I should have included this bar with the above weather map

grey is cold ... deep red is coldest

NASA Science News for April 18, 2000 April's Lyrid Meteor Shower: The oldest known meteor shower peaks on the morning of April 22. Bright moonlight will reduce the number of shooting stars that are easy to see, but many meteor enthusiasts will be watching anyway because it's been over 3 months since the last major meteor display. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast18apr_1m.htm

If this updates it stay, if it does not it will disappear in the morning

we have just suffered severe cyclone Rosita - category 4-5 Broome damaged - beach devestated - winds at centre 250 k's per hour - tomorrow Alice Springs top temp will be 14degrees c. all due to cyclone - last night Perth suffered thunderstorms not predicted - due to cyclonic weather. Most unusual for this time of year. Perth 9.12p.m. 20th April

Wow, are you ok? Were you affected personally, Anne? Where is Broome, which coast?

On the NorthWest Coast of Australia is where Broome is located. That is a sizeable distance from Perth, which is the area in which Anne lives. I cannot believe the devastation you have suffered this year from one cyclone after another. Did thid one sneak up on you unaware? Anne, is your roof still intact? How much of that storm reached Perth?

I'm hoping all is well for Anne down under.

We are okay here in Perth - but not in Broome some 1000 ks to the north. It is a tourist area and has been devastated, holiday homes etc. have disappeared, the beach known as Cable beach all but destroyed. Trees down, light poles, telephone poles etc. all down. It has been an extraordinary year with cyclone Steve re-starting three times and then finishing as a depression in the Bight. Apparently the cyclone season is supposed to stop by 30th April but....... We had heavy rain here in Perth but nothing untoward re wind although we have a cold change, gales etc forcasted for the middle of next week, about a month early. Alice Springs is suffering flooding - two dry river beds are now deeply flooding rivers and much concern is being shown. Roads cut off etc. Again most unusual. Lake Eyre normally a huge salt pan is now a vast inland sea - the rains have filtered down from the North West, North East and from the North. Again most unusual - La Nina I suppose. We really shouldn't complain as we are the dryest continent and any rain is welcome.

Being utter selfish about our troubles in Oz. but will now show my concern re tornadoes in the U.S. I hope all is well with everyone and no one has been hurt.

We need you to be utter selfish about it so we can get the details we'd otherwise miss and the immediacy of the damage. Poor Broome! Anyone in the US mainland who experienced tornadoes yet? I note that there is a tornado watch in the http://www/austin360.com web site. Perhaps I should post that, here, as well.

Nothing here locally. Glad you're ok Anne, I was concerned for your welfare. Has the worst passed now?

GLOBAL WARMING FOUND AT EQUATOR Macapa -- New evidence of global warming has been found in this Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon River. Dr. Bruno Clinckerdinck, Professor of Climatology and Auto Repair at Gomer State University, said evidence of warming is "incontrovertible". "There's lots of palm trees and stuff, plus it's always hot and humid here." Prof. Clinckerdinck, head of an international team of scientists, has been in Macapa for a month, studying the phenomena caused by global warming. "We walk up and down the beach all day, taking air and water samples. Then we sit under beach umbrellas and analyze the results. I'm telling you, it's frightening." The professor then excused himself, mumbling something about "mai tais" and "nap". Copyright 2000 Cruddy Enterprises Blithering Idiot -=+=- SCIENTISTS RETRACT GLOBAL WARMING REPORT IN LIGHT OF COLD FRONT A report validating global warming by a National Academy of Sciences panel retracted their findings only a few days after it was issued in light of the current cold front blanketing much of the country. "Never mind," said one of the researchers who worked on the study. A skeptic of the report, Professor Marvin Lynch of the University of Southern North Carolina School of Atmospheric and Animal Husbandry Sciences, felt vindicated. "I told them to wait just a few more days before concluding their report because it was going to get colder than Hillary Clinton on her wedding anniversary, but they went ahead and rushed it out," he said. The 11 members of the panel were unavailable for further comment on the report. "They're out buying winter clothing," said an administrative assistant at the academy offices. Breaking News Beyond Repair

More seriously, Wolfie's home town got pasted with 2-4-inch hail stones yesterday and was a near-miss for a Tornado. I wish she would check in and let us know how she fared. It looked really scary. Guess Texas got some of it, as well, but I do not know anyone in that part of Texas...

