RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL HONG-KONG

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is located on the top floors of the International Commerce Center, West Kowloon, Hong-Kong. Ozone, a bar located on the 118th floor, is the highest bar in the world. Also located on the 118th floor is the hotel swimming pool, which is the highest swimming pool in the world. The 188th floor of the International Commerce Center is 1,588 feet above ground level.

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND NATURAL INCREASE FOR THE U.S.: 2001 TO 2019

[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]

42 states and the District of Columbia had fewer births in 2019 than 2018. Eight states saw increases in births – Washington (612), Utah (293), Nevada (232), Arizona (175), Idaho (166), Montana (66), Vermont (44) and Colorado (30).

CENTRAL-MID-LEVELS ESCALATOR AND WALKWAY SYSTEM

The Central-Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system in Hong Kong is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. The system covers over 2,600 feet in distance and traverses and elevation of over 443 from bottom to top. It opened in 1993 to provide an improved link between the Central and Mid-Levels districts on Hong Kong Island. The total travel time is twenty minutes, but many people walk while the escalator moves to shorten their trip. Due to the geographical situation, the same distance is equivalent to several miles of zigzagging roads if travelling by car.

CHICAGO CHRISTMAS WEATHER HISTORY

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA (ICBC)

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) is the largest bank in the world by total assets, deposits, loans, number of customers and number of employees. ICBC was simultaneously listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange on October 27, 2006. It was the world’s largest IPO at that time, raising $21.9 billion and surpassing the previous record of $18.4 billion IPO by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo in 1998. As of 2006, ICBC has 2.5 million corporate customers and 150 million individual customers. As of December 2017, it had assets worth $4.9 trillion. HSBC ranks number 1 in The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking, and first on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s biggest public companies. Bonus Fun Fact: The four largest banks are all headquartered in China; ICBC, China Construction Bank Corporation, Agricultural Bank of China, and Bank of China. JP Morgan Chase and Co., is the largest U.S. Bank and ranks number 6 in the world.

FLEVOPOLDER, NETHERLANDS

The Flevopolder is a polder (a region of reclaimed land), in Flevoland, Netherlands. Spanning an area of 970 square kilometers (602 miles), Holland’s Flevopolder is the largest artificial island in the world. The eastern part was drained in 1955 and the southern part in 1968. Unlike other major polders, such as Noordoostpolder and the Wieringermeer, the Flevopolder is completely surrounded by bordering lakes and can therefore be considered an island. It’s construction, however, differs from other artificial islands; dikes were first built around the area of the polder, and the water was then drained by diesel/electric pumps. The Flevopolder, together with the Noordoostopolder forms the province of the Flevoland, the 12th province of the Netherlandands. The province has a about 408,000 inhabitants and consists of six municipalities. Its capital is Lelystand and most populous city is Almere.

Satellite Image of Flevopolder, Netherlands

MAGDEBURG WATER BRIDGE

The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable aqueduct in central Germany. With a length of 3,012 feet, the Magdeburg Water Bridge is the longest navigable aqueduct in the world. It has a width of 112 feet, a depth of 14 feet and a length of 2,264 feet over land. The water bridge opened in 2003. It spans the Elbe River and connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittelland Canal.

MIDDLESBORO, KENTUCKY

Middlesboro, Kentucky is the only city in the United States built entirely inside a meteorite crater. Middlesboro is located in Bell County in southeastern Kentucky. The population was 10,434 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is located entirely between Pine Mountain and the Cumberland Mountains in the Middlesboro Basin, an enormous meteorite crater. The crater is approximately 3-mile-wide and the impactor is estimated to have been about 100 meters in diameter.

View of Middlesboro from the Pinnacle Overlook

By K smith8907 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26925803

CASCADE TUNNEL AT STEVENS PASS

The Cascade Tunnel at Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains between Spokane and Seattle is the longest railroad tunnel in the United States. The 7.8-mile tunnel, located on the BNSF mainline wad completed on January 12, 1929, replacing the original 2.6-mile Cascade Tunnel that was built in 1900 and plagued by snow slides. The tunnel connects Berne in Chelan County on its east with Scenic Hot Springs in King County on its west.

Eastern portal of the BNSF Cascade Tunnel located at Milepost 1700 on the Scenic Subdivision.

