30 Jan 2006
Unusual January Weather

It's almost official: central Indiana has had the warmest January since record keeping began. I found NOAA's statement here, but have reproduced it below, as I doubt it'll be available on the 'Net for any length of time:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN
1040 PM EST SAT JAN 28 2006

...VERY MILD CONDITIONS CONTINUE AT INDIANAPOLIS...

DAILY AVERAGE TEMPERATURES HAVE BEEN ABOVE NORMAL ON EACH OF THE FIRST 28 DAYS OF THIS JANUARY. DAILY AVERAGE TEMPERATURES ARE FORECAST TO CONTINUE ABOVE NORMAL FOR THE LAST 3 DAYS OF THE MONTH.

IF THIS HAPPENS...THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1871 WHEN TEMPERATURE RECORDS BEGAN IN INDIANAPOLIS...THAT ANY JANUARY HAS HAD ALL 31 DAYS ABOVE NORMAL.

THERE WERE 2 JANUARY/S ON RECORD (1880 AND 1923) THAT HAD ONLY 1 DAY WHEN THE DAILY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS BELOW NORMAL. JANUARY 1990 HAD ONLY ONE DAY BELOW BUT ALSO HAD ONE DAY THAT WAS NORMAL.

Not only has it been exceptionally warm, it's also been very, very wet as well. I can't recall the last day without at least a shower or a mist. We've had several rounds of thunderstorms, too. I'm afraid it's going to fool the plants if it keep up much longer - and that would be a bad thing to have the grasses start a growth spurt only to get clobbered by a below zero snap in late February.

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Don't drink to this latest cancer finding

Here we go again ... anybody want to take a bet on the likelihood of a total advertising ban for booze by mid-century?

Along with smoking and chronic infections, alcohol consumption is an important cause of several types of cancer, researchers said on Monday.

(link) [CNN.com]

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Giving déjà vu a second look

I could swear I've seen this study somewhere before ...

Psychologists from Leeds' memory group are working with sufferers of chronic déjà vu on the world's first study of the condition.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

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