As the east coast cooks, a 8 mile band across the high plains of Colorado was getting a large dose of spring in the form of hail. Golf ball size and several inches deep. Ghina, too, had a recent dumping of the large ice balls leading to icy, flash flooding. Ain't Earth grand!!
Haze and a breeze made the high 80's temps of yesterday, actually, quite pleasant. More haze ahead of tonight's front arrival are slowing the temperature rise so far today but we have already hit 80. Tomorrow and the weekend will be cooler but 80's return next week. It will be May and our planet is having a hot flash..just on a different time scale than we humans would have a hot flash..still, for a planet, very rapid.
In other hot news, 20 mountains made the "we are hot and blowing and showing it" list this week. 2 in the Aleutians, Stromboli joins Etna in Italy, La Soufriere slows a bit but is still in eruption mode on St. Vincent and Fuego & Pacaya are still blasting away in Guatemala. In the western Pacific, Kamchatka with a fairly standard 3, Japan 2 and the usual leader, although down a bit, Indonesia with 4. Piton de la Fournaise remains active in the western Indian ocean, Kilauea on Hawai'i and Villarrica in Chile' round out the list. Oh yea, Iceland, the combo hot spot/mid-ocean ridge island still has a few cubic meters of basalt oozing out every second.
A series of mid-5 quakes off the Oregon coast not long ago have set off no tsunami warnings but should serve as a reminder; the NW coast of the US is long overdue for a big shake..maybe a volcanic rumble, too. You can't fly over the region on a (rare) sunny day and not see a volcano poking up, they are everywhere. Heed the warning! North of New Zealand in the Kermadec Isles remains subductively shaky, Earth as whole a little shaky today.
950 more Americans did not make it to today, with 54K new cases. The usual denial states with the most folks gone, done in by the TrumpVirus. Vaccinations continue but are slowing, idiot excuses abound..I'm not going there..
Our new president, Joe Biden, an actual president, laid out plans (something we didn't really see for 4 years) to move us into the fast approaching future - oh look, it's here today - with a positive, proactive approach that we needed 20 years ago..but, there was more money to be made on war..so.. Hope is being used again, we now have hope. For 4+ years, hate and fear and lies have been the norm, hard to get much done that way. Takes a lot of energy to remain angry, much less to be hopeful.
In other really good news: Malcolm Gladwell has just released a new book, The Bomber Mafia. I just downloaded it, have read a little, and it's not a topic I would likely have sought out but it's Malcolm and he could make paint drying interesting, thought provoking and entertaining, so the bombing campaign to end the war in the Pacific, tell me more Malcolm!!
I have quite enjoyed the warmth of the last few days, time to get out for another warm walk in the pollen, buggy, beauty of Va in the spring, Today On Earth.
The turtles are out..
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