Say Goodbye to 2012... Hello to 2013

Say goodbye to memories of Hurricane Sandy and Sandy Hook Massacre... that as much as we love to read the Farmers Almanac it never told us that the name Sandy would hover over our world for months like a bad nightmare for the last half of the year.

Did anyone see that coming when they looked at the list of names for the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season? Doubt it...

I remember thinking Andrew was a stupid name for a storm in 1992...

So, this post is a post where I remember the year and say goodbye to so many memories.

We said goodbye to people as diverse as Whitney Houston and Andy Griffith..  songwriters and comedians, journalists and sportsman.

Singers who made a difference in my early life... like Davy Jones from the Monkees ... Etta James and Andy Williams.

One of my all time favorite songs is Moon River..

Faces from my childhood, my teens, the LA days like Donna Summers and political days like George McGovern and Neil Armstrong who looked back at earth and saw weather from the moon.

2012 was a cold season in hell for Europe..one of the worst winters in recent history. Global WARMING took a vacation last winter in Europe and Russia.

Venice was partially submerged by floods and tourists made do the best they could... as the visual images of Venice made many of us stare and wonder if we will ever get to see Venice before it sinks ...  I'm hoping to see it one day...

People got married and babies were born in my personal world... and we traveled nonstop it seems for months.

I watched hurricanes on computer monitors from the Outer Banks to Florida and back...

Drove through a tropical storm or two in Georgia on I-95 and danced in the moonlight in February on the banks of the Biscayne Bay in tropical splendor.

Despite the drought in Texas and the drama of Sandy in NY, NJ and the other places that felt her wrath... 2012 is going out rather quietly in our part of the world. Cold nights, clear skies and I just watched the last sunset of 2012 out the bedroom window.

I played less on message boards and danced on Twitter more ... became an avid follower of Mike's Spaghetti Models page online and on Facebook... and enjoyed being a part of something bigger than just myself and my blog. I used Weather Apps and even played with Pinterest and Instagram.

This has been a year of change...of trying new things and learning as much as I can and trying to share what I have learned with others. I've forecast storms on Facebook Pages with others and drove through Beryl in driving rain on a windy night in May.

http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html

I spent a lot of time on I-95 this year...



A wild ride... different than staking out a storm on the beach...

And, I am looking forward to 2013 and whatever the new year brings.

I want snow..............badly.

I can't wait to see what the hurricane season will look like............

There's a set of comets about to grace our skies later this year...

http://www.space.com/17762-newfound-comet-dazzling-2013-display-c2012s1.html

Here's a video (not responsible for the views of the youtuber ;) but enjoy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw6MsuGy5ok  WATCH ;) if you want to learn more..

This comet has the potential to be bigger than the full moon and .... to light up the sky during the daytime the way the comet of 1680 did....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1680

And... most of all we survived the Mayan End of the World Calendar Fiasco...

I imagine we can take anything that 2013 throws at us ;)

At least we won't have to hear about all the disasters that will befall us when the calendar runs out..

Which reminds me I need to find a good weekly desk calendar as I am going to really try and organize myself this year ;)

Thank you for making this year a massive, big year for my blog and stick around and let's see what trouble we can get into next year...

Besos BobbiStorm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QaFd59bjCE
Moon River sung by the late...great...Andy Williams

(never read the comments, never...............just listen, close your eyes and see that moon up there in the sky high above us... and me watching you for a change watching the moon... spreading your arms out wide and reaching up high as if you could touch the moon...

Happy New Year... my huckleberry friend and everyone else reading this..

PDS - Particular Dangerous Situation .. Twisters in the Night

The Mobile Tornado has everyone talking. Not that often you have a wedge shaped tornado on the ground for a long time in a metropolitan city on Christmas Day.



Amazingly this was the second tornado to touchdown in Mobile in less than a week.

Texas also had tornadoes today as the first victim of this storm system died. A 25 year old man in a Houston suburb was killed when a tree fell on his pick up truck that he was riding this morning in Harris County.

http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Nasty-storms-blamed-1-death-make-travel-tough-4144131.php



Notice the rain falling in South Carolina from the warm front that is associated with this system.

