Busy Day... Coldest Temps Ever Recorded in Alaska... 3.2 Quake in Va...again and Nuclear Plant in Illinois Puts Out Steam

Crazy day in the world of Earth Watching...for the Earth Science Crowd.

That nuclear plant shown above is in Illinois, not far from Chicago as the crows fly and those crows may be inhaling some nuclear steam for the next day or so. The plant, owned by Chicago based Exelon Corp in Byron. An offsite problem caused a power loss which was resolved, but not before the plant vented steam... as it is set up to do in case of a problem.

Good to know the back up generators kicked in...

As steamy as it is at Byron... the coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States was set today in Alaska when it was so cold the thermometer broke when the battery at the weather center went out. So, we aren't sure just how much colder it was but it stopped recording just prior to and still going south... as it approached NEGATIVE 80... that's cold.

Of course, there is an imbalance in the weather world as Alaska is the coldest it has been since 1971 and we can barely get snow in Virgina or Illinois.

It truly is an amazing planet...
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/2354-alaska-cold-weather.html

While Virginia is low on snow this winter, it's strong on aftershocks and tonight's aftershock was registered 3.2.

Interestingly busy day in the world today from an Earth Science perspective.

I'm wondering if some storm will brew down the road that will mix up the atmosphere a bit and create some balance but then balance is not a word that La Nina seems to know.

Sweet Tropical Dreams..

Bobbi
Ps...an interesting afterthought here is that Alaska has been pretty active geologically the last few days, mild quakes . . . still . . . catches my attention:

MAP 2.7 2012/01/31 00:53:00 62.843 -148.225 57.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAG UTC DATE-TIME
y/m/d h:m:s LAT
deg LON
deg DEPTH
km Region
MAP 3.2 2012/01/30 23:39:47 37.947 -77.984 3.0 VIRGINIA
MAP 2.5 2012/01/30 23:11:30 35.883 -117.909 3.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.8 2012/01/30 19:56:07 -25.056 -179.881 483.2 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 2012/01/30 19:38:23 -1.335 137.808 38.2 NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.9 2012/01/30 18:25:21 -2.841 129.546 42.6 SERAM, INDONESIA
MAP 2.5 2012/01/30 17:02:23 36.020 -117.820 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.6 2012/01/30 16:34:13 -7.093 128.844 149.9 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA
MAP 2.7 2012/01/30 14:58:47 62.215 -145.763 1.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 2012/01/30 14:57:48 44.231 -114.137 15.4 SOUTHERN IDAHO
MAP 5.2 2012/01/30 13:20:35 2.030 96.611 38.7 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.3 2012/01/30 12:33:17 15.867 -93.715 138.0 OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP 3.3 2012/01/30 10:42:01 59.855 -152.955 20.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.5 2012/01/30 10:34:20 19.061 -64.239 55.3 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 2012/01/30 09:13:03 59.911 -152.185 123.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.9 2012/01/30 08:10:46 61.764 -150.318 5.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.9 2012/01/30 08:09:42 60.348 -152.411 107.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA