so make sure the kids have those shoulder pads tightened. You may want to take a sweatshirt or light coat with you with temperatures quickly falling to near 50 by the final whistle as skies quickly clear out. Tonight tune in to find out about drought conditions quickly closing in on the Hoosier state. Here in Lafayette we have had only .05" of rain in the last 3 weeks which is over 2 inches below average. When will we get some needed rain? I will have your answer.

We will also take a look at almost the entire state of Wisconsin covered in frost advisories for tonight. That could be Indiana before you know it. In fact the latest model runs are showing good chances of frosts and freezes here at home in the next 10 to 14 days. I will pinpoint that a little better for you.

Severe weather and October also go hand-in-hand and warning signs are also popping up of better chances of strong storms here at home. We will have a little history lesson on the news and the blog by this evening.

So the big theme tonight will be to get out and enjoy another nice weekend....we may have a lone shower or storm in far Northern Newton and Jasper Counties late in the weekend, but even those areas can fire up the grill! You can make a good argument we will have nicer weather than Hawaii....we will check it out! But our weather paradise in the Midwest does not last long this time of year. We better fire up the grills before nature fires up some storms and then frosts. Our weather team will keep you posted. I will also fill in tidbits from the past few days here on the blog with more colorful pictures and charts for your enjoyment. You are the best! See you soon.

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good enough for Levi's,is good enough for everyone else, right? Like its weather, the Oakland commercial real estate scene is hotter than San Francisco, and in an article singing the praises of East Bay development, The New York Times looks at the legacy of Jerry Brown, the largest upcoming construction projects in the area (re: Lennar), and the perks of building around the Bay   among them, the raw development potential of the largest available shoreline in any American metropolis; a shoreline that's rapidly increasing as refineries and military shipyards close their doors. The Bay Area: brazenly building in the face of the doomsday economy.

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I realize that the topic of weather is usuallyreserved for talking with elderly folks, like your grandparents, during awkward pauses in conversation. And, if youre from Indiana or the midwest, youre probably familiar with the weather patterns Ill be referring to later in this post. If thats the case, I hope you keep reading just for fun. This post is really intentioned for all you international and American-but-not-Midwestern people out there who have absolutely no clue what theyre getting into when they decide to pick up and move their lives to Indiana for four (or more) years. Im writing this because I was clueless about Hoosier weather when I first moved to Indiana, and I wish that someone had written this for me. In fact, the weather (or lack of warm weather) was one reason I held against Butler (gasp) and I almost didnt even apply to Butler because of it! Read on, and youll understand why.....
If you read my about me section, youll know that I came to Butler from Canada, via South Carolina. Canada and South Carolina are polar opposites when it comes to weather. Canada is freezing cold 75% of the year, South Carolina is scorching hot 75% of the year. Canada experiences all four seasons, while South Carolina experiences tourism season and non-tourism season. Canadas weather can be so dry your hands crack and bleed all the time, and South Carolina can be unbearably humid. I think youre getting my point.
Growing up in Canada, I remember several occasions when the first snowfall was on October 31st...thats right, Halloween. Snow began to stick around mid-November, and all my Christmases have been white. The snow might start to melt in March sometime, but dont count out blizzards in April, or even May. You cant even begin to count on consistently warm summer weather until early July. At the end of August, the geese are already flocking together for their flight down south, and by the time school starts in September the leaves are almost ready to change. Autumn is gorgeous at home; I always loved the colors of the tress and the smell of smoke that was always in the air. Then November came, and it was winter all over again.
South Carolina spoiled me. I could golf all year round, although December and January could get a little chilly. It snowed only once while I was in high school, and it resulted in everyone running out of their classes toget pictures of the palm trees and snow. I distinctly remember getting the worst sunburn of my life one March, and then leaving for West Virginia a few days later for a golf tournament and having to deal with a snow delay. The weather in SC was gorgeous (except for hurricane season, which was a bit rainy) and I never wanted to leave. I became a Southerner in mind, body, and soul. So, when it came time to apply to colleges, my main criteria was nothing North of the Mason-Dixon line. Im positive that my desire for warm weather over great academics exasperated my parents to no end. I considered a few schools up north, but my favorites were all in the south. When my acceptance into Butler pharmacy came in December of my senior year, I wasnt too happy about it. My father had convinced me to apply (although I was unwilling and uncooperative about the matter) and once I was accepted I knew that it was too good of an opportunity to turn down.
The reason Im writing this post now, is because today the temperature dropped like a rock. I froze when I walked to class because I was too stupid to turn on the Weather Channel while eating breakfast this morning. Its officially autumn, which is a season that I didnt get to experience in South Carolina and it has become my favorite part of the weather once I returned north. I get to see the leaves change again, and carving pumpkins is way more fun when it actually feels like fall (rather than being 80 degrees and feeling like its the middle of summer). I also get to enjoy some snow leading up to Christmas, which I love (come November, you will all see how much I adore Christmas). The bad things? I hate the winter starting around mid January. I probably wouldnt mind it so much if I didnt have to walk to class for 15 minutes in the cold. Spring also lasts forever here. Slushy, yucky grey snow everywhere. It snows, then melts, and snows and melts again all through February. We generally have miserable grey skies until end of March, when it usually starts warming up into warm summer weather again.
Im very excited for the next month or so. Its still nice enough to enjoy being outside as long as youre wearing a jacket. Halloween is just around the corner, and Im going to try to make it outto a Butler football game soon. It should be exciting. Yesterday (which had gorgeous summer-like weather) I got to go walk around downtown. I took a picture at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, because I rarely get to see it with the water. It was great to finally seen the monument up close. Its a lot more detailed than I would have expected. Apparently theres a museum and an observation deck, which I really want to see sometime before I graduate.

