Heat, drought, and flooding

Heat, drought, and flooding are in the news:

27 April 2013

According to the NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), the sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem have drastically increased to the highest level in the last 150 years in 2012.

With rising temperatures, melting ice caps in the Arctic and record-setting melting rates of ice in the Antarctic Peninsula, NOAA’s NEFSC has an addition to the list: the rising temperature at the sea surface of the Northeast Continental Shelf reached the highest level in more than a century, last year. According to the report, the sea surface temperature in the Northeast Shelf Ecosystem reached a record-setting 14 degree Celsius in 2012, which is the highest since 1951…Recently, a tendency of above-average temperatures have been observed during summer and spring seasons, and these high sea surface temperatures are the latest additions to this observation. It is also part of a pattern of elevated temperatures taking place in the Northwest Atlantic. http://www.hngn.com/articles/2242/20130427/sea-surface-temperatures-northeast-continental-shelf-reach-highest-level-150.htm

26 April 2013

The nation is seeing a sharp divide between dry and wet as summer approaches: While the eastern USA is almost entirely drought-free, drought continues to persist and intensify in much of the country to the west of the Mississippi River.

Many areas of the West are ending the wet season with “bleak spring runoff prospects and increasing drought concerns,” according to this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly federal website that tracks drought.

Every state west of the Mississippi, except for Washington, is enduring some level of drought conditions. In all, 66% of the Western U.S. is in a drought, with the worst conditions in Texas, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico…Nationally, 47% of the contiguous U.S. is in a drought. http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/04/26/drought-divide-usa/2115877/

26 April 2013

On Midwestern farms, there’s been a sharp turn of events this month, a swing from too little water to way too much. Farmers have been battling a historic drought and now, thanks to heavy spring rains, their biggest threat is flooding. Flood warnings are in place along the Mississippi River and other waterways. And throughout the region, fields that were parched last year are now too muddy to plant. http://www.npr.org/2013/04/26/179297739/drought-to-heavy-rains-complicate-planting-in-midwest

There are drought conditions in much of the USA, and in one area that had drought, it was followed by flooding.

The drought, heat, and flooding news brought to mind the following from scriptures:

7 “I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord. (Amos 4:7-8)

13 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. 14 So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 13:13-14)

8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory. (Revelation 16:8-9)

Although the heat prophesied in Revelation 16 has not arrived yet, it seems like perhaps we are being given a warning now that this and other weather problems will happen.

Notice also the following:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year’s huge drought was a freak of nature that wasn’t caused by man-made global warming, a new federal science study finds.

Scientists say the lack of moisture usually pushed up from the Gulf of Mexico was the main reason for the drought in the nation’s midsection.

Thursday’s report by dozens of scientists from five different federal agencies looked into why forecasters didn’t see the drought coming. The researchers concluded that it was so unusual and unpredictable that it couldn’t have been forecast.

“This is one of those events that comes along once every couple hundreds of years,” said lead author Martin Hoerling, a research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Climate change was not a significant part, if any, of the event.”

http://news.yahoo.com/report-global-warming-didnt-cause-big-us-drought-211545586.html
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/11/new-government-report-says-2012-summer-drought-not-caused-by-global-warming/

In 2012, weather problems, including flooding, drought, and heat have affected other areas as well (see, for example, Flooding in North Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, and China, TW: Drought USA and Flooding UK; Russia Having Both, Quarter Million Affected by Flooding in Japan, Severely Cold Weather in South Africa and Australia, Drought in Mid-USA Affecting Grain, 2012 Drought Declared USA’s Largest Ever Natural Disaster, Drought Affecting India and Its Food Supply; Europe too, Drought Reducing Wheat Yields in US, Australia, Russia, and Ukraine, and Weather Extremes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK). Flood, droughts, and weather problems contribute to food shortages, higher food prices (Heat Affecting USA Wheat Crop and USDA Slashes Corn and Soy Production Estimates Due to Drought; Canadian Farmers Expecting to Benefit), and sometimes famines. Weather problems can be a warning.

Jesus taught:

7…And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7-8).

8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. (Mark 13:8)

The sorrows and troubles are just beginning and will get much worse.

Severe weather is consistent with the troubles that Jesus spoke of.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Weather Blessings and Sorrows Are weather problems a warning? What should be done?
The Bible Condemns Homosexuality “Same-sex marriage” for “gays” and lesbians is becoming more acceptable to many. What does the Bible teach about homosexuality? Can homosexuals change? Could there be a connection between droughts and the growing societal acceptance of homosexuality?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2013, 2014, or 2015? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord?
Physical Preparation Scriptures for Christians. We all know the Bible prophecies famines. Should we do something?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?