Your WeatherBlogger, who has been circling the event horizon for days, has finally been pulled into the Wedding Wormhole. Scientists, citing Alfred Einstein's Especially General Theory of Relatives, say no information can pass into or out of the event horizon.

Theorists say the blogger can be expected to be eclipsed by the glare of his daughter's happiness, emerging again on the other side no sooner than July 2. Unfortunately, his wallet will be crushed into an infinitely small singularity with zero mass.

Watch this space for further developments. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Summer arrives at 7:59 this evening. (Misled by a typo on a reference book we use, we mistakenly said on the print weather page last week that the solstice arrived on the 19th. Just a reminder that humans produce this stuff.)

We have visitors from Sweden with us this week. For them, tonight is the night to celebrate Midsummer's Night and dance around a pole with candles in their hair. Or something. That's MID-summer's Night. Not BEGIN-summer's Night.

They conceded to us that they, too have been confused about why summer BEGINS on the date called MID summer, when the sun is in the sky longer than any other. And where they're from, it never does get truly dark at night at this time of year. 

We were visiting them one summer many years ago in Sweden, and we all went to dinner at the home of some friends. We drank. We ate. We talked alot. And each time I looked out the window it was dimmer, but still light. My wife and I, accustomed to summers living around a latitude of 40 degrees or so, figured it was, maybe, 9 p.m.

When we finally looked at the clock we were astonished to discover it was past midnight! We were dining at around 57 or 58 degrees north latitude, the equivalent of Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson's Bay. The sun was down - we weren't above the Arctic Circle. But it was still twilight. I could have read a book without a flashlight.

Anyway, the idea that summer BEGINS around June 20 or 21 is a recent notion. Many of our ancestors did indeed see this as MID-summer. They used "cross-quarter days" - the midway points between the equinoxes and the solstices - to mark the beginning and end of the seasons. For example, by the Celts' reckoning, our summer began somewhere between the 4th and 10th of May, on a day they called Beltane. And it will end between the 3rd and 10th of August, on Lughnasadh.

Some also find it curious that the hottest days in Maryland - the warmest long-term daily average temperatures - are in mid-July, a month after the solstice. If the days are longest, and the sun is highest, and its rays most direct and intense around the 20th of June, why does this month not also produce our highest average temperatures?

The answer lies in the oceans. Literally. It just takes a few weeks for the increased solar energy falling on the Northern Hemisphere to heat the oceans to their maximum seasonal highs. That, in turn, delays heating of the atmosphere. It's like heating a pot of water on the stove. It takes a while on HI to get the water to boil. By the time temps reach their peak, the incoming solar energy is waning, and by late July, the oceans and air finally begin to cool again.

Anyway, enjoy the long day today. From here on until Dec. 21, the days only get shorter. And don't forget to get a look at the solstice moon tonight. It rises at 10:24 p.m. in Baltimore. It's just past full, but still a gorgeous sight in the east.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Another chilly June morning, blessed by the silence of idle air conditioners.

It was 52 degrees at dawn on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville, and 52 degrees also at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport down in Linthicum. That was not a record for the city's official weather station, but it was a nice run at one. The record low for a June 18 in Baltimore is 48 degrees, set back in 1959. We still haven't touched 80 today - only the third day this month that's happened. It was 62 this morning at The Sun's weather station at Calvert & Centre streets.

The forecast low for tonight is 57 degrees, as temperatures begin to warm back toward more seasonable readings this week.

All this cool air is being delivered by a big low rotating north of Lake Ontario. That's dragging cool air in from the north and west, along with little disturbances that, with some solar heating, may trigger some showers or thunderstorms - a few perhaps with hail - as they roll by us. 

So far, however, the coast is clear. Just some cumulus clouds and patches of blue, clearly visible in the satellite image below.

They're calling for more of the same Thursday and Friday, with a risk of showers both days, and highs near 80 degrees. Saturday looks perfect for a wedding - sunny and 83 - but showers and thunderstorms become a risk again for Sunday.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

In Los Angeles, the choking smog comes from the tailpipes of cars and trucks. On the Big Island of Hawaii, it comes from the mouth of the Kilauea volcano, and they call it "vog" (volcanic smog).

Sulfur dioxide gas from the volcano has been wafting across the island for weeks, forcing the closure of portions of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It has also begun to sicken residents of the island, who are reporting coughing, choking symptoms. They are also seeing casualties in their gardens.

Here's a satellite view measuring concentrations of sulfur dioxide emissions. Each little square pixel represents a volume about 13 kilometers square, rising 5 kilometers above the surface. Red incidates a concentration of 30 metric tons of sulfur dioxide inside that little volume, or 845 cubic kilometers. 