She did while Spring was frozen. She is fine (aren't you?!) *hugs*

While we wait for Wolfie's pix of the black menacing clouds here's some weather news from Ginny's neck of the woods: Flattening of Radar Antenna Delays Boston Flights BOSTON (Reuters) - Flight delays and cancellations plagued Boston's Logan Airport on Sunday after the flattening, apparently by high winds, of a radar antenna that handled incoming flights, aviation officials said. A replacement antenna was loaded onto an Air Force C-17 in Oklahoma City and was expected to arrive at Logan on Sunday, replacing the antenna knocked over on Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Installing and testing the new antenna were expected to take as long as four days, snarling plans for travelers returning from April school vacations, airport officials said. Logan is the nation's ninth busiest airport. Planes were landing at the rate of about 22 to 28 an hour on Sunday, compared with an average of 35 to 40 in inclement weather and more than 60 in clear weather, officials said. New England has been soaked by rain in recent days. About 210 flights were canceled on Saturday, with 130 others canceled on Sunday by early afternoon, officials said. Some airlines were diverting flights to airports in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island. US Airways Group Inc (U.N) and its US Airways Express and MetroJet subsidiaries announced late on Sunday that they were canceling selected flights out of Boston on Monday to minimize the effect of the continuing outage of the radar system. US Airways Express regional flights, operated by Allegheny Airlines, Colgan Air and CommutAir under the US Airways Express brand, were canceled until 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), while Mesa Airlines, another US Airways Express carrier, would operate a single morning flight from Boston to Washington-Dulles. US Airways said it was also canceling 10 departures and arrivals at Boston to and from Baltimore; Charlotte, North Carolina; Buffalo and Atlanta. But US Airways Shuttle would fly a normal schedule on Monday, servicing airports in Boston, New York and Washington.

Looking for a wolfie check in and update!

I think it will not till after work this afternoon...

Sorry I did not reply to your query Terry but have been unindated with relatives over the Easter Period. The weather here in Perth, Western Australia is still very strange - Friday we had winter gales unheard of in April, and it has been wet and horrible ever since. Our bad weather usually occurs between late May and early August - I suppose it must be the La nina effect? Do any of you think so.

Hi Anne, we've had really strange weather in the southern England recently too. In the recent week or so we've had snow, large hailstones, Rain, rain and more rain, and bright enough sunshine to go out in shorts!

Probably, Anne, but theories are just that. subject to chance to the newest thought on the subject. Do we really know?! Hawaii is still pretty much Hawaii

NASA Science News for May 1, 2000M One year ago this week killer tornadoes raged across Oklahoma. Now, NASA scientists are figuring out how to predict such storms using lightning data from Earth-orbit. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01may_1m.htm

Space Weather News for May 1, 2000 A coronal mass ejection (CME) from a small sunspot group was recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory on April 30, 2000. If material from the eruption is heading toward Earth, as animations of the CME suggest, then the shock wave will probably arrive late on May 2nd or sometime on May 3rd. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance of active geomagnetic conditions at middle-latitudes on May 3, 2000. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com

We're getting heavy thunderstorms and lightning this morning, it's been going on since at least 3 am, I unplugged all my systems at one point.

I am glad you did unplugged. I trust you also disconnected your antennas from your rigs. A solid-soldered interior is NOT a good thing for a boat anchor! Guess when it is done tearing up Texas, that storm system will be heading for Wolfie. You guys, be careful, please! None of you are expendable.

I didn't but everything survived.

Good to know. Thanks! The Hams here disconnect the antenna and throw it out the window as far away from the house as they can do easily and in a hurry through a window. Lightning can jump gaps, but you know that!

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000502/sc/science_tsunamis_1.html Tuesday May 2 4:45 PM ET Tsunamis Seen Possible Along U.S. East Coast By Patrick Rizzo NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tsunamis, the sometimes devastating tidal waves produced by undersea earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides, are not normally the kind of geologic activity people on the U.S. eastern seaboard worry about. But newly-discovered cracks in the continental shelf off the Mid-Atlantic may change that. Researchers writing in the May issue of the journal Geology said that cracks in the continental shelf off Virginia and North Carolina, if geologically active, could produce landslides that may trigger a tsunami along the heavily populated coast in those states and the lower Chesapeake Bay. A tsunami could generate two to 20 foot (.06 to 6.1 meter) high waves, equivalent to the storm surge of category three to four, or extensive to extreme, hurricanes. Hurricane Andrew, a category four storm that hit Florida in 1992, caused over $25 billion in damage, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. In 1998 two strong earthquakes caused a series of tsunamis to hit the north coast of Papua New Guinea, killing 2,500 people. The researchers, Neal Driscoll of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, Jeffrey Weissel of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and John Goff of the University of Texas at Austin, discovered the cracks after examining National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maps of the continental shelf. Weissel said when he first saw the data, the escarpments ''looked like they could be the headwalls of future large scale submarine landslides.'' He said that he and his colleagues would be leaving from Woods Hole Saturday morning to look for signs of whether the cracks, shaped like a series of tilted roof shingles, are active and likely to trigger a landslide in the future. ``We need to understand whether these crack-like features are active or recently active, in which case we should be concerned,'' Weissel said in a telephone interview. If they are active and a large chunk of the escarpment were to slump into the deep water off the continental shelf, it would push huge volumes of seawater ahead of it. Water along the coast would rush in to take its place and the water would then rush back toward land, possibly causing massive flooding in low-lying towns along the coast. ``You could expect a tsunami hitting the coast ... about 20 minutes after the slide,'' Weissel said. The last major tsunami to strike the Eastern Seaboard was in 1929, when an earthquake triggered a landslide and a tidal wave that killed 51 people on the Grand Banks along the Newfoundland coast.

