Up Close with Venus

Early Saturday morning Crescent Moon and Venus rising in the eastern sky. 11/7/2015

Picture Courtesy Jan Null, San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Halloween Asteroid Capable of Continent Wide Devastaton?

NASA's "Great Pumpkin"

Have you heard of the Halloween Asteroid? 

 NASA has dubbed 2015 TB145, "The Great Pumpkin". The stadium sized space rock is said to be large enough to,"wreak continent-wide devastation". 

 I think it looks more like a potato (below right).  At, any rate, at its closest point, the great pumpkin - or potato, will pass within 300,000 miles of earth. This is slightly farther away than the moon and pretty close by astronomical standards.

 











After seeing a skull face in one of the more recent photos, scientists now think their giant space rock may actually be a dead comet. That's not entirely accurate, but seems appropriate for Halloween.

Today's fly by will provide a rare opportunity to learn more about space rocks and what to do if one ever headed for earth. 

Ty Turns 5 Months

 

Tyberius Clyde Von Bargen

On October 2, Ty (aka pooper) reached 5 months. 

Can you believe it?

It has been incredible to watch how much he grows every day!

 Hard to believe this is the same little bunny-like baby we brought home just 3 months ago.

Such a good natured pup, and a great addition to our family.

above: October 2, 5 months old snuggling with his blankies

left: We brought our fur baby home June 20 at 7 weeks old

Northwest Firefighters Face the Elements

These firefighters were given 5 minutes to shower before their next hike to the next fire. We really have no idea all of the sacrifices these heroes go through to keep us safe. Photo by Nicholas Styles,  with Greg Isaac.

From Inferno to Freezing                                    

 Now they have snow, but they don't have the clothing for it. 

From My Town Walla Walla FB

Because many of you have asked and because we have heard that the firefighters did not have heavy enough clothing, I wrote & asked Nick Cronquist if we could do anything. Here is Nick's response: 

With teams rotating in and out, firefighters are getting time to go home and repack so there is no specific needs I'm aware of. If I hear of something I'll pass it on. Thank you for thinking for us

Thunderstorm in Seattle Now - Great pictures!

                                                Cliff Mass Weather Blog Wednesday, August 12, 2015                      

There have been dozens of lightning strikes during the past 1/2 hr...here is one photographed by Aaron Brethorst looking towards the south.

 

A modestly strong thunderstorm cell is moving northward across south Seattle now, with rain and lightning. The heaviest rain is heading to the NE, with Mercer Island and Bellevue getting the worst of it.

Below is the view from the Space Needle at 11:50 AM...you can see the rain falling out (virga).

On the right is the instantaneous rain rate at 11:48 AM and 12:03 PM...pouring over southeast Seattle..heading toward Mercer Island. Downtown Seattle is only getting a "taste" of the action

above: the radar shows fairly intense precipitation (red colors) at 11:33 AM and below a close up at 11:58 AM

Was it in the forecast?  The National Weather Service did have a chance of showers and Thunderstorms in the forecast for today.

Why won't a tropical storm EVER hit the Pacific Northwest?

By Cliff Mass July 16, 2015

Hurricane Dolores is prediction to move up Baja California  and reach the offshore waters west of San Diego by Tuesday AM (see graphic), but it will never reach us.

No tropical storm will ever reach our shores (as a tropical system that is).  The reason?  Because the eastern Pacific off our coast is too cold.

Hurricanes, Typhoons, and tropical storms in general require warm sea surface temperatures, specifically, above roughly 80F or 27 C. 

Here is a recent sea surface temperature analysis over the eastern Pacific.   The 27F contour is the at the boundary between yellow and yellow/green.  The hurricane will soon enter a region that is too cold for development....and the system should progressively weaken.    No tropical storm can even get close to us.

 The visible satellite image Thursday afternoon (see below) has a lot of interesting features, but none struck the eye like Hurricane Dolores moving up the Mexican coast (A).  There is also low clouds (stratocumulus/stratus) moving up the coast (B), clear skies where continental air is pushing offshore (D), and ship tracks, where particles from ship exhausts are producing lines of enhanced cloudiness (C).

Will things change under global warming?  No chance.   Remember this year has much warmer than normal water offshore and we are not even in the neighborhood.  Even more important is that our average sea surface temperature (around 50F) is roughly 30F colder than the minimum.  So it won't even be close- sea surface temperatures might become 5-10F warmer in a century---not anywhere close to 80F.

But the water temperatures around Hawaii are on the margin, so they will have to be watchful. 

Latest pictures from Space

Updated 11:35 AM ET, Wed July 15, 2015 
PLUTO!! NASA Releases the newest images from Horizons

Do you see a heart of Pluto? This image was taken on Tuesday 7/7 by Horizons when it was about 5 million miles from the planet. The large bright area on the lower right - about 1,200 miles across - resembles a heart

This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on July 12 when the spacecraft was 1.6 million miles from the planet.







 This picture of Pluto's largest moon, Charon was taken july 12 when it was 1.6 million miles away.  It reveals a system of chasms larger than the Grand Canyon. 

Look closely at the images below.  This is the first time New Horizons has pohotographed Pluto's smallest and faintest moons, Kerberos and Styx.  The pics were taken from April 25 to may 1.

left: Pictures of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Lo taken early in 2007 - about a year into New Horizons 9 year journey to Pluto



below: On its way to Pluto, New Horizons snapped these pics of Jupiter's 4 large "Galilean" moons.  From left to right is Lo, Europa, Ganuymede and Callisto.