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Alright, anyone who, in this day and age, is still a weather modification denier needs to come to terms with reality. The Chinese were shooting missles into the clouds to either bring rain and clear out the pollution, or clear the sky of precipitation for the games. And this activity was reported, it seemed to me, rather uncritically, especially by American media. Does this mean that weather manipulation is really possible? If the Chinese have this capability, does the American government? And in the midst of an active hurricane season here in the U.S., the question begs...is hurricane manipulation possible?
The anwsers are you betcha! Or at the very least there has been a concerted effort to that end. The first attempt at hurricane manipulation in the U.S. came in 1947 when Dr. Irwin Langmuir and a team of scientists from General Electric explored the possibility of using ice crystals to weaken storms.

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Galveston Island is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf coast in the United States, about 50 miles southeast of Houston. Rosenberg Library is a public library serving Galveston, Texas is the oldest continuously operating library in Texas. Weather Underground is a commercial weather service that provides real sponsored U.S. cable and satellite television network that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather Galveston is a song written by Jimmy Webb and popularized by Glen Campbell. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on the city of Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900. Galveston Homes For Sale. Tickets and Worldwide Attractions. Disney Tickets. chance of precipitation. .Friday night. Low 79. .Saturday. High 89. Expires Galveston, Texas. In the early evening hours of September 8, a hurricane came ashore at The waters of Copano Bay are shallower than neighboring Aransas bay, with depths often less than six feet deep. weather plus a 36 hour forecast and Doppler radar from weather.com. Home. Travel. Driving Galveston, Texas. Local News. SRH Home. Organization. Search. Local TV is the NBC television affiliate in Houston, Texas, owned and operated by Post Galveston Fishing Guides Information, Texas Saltwater Fishing Reports, Texas Saltwater Fishing News, Saltwater and Boat Dealers, Saltwater Offshore Fishing, Texas Tides For Galveston, an island off the Texas shore, it temporarily buried the town and its people galveston weather with sea water. At.

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Supporting vulnerable people during cold weather - advice for health and social care professionals is part of the national Keep Warm Keep well programme, which aims to reduce chronic and acute health risks associated with cold weather. It contains advice for people working in primary care or social services, and for home care providers detailing the dangers of cold to vulnerable people. It will help you plan before and during winter, or for any particularly cold period.  Guides for vulnerable people to offer useful tips on heating homes effectively, financial support available, preparing the home for the winter and advice on staying healthy are available below.

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A new application for logging and displaying real-time weather data has been released by Lightsoft. Lightsoft Weather Center maintains a weather database for analysis, and is capable of generating and uploading weather webpages via FTP. The generated pages can contain items such as current conditions, graphs, gauges, statistics, webcam images or timelapse movies. The software is also able to display weather gauges on computers attached to a local network.
As information is collected, the program's database is updated and then sorted to allow the user to view statistics, such as the lowest temperature or highest wind speed, over any period of time. Users can further customize alerts to trigger e-mails, SMS messages and scripts when certain weather conditions are met.

The software requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later, and currently works with Davis and La Crosse WS23xx weather stations. A free two-week trial is available for download, or a license can be purchased for $86.

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I will start the finale by apologizing. I have been a bit MIA due to some extraneous events and a ridiculous amount of travel and I therefore was not able to report on the extended period of spring skiing during the first half of April. The blog wouldn't be complete however without a proper farewell and so I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy spring and summer.

