Category Archives: environment

Californa’s smoke and carbon monoxide offshore

From December 11: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=91427&src=eoa-iotd  

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Alexa, fix Seattle!

Lately I’ve been reading Hit Refresh, the best-selling autobiography of Satya Nadella in which this CEO gives his philosophy of making Microsoft a more empathetic yet successful leader in transforming technology. But what does this really have to do with Seattle’s problems … Continue reading

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Just the tip

From Dorothy Wendler

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Drone tour of the waterfront tunnel

From the WSDOT: Take an early 2 minute tour of the tunnel  

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First Hill Improvement Association to meet about the Skyline Olympic-Cascade Sky-bridge proposal

Tuesday, October 17th 6:00 – 7:30pm Frye Art Museum (704 Terry Ave) The public meeting will discuss the plans for the proposed 715 8th Ave retirement tower at the southwest corner of the 8th Ave and Columbia St intersection. This project is … Continue reading

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“High pressure ridges” and the jet stream meanders

Keep hearing of a “ridge of high pressure” in the weather forecast?  Here are two. The top is Arctic and Alaska, the star is Seattle, and you can spot Baja California.  Oriented?  Note the polar jet stream coming across the Pacific, … Continue reading

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Brief History of the National Park Service

 

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The wide eraser and Florida

The first thing to note is just how big it is, relative to the width of the Florida peninsula. The width of the track of hurricane-force winds (74 mph at the edges, 185 in the middle) near PR and Cuba can … Continue reading

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Why not a category 6 (or 7) hurricane

From Gordon Gray and Popular Mechanics: “Dr. Simpson explained the lack of Category 6 (or 7!) storms in a 2001 interview with the Sun-Sentinel by putting it this way: I think it’s immaterial. Because when you get up into winds in excess of 155 … Continue reading

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Irma heading into hot water near Florida this weekend

Irma is the second most powerful hurricane ever recorded–so far.  Hurricanes get their power from a heated surface; if the warm surface layer is shallow, they can deplete this heat source quickly–but in Irma’s case, the warm water goes deeper … Continue reading

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Flowers for our dining room – a gracious gift

Are you enjoying the flowers in the Olympic Dining Room? Jean Gibbs heads up this special group of ladies who arrange and distribute the new centerpiece floral pieces each Friday. In the picture above L to R are Peggy MacRae, Karen … Continue reading

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Recycle Your Eclipse Glasses

What have you done with your eclipse glasses? Please don’t throw them away—because many of the glasses are certified for safe use for up to three years. Which is good news for people, especially kids, in South America and Asia who … Continue reading

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If the winds had been the other direction

During those BC fires which provided smoke to Washington State in early August, the wind direction farther north at Lake Athabasca was out of the south causing smoke to accumulate in the Arctic.  You can see the situation intensify over … Continue reading

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Trump Says Sun Equally to Blame for Blocking Moon

Satire from Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker: WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Attacking the media for its “very unfair” coverage of Monday’s solar eclipse, Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that the sun was equally to blame for blocking the moon. … Continue reading

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Rattlesnake Ledge

Today’s view from the ledge above Rattlesnake Lake near North Bend, part of the I-90 Mountains to Sound Greenway. Tours are available to the nearby Cedar River Watershed and Chester Morse Lake – a major source of our local water. … Continue reading

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Price increase notice – America the Beautiful pass – going from $10 to $80

From Barb Williams: On August 28, 2017, the price of the America the Beautiful – The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Senior Pass will increase from $10 to $80. The pass provides access to more than 2,000 recreation sites, … Continue reading

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from Gordon Gray – thanks! Also, for more about eclipses from the Smithsonian (via Ann Milam), click here.

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Add Ozone to the miseries of the Seattle Smoke

To quote Cliff Mass: According to Dr. Jaffe, we have not seen [ozone] like this in decades.  So with smoke adding lots of particles into the atmosphere (documented in previous blogs), high ozone levels, a depressing sky with little visibility, and … Continue reading

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Sea-Tac’s rain gage has been empty!

From Gordon Gray:  

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Eclipse solar glasses

From Ann Milam: The market is flooded with “solar glasses” that are unsafe. Please check this reference from the National Science Foundation before ordering a pair: https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters

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Finding Freeway Park – give your input!

From Sue Van Leuven: The Freeway Park Association is working with SDOT and Parks to design safer and more attractive pedestrian entrances to the Park. take a few minutes to review a series of Finding Freeway Park design boards that can … Continue reading

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Umbraphiles, coronaphiles, eclipsoholics and ecliptomaniacs

From Ann Milam Click here for an interesting history of eclipses from the Smithsonian Magazine.  

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The Greening before The Smoke

Satellite photo 7/31/2017 from a few days before the BC smoke obscured the area.  That’s a phytoplankton bloom covering all of Hood Canal. The source of discoloration is a huge bloom of microscopic phytoplankton plated with white calcium carbonate. Under … Continue reading

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Planned downtown marina

Big plans by the Port of Seattle. Click here for more info on the Bell Harbor Marina. Some wonder just how big the Port’s budget is!

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The Smoke comes and goes

The Seattle Times put together a nice illustration of how our smoke comes and goes:

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