Tropical Storm Chaba

Tropical Depression 16W in the Pacific Northwest grew into Tropical Storm Chaba over the past weekend, infrared imagery from NASA revealed powerful thunderstorms around Chaba's center.

Tropical Storm Chaba is now located about 525 nautical miles south-southeast of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan.

On October 25 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) Chaba had maximum sustained winds near 60 knots (xx mph). It was still in open waters of the western North Pacific Ocean, near 18.3 North and 129.7 East. It was moving northwestward near 9 mph, and generating 19 foot-high seas.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Chaba on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 17:11 UTC (1:11 p.m. EDT) and captured an infrared image of the storm's cold cloud tops with th e Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument. At that time, Chaba's coldest cloud tops were as cold as or colder than -63 Fahrenheit indicating strong convection around the south and western edges of the center. The colder the thunderstrorm cloud tops, the higher the storms, and the stronger the thunderstorms.

Nan Tien Buddhist Temple

 
Back from my full day retreat of meditation and buddhist teachings. It was wonderful, just what I needed.

Bit sore today because I went up and down thousands of steps, sat cross-legged for ages, did walking meditation at normal pace and v e r y v e r y slowly (which left me sweating badly....lol).



Did  Tai Chi in the main courtyard (above right) - was quite hot but then in the afternoon a thunderstorm rolled in and left everything refreshed and so very green.

 Had a delicious lunch (vegetarian which was fine by me as I only eat meat when someone comes to visit) and had wandered around before another meditation session/lesson.



We were asked to maintain 'noble silence' for the day and 'banned' from the gift shop ... rotfl.

The gardens are beautiful and oh so lush and green. The whole temple is so lovely and so very calm and peaceful.

We finished the day with a talk on the basics Buddhism and how to adapt the teachings to our way of life and to find your inner self and peace.

I would certainly recommend it - even if you find strength in your own faith it can still offer you meditation techniques that you can use.  We all need to learn how to deal with stress, pain and everyday things.


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Tropical Storm Richard Born in the Caribbean

Another satellite captured the rate in which rain was falling within Tropical Storm Richard this morning. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) which is managed by NASA and the Japanese Space Agency flew over Richard this morning as dawn was breaking today at 1125 UTC (7:25 a.m. EDT).

A TRMM Visible and Infrared image from this early morning pass was overlaid with rainfall derived from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TM) and Precipitation Radar (PR) instruments. A few powerful thunderstorms were dropping heavy rainfall, falling at as much as 2 inches per hour, near Richard's center of circulation when he was still Tropical Depression 19.

It didn't take long for Tropical Depression 19 to strengthen into Tropical Storm Richard this morning. In fact, at 5 a.m. EDT, Richard was still a depression. Before 11 p.m. EDT on Oct. 20, it was just a low pressure area known as System 99L.

At 11 a.m. EDT today, Oct. 21, Richard had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph, and those are expected to increase in the warm waters of the western Caribbean. Those tropical-storm force winds have a good reach, however, extending up to 105 miles from the center, mostly to the east of the center. Richard could reach hurricane status in the next day or two.

Family Woes

In keeping with the family tradition of never doing things by half - elder son has his results back from the MRI .... Grade 3 tear on two of the knee ligaments and surgery is next.

He sees the doctor and worker's comp people today to find out when; luckily for me he has been down at his partner's home since it happened 2 weeks ago so I don't have to 'mother' him...lol. Not sure yet how long he will be off recuperating or how long he will have to wait until surgery.

The Abi spent the night at hospital - croup!

Never rains it pours in this family ... Abi with croup now, her Dad with a broken foot and now her uncle into hospital for repairs to knee....lol.

The good news is that M is over her flu - just in time to look after Abi - hopefully that's it!

I finally got my gouache plus a few extras this week when I took a trip to the Art Supplies shop - my I love going in there - like a kid in a candy store but I thought I was very restrained and only bought some pastels (they were only $10 on special) and a sheet of 850gsm paper which weren't on my shopping list.

The cat gave them the once over and declared them safe to use so I am ready to go.

I have never used pastels before - I had a small box of them and now this new lot - but I have seen some beautiful works done with them.  I will have to get some paper suitable for them and experiment.  Check out this site for some examples; you will go to my stuff then you can wander through the site and be amazed as some of the wonderful work.


