Have you ever thought to yourself, “The Weather Channel and The History Channels are cool, but I wish there was a way to combine them”? If so, first, we should totally hang out, and second, I have a show for you: When Weather Changed History premiering Sunday, January 6 at 9PM EST on the Weather Channel.
The concept of the show is pretty self explanatory and the first episode deals with the Challenger explosion which, even though I remember it vividly when it happened, I guess I was too young to follow up to every find out what exactly when wrong and never realized that weather was a factor in what happened that day. The show interviews a couple of people who were there and were working for NASA at the time as well as archive footage from the disaster and subsequent inquiry into what happened.
I have made it a habit of collecting front page newspaper of big events and the Challenger explosion was the very first I ever save so it was very interesting to go back two decades later and learn more about the tragedy. Below you can find a clip of the premiere episode, a press release about the show and a list of upcoming episodes:
NEW HD SERIES UNCOVERS WHEN WEATHER CHANGED HISTORY
The Weather Channel® Series Features Weather’s Surprising Impact on Historic Events
Was the weather just too cold on the morning of the space shuttle Challenger’s launch to support a successful mission? Did a dust storm actually devastate a military operation and ultimately help shape a presidency? A new high-definition series on The Weather Channel (TWC) looks at the power of nature and its incredible impact on modern history.
When Weather Changed History, a series of one-hour suspenseful dramas, offers the often-surprising effects of weather on well known history events. TWC uncovers key moments with insider personal stories that disclose unexpected facts about history, revealing both mankind’s heroism and hubris. The dramatic documentary series starts Sunday, January 6, 2008, with an episode on the space shuttle Challenger. The series will air every Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET. History often repeats itself, so for the first time, the network will broadcast encore episodes of the premiere episode throughout launch week.
“While most people don’t realize it, weather has had such a dramatic impact on history,” said Janet Johnson, VP of long-form program planning and production at TWC. “This is a launch event like no other for The Weather Channel, and we wanted to give our loyal viewers, as well as those new to the channel, multiple opportunities to see this incredibly dramatic and surprising first episode.”
Each episode explores influential and exciting moments in history when the forces of weather intertwine with the forces of human nature to change the course of history. These weather-influenced experiences come from the fields of politics, exploration, the military, sports, entertainment and much more. The focus of the series is the epic struggle of man against the power of nature – and the dangers of underestimating that power.
“Each program engages viewers through strong drama, action video and stories of personal risk and heroism,” said Johnson. “This series delivers compelling content with all these qualities while including both the scientific facts and emotions involved with these events.”
When Weather Changed History joins existing programs on TWC, Epic Conditions and Weatherventures, as another program shot in native high definition that will be simulcast in HD and SD. When Weather Changed History episodes feature a daring South Pole rescue to secure medical treatment for the sole physician of an isolated research station, the Battle of the Bulge, the space shuttle Challenger, the race to Nome that inspired the modern-day Iditarod and the Mississippi flood of 1927. Other series focuses include the evacuation at Dunkirk during World War II, the capsized coal ship that sparked the creation of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Air Florida crash in the Potomac and the Delta 191 crash that changed commercial aviation and windshear detection, and Operation Eagle Claw in response to the Iran-Contra hostage crisis. Future planned episodes include the super tornado outbreak of 1974 and the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression.
EPISODE GUIDE: When Weather Changed History
An innovative new series from The Weather Channel spotlights the weather that has, quite literally, changed our world. Unexpected stories are told and highlight the ways in which the almighty power of nature has steered the march of history.
Challenger – Airing 1/6/2008
Jan. 28, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger and seven crewmembers prepare for its tenth flight into orbit. Despite colder than average temperatures, the mission is given the go ahead. Seventy-three seconds after take off, the shuttle suddenly explodes – to the shock of all those watching below – killing all seven crewmembers. NASA and an independent investigative commission determine that a combination of events, some triggered by the cold weather on launch day, caused the failure of the O rings on the shuttle. (Premiere episode: Sunday, Jan. 6, 9 p.m. ET)
Battle of the Bulge – Airing 1/13/2008
Dec. 1944 – Jan. 1945: In the largest, bloodiest land battle ever fought by American soldiers, more than 1.1 million American, British and German men take part and nearly 20,000 are killed. In mid-December, the American army is low on supplies when the well-equipped German army releases a surprise, brutal attack on the Americans. As desperate Nazi troops use the cover of severe winter weather to counterattack Allied forces, weather conditions also hinder American attacks. Then a fortuitous break in the weather finally enables them to defeat the Germans and destroy the Third Reich, impacting the outcome of World War II.
