Here is Cliff's Latest Blog:
And a video of Steam Fog in Skunk Bay
We have been watching this for a while now and the forecast models are starting to agree.... We have some BRUTAL weather coming and we had better prepare right away. This has the potential to be record setting. I really like following Cliff Mass through extreme events like this. He has some very interesting insight into this coming event.
Here is his latest blog: Cliff Mass Blog
There was a huge solar storm going on yesterday afternoon. The odds of seeing the Aurora were slim and none because of the heavy cloud cover and timing. Clouds and daylight make it impossible. I chose not to run my good night cam, but was later "inspired" by a follower.... Very glad I got the nudge.
These are HUGE KP levels. The higher the number the bigger the storm. My cam usually can pick up the lights above 4KP. They are typically visible to the naked eye around 5.5 and above. This was an incredible storm, but we had heavy clouds.....
Last night was perhaps the best show I have ever seen. Even to the naked eye, the whole northern sky was lit up around 11:30pm. Here is a time lapse of the whole evening and a few images.
Every year for about 6 weeks we get the opportunity to see Noctilucent Clouds... 3 weeks either side of the Summer Solstice. They happen about an hour after sunset and an hour or 2 before sunrise. On Thursday they were so bright they actually lit up our bedroom. They are WAY up in the Northern sky... About 250,000 to 300,000 feet above the earth's surface. Still images are nice, but I really enjoy watching them on time lapse. Here is a panorama image from Cam 2 and Cam 3.
Last night we had a great Aurora show. It lasted for over 5 hours. Here is a time lapse of it.
Yesterday, March 28th we had a weather day that provided just about everything, except a water spout. Although at times it looked close. The day started with gusts to 30+ by 7:30am, 40+ by 9:00am and peaked at 53mph at 10:40am. The house was shaking. I have put together a few videos of yesterday. One of the most interesting was when the cold front passed in the afternoon. We had steady south winds as you can see by the flag and then there was a rapid about face Northerly wind that came with heavy rain and snow mix. At the end of this video you can actually see snow accumulating on the enclosure glass.
Here is about a 2.5 minute recap going from cam to cam. There was a LOT going on....
Sadly, around 1:00am this morning a fire started in a two story structure on Whidbey Island. Fortunately nobody was home and nobody was injured. It eventually spread to 2 - 120 gallon propane tanks that were venting. The resulting flames were spectacular. My cam picked it up. KOMO also picked it up.
Here is a zoomed in image at the height of the flames. It looked like a nuclear detonation...
A time lapse also shows the intensity...
KOMO picked up my video and added more detail:
A little before 8:00 on February 26th the sky started lighting up over Whidbey. After I parsed out all the images there were some unique shots. In particular a double ground to cloud strike in the same image.
It looks like there is some white stuff coming our way. How much for Hansville is always a tough call, but there are 3 back to back storms coming. Cliff Mass does an excellent job of breaking it down.
It was a good year to look up in the sky....
Comet Neowise and Noctilucent Clouds from July 14, 2020
Best Viewed Here: http://www.skunkbayweather.com/Neowise071420.mp4