Thanks, Maggie. I was hoping you would put this in here where others might see it linked with News. Lotsa relatives there and Autumn lives in the area. This is just an IF scenario...it is not necessarily going to happen. Stay tuned!

Last week, while the rest of her state and neighboring Texas was getting hammererd by huge hailstones and tornadoes, Wolfie took this image of the distant storm. These cloud formations are known as mamatocumulous... Splendid job and thanks!

Oh wow! that's a fantastic photo Wolfie!

What a spectacular, mind blowing picture! I'm going to print it on glos

I can send you the original which is quite large if you would like to have it to work with.

These GOES satellites are the ones I use to get some of the updating weather maps of the USA To: Geostationary Satellite Server Users: NASA Press Release: "The fourth in a series of five of the most sophisticated weather spacecraft ever built, soared into space this morning at 3:07 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-L spacecraft was carried in space aboard aLockheed Martin Atlas IIA rocket. Twenty-seven minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Centaur stage. At approximately 4:22 a.m., controllers successfully deployed the outer panel of the solar array, making the spacecraft power positive and allowing the batteries to charge". GOES-L will be called GOES-11. More info will be at http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov and http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/goesl/goesl.htm.

To Be or Not to Be, La Nina? NASA Science News for May 18, 2000 Just last month, scientists were predicting that current La Ni�a conditions would persist, but now data from Earth-orbiting satellites show that it may be on the decline. Is it too soon to revise the 2000 hurricane forecast? FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast18may_1m.htm To Be or Not to Be, La Ni�a?

Hurricane season is back. Bookmark this url - it beats wading through the entire topic to get to this excellent map Looks like Arleta has disappeared: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/14.69 Unplug your computers Terry! Forecast For Austin, Tx 400 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 .Tonight...Mostly Cloudy With A 50 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Some Possibly Severe Later Tonight. Lows In The Middle 70S. Southeast Winds 5 To 10 Mph. .Sunday...Cloudy Morning With A 30 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Partly Cloudy Afternoon. Highs In The Lower 90S. Variable Winds 5 To 10 Mph. .Sunday Night...Mostly Clear. Lows In The Lower 70S. .Memorial Day...Mostly Sunny And Hot. Highs In The Middle 90S. .Extended Forecast... .Tuesday Through Thursday...Some Brief Early Morning Clouds... Otherwise Mostly Clear And Hot. Lows In The 70S. Highs In The Middle 90S To Near 100. Special weather statement 734 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 ...Thunderstorms Moving Across Northern Hill Country This Evening... A Line Of Strong Thunderstorms Will Move Across The Northern Hill Country This Evening. Some Of These Storms May Become Severe And Capable Of Producing Very Heavy Rain...Deadly Lightning...Strong Damaging Winds...And Large Hail. Campers And Persons In The Outdoors Should Take Precautions For The Storms Later This Evening By Securing Loose Objects...And Having Safe Shelter Available. Boaters Should Be Ready To Seek Safe Harbor And Tie Boats Down Securely. Most Lightning Fatalities And Injuries Occur In Open Fields Or Under Trees. If Outdoors...Seek Shelter In A Sturdy Building Or Car. Do Not Take Shelter In Small Sheds...Under Isolated Trees...Or In Convertible Automobiles.

