Good Afternoon:
I'm sitting near the window watching a light blue sky -- there are no clouds floating by.
It's that kind of weather -- actually, everyone here says it's been a relatively cool summer. But, since we had a relatively warm winter, there were no cherries and one could sit a long time under the apple tree without fear of injury (unlike last year, which was great for apples and cherries).
In contrast, Dr. Jame Hansen (formally head of NASA GISS), claims that regional climate change is appearing above the "noise" of climate-variability (http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/3/034009). You can see just how warm it's been worldwide by checking out this link (http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/Temperature/Emails/July2018.pdf). Interestingly, the maps show our area as being 1 -- 2 Celcius above the "norm" (defined as the mean temperatures between 1951 -- 1980).
I write interestingly because the guys who know (e.g, those who put in air conditioning system) say it ain't so, and they are not the only ones. I believe that the Israel Meteorological Service keeps track of temperatures compared to normal means, but I'll have to leave this double-check for a later time.
In any case, there is not much change forecast for our weather during the next week to 10 days. One can see that it is still anomalously warm over Europe (follow the links here to 500 mb height anomalies: https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/). This affects us in an unusual way: storms are forced north of Europe, which then swing back down over Siberia. The resulting flow pattern sets up a high pressure area with westerly winds in the eastern Mediterranean or even pushes back a trough into our area -- keeping temperatures blowing refreshingly off the sea (rather then the desert to our east).
The mercury seems to be rising world-wide but the added energy from higher Carbon Dioxide gases has led to regional changes that include snowier east-coast winters (and now a humid and very rainy summer), but longer fire-seasons and extremely hot weather in the western US. There is even a drought in Sweden, which is very unusual. In England, a drought has withered the country side (but there is still plenty of water to drink: https://www.ft.com/content/a0dd8ba6-8044-11e8-8e67-1e1a0846c475).
Some will claim that this is just "weather." They're right, but it may not be the weather they grew up with.
Barry Lynn
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Weather It Is (Wow, That's Strange!)
Good Evening:
This morning I thought seriously about turning on my windshield wipers. It just seemed the thing to do as drops of rain fell from a cloudy sky. But, I resisted the temptation even as I marvelled at the fall like cloudy sky in the beginning of August.
Weak low pressure in the middle atmosphere should combine with strong westerly flow aloft to bring us a continued chance of very light showers into early Shabbat. However, the winds should switch to the southwest and temperatures should warm to uncomfortable levels (mid 30s) as we progress from early to mid-next-week.
The unusually cool weather of today (Thursday) and yesterday are courtesy of an unusually cold vortex over western Siberia. This is the type of set-up that can contribute to bringing us unusually cold, and even snowy weather during our winter months. This vortex should elongate and move northward during next week's hot weather, but could return early the week after.
Our kids have pointed out that there are some things one expects in Israel (besides missiles from Gaza) and that's hot, summer weather. Hence, they were surprised (and a bit annoyed) to arrive back in Israel after a visit to see the grandparents and find that the weather here today is the same as the weather we left in the Dolomites of Italy, where the elevation is closer to our Har Hermon than Gush Etzion.
Of course, that's nothing to complain about compared to the spider that ate my wife the week before last.
These strange happenings started in the evening when my wife went upstairs for an early bed-time. Relaxing and supine while looking at weather maps in the living room, I heard a scream. I came running upstairs (taking the stairs two at a time) to find a rather large spider in the bathroom. The spider was looking at my wife and my wife was looking at the spider, and then the spider was looking at the both of us. What the spider didn't know was that he (or she) looked larger to my wife than to me (https://www.livescience.com/53765-arachnophobes-perceive-spiders-as-bigger.html), so it was left to me to grab a towel and show the spider the door.
However, no sooner had I mentioned that the spider likely had (has) a spider-mate, did I hear another scream from the bathroom, and the same process repeated itself.
After picking up and moving the furniture, cleaning the bedroom with a vacuum and a candle to light the way, we went to bed, but not before I remarked that I hoped that these spiders were the parents and not the children, otherwise I might not wake up next to my wife, but a spider.
I thought this pretty witty, but the crack of dawn revealed much less than a laughing matter. My wife was gone! It was no joke after all -- a spider ate my wife!
Okay, that's seems farfetched. What really happened is that she dreamed that a spider ate me and she'd fled from the room for the safety of the lower floors. She wasn't eaten, she was just fled.
At least our room is clean for Passover.
Shabbat Shalom,
Barry Lynn
This morning I thought seriously about turning on my windshield wipers. It just seemed the thing to do as drops of rain fell from a cloudy sky. But, I resisted the temptation even as I marvelled at the fall like cloudy sky in the beginning of August.
Weak low pressure in the middle atmosphere should combine with strong westerly flow aloft to bring us a continued chance of very light showers into early Shabbat. However, the winds should switch to the southwest and temperatures should warm to uncomfortable levels (mid 30s) as we progress from early to mid-next-week.
The unusually cool weather of today (Thursday) and yesterday are courtesy of an unusually cold vortex over western Siberia. This is the type of set-up that can contribute to bringing us unusually cold, and even snowy weather during our winter months. This vortex should elongate and move northward during next week's hot weather, but could return early the week after.
Our kids have pointed out that there are some things one expects in Israel (besides missiles from Gaza) and that's hot, summer weather. Hence, they were surprised (and a bit annoyed) to arrive back in Israel after a visit to see the grandparents and find that the weather here today is the same as the weather we left in the Dolomites of Italy, where the elevation is closer to our Har Hermon than Gush Etzion.
Of course, that's nothing to complain about compared to the spider that ate my wife the week before last.
These strange happenings started in the evening when my wife went upstairs for an early bed-time. Relaxing and supine while looking at weather maps in the living room, I heard a scream. I came running upstairs (taking the stairs two at a time) to find a rather large spider in the bathroom. The spider was looking at my wife and my wife was looking at the spider, and then the spider was looking at the both of us. What the spider didn't know was that he (or she) looked larger to my wife than to me (https://www.livescience.com/53765-arachnophobes-perceive-spiders-as-bigger.html), so it was left to me to grab a towel and show the spider the door.
However, no sooner had I mentioned that the spider likely had (has) a spider-mate, did I hear another scream from the bathroom, and the same process repeated itself.
After picking up and moving the furniture, cleaning the bedroom with a vacuum and a candle to light the way, we went to bed, but not before I remarked that I hoped that these spiders were the parents and not the children, otherwise I might not wake up next to my wife, but a spider.
I thought this pretty witty, but the crack of dawn revealed much less than a laughing matter. My wife was gone! It was no joke after all -- a spider ate my wife!
Okay, that's seems farfetched. What really happened is that she dreamed that a spider ate me and she'd fled from the room for the safety of the lower floors. She wasn't eaten, she was just fled.
At least our room is clean for Passover.
Shabbat Shalom,
Barry Lynn
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