The winter of 2007-2008 took many of us prognosticaters by surprise. At the surface it would seem that perhaps there was no surprise. Temperatures came in above average over a broad area of the eastern seaboard and most of the major metropolitan areas saw below average snowfall and in some cases well below average. Meanwhile the configuration of weather was consistent with that of a La Nina. All of those midwestern cities that have received so little snowfall year after year this decade suddenly saw a big seasonal total. So will I take the credit for getting all of this right ? No, I will not. In my seasonal prognostication, I drew way too many analogies to 2005-2006 and this winter deviated quite significantly from that forgettable catastrophe.

Even as temperatures averaged above the 30 year mean we call normal, a closer look at the behavior of actual weather reveals a somewhat different story. Let me put it simply by just saying that "the cold would not go down without a fight". It would in fact take more than one hand to count the amount of times that this want-to-be genius was selling the cold at a discount only to find that its actual worth was much greater. The warm forecast can be attributed to the snow cover in autumn (over a standard deviation below normal in the northern hemisphere). The cold weather could very well be attributed to the same variable - snow cover, which was close to a 30-year high in January (it took 3 months to completely reverse).

The cold came in handy on a number of occasions, providing us with the necessary ingredients for snow. It certainly was vital since the storm track was aimed right over interior New England as it often is during stronger La Nina winters. South of this storm track performed horribly this winter while north of this track performed quite well. Take a look at these snowfall totals for some selected cites.

Montreal, Quebec - 142 inches (169 % of average)
Burlington, VT - 100 inches (131 % of average)
Boston, MA - 51 inches (113 % of average)
Philadephia, PA - 6 inches (25 % of average)

In the the language of anomalies that is quite a contrast. In other words, some pain and suffering had to be endured by skiers/riders who stayed at Seven Springs or Snowshoe WV this year. Latitidude was key at we had it at MRG and this proved to save our season.

See everyone next winter .

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Around the Columbia Talk campus, it's safe to say the weather is a pretty big topic of daily conversation, especially during hurricane season, when debates rage about the future course of nature's fury.

Some members of the clan insist they can tell when summer ends and fall begins, not by the calender but by the smell of the air (did you know summer started to wind down in early August?) So it was with special interest that we read this story on the alamanc crowd in WaPo this morning. Get ready for a milder winter. No wait, maybe it'll be cooler. Or...

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 10, 2008; B01

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- They call themselves "prognosticators," people who study the phases of the moon and the height of wasp nests, then declare there will be showers on Oct. 18, 2009.

Prognosticators create long-range weather charts for the handful of surviving farmer's almanacs -- an old job, done an old way. They eschew Doppler radar and weather satellites and look for clues in the timeless rhythms of nature.

But now, the world and the weather don't look as timeless as they used to. Scientists say the planet is warming, threatening to make droughts more widespread, heat waves more punishing and hurricanes more severe.

So one of the country's most fervently unmodern subcultures has had to confront climate change. Prognosticators are deciding how -- or if -- they should factor greenhouse gases into weather-predicting formulas that are two centuries old.

Traditional methods "worked really well for hundreds of years," said Bill O'Toole, prognosticator for the Washington area's local almanac, J. Gruber's Hagers-Town Town and Country Almanack, founded in 1797. "Global warming has kind of messed it up," said O'Toole, who has started predicting shorter winters and less snow than in the past.

But yesterday, one of the giants of the almanac world pronounced in the opposite direction. The Old Farmer's Almanac, based in Dublin, N.H., predicted "global cooling" for the next two decades. The forecast was based on an expected change in sunspots and ocean temperatures, still better-understood factors than climate change, said the almanac's editor, Janice Stillman.

"We're looking forward to cooler-than-normal conditions for quite some time," Stillman said in a telephone interview. "We just simply don't predict what kind of effect greenhouse gases . . . may have on that."

Across the country, this is almanac season. The 2009 versions of these old-timey books are arriving in stores, from such behemoths as the 3.5 million-circulation Farmers' Almanac in Maine to the struggling almanac in Hagerstown, which will print 75,000 copies.

Almanacs were designed as both entertainment and how-to books for frontier families. They still have old eclecticism: brisket recipes, corny jokes, lists of the vice presidents. And the weather predictions remain a big draw.

The forecasts are far-reaching and, not surprisingly, tend to vary from book to book. "Blustery and colder" is the Maine almanac's prediction for Dec. 31, 2009, in the Mid-Atlantic. "Cloudy, not as cold," the Hagerstown almanac says.

If this kind of ultra-long-range forecasting sounds improbable, the U.S. government says it's impossible.