For Lance - no wonder I have not heard from him... Forecast For NC 937 Pm Edt Sat May 27 2000 ... Severe Thunderstorm Watch In Effect Until 2 Am... .Tonight...Showers And Thunderstorms Likely. Some Storms May Be Severe With Damaging Winds And Large Hail. Low In The Mid 60S. Southwest Wind Near 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 60 Percent. .Sunday... Showers And Thunderstorms. High 75 To 80. West Wind Around 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 80 Percent. .Sunday Night...Showers And Thunderstorms Likely. Low In The Upper 50S. Chance Of Rain 60 Percent. ***If I am lucky I might hear from him for my Birthday but not before, I fear... For Wolfie who is also unplugged, I hope: LA 911 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 ...Severe Thunderstorm Watch In Effect Until 100 Am Cdt Sunday... .Tonight...Cloudy With Showers And Thunderstorms Likely. Some Storms Possibly Severe. Locally Heavy Rain Possible. Low Near 70. Southwest Wind Near 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 70 Percent. .Sunday...Mostly Cloudy In The Morning With A Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Mostly Sunny During The Afternoon. High Near 90. West Wind 5 To 10 Mph Becoming North Near 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 30 Percent. Severe thunderstorm warning 909 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 * Severe Thunderstorm Warning For... Bossier Parish In Louisiana Caddo Parish In Louisiana * Until 1000 Pm Cdt * At 909 Pm Cdt...The Shreveport National Weather Service Doppler Radar Indicated A Line Of Severe Thunderstorms Developing Over The Area...Moving East At 30 Mph. This Thunderstorm Will Produce Large Hail And Strong Damaging Winds. Do Not Remain Outside...This Is A Dangerous Weather Situation. Repeating...The National Weather Service Has Issued A Severe Thunderstorm Warning For... Xxxxx Parish In Louisiana Xxxxx Parish In Louisiana Until 1000 Pm Cdt. Special weather statement 822 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 Thunderstorms Are Rapidly Forming This Evening. At 820 Pm...Thunderstorms Were Over Northwest Shreveport And Northern Caddo Parish...Moving Northeast At 30 Mph. A Thunderstorm Outflow Boundary Moving Southwest Out Of Southwest Arkansas...

Lance checked in with me this evening: Our problem sprang up unexpected on Thursday and caught the weather weenies totally by surprise. No hail, 1/3 to 1/2 inch of rain, but winds!!!! Clocked at 82 MPH here in Burlington! Trees, lines, everything possible. Signs gone, and they blocked the Interstate for hours with downed lines. I sat and watched it blow thru. We are fine, just a couple of downed branches for us. Neighbors on each side lost trees. Our weenies caught it with about an hour's warning. Didn't do me any good. I slept in until shortly before. I sat down and saw the warning on TV that it was about ten miles away and coming. Got all of one minute of TV when the power went off. They don't want too much power going too quickly into use and the phone lines getting jammed. You are the only one I'm letting know about this tonight. Take care and I'll write again when I can. Thank goodness...I hope Wolfie checks in when she can...

Terry, where are the fatalities in Texas due to flooding? Houston area? Please, not in Austin!!!

What flooding and fatalities? Not heard about this - or from friends in the area.

No, we haven't had any flooding lately. I've been pretty isolated from news sources the last 2-3 weeks, buried in work.

At least no flooding in the Austin area. It's been pretty dry and hot. Only tinges of rain here and there.

I seem to rememeber it as being in "the Houston Area" which is far to the south of Austin. Still, I worry!

GO OUTSIDE AND LOOK AT THE AURORA TONIGHT!!!

June 8-9 Aurora Update Space Weather News for June 8-9, 2000 Geomagnetic disturbances are finally subsiding after an interplanetary shock wave struck Earth's magnetosphere around 930 UT on June 8. The event triggered intense aurora over sparsely-inhabited regions of northern Asia and the Pacific. However, by nightfall over North America conditions had quieted. There is still a chance for isolated auroral substorms that might be visible tonight (June 8-9) at middle latitudes. The next opportunity for viewing aurora borealis may arrive as soon as June 10, when another solar wind disturbance is expected to reach Earth. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com

(Oh drat!!! I was too busy and fogot to look - but there was heavy cloud cover when I looked earlier)

Austin's been getting some flooding and it's been raining solid for the last day or two. And no end in sight. What a change!

Is there no moderation in Texas? Your droughts are bigger, your floods deeper...and now there are people I truly care about and am now worried - REALLY worried! Wish there was some way to know if "they" are ok...

No one saw the aurora that I am in contact with...Pennsylvania was under clouds, Mike fed the mosquitoes for naught, and England had clouds....*sigh* And, I am way too far south...

