Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Environment

Monsoon Season Is Back

Cumulonimbus

I took this photo of a towering cumulonimbus cloud forming over the Bradshaw Mountains north of Wickenburg earlier this afternoon. (Click on the image to enlarge.) At this time (~5:30 PM), clouds are forming overhead and we can hear the sound of thunder in the distance. Looking at the area radar, I can see precipitation moving generally toward us. I expect that we may be in for some more rain. We had showers two days ago that lasted late into the night.

Before we retired, Damsel and I would come to Arizona on vacation and would look forward to seeing the monsoons. We have been in them everywhere from Tucson to The Grand Canyon. Now, we can sit on the back patio or in the courtyard and see them when they come here. We love the smell of the creosote in the rain.

05 Jul 2014 by Arizona Environment Photography

Arthur

Arthur

We were watching some of the NASCAR practice runs for the races taking place in Daytona Beach, FL, this weekend. The officials suspended the raceway activities due to rain and lightning in the area. I went to the NWS National Composite Radar website to have a look at the extent of the shower activity in Florida. I was taken by surprise when I saw the radar image of Hurricane Arthur off the Carolinas. I read about Arthur when it was a tropical storm a couple of days ago but it is now a Class II hurricane.

The image is a screen capture from about four PM (AZ time) this afternoon.

03 Jul 2014 by Environment Technobabble

Lurking

LurkerIf you look near the bottom left of this photo, you will notice a Greater Road Runner (Geococcyx californianus) who, at the time, was being very still. The finch feeders above the bird are usually populated with several goldfinches and/or house finches and, as you can see, there are none present.

We have seen this behavior before, where the road runner will lurk near he base of the feeders and wait for a finch to come. The larger bird will then leap and try to catch one of the smaller birds. We have yet to see it score a finch, but we’re not looking all the time.

Wickipedia has this trivia about the roadrunner’s diet:

It mainly feeds on insects, fruit and seeds with the addition of small reptiles, small rodents,tarantula hawks, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, small birds, their eggs, and carrion, including roadkills. It kills larger prey with a blow from the beak—hitting the base of the neck of small mammals—or by holding it in the beak and beating it against a rock. Two roadrunners sometimes attack a relatively big snake cooperatively.

Click on the image to enlarge.

24 Jun 2014 by Arizona Critters Environment

First Day of Summer

Solstice

Today is the first day of summer. The above is a screenshot captured from the Archaeoastronomy website where the eight significant stations of the Earth’s orbit are depicted: solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarters.

Now, it is time to brace yourselves for the inundation of the greenbats cries about global warming, regardless of summer being quite a natural phenomenon. It’s all about their political agenda, not about the weather.

From Joe Bastardi via The Patriot Post:

I have stopped trying to argue with someone who refuses to look at anything but that which supports his own position. It’s pointless. So in an effort to end a debate quickly, I now politely ask individuals to explain how CO2, given how small it is relative to all around it, actually changes the entire system. That usually stops it with most of the crowd. Like many things I see with new age forecasters today, they will jump on one weather factor and not understand its behavior is because of everything around it.

The second thing I do is put the ball in their court. This requires knowing what went on historically with weather/climate. So I ask what the perfect number is for CO2 in the atmosphere. An example: Dr. Bill McKibben – one of the people I am frequently amazed with because his comments indicate he either does not know and understand what the weather has done before, or does and refuses to let that get in the way – runs a group called 350.org. He and his team want CO2 at 350 ppm (parts per million). So let’s just go to 350 ppm and see what it was like.

First, here is CO2 on the “correct” scale, which is the percentage of the atmosphere. This is not what you commonly see, which is the amount of CO2 in parts per million, where CO2 is grossly over-represented. The scale should be from one to a million, not a tiny fraction of a million.

[more]

21 Jun 2014 by Astronomy Environment Global Warming Greenbats

Dust Devil

Dust Devil

On our way back home from K-stan today, Damsel photographed this very large dust devil as we passed through the Arizona Outback. Conditions were nominally conducive for dust devils to form, with the 102 ° temperatures and ten to twenty knots of wind with gusts to 35. These guys do little damage, but can disrupt your daily activities by repositioning the trash bins and anything else not tied down. We’re learning to cope with these mini-tornadoes. Click on the image to enlarge.

29 May 2014 by Arizona Environment Photography

Quail Brood

Quail Brood

We stopped at the last rest stop in Arizona before crossing into California on our way out to the old homestead today. We have to stop in order to (as Bob says) “Californicate” our carry weapons. You know, unload and lock the guns away where they are of no use to us for self defense purposes. But, enough about the unconstitutional state of Kalifornistan.

At the rest stop, a family of quail, a mama and papa and their brood of seven chicks were browsing the area just as we were leaving the rest stop. I took several images of these cute little birds as they made their way to wherever they were headed. Click on the image to enlarge.

27 May 2014 by Arizona Critters Environment Photography Second Amendment

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