Here's another view, in visible wavelengths shot from space, showing the sulfur dioxide "vog" plumes blowing across the island and out to sea.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

This morning's Mag. 5.4 earthquake in Illinois occurred in an area with a history of small tremors - and some big ones - going back to the early 1800s.

Here's a link to the U.S. Geological Survey report on today's quake. And here's one to a description of the local geology and the history of tremors in the region.

Although we don't think of the middle of the country as being earthquake-prone, there have been some very powerful quakes in the region, centered mostly on the New Madrid, Mo., area. Historical accounts of New Madrid quakes in the early 19th century are quite astonishing. They were felt as far away as New England.

Here's what the USGS says about the area: "Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year. In addition, geologists have found evidence of eight or more prehistoric earthquakes over the last 25,000 years that were much larger than any observed historically in the region."

Emergency managers in Memphis and other communities in the area have recently begun to take the threat very seriously, and there has been a great deal of planning, and quake-proofing work in recent years to protect key Mississippi River crossings and gas and oil pipelines.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

The rain gauge here at Calvert & Centre streets has already clocked in nearly a half-inch of rain at this writing. BWI has seen nearly as much. This is just the start of a rainy, and possibly stormy night tonight ahead of a cold front.

The same weather system has caused heavy rains, flooding and 10 deaths in the Midwest. Some spots have recorded 10 inches of rain or more. Here's more on that, plus some video.

We won't likely see anything close to that.  But forecasters out at Sterling are calling for up to another half-inch tonight before the front goes by, winds shift, and cooler, drier air pushes in from the west. Here's the radar loop.

Here's why we're so socked in:

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Runoff from heavy rain and snow melt are not a problem just on the Susquehanna this week. The Maryland Natural Resources Police have issued an advisory, warning against most recreational uses of the Upper Potomac River, through Friday.

Based on data from the National Weather Service and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the DNR said hazardous river levels persist this week on the Upper Potomac all the way from Cumberland, in Allegany County, to Little Falls, in Montgomery County. Here's a look at data from Point of Rocks.

Wading fishermen, swimmers (in March!?) and anyone venturing onto the river in non-whitewater boats or tubes runs a risk of life-threatening hypothermia, wave action, high-velocity or treacherous currents, the DNR police said.

These hazardous conditions exist along the Potomac itself, as well as on adjacent rivers and creeks.

The advisory does not apply to "professionally guided river trips," or "teams of experienced whitewater paddlers," the police said. All the same, be careful out there. We don't need to be writing any search and rescue stories.

For river condition updates, call 703 260-0305.

Continue reading "Dangerous water on the Potomac" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Okay, as far as I'm concerned, it's spring. As I walked from my car to my front door last night, I heard the first spring peepers calling from the soggy flood plain of Western Run in Cockeysville.

These tiny frogs are a sure sign that winter is on the run, and froggy love is in the air. It also tells me that the wetlands along the river remain healthy enough for the frogs, turtles, fish, deer and occasional beaver I've seen down there. It's a miracle, frankly, with all the development in Hunt Valley, with more to come. The Brightview folks are planning a new assisted living facility on the rise above the peepers' love nest. Baltimore County zoning hearings on the proposal are coming up.

In the meantime, if you haven't heard the peepers, or just love their jingle-bell calls, here's a Web site that offers a sound file. It's very cool.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Utility crews work to repair wind damage at Ritchie Highway and Wellham Avenue this morning. Sun photo by Kim Hairston.

Last night's storms knocked down a surprising number of trees, utility poles and wires across the region overnight as they heralded the passage of a new cold front and the end to our balmy weather. They also collapsed a barn roof and a garage in Frederick County. Here's a summary of damage reports.

The damage also caused some traffic disruptions this morning.

Heavy downpours produced some minor flooding west of the urban centers. Flood Warnings are posted from Frederick County west to Allegany County. Parts of the Potomac River, the Monocacy and the Conococheague were expected to crest above flood stage in the next few days. Here's the full list of Flood Warnings.

The rain left 0.4 inch in the gauge at BWI, and 0.45 here at Calvert & Centre streets. Winds at the paper gusted as high as 30 mph overnight, and 35 mph out at the airport. As much as 2 inches fell in other parts of the state. Here's a rainfall map. Here are some other readings across the region.

