IS IT WARM OR IS IT JUST ME?

“The body doesn’t care what the instruments report, it only knows whether or not it can cool itself.”

This week has seen reports of heat index records in the Gulf and Near East that exceed 140°F, in some cases as high as 150°F. That level is well above what the human body can tolerate for long.

The most newsworthy event focused on Dubai, which measured a 144°F heat index and a “real” temperature of 113°F. Asaluyeh, Iran also reported a 149 °F heat index. But the parade of broken records is covering much wider swaths of the planet, including catastrophic heat waves in the US West and East coasts, Southern Europe, South Asia and Africa.

Most of these places are historically hot. But not this hot for this long. Real people are dying, including the barely reported June deaths of 1,300 Hajj pilgrims in Mecca in 120°F heat. They were going to throw stones at the devil.

Is the heat index – which accounts for air temperature and humidity – real?

Short answer: real enough to cook your internal organs, my friend.

In the context of effect on the human body, the heat index is EVEN MORE REAL than standard air temperatures as measured on the thermometer. The body doesn’t care what the instruments report, it only knows whether or not it can cool itself.

For example, Persian Gulf International Airport reported successive thermometer air temperature readings of “only” 108°F and 106°F, but heat indexes of 149°F. Why the big difference? Part of the answer is a lesser reported stat: a 95°F reading of Persian Gulf water temperatures, which generate massive amounts of humidity.

The body cools itself by sweating, but at those levels it is unable to do that because moisture doesn’t evaporate. The human body begins to shut down at a core temperature of around 109.4°F. At that point, we begin to heat from inside. Any heat index over 105°F is dangerous to the human body (new studies are concluding even lower levels can be lethal). Above 124°F is considered extremely dangerous.

Then you die.

“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”

In the US, most places experiencing this rapid increase in temperatures are in the Desert Southwest, which typically have lower humidity and also air conditioning. So those with the means can live inside during long heatwaves, going from air conditioned home to air conditioned car to air-conditioned restaurant. So for now, it’s mostly the poor and homeless who die.

The other under-reported stat is overnight lows, which are increasing even faster than daytime highs. If anything, these numbers are more critical to any environment, because humans and plants are unable to recover. Humans can migrate if they are able, but trees not so much.

In the Near East, nighttime lows have been in the 80s up to high 90s in places. The same trends are clear in other regions of the overheating planet.

As heat indexes become more widely reported, climate denialists are lining up to deride these statistics as woke science, not real, like birds. It is another conspiracy, although who benefits is a different question altogether.

After 20 years of covering the global climate disaster, I have divided denialist trolls into two camps: 1) those who are well paid to continue the multi-billion dollar, multi-decade gas lighting extravaganza brought to you by the fossil boys and 2) fools.

However, there is likely significant overlap between these groups.

Link to global updates

 

If you don’t talk about it, it’s not real

A bi-partisan bill passed in the Florida legislature last week would have mandated the Department of Health to monitor polluted beaches and report the data to the public. Florida SB 165 authorized the Department to close coastal beaches and public bathing spaces if necessary “to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”
I say “would have” because Gov. DeSantis vetoed it.
The bill required counties and municipalities to warn the DOH within 24 hours of unsafe of fecal matter (shit) or enterococci bacteria levels in the water and post health advisory warning signs. There is a lot of water in Florida, and a whole lot of it is impaired by everything from toxic algae blooms, sewage, nitrogen and phosphorus. Ask any manatee.
Ron is no more concerned about dirty swimming water than he is about human rights, actual history or climate breakdown. Ron cares about tourist dollars and the effect that warning visitors about threats to their health might have on revenue. Ron cares about the money flowing into his campaign coffers from the people responsible for the pollution.
That’s why he vetoed this common sense law.
It’s also why he happily signed legislation that bans the use of “climate change” or similar terms in any official state document or communication
.
This accounts for his popularity among the magical thinking segment of the public.

