Your CASTLE

 Insurance Can Be Interesting
   This illustration attracted my attention even though it is alarming and would be even more so if I could have also grabbed Wisconsin, which appears below Washington above. The main point from this major article is that it is now not uncommon for insurers to refuse to insure your home or drop you after they read the latest weather forecast. If you do not have a home, you now have a good excuse in that you cannot buy one if you can't insure it. Such dire news coming from me is likely not to be believed, so here is the source: "As Insurers Around the U. S.Bleed Cash From Climate Shocks, Homeowners Lose," Christopher Flavelle, et al., New York Times. Some of the points made:

   The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which had been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, the trends are worsening....
  In 2023, insurers lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states, more than a third of the country, according to a New York Times analysis of newly available financial data. That’s up from 12 states five years ago, and eight states in 2013. The result is that insurance companies are raising premiums by as much as 50 percent or more, cutting back on coverage or leaving entire states altogether. Nationally, over the last decade, insurers paid out more in claims than they received in premiums, according to the ratings firm Moody’s, and those losses are increasing.    
   The growing tumult is affecting people whose homes have never been damaged and who have dutifully paid their premiums, year after year. Cancellation notices have left them scrambling to find coverage to protect what is often their single biggest investment. As a last resort, many are ending up in high-risk insurance pools created by states that are backed by the public and offer less coverage than standard policies. By and large, state regulators lack strategies to restore stability to the market....
 Even the insurance companies are having trouble getting coverage. Reinsurance companies, global giants like Swiss Re, insure the insurers, sharing some of the risk of the policies they write. As disasters worsen, reinsurers have become more reluctant to underwrite insurance in parts of the United States. That’s made insurance companies even more conservative about where to do business....
 “I believe we’re marching toward an uninsurable future” in many places, said Dave Jones, the former insurance commissioner of California and now director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California Berkeley law school.

  The author did not have second thoughts since he published the next day, this article: "4 Takeaways From Our Homeowners Insurance Investigation: Across the Country, More Intense Heat, Storms and Fires Are Causing the Home Insurance Market to Start to Buckle," Christopher Flavelle, NYT, May 14, 2024. In condensed form, here they are:
1. Climate change is upending the insurance market.

2. Insurers are pulling back coverage in surprising places.

3. The consequences of that pullback could affect the broader economy.

4. States are intervening in different ways.

   If H5N1 hits, life insurance could be next. 

CANCON - I will just say, "Coming Soon to an Area Near You." 
The Bonus: This news has not reached Florida as you can see from these new headlines: "Ron DeSantis Signs Bill Scrubbing 'Climate Change' From Florida State Laws," and "DeSantis Signs Law Deleting Climate Change From Florida Policy."

"Gorilla Hail"

  It has been almost three weeks since I last posted and while no one has noticed, I will get back to work since the weather is about ready to return to normal. Around here that means cold, cloudy and dreary. Unfortunately, I don't have a topic at hand, so I will write about the weather, which is what we all talk about most of the time. 
   The 'hook' for another hail piece is the word "gorilla", which, when applied to 'hail', apparently means very large. It was found in this headline: "Gorilla Hail Pelts Kansas, Missouri With Ice Chunks as Big as Baseballs," Naomi Schanen, Washington Post, March 14, 2024. Apparently the hail brought traffic to a halt on Interstate 70. Years from now, when you are wondering when the word 'gorilla' got applied to hail, as opposed to say 'hippopotamus,' you will be thankful for MM. 

“This storm IS PRODUCING BASEBALL SIZE HAIL. Get away from windows and shelter inside now!!!” the National Weather Service in Kansas City said, as a thunderstorm warning was issued to 38 counties from eastern Kansas to central Missouri, where large hail and wind damage were cited as the primary threats.
   Residents took to social media to post photos of the “gorilla hail” — a term coined by storm chaser Reed Timmer for hailstones of that size — placing them next to rulers, apples and tennis balls for comparison…"
   Above, I wrote, "another hail piece" since I have used this topic before to avoid having to produce anything of substance. In the piece, "Hail Storms" I indicated we were in for more of them and that they were likely to get worse. In that article, the better word 'Gargantuan' was used. In "Hail Again", you saw a picture of a car with a pelted windshield. And in "W. H. Hudson and the Hail Storm", you read about one that killed many birds and even sheep. By the way, we just had a hail storm here in late February and now that the barometer is falling again, perhaps this blogger will get back to work

The Bonus:
  If you are interested in weather history, see this post about Weatherwise.

