What a year 2011 was when it came to weather. Blizzards, tornadoes, flooding, droughts and hurricanes. Here is a photo journal through the extreme weather of 2011 shown in chronological order. Geologic disasters (tsunami, earthquakes, etc) will be posted in a separate article, as well as the fires in the US Southwest (in which I live.) More…
Tag Archives: tn
2011: The year of the cicada…. Reply
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It has been more than a decade since Middle Tennessee has dealt with swarms of cicadas.
The last time the 13-year periodical cicada emerged from the ground was in May of 1998.
Come May of this year, most of Middle Tennessee will again see the cicadas, according to Dr. Frank Hale, entomologist at the University of Tennessee Extension.
He said the periodical cicada that will emerge this year is known as Brood XIX.
Various populations are called broods and scientists use Roman numerals to designate which brood they are referring to.
Brood XIX is expected to emerge from the ground in May “and they will come out by the millions,” according to Dr. Hale.
He added, “Brood XIX is the biggest brood that we have in Middle Tennessee. It is encompassing most of Middle Tennessee, even some counties in east Tennessee and probably a few west of here.”
The cicadas will start appearing in early May and live for about five to six weeks.
Most Middle Tennesseans remember the cicadas in 1998.
“They were everywhere. You couldn’t walk outside without getting hit in the head with them and they were big,” Zora Mallory recalled. “I am not scared of bugs but I don’t like bugs and I would rather they not be around me. You would walk outside and they would crunch under your feet.”
“I just remember all the noise,” Anita Jean-Pierre Anita Jean-Pierre. “Very noisy and they also freak me out.”
“They were just every where,” Ray Farris added. “[They] covered your windows, covered your cars, dogs and cats chasing them and hiding from them. It is just a nightmare for some people and then we aren’t used to it down here in the south.”
Cicadas are completely harmless but they are very loud and the noise could affect outdoor events in May like picnics or weddings.
The female cicadas can also cause damage to young trees when laying eggs.
Females prefer branches about the size of a pencil.
They cut into the underside of the branch and lay their eggs.
Dr. Hale recommends covering young fruit and ornamental trees with a thin cloth to keep the cicadas away from the branches.
Posting from WKRN-TV News2 Nashville
Dramatic photos of the Mississippi River flooding in Midwest, TN, MO… Reply
The Mississippi River and tributaries continue to rise, reaching record crests, and the worst may still be to come. Portions of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas are under water, with more to come. Pressure on levees led the Army Corps of Engineers to blow up a section below Cairo, Ill, inundating 130,000 acres of farmland while saving the town. As a bulge of river water makes its way downstream, levees are stressed and rivers that empty into the Mississippi have no outlet, backing up and flooding even more land. The bulge will reach the Delta later this month, and millions of acres are threatened.
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See my other posting: Flood waters near record levels in Memphis TN (Video footage / pictures) - click here to view
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Floodwater engulfs a home after engineers blew a hole in a levee to divert water from the town of Cairo, Ill. May 3 near Wyatt, Mo. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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The Quad Cities River Bandits and the Peoria Chiefs play a baseball game April 20 inside Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, Iowa. The rising flood waters of the Mississippi River surround the stadium which is protected by a flood wall. (Paul Colletti/The Dispatch/AP)
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Floodwaters from the Mississippi River on May 3 swamp the area north of New Madrid, Mo. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
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Water flows through an intentional breech in the Birds Point levee May 3 in Mississippi County, Mo. after engineers blew the levee up in an effort to protect nearby Cairo, Ill. from rising floodwaters. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
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Roy Presson embraces his daughters Catherine (left) and Amanda as they stand on the edge of State Highway HH looking out at their family farm on May 3 in Wyatt, Mo. The Presson home and 2,400 acres of land that they farmed was flooded when engineers blew a hole in a levee to save the town of Cairo, Ill. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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With Green River floodwater over his calves, Daniel Davis stands in the kitchen with personal belongings on sawhorses May 3 in Livermore, Ky. (John Dunham/Messenger-Inquirer/AP)
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Workers use a boat to recover supplies from a flooded grain elevator May 4 in Caruthersville, Mo. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Houses are surrounded by floodwater May 3 in Pinhook, Mo. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
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Linley Dennis plays in a boat while her parents and grandfather work the motor in their flooded front yard in Big Boy Junction May 6 near Finley, Tenn. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Property owners and hired workers erect temporary flood walls along the Mississippi River in Natchez, Miss. May 7. (Gerald Herbert/AP)
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Lesli Lambert (left) and Tammi St. John row through their neighborhood as floodwaters slowly rise in Finley, Mo. May 7. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
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Residents look at houses being engulfed by floodwater May 8 in Memphis. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Cyril Forck, 90, catches a small perch fish from his backyard deck, which is usually 50 feet away from the edge of the Mississippi River, on Mud Island in Memphis, Tenn. May 4. (Lance Murphey/AP)
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See my other posting: Flood waters near record levels in Memphis TN (Video footage / pictures) - click here to view
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UPDATE: Mississippi River Could Crest Monday at Memphis (Video) Reply
Forecasters are pushing up their prediction of when the Mississippi River could crest at Memphis. Now, the river could reach 48 feet as early as Monday night. (May 9)
New Video added to post: Flood waters near record levels in Memphis TN (Video footage / pictures)
Memphis TN Flood: Army Corps of Engineers: No Concern for Levee Failure (Video) Reply
Update on my previous post: Flood waters near record levels in Memphis TN (Video footage / pictures)
Forecasters say the Mississippi River could crest late Monday at Memphis, hours sooner than previously predicted, but the mayor says the city’s ready for it. (May 9)
Flood waters near record levels in Memphis TN (Video footage / pictures) 4
Historically high water levels in the Mississippi and Ohio river systems prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to intentionally blow up levees and flood 130,000 acres in Missouri. Now “the most high risk population” is in Memphis, according to Corps of Engineers Col. Vernie Reichling, though the worst danger zone is expected to move further south in the days to come.
“This water that we’re seeing coming by is moving 2 million cubic feet per second,” said Reichling of the situation on Sunday outside Memphis. “To use an analogy, in one second that water would fill up a football field 44 feet deep.”
By daybreak Sunday, the Mississippi had already reached 47.3 feet.
The river is expected to crest at 48 feet — just shy of the 48.7-foot record set in 1937 — shortly after midnight Tuesday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff.
Officials have looked at the possibility of the river reaching 52 feet, “solely to fall on the high side of caution,” Nations said.
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An explosion lights up the night sky as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blows an 11,000-foot hole in the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Mo. on Monday. The breach lowered the flood levels at Cairo, Illinois. Credit: Getty Images, NOAA
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UPDATE: MAY 9, 2011
Forecasters say the Mississippi River could crest late Monday at Memphis, hours sooner than previously predicted, but the mayor says the city’s ready for it. (May 9)
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Forecasters are pushing up their prediction of when the Mississippi River could crest at Memphis. Now, the river could reach 48 feet as early as Monday night. (May 9)
