Harvey

Still Harvey rolls on; 9 days since initial landfall and still 2+ inches of rain here in central Va. over the last two days as the water slowly drains from southeast Texas. Flooding and carnage left in the storm's wake; is this the new hurricane, the new warming reality denied by the leaders representing Texas?  Next in line is Hurricane Irma, churning slowly westward in the open Atlantic, the path guessed at but more likely to follow the whims of the planet than the models proposed by computers - so many variables.  The rainfall here, after a summer long drought, has barely added enough to the groundwater to return the Hershey Dog creek to flowing. Our porous, dry soil has slurped up the moisture, slowly allowing gravity to distribute any extra. Unbridled growth, putting pavement and roofs over former spongy wetlands, lead to the problem in Texas, 50 inches of rain reminded all that a flood plain is eventually going to flood.
As the nightmare in the Lone Star state continues, cleanup beginning while still search and rescue and   recover slogs on with help from far and wide pouring in, will there be lessons learned?  The reality that Earth is in charge and with all its constant roiling and churning, shaking and erupting is just a wild chunk of rock flying around a star.  It is an amazing place to call home but disasters in our world are just another rewind of a planet feedback loop, hot to cold, high pressure to low, solar energy aways stirring the water and air pot that allows us to live. Hang on folks, just another day on Earth.

Hope For Drought Relief!!

The next couple of days here in Quail will go a long way to determining if many dogwood trees live or die.  While a friend from the other side of Louisa County told me it was the worst mosquito year she can remember that is not a problem here; there is no water here. The north side (and east and west ends) have had inches of rain this month and the world is lush and green - and apparently full of breeding mosquitoes, we have almost none. No water, not mosquitoes!!
Just finishing a book on the building 21st century worldwide water issues - Alex Prud'homme's, The Ripple Effect- was even more troubling reading in a house that catches and filters rain water. And, while a recent check on my tanks reveals quite a bit of water it could use a serious freshening and the entire forest is parched. My trails are almost leaf covered; the earliest I can remember this many leaves giving up on life (usually a hot, August thing). A one two punch of storm systems is headed this way, unfortunately they will likely be spotty and none have hit this spot. Watching storms on radar reminds me of people in a crowd swerving and contorting to miss the crazy, ranting person; oh, we don't want to go that way, oh, miss that spot... Watching trees die is not fun.
The rocking earthquake planet that was yesterday - several quakes in the 5 range - has calmed and is fairly quiet. And, so far, there have been no quakes in Oklahoma, a day no doubt remembered by oil companies in their denial reports, "you can't prove it's salt water injection, 'cause we injected today and there were no quakes". Or maybe they didn't inject... But, it's still early in the day.
The week's volcano list has grown slightly from last week with pretty standard Ring O Fire activity. Piton de la Fournaise off Madagascar has been oozing some lava of late but is not really raging. Nishinoshimo, the new island forming well off Japan's southeast coasts is still fired up and growing although seems to be mostly still underwater.
The slowly growing crescent moon will approach Jupiter tonight, my hope is that will be blocked with storm clouds. The clouds are building, the humidity is sneaking up, the stage is set; come on ya big planet, dump some water on me, today on Earth.

