The highest temperature in Albuquerque yesterday according to the National Weather Service was 90º. It was the 23rd day in August we’ve gotten to 90º or more (it was 97º twice). A warmer than average August.
But it probably won’t reach 90º today — and there are no 90º days in the forecast.
Fall is here!
A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the early morning of Tuesday, August 28, 2007. The event is widely visible from the United States and Canada as well as South America, the Pacific Ocean, western Asia and Australia. During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon’s disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.
The total eclipse portion begins at 3:52 AM MDT and will end at 5:22 AM MDT. (Subtract or add for your time zone; the eclipse begins everywhere simultaneously.) The moon will be in partial eclipse for about one hour before and after the total eclipse. The full event lasts three hours and thirty-three minutes.
The total eclipse doesn’t end until 7:22 AM EDT if you are up early in the east. The moon will be setting in the west.
The moon is always a full moon during a lunar eclipse. The Earth’s shadow comes between the sun and the moon, darkening the moon, which as you know, simply reflects sunlight. The moon has no light of its own.
Unless, of course, you accept Genesis 1:16 — “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”
Single digit humidity, that is. 6% at 4PM at Casa NewMexiKen.
So long monsoon season.
Update: Much of the red and orange at sunset tonight was caused by the smoke and ash in the atmosphere from the Zaca Fire in Santa Barbara County, California.
That’s the Etscorn Observatory at New Mexico Tech. Click the image for a larger version and to learn more.
David Owen has a fascinating and informative piece in the current New Yorker on our lost night skies. The article, alas, isn’t online but this is from the abstract:
“Diminishing the level of nighttime lighting can actually increase visibility. The key to visibility is contrast. Much so-called security lighting is designed with little thought for how eyes of criminals operate. A burglar who is forced to use a flashlight, or whose movement triggers a security light is much more likely to be spotted.”
It got up to 95º yesterday in Albuquerque, the hottest day in three weeks.
With apologies to those with August birthdays, I have to say that this month is my least favorite among the 12. No holiday. Muggy, even here in the Southwest. Just because.
Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write “all night” and “Meteors!” Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won’t miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower.
“It’s going to be a great show,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. “The Moon is new on August 12th–which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors.” How many? Cooke estimates one or two Perseids per minute at the shower’s peak.
The show should be best by dawn Monday morning. Follow this link for details.
The average high temperature in Albuquerque during July was 91.5º. One day it reached 100º. Seventeen days saw a high in the 90s. The remaining 13 days had a high temperature in the 80s. It was pretty average for July.
The average high temperature in Phoenix was 106.8º. It reached triple digits on all but three days; it was 116º on July 4th. Las Vegas, Nevada, was about the same as Phoenix; the highs averaged 107.1º.
It hasn’t reached 100º in Albuquerque during August since 1994. The hottest weather, more than likely, is over.
Click image for larger version and to learn more.
NewMexiKen is struck by the number times people have revealed that they think summer weather in Albuquerque is Phoenix-like. This happened both to me and to a friend last week.
We’re a mile above sea level in Albuquerque folks. The hottest temperature so far this year was 100º on July 3rd. It was the first time we reached 100º officially in four years. (We haven’t even seen 90º since Saturday.)
By contrast, the high temperature in Phoenix has been more than 100º every day since June 13th.
The Earth was its furthest distance from the Sun for 2007 on Saturday, July 7.
During the next decade the Earth will always be closest to the Sun in early January and farthest from it in early July.
The concerts are live from around the world.
Ever re-use water bottles? You know, refill them from the refrigerator dispenser or the tap, or freeze them?
Well, maybe you shouldn’t.
There are various types of plastic used in bottles. PET or PETE 1 plastic, which is often used for manufactured water, should not be re-used because there is a risk the chemicals will leach out.
HDPE 2 or PP5 on the other hand, do not seem to leach.
Look on the bottom of the bottle to see what kind of plastic you have.
Update: See first comment and next post.