By Sturmovik at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76723199

GEVORA HOTEL

At a height of 1,168 feet, the Gevora Hotel along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai is the world’s tallest hotel. The four-star hotel opened in February 2018 after a construction period of twelve years. It has 528 rooms spread over 75 floors and a number of facilities including restaurants and a pool on top of its parking garage building. Besides being the tallest hotel, Gevora Hotel is also the eighth-tallest completed building in Dubai, the ninth-tallest in the United Arab Emirates, and among the 50 tallest buildings in the world.

The Gevora Hotel as seen from the other side of Sheikh Zayed Road

By Tristan Surtel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74481463

MOTIVA PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS REFINERY

The Motiva refinery is an oil refinery located in Port Arthur, Texas. It is the largest oil refinery in North America, and the fifth largest in the world. The first processing units of the Port Arthur Refinery were constructed in 1902 by the Texas Company, later Texaco. The roots of this refinery can be traced to the Spindletop oil boom near Beaumont, Texas. It came into operation in 1903. Port Arthur is in eastern Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. At certain points during its lifespan it was considered the flagship refinery of Texaco.

Motiva Refinery in Port Arthur Texas

MCDERMOTT STREET – CHICAGO, IL

Chicago’s shortest street is McDermott Street, a tiny stub off Archer Avenue in the Bridgeport neighborhood. The street is officially listed at 1400 west, from 2928 to 2936 south. That’s eight address points.

View from Archer Avenue

ALERT, NUNAVUT (CANADA)

Alert, in the Qikqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world. * Alert is located 7.5 miles west of Cape Sheridan, the northeaster tip of Ellesmere Island, on the shore of the ice-covered Lincoln Sea. Alert lies just 508 miles from the North Pole. It takes its name from HMS Alert, which wintered 6.2 miles east of the present station, off what is now Cape Sheridan, in 1875-1876. Facilities located in Alert include; a military signals intelligence radio receiving site at Canadian Forces Station Alter, a co-located Environment Canada weather station, a Global Atmosphere Watch monitoring observatory and the Alert Airport. As of the 2016 census, the population was reported as 62. *Alert has no permanent residents, but it has been “permanently inhabited” since April 1950.

2019 HURRICANE SCOREBOARD - FINAL

2019 HURRICANE SCOREBOARD
	Prediction	Actual
		June	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Total
Named Storms	12	0	1	3	7	5	1	18*
Hurricanes	6	0	1	1	3	1	0	6
Major Hurricanes	3	0	0	1	2	0	0	3

*Total includes Subtropical Storm Andrea which formed in May.

NOAA Tropical Weather Summary (December 1, 2019)

Overall, the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season featured above normal activity. Eighteen named storms formed, of which six became hurricanes and three became major hurricanes – category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. This compares to the long-term average of twelve named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.

INTERESTING TO NOTE: The long-term average of twelve named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes match the “predictions” made by NOAA in May. This raises the question as to whether NOAA is actually forecasting tropical storm activity, or merely using past experience to predict activity. Obviously, if they are just using averages to arrive at their predictions, there is no science behind these predictions. However, in May, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center stated that it was “predicting a near-normal hurricane season this year”. Accordingly, it is possible that the prediction of “near-normal” is based on meteorological modeling, and that NOAA then uses averages to arrive at the actual number of storms. In any event, if the prediction is the overall level of activity for the year, then NOAA’s prediction of “near-normal” activity was wrong. Looking forward to the predictions for next year.

2019 NAMED STORMS
Name	Month	Type	Max Wind
Andrea	May	Subtropical Storm	40
Barry	July	Hurricane	75
Chantal	August	Tropical Storm	40
Dorian	August	Major Hurricane	185
Erin	August	Tropical Storm	40
Fernand	September	Tropical Storm	50
Gabrielle	September	Tropical Storm	60
Humberto	September	Major Hurricane	125
Imelda	September	Tropical Storm	40
Jerry	September	Hurricane	105
Karen	September	Tropical Storm	45
Lorenzo	September	Major Hurricane	160
Melissa	October	Tropical Storm	65
Nestor	October	Tropical Storm	60
Olga	October	Tropical Storm	40
Pablo	October	Hurricane	80
Rebekha	October	Subtropical Storm	45
Sebastian	November	Tropical Storm	55