Water: A "Need" for Life on Earth

As the long heat wave continues on the east coast (and elsewhere, I'm sure) walking in the forest Saturday was a dry, scrunchy world that has been July 2017. Storms continue to dump rain all around Quail but all have missed here. Dogwoods are dying, moss paths are brown and brittle; the world is parched, craving a few drops of water.  Sadly, that's all we got Saturday night and again Sunday morning as two more storms skirt here leaving 0.05" of rain each time.  But, what a difference a tenth of an inch makes. The moss is green and spongy, the air is cleaner and cool and pleasant; the desert is gone and it almost feels like a rain forest again; and with 1/10 of an inch.
The air here quickly heated up, more deluges missed to the south last night and life here is hunkering down because, a tenth of an inch is not going to do it for long but it's amazing what a little moisture will do. While I'm in a major drought the flip side of the planet Earth weather coin was taking place just 30 miles to the north and west, the Orange County fair was ended abruptly Saturday when straight line winds tossed tables and ripped down tents; "we'll be back next year" fair sponsors
said.
If you have clear skies tonight, the one day past new moon will be very low in the west, a very thin crescent, and below Mercury and Regulus, the heart of Leo.  Our natural satellite will be above the star/planet combo tomorrow night and just above bright Jupiter this Friday.
Forecasts call for cooler drier weather starting tomorrow for the Old Dominion so get out and watch the moon start another moonthly trip around our planet. When this trip is done, the August new moon will place the moon directly in front of the sun; the Great American Eclipse, when the moon's shadow will race across the US from Oregon to South Carolina. Hope you are somewhere along the shadow path as I plan to be August 21.Until then get out and realize, hot or cold, this is the best planet there is; enjoy today on Earth.

The Breyer dog in the pond; it's good being a water dog!!

Moon & Saturn, Montana Quakes and Belching Volcanoes

It's a cloudy, muggy, summer day here in the east but out west, Montana to be more specific, things are shaking! A 5.8 magnitude quake hit in the mountains of big sky country just after midnight local time and aftershocks continue as I write. The shallow focus quake seems to have done little damage, it was up in the mountains, but was felt for upwards of 100 miles and is just a little reminder, mountain building requires earthquakes. Hope that is not somehow related to that large napping volcano in the corner of the state just to their south.
And, speaking of volcanoes, the Ring of Fire is really belching and spewing this week.  Of the almost two dozen fiery mountains on the USGS-SI list many are not just shaking and showing heat anomalies but erupting gas, ash and lava with warnings increased for locals and air traffic. A surprise eruption in Indonesia injured many in a group of tourists checking out the volcano and a rescue helicopter headed in to help crashed killing all aboard. It's dangerous out there in the eruption zone.
A clear sky tonight will show the waxing gibbous moon just above bright Saturn; will be a lovely pairing if... and that's a big if for this part of the world, the sky is clear. Jupiter will be bright on the other side of the southern sky and the star off to the west (right) of the moon/Saturn show is Antares, the red giant heart of Scorpio. Hope your sky is clear enough to check it out.
It is hard to let a summer day slide by without a mention of weather, and it's typical here in Va., hot and muggy with a good chance of storms. Some of those storms moved slowly and dropped lots and lots of rain yesterday with local streams out of banks and roads covered. While 40 miles away received over 5 inches of rain, here at the tirehouse we got a meager 0.15". It's hit or miss with T-storms and I have mostly been in the miss zone so far in 2017.  Not sure I need 5 inches in a couple of hours but 1 or 2 would help out dry conditions; with clearing to check out the moon and ringed world!
Alas, wishes do little to faze the big planet we ride on. What happens on Earth is because the temperatures and pressures of the rock, air and water of the planet influence and affect each other and are trying to get to some kind of unobtainable point of equilibrium. Go out and influence the world with your presence, today on Earth.