 

HOT HOT HOT CATEGORY 5 STORM IS BREAKING EVERY RECORD

After having leveled 90% of the buildings on Carriacou, Grenada, Cat 5 Hurricane Beryl has already broken lots of records as it barrels toward Jamaica. The rapid intensification of this storm is unprecedented for this time of year (and for most any time of year), a condition made possible by Atlantic surface temperatures that are historically high. Rapid Intensification (RI) is defined as an increase of 35 MPH or more in a storm’s wind speed over 24 hours. Beryl’s wind speed more than doubled to 160 MPH from Monday to Tuesday.
The year 2023 was the warmest globally on land, sea and air. According to Copernicus’ ERA5 data records from June, 2024 is already hotter, with global sea surface temperatures across most of the world’s seas at unprecedented levels even as the El Niño cycle slackens.
The current temperatures are typical of September, not early July. On average, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season tends to form during early to mid-August. The first Category 3 generally doesn’t usually occur until Sept. 1, records show. Beryl hit Cat 5 in early July.
Average daily sea surface temperature for the month of May hit a new all-time high of 69.67 F a monthly new record for the 14th month in a row. In a nutshell, the temperatures we are now seeing are decades ahead of what climate models predicted.

DEEPER LAYERS OF HOT WATER INHIBIT SELF MODERATION

It’s fairly easy to grasp how extreme heat and water vapor levels can contribute to radical spikes in a storm’s intensity. But there is another factor contributing to Rapid Intensification that is less intuitive: the DEPTH of the upper layer of warm ocean water. In the past, when a storm passed over very warm water it fed off of the energy stored in the water, but also churned up that top layer to allow cooler water to rise from below.
Up until a few years ago, the normal scenario was that mixing of the cooler layers lowered the over all temps at the surface, reducing the energy available to the storm and therefore the intensity. In a sense, there was some self-regulation built in to the systems. However, with warmer surface layers now extending deeper, the upper layers stay warmer, the system energy stays higher and storms continue to power up.
The planet’s seas have been absorbing heat and CO2 for decades, and we are now beginning to pay the price. Storms like Maria, Otis, Beryl and those that will follow this season are a preview of what is coming.

 

 

 

 

126°F in India

“This isn’t heat, it’s a punishment, maybe from God.”

Courts, schools and government offices were closed in late May after the country broke its time high temperature record of 126° F (52.3C) registered in Delhi. More than 37 cities in the country reported temperatures over 113° F.

Initial heat related deaths were in the dozens but expected to climb. Meanwhile, forest fires are reported as the heat wave continues and foliage dries out. 

The ongoing regional water crisis was worsened by the heat wave, exacerbated by wanton waste of water by the wealthy. 

Midwest tornado onslaught driven by heat and moisture 

Town of Greenfield laid waste, 250 ft turbines toppled and Grandma Dixie was buried alive (but lived). 
Several tornadoes ripped a swath of destruction across Iowa leaving several people dead before tearing into parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. Four deaths have been reported and much of the town was laid waste.
“There is basically nothing left,” said Clel Baudler, a former Iowa state representative who lives a half mile from Greenfield.

Mexico heatwave causing howler monkeys to fall dead from trees

How hot is it? It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.

Howler monkeys live in the steamy jungles of the Mexican Tabasco state and are uniquely adapted to their habitat. So when it stays so hot this long that they begin dying of dehydration, something is very wrong. Since early May, officials in Mexico have counted hundreds of monkeys lying dead on the ground beneath the trees. 

 

“They were falling out of the trees like apples,” Pozo said. “They were in a state of severe dehydration, and they died within a matter of minutes.” 

The monkey mortality event has multiple causes, including  heat, drought, forest fires and logging that deprives the monkeys of water, shade and the fruit they eat.

Temperatures in the region have reached 113F.

Sea levels are rising ever faster as Miami smashes May air and water records

As Miami and South Florida bake under record May heat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that sea level rise is increasing at an accelerating rate.

Several records have been tied or broken across South Florida including Key West, which tied its highest heat index at a 115° F degrees and broke it’s “real” temperature record at 96° F,

“The oceans are running hot and they’re running high,” NOAA Oceanographer Dr. William Sweet said. “We’re melting more land-based ice out of Antarctica and Greenland and mountain glaciers, and the ocean is heating, especially in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic.

