Oligarchs' Horrible Plan To Turn Our Nights Into Never-Ending Days

Tech companies want to launch a bunch of satellites that
would reflect sunlight back to Earth at night over
specific locations. Taken together and adding in
proposals by SpaceX to put up perhaps a million
satellites would largely take away our ability
to enjoy the night sky

As dystopian as things seem now, the oligarchy class wants to take away our nights. 

 The Trump administration seems to be on a mission to make all of our lives more miserable, except for the billionaire oligarch class that is just loving life these days. 

I just found a new way the administration is set to make life even worse for humans, and everything else on Earth. And this one is especially horrible. 

Big companies, including Elon Musk's SpaceX, have plans that would fill our skies with a million or more little satellites, and also position a whole bunch of mirrors in orbit around the Earth to reflect sunlight down on us at night.

Sounds a little like depressing science fiction, but it's true. 

THE PROPOSALS

Per the Washington Post:

"Two little-noted applications under review by the Federal Communications Commission would, if fully implemented, fundamentally remake the night sky. But the FCC, the satellite regulator, appears to have fast tracked approval without much of a pass eo weigh the benefits of these proposals against the harms they could cause to life on the planet". 

The two proposals would essentially turn night into day, or something close to it. WaPo explains further:

"A start-up called Reflect Orbital proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night, with plans to bathe solar farms, industrial sites and even entire cities in light that could, if desired, reach the intensity of daylight. 

At the same time, Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to launch as many as a million satellites to serve as orbiting data centers - 70 times the number now in orbit. We could have a million points of light streaking across our skies at night."

Space X only submitted its proposal on January 31. Per PC Mag:

"Usually, the FCC takes weeks or months to respond. In this case, it made a decision in days, even though SpaceX's proposal appears preliminary and even rushed, according to space experts, some of whom question the constellation's feasibility."

TEMU STARS

 The Washington Post concedes there is some benefit of moving data centers to space. It's better that consuming huge amounts to land water and energy on Earth.  Reflected sunlight could boost clean energy supplies and help with food production and even search and rescue.

But should we destroy night to accomplish these goals? Especially since we could solve all these problems right here on the ground. I'm rolling my eyes at the big building boom of AI data centers, that will use up huge amounts of energy and water. You'd think they'd be able to find a way to run AI that doesn't gobble up all the energy and water in the world. 

Aside from ruining the night sky, all this SpaceX satellites could end up colliding with other satellites and space debris. Some scientists worry this could lead to a chain reaction of colliding material.  Picture a high speed highway in a snow squall. 

One motorists swerves on the slick freeway to avoid debris on the road, crashes, and then all the other vehicles behind it pile up.t really is a war on nature waged by the oligarch class, egged on by the goons in the Trump administration. 

After all, to the billionaire class, nature is to be exploited for profit. Simply letting us serfs have calm, peaceful moments with the night sky is verboten. They should be working under grim, florescent lights for peanuts.  

Washington Post again: 

"...untimely light contributes to the loss of insect and bird populations. It disrupts migration, the seasonal patterns of plants and the circadian rhythms of animals ranging from sea turtles and mountain lions. Humans lose sleep because of artificial light, which potentially contributes to obesity and cancer. Light as faint as a full moon has been shown to alter our sleep patterns.

Reflect Orbital aspires to produce for its customers the high of up to 1,000 moons by 2028 and 360,000 moons by 2035. 

Then there's the philosophical questions: How will it feel if we can no longer gaze upward to see Orion, Ursa Major or the other constellations our ancestors have traced since Ptolemy? How will we perceive our place in the universe if we can no longer take in the twinkling starlight that began its voyage to us before the Pyramids rose in Egypt?"

Granted, Reflect Orbital does not propose lighting up the entire night sky at once. The reflected light from the mirrors would target specific areas. And under the lights, it would only have 20 percent or so of the sun's brightness. But the light pollution in areas surrounding the beam of night light would still be staggering. 

Especially combined with the zillions of SpaceX satellites up there that would essentially create a huge, ugly constellation of fake Temu stars 

The mirror satellites themselves would look like giant, artificial bright starts in the sky cluttering up and dimming the natural field of millions of stars so, so far away.  As you can imagine, astronomers are livid at this idea from Reflect Orbital.     

