Dance results

My WeatherDance brackets are looking a little beat up now. Three of my Final Four teams are still alive, though. My worst pick yet was projecting Kansas as being warmer than Dayton on Sunday, March 22. It wasn't even close: it was 28 in Dayton and 48 in Lawrence, Kan.

Getting wilder

An additional wilderness area likely has been created in the Midwest. A land management bill passed the House yesterday and now has been sent to President Obama's desk. It includes a provision to create several new wilderness areas including one in Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (above). Official wilderness areas ban motorized equipment, are largely roadless and prohibit oil and gas drilling. In other words, they're perfect.

Icy reception

Great Lakes ice cover is diminishing during the past 30 years or so, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that also was picked up by The Associated Press. Scientists say less ice is a result of global climate change and also regional forces--some years are icier than others. I don't see the comments section on the PD story now, but when it was live it was incredible how many people uniformly said the story was a bunch of palaver--an Al Gore-derived scam by a group of shady scientists. That anyone who believed this was being duped.

I'm not sure why the commenters think they know more about ice than ice research climatologists.

Warming trends

Twenty-six of 32 after the first round of WeatherDance. California vs. mid-Atlantic school matchups have been confounding. I missed on UCLA versus Virginia Commonwealth (based in Richmond) as VCU was actually warmer. But I picked Maryland over Cal, and Cal was warmer. Someone has all 32 right already in the Dance.

Bracket weather

Based on my WeatherDance Final Four, this is an exercise in moderation. I winnowed away schools located in areas of extreme temperatures (Arizona and North Dakota State quickly were eliminated) while keeping schools in nondescript climates. My Final Four is West Virginia, East Tennessee State, Chattanooga and North Carolina (which likely will be in the real Final Four). I have East Tennessee State topping the Tar Heels in the final--a preposterous outcome on the basketball court, of course, but not impossible in the wacky world of WeatherDance.

Dance card

Few people would pick No. 16 seed Chattanooga over Connecticut in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, but I plan to do so in my WeatherDance bracket.

WeatherDance combines the best of March Madness with the madness of March weather. Winners are determined not on the court but based on warmer weather at campuses on game day. Hence Chattanooga a likely lock over Connecticut. It'll be interesting to watch for upsets. Will a weird heat wave actually lead Boston College to victory over Southern California? Is Akron actually warmer in March than Spokane, Wash., and Gonzaga? Follow the action at WeatherDance.

Spring fever

And some still say climate change is an illusion. It's 59.5 degrees right now, chives are already sprouting out of one of our pots and rivers are approaching flood stage. Consecutive 65-degree temperatures hit last Thursday and Friday, which has only ever happened in March in the past 35 years--basically never before we went crazy with fossil fuel consumption. We do get a reprieve from spring tonight when temperatures plunge way below freezing. Highs in the upper 20s tomorrow!

Another sign of the disturbingly early spring: I heard a killdeer today outside my place of employment.