Record Highs

A correlation has been observed between the planet Neptune and warm weather. The sextiles formed by the Sun and Mercury to Neptune on April 13th and 14th were the basis for The Weather Alternative's long-range forecast posted in March. The forecast stated:

April 13-15

The Sun and Mercury will sextile Neptune, which will coincide with warm and fair conditions over the western U.S.

Record highs are being set over western portions of the country. Yesterday, a day before my forecast period begins, Los Angeles reached a record high of 91 degrees. Anaheim, CA hit 96 degrees and Eugene, OR warmed to a record high of 84 degrees. The San Joaquin Valley to the southern Sacramento Valley already had unseasonable warmth on Saturday and will be even warmer today.

As can be seen from the Accuweather map at right, record-challenging warmth will continue over the West and Southwest, and move eastward toward the Rockies. Only the Pacific Northwest will experience chilly and wet weather.

April Forecasts

Introduction to the Weather Alternative

How Long-Range Forecasts Are Made

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

Britain searches for a national motto
By MarkRice-Oxley, The Christian Science Monitor

The French have their "Liberté, égalité, fraternité." The Americans have "In God we trust." Even tiny nations like Antigua and Fiji have stirring calls to nationhood and faith.
Not so Britain. But the government has now launched a quest for a national maxim. The BBC and the Times newspaper jump-started the process by soliciting suggestions on their websites.

"Once Great: Britain," offered one contributor. "Americans who missed the boat," read a second. "At least we’re not French," quipped a third.

Upon first taking office, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he lived by his high school’s hallowed maxim, "usque conabor" (I will try my utmost).

But one respondent to the Times’ survey turned the joke back on the prime minister by offering a fake Latin motto—"Dipso, fatso, bingo, ASBO, Tesco"—which neatly addresses the country’s contemporary problems with alcohol, obesity, gambling, antisocial youth, and materialism.
A Monitor mini-survey revealed a similarly jaundiced view. "Get blotto, play the lotto, that’s our motto," was the only printable response.

The government says it has plenty of worthwhile suggestions. But clearly Brown will have to "try his utmost" to convince his nation that it’s a worthwhile exercise. As one contributor put it, "We’re British; we don’t do mottos."

Readers of the Times newspaper (London) offered more than 1,000 suggestions for a new national motto. Here is a sampling:
Best before nineteen-thirty-nine.
May contain nuts.
Wallowing in a postcolonial miasma.
We made other countries great.
One nation under the thumb.
Dentistry is not our forte.
Hanging on in quiet desperation.
I want my country back.
No problem left untaxed.
Overpriced, overweight, overcrowded … over.