Outside My Window

Last Thursday the Department of Environmental Protection issued a drought warning for 24 counties in Pennsylvania and a drought watch in the remaining 43.  The entire state is dry but some places are worse than others. 

Here in western Pennsylvania I could see it coming.

Since July we’ve had no rain for weeks at a time, then a day of mere drizzle or a single downpour that ran off the packed, dry dirt.  The ground is rock hard, the plants have shriveled, and some trees have lost their leaves even though it’s only September.  I was wondering when DEP would declare a drought.

A drought warning is more severe than a watch. Highlighted below are the counties in the warning zone.  As you can see, both the bottom left corner and the east central part of the state are in trouble.

In the warning area DEP asks residents to reduce water use voluntarily by 10-15 percent.  We’re urged not to water our lawns, not to take long showers, to check our faucets for leaks and to upgrade our plumbing.

I’m sure DEP told industry to conserve as well.  

I hope the industries that take water without giving it back(*) will stop drawing water until the drought is over.

(Drought photo from Shutterstock)

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(*)  In western Pennsylvania the Marcellus Shale drilling industry is permitted to draw 48.5 million gallons per day from the Ohio watershed.  The water cannot be given back because most of it is lost underground during hydraulic fracturing and the remainder, which cannot be treated yet to safe drinking water levels, is too dangerous to consume.  For a discussion of Marcellus Shale water issues see this paper by a law firm advising the industry, and this news article about the Monongahela River.

Last evening before Tropical Storm Earl reached Maine, I checked on what the birds were doing:

• Surf was high at the outer islands by late afternoon so rafts of common eiders came into the sheltered coves of Mt Desert.  I’ve never seen so many so close.
• Another ocean bird came in too. By dusk, northern gannets were hunting fish within sight of shore.
• An hour after sunset the air was calm and almost foggy when I heard large numbers of Swainson’s thrushes migrating in the dark, heading west along the coast.  It seemed to me they were flying toward the bad weather.  I wished them luck.

The wind and rain did not begin until 4:00am.  At dawn the crows & osprey were up and out as usual.  Maybe the birds are better informed than the Weather Channel.

UPDATE, 11:00am: No wind, and now no rain.  Earl was more hype than storm.

The sky was red-pink at sunrise this morning.

After five days of absolutely clear, hot weather the clouds are here in advance of Hurricane Earl.  By the time Earl gets here he’ll be downgraded to a tropical storm.  The wind out there in the Gulf of Maine will be 50-65 knots (57-74 mph) with waves 18-28 feet.

Sailors forewarn.

(p.s.  Here on land it will rain from midnight Fri to noon Sat with wind gusting to 50 mph.  Not bad.)

Today in coastal Maine we have a Heat Advisory and a Tropical Storm Warning.  Heat today will feel like 100 degrees and then tomorrow, wind, waves and rain.  So far all is calm.

We’re on Day Three of four days in a row of incredibly hot weather for Maine.  At this time of year the normal high we’re used to is 75. Today it will be 90 and the air quality will be bad because the air is moving up from PA, NYC, and the east coast.  It’s too hot to hike.

Some of you asked if Hurricane Earl will affect us. Yes, but my husband and I are looking forward to the rain & cooler temperatures.  We might regret that attitude at dawn on Saturday when Earl will have been here for 6 hours, but for now Earl is welcome to arrive ASAP!

What do birds do when it rains? 

If it’s storming they take shelter but during showers, even heavy ones, they’re willing to get wet.

In the National Aviary’s Wetlands Room there are sprinklers near the roof that turn on to simulate a tropical downpour.  Have you ever been there when it “rains?”  The birds react instantly.  Most of them sing or shout, some fly through the water, others bathe.  The room is filled with sound while the birds obviously enjoy themselves.

This month we’ve had some weather that’s felt mighty tropical, complete with brief downpours.  During one of them Marcy Cunkelman photographed this rose-breasted grosbeak in her yard.

He doesn’t seem to mind the rain, does he?  That’s probably because he lives in the tropics most of the year.