W. H. Hudson and the Hail Storm

   We have just had a slight ice storm so I have been inside reading Far Away and Long Ago. In it, there is a description of a devastating hail storm. Hundreds of birds were killed, as were many sheep and even large animals, as well as a child. 

  The passage (provided below) reminded me of a post I did back in May, 2021 (see: Hail Storms.)  From it you will learn that it is predicted that we may begin to experience more, and more damaging, hail storms as a result of climate change. The storm below was witnessed by Hudson as a child, while living on the pampas in Argentina.

It was in sultry summer weather, and towards evening all of us boys

and girls went out for a ramble on the plain, and were about a quarter

of a mile from home when a blackness appeared in the south-west, and

began to cover the sky in that quarter so rapidly that, taking alarm,

we started homewards as fast as we could run. But the stupendous

slaty-black darkness, mixed with yellow clouds of dust, gained on us,

and before we got to the gate the terrified screams of wild birds

reached our ears, and glancing back we saw multitudes of gulls and

plover flying madly before the storm, trying to keep ahead of it. Then

a swarm of big dragon-flies came like a cloud over us, and was gone in

an instant, and just as we reached the gate the first big drops

splashed down in the form of liquid mud. We had hardly got indoors

before the tempest broke in its full fury, a blackness as of night, a

blended uproar of thunder and wind, blinding flashes of lightning, and

torrents of rain. Then as the first thick darkness began to pass away,

we saw that the air was white with falling hailstones of an

extraordinary size and appearance. They were big as fowls' eggs, but

not egg-shaped: they were flat, and about half-an-inch thick, and

being white, looked like little blocks or bricklets made of compressed

snow. The hail continued falling until the earth was white with them,

and in spite of their great size they were driven by the furious wind

into drifts two or three feet deep against the walls of the buildings.

It was evening and growing dark when the storm ended, but the light

next morning revealed the damage we had suffered. Pumpkins, gourds,

and water-melons were cut to pieces, and most of the vegetables,

including the Indian corn, were destroyed. The fruit trees, too, had

suffered greatly. Forty or fifty sheep had been killed outright, and

hundreds more were so much hurt that for days they went limping about

or appeared stupefied from blows on the head. Three of our heifers

were dead, and one horse--an old loved riding-horse with a history,

old Zango--the whole house was in grief at his death! ...

To return to the hailstones. The greatest destruction had fallen on

the wild birds. Before the storm immense numbers of golden plover had

appeared and were in large flocks on the plain. One of our native boys

rode in and offered to get a sackful of plover for the table, and

getting the sack he took me up on his horse behind him. A mile or so

from home we came upon scores of dead plover lying together where they

had been in close flocks, but my companion would not pick up a dead

bird. There were others running about with one wing broken, and these

he went after, leaving me to hold his horse, and catching them would

wring their necks and drop them in the sack. When he had collected two

or three dozen he remounted and we rode back.

Later that morning we heard of one human being, a boy of six, in one

of our poor neighbours' houses, who had lost his life in a curious

way. He was standing in the middle of the room, gazing out at the

falling hail, when a hailstone, cutting through the thatched roof, struck him on the head and killed him instantly.

(From: Far Away and Long Ago, (Eland Books), pp.73-76)

W.H. Hudson & The Western Libraries

The copy of Long Ago and Far Away I am reading is borrowed from the collections in the Western Libraries. Listed below are the books by Hudson found in those libraries in early 2023. There are almost fifty of them and there are some multiple copies of different editions held in various locations and the affiliated libraries. Given that the Western Libraries is getting rid of many books, I thought it worth providing a snapshot of what was a rather rich collection of printed books. I doubt if Hudson was taught about in many courses, but it is fitting that a university library has a surplus of them. Soon, these printed volumes are likely to be scarce on campus, but admittedly the students can read them in electronic form. As well, many of the copies were already in storage so it was unlikely that a curious student would ever have discovered them by browsing.

