To the seasons of life
Moisture on Hamilton hill
A week before the site of a fire
Photo: KDG
The weekend saw moisture come to the valley including dew point drop. The mountain was the site of chemical water bombing on a fire recently.
On this Day: July 28th 1996
Kennewick man is found on the banks of a river in Kennewick Washington.
A low pressure front is working its way inland from the ocean and is pushing winds into Merritt. The winds are bringing coastal seagulls with it as hundreds were in the air Monday evening. Tuesday saw a lone seagull with four crows foraging for scraps at the mall bench. The mix seemed a bit off but there was a noticeable lack of hostility with the birds.
The accepting crows even seemed to have more peace with the gull then with the idled men that sometimes take that bench. Some rain may not be far behind these birds as a cooling is noticeable. The forecasters are saying a significant amount of rain will come to the central north of the province this week. Merritt does not usually have seagulls.
On this day: July 22 1985 Greek singer Nikos Ganos is born. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtvM1hxDA1s
Have a great weekend,
The forecast for the next week is over 30 degree Celsius weather .
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/canada/british-columbia/merritt
On this Day: July 3rd 1644
The last pair of Great auks is killed.
The great auk was an important part of many Native American cultures, both as a food source and as a symbolic item. Many Maritime Archaic people were buried with great auk bones, and one was buried covered in over 200 auk beaks, which are assumed to have been part of a cloak made of their skins. Early European explorers to the Americas used the auk as a convenient food source or as fishing bait, reducing its numbers. The bird’s down was in high demand in Europe, a factor which largely eliminated the European populations by the mid-16th century. Scientists soon began to realize that the great auk was disappearing and it became the beneficiary of many early environmental laws, but this proved not to be enough. Its growing rarity increased interest from European museums and private collectors in obtaining skins and eggs of the bird. On 3 July 1844, the last two confirmed specimens were killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, which also eliminated the last known breeding attempt. There are unconfirmed later reports of roaming individuals being seen or caught. A record of a bird in 1852 is considered by some to be the last sighting of the species. The great auk is mentioned in a number of novels and the scientific journal of the American Ornithologists’ Union is named The Auk in honour of this bird.
Source Wikipedia
On Saturday there was a sun dog reported in the morning rrsulting in a heavy frost on Sunday morning and a higher ceiling withj brighter sunny weather after a week of mostly cloudy and noted by locals as ” cold for the end of April.”
Sun dogs are commonly caused by the refraction of light from plate-shaped hexagonalice crystals either in high and cold cirrus or cirrostratus clouds or, during very cold weather, drifting in the air at low levels, in which case they are called diamond dust.[4] The crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. As the crystals gently float downwards with their large hexagonal faces almost horizontal, sunlight is refracted horizontally, and sun dogs are seen to the left and right of the Sun. Larger plates wobble more, and thus produce taller sundogs.[5]
Sun dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun; farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated.[6] The colors of the sun dog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle (if the latter is visible).[7]
The same plate shaped ice crystals that cause sun dogs are also responsible for the colourful circumzenithal arc, meaning that these two types of halo tend to co-occur.[8] The latter is often missed by viewers, however, since it is located more or less directly overhead. Another halo variety often seen together with sun dogs is the 22° halo, which forms a ring at roughly the same angular distance from the sun as the sun dogs, thus appearing to interconnect them. As the Sun rises higher, however, the rays passing through the plate crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane, causing their angle of deviation to increase and the sun dogs to move farther from the 22° halo, while staying at the same elevation.[9]
It is possible to predict the forms of sun dogs as would be seen on other planets and moons. Mars might have sun dogs formed by both water-ice and CO2-ice. On the giant gas planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — other crystals form the clouds of ammonia, methane, and other substances that can produce halos with four or more sun dogs.[10] Source wikipedia
A lunar halo was seen in January and pictures of it are in the header video
( Best Regards) of this page.
On this day: April 28th2001
Dennis Tito becomes the world first space tourist.
They look innocuous but they can be deadly. Water dripping off a roof can produce icicles weighting multiple tens of pounds quickly, these items falling can do serious damage to a human.
Damage and injuries caused by icicles
Icicles can pose both safety and structural dangers.[5] Icicles that hang from an object may fall and cause injury and/or damage to whoever or whatever is below them. In addition, ice deposits can be heavy. If enough icicles form on an object, the weight of the ice can severely damage the structural integrity of the object and may cause the object to break.