Continue reading "Storms topple trees, wires, structures" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Tired of being just a passive victim of the weather? Well, you can take an active role in observing the weather, and make a real contribution to science in the bargain. Get involved with CoCoRaHS, an organization of volunteers dedicated to recording and reporting on precipitation across the United States.

The group, the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network, is looking to expand, and they're meeting Friday, at noon, at the NOAA offices in Silver Spring to spread the word. Here's their release: 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Many residents of northeastern Maryland felt a series of tremors this afternoon, and Joe MulQueen figured the shaking his house took must have been an earthquake. "It sounded like an explosion, but the entire house shook," he said.

But area seismographs were quiet. The shakes were the result of explosions at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground. Base spokesman George Mercer said the blasts included three "static detonations" at the facility's Edgewood Area. "And they were loud," he said.

A temperature inversion - a layer of warm air atop a layer of cold air at the surface - caused the sonic energy to reflect back to the ground rather than dissipate into the sky above. That just made matters worse, he said.

The noise and shaking was heard and felt from Perry Hall to Middletown Del. Mercer took 30 calls from concerned citizens. About 20 of them were complaints, the rest just expressions of concern and curiosity. 

There is more on the incident at Baltimoresun.com and there will be an article in Wednesday's print editions. Break a buck and buy one. Our kids gotta eat, too.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Cold wind straight out of arctic Canada raked the region yesterday, toppling trees, snapping power lines and launching tons of leaves, branches and trash into the air. It also threatened to shove small cars and empty trailers off the highway. I know. I was in one of them. (A small car, that is.)

Here's a long, but by no means complete list of wind-related incidents across the region. And here's the latest accounting of power outages that BGE crews are scrambling to repair.

Temperatures at BWI dropped to a low of 13 degrees just before dawn this morning. It was the second-coldest morning of the season, after the 8-degree low on Jan. 21. (December's low reading was 14 degrees, on the 7th.

It was 11 degrees out on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville when I got up. That was the night's low. Here are some other readings from across the state.

Ordinarily,  an outbreak of arctic air like this, in the middle of February, would be a setup for a big snowstorm. The cold air is dense, and heavy, and difficult to dislodge. The first coastal storm that runs into it should drop 10 or 20 inches of snow on our heads.

But alas, this cold doesn't seem destined to last. And, while there is a storm headed this way for tomorrow and Wednesday, it's coming from the Ohio valley, so it is likely to affect us mainly with rain. After a cold day today, stuck in the low 30s, we're headed for the 40s for the rest of the week. Here's the Hazardous Weather Outlook for this area. Here's how AccuWeather.com's Elliot Abrams maps out the precipitation:

I say mainly rain because forecasters at Sterling are hedging a bit. The computer models are having some trouble with the strength and timing of the storm system, and exactly when the cold air we're in now will be forced out.

Hence, the morning's discussion says stuff like this (my edits, for clarity, in parentheses):

"Assuming it (storm) comes Tuesday morning-midday (forecast area) will be recovering from a cold start ... So initial precipitation most likely to be snow" (before warm air erodes and it all changes to rain)."

"Am somewhat concerned about northern tier of (counties in Maryland, W.Va. and Virginia) ... Setup hinting that cold air may hang on longer than (forecast) ... There could be a period of freezing rain, maybe for several hours. Maybe for the entire afternoon into evening. From this perspective, don't think we will be able to avoid a headline with this event, especially (Cumberland-Hagerstown)."

The forecast also mentions  a "chance" of more snow or rain Saturday night, the 5th anniversary of the start of the biggest snowstorm on record for Baltimore, back in 2003.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The spring-like cold front that triggered dozens of deadly tornadoes across the South crossed Maryland late yesterday without much fuss. Baltimore-Washington International Airport saw winds of 26 mph, with gusts to 40 mph around 11 p.m. as the weather boundary passed.

The Sun's anemometer, somewhat sheltered by buildings, spiked to 25 mph around midnight. But there was none of the predicted heavy rain.

We had two hundredths of an inch of rain here at Calvert & Centre streets. It rained very hard for a brief time out on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. But when it ended we had just five hundredths of an inch in the gauge.

Reagan National Airport in Washington collected 0.14 inch of rain, but Dulles, out in northern Virginia, had none. Hagerstown reported 0.31 inch, the most I could find in the immediate area. The Inner Harbor saw just 0.03 inch. Here are some other readings from across the state. McHenry, out in far western Maryland, reported an inch of rain, perhaps the most anywhere in the state. Here's the CoCoRaHS report.

We're still well ahead of the curve for February, thanks to the heavy rain - 1.8 inches - on the 1st. But the long-range picture is still dry. Here's this morning's Drought Monitor Map. We still have not made up the deficits accumulated after April of 2007. The southern counties of the Eastern Shore are hardest-hit.

