Thursday's Thought ....lol

A bridesmaid at 1!!!

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Tropical Storm Lisa

Lisa on Sept. 25 at 1523 UTC (11:23 a.m. EDT) the AIRS instrument showed much warmer cloud tops then than were seen in previous days, indicating that the cloud tops were not as high and cold as they were before. The stronger the thunderstorms and convection (rapidly rising air that forms thunderstorms that power a tropical cyclone) the stronger the storm.

Therefore, warmer cloud tops indicate that the power in a tropical cyclone is weakening as the clouds don't have the push to bring cloud tops higher. The last advisory on Lisa was issued by the National Hurricane Center on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. EDT when Lisa's remnants were near 26.1 North and 29.4 west. At that time, Lisa's remnant low pressure area had maximum sustained winds near 30 mph, and weakening. Lisa was drifting north-northwest and continued in that direction over the weekend. Lisa has no chance for regeneration.

Spring Has Sprung ......

If ever there was something to remind me that it was Spring beside the increasing temperatures it is the daily chorus from the Rainbow Lorrikeets that descend every morning and every afternoon to feed on my Callistemon (bottlebrush), Melaleuca (paperbark),  Eucalypt and Grevillea trees.

They arrive in full voice at daylight and squabble over who gets the tastiest buds, or the best vantage point. They are noisy, colourful and it is wonderful to have them play each day in my trees.

Then each night the Fruit Bats (Flying Foxes) soar in and to take their pick of the choicest blossoms.  Do they eat what the Lorrikeets leave or is it the other way around .... lol? They also squabble over the flowers but not as much as the Lorrikeets.

Add to all that the frogs each night (Striped Marsh Frogs) and you have a Chorus worthy of the Opera House.  (Go to the link and listen to their funny Tock, Tock, whock croak.)

Sadly I do not get as many frogs each season as I used to - once upon a time I would hear dozens of different frogs calling each night now I am lucky to get 5 or 6.

Still they call my front yard home and have done for the past 30 years since I put in a lovely pond just for them.

Just behind my place is the railway line and behind that is the local showground which has lots and lots of trees; the local flock of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos make their home there and so they visit regularly as well. Their raucous cries can be heard for kilometres .... lol.  The house opposite has a few She Oaks and they love to eat the nuts but it is a very precarious perch because the She Oak's branches are very thin.

Now I am waiting for the arrival of the tiny Blue Wrens that live n the tall grasses along the railway line - there is a very cocky male with his harem of 5 females who is very brave and daring - he comes right to my back door and looks to see if the dogs have left any remnants of dog biscuits as an extra treat instead of his usual insects.

Of course there are snakes and tortoises and lizards living behind my house but they rarely bother me and neither do the red back spiders or the funnel webs.


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Now a Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico

Karl on Sept. 15 and 16. On September 15 at 2153 UTC (5:53 p.m. EDT) Tropical storm Karl was still powerful and very well organized even though it had been over the Yucatan Peninsula for over nine hours. TRMM's Precipitation Radar showed that a cluster of very intense thunderstorms were dropping extreme amounts of rain near the storms center and along a feeder band in the western part of the storm.

Karl moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico between 0330 and 0430 UTC (near midnight Eastern Daylight Time). At 0603 UTC (2:03 a.m. EDT) as Karl was already in the Gulf, TRMM saw light to moderate rainfall occurring in the storm, falling at a rate between .78 to 1.57 inches per hour. Once Karl moved farther into the Gulf, the rainfall rates increased as Karl became a hurricane.

System 92L Looking More Like a Tropical Depression

As the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 satellite keeps relaying data to NOAA (who manages the satellite) and the NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the images created by the NASA GOES Project reveal that System 92L appears to be taking on the appearance of a tropical depression. In the imagery captured today, Sept. 14 at 1340 UTC (9:40 a.m. EDT), System 92L is developing the signature comma shape of a tropical cyclone, with outer bands developing around the center.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. noted that the showers and thunderstorms within System 92L have even become a little better organized this morning. System 92L is forecast to continue marching west to northwest at 10 to 15 mph over the next couple of days. As it moves through the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea over the next two days, it has a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression. That would make it the 13th tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Season if that happens.