CAN WE STOP THIS?

 There's precious little standing between all of us who actually like it dark and night and the forces that would take that away from us. 

The FCC has pretty much exempted satellites from the National Environmental Policy act, which should require federal agencies to take into account environmental considerations. 

And, WaPo adds, the Trump FCC wants to strengthen the exemptions for satellite operations. And bipartisan legislation that recently got through the Senate Commerce Committee would further speed approval for satellites. 

I guess I'm one of the few left in the world who actually enjoys the night sky. I hope I'm wrong. An organization called DarkSky.org is of course opposed to this.

In addition to the harm the mirrored light would cause to birds, insects and our own circadian rhythms that regulate sleep, DarkSky.org catalogs other risks. People could be at risk of eye damage if they look at the light from the satellite mirror, like what would happen if people look directly at a partial solar eclipse. 

Moving beams of light from the mirrors could create sudden flashes, glare or weird illumination patters that could cause problems for airline pilots or even motorists, especially if these satellites and mirrors malfunction. 

"We also call on Reflect Orbital to demonstrate leadership by voluntarily commissioning a comprehensive, independent environmental impact assessment conducted by qualified experts - regardless of whether such review is required by the FCC," Darksky.org said in a statement.

In other words, even if nobody in charge wants to review dangers to the public, that review should be done anyway.

Public comment on SpaceX's proposal only lasts through Friday, March 6 . Click this link for information on how to do that.

I guess for now, we should find places away from cities to gaze up at the stars and the heavens. If the oligarchy class has its way, we might soon lose that simple pleasure. 

Michael Brown, an astronomy professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia put it this way: 

"I sort of ike the sky being sort of this shared wilderness. If you go somewhere where it's nice and dark and look at the night sky and have all these constant reminders of technology, I think that's a bit of a loss."

That's a huge understatement, but the man is absolutely correct. 

 

 

Death Valley Strangely About To Become A Flowery Paradise

Death Valley, California looked anything
but dead in this photo of the last super
 bloom in 2016. It looks like Death
Valley is on the verge of a new 
super bloom.  Photo from Wildlife
Trekking/Facebook.

Work with me here, but I really wish I was in Death Valley now.

I know, I know . Why would I want to go to a ridiculously hot place that's barren, sandy, rocky and sometimes dangerous? 

The reason to go is a relatively rare super bloom of flowers that is just beginning to blossom into desert gorgeousness.    Since my big perennial beds in Vermont are buried beneath a foot of snow and are frozen rock solid, you can understand my reasoning. I desperately need winter flower therapy. 

Death Valley super blooms come maybe once in a decade. Park rangers there say there was one in 2016 and another in 2005. It was a pretty good flower year in 2024, but last year was pretty colorless amid drought and early season heat. 

Though a few flowers and interesting plants sprouts every year in February and March, this year's Death Valley Dream looks like it might be spectacular.  

To be Captain Obvious, Death Valley doesn't get a lot of rain. To get a super bloom, you need some heavy showers that come just at the right time.    The best time for that is late autumn or very early winter. 

This past November was soggy by Death Valley standards. They got 1.76 inches of rain, compared to normal of just 0.10. 

Next, you need warm weather. Temperatures have been above normal in the region over much of the winter. 

A cool spell is moving in to Death Valley, but it won't be enough to harm any plants. Plus, some more showers are likely daily today through Tuesday night. 

After this latest bout of rain, temperatures look like they'll start to warm up again in the desert, with temperatures maybe reaching close to 80 in about a week and a half. 

So it looks good. 

Super blooms go fast, as the desert designs plants so that they quickly sprout from seeds, produce flowers, then convert those flowers to a lot more seeds for next time. This will all happen well before summer, for good reason, Death Valley is the hottest place on earth. Summertime temperatures regularly go into the 110s and 120s,   . 

The best time to see the blooms is now through early April.  Wonderful flowers last into May in higher elevations. You can find some great flowers and plants as late as July way up high around 8,000 feet or higher. But who wants to climb a steep desert mountain when the temperatures is higher than the hot chocolate or coffee you're drinking as you read this.