S has increased about a foot in the last 80 years, with 8 in. of that coming in the last 30.  The next ft. of inundation may take only 20 years. And NOAA reports that that rate is increasing quickly. 

Record ocean temps:

For two weeks, the water temperature measured at Virginia Key has hit record highs, reaching temperatures that are more common during the peak summer months of July and August. 
Water temperature in May was four degrees F. The 90F reading was a new record and bodes ill for the rest of the season. 

This will be the warmest May on record by at least 1.5 degrees F.

Evacuation orders in BC as fire season resurges

During Canada’s warmest ever winter, Zombie fires continued to burn, the drought dragged on and the snow didn’t come.. Now the smoking disasters of last summer seem doomed to repeat themselves as evacuation orders were issued to thousands in Mid-May in British Columbia and Alberta amidst a resurgence of wildfires. The government ordered thousands to leave Fort Nelson, BC as a resurgent zombie blaze threatened the town. A zombie fire means it smoldered over the winter and was never extinguished. 

Forty of the wildfires were listed as out of control on May 13h. In a repeat of last year’s apocalyptic smoke issues, Minnesota is reporting air quality issues 2,000 miles away. 

 

The province of Alberta is now in Stage Four of its five-stage water shortage management response plan. 

 

Exxon says the climate disaster is your fault

Darren Woods, CEO of the world’s largest oil company, says the world “waited too long” to develop carbon-free technologies. Wonder why we did that? 
For the past year I have been joking but not really joking, pondering at what point the fossil fuel boys and their hand maidens in the Republican Party would figure out a way to blame the Democrats for the climate catastrophe.
(They have pivoted seamlessly from denial to it isn’t really that bad to oh it’s cyclical to it isn’t human caused, to ok but we can’t afford to do anything about it, don’t you worry, we are going to just vacuum up all the carbon and put it underground somewheres. And on and on).
The story cited by the Guardian is the next stage in the plan as Exxon’s CEO blames Joe Citizen for using their products. The fact that these fucks have known more about the catastrophic effects of pouring CO2 and methane into the atmosphere than anyone else, and they have spent $ hundreds of millions and most likely billions hiding the truth from the gently snoring public is missing from his comments.
Since it was first reported, this story has gotten almost no coverage, what with MAGA world and the NFL draft sucking all the air out the room.

Melting ice drives global mass redistribution

If you don’t believe in global warming, then you most likely won’t be aware that one of its least obvious effects is a very small slowdown in the earth’s rotation. And unlike the lethal droughts, heat waves and floods currently sweeping the planet, this one second lapse has no harmful effects at this point.

The cause of the phenomenon is the shifting of huge masses of water as ice melts rapidly at both ends of the planet. The ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica are several miles thick, enough mass to exert a strong gravitational pull on the oceans. The global redistribution of weight is actually slowing Earth’s rotation minutely, which may result in the elimination of a “leap second” later this decade.

Greenland Is Shedding 33 Million Tons of Ice… Per Hour

None of this is shocking in the greater scheme of things: the planet’s rotation speed is also affected by natural phenomenon such as volcanos, earthquakes  tidal forces, and changes in wind patterns. 

Quoted in Scientific American, Geophysicist Duncan Agnew said: “This is another one of those ‘this has never happened before’ things that we’re seeing from global warming: the idea that this effect is large enough to change the rotation of the entire Earth.” Duncan is co-author of the research just reported by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

More immediate climate developments are summarized here.

“This is another one of those ‘this has never happened before’ things that we’re seeing from global warming: the idea that this effect is large enough to change the rotation of the entire Earth.”

– Geophysicist Duncan Agnew, Scripps.

