Wild Winter Ride Marches On!

The winter of 13/14 is not going quietly, and while most folks are over it the planet just keeps repeating itself. Warm then cold then windy and how about another snow storm: repeat; but mostly cold. Actually, the last week, our second full week of school since early December, was mostly a warm and lovely one - if you don't count Thursday when wind chills never got above freezing and temps barely did. Today brings seasonal temps and scattered clouds and those clouds should be viewed as a warning; cold and rain and sleet and snow are coming. Sunday will not be warm or sunny and by late afternoon will likely  be raining and sleeting before changing over to all snow overnight and into much of St. Patrick's Day. Tuesday is not looking like a melting day but the last day of winter, Wednesday, should see temps return to mid-50 seasonal norms. Hang On Folks, one more round of winter's finest.
On cloud free mornings, Venus shines like a beacon in the southeast before the hour later sunrise of daylight savings time. The late twilight of spring evenings have gradually revealed an evening sky with the moon sliding though the bright stars of winter and right under brightest of all, Jupiter, for this week we are wrapping up. March's full moon is tomorrow at 1:08, setting up a late Easter, Christianity's big celebration but the changing date revealing it's Pagan origins based on celestial timings; go figure!!
A 6.9 quake off northern California earlier this week is still aftershocking itself back to some degree of stability. Peru was shaken this morning with a 6.1 quake and the week saw a pretty shaky planet adjusting to internal pressures we humans are still working to understand. Those pressures, heat induced, are also leading to the usual spewings and belches around the Ring of Fire. Some lava here, tephra there, gas clouds emitted, thermal anomalies spotted all the way around the ring. Etna and Kilauea the non-ring exceptions are both still oozing to keep the locals watching cautiously. You don't have to look far to be reminded that the big planet is still in charge and all the riders are hanging on, get out and check out the big globe, Today On Earth!! And, remember: Beware the Ides of March!