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. J.M. Dent, 1922. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. Methuen, 1926. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1921. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. E. P. Dutton, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. J.M. Dent, 1951. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons, 1939. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Duckworth, 1927. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. Duckworth, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. AMS Press, 1968.(Storage) 

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1919. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a Childhood in Argentina. Eland Books, 1982. (Weldon)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago. 1941. (King’s)

Hudson, W. H., et al. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. Printed by G. Kraft Ltda., 1943. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1945 (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Modern Library, 1916. (Brescia)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. La Tierra purpuréa. Ministerio De Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social, 1965. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Nature in Downland. Longmans, Green, 1906. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1924. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Land's End : a Naturalist's Impressions in West Cornwall. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. Creative Arts Book Co., 1979. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1951. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1944. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1945. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Edward Grey Grey of Fallodon. Dead Man's Plack, An Old Thorn,

& Miscellanea. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Frank E. Beddard. British Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. A Hind in Richmond Park. E.P. Dutton, 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park.1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park. 1922 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. Men, Books and Birds. J. Cape, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H., and R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Birds of La Plata. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

H Spenser, Edmund, and William Henry Hudson. Spenser's Faery Queene. Book I. Dent. (Storage)

Hail Again

  

   Back in May I discovered that hail storms were hazardous and perhaps becoming more so. The post that resulted is full of information about hail and, as usual, provides sources where more can be found. Even if you aren't interested in hail, you will be if you read that post - "Hail Storms- Something Else to Worry About." 

  Why now in the fall am I again writing about hail? It is because, here in London, there are people involved in The Northern Hail Project. That involvement has even attracted the attention of the New York Times which recently wrote about it. Given that Mulcahy's Miscellany has inadvertently become a repository of a considerable amount of hard-to-come-by hail information, I may as well provide some more.

  Having already invested more time in this meteorological event than intended I will simply provide the links to the sources along with some of the information contained within them. Just as hailstones melt, links have a tendency to rot. 

  Here is the story about the folks up at Western who found some very large hailstones. "Northern Hail Project Recovers Record-breaking Hailstone: Rare Giant Specimen Aids Better Understanding of Hailstorms,"By Jeff Renaud, Western News, August 03, 2022.

"A Canadian record-breaking hailstone was recovered by Western University’s Northern Hail Project (NHP) field team, following a storm earlier this week near Markerville, Alta. The record-breaker weighs 292.71 grams, eclipsing the previous title holder – a hailstone weighing 290 grams, collected nearly 50 years ago in Cedoux, Sask. on July 31, 1973.
With a diameter of 123 millimetres, the hailstone has a slightly larger span than a standard DVD (120 mm).
Led by Francis Lavigne-Theriault, the NHP field team followed a storm to Markerville (about 35 kilometers southwest of Red Deer, Alta.) and found several baseball-sized hailstones.
The team traveled farther south and approximately 20 minutes after the storm had passed (6:14 pm MDT) and recovered several larger hailstones under a tree canopy, many of which are grapefruit to softball-size including the record breaker.
Lavigne-Theriault and the team ultimately collected seven bags at the aforementioned location, all of which are baseball-sized hail or larger (at least 70 millimetres or 2.75 inches in diameter). The samples are currently being stored in a freezer....
“Finding large hailstones like this is like hitting the jackpot so this Markerville sample joins an elite club of giant hailstones,” said Brimelow. “This stone will also help us refine our estimate of just how large it is possible for hail to grow.”Because giant hailstones are so rare, the international research community does not have a good understanding yet of what conditions are required for hailstorms to produce them.
“Every new data point helps inform us on what conditions are required,” said Brimelow. “Once we have measured and 3D-scanned the Markerville hailstone, we can then make thin sections. The growth layers evident in those will reveal information on the hailstone’s growth history in the storm.”

  Here is the story as reported in the New York Times. Some content is provided since it is found behind the NYT's paywall. 

