Still Bearing Down

Man, oh Man! The Local TV Weatherfolks are so excited about their "Pattern Change" due next week! Every News Tease mentions the Rainy Weather Next Week. They're selling their broadcasts shamelessly to be sure.

This story is starting to feel like the Sword of Damocles to me...I shouldn't let it get to me, but in my Media Universe it's Everywhere All The Time. I know it's Marketing, and I'm usually pretty strong in my resistance to this stuff, but this story is aimed right at my wheelhouse...right where I live.

My Local NBC affiliate just ended their Noon News Hour saying "Watch out for that rain Tuesday!" They aren't helping...Tuesday is still five days out...but some of that Typhoon's clouds are starting to show on the Wide Pacific Satellite View that TV stations use as background during their Weather Forecast Segments.

My detailed perusal of the Reno NWS Discussion shows the trough coming into the Sierra Monday night now. The Forecaster goes on to reaffirm the High Snow Levels (8500-9500ft) and noting the model ensemble's precipitation guess is for one to two inches of rain well above the Pass Level...and mostly North of Interstate 80...OK so far for My Mountain...Boreal is going to lose their Marketing Patch, though...I must remember this is still Five Days Out...

Other things in my world are holding my attention too. Tomorrow morning at 04:31 PDT, NASA will crash the LCROSS Booster Rocket and the LCROSS Mothership Shephearding Probe into a crater on the Moon. This crater is on the very bottom of the Moon as seen from Earth. Their plan is to blast a plume of Moon debris up into the sunlight so the Sun's energy will help reveal to the instruments aboard the Shepard Probe the chemical make up of the stuff laying about in the perpetually dark and cold crater...They hope to find water. I hope they find water!

If water in useful amounts is found on the Moon, NASA stands a much better chance of sending Astronauts to Mars in my lifetime. NASA is pretty sure they'll find water in that crater. The plume will be visible from Earth, given a 10 inch or larger telescope, and our whole constellation of space telescopes, Lunar Orbiting Satellites, and Earth Based Telescopes will record the event.

I have my alarm set, but I'm pretty sure we'll have a marine layer providing cloud cover over the Ancestral Digs. Plan B is TV and the Internet.

The Space Weather Website has all the Resource Links.

The Other Skynews

The other bit of Weather Business that I follow regularly, is Climate Science. There's been quite the flood of Scientific Papers on Climate published lately, much of it citing the Sun's behavior and it's influence on Earth's Climate.

Remember "The Hockey Stick"? That's the graph featured by Al Gore in his Oscar winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth", and wielded like a Broadsword by the Climate Chicken Littles at the United Nation's IPCC to push massive changes to World Wide Markets to "Stave off Global Warming"

Did you know that the Hockey Stick was thoroughly debunked a few years ago? Did you know that the UN's IPCC abandoned it this week? I didn't think so. You see, the Mainstream Media across the Western World have committed the "Sin of Omission" on this story. It's not the only story on Climate Science that's MIA either.

The story of the Quiet Sun and the influence of Cosmic Rays on Cloud Formation is also getting overlooked. Interestingly, Iran's FARS News Agency has the story.

This study could mean that the Sun's diminished magnetic influence on Near Earth Space will allow increased cosmic ray activity to raise the Earth's cloud cover. More clouds reflect more Solar Power back into Space, Cooling our climate...good news if you're worried about Global Warming! Satellite data shows we've been cooling since 1998, further cooling is coming too...it seems likely from the science cited in the Literature. Anthony Watts of course, had the story in real time on his Climate Blog.

Is it just me, or are the Big Media outlets missing yet another important story? Perhaps they're not the Impartial Reporters they tell us they are. Is it any wonder that their stocks' value are in the dumper, and their readers and viewers are deserting them in droves? I think not.

All thing must pass sang George Harrison, and all these stories will resolve eventually. I'm waiting...and I'm watching with half a smirk on my face.