 

FLORIDA GOP LEGISLATURE DEFEATS GLOBAL WARMING WITH MAGICAL THINKING


A simple and elegant Republican solution

While some scientists waste time urging immediate, large scale adaptation to the planetary climate crisis, Florida lawmakers have simply made it go away via House Bill 1745, which combines enlightened legislation with magical thinking.
Having achieved major success banning library books about trans people and minority history, the emboldened GOP-dominated legislature has now outdone itself in the area of climate science. Ron’s army simply went ahead and banned the term “climate change” from official state documents and proceedings. References to energy efficient vehicles, contracting with “green lodgings” for meetings and cleaner fuels for conferences have been eliminated.
In a separate move, local governments in Florida will not be permitted to mandate heat protection – water breaks etc. – for outdoor workers, the need for hydration being another woke liberal hoax.
To be sure, some alarmists are concerned about Florida’s vulnerability to global warming, manifested by 100°F water temperatures last year, a massive coral bleaching emergency, accelerating temperatures, rapidly rising sea levels (about 8 in. since 1950), location in the path of intensifying hurricanes and soaring insurance rates. That’s why we needed Untermensch DeSantis to make it all go away with a flick of his little pen.
The boys of the GOP did manage to rename A1A to Jimmy Buffet Highway, effective until the iconic coastal thoroughfare disappears under the waves of the insurgent Atlantic Ocean.
Summary on Spring 2024 climate shocks:

 

including sudden Dubai inundation, western and southern Africa droughts, Venezuela ablaze, Florida cancels climate change. epic China floods, sparkling wine threatened by drought, Bangalore running out of water, Bogota running out of water, Madagascar extended drought and Dengue fever spreading.

.

Are you ready for Rain Enhancement Science?

UAE cloud seeding triggers floods

There are some interesting take aways to be derived from April’s torrential desert rain event, which dropped 5 to 10 inches of water in one day on Dubai, killing several people (including schoolchildren) and truly messing up one of the planet’s most modern cities.

The region was hit by four consecutive storms that inundated a large swath of the United Arab Emirates and moved on to Pakistan and Iran. This was well over a year’s worth of rain in a city that has little or no flood drainage infrastructure. The storms were unusual in the suddenness of the onslaught, and the force they brought to bear, unrooting palm trees and shattering windows.

This was well over a year’s worth of rain in a city that has little or no flood drainage infrastructure. While it is clear that this was a historic weather calamity, it is not clear whether it was unprecedented. Official government press releases reference the beginning of government data collection in 1949, but make no mention of a massive flood that may have triggered it.

UAE has been engaged in weather control attempts for decades, primarily cloud seeding.

Whether or not government cloud seeding (AKA Rainfall Enhancement Science) directly caused this particular record-shattering event, human caused global warming was the ultimate driver. Most experts are saying weather enhancement efforts may have triggered the storms, but can’t account for their unrelenting violence. Rising temperatures associated with global warming increase evaporation, fueling other extreme weather events, including droughts. Such a parade of alternating climate disasters is devastating for nations such as Bolivia and Australia.

What could go wrong?

The government of UAE is not known for transparency, but it does not deny engaging in climate control efforts. It seems relatively likely that cloud seeding by plane took place earlier in the week and perhaps had unintended consequences. This is not the first human effort at human weather geoengineering (fucking with things we don’t fully understand) and it is only the beginning.

Geoengineering has already been blamed for storms in California and Australia, although cause and effect is generally shaky. I can only assure you that weather control is going to be fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

And some might even be true.

Catch up with spring 2024 climate shocks right here.

 

Global warming shrank my chocolate egg


The most alarming of climate alarmists are predicting one or more Black Swan events in the near future. The term refers to major catastrophes, collapses and cataclysms that have occurred infrequently throughout human and geologic history. “Black swan” carries the connotation that the event was foreseeable and perhaps preventable. The Covid pandemic, the 1929 stock crash and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown were black swans of the recent past; the impending breakdown of the AMOC is a probable future example.  

Black swan climate events have occurred cyclically in the past, causing extremely rapid changes in global conditions, sometimes within a human lifetime. The Anthropocene climate upheaval of the present will most likely bring a series of black swan events, but with a twist:  this is the first radical planetary change wrought almost entirely by human activity. Generally, a meteorite strike or mega volcano eruption has been involved.

Less radical long time climate prophets such as myself think (or hope) that the worst to come will be preceded by something less dramatic, at least for the near future. What I foresee is a series of Gray Swan events: non-cataclysmic scenarios that will cause serious but not lethal disruption of smug “first world” life styles. A slow decline consisting of a parade accelerating inconveniences. Less and less stuff. Even a shortage of Mylar party balloons. Even after Alaric’s unfortunate visit in 476 CE, it took a long time for Rome to fully collapse.

