Cool & Dry With Lots of Volcanoes

The northeastern US is reveling in lovely cool, dry weather in mid-July; a most welcome treat.  That polar air has made it this far south, riding a big dip in the jet stream, is quite unusual for July but we'll take it and get out and enjoy.  Even as the dry air moves out by the weekend, temperatures will remain average (upper 80's) for central Va. with a low chance for showers (but still a chance).  Tuesday night turned into a wild, wet time here: 2 inches of rain poured down over a couple of hours; it just kept raining and raining and raining - little lightning but lots of rain.
A 6.0 quake shook things up in southeast Alaska earlier today, 60ish miles from Yakutat, a little unusual for that part of the big state but still directly on the Ring O Fire, as are all of today's quakes.  Except for the ones in Puerto Rico and Oklahoma: at least Puerto Rico is on a plate boundary, Oklahoma has the oil industry to blame and the lovely practice of fracking to blame (it's not us, said Exxon and BP, you can't prove it...)
After an unstaffed week off, the USGS volcano list is back with 26 volcanoes shaking and belching and oozing. Indonesia tops the list with 5 eruptions but there are also 5 spewing mountains in South America and Central America (little Guatemala has 3 itself, but I don't think that's the reason for the influx of young Guatemalans spewing across the US border - trace that to the Bush lead congress of '06 and a bad thoughtful but bad law - of course, our current president is still blamed - and the fact that Guatemala is a corrupt, dysfunctional, dangerous place).  Two Italian islands make the list, hosting Stromboli and Etna that are both quite active these days, the Kamchatka peninsula, as usual, has 4 exploding mountains but only one on the nearby Aleutians, Shishaldin, and Kilauea on Hawaii's big island is, as always, piling up more fresh basalt. Japan, always on the list but with only 2 this week and Bulusan on the Philippines main island round out the large list.  If you want to see volcanoes, you don't have to go far around the Ring O Fire to see some active Earth action up close (although, I would guess most of these mountains have warning areas around them to keep the curious or death seekers out).  I'll continue to check the list and visit vicariously through the power of the wild, and wooly web.
The moon continues to wane gibbous, dancing by Neptune and Uranus (yes, you'll need telescope and finder chart to see those outer planets) one the next couple of nights. Mars is at 90 degrees to the earth from the sun in two days but still out there in the evening sky, Saturn, as well, a little farther east of the red planet and still hanging in Libra.  Jupiter is done for now and will be directly behind the sun in a week, a morning star for August and fall, joining Venus and the speedy Mercury in the pre-dawn sky.
It's gorgeous out there (at least in the Northeast- and central Va.), get out and enjoy the break from the heat and humidity, today on Earth.