Streamflow, however, looks much improved. So do some of the USGS groundwater monitoring wells. Here's one near Granite, in Baltimore County.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

A story on Forbes.com (via the AP, from the New York Times) says that the hugely popular Weather Channel may be for sale as part of a family-owned group of media properties now on the block. Here's the scoop.

Owned by Landmark Communications, Inc., in Norfolk, the WC Web site alone had 32 million unique visitors in November, the story says. It's the 19th biggest media site on the Web. One estimate puts the value of the whole WC caboodle - Atlanta-based cable TV channel and Web site - at $5 billion. Who says you can't make money in weather?

Landmark also owns nine daily newspapers, including the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, and a bunch of TV stations.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The US Geological Survey is reporting a powerful earthquake today off Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean that was initially measured at 7.3 on the Richter scale. It was felt from Caracas, Venezuela to Puerto Rico. Here are some early details from the USGS. 

Here's a BBC report. And here's a report, in Spanish, from Puerto Rico, 400 miles from the quake's center. The shaking on the U.S. island caused some panic, the report says. It was estimated to be equivalent to a quake of magnitude 6.2. 

Looks like it was felt at the quake-sensitive monitoring well at Christianburg, Va., too. The kick can be seen in the sharp spike in water levels at the end of this trace.

Martinique has a fearsome history of quakes and volcanic eruptions. The great eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902 killed as many as 30,000 people and destroyed the town of St. Pierre. Here's more.

Continue reading "Mag. 7.3 quake in eastern Caribbean" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It had survived 1,000 years of bad weather. But in the end it was simply old age and rotted roots that brought down the famed giant Western red cedar in Vancouver's Stanley Park. The tree - the largest in the vast park in British Columbia, and perhaps the biggest cedar anywhere - had been featured in a 1978 issue of National Geographic magazine, and it drew thousands of tourists each year.

The magazine article reported the much-photographed tree's circumference at 45 feet back then, and its height at 130 feet. Park officials cut a path through the tree's remains where it had fallen across a path last week. But they plan to leave the rest in place, to support the next generations of forest life.

To read more, and view video reports, click here.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Seismologists have now had time to study the seismic data on that little "micro-quake" that tapped Baltimore County at about 8:28 a.m. on Monday. Turns out the tremor was actually centered beneath Lochearn, off Liberty Road just west of Baltimore, and not the southwestern community of Arbutus, near the UMBC campus, as initially reported.

That's not the only revision. (This sort of reassessment and adjustment is normal after a quake as more data is evaluated. These things take time.)

It turns out Monday's event was also a tad stronger than initially stated - a twitchy 1.5 on the Richter scale, rather than 1.3.  That's not inconsiderable, but also not a lot, at a difference of two-tenths of a Richter number. Each whole-number increase in Richter measurement represents a 32-fold increase in the energy released. At 1.5, it's the energy equivalent of 392 pounds of TNT, not unlike a conventional WWII bomb.

And, the Monday tremor occurred deeper under the surface than initially estimated - 5 miles instead of 3 miles.

Finally, because it was less than a 2-pointer on the Richter scale, it was both common - more than 8,000 a day somewhere on the planet - and "unfelt" as geologists rate such things.

Maybe so, but there have been a few people who have reported sensing something of the quake. We got this email from "Cathy:"  "We heard/felt it at our law office in 'downtown' Arbutus. We thought is was either thunder or a big tractor-trailer."

At the Maryland Geological Survey, Jim Reger also told Sun reporter Dennis O'Brien yesterday he had heard from residents of Edmondson Heights, just outside the city line, between US 40 and I-70. Another person living near Lake Montebello, on the other side of Baltimore City, reported feeling or hearing the jolt.

The tremor was also detected by instruments 180 miles away, maintained by the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network.

There's one other interesting note. Similar micro-quakes have been recorded recently in other parts of the Northeast. There was one, in Hackensack, N.J., measured at 1.3 on the Richter scale, at 8:48 a.m. last Friday. Another, also at Richter 1.3, was recorded 8 miles north of Lawrence, Mass. at 7:15 a.m. on Monday, just 73 minutes before the Lochearn quake.

Curiously, of you look at all three of these spots on a map (three blue dots on the following linked map), they form an almost perfect straight line. But Reger says there's no single fault line that would explain the coincidence.

Once again, if you heard or felt this little tremor, leave a comment here and describe it. Here's more on Maryland quakes.