Listening to the flood reports on Terry's main page... They did not mention Cedar or Quail creek...does anyone else live near a creek that I should worry about? Forecast For Austin, Tx - 911 Pm Cdt Sat Jun 10 2000 ...Flash Flood Watch In Effect Tonight... .Tonight...Cloudy With A 50 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Locally Heavy Rainfall And Flooding Possible. Lows In The Lower 70S. Southeast Winds 5 To 10 Mph. .Sunday...Continued Cloudy With A 60 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Locally Heavy Rainfall Possible. Highs In The Mid 80S. Southeast Winds 10 To 15 Mph. .Sunday Night...Cloudy With A 40 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Lows In The Lower 70S. .Monday...Mostly Cloudy...Becoming Partly Cloudy During The Afternoon. A 30 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Highs In The Upper 80S. .Extended Forecast... .Monday Night...Partly Cloudy. Lows Near 70. .Tuesday...Mostly Cloudy With A Slight Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Highs In The 90S. .Wednesday And Thursday...Mostly Cloudy With A Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Lows In The 70S. Highs Near 90.

Lots of rain in the forecast, esp. Monday. Well, all week really.

Looks like the worst of it has gone through Dallas from what the Wx Channel is showing. Is it Very flat in central Texas or is there a impervious layer under the soil as there is in Arizona? Whatever, your 7 inches it way more than baked hard ground can absorb so quickly! Everything up on tables and lashed down!

The rain's let up. It's been pretty mild the last couple of days.

From my son who lives there: From: San Francisco Office of Emergency Services The Pacific Gas and Electric Company has notified the City of San Francisco that PG&E will begin involuntary curtailment of electrical service to portions of San Francisco. These outages are necessary to prevent collapse of the electrical power grid. Parts of San Francisco are expected to be without power for at least an hour to an hour and a half.

More from Iki: URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 345 PM PDT WED JUN 14 2000 CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA- ...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT ADVISORY FOR TONIGHT AND THURSDAY... A STRONG RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE OVER NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COMBINED WITH BREEZY NORTH WINDS IS PRODUCING WELL ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES IN PARTS OF THE CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA. AS A RESULT AN EXCESSIVE HEAT ADVISORY HAS BEEN ISSUED. THIS IS DEFINED AS TWO OR MORE DAYS WHERE DAYTIME HIGHS EXCEED 105 FAHRENHEIT AND OVERNIGHT LOWS ARE 80 OR GREATER. LOWS IN THE MIDDLE TO UPPER 80S WERE COMMON ACROSS THE DELTA THIS MORNING. HIGHS TODAY WILL TOP OUT WELL ABOVE 105 AT MANY LOCATIONS ...AND LOWS TONIGHT ARE ONCE AGAIN EXPECTED TO ONLY COOL INTO THE UPPER 70S AND 80S. ON THURSDAY...THE MERCURY WILL ONCE AGAIN SOAR ABOVE 105 IN MANY AREAS OF THE DELTA. SLIGHTLY COOLER TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED OVERNIGHT THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY WITH LOWS IN THE 70S AND HIGHS IN THE UPPER 90S TO AROUND 103. GREATER COOLING IS EXPECTED OVER THE WEEKEND AS MARINE AIR MOVES INLAND. AVOID PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO SUNLIGHT...ESPECIALLY IN THE AFTERNOON. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER AND USE SUNBLOCK WHEN OUTDOORS. ALSO IT IS ADVISED TO CHECK ON THOSE SENSITIVE TO HEAT...SUCH AS THE ELDERLY... CHILDREN...AND PETS. TUNE TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR VISIT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEB SITE FOR THE LATEST FORECAST PERTAINING TO THIS HEAT WAVE. THE INTERNET SITE IS HTTP://WEATHER.NOAA.GOV/SACRAMENTO. BE SURE TO USE LOWER CASE.

does this have anything to do with the sun's acting up here lately?

No... Not directly... and not yet. They are still figuring out the dynamics of weather systems but seems to be La Nina this time....which is sort of nebulous at best. Will post some information when I find a clear explanation....

(i couldn't think of what the sun has been up too besides shining brightly, *grin* the SOLAR WIND)

Check the sunspots with this amazing little updating image:

One of the days this past week, it was reported that San Francisco reached a temperature of 103 degrees F. That is extremely unsual. San Francisco is noted for having a very temperate climate, being not very cold in winter or hot in summer. The penninsula it sits on is said to keep "air conditioned" as it were.

Yes, Indeed. A few posts back are two reports for my son who lives there. It was actually 109�F (42.7� C) and that is not fit for human consumption. Rolling brown-outs are the order of the day. It is gonna be a bad fire season.

and the U.K. this morning was complaining about a heatwave all of 27c. or about just over 80f. Well San Francisco is experiencing Western Australian temps. In the summer we often have over 42c. but strangely this year we didn't exceed 40degrees c. once. It must be terrible over there. I hope they don't have awful forest fires - but the ground will be tinder dry won't it.

