One of the features of wunderground.com that I'm most proud of is one all of you can take credit for--our wunderphotos. Each day, users of the web site upload an average of 500 - 600 photos of some of the most beautiful and spectacular natural phenomena on the planet. We all share the same atmosphere, and one really gets a sense of that connection when we look at the wunderphotos, which come from every corner of the planet. Since 2003, 1.5 million wunderphotos have been uploaded, with over half a million just in the past three years. We have a dedicated team of volunteer reviewers that screen each photo, and I owe a big thank-you to all of you who have served as wunderphoto moderators. One of our most dedicated wunderphotographers, Lucy Woodley (wunderhandle: observing), was inspired to collect a set of 90 of her favorite wunderphotos and put them into a book. Her effort, A Letter to Mother Nature, was published this May. Each photo in the book has a sentence above it, poetically describing the scene below. It only takes a few minutes to whip through the book, but the spectacular images and thoughtful text invite one to linger longer and contemplate the natural beauty we are surrounded by. Here's a sampling of the text and images from the book, with wunderphotos by SunsetFL, CameraDiva, and Sharrose:
Dear Mother Nature,
Quite simply, I am in awe
of you and here is why...
You remind us to always look up...
...for there are great wonders overhead.
We can't resist dancing in your meadows.
A Letter to Mother Nature is $14.99 (paperback) from amazon.com. Proceeds from sale of the book go to support the disaster relief charity Portlight.org, founded by members of the wunderground community. I give A Letter to Mother Nature my highest rating, five out of five stars.
Rare transit of Venus today
I hope all you wunderphotographers will help document for us today a rare celestial happening--a transit of Venus across the sun. On June 5th at 3:09 pm PDT, Venus will begin a historic 7-hour transit of the solar disk, appearing as a dark spot against the sun's blazing face. This will be the last transit of Venus across the sun until 2117. As always, when viewing the sun, be sure to do it indirectly, or use a proper filter such as a #14 welder's glass to block the sun's eye-damaging rays. NASA.gov has more info. I'll link the best wunderphotographs taken of today's transit at the bottom of this post tonight and Wednesday morning. Below is one from Venus' last transit of the sun, back in 2004. Thanks, wunderphotographers!
Jeff Masters
Venus in transit across the sun June 8, 2004. Taken at sun rise in Flagler Beach Floirda ( USA ) with a 850mm lens by photojournalist Jim Tiller.
Transit of Venus from the Wunderground Office
Venus across the sun during a cloudy evening.
Despite thick clouds we were able to capture a brief glimpse of the planet Venus transiting the Sun. This image was taken with a modern digital camera attached to the historic Ladd Observatory telescope (1891) The clouds thinned just enough to capture this one image at 6:21:38 PM EDT, just moments after second contact.
I took this from a telescope projection on a white surface in West Lafayette, IN
I used a first generation canon digital rebel, a 300mm telephoto lens, a circular polarizing filter, and the low atmosphere to capture this beautiful amateur photograph of Venus dotting the Sun's disc.
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Is it tropical?
It's non-tropical though.
Link
Interesting how the photos show portions of nightside of Venus as being as hot as portions of the Sun in the far-infrared and near*infrared region of the spectrum.
* Near-infrared is kinda like what you see when you overheat a cast-iron frying pan. The pan continues to look black in normal lighting. But in total darkness, the hottest areas of the pan glow a dull red.
Far-infrared is closer to the extremely-high (well-above-microwave) radio-frequencies.
Thanks for the link...how are you doing Tropics?
We just busted out laughing.
Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic... check
Driving two miles an hour...check
Cussing the other drivers...check
Lol. I think we've got it down now. :D
Doing fine here,but it has been very warm and hazy. By the way,that same global hazards site has above normal rainfall for the WestCentral Caribbean from the 13th.
[too tired to type anything else]
See u tomorrow...
Yes, i saw that...we could be having above normal rainfall starting next week!
Is this on topic, because I think it is....
Here we go again...
Very nice!
1. It's hurricane season.
2. Hurricanes ARE coming.
3. 100% appropriate humor.