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A blue moon shows up about every two-and-a-half years. And guess what? The definition we’ve all known for a blue moon — the second full moon in a calendar month — is wrong. A blue moon occurs when a season (between a solstice and an equinox or between an equinox and a solstice) has four full moons. The blue moon is the third of the four.
The two full moons in one month definition got picked up by mistake about 60 years ago (by Sky & Telescope no less) and became the conventional wisdom. The seasonal definition makes more sense because seasons are natural events (defined by equinox and solstice) not human events defined by a calendar.
Of course, blue moons are human events too, so who really cares except the lyricist?
Blue Moon
You saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own
Blue Moon
You know just what I was there for
You heard me saying a prayer for
Someone I really could care for
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It was 100º officially in Albuquerque Tuesday, the first time in triple digits since July 15, 2003.
Two days in a row with the high officially at 99º F. Will today be the magic day we get to 100º officially for the first time since 2003?
Earlier this morning the dewpoint hit 50º. That’s a sure sign the monsoons are near. In Arizona the monsoon season is said to begin after three consecutive days with the dewpoint averaging 55º or higher.
In the United States, Arizona and New Mexico are located on the northern fringe of the Mexican monsoon. For most of the year, winds aloft over the southwest U.S. are west to northwest. During the summer, winds turn to a more south to southeast direction, importing moisture from the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of California, and the Gulf of Mexico.
As this moisture moves into the southwest…a combination of orographic uplift (air being forced to rise by the mountains), daytime heating from the sun, and weak upper level disturbances moving across the region causes thunderstorms to develop across the region.
Not yet, but soon.
By the way, June usually has the hottest daytime high temperatures in Albuquerque, but July and August are warmer on average because it doesn’t cool down at night as much.
And there is already three minutes less daylight than there was on June 21st.
Click image for larger, readable version. Thanks to John for the pointer.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Thirsty San Francisco city workers will no longer have bottled water to drink under an order by Mayor Gavin Newsom, who says it costs too much, worsens pollution and is no better than tap water.
Newsom’s executive order bars city departments, agencies and contractors from using city funds to serve water in plastic bottles and in larger dispensers when tap water is available.
“In San Francisco, for the price of one 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of bottled water, local residents can purchase 1,000 gallons of tap water,” according to the mayor’s order.
Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.” The result made Rogers smile wide.
[Actually the lyric is, “It’s a beautiful day in the the neighborhood.”]
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
A cool, green cover for the July 2, 2007, issue of The New Yorker. That’s an energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamp in Liberty’s torch.
“Summer is back, and so is poison ivy, stronger than ever. The weed is flourishing this year, growing faster and more toxic, and a pair of studies flagged by The Wall Street Journal say an upswing in greenhouse gases is to blame.”
Read more from The Lede.
In response to a question about global warming, Barrasso said he didn’t support “Gore rhetoric,” referring to Vice-President Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Barrasso said that when he was in college, scientists were worried about a new ice age on the horizon. He said Wyoming is rich in energy and that technology would find the answers in converting Wyoming coal to gas and liquid fuels.
If I based my beliefs on what some college professor said — oh, never mind.
Click image for larger version and to learn more.
NewMexiKen hopes you were able to see the western sky this evening as — from upper left to right — Regulus, Saturn, the waxing crescent Moon and Venus lined up as pretty as Christmas lights.
(Through the telescope I was able to see Saturn’s rings!)
Click image for larger version and to learn more.
The story just keeps unfolding.
It hasn’t hit 100° F. in Albuquerque officially since July 15, 2003.
Think we’ll hit triple digits this year?
An aside: In Tucson, when it first hits 100° each spring they say, “The ice has broken on the Santa Cruz [River].” (Made all the funnier by the fact that there is seldom water in most of the Santa Cruz, let alone ice.) The ice broke on the Santa Cruz this year on May 11th.
100° Fahrenheit = 37.7777778° Celsius
When it comes to global warming and other assorted environmental disasters, get ready to hear one theme over and over again. Namely, that the damage is exceeding even the experts’ predictions. Today that phrase applies to carbon emissions, which—all together now—are exceeding even the experts’ predictions. Which is really scary because their prediction was: “We’re fucked.”