COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THuRSDAY, DECEmBER 16, 2021
Weight loss doesn’t take sting out of observations
told things like, “You should see
your cousin. She’s almost as big
as you were!” which is quickly
followed by an offhand, “No
offense,” which tells me they
know it offends me. I said as much
to them at first, but the insulting
comparisons continue.
It’s not just one person saying
this; it has actually become the
family standard. I know I was
very large, but this is extremely
hurtful. I find myself avoiding
family visits because the sub-
ject seems to invariably come up
in some way. Is there anything
beyond what I have already tried
that can convey the distress this
causes? — FORMER FAT REL-
DEAR ABBY: During the
last year, I made some signifi-
cant changes to my life. I left an
emotionally abusive marriage
after 23 years, which gave me the
confidence to take better care of
myself. I have lost 70 pounds and
am almost down to the weight
I was in high school. I am very
proud of this.
My issue is my family has now
started using my former weight
as a measuring stick. I am often
mates get to know each other
better, you may feel more com-
fortable with them. If that doesn’t
happen, you may want to make
other plans for lunch.
That you have been including
your middle school friend during
those lunches I think is loyal,
caring and compassionate. Doing
so is not “hurting” him. If he’s
unable to integrate and become
part of the group, no law says the
two of you must have lunch with
those people every single day.
Consider alternating lunches with
other students so you can widen
your circle of friends. Friends are
treasures. The more of them you
have, the richer your life will be.
them make me uncomfortable, but
I still eat lunch with them some-
times. I don’t want to be rude to
my friend, but I am unsure if I
want to join this group.
I have a separate friend whom
I met in middle school, and I
have reason to believe that I am
his only friend. He eats lunch
with me and my upperclassmen
friends. They ignore him while
he talks to me about the things
we like. I am afraid I’m hurting
him by making more friends. Any
advice? — STRESSED TEEN
IN NEW JERSEY
DEAR TEEN: New relation-
ships take time to develop. With
time, as you and your new class-
ATIVE IN MISSOURI
DEAR RELATIVE: Your rel-
atives have been told that alluding
to your former weight problem
causes you distress. That it con-
tinues tells me they are thought-
less at best, not to mention rude
and inconsiderate of your feelings.
Because you can’t change their
behavior (and neither can I), the
logical solution is to do what is
best for you and see less of them.
DEAR ABBY: I have begun
high school and I love it, but I’m
bumping into friend problems. My
new friend has many other friends
in one big friend group, and she’s
inviting me to join them. I barely
know these people, and some of
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Study: Winter tornadoes to get more powerful as world warms
in power when using a
formula that takes wind
speed, rotation and size of
path into account. Power
increased 1-1/2 times for
the spring storm, he said.
Trapp said that’s
because there are two key
ingredients needed for tor-
nadoes: unstable stormy
weather and wind shear.
Wind shear, the differ-
ence between winds up
high and near the ground,
is usually stronger in the
winter, but there’s not
as much stormy weather
because it requires warm
humid conditions near the
ground. But as the world
warms there will be more
opportunity for instability
in the winter, he said.
Three outside scientists
said there may be some-
thing to the research, but
they aren’t yet completely
convinced.
“I’m not 100% sold
on the technique, but
it’s a very interesting
approach,” said Harold
Brooks, a scientist at the
National Severe Storms
Laboratory in Norman,
Oklahoma. “To me the
really interesting result
seems to be the lon-
ger-tracks for the cool
season.”
A single study always
raises uncertainty issues,
but the results make sense,
said Northern Illinois Uni-
versity meteorology pro-
fessor Victor Gensini:
“One of the major com-
ponents to Friday’s out-
break was the broad and
anomalous warm (swath
of temperatures) which
permitted the storm to
last for what will likely
be a record-breaking path
length.”
By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
Nasty winter tornadoes
— like the deadly ones
last week that hit five
states — are likely to
be stronger and stay on
the ground longer with a
wider swath of destruction
in a warming world, a new
study shows.
The combination of a
longer and wider track
with slightly stronger
winds means some rare
winter tornadoes that are
killers now will have nine
times more the power by
the end of the century if
carbon dioxide levels con-
tinued to rise, according
to a study presented at
the American Geophys-
ical Union conference
Monday.
The study, which pre-
dates the devastating
Mayfield, Kentucky, tor-
nado outbreak, looks
at strength and not fre-
quency of big torna-
does as climate change
progresses. Not peer
reviewed yet, it was pre-
sented in poster form as a
peak at new research to be
published later.
“There is a potential
for events in the future
that are more intense
that would not have been
as intense in the cur-
rent climate,” said study
author Jeff Trapp, head
of atmospheric sciences
at the University of Illi-
nois, Urbana-Champaign.
“Bearing in mind that
these high end events are
still going to be rare.”
Trapp took the con-
ditions during two large
tornado strikes in 2013
Gerald Herbert/The Associated Press
In this aerial photo, destruction from a recent tornado is seen in downtown Mayfield, Ky., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. According to a study present-
ed at the American Geophysical Union conference on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, nasty winter tornadoes _ like the deadly one last week that hit
five states _ are likely to be stronger and stay on the ground longer with a wider swath of destruction in a warming world.
