Davis In Japan: Have You Ever Stood At The Base Of An Active Volcano?
This is Mt. Asama. Those are not all clouds at the top of the mountain. Check out the picture below taken on a clear day.
My father in law has a vacation cabin about four miles from the base of the volcano. Last September, he heard a loud explosion that shook the house. Minutes later, small rocks about 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter fell on the house, and a fine grey ash covered everything!
Geologists were predicting a “small event” and luckily they were right! Actually, it might have been a little bigger than they thought.
This is all pretty scary, because in 1783 this volcano created the largest eruption in Japan’s recorded history. During that eruption much of the nearby town was destroyed, killing most of the people living there. My father in law has boulders in his yard about 2-3 feet in diameter from that eruption 222 years ago. They flew through the air for four miles!
My father in law holding the rocks that fell on his house last September
Rocks and some of the ash that fell last September
Here are some great educational web sites on volcanoes:
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html
and if you can read Japanese, a site on Mt. Asama itself:
http://www.asamaen.tsumagoi.gunma.jp/
Shifting gears to a cute story:
I’m sure you know how much the Japanese people love the hot spring baths they have there. Well, so do the monkeys!
There is a place near Nagano (remember the 1998 Winter Olympics?) where monkeys come out of the mountains to take a hot spring bath. They are not scared of people and let us come very close and take pictures.
A baby monkey enjoying the water
The owners of the property feed them daily to encourage them. They have a web cam I have linked below. Remember, Japan time is 14 hours ahead of us, meaning our night is their day. So try this at night (the later, the better).
Monkey web cam (updates every 3 minutes):
http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm
Sayonara!
Sticky - icky’s!!
Thursday brings more heat and humidity!
Check out these high temperatures!
You can see the entire video forecast by clicking on the link just above our “mug shot” at the top of the page.
Another Air Alert for those who have sensitive lung conditions. You are urged to stay indoors.
Steamy Forecast The Next Few Days!
As we near closer to the holiday weekend, the heat is on! Today will be almost a carbon copy of yesterday…partly sunny skies with scattered afternoon t’showers (best chance today looks to be east along and east of I-65.) While readings will be in the lower 90’s today, tomorrow could be sultry! Assuming sunshine (the storms to our northwest don’t spread cloudiness in our direction during the day) temperatures have a pretty good shot of getting into the mid 90’s (95 degrees here in Nashville.) You factor in the humidity and wow…a heat index over 100!
How hot could it be? Consider the last 5 years:
Our warmest reading so far this year is 94 degrees.
In 2004, warmest day was 94 degrees.
In 2003, ditto…94 degrees.
In 2002, we got to 97 degrees.
In 2001, 95 degrees.
And in 2000, it was the last time we got to 100 degrees.
So with a forecasted high of 95 tomorrow, we could be looking at our warmest day in almost 3 years! Considering we are doing this in June, it could be one hot summer!
Our record high for Thursday is 106 degrees set back in 1952…no chance for that.
We have the 2nd named tropical system of the Atlantic hurricane season! Last night a cluster of showers and storms in extreme portions of the Gulf organized into Tropical Storm Bret.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
As you’ll see from the forecast track, it is not expected to affect us in any way.
You’ll be hearing a lot more about this during the upcoming weekend, but here’s some updated information on NASA’s “Deep Impact” project:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1536_1.asp
I don’t mean to bury the lead, but this struck my eye yesterday…could we actually look like Saturn in the future?
http://www.livescience.com/technology/050627_warming_solution.html
Hot is About to Get HOTTER!!
You know that saying, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity!”
Well, that’s true!! And we’re going to feel it Wednesday and Thursday.
Take a look at this:
Last week, we got to 94 degrees but the dewpoint was only 61 degrees. That’s a little muggy but not unbearable.
But when we hit 95 degrees this Thursday, the dewpoint will be in the low 70’s and that is downright muggy!
The dewpoint is a measure of moisture in the air on the Farenheit scale. You can learn more at this great explanation of the dewpoint.
“Kanichiwa” From Davis In Japan (I Wish I Could Send You Some More Rain)
I’m on my yearly trip to Japan to visit my in-laws, and it’s the middle of the “rainy season”. Ironically, rain has been sparse in Middle Tennessee until Sunday, when even then it was spotty. Looks like the Land Between The Lakes area was the luckiest.
I’d love to bring some rain back with me! Looks like you have some better chances this week.
