blizzard

The weather’s “historic” records have been tumbling quite quickly these days. It isn’t even months between catastrophic events any more, but weeks. Superstorm Sandy became the largest hurricane on record as it devastated New Jersey and New York in October 2012. In November 2012, a dangerous nor’easter hit NY and New England. Christmas Day 2012 will not be forgotten by those in the Midwest. That storm will go down as producing the most tornadoes ever recorded on Christmas Day in the United States since record keeping began, writes the meteorologists at EarthSky. In January 2013, the South received a rare and historic tornado outbreak. Now the blizzard of February 2013 for New England.

Nemo: mammoth blizzard turns fatal
“The Boston Fire Department says an 11-year-old boy has died of carbon monoxide poisoning after being overcome as he sat in a running car to keep warm while his father was shovelling snow. This is the third reported death related to the record-breaking blizzard named Nemo striking the US northeast in which 700,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the boy was helping his father shovel the snow Saturday, but got cold, so his father started the car and the boy got inside. MacDonald said the car exhaust was covered by a snow bank, causing the fumes to collect inside the vehicle. When the boy was overcome by the fumes, the father went into respiratory arrest, and emergency workers took both to a hospital. The boy was pronounced dead there. No names were released. The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast dumped more than 90cm (35.4in) of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. Blizzard and flood warnings were in effect for the coast.”

“In Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates of 12.5cm an hour at times overnight, he told local WTNH television. “Even the plows are getting stuck,” Harkins said. The storm concentrated its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the top snowfall 95cm in Milford, Connecticut. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee banned all travel on roads in order to aid snow plow crews. He told CNN that National Guard troops were rescuing stranded motorists, especially at uncleared on-ramps. The mammoth storm dumped 73.2cm (28in) of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, and the weather service said there is more on the way.”

What of weather and the bible? On Blogos, I read about weather and how it is a living metaphor for how damaging our sin is. “All creation groans… When Adam and Eve ate that fruit and got kicked out of paradise, God cursed the Earth (Genesis 3:17). When the people grew so wicked that God had to wipe them out with a flood, He cursed it again. (How? One moment it was a planet where people didn’t eat meat and lived to over 900 years, and the next it was this place.)”

Further, “In much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation. Romans 8:19-21 tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything, including the world we inhabit. Everything in creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.” Sin is the ultimate cause of natural disasters just as it is the cause of death, disease, and suffering.” (source)

MSNBC reported a couple of months ago, after Superstorm Sandy, “The January-to-November period in the United States this year was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous states. And 2012 will likely surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record for the nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration….” But in seeking a reason as to why these storms are appearing so frequently and intensely, they also reported “nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say they think the storms are evidence of the “end times” as predicted by the Bible” which I am sure drove them crazy.

The earth is decaying under the weight of creation’s sin. Romans 8:21 says “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Since the Fall, the earth and its people have been on a downward trajectory of decay.

As anyone who plays Jenga knows, there is a tipping point and then suddenly the whole things comes crashing down. The crash-down is not chaos, because God is in control. At His designated moment, He will call His Bride home, recall His Spirit from His retraining ministry, and let it all go to the full measure of sin and His full cup of wrath. (Daniel 9:24, Genesis 15:16, Romans 2:5-8).

Right now we are living in a home of unrighteousness. Jesus in us is perfectly righteous, and that is why we are not of this world. This place is of unrighteous and of the darkness, while God has made us righteous by installing His Spirit in His children. However, 2 Peter 3:13 reminds us of His promise, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

Meanwhile, I hope that the shaking of the world by our Creator God reminds the lost to repent and the saved to revere His power. (Haggai 2:6; Hebrews 12:26)

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,” (Job 38:22)

“He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;” (Psalm 78:26)

“I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.” (Psalm 55:8)

“The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.” (Ecclesiastes 1:6)

Now, for some fun. As the blizzard progressed, the obligatory snow-door shots appeared on Twitter. I noticed a trend.

@AbbyDiaz1 @JimCantore Little boy, big snow drift at our door

@4castrnh: @JimCantore, I think this is a more iconic image 4 #nemo!