Alas, I won't be going out to Death Valley for this year's super  bloom. But I hope other people do, and post what they see on line for the world to see.

VIDEO

That last Death Valley Super Bloom was in 2016.  Associated Press video walks you through how it looked like. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

Fascinating Huge Crack Opens In Lake Erie As Water Keeps Freezing

Satellite view of the large crack that developed Sunday
on the ice covering almost all of Lake Erie.

 Lake watchers got really fascinated with Lake Erie on Sunday. 

In just a matter of hours Sunday, a huge crack opened across the mostly frozen lake.

Satellite loops caught it. So did passengers on planes flying over Lake Erie. And people who live on bluffs in Cleveland looking out over the lake. 

The crack quickly widened on Sunday to about 80 miles long starting near Port Burwell in Canada to around Cleveland, Ohio. It's fascinating to watch the split appear on satellite loops.

Before this weekend, Lake Erie was about 95 percent frozen.  Strong northwest winds on Saturday   The northwest winds also piled up  chunks of Lake Erie ice up to 20 feet deep on its southeastern shore.  That movement probably weakened the ice in the middle of the lake.

Then on Sunday, light northeast winds helped  la"unzip" the crack southwestward across the lake.  The crack is another demonstration that a frozen lake isn't necessarily safe to walk or drive on. 

A person with the handle Rebsjoy on Threads
took this photo Sunday of the Lake Erie ice cracks 
while aboard a plane crossing over the lake

Lake Erie freezes more readily than the other Great Lakes because it's the shallowest of the five. Since it's shallow, you get less upwelling of slightly warmer water from the depths. 

Still, if Lake Erie freezes over entirely this week, it'll be only the fourth time since 1973 that has happened. 

Overall, the five Great Lakes were 53 percent frozen over as of yesterday. The least frozen of the lakes is Ontario. It was only 26 percent frozen. 

As weather patterns shift, there is other ice news to report. After quite a cold spell, record high temperatures were hitting central Nebraska today. Ice on the Platte River has broken up, leading to ice jams and flooding. 

As of this writing, around 2 p.m. today, I don't yet have word yet on whether Lake Champlain has entirely frozen over. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington will make the call. 

Even if it is frozen, Lake Champlain is not necessarily safe to walk on. 

Earlier this month, five skaters had to be rescued from the lake when the ice they were on broke off and started floating into a then-open section of the lake. 

Huge Northern Lights Display Delights Much Of Nation; Vermont Gets Glimpses Between The Clouds

Photo of Northern Lights peeking
through the clouds over 
Shelburne, Vermont posted to
Facebook by Amanda Delude

A big display of northern lights lit up the skies across much of the U.S. last night as a big geomagnetic storm targeted Earth. 

Tonight might bring another big display. 

The northern lights were seen as far south as Florida, where residents must have felt like they were transported to the Arctic, where northern lights are very common. 

Florida was also experiencing record cold temperatures early this week, too. 

Social media was filled with color images of the sky over locations from Minnesota to Colorado to Texas to Alabama. 

Here in Vermont, our usual overcast skies prevented much of a northern lights view in many areas  But the aurora was so spectacular you could sort of see it through the clouds. The overcast north of my St. Albans, house definitely had a green cast. 

Near Lake Champlain and in parts of southern Vermont, there were breaks in the clouds that offered glimpses of the show.  Facebook had some great photos out of Weathersfield and Royalton, for example. 

Photographer Adam Silverman, probably the most enthusiastic and best northern lights photographer in Vermont, captured some great images from Malletts Bay, along Lake Champlain in Colchester. 

There were only a few breaks in the clouds, but that was enough. He captured some spectacular shots, like the one he posted on Facebook, that you can see in this link. 

Silverman, ever the fan of nature and skies, wrote: "The sky absolutely burned and glowed with amazing aurora colors, clearly visible to the naked eye. Even the clouds let through enough light to take on surreal hues as they zipped overhead in the stiff, cold breeze."

If you missed any of it last night, people across the northern hemisphere, even at points well south, have another shot at a spectacular show tonight. 

Vermont State Police posted this photo of the northern
lights to Facebook from their Westminster, Vermont barracks. 