We’ve been lucky as far as outdoor plans go. It seems to stop raining right when we go to places like Tokyo Disney, and of course, fishing. I went to the mountains yesterday with some friends and brought home about 18 rainbow trout. My father in law has a special smoked trout recipe. Can’t wait!
Sayonara!
“The Heat Is On!”
While that is a song of the 80’s, the reality for us is temperatures in the 90’s (by the way, when did the decade of the 90’s become retro?…I feel so old!) Sorry, got sidetracked…
As Lisa mentioned in her entry last night, our first air quality alert was issued yesterday for today. Air quality will be in the moderate category today, meaning those people sensitive to low level ozone and pollutants must take precautuion today. Here are some tips:
1) Limit your car use as much as possible, carpool if possible.
2) If you do drive, combine errands, limit engine idling and avoid rush hour if possible.
3) Don’t use gas powered yard equipment if you don’t need to.
4) Limit your time outdoors, especially between 2-7 pm.
Here’s the official website with our air quality forecast:
www.cleanairpartnership.info
On that site you can sign up to have the alerts e-mailed to you daily. Or if you prefer to use the phone, the hotline number is (615) 340-0488.
Hazy sunshine, heat and humidity will last at least through the middle of next week (you can see the 7 day forecast above.) While that may the big story for the weekend outdoor activities, by early next week we will be talking about the lack of rainfall again. 2.60″ of rain at Nashville International with very little hope of adding onto that. It won’t be one of the top 10 driest Junes but we are supposed to have 4.08″ this month. Put that on top of the 3rd driest May, and we could start using the “d” word soon.
Looking for hope is what we do though…there is a low spinning over Florida this morning. Some maps have it moving up the eastern seaboard over the weekend. Others, across the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas. Could this mean a better chance of rain early next week? We’ll see. We do know we need it!
Wx Talk in Putnam County
I just got back from a road trip to Cookeville - I spoke with 75 girl scouts for an hour at the Putnam County Fairgrounds and we had a great time!
The scouts had some great questions and we talked about plenty of weather, from tornadoes to lightning to rainbows to snow storms.
Thanks to everyone in Cookeville for their hospitality!
Air Quality Alert as the 90’s Settle In
Nashville’s first “Air Quality Alert” has been issued for Thursday, June 23rd. Temps climb into the 90’s, the air mass is stagnant and that means the pollutant ozone could be a threat to those who are unusually sensitive. It shouldn’t be a problem for most of us but f you have asthma or lung problems, you will want to stay indoors. This will probably be the case for the next several days.
No rain in the forecast until a slight chance Sunday and check out these temperatures!!
Summer Truly Kicks In…
The expected high temperature today of 88 degrees in Nashville will probably be as cool as we will be in quite a while…that’s because we don’t see the weather maps changing that much for as far as we can clearly see (next 10 days.)
The Bermuda High is a semi-permanant area of high pressure that sets up shop over the western Atlantic in the summer months. It not only keeps us warm, but deflects any cool fronts from bringing any widespread rainfall in our direction from the north. In some situations you can see afternoon storms, but not many are expected in the next several days.
Amazing to think if we didn’t get that rainfall from the remnants of Arlene where our water table would be right now (and bear in mind not everyone saw rainfall from that.) You have to go all the way back to late April to find a consistant period of rain. If the 7 day forecast above is correct, by this time next week we’ll be begging for some free water.
The Nashville Weather Service has declared this Lightning Awareness Week. Here’s all the details…
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/week.htm
You can’t underestimate the danger of lightning. Tornadoes and hurricanes get all the headlines but along with flooding, lightning is the deadliest part of the storm…and the statistics says so.
The sunshine will provide some really warm days this weekend, but the clear skies in the evening will deliver a beautiful sight for several nights. Not one, not two but THREE planets will be extremely close together. Here’s the skinny:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/22jun_spectacular.htm
Sunday Evening Update
A beautiful Father’s Day - the mercury climbed to 85 degress this afternoon in Nashville but humidity levels weren’t too bad across the mid-state thanks to a northeast breeze.
Warmer (and more humid) weather is on the way for the next work week, so I hope your air conditioner is in tip-top shape!
The video forecast has been updated and is available for viewing at the top of the blog.
Enjoy the remainder of your weekend - we’ll see you after the NBA Finals tonight for a late edition of News 2 Weekend!