My goodness it was pouring!

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

And that would be all of us. 

If you’re not feeling well during this weather it’s not just the heat, it’s the air.

Bright sunshine and temperatures over 90 have brewed up some really bad air quality.

Shown above is our National Weather Service “1-hour average” ozone forecast for 5:00pm today.  Red means unhealthy air and as you can see it’s not confined to cities. 

Ozone is cosmopolitan because it’s formed in the sky and blows with the wind.  It’s created when heat and sunlight cause nitrous oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to chemically combine into O₃.   NOx and VOCs come from motor vehicles, power plants, industry and chemical emissions and from those new gas well compressor stations popping up in Pennsylvania.  That’s why we’re urged not to drive so much and to use less electricity on Ozone Action Days.

We’re also told to stay indoors.  That may work for us but it doesn’t help birds, animals and plants that have nowhere else to go.  Ozone is harmful to their respiratory systems, too, and it burns sensitive plants.

So we’re all limiting our activity today – a sort of Ozone Inaction Day – and waiting for the weather to change.

Bad news for everything that breathes. 

(NOAA’s 1-hour ozone prediction for the Eastern Great Lakes for 5:00pm July 6, 2010 (as of noon on July 5). Click on the image and the Loop Control arrow to watch the latest animation on the NOAA website.)
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p.s. GASP (Group Against Smog and Pollution) is working for clean air in southwestern PA. Please join us.

I find out the coolest things by working in television.  Here’s one about a “bird” I don’t normally discuss.

Last week I received an email from PBS Engineering with a list of dates and times when PBS stations will experience satellite interference from the Sun on the AMC-21 satellite. 

Why?

PBS uses AMC-21 to send programming to the stations.  PBS beams it up and each station has a dish to pull it down for pre-recording or broadcast. 

AMC-21 is a geosynchronous satellite so it orbits the earth at the same speed the ground is moving.  From our perspective on earth, the satellite never appears to move so we can point our dishes to just one place and never have to adjust them.  Unfortunately the sun reaches that same sweet spot twice a year.

In the weeks near the equinox the sun gets in the way.  For about 15 minutes per day the sun’s path is directly behind (in line with) the satellite.  The sun emits a lot of radio waves and in this position it confuses our dish receivers.  The dates and times of the interference depend on your location on earth.  It’s worse in heavy sun spot years.  This year “there should be minimal Ku-Band sun outage disruptions due to the low level of solar activity” according to PBS. 

For WQED most of the interference happened earlier this week.  Our last episode will be today from 3:45pm to 3:59pm but you’ll never notice it on the air.  We correct for it in our engineering department. 

The sun is on the move (actually the earth is traveling around it) so this phenomenon will stop soon.  To read more about it, see this informative article from Australia’s IPS Radio and Space Services.

And yes, some people call satellites “birds.”  It’s confusing!

(artists rendition of the AMC-21 satellite from Orbital Sciences Corporation)

It’s the last day of the shortest month of the year.  Thank heaven!  

As of this morning the first 27 days of February produced 48.3 inches of snowfall.  This is already the snowiest month ever recorded in Pittsburgh and if any accumulates today the record will go higher.  Today’s forecast calls for snow.  Less than an inch.  Hmmmm.

Until this month I was always happy to see snow.  Perhaps my short respite in Florida lowered my tolerance.  Perhaps more than four feet of it turned me off.

I still think snow is beautiful but I’m weary of it.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

The weatherman says it’s going to snow 6 to 10 more inches in the next two days with gusty winds and blowing, drifting snow.  Oh no!

Where will we put more snow?  Will the wind break the trees that survived until now?  Will the power stay on?  Will my street ever get plowed?  When will garbage collection resume?  When will the 56U bus, the one I take to work, start to run again?  Will any buses be running?  Will I be able to walk in the street to get to work without being killed?

I’m losing my resilience. 

It was pretty, but enough already!

(Snow in Greenfield, 8:00am Saturday Feb 6, 2010, photo by Kate St. John)