Note the freezing conditions in Arkansas.

The line of storms pushing through as warm, moist air is punching up into the heart of the cold weather creating dry lines, rotation and a memorable weather event on Christmas Day of 2012!

Live updates are being forecast from Accuweather:

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-video/video-arkansas-blizzard-conditions/655578741001

Several people caught the Mobile Tornado on their cell phones...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4140595600830

You ABSOLUTELY must watch this video... real video with a real tornado not special effects.

Another great video from the same storm on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200265647749842&set=vb.1412645710&type=2&theater

The power going out..flashes on air live... over 20,000 people without power in Mobile.

Ice Storm Warnings are up for parts of Virginia ...

http://woay.com/Alerts.aspx?aid=259

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
419 AM EST TUE DEC 25 2012

...POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY ICE ACCUMULATIONS WEDNESDAY...

.A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE FROM THE WESTERN GULF
COAST NORTHEASTWARD...PASSING ACROSS OUR AREA LATER TUESDAY NIGHT
AND WEDNESDAY. THIS WILL BRING A WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION TO
THE AREA...INCLUDING THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY ICE ACCUMULATIONS.

WVZ046-047-251730-
/O.UPG.KRLX.WS.A.0006.121226T0300Z-121227T1100Z/
/O.NEW.KRLX.IS.W.0001.121226T0300Z-121227T0000Z/
POCAHONTAS-RANDOLPH-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...MARLINTON...ELKINS
419 AM EST TUE DEC 25 2012

Virginia into Maryland will see ICE accumulations from this system.

There is damage being reported in Murphy High School in Mobile and the Field House is reportedly gone and minor damage throughout the campus.

http://www.mhspanthers.com/

Panama Beach has a tornado warning currently as the system moves east though as of yet to reports of tornado damage anywhere.

When I said ALL of Alabama was under the gun this morning I was not exaggerating. 

I think that picture above says it all...and it is moving East and North East..towards Georgia and the Carolinas.

As I said earlier this morning... it's a tale of two and three and four storms... 

Euclid the Elephant... pick a place and feel a different type of storm.

Stay safe and if you are in the Carolinas... it's headed that way tomorrow... 

Check them out...they cover the area well..

Besos BobbiStorm... stay safe and stay informed. If you have a weather radio.. keep it on!

Forecasting Euclid the Elephant aka Christmas Storm Like the 7 Blind Men Story

It's hard to get a feel for this storm while watching the weather as every weather person and source seems to be forecasting a different part of the storm.

It's one storm....sort of like the infamous Elephant.

There are many components and many areas to watch for possible problems.

It's a 3 ring circus or possibly a 2 ring circus with another ring opening for a midnight showing.

There are multiple cities which will have different sorts of weather and several highways that will be affected!

http://www.wordfocus.com/word-act-blindmen.html <--- elephant="elephant" link="link" olde="olde" p="p" story="story" to="to" ye="ye">


Euclid the Elephant has several areas to watch as a hole it is bigger than it's parts.

And, are you worried where Twisters might hit in the middle of the night or... are you worried where you may suffer accidents and troubled travel going home after Christmas dinner?
Do you want snow or are you worried on freezing rain or icing on bridges at night as you travel home? Twisters in the south?
Hail hitting your new Lexus or Mustang that you got as a Christmas present from Santa?
Possible power outages from straight line winds just as you go to put away the leftovers in the freezer?
Midnight tornadoes in Northern Alabama?
Severe storms in Columbia SC or Fayetteville NC?
Take your pic?

But, if you are worried on twisters in Montgomery Alabama and they are covering snow in Oklahoma City and possible storms in New Orleans when you turn on TWC you are going to miss the story you need to know the most about.

And, if you think the storm known as Euclid the Elephant is a Christmas Day event... you are right and you are wrong as it's also a Wednesday event in the South as it moves out of the Deep Coastal South and moves North... up the coast Thursday.

If there was one storm to name so far this winter... it IS this storm, however had TWC not christened it with the odd name of Euclid.. it would still have been known as the Christmas Day Storm of 2012!