A grey swan occurrence could be a killer storm, a hide tide and high seas disaster that takes out the luxury condos of a coastal vacation infrastructure (such as those already taking place more and more frequently). Typically, the sparkling beach sand will be replaced at great cost and new resorts will be rise again. In spite of the huge property loss, these events fit comfortably in a gray swan scenario (depending on whose money is involved) until the losses become too great. But beware: gray swan morphs to black swan when the insurance companies pull out for good (a development that already happening).

For most participants in Western Civilization, crop failure-driven food shortages are the looming gray swans of today. In real time, for example, climate change is costing Vietnam’s rice bowl $3 billion a year in failed harvests; you are unlikely to be aware of these far away developments because you are not currently affected. It will be when multiple rice producing regions fail at the same time that global prices will go up. For now, only the Vietnamese farmers are screwed. Similarly, products  grown in climate challenged places such as Pakistan, Sudan, Chad, Honduras and the Sahel etc. only affect the locals for now.

And while many choose to make inflation a political problem, Europe’s 2023 heat wave affected soy, maize and sunflower harvests, ultimately triggering up to a full percentage point of US inflation.  Closer to home, when the Ogallala aquifer taps out under the Great Plains, then you are going to see some serious ag issues.

As climate change accelerates, global disruptions will eclipse the Covid pandemic.

To a large degree, the leading edge of this inevitability will be shortages of luxury goods, followed eventually by their absence. Ironically, it has long been my belief that these inconveniences will be nearly as convincing to climate fence-sitters as watching someone else’s coastal home washing out to sea. 

MOMMY MOMMY, MY CHOCOLATE BUNNY IS ALL SHRUNK

(That’s OK honey, we’ll buy you two)

To these evolving shortages we can add sustained pressure on cocoa prices, driven by a combination of ongoing drought, extreme weather and evil corporate behavior in West Africa.  Bad yields have tripled the price of chocolate to $10,000 a ton (although the monopolistic system assures that farmers lose out). If the hedge funds who have already bet billions are correct, the situation will continue to worsen over the foreseeable future (as reported by the Financial Times).

Last week, the cocoa crisis was manifested in the price of chocolate Easter products- from high-end Cadbury eggs to more pedestrian Hershey rabbits – following a 13% increase in the overall price of chocolate candy over the past year. Before that you may have noticed candy bars becoming incrementally smaller or thinner or offering less chocolate content in other ways (the candy equivalent of a short pour). (Shrinkflation is the proper economic term) The yearslong shrinkage of the Cadbury cream egg has become a minor scandal, not spoken of in polite society.

Fine wine is just one example: more frequent extended droughts, unpredictable water cycles and violent storms are already impacting traditional wine making regions as higher temperatures shift harvest schedules, while pests and diseases migrate to new domains. Over the past few years we have also seen major spikes in the prices of beef, citrus fruit and sugar. Extremely rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine is driving lobsters north toward cooler waters an ominous development for seafood lovers.

These increases are all caused to some degree by the impact of global heating.

You will see major pressures on coffee as rising temperatures reduce growing areas by up to 50% in the next decade. Similarly, 90% of marine and fresh water stocks are endangered in one way or another by a combination of changing ocean temperature and over-fishing. Ocean species continue to move north in search of cooler waters, but North only goes so far north until you run out of planet.

I could go on.

Although there are those who would love to blame Biden (because he loves raising prices in an election year, just for fun) these increases are caused to some degree by the impact of climate. You will see major pressures on coffee as rising temperatures reduce growing areas by up to 50% in the next decade.  Similarly, 90% of marine and fresh water stocks are endangered in one way one way or another by a combination of changing ocean temperature and over-fishing.  Ocean species continue to move north in search of cooler waters, but North only goes so far north until you run out of planet..

 

SIMULTANIOUS CLIMATE SHOCKS OF THE CHART DISCLAIMER THING:

Here I insert the standard disclaimer: None of these conditions and events in isolation would prove global warming, but the fact that they are taking place simultaneously at unprecedented speeds and scale is impossible to dismiss.

