the rain in the plain stays mainly on the mane. photos by michael nichols, anup & manoj shaw and paul & paveena mckenzie from serengeti national park, where there aren’t too many places for lions to hide from the rain.
Tags:
#lion #rain #one doesn’t normally think about those two going together
Eat your vegetables, drink lots of water, be kind to your neighbors, and keep an eye on your nearest volcano and know what to do when it erupts.
Tags:
#PSA #though my home is actually very low on the disaster-risk scale #(a scale that is probably measured in deci-Californias) #we don’t have any nearby volcanoes #(we’re even outside the death zone of Yellowstone) #(though I think we are slated to get a noticeable quantity of ash rain) #we’re not prone to floods #we’re not prone to wildfires #all of our earthquakes are of the ‘easily mistaken for a passing train’ variety #we almost never get tornadoes #we only get hurricanes when they’re literally a thousand miles across and strengthened by climate-change-warmed waters #(and even then the power was only out for seventy minutes and as far as I know nobody around here died) #so around here it’s more ‘know what to do when a Buffalo-style massive blizzard hits’ #(we didn’t get hit with the Buffalo blizzard) #(but it’s the sort of thing that could happen) #tag rambles
Tags:
#home of the brave #snow #sweet gods #(to those of you who remember I live not *all* that far from here: don’t worry about me) #(we’ve got…maybe eight inches?) #(our storms *looked* pretty impressive (and by November standards they were) but it’s *nothing* like this)
The Man Who Rode The Thunder
In this week’s OKTBS video all about the amazing world of clouds, I mentioned the story of Lt. Col. William Rankin, the only known person to survive a fall through a cumulonimbus thunderstorm cloud.
In 1959, after the engine of his F-8 fighter malfunctioned as he attempted to fly over a storm, Rankin was forced to eject directly into the heart of the thunderhead. His parachute ride from 47,000 feet (14,326 m) above Earth should have taken ten minutes, but instead it took him forty. The punishment he endured on the way down is almost beyond belief.
This video tells the story of the trip that made William Rankin the only human to have ever lived inside of a cloud. I hope he never had to pay for a beer for the rest of his life, because this man was one of the baddest asses to ever walk the Earth.
Tags:
#weather #history #duuuuude
This is how a close-up of lightning beneath a cumulonimbus cloud looks like from space. An astronaut on International Space Station (ISS) captured this image while orbiting over Bolivia in 2011.
There’s also a more recent image of lightning’s white flash amidst the yellow city lights of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from 2013:
Hopefully, we are going to see more and more of these amazing images since there is a new instrument on ISS, called the Firestation, which is specifically designed to study lightning.
Tags:
#space #weather #pretty things #the power of science
Good question!
By far the biggest threat during a tornado is debris—in particularly high winds, even blades of grass can travel quickly enough to embed themselves into telephone poles. Basically, when a tornado is imminent, you have to think of it like a bunch of people in a mafia movie coming by to shoot up the place—your goal is to put as many walls between you and the projectiles as possible.
If your basement is entirely belowground (i.e., no windows), this is ideal—you’ve got the entire first floor between you and the storm. Most basements, however, are only partially submerged, and often you’ll have windows that can be broken and become debris—by the way, don’t waste time trying to open windows to “equalize pressure” or whatever during a tornado, since it won’t work and the tornado will open the windows for you anyway.
Basically, you want as much stuff between you and the storm as possible—if there’s somewhere interior like a crawlspace under the stairs that’s not within sight of any windows or exterior walls, that would be ideal. Even if you don’t have windows in your basement, stay away from walls that back directly onto the outside (remember the mafia-movie dudes—one wall won’t be great protection). If you’ve got no other options, it’s sometimes best to drag a couple of mattresses or a study table down with you, and hide under that makeshift cover in the center of the room, as far from all external walls as possible.
If you don’t have a basement, you want to find an interior room (usually something like a bathroom) that puts as many walls as possible between you and the outside. Once again, dragging a mattress on top of you can reduce the amount of debris that actually makes it to your body. The objective is always to put as many barriers as possible between you and the storm.