Cool & Dry with a New Island

Canadian high pressure has pushed the jet stream deep into the south, a little unusual for the first week of summer, resulting in cool nights and warm, dry days for the east coast. As with all happenings on Earth, that will be short lived and hot and humid will return by week's end. In other change news, the Atlantic ocean has piled sand into a new "island" at the very tip of Hatteras Island(Cape Point) on North Carolina's outer banks. Like all barrier islands, this will be ephemeral and could be gone as quickly as it appeared or continue to grow for centuries until... and that's the ephemeral part, a hurricane in 2217 takes its sand and moves it somewhere else. Ephemeral for Earth is often quite different than the human view of short lived. In general, the outer banks eroded from the north end and sand, and potentially new islands, is deposited at the south and west end of the chain. With the current (not the longshore current moving the sand around) warming Earth is undergoing and melting of glacial ice from said warming, erosion and deposition of all of the barrier islands of the Atlantic coast of North America can only increase in speed and magnitude. Buy and build wisely - but as my favorite oceanfront realtor says, " there will always be oceanfront..."; will it be where you thought or want it to be. Time will have the final but ongoing say.
Speaking of magnitude, there has been a plethora of 2 and 3 magnitude quakes in the Sierra Nevada of California not far from the Nevada line so far today. That's way east of the San Andreas fault system but you don't push up mountains that high without lots of faulting.  Makes me wonder if these are foreshocks, warning of something larger or just young mountains adjusting as young mountains do? Again, time will answer that. The rest of the planet has experienced some minor shakes today with Indonesia and the southwest Pacific leading the way with quakes in the low 5 magnitude range.
The volcano list is now 6 days old and except Hawaii all current activity is around the Ring of Fire.
Tonight will find the waxing crescent moon about 1 degree away from Regulus, the heart of Leo; should be a lovely pairing. To "see" the rest of the lion, imagine Regulus as the point at the end of a backwards question mark that marks his head. There is a brightish triangle of stars to the left of the head marking the lion's reclining hindquarters.  Leo is one of the easier constellations to see/imagine what our ancestors saw in the night sky.  From the moon, following the ecliptic, that arc the sun, moon and planets takes across the sky, you will find bright Jupiter higher in the southwest and in the southeast yellowish Saturn. Will be a cool lovely night for star gazing - potential cloud cover notwithstanding.
But right now it's a cool and lovely day and time for this blogger and his large brown dog to get out and enjoy, today on Earth.

It's Officially Summer!

Yesterday, a little after midnight eastern daylight time, our tilted, wobbling, spinning planet had its northern end tipped as far toward the sun as it's going to for 2017; and the summer season began. While yesterday was the longest day for the northern hemisphere (obviously, shortest south of the equator) that wasn't the earliest sunrise or latest sunset; the earliest sunrise was a little over a week ago and the latest sunset about a week hence. But, right now none of that really matters, it's warm (cooking hot in the desert southwest) with lots of sunlight and will be for the next couple of months, get out and enjoy, a little heat and humidity and sweat never hurt anyone.
While today will be hot here in the Old Dominion the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy will collide with a cold front tomorrow and bring a cooler wetter day - much like the deep south is dealing with today- for late Friday and into Saturday, when Cindy will be gone. Next week is forecast to be ruled by Canadian high pressure with cool mornings and afternoons only in the low 80's. My long term forecast calls for that to be short lived and that the heat of summer is yet to truly arrive (even though like I said, it's already in Vegas).
This week's volcano list looks a lot like last week's, some rumbling and belching around the Ring O Fire - 20 on the list- but no surprises and no immediate warnings for air travel or locals.  The earthquake list today is a bit more eye catching leading with a 6.8 magnitude quake just off the southwest coast of Guatemala; that's a shake. Even though offshore, no tsunami warnings were issued. Like with the volcano list, the rim of the Pacific dominates with several 5+ quakes and several more in the upper 4's. Eastern Kansas got a good shake this morning as did north central Texas. Fracking: keeping oil and gas prices low and the great plains shaking.
While yesterday marked the start of summer it was also marking 2 months until the great American eclipse. The new moon for June will be tomorrow night about 10:30 EDT and leaving us with 2 lunar cycles until the moon lines up with our nearby star and blocks its light for about 2 and 1/2 minutes...if you are in the right spot - I plan on being in that shadow. If you caught the thin waning crescent early morning over the last couple of days you also saw Venus, currently on Earth's morning side and the bright beacon; the morning star.
Jupiter and Saturn dominate the evening sky once it finally gets dark on these lingering summer evenings, Jupiter in the southwest in Virgo and above much dimmer Spica and Saturn in the southeast in Ophiuchus with reddish Antares, the heart of Scorpio off to its west (right).
Here at the tirehouse, the window trim is done and looking good, the big brown dog has completed his morning wander and is napping on the cool soapstone floor while the squirrels, doves and gold finches graze on bird seed in the front yard. Time to get out and wander about on this portion on the big planet before today's heat and humidity make that a little oppressive. Hope you get out and enjoy today on Earth!

How About a TOE Update!!

Nine days into June and this part of the big planet is lovely, cool and dry conditions reign but as is always the case, that is about to change. The cut-off system bringing in the cool, north Atlantic air is moving on and a big ridge, dominated by a Bermuda high, will be pumping in the moist, steamy air from the south Atlantic; the reality of the pending summer will arrive Sunday and dominate the east coast for much of next week. Get out and enjoy the next couple of days before AC will be a safer place to be.
The USGS SI volcano list is a Ring of Fire who's who of volcanoes, from Chile all the way round to Indonesia, 2 dozen volcanoes, all the usual suspects, on this weeks list. Only Kilauea is not on the ring but it's like the axle with all the lesser peaks spewing around its always erupting center. Must be rocking out there in Hawaii, a 5.3 earthquake shook the big island earlier today.  That was the largest quake on today's list...so far. As usual, Oklahoma still feels like low oil prices are better than a stable state, with fracking continuing followed by salt water emplacement into deep formations leading to daily quakes. Glad I'm long gone from the Sooner state!
The June Full moon was exactly one hour ago as I type this but, not to worry you will see it as full tonight and it will have a companion planet just to its right: Saturn. And, while the ringed world is fairly low in the sky for northern viewers it is about as close as it gets (perihelion) in its 30ish year solar revolution to Earth and officially at opposition next Wednesday (directly behind the Earth from the sun and rising about sunset, setting at sunrise - just like a full moon) as well as having its rings tipped toward Earth for our viewing pleasure. Just to the west (right) of the moon/Saturn pairing you will find Scorpio, with orange-red Antares at its heart.
Jupiter is still the brightest star-like object in the evening, high in the south at sunset, above Virgo's bright star (but way dimmer than Jupiter) Spica. Looking up to your left and overhead will spike you to bright Arcturus and following a curved path, an arc, will guide you to the big dipper. Now you can reverse that path and see the easy way to get to Spica - follow the arc of the dipper's handle to Arcturus and then spike straight to Spica. Venus is bright in the east for early risers and Mars and Mercury are lost in the sun's glare this month. But, tonight, get out and check out the moon and Saturn, might be worth a photo opportunity-albeit a tricky one.
And, only 73 days till the great American Solar Eclipse. Get your plans finalized! Get out and enjoy the loveliness, today on Earth.

A Weather Review

Sabrina - Editor       Shay - Reporter

Tabatha - Human Interest
Bowen - Historian

Weather: Weather is the condition or state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time. Some factors that affect the weather are temperature, dew point, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind/direction, and your latitude. Relative humidity is the amount of moisture in the air compared to how much the air can hold at a given temperature. When the relative humidity is at 100% that means the air is saturated it is holding all of the water vapor it can at that temperature. Dew point temperature is the point at which the air is saturated and water drops begin to condense. Barometric pressure is the weight of the atmosphere on the earth. Where there is high pressure the weather is generally very nice but where there is low pressure the weather is more gloomy with a lot of clouds and storms. These pictures each represent some kind of weather sunny, cloudy, rain, storms, snow, hail, and windy.

Fronts:

A Front is a boundary separating two air masses. There are many different fronts, including a Cold Front, a Warm Front, a Stationary Front, and an Occluded Front. A Cold Front occurs when a cold air mass replaces a warm air mass. Cold fronts move quickly and often have violent weather such as thunderstorms, high winds, hail, tornadoes, and heavy rain. A Warm Front occurs when a warm air mass meets and replaces a cold air mass. Warm fronts move slowly, compared to a cold front that moves quickly. A Stationary Front occurs when a warm or cold front stops moving. When a Stationary Front occurs, temperature doesn’t change as much and they could be a light rain or drizzle. An Occluded Front occurs when a cold front catches and lifts a warm front. The weather that occurs is similar to the weather of a Cold Front. There is also something called a Polar Front. A Polar Front is the boundary between cold northern air and temperate air.  