Category 4 Hurricane With Icy Cloud Tops and Heavy Rainfall

Last week, Igor was a tropical storm who faded into a tropical depression. The National Hurricane Center had forecast that over the weekend Igor would approach more favorable conditions (low wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures) causing it to strengthen into a hurricane and it did. Tropical storm Igor was upgraded by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida to a hurricane on Sunday, September 12 at 0300 UTC (Sept. 11 at 11 p.m. EDT) .

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which is operated jointly by NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA captured a good look at Igor a few hours after it reached hurricane status. TRMM passed over Igor and captured his rainfall rates at 0504UTC ( 1:04 a.m. EDT). The TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) instruments revealed that Igor had a well defined circular eye containing bands of heavy rainfall (falling at a rate of as much as 2 inches per hour).

Weekend Distractions Part Two - updated

Sadly the grinding work was finished before the darkness descended so no photos folk ....

What I did spend a lot of time working on during the weekend were two works - one is a watercolour of a parliament of owls and the other is a Buddha.

I tend to get rather absorbed when painting if either it is going well or I have some dilemma to solve. I have been known to start working on a canvas early in the morning and then discover that it is late afternoon! Wasn't quite that bad this weekend but was close ...

Thought I would post a picture of the latter and show what I am trying to do.

I wanted this to be a 3 dimensional work rather than a flat painting so I have been adding layers and layers and layers of modelling paste. Have to wait for each layer to dry before I add the next.

It is at a stage now where I think I have added the last layer. What I will do once this is dry is to sand all the roughness out of the face and see how it looks.

My intention is to then paint the whole canvas black/brown except for the flower which will be shades of pink, a lotus flower.

Then I have gold leaf which I intend to put on the face, also on the high points of the textured sides.  In places it, hopefully, will rub off and in others be clearly visible. I want to give the whole canvas an aged look.

Will keep you posted.

Oh - guess I should give you a sneak peek of the owls too ....

I want to paint some kangaroo and camel heads; need to take a trip to one of the local wildlife parks and take heaps of photos, do some charcoal sketches, maybe even a few watercolour sketches. Might look at doing some other native animal heads - wombat, some of out more 'handsome' lizards like the Frilled Neck.

So now need to find an animal park that has a variety of them - the local one 5 mins away, Featherdale, has a lot of kangaroo, wallaby and plenty of birds but only a couple of emu. There is another at Pennant Hills, Koala Park but they specialise in Koala so not entirely sure what other animals have have and how many.

I know of another at Helensburgh, Symbio Wildlife Park that may have what I am looking for and one more at Ourimbah, The Reptile Park, so need to research which one has plenty of all the animals I need.  Not much use travelling 50kms,  forking out $25 or so only to find they have only one, or worse, none of the animals I am looking for.

Then I can take a trip down (or up) there through the week or on the weekend and get some work done.


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Weekend Distractions

My house backs onto the main Western line in Sydney. Quite often they do track maintenance - in fact I think that the small 500m piece of track of one of the lines outside my back door is the most maintained in the state; they seem to work on it so often.

The most 'popular' maintenance of that little piece of track is grinding. This weekend they have been working since Sat morning and last night got the big guns out - a long 6 or so carriage grinder. But silly me forgot to take a picture, I was too busy watching. It did look spectacular against the black of night .... sparks flying everywhere.

Today they came back with the little grinder so I took a snap of that ... imagine 6 or so of these joined together, black of night with lots of grinding sparks shooting everywhere; really does look spectacular!

This small one doesn't send out as many sparks as the big overnight monster.

Fortunately, they have a small fire truck that follows it along because all the dried grass along the rails kept burning from the sparks.

If they do more grinding tonight I will make sure I have my camera ready.....lol.

Anyway, it was an interesting distraction while I was waiting for paint to dry on a watercolour I am working on.


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Tropical Storm Igor

Tropical Storm Igor on September 8 at 2026 UTC ( 4:26 PM EDT). A rainfall analysis from TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) showed an area of strong thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall in the newly named storm.

At 2 p.m. EDT on Sept. 9, Igor's winds were still sustained near 40 mph, and unchanged from earlier today. Igor is moving somewhat erratically, however. Early this morning he was moving north, now northwest at 10 mph. Igor was centered about 65 miles northwest of Brava in the Cape Verde Islands, near 15.5 North and 25.4 West. Minimum central pressure is 1006 millibars.

Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl's movement north were captured from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that flies aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. MODIS on Terra captured an image of Earl on Sept. 3 at 12:04 p.m. EDT when it was located east of the Virginia coast. MODIS on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Earl as it was parallel to the Maryland coast at 1:50 p.m. EDT. On Saturday, Sept. 4 at 1:15 p.m. EDT, MODIS on the NASA Terra satellite captured Earl when it was a tropical storm over Nova Scotia, Canada

Tropical Storm Hermine

Tropical Storm Hermine formed very quickly yesterday in the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and northeastern Mexico and southeastern Texas are now bearing the brunt of the storm. Infrared imagery taken from NASA's AIRS instrument showed a quick organization of strong thunderstorms around Hermine's center of circulation and very warm Gulf waters that powered her up.

At 11 p.m. EDT on September 6, Hermine made landfall as a strong tropical storm producing heavy rains over northeastern Mexico and South Texas.

This morning there's a tropical storm warning in effect from Bahia Algodones, Mexico Northward to Port O'Connor, Texas as Hermine is continuing to move inland in a north-northwest direction at 17 mph. At 8 a.m. EDT, Hermine's maximum sustained winds had decreased from their peak of 60 mph to 45 mph now that she's over land in south Texas. She's centered near 27.7 North and 98.2 West, which is about 35 miles southwest of Mathis, Texas. Mathis is about 171 miles north of Brownsville, Texas, the southernmost city in the state. Minimum central pressure is 991 millibars.

Tropical Depression Gaston's hurricane heat engine

The National Hurricane Center has issued its last advisory on Tropical Depression Gaston which degenerated into a remnant low by 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 2. Gaston's remnants were located about 1000 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands when his engine seized and he ran out of gas (moist, unstable air that helps power tropical cyclones.

Even though environmental conditions may improve a little as the remnant low moves westward at 5 to 10 mph during the next couple of days, the National Hurricane center gives it a low chance (20 percent) of becoming Gaston again over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

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Look who Turned One!!

"Come on, if I have to sit in this give me something to eat!"

"Hey, where's the food?"

"Ah yes, my official food tester .... Uncle Ben"

"Yummy ....  birthday cake!"

"Everybody sing.  Happy birthday to me!"

"Maybe I should just do a quality check before anyone eats one....."

"Mummy, Daddy and me...."

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New Atlantic Depression 9

The Atlantic Ocean is in overdrive this week, and NASA satellite imagery captured the birth of the ninth tropical depression in the central Atlantic Ocean today, trailing to the east of Tropical Storm Fiona.

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, flying onboard the Aqua satellite, captured an infrared image of Tropical Depression 9 on Sept. 1 at 03:41 UTC (Aug. 31 at 11:41 p.m. EDT). It showed high thunderstorm cloud tops west and southwest of the center of circulation indicating strong convection.

At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EDT) on Sept. 1, Tropical Depression 9 (TD9) was born in the Atlantic Ocean. It had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, and was moving west at 15 mph. It was located about 830 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, near 12.4 North and 35.8 West. Although there are warm sea surface temperatures (as seen in NASA's infrared AIRS imagery) over the 80 degree Fahrenheit threshold that's needed to power up tropical cyclones, there is wind shear in the area, so intensification will be slow to occur. is in overdrive this week, and NASA satellite imagery captured the birth of the ninth tropical depression in the central Atlantic Ocean today, trailing to the east of Tropical Storm Fiona.

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, flying onboard the Aqua satellite, captured an infrared image of Tropical Depression 9 on Sept. 1 at 03:41 UTC (Aug. 31 at 11:41 p.m. EDT). It showed high thunderstorm cloud tops west and southwest of the center of circulation indicating strong convection.

At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EDT) on Sept. 1, Tropical Depression 9 (TD9) was born in the Atlantic Ocean. It had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, and was moving west at 15 mph. It was located about 830 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, near 12.4 North and 35.8 West. Although there are warm sea surface temperatures (as seen in NASA's infrared AIRS imagery) over the 80 degree Fahrenheit threshold that's needed to power up tropical cyclones, there is wind shear in the area, so intensification will be slow to occur.