Tags:
#weather #tornadoes #the more you know
I have been waiting all year to post this.
omg
This has been in my queue for months.
I missed it last year and I vowed that would NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.
YESomg i didnt reblog this last year!
It’s actually true 25th of April is really beautiful here
Tags:
#oh hey it’s the describe-your-perfect-date post! #I completely forgot it was today! #Tumblr traditions #(today it is 10C/50F and somewhat windy) #(which fits) #(but it is probably going to rain soon) #(I am a grown-up and can therefore talk about weather on the Internet)
So, I hear it’s cold out?
Apparently, the Great Lakes are under there somewhere, but it’s hard to see anything through the icy white in this NASA satellite image from the afternoon of Jan. 6.
(via NASA)
Tags:
#our home and cherished land #weather #yeah that looks about right #brr
Be safe, everyone. The Weather Channel is on it.
I can feel this storm system in my bones and I’m nOT HAPPY ABOUT IT.
Oh yaaaaay look what I get to drive through on my way to a show todaaaaaaaay.
I get to drive from one end of high into the middle of it? For a crappy birthday I don’t want to go to? With 4 boys and a hubby that’s all pissy?
FML….
Be careful with this one! It’s late in the season for a tornado outbreak, but the SPC doesn’t break out that high-risk contour for just anything. The environment is primed for extremely fast-moving thunderstorms and long-track, long-lived major tornadoes (EF2+). If you’re within that “MDT” band, you’ve got about a 10% chance of seeing an EF2-EF5 tornado within 25 miles of you, which is the highest probability of significant tornadoes you can get. You’ve got a 30% chance of seeing any sort of tornado in that area, which is also incredibly high (remember how small tornadoes are, relatively speaking—these storms are likely to be cyclic and produce multiple tornadoes). Large hail is more likely to be a problem in Illinois than further east. Damaging non-tornadic winds are likely all the way out to central PA.
Keep in mind that a tornado watch is a heads-up to let you know that tornadic conditions are likely (ideally, they’re supposed to be issued at least 6 hours before a tornado hits), whereas a tornado warning means there is a tornado on the ground right now.
Contrary to a lot of the Great Plains, many of the regions under fire today have basements in most houses. If you get a tornado warning that covers your area, grab your family and pets and get as far underground as you can—failing that, keep as many walls between yourself and the outside as you can. If you have no basement, get in your bathtub and drag a mattress in with you to act as a shield. Treat the tornado like someone coming by to shoot up your house from the street, and take shelter accordingly: the debris is what you have to worry about.
Don’t waste time opening windows; it makes no difference. If you’re already in a car and can’t outrun the storm (moving at right angles to the tornado if it’s on the ground), get out of the car and flatten yourself in a ditch. These storms are fast-moving, so the odds of flooding are lower than they would be otherwise, and keeping low reduces your odds of being hit by debris. Make sure your car isn’t blocking traffic. Stay the hell away from highway underpasses/overpasses.
If you’re at home and a tornado warning hits DO NOT FUCKING LEAVE YOUR HOME. Don’t get in your car and try to outrun the storm. I don’t care what the TV meteorologist is telling you to do. They’re not trained for this sort of situation. Exactly that sort of exodus, prompted by a TV announcement, happened in Oklahoma this past May and the resulting traffic jam resulted in many deaths. You should also avoid large, open spaces like school gyms as shelter.
Don’t stormchase. Don’t gawk. There are lots of major cities in the path of this system, and the more people there are on the road, the harder it’ll be for emergency vehicles to do their thing.
If you have any questions, throw them my way. I do this for a living. In the meantime, watch this page for updates. There are already several tornadic storms on the ground, moving at about 65 mph.
I note that despite the American map depicting everything south of Toronto (which includes me) as red-zone, Environment Canada’s alerts make no mention of tornadoes. I’ll keep an eye on it: if they change their mind, I can always go cower in my basement.