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Typhoon Megi Northwest Pacific Ocean

On October 18, 2010, Typhoon Megi approached and made landfall in the northeastern Isabela Province of the Philippines. Spanning more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) across, Megi was the 15th tropical storm and 7th typhoon of the season in the western Pacific Ocean. It was the most intense tropical cyclone of the year to date.

News reports indicated at least one death and an unknown number of injuries, as power and communications was cut off to more than 90 percent of Isabela and Cagayan provinces. In addition to the immediate damage, officials were concerned about the long-term damage to the rice crop, a staple of the national diet.

This image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite at 10:35 a.m. Philippine Time (02:35 UTC) on October 18, 2010. Megi was bearing down on Palanan Bay as a “super typhoon” with category 5 strength on the Saffir Simpson scale. As of 8:00 a.m. local time, the storm had sustained winds of 268 kilometers (167 miles) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Birthdays

Grandson turns 8 tomorrow - my hasn't that gone fast!!

He is growing up and becoming a young man.

Saw him yesterday for a few hours; his Dad arranged a picnic for us all. Sadly younger son's wife, M and Abi were both ill so they couldn't join us, which was a shame because it is M's birthday today. Still it was a lovely day, warm and sunny (23C -73F) after the howling winds and cold, cold weather (hovered around 13C - 55F) on Friday and Saturday.

We don't see him often enough because his mum and Dad split a few years back. For some reason she and her girlfriend and children came also - beats me the idea behind that - she must think we are going to kidnap him or something. She still hasn't signed the access papers, after a year and a half, for his Dad to have him every second weekend. In view of the fact that she missed growing up with her Dad you would think she would not want the same thing happening with her son but....  Oh well, I guess we all do things in ways that others cannot understand.

Anyway, we saw him and that was what really mattered. Elder son and his partner are hoping to move to Queensland and B spoke to grandson about it; he was very excited to know that his Dad would love him to come up for a week during school holidays; just hope his Mum doesn't prevent it happening.

Of course, being a normal boy he couldn't just smile for the camera, had to pose and look 'cool'.... lol.

Off to get myself some gouache tomorrow - have 2 paintings partly done just waiting to finish them with gouache and have a few others planned in my head, will keep you posted and I'll post them on my Arty blog when they are completed.

Can't believe the change in the weather - southern NSW and northern Vic had so much rain that they have been declared Natural disaster areas; the roads and the railway line have been cut between the two.

For two or three days we went back to winter, even had snow on the mountains! Now we have returned to our normal spring weather; much as I like cool winter weather when it arrives in the middle of warm it is a bit of a shock.

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Hurricane Paula (Atlantic Ocean)

Paula as it traveled directly above on October 14, 2010 at 1437 UTC (10:47 AM EDT). The heaviest precipitation shown by TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data was off the coast of north-western Cuba. Paula was only producing scattered light to moderate rainfall elsewhere over western Cuba and the Florida Keys.

Hurricane Paula was downgraded to a tropical storm at 1500 UTC (11:00 AM EDT) by the National Hurricane Center. Vertical wind shear, dry air entrainment and interaction with the mountainous terrain of western Cuban are predicted to continue to weaken Paula during the next twenty four hours. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

A Brush Addiction.

Woohoo!!

Just got the brushes I ordered online last Friday - there was a problem somewhere along the line at the warehouse and have had countless phone calls back and forth but yesterday they told me all was solved and the courier was picking up my package!

They arrived this morning from Victoria so I was really happy.

Now anyone who knows me is probably laughing because I have .... er, um, well  shall we say, a 'number' of brushes already (if you look closely you can see a 'few' in the background) but I needed these .... lol.

Okay, so I have a few but these are only the ones I am working with at the moment ....

I also have a set of 4 drawers (made to hold A4 papers) and each drawer has about 15 or so brushes in - but I am not using them at the moment; they are on standby and also specialist ones. So it is only the ones in the photo that I am using at the moment.

It is important to have a good selection of brushes - you just never know when you are going to need a fine one or a comb, a rake, a fan or a big fat one! So by having a least 'one' of each .... then you need them in different thickness and different bristles for different mediums.