 Reports NBC:

"...forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center have said the geomagnetic storm could intensity as the 'final and most energetic CME' meaning coronal mass ejection, is yet to arrive and could reach Earth on Wednesday afternoon.

A CME is an eruption of massive clouds of protons, electrons, and magnetic fields from the Sun's outer atmosphere at very high speeds."

Here in Vermont, unfortunately, it's another very cloudy forecast for tonight. The National Weather Service in Burlington predicts about a 96 percent cloud cover for most of the night, which is about as overcast as you can get. The cloud cover declines to 88 percent after midnight, which is still pretty bleak.

Unlike last night, when we had a break in the snowfall, it will very likely be snowing at least lightly overnight across most of northern Vermont.  

Note that the valleys of southern Vermont might have a few more breaks in the clouds than in the north.   

Among Jane Goodall's Many Lasting Legacies Is Advocacy For A Sustainable Earth, Climate Change Solutions

Practicing what she preached: During Jane
Goodall's September visit to New York City
for Climate Week, she got around town
on an environmentally friendly 
Pedicab.  Goodall passed away
Wednesday at age 91. 

As you've almost surely heard already, the world lost a Great One Wednesday. Jane Goodall, the famous  primatologist, anthropologist, conservationist, media figure and one of the best women to ever grace this Earth, passed away at the age of 91.  

A big part of Goodall's advocacy was creating and keeping a sustainable planet for all creatures. Climate change might have seemed tangental to Goodall's mission, but it was a critical part of it.   

For Goodall, it wasn't just about keep the world safe and clean and stable for chimpanzees. She had all animals - including us humans - in her heart. 

In a 2019 ABC interview, she said climate change has left the planet imperiled. "We are definitely at a point where we need to make something happen... We are imperiled. We have a window of time. I'm fairly sure we do. But, we've got to take action," she said. 

Her advocacy lasted until the very end. Goodall was on a speaking tour in California this week and died of natural causes. Retirement had never really crossed her mind. 

Just recently, on September 21-28, she attended New York Climate Week  during which she gave interviews to publications like Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg regarding the natural world and our need to preserve it. 

She has acknowledged that people have come to her "depressed" 'about climate change and other environmental dangers. But she responded with a message of courage.

On her Facebook page from Climate Week, Goodall said the climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time, but change is still possible if we act with courage and hope.  

Alway finding ways to be a good example, Goodall got around New York City when visiting there by hiring Pedicabs, which are carriages powered by drivers propelling the vehicles via bicycle. 

Vox highlighted recent interviews in which Goodall gave a plug for literally saving Earth from excessive technology, the worst excesses of business interests and - of course - climate change. 

According to Vox:  

"'It seems these days everybody is so involved with technology that we forgot that we're not only part of the natural world, we're an animal like all the others,' Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, a conservation group, said last week during the Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit in NYC. 'We're an animal like all the others. But we depend on it for clean air, water, food, clothing -everything.'

And yet - 'We're destroying the planet,' she said.

Vox noted that as recently as last week, she said we know what's killing the planet: Industrial agriculture, including livestock and burning fossil fuels. 

People magazine noted that Goodall acknowledged that caring for humans and the environment is "a tough problem" as she put it. But she believed solutions were out there.

"We've got to get together," she said. "And scientists are beginning now to really work out the technology that can help us live in greater harmony with the natural world....But it's a problem that should be at the heart of everything. It should be at the heart of politics, and it should be at the heart of business."

At her core, Goodall was an optimist, a rarity in our fraught world nowadays. I suspect she saw how animals often ingeniously figure things out. She had confidence that the creatures known as humans could do the same if we could just learn to understand that advancement isn't necessarily just bulldozing through everything. 

Goodall taught me and I'm sure countless others to look at all animals with awe and wonder, and, ultimately, understanding. In large part because of Goodell, I frequently stop and watch the animals and birds I encounter as they live their lives.   

I observe how nothing goes to waste in the animal world, that everything has its purpose, there are important symbiotic relationships between species, and that we also need to take a moment to play, and find joy. (If you've ever seen a bear cub in action, you know what I'm talking about).  