You can bet this will be a very active fire season with it being so hot and so dry this early in the year.

i believe fire in colorado is under control now since the weather has taken a turn toward cool. someone correct me if i'm wrong (but be nice about it *grin*)

From what I head on the Weather Channel the Colorado fire was mostly contained and just about out. The wildfires are now in New Mexico.

UK heatwave hit 35C yesterday. Hottest day for 40 years Supposed to be 32C today. And we forgot to take the fan away with us .....!

Don't be tempted to acquire an all-over tan; your skin and mine was never intended to be exposed to such radiation and is ill equipped to deal with the resultant damage.

My father was of French and Scotch/Irish ancestry, and he never got a tan. He got freckles, he got sunburn. He even claimed to have once bought this product called Man Tan, (no kidding), which he said turned him orange. My maternal grandfather was Greek-Cypriot and had blond hair. I have slightly olive skin and I do get sunburn in really obvious places, like my nose.

Your Dad and I share much in common genetically. Though eschange the french for English and you have it. We do not tan either. I can remember ManTan. The funniest part of that was the orange palms it gave you...not the usual color! My son, of the same general heritage as mine with some Teutonic thrown in had blond hair (which has since darkened to brown from being not in Hawaii and in an office), green eyes and a perpetual tan - born that way actually - from who knows where. Maybe a travelling salesman of the swarthy kind visited my ancestress some where way back???

No problems with tans, we all have perpetual tans and never burn - more like David I spose (and I have green eyes!), unlike the rest of either of our families. All the men in my family have reddish hair from our Scots inheritance with fairish complexions, don't know where I dropped in from!

The Gypsies??!!

Weeelll, there was a rumour ....

*grin* There are some of those waaaaaay back in all of our ancestries if we'd only admit it. I am sure my Viking ancestors were not all that choosy where they left their DNA...

Why are so many umbrellas black? When umbrellas first came into greater use during the 18th century, they were made of oil-soaked cotton cloth that was stretched over a whalebone. The purpose of the oil was to make the cotton cloth water proof, but it also gave the cloth a black-looking color. While this type of umbrella was very waterproof, it wasn't very durable. Soon, newer and better umbrellas were made, and since the color black was associated with effective waterproofing, most of the newer models were dyed black.

Mini Tornado just outside Melbourne today. There was significant damage.

Was it a waterspout which came ashore or a real tornado? Amazing! Thanks, Anne

It was a genuine tornado - so much so the Victorian Government are paying out $750 per household and some $500odd per week in compensation.

Amazing. Is this unusual for Sydney? I do not recall hearing of one before this one you reported. Thanks!

THE GO TEAM (from weather.com) In September 1998, Hurricane Georges rampaged across 17 Caribbean islands. The storm killed over 500 people, flooded out roads and bridges, and tore apart thousands of houses. In its wake, the number of homeless was staggering - more than 100,000 in the Dominican Republic alone, with thousands more in Haiti, Puerto Rico, and St. Kitts. Those who lost everything to Georges urgently needed food, clean water and medical supplies, which were often slow to arrive. A new international response team sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to provide much more rapid relief following a hurricane strike. The GO (Ground Operations) Team, made up of disaster response professionals from Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue and USAID, is set up to deploy immediately. While typical response to a disaster can take as long as 72 hours, GO is on the move within 12 hours, airlifting emergency supplies such as plastic sheeting, water, blankets and hygiene kits. "From now on these GO Teams, with pre-packaged supplies, will allow us to provide assistance almost immediately," said USAID administrator J. Brady Anderson. The teams are able to arrive on the scene so quickly because of the preparation that goes on ahead of time, says Ruben D. Almaguer, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's division chief of special operations. Almaguer has a team of 300 specially trained urban search and rescue task force members, 50 of whom have also been trained as part of USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) in humanitarian relief. Even before hurricane season (which runs from June 1 to November 30) began, the GO Team was in full operation, readying a stockpile of supply kits, which are stored in two warehouses at Homestead Air Reserve Base. When a request is made, the team quickly loads the kits onto commercial or military aircraft and is on their way to the country in need. Almaguer says that beyond the satisfaction of helping those in need, the program is also useful to his department. "The benefit of it is the value of having county personnel responding all over the world, getting a lot of training, a lot of experience which will better allow us to handle our own disasters," he says. The GO Team's ultimate goal is to train small islands to better respond to their own needs. But, he says, making them completely self-sufficient is still far in the future.

