The dogwood (Cornus florida) buds are swelling on the trees in our woods, but it will be a couple of weeks or so before they open. Then, they will look like this:
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Showing posts with label Skywatch Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skywatch Friday. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
SkyWatch Friday: Dogwood Buds
The dogwood (Cornus florida) buds are swelling on the trees in our woods, but it will be a couple of weeks or so before they open. Then, they will look like this:
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Thursday, March 03, 2011
Skywatch: Fog Moving In
Monday night we experienced thunderstorms and and earthquake. Fortunately, the most severe thunderstorms were to our north and east -- and the quake was minor. We felt a brief tremor, but that was all.
Tuesday morning dawned partly cloudy. Our sky seemed well on its way to clearing after the passage of a new cold front. Not so. An hour or so after sunrise, fog/clouds quickly covered our ridge. My wife captured this shot while on her morning walk. When she left the house, it was partly cloudy. When she returned, it was so foggy she could barely see our outbuildings. Our sky finally cleared again during the middle of the afternoon.
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Skywatch: Fall Clouds
A little time traveling back to late fall when a herd of clouds was moving across our sky.
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Friday, February 04, 2011
Skywatch: We Need More Sunshine
We need more sunshine before the ice will melt.
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Thursday, January 27, 2011
SkyWatch: A Rip in the Clouds
Nearing sunset: A rip in the clouds let sunshine leak through.
1/28/11: Thanks to D. B. Echo for pointing out that what I photographed is probably a sun dog. Sun dogs are sunlight reflected off ice crystal in the upper atmosphere. They can occur any time and anywhere, but are always 22° away from the sun and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun. All those criteria are correct for this photo. (Please see Wikipedia for a more complete explanation and more photos.)
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Thursday, January 14, 2010
SkyWatch: Blue Sky Over A Bad Road
The unusually cold temperatures that put the Ozark Mountain region into a deep freeze for a couple of weeks have moderated. On Wednesday I made a trip into town and re-provisioned for the first time in a couple of weeks. All is now back to normal.
The photos below were taken while we were still debating when we'd be able to make a trip out. We live a couple of miles off the blacktop and the last three-quarters of a mile of dirt road is a dead end down to our house, though parts of our "driveway" are used by our neighbor when checking his cows, cutting firewood, etc. We did not receive much snow and ice during the deep freeze -- only about an inch of snow. The problem was that our temperatures stayed so cold, the little bit of snow received would not melt.
The photos below were taken while we were still debating when we'd be able to make a trip out. We live a couple of miles off the blacktop and the last three-quarters of a mile of dirt road is a dead end down to our house, though parts of our "driveway" are used by our neighbor when checking his cows, cutting firewood, etc. We did not receive much snow and ice during the deep freeze -- only about an inch of snow. The problem was that our temperatures stayed so cold, the little bit of snow received would not melt.
The snow on sections of road receiving full sunshine on clear days melted fairly quickly. (I know this looks more like a dry creek bed, but it is a road. Trust me on this.)
Other sections of road stayed mostly in the shadows. The snow compacted and glazed becoming almost as slick as ice. Not negotiable by our 2WD vehicles with street tire, especially when trying to drive uphill.
We have many winter seeps. When they empty in to the road, an ice flow forms. One must be careful getting around these even when walking, especially when they're hidden under a dusting of new snow.
On the other hand, the red clay sections of road can become even more difficult to climb after they thaw.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
SkyWatch: Tivola (TX) Sunrise
With snow on the ground and a windchill somewhere down around 0°F/-17°C, I thought a SkyWatch flashback to a warmer time would be appropriate. Jo and I were heading back to Arkansas after visiting our parents on the middle Texas coast. We'd gotten an early start on our trip, but not too early least we arrive in Houston during morning rush hour. We pulled into a roadside park just south of Tivoli, TX so Jo could take several sunrise photos. None of the photos show the swarms of mosquitoes that were trying to carry us off. (BTW: In Texas, Tivoli is pronounced Ty-vole-ah. It is in Refugio County which is usually incorrectly pronounced Re-fury-oh.)
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
SkyWatch Friday: In The Pink
A Hazy Sunrise
(Photo: Jo Smith on 10/21/09)
The day turned out nice despite the haze persisting throughout.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
SkyWatch Friday: Blue Sky and Sweetgum Leaves
Our Sweetgums (Liquidambar styraciflua) are the only trees in this area having colorful leaves still attached. All the rest have fallen to the ground, helped considerably by lots of wind and rain during October.
The Sweetgum balls are still green and well attached to the tree. Each ball contains hundreds of tiny Sweetgum seeds. Seed disbursal comes in early to mid-winter when the balls dry and open while still attached to the tree. If conditions are just right -- a sunny, dry day with a gentle wind -- all the balls seem to open at once. You can hear a subtle sizzling-like sound as thousands of tiny seeds fall to the dry leaves beneath the tree.
A dried and open Sweetgum ball after it has fallen from the tree. In a "good" year the ground beneath each Sweetgum tree is littered with hundreds of balls. Stepping on one while barefoot is not recommended -- and they make wicked projectiles when shot from beneath a lawnmower.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
SkyWatch Friday: A Rare Day With Sunshine
It's been a very wet October here in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Heavy rain is falling as I write. Today's rainfall will bring our monthly total to well over ten inches. Many days filled with mist, fog and/or overcast also occurred. The photo above was taken on one of the recent, rare sunny days. This is the view from our road out -- up to the main county rain and "civilization".
Last January a severe ice storm caused considerable damage to the trees in our area. It was supposedly one of those once-in-a-hundred-years events. It's no exaggeration to say the woods around our place will never look the same within our lifetime. When the trees leafed out in spring, those leaves helped hide some of the damage. Now that the leaves are falling, the full extent of the damage is becoming visible again. At least these trees survived. Many others either snapped or fell over.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Sky Watch Friday: Lee County Courthouse
Thursday, May 01, 2008
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