Weather!

[geckzilla]

You could always cool off like a kangaroo. Dig a little hole to lay in under a bush or tree and lick your forearms all over.

[rstevenson]

That should be in the I Didn't Know That thread.

Rob (who has never licked his forearms)

[orin stepanek]

You could always cool off like a kangaroo. Dig a little hole to lay in under a bush or tree and lick your forearms all over.

I don't think so!
Reason # 1 I'm not a 'roo!
Reason #2 Cooler in the house! Even Sassy don't stay out very long!
Reason #3 It's hot under a bush of tree!
Reason #4 stays cooler longer indoors!
What can I say; I'm a fair weather person!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[TNT]

HOT HOT HOT!

For the past 10 days I was camping with Troop 199 in the Boy Scouts of America and others in the Heart of America Council at H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation. The only time it rained was on the morning of June 22, and only that morning. For the rest of the time the heat index was at least 100 degrees with the added humidity. The inside of the tents were like ovens. We were under a heat alert almost every day. I am so glad to be back home and out of that heat!

And there is going to be an excessive heat warning in effect until at least Friday. This is what I call insane.

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Hah, meteors are like cockroaches, then. You see one, there must be more lurking... Expert Chris Peterson dispels the myth! Well, sort of, anyway.

http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/Poss ... 95025.html

[neufer]

For the past 10 days I was camping with Troop 199 in the Boy Scouts of America and others in the Heart of America Council at H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation. The only time it rained was on the morning of June 22, and only that morning. For the rest of the time the heat index was at least 100 degrees with the added humidity. The inside of the tents were like ovens.

• The heat was in tents?

[TNT]

• The heat was in tents?

Well, it was at least 5-10 degrees hotter inside the tents than the outside air. But it was still incredibly hot. (I'm a little surprised that there was only one heat-related illness.)

[Beyond]

Strike one, TNT.

[neufer]

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[b][color=#0000FF]Heat Wave Fuels Wildfires in the Rockies (June 17 - 24, 2012) Based upon MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite[/color][/b]

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<<On June 28, 2012, wildfires raged across the western United States. The Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado attracted the most attention after spreading into Colorado Springs and charring hundreds of homes, but large wildfires also burned throughout Utah, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona.

A lack of winter snow cover and ongoing drought primed vegetation in these states for ignition. But in recent weeks, another ingredient for extreme wildfire emerged: heat. High temperatures dry out vegetation and decrease the relative humidity, making it easier for fires to ignite and spread.

Land surface temperatures (LST) are distinct from the air temperatures that meteorological stations typically measure. LSTs indicate how hot the surface of the Earth would feel to the touch. From a satellite vantage point, the “surface” includes a number of materials that capture and retain heat, such as desert sand, the dark roof of a building, or the pavement of a road. As a result, daytime land surface temperatures are usually higher than air temperatures.

This heat wave, like all extreme weather events, has its direct cause in a complex set of atmospheric conditions that produce short-term weather. However, weather occurs within the broader context of the climate, and there’s a high level of agreement among scientists that global warming has made it more likely that heat waves of this magnitude will occur.>>

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[b][color=#0000FF]Aerosols on June 26, 2012 from the Ozone Mapper Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the new Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite[/color][/b]

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<<Along the Rocky Mountain range, there has been a dearth of snow cover, insect stress in the forests, and a hot spring that has turned into a hot summer. The result by late June 2012 was a surplus of smoke from many dangerous fires raging across the western United States.

The map above depicts the relative concentration of aerosols in the skies above the continental United States on June 26, 2012. The map was assembled from data acquired by the Ozone Mapper Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the new Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite. Aerosol are tiny solid and liquid particles that have an outsized impact on weather and climate. Their concentrations are represented above in shades of red and yellow, with the highest concentrations in deep red and the lowest in light yellow. Grays represent clouds or areas where no reliable data were available.

In addition to measuring ozone levels in the atmosphere, OMPS can track aerosols (such as smoke particles) as they are lofted and transported by winds. The instrument measures the light scattered and reflected by the atmosphere. Specifically, it observes the difference between the amount of ultraviolet (UV) light the smoke- and dust-filled atmosphere scatters back to the satellite compared to the amount of UV the atmosphere would scatter back if skies were clear.

In the image, the aerosol signal is strong to the north and east of the North Schell, Dump, and Wood Hollow fires in Nevada and Utah. Thick smoke plumes from wildfires across Colorado moved east and south into the plains states. Further south in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico, it is unclear if the aerosols were blown in from distant fires, if there is local burning, or if they are dust storms, which are also a result of hot, dry, and windy weather.>>

[orin stepanek]

We got enough rain today to wet the sidewalks; but we will take it for now! At least it wasn't raining cats and dogs!

Click to view full size image

Picture found on wikipedia!

