Category: Weather

Moon watching and keeping an eye on Franklin

This is the current projected track for Hurricane Franklin as of 5 a.m. EST as posted on the NOAA Hurricane Center website this morning. If the predictions are correct, Franklin will track well east of Nova Scotia and hopefully steer on out into the Atlantic. In the latest discussion for Franklin, it is forecast to peak “as a Category 4 (115-kt) major hurricane. However, inner-core changes, such as eyewall replacement cycles, could occur at any time, making it somewhat tricky to pinpoint exactly when Franklin will reach peak intensity.” I’ll continue to check the tracking and discussion about Franklin until it is no longer a potential threat to Nova Scotia.

Hurricane season is just getting started in the Atlantic, so we have at least a few more weeks of keeping an eye on weather developments. I’ve been doing that for years anyhow. The NOAA Hurricane Center discussions have always interested me. It’s fascinating to watch how the various weather systems push or pull hurricanes along various paths, or help to strengthen or weaken them. The NOAA discussions also include reports from the NOAA “hurricane hunters” – the team that flies into hurricanes to collect information used to predict their development and strength. Here’s an excerpt from an interesting story (well worth a read):

They have experienced some of the worst weather on Earth. Dunion recalled his experience while flying into Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

“That was when it was intensifying from a Category 5 to a Category 5+. I felt like a feather in the wind that day,” Dunion recalled, adding, “I think we had about three to four G forces. That’s something that someone who’s getting launched into space would feel.”

Anyhow, I’ll be following Franklin and any other weather that begins to undergo the transition to an Atlantic hurricane over the next few weeks.

Last night was one of the rare occasions when the sky was clear enough to photograph the Moon. This has been one of the cloudiest summers in recent memory. I’ve barely taken the camera out to shoot Moon photos. However, I did get a couple of decent photos last night. There was a bit of a haze so it’s not the sharpest photo, but still nice to photograph the Moon at this stage of its cycle. This is about my favourite view of it. As always, I dedicate my Moon photos to my good friend, Dusty, who voyaged onward 3 years ago this past weekend. He loved to see such photos, so I think of him any time I am looking up at the night sky while shooting the Moon.

For you, Dusty.

What I’m Reading, Watching, or Listening To . . .

I’ll be using this blog to share links to some of the stories I’m reading, listening to, or watching. I’ll be doing so, in part, because I can’t share links to news stories via FB anymore. As most of you probably know by now, Canadians are being blocked from sharing stories from both Canadian and international news services because Facebook is angry at new Canadian legislation. Anyhow, it’s easier and maybe even better to be sharing links to news stories via my blog.

So, here are a few stories that I found very interesting or particularly relevant to nature, ecology and the environment::

Basket makers brace for emerald ash borer impact
Good story on the CBC from August 16/2023, concerning the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer to the Black Ash used for traditional basketmaking. There are quotes from several Indigenous basketmakers, and also a land manager from the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory (which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state), saying “”We’ve seen the spread of the emerald ash borer from one corner of the reservation … throughout the entire territory.” To learn more, please read the article. Good photos.

What Wildfire Smoke Means for Birds.
Article from the New York Times – “Bird Project” newsletter on August 18, 2023. This seems to NOT be behind a paywall but you will probably have to sign in using your Google or Facebook account. A summary of some of the ways in which smoke from wild fires impacts birds, especially during migration – causing them to either stop in an unfamiliar place to wait out the smoke, try to fly far far above, or around the smoke, or fly through the smoke and likely suffer respiratory and other damage.

If you found the above article about the effects of wild fire smoke on birds of interest, this is a more in depth paper which is referred to in the NYT’s article. It was published in Ecology (journal of the Ecological Society of America), October 8, 2021. Well worth a read:
Megafires and thick smoke portend big problems for migratory birds

N.S. farmers grapple with stress after string of extreme weather events – Article from the CBC from August 21 — on what Nova Scotia farmers are facing as far as repeated extreme weather events as well as rising production costs — and how this impacts farmers (many are deeply discouraged) — but also what it means for food security here in Nova Scotia. There is a link to a good audio recording from Information Morning as well. Worth a listen.

A similar article from August 25, 2023 in Rabble.ca concerning the situation in B.C.. A lot of this is very applicable to Nova Scotia and Ontario this year. I read a couple of Maritime farming FB groups and the price of hay and grain has been rising (as it is everywhere due to weather extremes). Earlier this summer, there were problems related to drought and wells going dry, heat and humidity bothering animals, rain when trying to harvest crops, and so on. Farmers are having to deal with a lot. That should concern all of us as anything that impacts the farming community is going to inevitably work its way up to the consumer to result in food insecurity.
BC farmers are at the mercy of climate change, and things look grim.

Lastly, a link to a review of a documentary that I have just heard about in a post on a fibre arts group to which I belong. The film has just been released for viewing in the U.K., but hopefully will be available to a wider audience before long. “The Nettle Dress” is just that — a dress that was made from nettles that were harvested and spun by fibre artist, Allan Brown. There’s a lot of backstory – the spinning and weaving of the cloth became part of his way of carrying on after the death of his father and then his wife. He makes the dress for his daughter. I watched the trailer last night. I’d like to see the film when it becomes available. Here’s a link to a review and a director’s Q&A, and to the trailer. I’ll embed the trailer here in this post as well.
The Nettle Dress – a review and director’s Q&A