Prometheus » How Did Hansen’s Super El Niño Prediction Do?

...So it wasn’t nearly a super El Niño, and by contrast, the tropical Pacific has been mostly in La Niña conditions since Hansen made his forecast.

Killer Icicles and Floods Trail Ice Storms; National Guard Rescuers Battle Equipment : Indybay

This was one of the worse winter storms the nation has seen. And many of us are so spoiled, that, instead of making sure we have plenty of blankets, staples and survival skills for the next go around, want to blame utility companies for this mess.
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Now we have idiot Internet feuds over whether this storm was more devastating than Katrina. Get real, people. Mindless comparisons and pissing contests over which disaster is more disastrous misses the point: and the point is, we remain dangerously unprepared for disaster in this country.

A week after the storm hit, and many still have no power, no heat. Tens of thousands remain without power, in the middle of winter, and probably won’t have power next week. Even those whose power has been restored run the risk of being without power again, as the weather warms and thawing trees snap more power lines.

I hear that a man died somewhere, after being speared in the head by a falling icicle.

AP, Dec '2000: Death by skyscraper icicle

A Wisconsin family settled a $4.5 million lawsuit last year after a microwave-size piece of ice fell from the Neiman Marcus building, crushing the skull and vertebrae of Donald Booth, 48. He was killed instantly. Chicago lawyer David Wise, who represented Booth's family, said his office is almost always handling a case involving falling ice.

New York and Minneapolis also report injuries from falling ice. In central Moscow, with its many slanted roofs, people die every year, horribly stabbed or smashed by icicles. And in Kiev, Ukraine, hundreds of workers with shovels, ropes and crowbars try to avoid the problem by climbing on roofs to loosen accumulated ice and snow.