Have I convinced you yet?

So back to the new brushes - I want to try something new with oils and I could either 'ruin' some of the watercolour brushes I already have or get some new ones that I can use specifically for this new technique. Guess what I chose? Lol.

On the plus side I did order two set of goodies to give each of my sisters for Christmas - they are both arty too - so it seemed a perfect time to buy the brushes.

Now just have to go out and get some gouache paints and I will be a 'happy camper' - especially since I have started two paintings that need gouache to finish them.

Alright I admit it I have a painbrush addiction - I also have a knife addiction ... love all those different ones used in cooking; and I have a scissor addiction .... got lots of different ones for sewing; at last count I had 47 pairs mmmm maybe that is enough scissors.

SO what do you have an 'addiction' to? Gadgets, scissors, paintbrushes (!!).

Oh I finally hit the 50 in my bucket list but realise I could probably go to at least 100 .... lol.


PS : Lindi - I have a collection of swords from when I used to do theatrical fencing -  have broadswords, rapiers, daggers, katanas, pikes, etc.  Damn forgot all the Dragons I have; oh yes and teddy bears a few hundred of them (although a lot are ones I made  should post some pics of them).

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Hurricane Otto

Otto had maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, and the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. noted that some strengthening is possible before it weakens on Saturday, Oct. 9. Otto was located about 445 miles south of Bermuda near 25.9 North and 64.0 West. It was moving east-northeast near 17 mph, and had a minimum central pressure of 979 millibars.

On Oct. 7 at 1729 UTC (1:29 p.m. EDT) NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Otto and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an infrared image of its cloud temperatures. The image showed that the highest, coldest thunderstorm cloud tops colder than -65 Fahrenheit were around Otto's center and throughout the large band of strong thunderstorms extending from the southeast of Otto's circulation. That band of strong thunderstorms brought heavy rainfall on the already soaked areas of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

Tropical Storm Otto Atlantic Ocean

At 11 a.m. EDT on Oct. 7, Tropical Storm Otto had maximum sustained winds near 60 mph, and strengthening is likely, according to the National Hurricane Center. Otto could become a hurricane in the next day or two. Otto was located about 255 miles northeast of Grand Turk Island or 620 miles south-southwest of Bermuda near 23.8 North latitude and 68.0 West longitude. Otto is far away enough from any land areas that there are no watches or warnings in effect. Otto was slowly trudging through the Atlantic Ocean at 2 mph and moving northeast. Otto's minimum central pressure was 992 millibars.

Tropical Depression 14W (Northwest Pacific Ocean)

At 5 a.m. EDT, October 5, Tropical Depression 14W had maximum sustained winds near 34 mph. It was located over Hainan Island near 19.5 North and 109.4 East. Its winds were creating 9-foot high seas. TD14W was moving north at 6 mph. It is expected to make a turn to the north-northeast, make a brief landfall in the mainland of southern China. Once there, it is forecast to move east, then east-southeast, making a half-circle and head toward the eastern end of Hainan Island and dissipate.

Tropical Moisture Bring Heavy Rain, Flooding To U.S. East Coast

The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center provides estimates of rainfall over the global Tropics. TMPA rainfall totals are shown here for the East Coast of the United States down to the northwest Caribbean for the period from September 24 to October 1, 2010.

The highest rainfall totals for the period are over Jamaica where upwards of 550 mm of rain fell (~22 inches) as a result of Nicole's interaction with the island's terrain. The highest totals along the East Coast occurred over coastal North Carolina where up to 500 mm of rain (~20 inches) fell. Almost all of eastern North Carolina received at least 200 to 250 mm of rain (~8 to 10 inches).

Numerous areas from northern Florida all the way up into central Pennsylvania received at least 100 mm (~4 inches) of rain with several areas in excess of 150 to 200 mm of rain (~6 to 8 inches). Locally, upwards of 9 inches of rain were reported around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and just over 20 inches in parts of North Carolina.

Although the rain ended a dry spell for the region, 4 deaths are being blamed on the storm in North Carolina. In Jamaica, 12 people are reported to have died as a result of Tropical Storm Nicole.