Picture of the Day

Here is a neat satellite picture from this morning at 9 AM.    Over much of western Washington, there are low clouds, with sinuous channels of stratus where the clouds pushed into the valleys over the western slopes.    In contrast, eastern Washington is filled with smoke from wildfires along the eastern slopes of the Cascades.  And over the ocean it is mainly clear.

No one can say that we don't have contrasting weather around the Northwest.  You can choose heat and smoke, cool and cloudy, and cool and clear.   Never boring in our area.

And to see the degradation of the air air quality in eastern Washington, here is the amount of small particulates at Leavenworth, Twisp, and Moses Lake for the period starting July 1. Yesterday was quite smoky in Leavenworth....and just a bit better today.  But look at Moses Lake....away from the fires but in the path of the smoke plume, as the satellite picture showed clearly above.

Global Warming, the Media, and Coal Trains

I will be giving a talk in Friday Harbor and Eastsound, sponsored by the San Juan Island and Orcas Is. libraries.

I will be discussing the serious threat of global warming, how the media is generally doing a poor job in educating about this issue, and how mankind is really not taking it seriously (e.g., the coal trains). 

Friday Harbor: July 22nd, 6:30 PM, The Mullis Community Center, 589 Nash St.

Orcas Island:  July 23rd, 5:30 PM, Orcas Center