Do we really need the letter, “u” in “quiet”? Just checking… “Lake” is for all the puddles around right now in Catalina after the nice half inch to inch rain the day before yesterday.
There used to be actual lakes in Catalina, btw, “Twin Lakes” they were called, as old timers know. That’s why we have a boat store here, and quite a few street names with nautical themes, like “hawser”, the name of a big marine rope for towing boats.
Before launching into the usual tedious cloud discussion and photo barage, those one of you that got to the bottom of yesterday’s blog may have noticed that it linked to a LONG article in the venerable Los Angeles Times reviewing media weather forecasting as it was in 1981. A friend and met man, Mark Albright, actually READ the whole thing, and alerted me to the following INTERESTING quote in that LA Times article, which I thought you should see, too.
I’ll frame this with the old Consumer Reports header, “Quote Without Comment”:
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“Robert Cowen (Christian Science Monitor) says there is too much gullibility in newspapers about the possibility of climatic disaster. Too many reporters listen to people who want to make a reputation with wild predictions. Thus, even the nation’s better daily newspapers periodically publish stories under such headlines as “There’s Doom in the Air” and “The Sun Goes Bonkers” and “New Dust Bowl Could Bring Starvation” and “Ice Age Coming? Chilling Thought for Humanity.”
“Every time there’s a drought or a long hot spell, I get swamped with calls from reporters asking, ‘This means the climate is changing, doesn’t it?’ says Diane Johnson, head of information services for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “All the media want to know usually is . . . ‘Is there a new Ice Age coming?’,” Johnson says. “They hardly ever want to know the whys or the imponderables.”
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Well, HERE, we want to know “why”, dammitall! At least about cloud stuff.
Next rain not due in for at least a week, so enjoy the puddles while we have them.
Seems like undercutting dry air has ruined our chances for Cumulus-style isolated shower today. Currently there is an elevated layer of Stratocumulus, tops above Ms. Mt. Lemmon. That layer will make for a nice sunrise, so be ready. Other than that, just a few pretty, and small Cumulus, hold the ice, today.
Yesterday’s clouds and why
“Balloon Over Fog” yesterday after sunrise, that was about the most exciting thing that happened yesterday. No ice-in-clouds seen, which was a disappointment; no ice, no precip. Tops never reached our usual ice-forming level of about -10 C (14 F), as you know; mainly hung around -5 C, according to our TUS weather balloon soundings. For people not familiar with weather balloons, that’s not a weather balloon over the fog in the photo below, btw.
Below, just examples of a postcard day in Catalina, AZ, those kind of days that make you glad you had one more day on this planet.
The setting sun produced the normal “colorization” of the Catalinas that we savor, and when you look around in the desert at this time of day, even the treacherous teddy bear cholla has real beauty at this time of day.
The End