"In the opinion of most scientists in the field, you cannot say anything about individual daily weather more than about a week out," said Mike Halpert, of the Climate Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Prognosticators contend that the government's not looking in the right places.

Some of them say the secrets of the weather can be traced in cycles of sunspots -- dark spots on the sun related to changes in magnetic activity. The idea is that shifts in the sun's energy eventually effect the climate on Earth. Another school studies the movements of the tides, believing that they signal changes in the weather in roughly 18-year cycles.

Others look closer to home.

"This year, I find . . . the squirrels are not shaking the nuts out of the trees," said Gerald S. Lestz, 94, editor of Baer's Agricultural Almanac Gardener's Guide in Lancaster, Pa.

Lestz said he also noticed that wasps were building their nests relatively close to the ground, perhaps indicating that snow would not pile up too high.

This winter "looks a little on the mild side," he said.

Almanac staff members say their predictions are trusted by the public, often consulted by brides-to-be, members of the clergy, horse racing promoters and other people who want to know if the rain will fall on a special day that might be months or years off.

They contend that they're correct more often than not.

In Hagerstown, the weather isn't even the most astounding thing the $3.50 almanac predicts: it boasts a formula to identify the sex of an unborn child, using the birthday and Zodiac sign of an older sibling.

"I've never, ever had anybody tell me I was wrong" about that, said Jerry Spessard, almanac's business manager. About half of the booklet's customers, he said, live in the Washington area.

But for prognosticators, climate change is a problem on a much bigger scale. It threatens the very bedrock of their craft -- the idea that nature is repeating itself.

Scientists around the world have concluded that average temperatures could rise 3 degrees or more by 2100, as mounting levels of carbon dioxide and pollutants trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. That change is expected to raise sea levels, alter long-established weather patterns and affect plant and animal life.

In Hagerstown, O'Toole said he realized that the old ways had to change. In recent years, he has revised the way he uses the old chart of the moon's phases, predicting that summer conditions will come earlier and stay longer.

"I forecast less snow. I forecast the first snow later in the year and the last snow earlier in the year," said O'Toole, a retired math and computer science professor from Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Md.

O'Toole, a man used to slow changes, has become alarmed, and he urges people to do their part to stop climate change.

For O'Toole, the arrival of Tropical Storm Hanna on Saturday was just the latest evidence of the change. His forecasting methods, based on centuries-old charts keyed to the phases of the moon, predicted storms this month. But they didn't foresee anything like Hanna, which dropped seven inches of rain in some spots in Northern Virginia. His forecast had been "fair, cooler."

"I was surprised at the intensity," O'Toole said. He said it was part of a new pattern: "Storms will become more numerous and stronger; that will be the general trend."

But other prognosticators haven't gone as far in accepting climate change.

"Our formula basically is about 200 years old, and it's worked pretty well for us," said Sandi Duncan, managing editor of the almanac in Maine.

Duncan said the almanac prognosticator's formula is a secret, even to her. The aim is to prevent people from saving the $5.99 and forecasting the weather on their own. But she said the prognosticator, known only by the pseudonym "Caleb Weatherbee," had not considered climate change as a major factor in the forecast.

"It hasn't really played that much of a curve into our weather picture," said Duncan, whose almanac, like the one in New Hampshire, is calling for a cold winter.

At the almanac in Lancaster, Lestz said he had seen signs that temperatures are warming, but "we're going to give . . . climate change a little more time to get organized." He said he would include it in his forecasts as a minor factor.

"On a scale of one to 10, three," he said.

What about the wasps and squirrels?

"They're nine and 10," Lestz said.

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When it comes to the stock market, one of the biggest drivers (or takers) of wealth is, surprisingly, the weather.
You see, demand spikes for certain commodities rely on what the weather is doing. If the summer is excruciatingly hot, for example, you’ll see electricity use rise as people crank up their air conditioners. As demand moves higher, utility companies are rewarded with more revenue.
A cold winter, too, causes demand spikes in commodities. And according to The Farmers’ Almanac (which has been right about 80 percent of the time), the coming winter is expected to be one of the coldest on record.
As the winter weather forces homeowners to bundle up and buy more natural gas to heat their homes, you can expect natural gas prices to move higher. And as those prices move higher, homeowners will have less money to spend on everything else, including holiday gifts.
One of the best ways to play this situation is to buy shares of Chesapeake Energy (CHK), which moves higher with the price of natural gas. Also, steer clear of buying retailers like Target (TGT) until spring.
[Ed. Note: Changes in the weather may reveal opportunities for you to profit. But there are other patterns you can follow that could put you on the path to more wealth than you can imagine. Get the details here.

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