Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 12:01AM CDT   
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Meteorological fall; NOAA weather hazard stats
NWS LINK: Forecast for Essex, Montana
For those of us in the weather/meteorology world, the summer of 2010 is over. Just as March 1 is the start of "meteorological spring" and June 1 ushers in "meteorological summer", September 1 marks the start of the annual transitional season prior to winter here in the USA. These "meteorological seasons" are defined by weather patterns and trends, rather than by the degree of earth's axial tilt through which the astronomical seasons are defined. From September onward, the upper jet (now primarily in Canada and the extreme northern US) will begin its increasing return southward, bringing along with it the cooler Canadian air that will eventually trigger the first snows, frosts and freezes of the season. Severe storms and tornadoes will also be possible as the upper support comes back to spring-like latitudes. Signs of winter will start first in the Rocky mountains (snow is already in the forecast this week for Montana), then the northern US states, followed by the Appalachians by mid to late October.
This trend means that September is also the start of icy road season. Road ice isn't only a winter problem, it shows up in the fall and continues into spring. In past years, the season's first icy road accidents have been recorded each September, primarily in the higher elevations of the Rockies, where interstate highways carry travelers from warm weather into a sudden danger zone among the mountain passes.
In a related topic, NOAA has finished compiling preliminary data for weather hazards during the 2009 season (linked here). Here is the 2009 graphic:
Courtesy NOAA
Historically and currently, icy road fatalities are not counted in these datasets. So, here I added a bar to the NOAA graphic that includes the 2009-2010 winter season total for road ice deaths (based on data collected for icyroadsafety.com):
Friday, August 27, 2010 - 10:10PM CDT
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Clear sky St. Louis afternoon
A crisp clear August sky was perfect for shooting some cityscapes downtown this afternoon. (To save bandwidth, this full photo series is on a separate page)
PHOTO SERIES: August 27 St. Louis city photos
Click for full photo series
Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 9:09PM CDT
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More moonrise HDRs; Crop duster
One last attempt at moonrise tonight - at least until our next series of clear-sky full-moon evenings. These two images are again "manual HDR" composites of two separate exposures of the same scene (one exposed for the landscape, the other for the moon). These are the railroad tracks on the east side of New Baden, looking east.
Earlier in the day, as I was heading home from Fairview Heights, a crop duster plane swept over the road at what seemed like 30 feet overhead. I stopped to grab a few shots.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - 8:55PM CDT
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New Baden moonrise and steeple, manual HDR
I decided to try to shoot the moonrise tonight with New Baden's tallest and most prominent landmark, the St. George's church steeple. Even with azimuth data, lining up a shot for moonrise isn't that easy - especially with the high corn blocking the best angles.
This second image is a "manual HDR" composite merging two exposures of the same scene. The first was shot at 1.6", the second at 1/25", both at F8/400ISO. When the sky starts getting dark, the moon requires a drastically faster shutter speed than the ambient scene to keep from blowing out its details. In this case, the two exposures were too far apart in brightness levels for conventional automatic HDR to work. For this composite, I ended up manually cutting out the moon (the rest of the image was nearly completely black) and layering it over the shot exposed for the church. By a long shot, this is the most manipulation I've ever performed on a photo, but the result is pretty close to reality.
Here are the two images used to produce the above:
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Beautiful
- Posted by Julie from VA |
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more great shots, love that red color in the top one!
- Posted by Michael Thompson |
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Monday, August 23, 2010 - 9:08PM CDT
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Moonrise over Market Street
The long ranges are as quiet for storms as they've been since early April. That means clear skies, and at least for the next few days, good views of the moonrise in the eastern sky. These were shot near the SLU campus on Market Street in downtown St. Louis (with the exception of the Old Courthouse shot and the last shot from Grand Boulevard).
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Great shots, Dan.
- Posted by Dann Cianca from Centennial (Greenwood Park), Colorado |
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Hi Dan
very nice shots! what kind of camera to you use? I am doing blogs but only have just a cheap camera now but am interested in upgading! Keep up the great pics, and thanks for sharing the gospel too!
Michael
- Posted by Michael Thompson from Minneapolis |
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Thanks Michael and Dann! I'm using the Canon Rebel XSi. Unfortunately I'm still using lower-end lenses, but sometimes they do OK with sharpness at higher F-stops. Still trying to talk myself into saving up for a couple of nicer lenses.
- Posted by Dan R. from New Baden, IL |
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HELLO DAN,
YOUR THE PICTURES OF URS R REALLY NICE N THESE GIVES WARM FEELING AT THE HEART. REALLY U R DOIN GR8 JOB, N THE FEELINGS R FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. EVERY PIC IS HAVING A NATURAL LOOK. IT IS LIKE U'VE FILLED LIFE IN IT.
- Posted by ASHAY GAJBHIYE from NAGPUR, INDIA |
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Thanks for the reply Dan
is that a good camera for a beginner like me to start with?
- Posted by Michael Thompson |
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Friday, August 20, 2010 - 12:58AM CDT
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Venezuela's Catatumbo lightning (Relámpago del Catatumbo)
A Catatumbo-like thunderstorm complex in Illinois, with near-continuous lightning through the nighttime hours. full article
"Catatumbo lightning" is the latest fad item to pop up in documentaries and articles on lightning, and I have received an increasing number of media inquiries about it. Like most lightning subjects, there is apparently some popular misinformation circulating and making it into official articles, documentaries and web sites. Consequently I decided to do some fact-finding research and publish this article about it.
ARTICLE: Catatumbo lightning: Overview and Myths
