August 31, 2017
We did have a nice Aurora last night.....
August 30, 2017
Possible Aurora Tonight...
There are fires throughout most of the Cascade range right now from Canada to California. This explains the smoke we are experiencing. One of the big contributors is the Jolly Mtn. fire just NW of Cle Elum. Here is a map of the fires:
I just put together a time lapse of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday taken at the same time to show the progression of the smoke.
August 28, 2017
Yesterday we decided to run up to Port Hudson in our boat for lunch. When we got there, the sky was just incredible. We saw something that I couldn't explain. There were dark vertical shafts across the horizon. I took some pictures and shared it with Scott Sistek at KOMO. He found that they were shadows on the smoke layer from the clouds above. They were very eerie looking. Here is Scott's Blog:
http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/whats-with-the-spooky-dark-clouds-a-trick-of-the-smoke-layer
Here are the pics:
Last night the smoke started to show from the Jolly Mtn. fire that is just NW of Cle Elum.
August 25, 2017
Incredible sunrise this morning....
HD Link to this video: http://skunkbayweather.com/SR0825.mp4
A note about Hurricane Harvey:
It is taking a very similar approach to the mainland as the most deadly hurricane on record. The 1900 Galveston Hurricane left between 6,000 and 12,000 dead. It remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history. It was believed to be a Category 4 at landfall and Harvey is currently forecast as a Category 2-3. So, the winds will not be as strong, but flooding will be the big issue. A lot of the deaths were attributed to flooding from the storm surge along with heavy rains. There will be similar, but slightly less intense conditions with Harvey. The big difference is the change in the infrastructure of Galveston and surrounding areas. Seawalls have been constructed and some areas have been elevated since then. Bottom line, thanks to good forecasting and evacuation notices this will be nothing like the 1900 storm, but it is still a storm that deserves a huge amount of respect. The rainfall associated with Harvey is forecast to be horrific and there will be flooding.
HD Link to this video: http://skunkbayweather.com/SR0825.mp4
A note about Hurricane Harvey:
It is taking a very similar approach to the mainland as the most deadly hurricane on record. The 1900 Galveston Hurricane left between 6,000 and 12,000 dead. It remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history. It was believed to be a Category 4 at landfall and Harvey is currently forecast as a Category 2-3. So, the winds will not be as strong, but flooding will be the big issue. A lot of the deaths were attributed to flooding from the storm surge along with heavy rains. There will be similar, but slightly less intense conditions with Harvey. The big difference is the change in the infrastructure of Galveston and surrounding areas. Seawalls have been constructed and some areas have been elevated since then. Bottom line, thanks to good forecasting and evacuation notices this will be nothing like the 1900 storm, but it is still a storm that deserves a huge amount of respect. The rainfall associated with Harvey is forecast to be horrific and there will be flooding.
Here is more information on the 1900
Galveston Hurricane….
August 23, 2017
We had an incredible sunset this evening....
We had another minor Aurora storm last night and this morning. Here are a couple of time lapses and an image from just before sunrise:
Here is a time lapse of just the morning when it was fairly intense:
This is a video of all night. There was a minor storm for most of the evening:
August 22, 2017
A nice example of a Superior Mirage today. These images are of Bush Point on Whidbey Island ( 8 miles away). This is the beginning, full on and then no mirage for perspective...
The eclipse was a bust for all 5 of my cams... Unless you enjoy time lapse video of fog.... But, last night we were treated to a Northern Lights show.
The time lapse is best view here, but requires a fast internet connection:
http://skunkbayweather.com/NL0822.mp4
August 20, 2017
There has been so much press about the eclipse I have not wanted to add to the noise… But here are my plans. My cams all point North and are fixed mount, so I will not be photographing the actual eclipse. There will be many, many images from far more skilled photographers than me, so I am not feeling left out…. My photography is a little different niche.
I will have 5 cameras running tomorrow morning. Hopefully they won’t be exciting images of fog….. I have the 3 main cameras that provide the panorama image at the top of my site that run 24/7/365 and time lapse every hour.
Since we are looking at close to total darkness, I will be firing up my
Canon night cam for about 30 minutes before and after the peak. My
goal will be to see stars…. Lofty goal, but I will be setting the
camera to capture any light available either side of the peak. So, that
camera will be overexposed before and after. Hopefully it will be
perfectly exposed at the peak…. It’s all guesswork and I cannot
manually adjust the camera during this event without messing up the
images.
I just received a new camera that I bought as a spare to my Canon night cam. I will be setting it up on a temporary tripod pointing North as well. It will be set to automatically adjust to the light levels throughout the event. With the automatic settings it will not have great detail when it gets really dark, but it should do a nice job of capturing the transition from light to darkness to light..... I plan on running it from 9:00 to noon. Hopefully it will provide nice high definition images that will transition smoothly in time lapse. Regardless, it will be an interesting day…..
There are lots of websites to look at that provide information about tomorrow, but so far, this is my favorite for simplicity…. Just plug in your zip code….
http://amp.timeinc.net/time/4882923/total-solar-eclipse-map-places-view/
I just received a new camera that I bought as a spare to my Canon night cam. I will be setting it up on a temporary tripod pointing North as well. It will be set to automatically adjust to the light levels throughout the event. With the automatic settings it will not have great detail when it gets really dark, but it should do a nice job of capturing the transition from light to darkness to light..... I plan on running it from 9:00 to noon. Hopefully it will provide nice high definition images that will transition smoothly in time lapse. Regardless, it will be an interesting day…..
There are lots of websites to look at that provide information about tomorrow, but so far, this is my favorite for simplicity…. Just plug in your zip code….
http://amp.timeinc.net/time/4882923/total-solar-eclipse-map-places-view/
August 19, 2017
Spotted some very strange light coming from one of the cruise ships that went by last night...
We also had a nice moon rise / sunrise again with the moon chasing Venus....
August 18, 2017
Thoughts I shared on Facebook tonight....
I think our simple home in Hansville is going to be a wonderful place to be around 10:20am on Monday morning.... I just hope that folks in the area will "listen" and appreciate the sounds (or lack thereof) as the eclipse happens.... I really hope that the rumor of fireworks at that time is NOT true.... I have only experienced one other eclipse in my life and it was what I heard that I remember most....
Another great night for stargazing.... A minor Aurora event along with a few small meteors....
We also had a great moonrise and sunrise....
August 16, 2017
A beautiful night for star gazing...
HD Link: http://skunkbayweather.com/AllNight081617.mp4
August 14, 2017
There was a HUGE fire on Whidbey Island this morning....
August 12, 2017
This is a time lapse video of the cloudy night last night. There were some stars, but the real highlight here is seeing how the cruise ships light up the sky..... Wow....
August 11, 2017
Thought I'd have a little fun with the Groundhog Day theme.... This is a bit longer than usual and intentionally annoying.... :)
August 10, 2017
Anybody else feel like Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day?.....
August 7, 2017
Tonight, in the increasing smoke from the BC fires, we had a remarkable superior mirage from Bush Point on Whidbey Island. Notice the distortion on the trees to the left. This is called a fata morgana....
