A beautiful side-effect of the hexagonal shape of ice crystals is the halos and arcs which they produce. These range from the ‘common’ 22 degree halo (a circle of light around the sun, reddish on the inside, bluey on the outside) to exceptionally rare optical phenomena such as the Parry and Lowitz arcs. In all … Continue reading “The Parry arc”
Record amounts of rainfall have inundated the northeastern Australian state of Queensland over the past four months, culminating in the most damaging floods in the state’s history. September-November 2010 was the wettest spring on record in Queensland, with most of the central and eastern parts of the state receiving three or four times their normal … Continue reading “Queensland floods driven by strongest La Nina since 1974”
A bit out of time with current conditions, but nonetheless I thought some people might enjoy a nice short article on snowflakes by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/01/03/110103taco_talk_gopnik Some snowflake photography by Wilson Bentley can be found at the NOAA photo library: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/brs/nwind33.htm
Hope you all had an excellent holiday period and are raring to get back into work/study. As usual we have an excellent list of bloggers ready to provide you with some interesting discussion of Weather and Climate throughout this term.As you can see there are still a few spaces open so please do get in … Continue reading “Spring Term 2011 – List of bloggers”