The shading in the above picture just refers to the chance of any severe weather (i.e., tornadoes, high winds, hail). The map for tornado probability is here. Most of Southern Ontario has wind warnings out in advance of this storm, because that’s what the main threat is likely to be, but right at the southern tip (Sarnia, Windsor, London), there’s a severe thunderstorm watch with a possibility of tornadoes referenced in the text. So they’re keeping an eye on it!
Ah, I see. Green is a much more comforting colour than red.
(Thanks for the prompting to put the lawn chairs and decorative solar light in the shed for the winter. Hopefully the rest of the backyard won’t get blown about too badly.)
Tags:
#weather #reply via reblog #decorative solar lights are so much cheaper than useful ones #(which I guess makes sense as they’re much dimmer)
Be safe, everyone. The Weather Channel is on it.
I can feel this storm system in my bones and I’m nOT HAPPY ABOUT IT.
Oh yaaaaay look what I get to drive through on my way to a show todaaaaaaaay.
I get to drive from one end of high into the middle of it? For a crappy birthday I don’t want to go to? With 4 boys and a hubby that’s all pissy?
FML….
Be careful with this one! It’s late in the season for a tornado outbreak, but the SPC doesn’t break out that high-risk contour for just anything. The environment is primed for extremely fast-moving thunderstorms and long-track, long-lived major tornadoes (EF2+). If you’re within that “MDT” band, you’ve got about a 10% chance of seeing an EF2-EF5 tornado within 25 miles of you, which is the highest probability of significant tornadoes you can get. You’ve got a 30% chance of seeing any sort of tornado in that area, which is also incredibly high (remember how small tornadoes are, relatively speaking—these storms are likely to be cyclic and produce multiple tornadoes). Large hail is more likely to be a problem in Illinois than further east. Damaging non-tornadic winds are likely all the way out to central PA.
Keep in mind that a tornado watch is a heads-up to let you know that tornadic conditions are likely (ideally, they’re supposed to be issued at least 6 hours before a tornado hits), whereas a tornado warning means there is a tornado on the ground right now.
Contrary to a lot of the Great Plains, many of the regions under fire today have basements in most houses. If you get a tornado warning that covers your area, grab your family and pets and get as far underground as you can—failing that, keep as many walls between yourself and the outside as you can. If you have no basement, get in your bathtub and drag a mattress in with you to act as a shield. Treat the tornado like someone coming by to shoot up your house from the street, and take shelter accordingly: the debris is what you have to worry about.
Don’t waste time opening windows; it makes no difference. If you’re already in a car and can’t outrun the storm (moving at right angles to the tornado if it’s on the ground), get out of the car and flatten yourself in a ditch. These storms are fast-moving, so the odds of flooding are lower than they would be otherwise, and keeping low reduces your odds of being hit by debris. Make sure your car isn’t blocking traffic. Stay the hell away from highway underpasses/overpasses.
If you’re at home and a tornado warning hits DO NOT FUCKING LEAVE YOUR HOME. Don’t get in your car and try to outrun the storm. I don’t care what the TV meteorologist is telling you to do. They’re not trained for this sort of situation. Exactly that sort of exodus, prompted by a TV announcement, happened in Oklahoma this past May and the resulting traffic jam resulted in many deaths. You should also avoid large, open spaces like school gyms as shelter.
Don’t stormchase. Don’t gawk. There are lots of major cities in the path of this system, and the more people there are on the road, the harder it’ll be for emergency vehicles to do their thing.
If you have any questions, throw them my way. I do this for a living. In the meantime, watch this page for updates. There are already several tornadic storms on the ground, moving at about 65 mph.
I note that despite the American map depicting everything south of Toronto (which includes me) as red-zone, Environment Canada’s alerts make no mention of tornadoes. I’ll keep an eye on it: if they change their mind, I can always go cower in my basement.
Tags:
#weather #the more you know #in any case will have to cancel the walk I was planning on today
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