The sunspot drought hasn’t ended entirely yet, but these new Earth-size ones are the first in more than a year on the Earth-facing side of Sol. They’re a hopeful sign that we may not, afterall, be headed for more ice and cold than usual from the deepest solar minimum in almost a century.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate
Tagged solar cycle 24, sunspots, Watts Up With That
Radio says we’ve had almost three inches since it began with the passage of a cold front overnight. Indeed, Mr. B. and I saw it running in the neighborhood gutters and ponding in the yards as I drove him to school this morning. Forecast shows more to come. We sure need it, and it’ll lower the temp nicely on this, the first day of fall. Was starting to get hot again.
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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Central Texas weather, drought, rain
One benefit of climate change: Shorter sea routes. Here, two big Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers head for the North Pole in an Arctic transit. Dark out there at the top of the world.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate
Tagged Arctic transit, North Pole, Russian icebreakers
The upper end of Cypress Creek Arm, at Anderson Mill Marina on Lake Travis, is a boat-and-float-filled pasture.
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Posted in Sailing, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Cypress Creek Arm, Lake Travis drought
This sloop (probably full of water from the recent rains thanks to the open hatch) and the two sloops behind it were abandoned at Anderson Mill Marina, apparently because the owners weren’t paying their slip rent. The rest of the boats, and the docks, were moved out toward the main basin where there’s more water. I haven’t seen this part of the lake, called Cypress Creek Arm, this low in twenty-four years. It’s going to take at least two or three flash floods to bring this back to normal.
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Posted in Sailing, Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Lake Travis drought
Galveston is still recovering from Hurricane Ike’s devastation. Which is not so unusual for the island city. It goes through hurricane hits every twenty years or so. But they’re still finding skeletal remains on nearby Bolivar Peninsula, parts of which Ike’s fifteen foot storm surge swept clean.
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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate
Tagged Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston, Gilchrist, Hurricane Ike
When it rains in Texas, it pours. This is from Friday, the second day of almost all-day rain which is expected to continue throughout today and finally start to taper off tonight. There are flooded streets and swollen creeks all over the place. The lakes are still low because their watershed hasn’t gotten that much yet. But it will. El Nino is not even cooking yet, but it’s coming. Flashfloods ahead.
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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 