Starship Asterisk*

owlice wrote:
And now... nothing!

The rain has stopped and it's getting brighter.

Don't hear thunder anymore, either.

• Wait a minute, it stopped hailing,
  Guys are swimming, gals are sailing.
  Playing baseball, gee that's betta,
  Mudda, Fadda, kindly disregard this letter!

• I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81368 wrote:

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

Surging Elbe in Wittenberg
June 12, 2013

<<Unprecedented rainfall and flooding continued to plague central Europe in mid-June 2013, causing billions of dollars in damage. The Elbe, Danube, Saale, and other river systems rose well above their banks and breached flood defenses in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. Many news outlets and some government sources were describing it as the worst flooding since medieval times, surpassing the devastating floods of 2002 in many areas.

On June 7, 2013, the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 captured a natural-color image (top) of flooding near Wittenberg, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. For comparison, the lower image shows the same area on May 6. Note how the green floodplain around the river in the May image is completely inundated with muddy water in the June image. Puffs of white cumulus clouds are sprinkled across each image.

At the time of the June 7 image, the river stage stood at 6.7 meters (about 22 feet) in Wittenberg. On June 11, 2013, police shut down the center of Wittenberg as crews worked to shore up sandbag dikes and other defenses. The Elbe River was expected to crest again near the city, following another rainfall over the weekend. Downstream in Magdeburg, the surging river had already burst a dam and forced evacuations.

According to the Austrian Meteorological Agency (ZAMG) and meteorologist Jeff Masters, several months worth of typical rainfall soaked southern Germany and western Austria between May 29 to June 6. That precipitation landed on soil that was already soaked from above-average spring rains. “The primary cause of the torrential rains over Central Europe during late May and early June was a large loop in the jet stream that developed over Europe and got stuck in place,” Masters wrote. “A blocking high set up over Northern Europe, forcing two low pressure systems to avoid Northern Europe and instead track over Central Europe. The extreme kink in the jet stream ushered in a strong southerly flow of moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean Sea over Central Europe, which met up with colder air flowing from the north due to the stuck jet stream pattern.”>>

Ann wrote:
We got some interesting clouds today, and quite a bit of thunder, lightning and rain.

When you open the link, please scroll down to see the clouds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcus_cloud wrote:

<<An arcus cloud is a low, horizontal cloud formation. Roll clouds and shelf clouds are the two types of arcus clouds. A shelf cloud is usually associated with the leading edge of thunderstorm outflow; roll clouds are usually formed by outflows of cold air from sea breezes or cold fronts in the absence of thunderstorms.

A shelf cloud is a low, horizontal, wedge-shaped arcus cloud. A shelf cloud is attached to the base of the parent cloud, which is usually a thunderstorm, but could form on any type of convective clouds. Rising cloud motion often can be seen in the leading (outer) part of the shelf cloud, while the underside often appears turbulent and wind-torn. Cool, sinking air from a storm cloud's downdraft spreads out across the land surface, with the leading edge called a gust front. This outflow cuts under warm air being drawn into the storm's updraft. As the lower cooler air lifts the warm moist air, its water condenses, creating a cloud which often rolls with the different winds above and below (wind shear).

People seeing a shelf cloud may believe they have seen a wall cloud. This is likely a mistake, since an approaching shelf cloud appears to form a wall made of cloud. A shelf cloud usually appears on the leading edge of a storm, and a wall cloud will usually be at the rear of the storm.

A sharp, strong gust front will cause the lowest part of the leading edge of a shelf cloud to be ragged and lined with rising fractus clouds. In a severe case there will be vortices along the edge, with twisting masses of scud that may reach to the ground or be accompanied by rising dust. A very low shelf cloud accompanied by these signs is the best indicator that a potentially violent wind squall is approaching. An extreme example of this phenomenon looks almost like a tornado and is known as a gustnado.>>

Ann wrote:I heard something about severe flooding in Canada.
How are you doing, Rob?

Indeed, humidity levels are much higher outside of major cities. For instance, Freeport has seen dewpoints of more than 80° in the past few days while surrounding (more urban) cities are in the 74-78° range. This has to do with the evapotranspiration from cornfields. During middle July, our crops are at their mature, healthy stage. As they take moisture from the ground and roots, the healthy leaves give off the moisture during the day (faster during higher temperature). In fact, each corn stalk gives off 53 gallons of water to the atmosphere in it’s lifespan.

Because there are about 20,000 corn stalks in each acre of land, that means that one acre of corn will yield 1,060,000 gallons of water into the air! That translates to A LOT of humidity!

mjimih wrote:

geckzilla wrote:Does the sun look more obscured than it appears in the photo? I think it's difficult (or perhaps impossible) to convey the special way the sun looks through smoke with photography.