So, I'm going to break this down like Caleb Weatherbee might in Ye Olde Almanac.. but I am not going to to do it in zones as much as along Interstates as that gives you the information you will most likely need as you travel home from where ever  you might have gone to spend Christmas.



This is the Southern Part of the storm that most weather people are worried will be affected by possible twisters and other types of severe weather... hail, lightning, terrible driving weather.



The area from Houston east to Jacksonville all needs to watch out.

This can be seen in one of my favorite images... the red is where it will be most severe:



Note ALL of Alabama is in Red.. as is Louisiana. Even if you drive safe, you could easily get caught in a bad traffic jam as an accident up the road is cleared away. Good luck... or stay another day if you can..

Note the storm is winding up ...up near the I-20 in Oklahoma and Arkansas:



There is a currently a line crossing through East Texas that has tornadoes possibly embedded and several cities currently have a tornado watch and there are even a few tornado warnings out there.

Houston/Trinity/Polk all have Tornado Warnings. Good site:
http://www.texasstormchasers.com/

No one does Nola like Nola.com..
http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2012/12/tornado_watch_until_1_pm_for_m.html#incart_river_default



So...Houston, Lake Charles, New Orleans... eastbound and down all the way through Mobile and ALL of Alabama into the Panhandle of Florida... be careful.

www.weather.gov

Put in your Zipcode and see what your weather of the day is.. if there it's been colored in.. pay close attention!

Will look a lot like this:

Moving up towards I-20.. Shreveport is in the thick of it.

Possible rotation and hail there ... 

Possible tornado has touched down.. reports coming in...

Also, College Station watch out this morning.

I think I-20 could see the worst of it even though everyone is watching I-10.

Perhaps the more sexy cities like Nola are more fun to cover on TV and catch our attention?

Then again ... Dallas always gets attention and Dallas will get weather as the storm moves East.

In the Atlanta Metro Area there are multiple problems.

Rain, Possible Tornadoes and something few are mentioning... FOG in the evening. As most people drive home in the evening ... that's a feature that is getting lost in the shuffle as we look for twisters.

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT...

...WIDESPREAD DENSE FOG THIS MORNING...
...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY FOR PORTIONS OF WEST AN SOUTH TONIGHT...

WEATHER HAZARDS EXPECTED...

RESIDUAL MOISTURE FROM EARLIER RAIN WILL LEAD TO THE FORMATION OF
WIDESPREAD DENSE FOG TONIGHT. MOTORISTS ARE URGED TO USE EXTREME
CAUTION. REFER TO THE LATEST DENSE FOG ADVISORY.

ISOLATED TORNADOES...DAMAGING WINDS...AND LARGE HAIL TONIGHT.

Next...

Augusta, GA... more of the same as it moves towards the coast...

THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LATE TONIGHT MAINLY
IN THE CSRA. DAMAGING WINDS ARE THE MAIN THREAT. A FEW TORNADOES
ARE ALSO POSSIBLE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY.

THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WEDNESDAY ACROSS
THE REGION. DAMAGING WINDS ARE THE MAIN THREAT. A FEW TORNADOES
ARE ALSO POSSIBLE.

Columbia, South Carolina...

• TonightRain, mainly after 9pm. Low around 54. East wind 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
• WednesdayShowers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 5pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. High near 64. Breezy, with a south wind 16 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Note the whole area from I-10 to I-20 is a mess...





Off the grid I am covering for areas in my region... is the geographic area that correlates with the New Madrid Fault... it's a mess and a strong warning has been put out for this region...

Choose a city... any city in that area and take it VERY seriously..some areas here rarely get blizzard warnings. This is NOT Postville, IA... it's south of the normal snowstorm warning areas.

Thems a lot of warnins' there...take em real serious. No joke...

Memphis... you're in it and in it big time.

Moving north from I-10 the whole area on Wednesday is horrible.

Mind you if you are out near College Station, Houston, Lake Charles, Montgomery..stay put today, travel tomorrow. If you are anywhere from Savannah to Baltimore, travel sooner rather than later as tomorrow and late tonight will be sketchy at best.