Goodall was a joyful warrior on a quest to teach us (sometimes dumb) humans that we can find ways to live in a world that sustains us all. To the end, she had faith that we would somehow find a way to make it happen. Wrestling climate change to submission is a big part of that. 

Her thinking on this might seem naive and pollyann-ish. But Goodall was far, far too smart to indulge in optimistic fantasies. 

She spend a lifetime watching and researching and loving the animal kingdom and all the wonderful things they do.

If chimpanzees can do it, so can us humans.  Where others saw defeatism, Goodall saw possibility. Of all the incredible things Goodall did in her 91 years, her sense of hope is her greatest legacy.   

Missouri Sunflower Man Battles City For Years For Inexplicable Reasons

The city of St. Peters, Missouri has been battling for
four years to force homeowner Chris Bank to get
rid of the annual sunflower display in his yard.

OK, I admit this post is only tangentially related to climate and weather, but it is about nature, so close enough.   

It's also one of the most inexplicable, infuriating legal battles I've ever seen.

Chris Bank of St. Peters, Missouri has grown a whole bunch of sunflowers in his yard since 2020.  And why not? They're pretty, pollinators love them, birds probably do, too, and it's a nice alternative from a boring lawn. 

The city of St. Peters doesn't feel the same way. All this hysteria against Bank and his sunflowers originated in 2021 as complaints from a homeowner's association. 

(Pro tip: NEVER buy a house in a neighborhood with an HOA.)

St. Peters officials enthusiastically joined the fray on the side of the HOA. Bank keeps finding loopholes that allow him to keep the sunflowers. The city also keeps changing the rules to coerce Bank into getting rid of all this sunny blooms,  but he won't budge.

I don't blame him. I don't know about you, but a sunflower always puts me in a better mood. The more sunflowers, the better the mood. 

The first year of the battle was in 2022.  St. Peters officials said he violated a rule in which the property need to have at least 50 percent grass coverage. But the property did have that much grass. It was just that sunflowers were also growing up through the grass.

Talk about micromanaging! A city telling people exactly how much lawn they should have?  Do they dictate which flowers, trees must be planted? What color car is parked in the garage? Where does it end? 

In 2023, Bank said the city revised the ordinance to allow enforcement via interpretation rather than measurement. A municipal judge find him. Bank appeared and the case was going to go to a jury in St. Charles County, Missouri. 

The city then withdrew its charges, probably because no sane jury would object to Bank's sunflowers, though St. Peters officials said they withdrew because the sunflowers had been removed. By the time they got around to the jury trial, it was November, so the sunflowers were gone for the season. 

Last year, a miserable woman trespassed and cut down at least 600 of the sunflowers in Bank's yard. She was caught on surveillance tape. He contacted police but prosecutors refused to take action, even though the identity of the vandal is known. She got away with it scot free. 

Because I'm sure some cranks in town thought the woman was a hero not the villain she was. 

This year, the city tried again by classifying sunflowers as a crop and limiting them to 10 percent of a  front yard. He's refused to remove his plants and is scheduled for another court appearance in September.  

Bank is the kind of rebel I can really get behind. He told Fox 2 in St. Louis that he won't give up, no matter how many times the city of St. Peters tries to change the ordinances. "I'm not going to quit this fight until this gets settled - at least settled the correct way," he said. 

 

Climate And Environmental Pessimism In Vermont/U.S: Heat, Smoke, Floods, Invasives And More

This gloomy thunderstorm cloud, photographed Sunday
matched my mood Monday evening as I contemplated
bad weather, climate change, and environmental threats

I fell into a negative mood last evening. 

I was sitting outside, sweating in the tropical Vermont humidity, a few hours after an alleged "cold front" had passed through town where I am, not far from the Canadian border. 

I'd tried to do some needed yard work, but it was too sultry to get much done. I figured I should just sit down and enjoy the day lilies blooming around me. 

 Mid-summer flowers usually improve my mood. Last evening, those flowers, bright as they are, weren't lifting my spirits as much as I'd like. 

Sure, Vermont was lucky with the weather once again on Monday. A few places around the state saw some strong storms, but there wasn't really any damage, no real flooding this time. That was good news.  

But as usual these days, my social media feed last evening was filled with news of new weather emergencies, probably fueled in large parts by climate change. 

