Ah! The threats. The desperation. The folly.
So, once again, on this day before fall, Vladimir Putin is threatening the use of nuclear weapons. How frightening! Especially for Russians, who will almost assuredly receive radioactive fallout from their own weapons. Then again, who’s to count the cancer victims and those dying rapidly from radioactive isotopes stripping electrons from the atoms in their bodies. Ionizing radiation? It’s as invisible as the wind.
What’s that? What are you saying?
Basically, that Vlad needs a lesson in meteorology, specifically in low and high pressure systems and the breezes they generate within a prevailing wind system. Ignorance is bliss until it isn’t.
In January the winds of Ukraine generally sheer, with northern Ukraine experiencing a west wind and southern Ukraine, an east wind, and eastern Ukraine getting a more northerly wind. In spring, northern, eastern, and southern Ukraine get eastern winds, whereas in southwestern Ukraine, winds generally flow from the south and southeast. By July, the prevailing winds change again as west and northwest winds prevail. Fall sees a trend back toward the winter wind regime. Within this general trend various high and low pressure systems, swirling clockwise and counterclockwise respectively because of the Coriolis effect in the Northern Hemisphere, alter local and regional wind directions.
Today’s (September 20) wind map reveals two wind gyres, both counterclockwise, indicating a double low pressure over Ukraine. Thus, winds over the country flow both from Belarus and into southern Russia.
What if Putin dropped a couple of nukes today—or any day? The result would be the spread of radioactive isotopes into the Crimea in the southeast, Belarus to the north, and into regions southeast of Moscow. Meteorology be damned! Putin says he isn’t bluffing about nuclear weapons as he conscripts more Russians into military service to replace the thousands lost in his “special engagement” to date. And that means that those soldiers—those Russian soldiers—sent to fight in Ukraine will also come under radioactive fallout. So will the soils of Ukrainian wheat fields. And cities like Savastopol, Karch, and Feodosia—those three accounting for about 700,000 Crimeans. Of course, Russian cities like Volgograd, with more than a million people, will also receive the unwanted radiation.
And if the winds shift as they inevitably do, will Moscow get a dose of its own radioactive isotopes? Certainly, it and neighboring Belarus will receive some radioactive fallout. Yet, a belligerent Putin continues his threats, and a compliant Belarus shows support.
Will he use nukes? I have no idea. Desperate men do desperate things. We can generalize as we do with regard to prevailing wind systems, but general wind systems do not preclude aberrations in wind directions. One can live within a region of Prevailing Westerlies and still get eastern, southern, and northern winds.
It’s truly unfortunate that most of the 7.8 billion people on the planet have no power to impose sanity where insanity reigns. Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo began a world war in which more than 50 million people died. How many of us will Putin kill to satisfy his aggrandizement? How many will be Russians? And after he is dead, how many of his and other Russians’ offspring will suffer from cancer that his actions initiated.
The winds of today are not necessarily the winds of tomorrow. What blows today might blow back tomorrow. Vlad needs a lesson in meteorology.
So, once again, on this day before fall, Vladimir Putin is threatening the use of nuclear weapons. How frightening! Especially for Russians, who will almost assuredly receive radioactive fallout from their own weapons. Then again, who’s to count the cancer victims and those dying rapidly from radioactive isotopes stripping electrons from the atoms in their bodies. Ionizing radiation? It’s as invisible as the wind.
What’s that? What are you saying?
Basically, that Vlad needs a lesson in meteorology, specifically in low and high pressure systems and the breezes they generate within a prevailing wind system. Ignorance is bliss until it isn’t.
In January the winds of Ukraine generally sheer, with northern Ukraine experiencing a west wind and southern Ukraine, an east wind, and eastern Ukraine getting a more northerly wind. In spring, northern, eastern, and southern Ukraine get eastern winds, whereas in southwestern Ukraine, winds generally flow from the south and southeast. By July, the prevailing winds change again as west and northwest winds prevail. Fall sees a trend back toward the winter wind regime. Within this general trend various high and low pressure systems, swirling clockwise and counterclockwise respectively because of the Coriolis effect in the Northern Hemisphere, alter local and regional wind directions.
Today’s (September 20) wind map reveals two wind gyres, both counterclockwise, indicating a double low pressure over Ukraine. Thus, winds over the country flow both from Belarus and into southern Russia.
What if Putin dropped a couple of nukes today—or any day? The result would be the spread of radioactive isotopes into the Crimea in the southeast, Belarus to the north, and into regions southeast of Moscow. Meteorology be damned! Putin says he isn’t bluffing about nuclear weapons as he conscripts more Russians into military service to replace the thousands lost in his “special engagement” to date. And that means that those soldiers—those Russian soldiers—sent to fight in Ukraine will also come under radioactive fallout. So will the soils of Ukrainian wheat fields. And cities like Savastopol, Karch, and Feodosia—those three accounting for about 700,000 Crimeans. Of course, Russian cities like Volgograd, with more than a million people, will also receive the unwanted radiation.
And if the winds shift as they inevitably do, will Moscow get a dose of its own radioactive isotopes? Certainly, it and neighboring Belarus will receive some radioactive fallout. Yet, a belligerent Putin continues his threats, and a compliant Belarus shows support.
Will he use nukes? I have no idea. Desperate men do desperate things. We can generalize as we do with regard to prevailing wind systems, but general wind systems do not preclude aberrations in wind directions. One can live within a region of Prevailing Westerlies and still get eastern, southern, and northern winds.
It’s truly unfortunate that most of the 7.8 billion people on the planet have no power to impose sanity where insanity reigns. Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo began a world war in which more than 50 million people died. How many of us will Putin kill to satisfy his aggrandizement? How many will be Russians? And after he is dead, how many of his and other Russians’ offspring will suffer from cancer that his actions initiated.
The winds of today are not necessarily the winds of tomorrow. What blows today might blow back tomorrow. Vlad needs a lesson in meteorology.
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