The best you get is 60% chances of rain in the south...
90 and 100% from Rocky Mount, NC all the way to Trenton, NJ

slow going, multiple accidents at best.. and could be much worse.

Snow begins around Delaware (this could change) and continues north.

Southwest Air...Travel Warnings

http://www.southwest.com/html/advisories/swa_travel_advisory_201211241356362490489.html

If you were planning on flying out of or into these airports...check with your carrier!

• Akron-Canton (CAK)
• Buffalo/Niagara (BUF)
• Cleveland (CLE)
• Detroit (DTW)
• Indianapolis (IND)
• Oklahoma City (OKC)
• Pittsburgh (PIT)
• Tulsa (TUL)

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/20121221-midwest-blizzard-leads-to-some-american-airlines-southwest-airlines-flight-cancellations.ece

More updates to follow.... 

Storm still developing... 

stay informed...

Besos for Now..

BobbiStorm

Strong Southern Winter Storm on Christmas Day

With memories of the 1969 historic tornado outbreak... weather forecasters are carefully trying to predict where and when the worst of this storm will hit. The problem is.. weather like this is fluid and not a Cat 2 Hurricane which is easier to predict.  A lot depends on the timing, heating of the day, contrast between the cold air to the north of it and the warm air to the south and sometimes storms like this feed on their own energy.  Being off by a few hours can mean the difference of disaster in some small Southern hamlet or a wicked hour of weather by the front swings through with strong straight line winds.




The weather passing through the South today is NOT the storm.

The storm is back there and hasn't yet pulled itself together, but it will and it will take off fast once it does.

Tomorrow:

Christmas Day this system creates travel problems for I-10.  Houston Eastbound is a mess.

The day after Christmas aka Wednesday takes the mess to I-95 and across most of the South.

Severe weather could pop up anywhere and everywhere... 

Thursday it is GONE.. POOF... gone hunting up north moving up the coast.

1969's Historic Christmas Outbreak of Tornadoes... 

hoping this does not happen again...........

and in our case the threat is further into the Carolinas this year...

Compare the map for this coming storm and you will see why so many forecasters are worried.

Look familiar?

Stay tuned and pay attention to your local weather or your favorite weather site online.

www.spaghettimodels.com has a few sites to pay attention to..

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/largemap.php

http://www.newjerseyweather.com/weather/contours/640x480_wx_us_wx_msg1_i12_pattern.jpg

(shows where it will snow or rain... site on the top of this blog, great site)

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk_1300.gif

And look on the bottom right and choose your city of interest:

You'll screen will look like this but with your city there...

Lastly.. this storm like baseball is a work in progress. Until you see what any pitcher's got on any given day it's hard to say how he is throwing and hard to say who is hot when it comes to hitting home runs.

Weather like sports is fluid.. 

so check back soon and I'll be on top of it.

I'd love snow.. it's not in the forecast but I'd still love it!

Besos BobbiStorm

Snow, Rain, Tornadoes.. DRACO is leaving a legacy

This is a classic Tornado signature that screams severe weather in the south as snow and cold rain plaque Chicago and Milwaukee.

Compare the current, but changing loop above with the image below of the storm as it was headed towards Alabama bringing Twisters their way.

Here's a local news channel doing coverage that you can watch online:

http://www.fox10tv.com/generic/video/LiveStream_FOX10

Up in Iowa there's snow...  seems the place to go if you want to see snow today.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/20/us/midwest-blizzard/

Down below the Mason Dixie Line are severe, violent storms.

Breaking News ‏@BreakingNews

Damage reports in Mobile concentrated on West and Northwest sides of city between I-65 and I-165 - @weatherchannel http://bit.ly/VToYvF 

 View tweet 

•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite

Early, predawn tornadoes are the worst kind as there is little early warning without an alarm sounding in town or on a weather radio. They go under the radar while we sleep..

Pictures will come in all day long as the sun comes up... 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/20/storm-tornado-mobile-alabama/1781677/

As this moves east into Alabama and the panhandle of Florida there are multiple weather threats.