A tropical system was brewing near Florida. But once again, it produced news of another one in 1,000 year rainfall event. This time it was around Plant City, Florida, which managed to receive 10 inches of rain in just three hours. Funny how those one in one thousand year flood events keep happening like, every hour. 

I continued on, doom scrolling with my iPhone, coughing a bit in the Vermont air that had once again become smoky from giant, distant wildfires in Canada. I saw we're under another air quality alert. So much for pristine Green Mountain air. 

That air quality alert will stay in effect through at least today.  It's going to be another hot, humid one, too. Health officials are telling us that the combination of sultry, tropical air, the smoke and all that means we should once again limit outdoor activity, especially if you have pre-existing health issues. 

More weather updates on my phone. New York City just had its second wettest hour on record, with 2.07 inches, half its normal monthly installment of rain.  The Central Park downpour was second only to the mega-former Hurricane Ida floods in the Big Apple in 2021.  

Subway service was suspended, roads were under water, cars were trapped, flights were delayed, What a mess!

In neighboring New Jersey, as much as six inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. Flash flood warnings were blaring in most of the Mid-Atlantic states. Parts of the New Jersey Turnpike were really rivers. Fast flowing water raced through homes and businesses in Plainfield, New Jersey, and other towns.  The governor of New Jersey declared a state of emergency. 

Emergency? Yeah, no kidding. 

Climate change is really turbocharging summer downpours. As I've written previously, it's the summer of floods in the U.S.. and that shows no signs of change.  

Day lilies glow in the hazy morning sun today in St
Albans, Vermont. Despite worries like climate change
and the environment, there's lots to be grateful for, 

I gazed up my phone at the yard as it was growing dark.  A couple fireflies blinked half-heartedly in the humid dusk. 

There used to be a lot more fireflies. I don't know whether this is a one-summer lull at my house or something else. But I do know firefly  numbers are declining. 

I used to enjoy the bats that once swooped around my deck at dusk in the summer. They're gone, too, decimated by something called white nose syndrome, a fungus that kills them, 

My crowded perennial gardens used to buzz with bees. This summer, only a few have been buzzing around. Was it this year's rainy weather or something else? I know bee populations are crashing, mostly because of our use of pesticides and a disease spreading mite that came from overseas in the 1980s. 

Global trade is great on our pocketbooks, but not on the environment.  All kinds of invasive are killing things we love.  Giant chestnut trees were lost at the turn of the 20th century Our big gracious big elms in the mid-century to dutch elm disease.

I glanced upward last night in the gathering dusk around my house at the nearby dead trees. They were deceased white ash trees, decimated by the emerald ash borer. Those dead ash trees are everywhere now, giving a winter look in spots to our oppressively hot, smoky Vermont summer. 

Next on the list potentially is our beloved sugar maples, central to Vermont's identity. Asian longhorn beetles are spreading in the U.S., and could eventually create real, disheartening trouble to our maple syrup industry.

I turned again to the weather forecast before giving up for the evening. We'll have a couple days that reach at least 90 degrees in many locations today and tomorrow.  Great beach days, right? Despite the smoke?

Well, some beaches are closed due to algae blooms. And Burlington has an unfortunate mishap at the sewage treatment plant, and that closed beaches around that city. 

By Thursday, the risk of showers and thunderstorms returns with the approach of a cold front. 

That might be a reason to lift my spirits.   The next cold front looks like it means business. We could actually have some delightfully dry and seasonably cool air by later Friday and Saturday.  A reason to go on living! 

I've always been fascinated and embrace the weather, the outdoors, nature. Sure, I get gloomy sometimes thinking about what's going on.  With climate change. Environment trouble. Invasives.  

The solution, of course, is to not let the negativity that I was experiencing last evening to linger. Do something about climate change and the environment to the best of your ability. There's only so much we can contribute, of course. 

Most importantly we need to love what we still have. And if you think about it, that's still plenty. 

Which brings us to this morning. Songbirds, as usual, were my sunrise happy alarm clock. I ventured outdoors.   The view from my house of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond was obscured by smoke. 

But those day lilies happily danced in the early morning breeze and hazy sunshine, this time doing their job and making me smile. 

