Rain, “strongest winds in over a decade”
A NATIONAL Weather Service statement predicts along with heavy rain for Los Angeles on Wednesday January 20, 2010 “the strongest winds in over a decade.”
From the report: “The heaviest rainfall will spread into the area between 10 am and 8 pm on Wednesday. Rainfall rates will range from three-quarters of an inch to one inch per hour with local rates up to 1.50 inches per hour across south-facing slopes. Total rainfall accumulations will range from one inch to two inches over coasts and valleys with two to four inches in the mountains. Local amounts up to five inches are possible along south-facing slopes.
With the amount of instability with this system there is a high potential for strong thunderstorms to develop on Wednesday and Wednesday night. Some of the thunderstorms may produce hail, wind gusts in excess of 60 mph and torrential downpours.
Atmospheric conditions will also be favorable …
Lawn’s carbon footprint
Amy Townsend-Small, UC Irvine, co-author of a new study comparing the carbon storage-versus-emission profile of Southern Californian lawns. Photo: Steve Zylius, UC Irvine
Smoking kills and lawn grooming contributes to global warming, reports the American Geophysical Union.
Actually, the AGU press release doesn’t talk about cigarettes, just grass: “Dispelling the notion that urban ‘green’ spaces [read lawn] help counteract greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found — in Southern California at least — that mowing and other lawn maintenance emit much larger amounts of greenhouse gases than the well-tended grass sequesters.
“Turfgrass lawns remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important “carbon sinks.” However, greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer production, mowing, leaf blowing and other lawn management practices are four times greater than the amount of carbon stored by ornamental grass in parks,” a new study to be …
North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
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