Heavy Northern Plains Rain – October 9, 2021

National Weather Forecast

On Saturday, an area of low pressure will be moving out of the Great Basin into the upper Midwest, producing showers and thunderstorms. Some areas back into the Rockies could see some snow as well from this system. An area of low pressure off the Mid-Atlantic coast that has a 40% chance of tropical formation will continue to produce some showers for the Mid-Atlantic, and a cold front down in Florida will produce storms. A new system moving into the Pacific Northwest will bring rain and Cascade snow.

The heaviest rain through Sunday evening is expected across portions of the Northern Plains, where some areas in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota could see over 3” of rain fall. Meanwhile, some higher elevation mountains in Wyoming and Utah could see over a foot of snow.

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China orders coal mines to increase production as power shortages bite

More from CNN: “China has ordered its coal mines to ramp up production in a bid to ease a power crisis, as the country struggles to balance its need for electricity with efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Authorities in Inner Mongolia, China’s second largest coal-producing province, have asked 72 mines to boost production by a total of 98.4 million metric tons, according to state-owned Securities Times and the China Securities Journal, citing a document from Inner Mongolia’s Energy Administration. The order, which was approved on Thursday, took effect immediately, the state media outlets said. The figure is equivalent to about 30% of China’s monthly coal production, according to recent government data. Inner Mongolia’s energy authorities didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by CNN Business.”

16-Million-Year-Old Tardigrade Found Preserved in Amber

More from Gizmodo: “Though it proved difficult to spot, scientists managed to find an itsy-bitsy tardigrade trapped inside a chunk of Dominican amber. The unprecedented discovery of an ancient tardigrade is shedding new light onto this remarkably durable group of microscopic animals. Some 16 million years ago, a single plop of tree resin managed to capture a fragment from a flower, three ants, and a beetle. That’s an impressive haul, but more remarkably, the resin also trapped a wayward tardigrade. The resulting chunk of amber is only the third known tardigrade fossil and the first tardigrade fossil from the Cenozoic, the current era that began 66 million years ago with the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs.”

How Biden Can Take On the Climate Crisis by Himself

More from The American Prospect: “President Biden has failed to live up to his promise to progressives to be a climate president. U.S. emissions continue to rise. Last week, 23 unique plant and animal species were declared extinct. A catastrophic pipeline oil spill in California is actively killing fish, birds, and wetland ecosystems. And in violation of treaty rights that are constitutionally the supreme law of the land, Biden allowed Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline to become operational on October 1, which will add emissions equivalent to 50 new coal-fired power plants and will inevitably spill. Biden is standing in support while water protectors are violently arrested and the Anishinaabe peoples living in the path of the project are terrorized and abused. All of this is separate from the fate of the Biden agenda, encapsulated in the Build Back Better reconciliation bill. If it passes, it will be an unprecedented investment in this country’s social safety net and clean-energy future, perhaps the last best chance at meaningful climate action. It will also be completely insufficient, trillions less than the investments needed and dwarfed by the incalculable value of preserving a habitable planet.”

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– D.J. Kayser