The woods around my house had that beautiful, soothing deep green mid-summer lushness it always has in July. The hydrangeas were decked out in their early season white blooms, flecked with delicate pink. A couple of dragonflies did their helicopter-like aerial acrobatics, expertly removing annoying biting insects from the yard. 

Despite everything, there's still a lot of beauty out there. Enjoy it. For your own sanity. 

Not On My Bingo Card: Ice Fishing Can Lead To Dangerous Methane Fires

Ice fishing shanties on Harriman Reservoir near 
Wilmington, Vermont. Methane escaping through
a hole in the ice created by an auger is believed
to have contributed to a flash fire that burned
a father and his two daughters recently on the lake. 

We know how long term methane emissions can be dangerous. 

It's a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so it's contributing to climate change in a serious way. 

But it turns out methane can pose a more immediate danger.  To, believe it or not, people out on frozen lakes enjoying a day of ice fishing. 

 A terrible incident happened in southern Vermont on February 1, proves the rare but dangerous phenomenon. 

A father and his two daughters went out onto frozen Harriman Reservoir in far southern Vermont for a day of ice fishing. A propane-fueled heating device of some sort warmed their ice shanty. 

Then, horror struck. 

A flash fire erupted inside the shanty, burning the dad and the two daughters. Police said there might have been a defect with the heater, but another factor might well have contributed. Methane bubbling up from rotting leaves at the bottom of Harriman Reservoir became trapped under the ice. 

The hole in the ice the family created inside the shanty allowed the methane to escape and build up inside that shanty. The heater then ignited it. 

The man and two girls were taken to a hospital in Brattleboro, Vermont, and then transferred to a Boston hospital for treatment.  Reports are the three are recovering, but we don't know how long that recovery will take. 

This apparently isn't the first time methane seeping from Harriman Reservoir has caused methane fires. Per the Brattleboro Reformer:

"Police contacted a witness who had provided the injured people a ride off the ice to a parked vehicle following the incident. They 'learned that this person had witnessed several instances where pockets of methane released through holes in the ice surface were ignited and burned, the (Wilmington, Vermont) news release states.

"During the investigation, police also received several phone calls from people providing information about other incidents involving flash burns of methane released through holes in the ice.

'These incidents were reportedly witnessed over the last several years during the ice fishing seasons,' the news release states. 'These incidents had not been reported to the Wilmington Police Department until after this tragic accident had occurred and an investigation was started."

Police said it's not worth it to drill a hole in the ice on Harriman Reservoir and wait to let methane disperse because shifting ice can keep methane billowing out of an ice hole.  Authorities advised people to not bring ignition sources near ice fishing holes and to be especially careful not to do so inside fishing shanties. 

I haven't figured out yet if the methane releases from Harriman Reservoir are unique to that body of water or whether it occurs elsewhere and if so, how often.

You do see methane bubbles frozen or encased in lake ice from time to time. Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada sometimes draws tourists who want a view of some unique methane bubbles stacked in the ice covering the lake in late winter. 

Some stunning photos were also taken of methane bubbles frozen within the ice on Lake Baikal in Siberia back in 2022. The lake is the world's deepest, and has a large storehouse of methane due to rotting organic material at its bottom.  

I can't imagine that all lakes are ticking time bombs for ice fishing enthusiasts. But I guess you need to be extra careful while trying to stay warm in an ice shanty. You never know where methane lurks. 

I hope that family victimized by the Harriman Reservoir methane in southern Vermont have a speedy and full recovery.  

Japanese Palm Tree Gains Big Fans After Surviving Punishing Typhoon

 There's something about certain trees that I become deeply emotionally attached to.

This palm tree in Japan, nicknamed Yasshi, was whipped
violently recently for hours by a typhoon. It was on a 
live camera feed and people became intensely interested
in its survival. It ended up doing fine and is
still standing after the typhoon. 

As a child, there was an immense sugar maple on our property. It had five main branches, each about the size of a mature old maple, sprouting from the most wide tree trunk I've ever seen. 

 My dad built a tree house in it for me. I'd spend hours up there, decompressing from the effects of a high strung mom. And inventing in my head adventure movies starring Yours Truly. 