The story of an English youth who was killed by a falling icicle in 1776 has been often recounted.[6][7][8][9]
Armstrong, the scientist from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told a journalist, “Another twist is very large icicles falling from cliffs along highways hitting cars. Where I used to work doing avalanche hazard assessment and forecasting along U.S. Highway 550 in southwestern Colorado, icicles have fallen and destroyed passing cars.”[1]
In 2010, five people were killed and 150 injured by icicles in Saint Petersburg, Russia after a heavy snow that also caused apartment block roofs to collapse, as well as creating water damage to private homes and to the National Library of Russia.[10]
Kathleen F. Jones of the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory states, “The combination of the ice load and the wind on ice load can break wires, cross arms, and poles and/or other supporting structures. Damage associated with icicles on roofs may be to vehicles parked next to the overhang. Icicles on roofs are also often associated with ice dams that may cause water to infiltrate under the shingles with possible water damage to the house or building and its contents.”
Today in history: January 8th 1887
Wolf Mountain Montana sees the last battle between Crazy Horse and the United States Army
Hoar frost, Merritt BC
Photo KDG
Hoar frost was caused by high humidity and freezing temperatures on Sunday. This gave the citizens of Merritt a wonderful display.
Frost is the term for several types of coatings or deposits of ice that may form in humid air in cold conditions, usually overnight. In temperate climates it most commonly appears as fragile white crystals or frozen dew drops near the ground, but in cold climates it occurs in a greater variety of forms.[1]
Frost is known to damage crops or reduce future crop yields, therefore farmers in those regions often invest substantial means to prevent its forming. source wikipedia.
Rain and above freezing weather came up from the west behind the humidity, however we were treated to a display on Sunday. The long rang forecast calls for snow before Christmas an moderate sub zero temperatures.
Today in history: December 11th 1972
The sixth and final landing on the moon is made by Apollo 17.
Merritt Post Office
Voght and Granite
Photo: KDG
There was an ocean effect snow fall(our term) here in Merritt last night, as witnessed by a confused seagull circling the Rail yard mall , we can only imagine that the megalomaniac looking down would think that his droppings were not usually that pronounced.
Seagulls come with air flows from the coast and signal wind and weather change. The forecast is now to turn colder after the next two days with over night lows going to well below freezing for Friday and Saturday. Hope the snow lasts.
http://www.weather.com/weather/5day/l/CAXX0830:1:CA
A tradition of Canadian Prime ministers is to go for a walk in the snow when contemplating calling an election.The PM still has that prerogative however elections have been put on a four year cycle with a semi fixed date. ( we don’t think it has anything to do with global warming) Jean Chretien went for a walk in the snow before risking trying for a 3rd term below. The fixed date is in May….
Today in history November 27th 2000
The liberal party of Canada wins a third term with an increase in members over the previous term.
Fire fighting crews got a a break from the heat by way of heavy rain yesterday. Two helicopters were seen over the airstrip around noon, just before a brief ice storm was followed by a summer cloud burst. People were kept in the local Starbucks for about a half an hour as thunder and heavy rain fell. One conversation about what to do if the power went off, was answered by an offical, the plan is use the made coffee and call to see how long it would be off. If it was hours then the store would close. Editors note: most public buildings over a capacity have emergency lighting, some like hospitals have emergency generators.
Three days of rain are in the forecast from Wednesday, thursday morning is forecast to feel like 9 degrees c.
Friday should see partly sunny conditions with 25 degree C temperatures, here.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/canada/british-columbia/merritt
Today in history: July 24th 1866
Reconstruction, Tennessee becomes the first state readmitted to the US after the civil war.
Snow returns to the Nicola Valley:
Photo KDG
On Tuesday the temperature was by some accounts -14 C in the morning but going to + 3C in mid afternoon. At 7PM it had already got to the overnight low of -9C.
While overnight lows will be in the double digits this week daily highs will be at or above freezing. Saturday lows will plummet to close to -20s and highs will half that and stay in the cold and freezing range. ( accu weather)
http://www.bing.com/weather/search?q=merritt%20weather&unit=C&qpvt=merritt+weather&FORM=DTPWEA
Daylight saving time is not this weekend but next, March the 9th sees clocks back at 2AM
Today in history: February 26th 747
The new Epoch of time begins the Ptolemy’s Nabonassar ERA
Ducks on Nicola river, which way is south?
The cold is back this week with temperatures dropping unofficially to near minus 20 celsius. There is little snow on the ground and we expect that frost is building in the ground. The Nicola river that flows through town is building ice seemingly without concern by ducks that remain here.
Today in history: February 5th 1919
Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, DW Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks launch United Artists.
The weekend saw a lot of wind here probably gale force. At least one large tree was ripped up and half of it on the ground. Cold weather and snow was right behind it. Last night snow fell again and is still on the ground of this 600 meter above sea level community.
Some lighting and thunder claps proceeded a power outage over most the city of circa 8000 here. Causing intersections to be under person direction instead of street lights.
Calm and clearing at mid morning.
Editors note: powerful weather can put in play a series of events that can bring people into danger. Think ahead.
Today in History: April 30th 1492
Spain gives Christopher Columbus a charter to explore for a new world.
Hey Merit what do you say?
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 