Dust

I just happened to be surfing this afternoon and came across a couple of interesting satellite photos. This one is from May 27th and clearly shows dust flying off the desert in Egypt and circling over the Mediterranean Sea

Two days later you can see on this composite that dust traveled all the way across the Atlantic and brushed along the coast of South America.
No dust here...yet...but plenty of hot weather. I agree with Pam that it is going to be a long - hot - Summer. Time for a refreshing trip to the beach. I hear there are a lot of values along the Redneck Rivera.

Summer gets underway

Today - May 31st - is the anniversary of the worst flood in the history of the United States killing more than 2200 people in Johnstown, PA. Other floods covered larger areas like the 1937 floods on the Mississippi which killed 1100 and left 600,000 homeless. And of course many hurricanes over the years have caused extensive flooding.


Speaking of hurricanes....the Atlantic season officially begins tomorrow, June 1st. Accuweather has a good page for following this year's storms.


Memorial Day was very warm and muggy. We had various spells of thunder and some rain. More storms my pop up later in the week.


Take note of the pic below. I stole this one from Claire's Twitter. This photo was from Hobart, Tasmania where she also got the chance of view Tasmanian Devils. She showed us on of those pics this morning while Skyping from Melbourne.

Want to bet who would win a fight between this guy and Weasley????

More rain...here and there

We had a nice severe thunderstorm late Tuesday afternoon with small hail, close lightning, and just over two inches of rain. That means no watering again for a few days. I think I've only run the sprinkler three times this year. Let's hope for another cool and wet Summer. The past few days have been extremely humid. I'm almost ready for Fall.


Speaking of rain.....word from down under is rain, rain and more rain. Claire did manage to get out of the rain and Skype with us yesterday. Last I heard she was headed for the nearby Blue Mountains. She flies to Tasmania this weekend. Here's the link to the official sight for the Bureau of Meteorology.


Lot's of TV shows coming to an end. Law and Order went out with a whimper Monday night after 20 years. I'll miss that one. 24 finished it 8th and final day.......but don't tell me how it ended.....I might not get to watch it till the weekend.


Oh yeah...the photo above was tweeted from Manly Walk near Sidney. You can see the city in the background.

Back with you

Don't you just hate elections. I was so glad when last Tuesday rolled around and it would be safe to answer the phone again. Something has to be done about the robo dialers used by candidates. I bet we averaged 7 to 8 a day during the primary campaign. The runoff in the Democratic Senate race will probably bring a return of the auto calls. We even got calls from Clinton and Obama. Nothing quite like getting home from work and asking if anyone called...and the answer is "Barack called for you". November is still a long way off....but look for lots of turnover.

One child is airborne right now on her way to Australia. My next update will take a look at weather down under.

Tornado Season

A sure sign that Spring is in full swing....killer tornadoes over the weekend in Mississippi and the return of the hummingbirds to Chenal. We lucked out here with no severe storms. We did get 1.75 inches of rain which washed the rest of the pollen out of the trees.

Beware of the Ash Clouds

Amazing...absolutely amazing. It's been a long time (if ever) that an volcanic ash cloud has caused so much disruption. Thousands of flights have been cancelled across Europe and between here and there. Here's a link to a story at Accuweather that shows the ash will be around for awhile.

I don't know if it is enough ash or the right chemical mixture to have an impact on temperatures. We'll look into that on a later posting. Let's hope for more global cooling. Nothing pleases me more than for Jack Frost to be nipping at Al Gore's butt.

AaaaChooo

I enjoy the temperatures in Spring, but boy do I hate the pollen. Earlier in the week the pollen count here peaked at a nine year high. Everyone I've talked to has complained and complained about how bad their allergies are this year. Accuweather has information on why. I know personally that I had a continuous headache last weekend and the first of the week. After Wednesday's rain the headache went away. With mostly dry weather forecast for the next few days I'm afraid the symptoms will return. Even Zyrtec didn't help. The Weather Channel also has some good information on our local pollen situation.

The best news so far this Spring is the lack of severe weather in the region. But...it's still early.