South Portland, with Wgme Portland, Lori Gray-Chase and Monica Custeau

Maggie Koerth-Baker ‏@maggiekb1 This photo is older than #Nemo,

but think of it as a fun DIY project for those of you snowed in.

Cyclone Yasi bearing down on the northeast corner of Australia, already flooded from weeks of rains.

In Australia/New Zealand, the folks down under are preparing for Tropical Cyclone Yasi. Queensland cyclone could be biggest ever seen. Now that’s some headline! “Queensland premier Anna Bligh is warning residents to prepare themselves for a “frightening experience” as Cyclone Yasi approaches.”

Other newscasters speak thus of the monster:

“Tony Eastley: If the size of the satellite image is anything to go by then Cyclone Yasi bursting in from the Coral Sea is a potentially highly destructive storm system. It’s one of the largest tropical cyclones to approach the north Queensland coast for decades.” Other forecasters are saying the storm is a “once in a lifetime storm.” The storm is headed to already-flooded north Australia. Crops that may be wiped out are bananas, sugar, and of course tourism. Australia’s economy and certainly the world’s does not need another economic blow and more crops washed away in storms. The officials in Oz are really worried about Yasi. “Yasi will be worse than Larry” The article opens: “Severe tropical Cyclone Yasi will hit the north Queensland coast with greater ferocity than devastating Cyclone Larry, Premier Anna Bligh says. Ms Bligh, speaking after a meeting of the state disaster management group on Tuesday, said winds of more than 250km/h could be expected from the high category four system. By comparison Larry, which devastated Innisfail and surrounds in 2006, was a mid-level category four system. Larry damaged about 10,000 homes and caused $1.5 billion in damage.” Yasi is Australia’s Katrina.

In America, the headlines are also reporting on another monster storm. A once in a lifetime, record setting, deadly storm. This time it’s snow and ice. “A monster winter storm took aim at a third of the nation Monday, threatening to lay a potentially deadly path of heavy snow and ice from the Rockies to New England, followed by a wave of bitter, bone-rattling cold that could affect tens of millions of people.” Not just millions affected, but tens of millions. The Washington Post talks of the Midwest and New England being buried. “National Weather Service advisories and warnings are in effect in more than 20 states as a powerful storm gets organized in the Midwest. A blizzard warning is in effect for Chicago, where 12 to 20 inches of snow is possible. Other cities which may experience blizzard conditions include Tulsa, Wichita, Kansas City, and Detroit. The Chicago Tribune’s Weather Center cautions: “Snowfall totals in excess of 12 inches coupled with winds of 25 to 40 mph will make long distance travel extremely dangerous if not impossible.”

People in 20 states pinned down and buried, commerce at a standstill, plow rage erupting, lost business, lost revenues…Weather.com is saying that a third of the United States’ population could be affected. They are simply calling it “destructive”, “colossal”, “historic.”

And remember a week ago, China and Mongolia suffered under their biggest storm in years, if ever. “Rescue workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of northwestern China after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four people and left half a million snowed under, meteorologists said Monday. “In neighboring Mongolia, an official appealed for help from the international community as his country battles the most severe winter it has seen in three decades. Storms in China’s far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in Sunday night.”

Why all these monster storms? It’s the end time, that’s why. These increasingly large warnings from the God who holds all weather in His hands is warning us to repent. I know many of you have heard this before and I know you believe that weather is just weather. But by now, do you really believe that? The crazy weather, the constant storms, the outsized monsters parading across the globe and bringing chaos in their wake…do you really think all that is just a coincidence? It’s not. After the rapture when Christians are gone (true born again believers that is) the storms will increase in an order of magnitude that will outstrip your ability to comprehend them. By then, the warnings of today will have turned to judgment tomorrow, and these monsters will seem like child’s play in comparison.

The Good News is that Jesus is warning us because He loves us. His death on the cross was the punishment for sin’s crimes, and He took that punishment. So far you may have rejected that pardon, but you have time to still take it before the storms I described a minute ago get truly bad. Email me and ask me more, if you want. But trust me, these monster, historic, record-setting storms will pale in comparison to judgment. You really need to think about what’s going on in the world and entertain the possibility that us crazy born again bible thumpers just may be right.

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Category: blizzard

Nemo, the Blizzard of 2013, found New England

Here be monsters! Several humungous storms affecting millions