Tornado Watch

TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 689
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
425 AM CST THU DEC 20 2012

TORNADO WATCH 689 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1200 PM CST FOR THE
 FOLLOWING LOCATIONS

FLC033-091-113-201800-
/O.NEW.KWNS.TO.A.0689.121220T1025Z-121220T1800Z/

FL
.    FLORIDA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

ESCAMBIA             OKALOOSA            SANTA ROSA
$$

---

Fire Weather Watch

URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
632 AM CST THU DEC 20 2012

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH
FRIDAY AFTERNOON FOR THE WESTERN FLORIDA PANHANDLE DUE TO A
PERIOD OF CRITICALLY LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND HIGH 20 FOOT WIND
SPEEDS...

.MUCH DRIER AND COOLER AIR WILL FILTER INTO THE REGION THROUGH
FRIDAY IN THE WAKE OF A STRONG COLD FRONT. HUMIDITY VALUES WILL
DROP INTO THE MID 20 PERCENT RANGE ACROSS THE WESTERN FLORIDA
PANHANDLE FRIDAY AFTERNOON WITH 20 FOOT WINDS SPEEDS NEARING
15 MPH.

These storms are moving fast... forward speed wise .... if you know anyone in their path give them a text and make sure they are aware as people are busy getting ready for vacations and watching other news stories. Not everyone is watching "Draco"

Up in the north.. there are already travel delays at O'Hare....

Stay tuned and hope all your relatives are flying west to east with non-stop flights...

Besos Bobbi

DRACO... Winter Storm Moves East.. ... White Christmas..The Movie..

It's snowing somewhere... even if not here...

DRACO is moving East and bringing wintry weather with it to areas who have not yet seen winter this year. Iowa is going to be covered in snow.



Travel will be affected. There will be travel delays.

Already Southwest Air has posted Travel Advisories for multiple airports.

• Chicago (Midway) (MDW)
• Denver (DEN)
• Des Moines (DSM)
• Kansas City (MCI)
• Milwaukee (MKE)
• Omaha (OMA)

Can you say MIDWEST WINTER STORM???

If you are a kid you are thrilled. If you are a parent you are uttering long sighs and muffling curse words under your breath as Winter is making a statement and there will be more named storms down the road after DRACO takes off for Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

If you are down in the white territory... you are NOT having a White Christmas. Sorry Charlie Brown.

This is as close as I get to a white Christmas... 

Yup, if this post is disjointed it's because I am watching this movie on an old TV even though I own a copy and it's probably downloaded somewhere here. I feel younger, like a little girl watching the Wizard of OZ once a year or watching it with my best friend at 16 and trying to learn the dance steps and write down the words to Sisters... the way we did back when you couldn't stop and start the video.  Can you believe a boy taped the words on an old tape recorder at 2am on Channel 6 in Miami and then sat stopping and starting it to get the exact words for us... Thank you Joe.

So.............my Christmas is going to be as warm as Vermont was before it snowed magically in the movie. Unless there is a Christmas miracle for a Jewish girl who is still waiting for her Chanukah present. 

God I love this movie..................................

Back to the weather............... (but this movie is about the weather... because... without snow you can't get people to go to Vermont to go skiing... you know???)

So as this system slices across the country it is creating severe weather tonight and there is possible rotation in Missouri. No..I do not mean Vera Ellen spinning while doing a tap dance..

It's a slim line but it's a strong one... as the warm, warm air below meets the cold, cold air rushing in as nature hates a vacuum. 

So.... there goes DRACO. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/19/167617464/a-winter-storm-is-pummeling-the-rockies-and-the-plains-are-next

The press is all over it. 

http://fox8.com/2012/12/19/seasons-first-blizzard-warning-for-midwest/

Then again the Russia press is covering the coldest winter they have had in decades.

http://rt.com/news/russia-freeze-cold-temperature-379/

If there is a tornado... Reed is on it!

Watch the weather warning he has posted below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enYvkL-lbEw&feature=youtu.be

This is what you will see... he has people on the ground in Omaha dealing with Thundersnow!

