The Smile Politely Editors are comprised of Chris Maier, Justine Bursoni, Seth Fein, Marissa Monson and Lindsey Markel. They, along with Webmaster Mason Kessinger, are the founders of the magazine. They decide to highlight certain events going on in Champaign-Urbana in a democratic fashion, without bias, in order to best bring to you the finest information on the entertainment around town.
It’s been a banner year for the weather gods — and we’re only six months in.
What makes this year so remarkable?
Nationwide, we’ve had nearly 700 confirmed (and more than 1,300 reported) tornadoes this year, and they’ve been accompanied by an onslaught of violent weather patterns like the ones that had Champaign-Urbana’s sirens ringing earlier this week.
The Pacific nations have seen five typhoons so far (more than 60 dead and another 40 remain missing). And in May, the nation of Burma experienced the worst cyclone disaster in its history, with almost 80,000 perishing and another 55,000 gone missing.
And then there are earthquakes. More than 67,000 killed in western China by a 7.9 quake. Other big ones in Algeria, the Congo, India and Indonesia. Even here in central Illinois, an unusual earthquake in April reminded us that we have some tectonic instability of our own.
Floods. T-storms. Hail. Droughts.
Unseasonably cold. Unconventionally hot. Nothing quite normal.
Question is: Why?
Comments (7)
Friday, June 6, 2008 6:08 PM
yeah.... Armageddon, we are are screwed.... did you here about the baby born in india with 2 faces and 6 arms? 2012 man 2012lol
Friday, June 6, 2008 11:00 PM
Its weather, its what weather does. What is odd is that we are not only prepared for the obvious like increased gas prices but not even for weather.
This is not brain surgery. Its about drainage, building codes, road requirements, triming trees, what trees to plant and looking at a weather report and making the choice to stay inside.
Armageddon? Not quite yet.
Friday, June 6, 2008 11:05 PM
Armageddon?
This is not brain surgery. We are not prepared for gas prices. Why should we be prepared for the weather. The weather is about housing codes, adequate drainage, tree maintanance,flexible crop planting, the choice to stay off the roads, and acceptance that sometimes the word is "no you may not just now."
Why is this a surprise to the academic crowd? Too busy planning brunch or vacation? I guess its the brunch.
Friday, June 6, 2008 11:56 PM
The problem is our lack of historical perspective. Everything that happens today is the worst things have ever been, forgetting that the earth has seen far worse than these little storms.
Granted, no storm is little when it takes your house, but given the history of the earth, this is nothing new or abnormal.
Except for the earthquakes. Those you can blame on global warming, because that makes as much sense as anything else.
Saturday, June 7, 2008 6:40 AM
academics are only humans. i think it's less about brunch/vacations (btw, academics are not born, but made, so like, nonacademics could plausibly be academics if they chose to) and more about humanity's constant state of denial about their human flaws. things that we can't rule over in a godlike way tend to be avoided, unless, of course, there is money to be made by private companies (maybe the government could care like it cares about oil prices??). either that, or its' the academics' faults. :P
so i'm more on the armageddon-side of things, since, like, we're animals (gasp!) and we can never have control of the universe/earth, even if we set our priorities straight. history of animals of earth suggests to me that we're goners like the rest, it's just luck.
Saturday, June 7, 2008 11:57 AM
Seth and Justine? Wedding? Coincidence?????
Sunday, June 8, 2008 1:44 AM
man you should have seen seth - he kept checking the radar every 5 minutes! this was the culmination of over a week of weather report checking (and even an attempt to talk to a meteorologist). i was so sure that it was gonna be storming... luckily, it cleared up just in time.