July: Hurricanes, T'storms, Equakes and Volcanoes

July has come charging in with the first hurricane of the season, Arthur, now charging up the southeast coast, wrecking July 4th plans for tens of thousands of vacationers on North Carolina's Outer Banks (residents, too, no doubt, are less than thrilled).  While the barrier islands will likely get hammered, a strong cold front is pushing the storm far enough offshore to spare the inland eastern seaboard hurricane  winds and rain.  That cold front will create problems of its own for the inland world; big thunder storms with heavy rain, big winds as well as spotty hail and maybe a scattered tornado or two will make this a wild July 3rd.  Welcome to summer: add heat to water and earth and spin it up!!
While not as long as last week, the volcano list includes 5 of the 7 continents (and there is argument for 6 with Indonesia, it's really on the edge of the Australian plate...) and is still lengthy. Kamchatka leads the list with 4, the nearby Aleutians have added another eruption to the list this week - and there are still lots of aftershocks from the recent big earthquake - Japan has a sleeping crater stirring up in the middle of Honshu and ongoing activity in the southern islands, Sinabung has blasted off again in Indonesia, Guatemala alone has 3 eruptions in progress, the Great Rift Valley in Africa has a potential problem beginning to shake and belch and Kilauea is oozing basaltic lava on Hawaii's big island.  Stromboli in Italy and Ubinas in Peru are the lone eruptions in progress on their respective continents.  Plenty of action out there if you want to see/hear/feel the power of a still hot planet in action, you'll have to go a bit off the beaten track to check them out, but... let me know if you visit a hot spot.
Earthquakes are happening but there have been no big shakes on the broken crust of the 3rd planet out. Mercifully, the central Va quake zone is quiet.
Clouds, heat, mosquitoes and a late and long twilight make looking off the planet into space problematic these long July days.  A break in the dark sky would reveal Mars and Saturn dominating the evening sky although as both fade in brightness Virgo's Spica and Antares, the heart of the Scorpion rival the planets as bright spots in the summer sky.  The first quarter moon will be very close to Mars Saturday night (and with the cold front and hurricane gone and skies clear with pleasant temps viewing should be fine) and near Saturn and slightly gibbous two days later.  Jupiter will be behind the sun from Earth on the 24th and is only visible, very low after sunset in the southwest, for a few more days before being lost in the sun's glare.  Venus is still bright but low in the pre-dawn sky and will share the space with Mercury but really not until later in the month.
Earth's atmosphere is showing off its turbulent side for a day of two so be aware out there, hunker when the lightning comes and good luck to the folks fleeing the outer banks, it's looking like a wild one out there, today on earth.