— the Hattiesburg, Mis-
sissippi, tornado that in
February of that year
injured 82 people with
winds of 170 mph and the
Moore, Oklahoma, tor-
nado that killed 24 people
with winds up to 210 mph
in May— and put them
into dozens of computer
simulations of worst-case
climate change scenario
by 2100, which other sci-
entists say is increasingly
unlikely.
The worst-case sce-
nario, which the world
used to be on track for,
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
would have another 6
degrees or so of warming
between now and the end
of the century. Trapp said
he will soon run simula-
tions based on a scenario
closer to the current tra-
jectory for carbon dioxide
emissions of about 3.2
degrees warming above
current levels.
Trapp found a big
change on the winter
storm, significantly
longer and wider tracks
and windspeed increases
around 14% that added up
to the nine-fold increase
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
38/48
Kennewick
40/46
St. Helens
39/48
TIllamook
Hood River
36/46
34/44
39/47
36/47
Condon
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
Cloudy with a
little snow
A morning
fl urry; cloudy
Cloudy
A little snow at
times
Rain and snow
showers
30 20
33 21
34 21
Eugene
0
0
0
37/48
34 29
33 29
36 27
0
0
0
18 32 20
La Grande
1
29 39 26
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
0
2
3
23 35 21
Comfort Index™
0
36 22
38 29
4
1
0
3
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 87°
Low: -8°
Wettest: 2.16”
32°
12°
36°
19°
35°
18°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
0.01
0.29
0.39
5.30
8.60
0.02
0.64
0.91
10.62
16.43
0.39
2.61
1.80
24.65
23.98
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
35%
S at 4 to 8 mph
0.6
0.04
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
0% of capacity
19% of capacity
15% of capacity
13% of capacity
13% of capacity
11% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1240 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
0 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
14 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
244 cfs
Minam River at Minam
150 cfs
Powder River near Richland
21 cfs
Zapata, Texas
Crested Butte, Colo.
Los Angeles, Calif.
OREGON
High: 47°
Low: 11°
Wettest: 0.58”
The Dalles
Lakeview
Rome
Elkton
37/51
SUN & MOON
THU.
FRI.
7:26 a.m.
4:11 p.m.
3:07 p.m.
6:11 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Full
Dec 18
Last
Dec 26
New
Jan 2
Beaver Marsh
37/46
Grants Pass
First
Jan 9
Burns
Boise
24/35
Jordan Valley
24/34
Paisley
16/35
Frenchglen
25/36
Diamond
Grand View
Arock
27/35
26/39
21/34
Fields
31/37
17/34
Klamath Falls
19/33
Lakeview
13/30
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
18/32
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
SAT.
City
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
Astoria
48/42/sh 51/38/r
Bend
43/30/c 50/33/c
Boise
35/16/pc 33/23/c
Brookings
49/38/c 50/43/r
Burns
31/11/c 29/14/c
Coos Bay
50/39/c 53/41/sh
Corvallis
46/37/c 49/37/r
Council
35/17/c 29/16/c
Elgin
39/21/c 37/30/c
Eugene
48/39/c 50/41/sh
Hermiston
42/26/c 43/38/c
Hood River
46/35/c 42/38/sn
Imnaha
39/26/c 41/36/c
John Day
38/28/c 42/33/c
Joseph
34/23/c 38/30/c
Kennewick
38/28/c 42/38/c
Klamath Falls 33/14/c 34/22/c
Lakeview
30/8/pc 35/16/c
27/37
Silver Lake
22/36
Medford
Brookings
Juntura
18/31
35/42
38/49
Ontario
26/37
18/34
Chiloquin
FRI.
On Dec. 16, 1917, one of the worst ice
jams occurred on the Ohio River between
Warsaw, Ky., and Rising Sun, Ind. It lasted
58 days, forcing the water to back up for
nearly 100 miles.
7:26 a.m.
4:10 p.m.
2:37 p.m.
5:07 a.m.
22/35
18/36
Roseburg
Powers
Brothers
32/47
Coos Bay
Huntington
28/33
26/43
Oakridge
22/35
29/37
Seneca
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
32/38
Bend
TUESDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
Tuesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
Florence
39/50
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
23/44
Sisters
Council
18/32
John Day
25/44
39/50
38 30
23/34
Baker City
Redmond
38/48
40/50
Halfway
Granite
23/35
32/47
38/48
Corvallis
30/43
34/46
Newport
Enterprise
23/35
29/39
Monument
29/42
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
Comfort Index™
29/39
La Grande
31/43
Maupin
Baker City
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
30/35
30/37
32/43
38/50
Lewiston
Walla Walla
28/38
Vancouver
39/47
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
FRI.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
35/30/pc 40/36/r
46/41/c 48/40/r
38/23/c 37/30/c
37/29/c 41/34/c
48/42/c 50/38/r
42/40/c 46/38/r
37/25/pc 33/24/c
38/29/c 41/35/c
43/26/c 45/42/c
47/42/c 49/40/r
51/37/c 53/42/r
44/26/c 48/31/c
46/37/c 50/42/c
48/40/c 51/42/r
28/27/c 37/33/i
44/34/c 41/39/sn
38/24/c 43/35/c
37/27/c 41/37/c
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Not as cold
Mostly cloudy
27
19
35
22
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
A morning fl urry
Mostly cloudy
31
22
38
24
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Cloudy
Mostly cloudy
26
16
36
22
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Mostly cloudy
Cloudy
34
23
45
28
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Cloudy and chilly
A morning fl urry
32
20
39
26