Air Florida Potomac Crash – Airing 1/20/2008
Jan. 13, 1982: Air Florida Flight 90, with 79 people onboard, takes off from Washington National Airport in a snowstorm. Seconds into the flight, the plane crashes into the icy Potomac River, killing 78 people, including four people on the ground. The crash of Flight 90 changes commercial aviation. In the wake of the tragedy, new communication protocols are developed and stricter de-icing guidelines are enacted, making air travel safer.
Operation Eagle Claw – Airing 1/27/2008
Nov. 4, 1979: Islamic extremists take 66 American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. The following April, military pilots engage in a mission for recovery in the Iranian desert. At first the weather is perfect, but after crossing the Iranian border, the helicopter and airplane pilots find themselves in the middle of a suspended dust storm called a haboob. Weather conditions and insufficient forecasting help cause disastrous results for “Operation Eagle Claw.”
Rescue from the South Pole – Airing 2/10/2008
Feb. 1999: Dr. Jerri Nielsen, 46, is living her dream as the sole physician to 41 staff members at an isolated South Pole research station. Dr. Nielsen discovers a lump in one of her breasts, which by June, has grown to the size of a golf ball. Pilot Maj. George McAllister and members of the 109th Air National Guard fly one of the earliest recorded flights to the South Pole, making a daring rescue in intense Antarctic conditions and zero visibility.
Dunkirk Evacuation – Airing 2/17/2008
May 26, 1940: The course of World War II is at stake as the British army attempts to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, despite severe weather. Estimates are that only about 10 percent of the troops can successfully evacuate because smaller boats are needed. Thousands of British citizens with small civilian boats volunteer to help in the effort, and in nine days, more than three hundred thousand French and British soldiers are rescued.
Coast Guard Rescue – Airing 2/24/2008
Feb. 11, 1983: Just off the Virginia coast, the Marine Electric ship journeys to Massachusetts with 27,000 tons of coal. As a blizzard sweeps offshore, gale-force winds capsize the coal ship, leaving only a few crewmembers alive. The Congressional inquiry into the tragedy helps establish The Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer program. The program’s success and the Marine Electric’s legacy are apparent in 2005 when Coast Guard helicopter teams rescue Hurricane Katrina survivors.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 - Airing 3/2/2008
Spring 1927: Perhaps America’s greatest natural disaster deeply changes race relations, government and society in the Mississippi River Valley. A flood of more than 30 feet of water stands over land inhabited by nearly one million people. Almost 300,000 African-Americans are forced to live in refugee camps for months. The changes produced by the flood in the lower South ultimately foreshadow federal government intervention in the region's social and economic life. Today, many draw parallels between Hurricane Katrina and the 1927 flood.
Delta 191 Crash – Airing 3/9/2008
Aug. 2, 1985: With 163 people onboard, Delta Flight 191 prepares to land at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Instead, it crashes about 100 yards from the runway, killing 137. Investigators later prove that just before landing, the plane flew into a weather phenomenon known as a microburst, generating the most violent form of wind shear. This conclusion leads to widespread improvements in wind shear detection and severe weather training for pilots.
Race to Nome – Airing 3/16/2008
Jan. 1925: A diphtheria epidemic threatens the region near Nome, Alaska, and the only hope is lifesaving medicine hundreds of miles away. In the middle of winter, the 700-mile dog sled trip is the only option available. At a time when it normally takes a musher 15-20 days to make the trip over the old Iditarod Trail while dogs and drivers encounter blizzards and 50-below-zero cold, this trip brings the serum to Nome in a record five days and seven hours. The modern-day dog sled race, the Iditarod, commemorates those dog teams and drivers.
Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum delivery was done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn't anything like the Iditarod.
ReplyDeleteThe Iditarod is terribly cruel to dogs. For the facts, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org .
Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the Iditarod: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, vomiting, hypothermia, sprains, fur loss, broken teeth, torn footpads and anemia.
At least 133 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years. In "WinterDance: the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," a nonfiction book, Gary Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a dog to death during the race. He wrote, "All the time he was kicking the dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to match his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt deeply, to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill."
Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick Swenson's dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice. The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the race but later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of Directors.
In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.
No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year.
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:
"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column
Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once state that "‘Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'" "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers...A whip is a very humane training tool."
During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Brooks admitted to hitting his dogs with a wooden trail marker when they refused to run. The Iditarod Trail Committee suspended Brooks for two years, but only for the actions he admitted. By ignoring eyewitness accounts, the Iditarod encouraged animal abuse. When mushers know that eyewitness accounts will be disregarded, they are more likely to hurt their dogs and lie about it later.
Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged or clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death."
The Iditarod, with its history of abuse, could not be legally held in many states, because doing so would violate animal cruelty laws.
The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in which the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to spend their entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary means of enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law applies. A dog who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and defecate where he sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct to eliminate away from his living area.
Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse.
Margery Glickman
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org