[Beyond]

Talk about things goin' to the dogs And a Catastrophy to boot

[owlice]

Terrifically violent thunderstorms here. Continuous lightning and thunder, winds up to 73 MPH (hurricane force), great lashing rains. Now east of me. Power out here a few times, but never for long, though many others are without power and likely will be for a while.

400,000+ people without power in this area; over a million estimated overall.

[owlice]

Winds topped 80 MPH and 1.5 million here were without power, many still without (and the heat wave continues; hit 104°F yesterday). I like watching thunderstorms -- they are often beautiful, definitely awesome, and it smells so good afterwards! We've been sliding into drought and need the rain, too, but maybe not quite like that. We get a fair number of thunderstorms here; this one was a bit on the scary side, though. We're under mandatory water use restrictions in my county and a neighboring one, as power is out at two water treatment facilities. One of the cats was outside when the storm hit (it slammed through); one of the ferals was very willing to come in and park his drenched self under the piano bench for a bit, but my cat stayed out for the duration.

No damage here, though, except for some tree debris (I'm very thankful) and a few things blown around; others did not fare nearly so well, alas.

[BMAONE23]

Looks like a slightly stronger El Nino is building in and could bring the needed wetness to OK and TX. Possibly even CO to douse those nasty fires

[BMAONE23]

Owlice
This is one of those sites that I frequent. How far are you from there?
http://www.senate.gov/general/capcam.htm

[owlice]

BMAONE23, often less than three miles away, as I work in downtown DC. I live in Maryland; grew up inside the Beltway, now live outside the Beltway.

I drove a bit around my neighborhood today (was on an ice cream run; we're due for more storms later today, and I wanted to be prepared), and saw a good number of trees and branches down, more than the usual Bradford pears. An oak in the park snapped in two (I felt like stopping and giving a eulogy for it, poor tree) and a nearby pine tree toppled over, there's a maple down on the street behind me, and I saw a large sycamore branch on a sidewalk despite there being no sycamore tree in sight. Sweet gums usually do okay in storms, it now occurs to me; I don't recall seeing any sweet gum trees or branches down.

My brother called from his local emergency room; he lives on 10 acres northwest of me and lost four trees, I think it was. His longish driveway has trees all along one side, and one fell and took others with it. He was working on the downed trees when he got hit in the leg with a branch; has a gash down to the bone, and since he's overdue for a tetanus shot anyway, thought he might as well get it looked at. (He called not to tell me he was at the hospital -- that was incidental; he called to suggest he come down tomorrow to finish some work on my house. Ah, no, that's okay; it can wait until it's not a bazillion degrees and it's been more than 24 hours since copious bleeding. It was really noisy on his end; he apologized for having to ask me to repeat things, and that's how I learned he was where he was.)

[BMAONE23]

Sorry to hear about your brothers leg and the loss of wood. It is most fortunate that the bone remained intact although the leg was gashed to a most unfortunate depth.

We have a similar problem with the tall growing and short rooted Eucalyptus in our area. During storm season, heavy rain soaks the ground and high winds cause the Eucalyptus to uproot.

I have a Liquid Amber in my back yard that never looses it's leaves in the 12 years we have lived there. They turn a most wonderful shade of Crimson every year but don't drop in winter. Come spring, they green up again. It isn't uncommon for a 40mph wind to break a 6" branch from the weight of the old growth. Perhaps I"ll remove it and plant Sweet Gum

[bystander]

@owlice: What are you doing with Oklahoma weather out there in the DC area? I was wondering where it had gone. Not that I'm complaining, but I could use a bit of cooling.

[TNT]

No kidding, bystander. The temperatures here are forecasted to stay around 100 degrees for the next several days. There was an isolated shower near Maryville and Kirksville this morning, out of sight from KC and that was our only chance of rain until who knows when. The nights have been fairly cool, though, with temperatures in the 70s and a few 80s.

[TNT]

Yes!!! Finally there is rain on the way.

[owlice]

BMAONE23, thanks. He's okay. Sent me an email tonight to let me know he was home, has a soft cast and a bunch of stitches. The neighbor behind him -- they share the driveway -- heats with wood, so it will be put to good use.

That Liquid Amber in your backyard is likely a sweet gum... unusual place for it to be, though; I thought they were eastern trees.

[orin stepanek]

We had an unusual storm roll through yesterday! If you blinked your eyes you might have missed it except for the loud thunder. It came; it splashed; it soaked and left! I don't think it lasted more than a minute or two.

[Ann]

We had lovely weather today. It was a little windy, but otherwise it was perfect. It was sunny and about 23 degrees Celsius.

Apart from the wind, I couldn't have asked for better weather.

Ann

[Beyond]

Just had 'snappy' thundershowers roll through N/E Connecticut. Now Ann shows up with a nice day in Sweden. ROAD-TRIP Bring your water-wings.

[bystander]

The storm was a derecho.

Derecho: Behind Washington, D.C.’s destructive thunderstorm outbreak, June 29, 2012
Capital Weather Gang | Washington Post | 2012 June 30

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

NOAA: About Derechos