As you consider that 2023 set another global record for warmest year in roughly a hundred thousands of years, as ocean temperatures run off the charts, as the North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before hurricane season, as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground, as CO2 levels crash through 425 ppm, as methane increases 15+ ppm yearly, as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns, as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from toxin newly released from permafrost, as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought and historic water crises, as global river shipping is in jeopardized, as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent, as a million acres and thousands of cattle are torched in the Texas Panhandle, as Greenland actually turns green with new vegetation, as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires, as the Amazon is on the brink of no return, as glaciers in every mountain range melt away, as species of every kind migrate toward the poles….it’s hard not to see an alarming pattern. The variations from both long term and short term cycles is statistically stunning.


* Ground speed means the planes exceeded 761 MPH in terms of distance traveled.

 

NOW! For the first time global warming lets you break the sound barrier at no extra charge.

Over the course of the past few years, I’ve noted several articles about extreme clear air turbulence (CAT) bouncing commercial jets around in mid-flight. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, several recent cases have involved abrupt drops of as many as 18,000 feet (that would be 3 miles). There have been injuries to flight attendants and passengers, some serious. There are also economic costs associated with these incidents, including long term airframe stress and even actual physical damage.
Clear air turbulence is not new to airline travel, but the significant increase in intensity and frequency over the past decades is. Not surprisingly, the phenomenon is scientifically attributed to disruption of high elevation wind patterns by the relentless warming associated with climate change. More specifically, the rough ride is caused by elevated wind shear — sudden changes in wind speed and direction — at altitudes above 15,000 feet. According to University of Reading’s Professor of Atmospheric Science Paul Williams, jet stream severe turbulence has increased by 15% since satellite measurement began in 1979. The most significant increases in wind shear were severe at +55% and moderate at +37%.
This trend was extensively documented again in a report by the Advanced Earth and Space Sciences, published last year. The report concluded that the uptick in wind shear was consistent with expectations of climate change.
This week we have a new story reporting a variation on that theme that would seem to focus on a related facet of air turbulence: In late February, commercial flights over the North Atlantic were pushed to speeds hundreds of MPH faster than normal, in some cases exceeding the speed of sound* in terms of ground speed. Upper atmosphere winds reached 265 mph, providing a powerful tailwind that scooted flights on their way for “better than on time performance.”
The US National Weather Service reported a Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington to London that was thrust to nearly 800mph. (Typical commercial planes average around 600 mph.)
These aberrant events are likewise attributed to massive changes wrought in every area of the planet by catastrophic global warming. In addition to increasing air temperatures, the changes in Jet Stream behavior is exacerbated by rapid melting of Arctic sea ice. The unpredictability of planetary wind patterns accounts for the stark increase all manner of extreme weather behavior, including violent weather events, droughts and wildfires.
As you consider that 2023 set another global record for warmest year in roughly a hundred thousands of years, as ocean temperatures run off the charts, as the North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before hurricane season, as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground, as CO2 levels crash through 425 ppm, as methane increases 15+ ppm yearly, as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns, as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from toxin newly released from permafrost, as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought and historic water crises, as global river shipping is in jeopardized, as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent, as a million acres and thousands of cattle are torched in the Texas Panhandle, as Greenland actually turns green with new vegetation, as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires, as the Amazon is on the brink of no return, as glaciers in every mountain range melt away, as species of every kind migrate toward the poles….it’s hard not to see an alarming pattern. The variations from both long term and short term cycles is statistically stunning.
Although Forbes and other respected media have reported the turbulence and jet acceleration events, the news didn’t go much further. You didn’t see it reported on cable, with the exception of FOX, which denied it. While passengers and even crew have commented after a particularly harrowing event, the plane companies are mostly mum as they concentrate on tightening all the bolts on their products. However, it is telling that the NTSB issued new rules for flight safety after several 2023 incidents.
For all you denialist optimists out there who think there are benefits to global warming (“Hell I wouldn’t mind a milder winter.”) the good news is you may sometimes be able to get to Paris from Tulsa faster with an extra 265 tail wind.
The bad news is that getting back might be a real  bitch.