Destructive storm in Western Australia including a tornado in Fremantle some 13 miles south of Perth, much damage. One person killed in Safety Bay some 20 miles south of Perth during severe thunderstorm. Destuctive winds still blowing and heavy rain, hail and sleet. Most unusual - okay we get winter storms but this is something else.

Has anyone done a study of recorded weather history for your area? This past 12 months have sounded more stormy and extreme than any I have ever heard of before. Hang in there, Dear. Cannot lose you!

Time to post the updating severe weather map again http://www.weather.com/

Bill Hecke, the Channel 42 Meteorologist, came by and looked in to renting tyhe Cedar Creek house. He's a true weatherman and nearly full blooded Indian to boot. Nice guy.

We need him in Geo!!! Yay, Terry!!!

Just in time for the 2000 Cape Verde season, a resident in central Florida has came up with an idea to break up hurricanes by dropping Soil Moist, a substance used by gardners to soak up moisture from the surrounding ground and keeping it near plants, into the storms. Soil Moist can absorb 250 times its weight in water-sounds similar to soak up used to absorb oil. The idea is that dropping massive amounts of the absorber into the storms would caus them to fall harmlessly into the ocean. The govt is seriously considering the idea. (from the Hurricane Team)

'HEATWAVES' In Abadan - Iran - the temperature has risen to 53c. over the last four days. Drinking water has been cut off and caused riots in the town. In Italy one of the green lungs of Rome is burning and Italy is suffering Heatwave contions.

Typhoon Kirogi is heading for Japan, after taking the lives of at least 12 people in the Philippines. It is expected to brush the country, near Tokyo, this weekend. Flooding and mudslides triggered by Kirogi's torrential rains are blamed for many of the deaths. The heavy rainfall worsened as a tropical depression, now Tropical Storm Kai-tak, also soaked the Philippines this week. That storm is forecast to grow to Category 4 hurricane strength and is forecast to make landfall near Shantou, in eastern China, this weekend. The rains forced more than 16,000 families to flee their homes as floodwaters across the northern island of Luzon climbed to 10 feet. Now, residents of Tokyo are on alert, as Kirogi is expected to strike there Saturday morning. Kirogi weakened during the last 24 hours, and was packing winds of 97 mph at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday. Courtesy of Weather.com

I heard a friend in Tehran that it was 108� when he was talking with me last evening my time (they are 14 hours ahead of us) No rain in sight for months. It must be stiffling! Thanks for reminding me, Anne!

Typhoons force 400,000 to evacuate In the Kanto Plain, winds have been running at about 40-60 kph sustained (10 minute average) with the pressure down to 976 hPa in Tokyo. Lowest pressure along the coast I saw was 974 hPa and winds of 77 kph so we are probably seeing 60-80kph winds along the coast. Heavy rain showers are occurring throughout the area and gusts are probably approaching 100 kph in the Tokyo area and exceeding 100 kph along the coast.

As if the flooding from heavy rains and tidal flooding which have killed 27 people on Luzon so far weren't enough... A tornado struck San Fernando La Union on the 7th damaging a number of homes. A rain induced secondary explosion in the Sacobia pyroclastic deposit zone of Mt. Pinatubo caused a muddy rain and moderate ashfall on the former Clark AB and surrounding towns. Fortunately, so far lahars have been minimal.

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Tornado in Perth Western Australia yesterday. The suburb Thornlie was hit by a tornado yesterday morning - early. Although there is much damage no one was hurt. Another bad wind day is forecast for later today. Hopefully less destructive.

Pacific Lunar Eclipse NASA Science News for July 14, 2000 This weekend the Moon, the Sun and the Earth will align for the longest total lunar eclipse in 140 years. The best places to see the event are in and around the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii and Australia. Observers along the west coast of North America will be able to see a partial eclipse just before the Moon sets on Sunday morning. During totality skywatchers may also be able to spot the asteroid 4 Vesta, which coincidentally makes a rare appearance as a naked-eye object during the days around the eclipse. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm?list