"The Hunt for Big Hail: Hailstones of Record Size are Falling Left and Right, and Hailstorm Damage is Growing. But There is Surprisingly Little Research to Explain Why,"

By Oliver Whang ,Sept. 5, 2022

"In August, a couple of days before his 68th birthday, Leslie Scott, a cattle rancher in Vivian, S.D., went to the post office, where he received some bad news. His world record had been broken, the clerk told him. That is, the hailstone Mr. Scott collected in 2010, which measured eight inches across and weighed nearly two pounds, was no longer the largest ever recorded. Some people in Canada had found a bigger one, the clerk said.

“I was sad all over the weekend,” Mr. Scott said, a few days after he heard the news. “I’ve been telling everybody that my record was broke.”

Fortunately for Mr. Scott, this was not quite right. On Aug. 1, a team of scientists from Western University in London, Ontario, collected a giant hailstone while chasing a storm in Alberta, about 75 miles north of Calgary. The hailstone measured five inches across and weighed a little more than half a pound — half the size and one-quarter the heft of Mr. Scott’s. So it was not a world record, but a Canadian one.

The Canadian hailstone added to the list of regional records set in the past couple of years, including Alabama’s in 2018 (5.38 inches long, 0.612 pounds), Colorado’s in 2019 (4.83 inches, 0.53 pounds) and Africa’s in 2020 (around seven inches long, weight unknown). Australia set a national record in 2020, then set it again in 2021. Texas’ record was set in 2021. In 2018, a storm in Argentina produced stones so big that a new class of hail was introduced: gargantuan. Larger than a honeydew melon....

Julian Brimelow, the director of the Northern Hail Project, a new collaboration among Canadian organizations to study hail, whose team found the record hailstone in August, said, “It’s a pretty exciting time to be doing hail research.”

Most reports of record hail are made by civilians, but the accuracy is often lacking. The first thing most people do when they find a big hailstone? Take a picture. Second? Show it to their family or friends. Third? Put it in the freezer — where sublimation, the phase change from solid ice to water vapor, can shrink the hailstone over time.

Mr. Scott, in Vivian, kept his world record in the freezer for weeks before someone from the National Weather Service was able to officially measure and weigh it. During that time, it shrank by about three inches, he said. “I just didn’t realize what I had,” he said. “There’s a lot more hailstones that fell, and there were bigger ones than the one I picked up...."

“Hail data are terrible,” Dr. Brimelow said. “It is probably one of the worst data sets on the planet..."

The record hailstone in Canada was collected when the Northern Hail Project intercepted a supercell as it was passing through central Alberta. The researchers used radar forecasting to predict the storm’s path, then pulled up to a stretch of road around 20 minutes after the hail swath had passed. The ground was littered with baseball-size hailstones, the largest of which the researchers bagged and froze.

The biggest hailstones “are really more of an academic interest,” Dr. Brimelow said, because they “fall in such low concentrations that they’re not really as hazardous as golf-ball-size hail.” But, Dr. Kumjian said, looking for “the absolute worst-case scenario” can refine forecasting models and help explain supercell dynamics. Studying single hailstones over time can have an outsize effect on the understanding of storms. And, he said, there is the irresistible question, What is the limit of nature?

Dr. Kumjian and Dr. Brimelow have been creating a database of the largest hailstones recorded around the world. The two believe they have determined the maximum possible size of hail: just over three pounds and around a foot in diameter. They will present their findings in September at the second-ever North American hail research workshop in Boulder, Colo.

Francis Lavigne-Theriault, who coordinates storm chases and field operations for the Northern Hail Project, said the presence of large hail in central Alberta indicated that it probably occurs “a lot more frequently” than previously thought. Dr. Brimelow said that the record was “quite remarkable,” because the conditions for hail formation in the area were generally less “juicy” than other areas in the country."

Sources:

   A website is under development at The Northern Hail Project.

    Related information is found at the Institute For Catastrophic Loss Reduction. Here is their pamphlet: "Protect Your Home From Hail."

Post Script:

   I won't carry on about pluviculture. In the NYT article there is mention of using cloud seeding to help decrease the size of hailstones. These days we generally think of cloud seeding as a way to increase rain and snowfall.  See the Wikipedia entries for "Cloud Seeding" and "Rainmaking" and this recent Washington Post article: "Cloud Seeding Gains Steam As West Faces Worsening Droughts," Maddie Stone, Nov. 21, 2021.