Watch... it's good... if you like weather and if you don't like weather...why are you here on my blog?

As for me... I'm in White Christmas heaven as they are playing it over and over :)

DRACO moving East. Stay on top of it if it's moving your way?

And.... I have a question here? NASA has released a set of answers to questions people have been calling them concerning the possible end of the world in less than 2 days. My question is... WHY WOULD ANYONE CALL NASA??

I mean if you thought the world was going to end...who would you really call?? 

NASA?? I mean... I love them ..but they lied to us about two space shuttle crashes saying that the crew was vaporized and didn't suffer ..twice... until we found out they weren't vaporized... 

I do love NASA but... call them? And, where do you find the NASA Hotline I wonder?

If it was weather involved I'm sure I'd call Bryan Norcross... 

The Pope? He's online now you know...

The White House?

Drudge... imagine if we flood his request box with questions he'd answer them somehow.. find a phone booth to jump into and fly off to save the world maybe.. 

Come on...who is calling NASA? I want to know... 

If you want to go to their website.... there are a list of answers to questions you never thought to ask:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html#polar

Below, NASA Scientists answer questions on the following 2012 topics:

• End of the World
• 'Prediction' Origins
• Mayan Calendar
• Total Blackout
• Planetary Alignment
• Nibiru/Planet X/Eris
• Polar Shift
• Meteor Strike
• NASA Science
• Solar Storms

And....there you have it.

That's my take on Draco... White Christmas (the movie.... teaches you history, weather and romance) and ............................ my birthday's coming so maybe I can wish for snow on my birthday if it's not happening sooner... later rather than sooner??

Some great links on www.spaghettiweather.com so go play on the weather playground and I'm going to go watch Danny Kaye dance with Vera Ellen and pretend I am fifteen again if just for another hour or two. 

Sweet White Christmas Dreams,

BobbiStorm

Ps if you'd rather listen to Jimmy Buffett.. enjoy 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCDWt7aVMVI

I have that somewhere ... a gift from "stalker friend" back when he was sending me cassettes before we moved forward to CDs...  scary if you think on it too much... but I don't think on it too much. Linda told me not to think too much when not in her presence...so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! 

(why does Jimmy look like Bing and why is he sitting in a big sushi boat? hmmmmnnnn)

Wasting Time on the Web - Catalina Island Earthquake

Time You Enjoy Wasting is Not Wasted Time . . .

One of the things I do during the off season is check the Earthquake Map. Not, because I am worried on the end of the world in two days... but because I am tropically bored and mildly curious. Someone, somewhere over the last several days online mentioned a big earthquake any day in the South California area being "due" because of plate movements along other corresponding fault lines. Seems there was one the other day, I was of course watching coverage of the horrific Newtown massacre and missed the big quake that did happen on 12/14/2012 and it was rated at 6.3 on the Richter Scale. A spate of smaller quakes on Catalina and across South California occurred over the next few days as we watched a disaster of the non-geological kind. I'd like to give whoever predicted it credit, but to be honest with all the Tweets I read and articles I study and message boards I look over on weather that often careen out of control in the direction of geology... I get lost a lot. It's a good lost. I'm a believer in the old adage "time enjoy wasting is not wasted time" which has been attributed to a lot of people including John Lennon. Waste some time and read up on the saying in the Ps region of this blog.

And, sometimes it's good to waste time on Pinterest or reading up on geology to distract the mind from disasters that are harder to comprehend than the geological and meteorological time. Sort of like staring at the water vapor loop after staring too long at CNN or Fox.

So as I said I looked at today's map and whoah...there was that earthquake a few days back offshore in Southern California. Going in closer I saw lots of bulls eye circles hovering over Catalina Island. As I have lived in LA and know the area well anything in that area draws me in more so than say Vanuatu.  I also noticed a lot of continued activity in the general region of Central America which is interesting. I mean if there was a 8.0 earthquake in the land of the Maya.. would that not be their end of the world? We are all so ethnocentric by nature. When my youngest son was on vacation in Panama I checked the earthquake ticker often, now that he is back in Miami I'm less worried on South America breaking off from North America at the Panama Canal and drifting south towards Antarctica. Okay..I admit I really didn't worry on that as much as other things, but I did stare at the isthmus of Panama and pondered how that happened and why it's so narrow and it really does look on a map as if it is holding on desperately to South America who wanted to jump at some point but Panama held on tight.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/Earthquake-183480501.html

Avalon... conjures up so many visions to people who have lived in Southern California..