Saturday July 15, 9:19 AM Tornado kills 7, injures 79 in Alberta, Canada MONTREAL (Reuters) - A tornado obliterated a popular mobile home campground near Red Deer, Alberta, Canada on Friday evening, killing seven people and injuring 79 as it flipped dozens of trailers in its path, authorities said. "We're at seven fatalities and the number of injured is now 79 and may rise some more," Jim Squire, a public information officer for the county of Red Deer, told Reuters early on Saturday morning. Squire said rescue and medical crews continued to work into the early morning hours at the Green Acres campground site at the edge of Pine Lake, about 36 miles (60 km) southeast of Red Deer. The tornado destroyed 400 trailer camp sites in the campground. In addition to the dead and injured, 325 people had been evacuated to a nearby community centre and college in Red Deer, he said. Squire added that county officials were beginning to obtain information on the scope and severity of injuries inflicted when the funnel cloud touched down mid-evening on Friday. The twister ripped through the camp ground, flipping trailers, tossing cars and uprooting trees. Although some victims escaped with small cuts and bruises, others suffered broken limbs and gouges from flying debris. "Some of the injuries are life threatening," he said. Crews were continuing their search of the campground as rescue personnel reported finding trailers stacked one on top of the other, Squire said. The tornado also blew several trailers into the lake. WATER SEARCH HALTED Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Patrick Webb told Reuters that divers had searched trailers found in the water, but had to halt their efforts because of darkness. The lake search was to resume at daylight. Webb said people were frantically calling the police and other authorities hoping to learn whether friends and family had been caught in the tornado. One problem, however, was that authorities did not know how many people had checked into the campground or how many others had been headed there for the weekend. That made it difficult to determine the number of missing, he said. Louise Martin, producer for RD-TV, said the television station's video footage from the scene showed injured victims sitting amid the wreckage of the campground. "It's like a war zone, mobile homes and cars upside down, people walking around covered in blood or sitting down wrapped in blankets," she said. The Green Acres campground was a permanent summer recreation area used by vacationers, including many families with children. A baseball tournament had been planned for this weekend, Martin said. Television pictures on the CTV network showed a substantial amount of debris strewn by the lakeside where many trailers had been parked. A nearby house was in ruins and several cars and trailers were upended. The injured were being taken to hospitals in Red Deer and the nearby community of Three Hills. At least two energy companies had provided disaster relief crews to assist the rescue effort. Rescue crews were called in from surrounding communities, including the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. Citizens from neighbouring communities and farms also rushed in to help, but some had to be turned back because of the crush of vehicles and personnel. Red Deer County's Squire said Ralph Klein, premier of the western Canadian province, was headed to the campground.

An Extreme Geomagnetic Storm is Underway Space Weather News for July 15, 2000 A powerful shock wave from the fast-moving July 14th coronal mass ejection has arrived in the neighborhood of Earth. An extreme geomagnetic storm was underway at 1900 UT (3:00 p.m. EDT) on July 15th. If conditions persist as they are now, aurora could be visible at middle (and possibly even equatorial) latitudes. The best time to view aurora is usually near local midnight. In this case, sky watchers are advised to look for aurora as soon as night falls. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com Readers are invited to send pictures of tonight's aurora and the July 16, 2000, total lunar eclipse (visible across the Pacific Ocean) as an email attachment to phillips@spacescience.com for possible posting on spaceweather.com and/or spacescience.com. For more information about the lunar eclipse: Pacific Lunar Eclipse http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm

For those checking the progress of Daniel (once hurricane and not tropical storm)

have been ordered offline by our civil defense leaders. Storm intensifying. check in in the morning...wish me luck.

This from California from whence I just returned: The Independent System Operators (ISO) may declare a Stage 3 electrical power emergency for State of California. During a Stage 3 power emergency electrical power around the state would be shut off for a period of time and then restored. Areas of San Francisco may be affected by the blackout. During a Stage 3 alert, the blackout could last from one to two hours. California ISO declared a Stage 1 at 11 a.m., and a Stage 2 at Noon. Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. has directed all City agencies to take immediate steps to reduce their electrical power use and is requesting help from the public to minimize the effect of this possible outage. City services report the following developments in association with apossible blackout:- Fire and Police expect no disruption in 911 service or emergency dispatching capabilities.- MUNI anticipates minimal loss in service - The Department of Parking and Traffic has dispatched parking control officers to major intersections that might be affected - Department of Public Health reports hospitals affected by the blackout will run on emergency generator power and that they do not anticipate any disruption in service - Recreation and Parks Department expects that some of their facilities will be affected by the blackout Citizens should expect traffic delays and difficulty with the evening commute, as traffic signals may be affected. PG&E may interrupt power to the following areas:The Van Ness Avenue Corridor Fisherman's Wharf North Beach Chinatown/Portions of the Financial District Portions of Civic Center Upper Market:Portions of the Haight and Inner Sunset Portions of the Richmond DistrictPortions of the Outer Sunset District For further information contact: Kent Paxton, San Francisco Office of Emergency Services 415-558-2790.

There is a disturbance off the coast of Africa tonight. The same place that spawned Andrew. Those that start there are always so much worse than the ones that form in the Caribbean. the one that they were watching off Cuba seems to have disappeared.