Weather Folktales: In ancient times, people had no idea what was causing rain, thunder, or any type of weather. The result was they would create stories that would explain what they had no understanding of. In Kenya, Mkunga Mburu is the god of thunder and he was believed to travel across the sky on a huge black bull. Mkunga Mburu holds a spear in each hand and he throws them at clouds to create loud noises, creating thunder. The Yoruba people believed that lightning was magic made by the storm spirit who shot bolts of light from his mouth. The damage these bolts did was considered a punishment for wrong things people did in their everyday life. Raijin is the Japanese god of fire and lightning. He is normally shawn as a red demon surrounded by golden drums that represents thunder.

Information and picture comes from here.

Weather History:

Recording weather by hand or by machine has been around for centuries. Our founding fathers were some of the first people to track the weather. This means the earliest we know of weather being recorded is the 1700’s. Weather stations and news reports didn’t come around till august 1st, 1861. The news prediction was actually pretty accurate for the time in history, and the development of the telegraph got news and weather around faster.

Info. comes from here, and here

Some Thoughts on Monsoons

The GeoGOAT's report that

What is a monsoon? A monsoon is a seasonal shift in the prevailing wind direction. These winds usually bring a different kind of weather. Monsoons are winds that blow onshore during the summer and blow offshore during the winter. They are mostly referred to as the Asian monsoon. It is a large region extending from India to southeast Asia which is where monsoon conditions are powerful.

Monsoons have the ability to bring millions of dollars of damage to the coastal cities they affect, a cost only outweighed by their detriment to human life. These Asian storms occur primarily during the Summer months and originate from the Southwest. As we are nearing the end of March, concerns are beginning to surface in southwestern Asia. “it does appear that the probability of a below-normal monsoon year in 2017 is higher than the probability of an above-normal year” said Chief Economist Sonal Varma from Nomura India. Despite Varma’s prediction, meteorologists are still unsure how this year’s El Nino conditions will affect the upcoming monsoon season.

The Guinness World Records states that the worst monsoon happened in Thailand from September through December. It happened in 1983. It caused 10,000 deaths. 15,000 people evacuated to other places. Up to 100,000 people got water-born diseases. This monsoon caused over more than 400 million dollars worth of damage.

New Blog Teams

The TOE returns again with new teams to bring the news of the day on the big planet to you!!
Updating Today on Earth will be Jennifer, Zach, Toulie and Breeana
Letting you know more about Rocks and Minerals than you would likely care to know will be Greg, Abby G, JB and Nery
Updating the shaky zones of Earth will be Chase, Riley, Caroline and Abby H
Tracking activity on the Ring O Fire will be Abby S., Harrison, Kami and Kari
Keeping you informed about the goings on in our Solar System this week will be Rachel, Jacob, Emily and Mikayla
With news from farther out in our galaxy will be Forrest, Price, Jayde and Aliya
Weather updates will be handled this week by Sabrina, Bowen, Tabatha and Shay.

If all goes well, all blogs will be updated tomorrow!!

A Quick and Brief Return Of The TOE

TodayOnEarth returns for a quick update, a fickle spring kicks off, the earth is still shaky and the Ring O Fire is still belching sulfurous fumes from South America around to Indonesia. Change but consistency. Venus is hiding above the sun and will return to dominate the morning sky in April, Mars lingers pale in the west at sunset while Jupiter takes over the evening sky in the east after dark.
Today's rock (mineral) is Sulfur. Mercury has come and gone from the evening sky and Saturn currently rules the early morning sky - with the bright stars of winter still high in the southwest at dark. But, tomorrow will be chilly, Thursday morning downright cold before a weekend warm up.
A quick TOE update. Hopefully, students will provide lots more soon.