4. It's a response to another post.
5. I haven't posted one of these in a while, I know not to do it a lot.
6. Welcome to my ignore list, I know who you are.
Anyway, I'm going to say no more and I'm going to get back on topic. I'm having a bad day anyway, and killjoys like this only make it worse, I hope everyone will excuse me for this small rant.
Sure, no problem!
That was a rant? You may need to confer with CybrTeddy some.
Anyways..
Tropical Storm 20S:
Or me.
No. With CybrTeddy. Your rants just sound like a little baby screaming and flailing its arms.
That is one of those "One In a Million" shots.
You are free to post any of those meaningless images in your own blog.
Is this the tornado that was shown on TWC a couple years ago?
Yes there is nothing funnier than a government trying to protect its people by informing them and telling them to be prepared.
SARCASM FLAG ON
Oil rush in the Arctic gambles with nature and diplomacy
Norway has moved the headquarters of its army from Oslo to a northern town, Bardufoss, and signed its biggest ever single military contract for jets to be located there.
Who is the enemy? Russia? "No," says Giske. China? He almost chokes at the suggestion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/05/arcti c-oil-rush-dangers-svalbard
Nah, Kori dished out a pretty good rant last season.
I just got ticked off at someone who had the audacity to claim he was a met, and dish out statements like 'we're not going to see hurricanes this year'. The thing was he posted it in a professional manner and regardless of our sentiments against it - people who lurk do actually view this blog as a valuable source of information and there are mets that do blog. So I dished out a 4 paragraph rant that ended up ~80 pluses and we never heard from that guy again.
Very nice tropical wave over the western coast of Africa!
Your post 715 brings something interesting up. I wonder if the storm rolling north in the pacific NW will start the storm in the gulf rolling. Looks like it mighty!
Good night all.
Have a good night TA!
wow that is some strong June tropical waves
Finally had time on my vacation to do a tropical Atlantic post on my blog...but honestly nothing looks interesting for tropical development in this part of the world right now....
Tropical Cyclone Advisory #48
SEVERE TROPICAL STORM MAWAR (T1203)
12:00 PM JST June 6 2012
=================================
SUBJECT: Category Two Typhoon In Sea East Of Japan
At 3:00 AM UTC, Severe Tropical Storm Mawar (980 hPa) located at 32.2N 142.5E has 10 minute sustained winds of 55 knots with gusts of 80 knots. The cyclone is reported as moving east northeast at 35 knots.
Dvorak Intensity:
Storm Force Winds
=================
60 NM from the center
Gale Force Winds
================
250 NM from the center in northeastern quadrant
160 NM from the center in southwestern quadrant
Forecast and Intensity
=========================
24 HRS: 39.3N 151.4E - Extratropical Low East of Japan
It's too hard to tell if we'll get hit this year or not. I do think we have a better chance than we've had since 2008. Between the trough that's been over the east coast and the cyclone killing ridge that parked on us last year the steering just hasn't been there. This year we'll have to keep an eye on things. Reading the Tropical Cyclone Reports on storms that have come our way a lot of time it mentions they have "rounded a deep layer ridge over the southeast United States." So a ridge to our east, and not over us, is one thing to keep an eye out for when there's a storm out there. Should be an interesting season for sure. I'll be watching. :)
3rd contact is about to happen as the Venus transit ends.
Link
I got to witness maybe 10 seconds during a tiny cloud break in the middle Florida Keys - 8" newt. Did not expect to get that much.
I did get to witness the end of the 2004 transit at sunrise under much better conditions.
Let's get together again in Dec 2117! - till then - cheers.
Yeah, it has been pretty hot and dry over the past week due to an high pressure across the region
Very impressive, especially considering the SWIO in particular hasn't had a storm since March.
Origin of these t-storms in paragraph P5 of my latest blog post. The same divergent upper westerly jet creating these t-storms is shearing the area so strongly that nothing tropical will get going. However...it wouldn't surprise me if a weak swirl appears...a weak surface low/surface trough supported by the divergent aspect of the upper westerly jet...
Thank you I am definitely an amateur.
No problem...keep the questions coming...
You're just jealous I'm seven years your superior. Now go to bed, kid.
90S
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