Then again lots of people are a bit jumpy when they hear of any problem on Planet Earth right now. Let's call it the Mayan Question. People are thinking on it, laughing at it, and wishing we could just get the date past us and move on to where it's in the rear view mirror.

A look into Planet Earth with an eye towards understanding Global Time as I call it.

"The Islands as Part of the Transverse Ranges

Most of the mountain ranges of California trend north-south, but the Transverse Ranges, including the Santa Monica Mountains and their extension into the ocean, the northern Channel Islands, trend east-west. Geologists believe that, 20 million years ago, the platform on which the islands are located was oriented north-south along the coast, with San Miguel lying just offshore of San Diego. Forces resulting from relative movements of the Pacific and North American plates have caused the western Transverse Ranges to rotate clockwise to their present position. It is as if one sliver of the continent – the Transverse Ranges –got caught up in the shear between the plates. It rotated ‘much like a floating plank that has one end snagged on the river bank, while the other end is dragged along by the current’. Evidence for this rotation is found, in part, by magnetism in the rocks of the islands. When the rocks of the northern Channel islands were formed, magnetic particles in the rocks would have been in line with the magnetic poles of the Earth. Measurements now taken in the rocks of the northern Channel Islands show that the magnetic particles differing by about 100 degrees from a polar orientation, with the oldest rocks showing the greatest variance. This suggests that the islands have rotated clockwise about 100 degrees since the formation of the rocks.

East of the rotating block, a gap opened, creating the space now partially occupied by the Los Angeles basin. The space was filled from below by igneous rocks and the uplift and unroofing of mid-crustal metamorphic rocks like the Catalina schist."

The point is earth time is long term, not short term. So, if you live in the LA region know that the Channel Islands are part of the Santa Monica range that reigns above LA with the Hollywood Hills being the foothills and the setting for the ever famous Hollywood Sign. That sign hovered to the north of where I worked on Wilshire Blvd and was often framed in snow in the winter when snow fell on the high peaks of San Gabriel Mountains. The LA region is really a visual feast in real time for any geology nut.  Yeah, I said that :)

Anyone who doesn't believe me watch this video as someone hikes up to Sandstone Peak. There's mountains and chaparral and on a clear day you can see Catalina Island and the other Channel Islands. A half an hour straight up from the city and you are far, far away from the traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRmilhCibTI

What a beautiful shot...taken from the video, please watch it to appreciate our local California Mtns.

A nice video on youtube that shows you around Catalina is below... you'd think it was a location shoot for Burn Notice... not just off the coast of LA and San Diego and my old home town Long Beach!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrwuE4hhwLs

http://www.catalinachamber.com/

There it is... 26 miles across the sea... the island of romance...

(rolling eyes.. song link... below, of course...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx2Ylqmt3Cg

Find some romance... be in Key West or Laguna or Catalina Island :)

And, if you want to stay on land..go to Laguna Beach... 

watch the sun set down over the Channel Islands :)

Trust me.. more fun than reading doom and gloom on the end of the world... 

vs the end to a beautiful day... 

And, if you can't get away and take a vacation. Take a ride on the electronic web and do some weather and island surfing and listen to a Youtube video and smile. Lord knows we can all use to listen to some good music and smile a bit these days.

Sweet Tropical Dreams,

BobbiStorm

Ps.... now I feel sooo much better. Going to take a long, hot shower and sing that song as best as I can and I'll be back with more info on DRACO later in the day.  Weather delays and snow days moving east from Denver to Chicago and possibly the East Coast and for sure the WV and PA part of the Appalachian Trail. 

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/
http://www.nps.gov/chis/naturescience/geologicformations.htm (link to geological info above)