Cool& Damp With Showers - Repeat

After a pretty much dry weekend (although the lake was wet), the front that slid south to set up the lovely weekend is oozing back north and going to stall over the east coast, just like last week. So far, like last week, the storms have wet the ground here but really haven't rained. Another few hundredths with a little shower this afternoon, just enough to make it too wet to do much outside. There is more of that to come, looks like for the whole week but with nothing but below average temps.
There are no hints of hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, although we are a month away from the seasonal peak, just steady moisture streaming north from the ocean and gulf.
A quiet day on the earthquake list but for the several hundred in Hawaii with another mag. 5.3 from yet another eruptive blast. A 5.4 quake in PNG and some in the Caribbean, Oklahoma and California. The real issue in CA. is fire; tender dry forests (drought and fire suppression), hot dry weather and idiot humans playing with matches and you have major problems and they do. Hundreds of homes burned, Yosemite closed with fire/air quality concerns and very little chance of controlling it without rain. Seems like over a dozen states with major fires burning while you'd be hard pressed to light a fire on the east coast without a flame thrower.
The sky show has made occasional appearances here in the cloudy east and Mars really is the star of the show. It is so bright and so red, it just grabs your eye and screams for attention. Venus is still brighter, setting in the west after dark but it's white; the color of Mars is the eye catcher. The moon is waning, shrinking in size and rising later and later in the evening so the just dark sky is ruled by planets and I haven't yet been in a good viewing spot to see all 4 at once but Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are easy to spot 1/2 hour after sunset, Mars takes a little longer to pop up but it is rising earlier and earlier each day as we catch up with our neighbor one planet out. The bright stars of the Summer Triangle are overhead well after dark and the Big Dipper looks like a dipper high in the northwest, its handle arcing to bright Arcturus, which makes a nice top spot in a triangle with Venus and Jupiter. If your skies clear, get out and check it out, or take an earlier walk (like I'm about to) and enjoy a coolish July day, Today on Earth.