My sister Lynn and I spent countless hours under that tree. In the fall, we'd jump off the swing into an immense pile of leaves from that maple. 

I still cherish the memory, I wept when it was cut down by the power company because they didn't like how close it was to their wires.

As an adult, I have three immense poplar trees in my St. Albans, Vermont back yard. I call them the triplets. Like all close friends, they can be a pain in the butt, like when wind storms prune some dead twigs from it, or it extends annoying roots into my summertime raised beds.

But the triplets are an ingrained part of my life. I can hear them outside now, a gusty wind whooshing through the thousands of leaves up there. 

All this is to say that humans love trees. Most of us, anyway. 

Which leads us to Kyushu, Japan. It's the nation's most southwestern-most main island, which was just hit by Typhoon Shanshan. 

It was a nasty storm, as typhoons usually are, causing devastating winds, floods and storm surges.  

As the Washington Post reports, thousands of people were drawn to a YouTube live stream showing the coast of Kyushu, in the throes of Typhoon Shanshan. In the video's foreground was a palm tree, whipping back and forth violently, always seemingly on the verge of snapping under the force of the hurricane winds. 

But the tree never succumbed. The typhoon's forward motion was slow, meaning the island - and the tree - were subject to horrendous winds for a longer period of time than people experience in most typhoons or hurricanes.

(Typhoons are what hurricanes are called in the western Pacific Ocean).

As WaPo reports, the tree's performance won worldwide fans. "The dramatic display of resilience won the hearts of thousands online, many of whom flooded the comments to root for the tree. - known affectionately as "Yasshi" - to survive."

The spoiler here is the tree indeed survived. The typhoon moved on and the live stream after the storm showed the tree with its fronds battered by the wind, but standing tall. 

There's something about trees, especially ones under duress, that we all root for. When I watch all those severe storm and tornadoes on YouTube (I'm a hopeless weather geek after all). I always root for the storm tossed trees to somehow survive.

When iconic trees die, or are killed, or are endangered, we all collective mourn. Some examples:

Hawaii Banyan

An enormous 150-year-old banyan tree in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii was badly burned during last August's   catastrophic wildfire that destroyed most of the tourist city.  People seemed almost more upset by the potential loss of the tree than the deaths and destruction in Lahaina.

People have been tracking the fate of the banyan tree ever since.  As the Associated Press reports, the sprawling tree survived and is coming back to life, gradually turning from ash gray and black scar he'd to green and growing back.  All thanks to intense efforts by arborists and volunteers. 

Half the tree's branches died in the fire. But arborists carefully removed those branches so the tree would redirect its energy toward the branches that might survive. Heavy irrigation and care has resulted in new green leaves and branches sprouting. The tree will survive.

British Vandalism Victim

International outrage erupted when some complete morons in 2023 cut down the Sycamore Gap tree in Britain. It was one of the most photographed places in the world. The tree sat between and at the base of two steep slopes. 

Two people were arrested, a 16 year old and man in his 60s. But they were subsequently freed. Two men in their 30s were then charged. They face fines equivalent to the estimated worth of the tree, which was about $785,000. No motive has been provided. 

Eight tiny shoots have since emerged from the stump of the tree, suggesting it might regenerate itself in some form. 

Washington DC's Stumpy 

The Tidal Basin in Washington DC is famed for its annual spring cherry blossoms. About 3,700 cherry trees put on a spectacular display every spring, usually in mid to late March. 

Climate change has made the Tidal Basin even more tidal. Sea level rise has caused more flooding, which affected some of the cherry trees.  The salt water damages the roots, and the trees get sick and eventually die. Earlier this year, the National Park Service cut down about 160 cherry trees due to rising tides and damage.

One of those trees was Stumpy. 

Stumpy, as a certain tree was dubbed, became something of a national treasure.  The salt damage made it gnarled, stunted and misshapen. Think the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, except worse. 

Stumpy's persistence and unique look won it tons of fans.  It was chopped down this year along with the 160 others. But right before that happened, Stumpy put on a blossom show that was its best in years. 

That tree wanted to go out with a bang.  God bless it. 

Meanwhile, in Japan, Typhoon Shanshan is long gone. Yasshi can recover in the tropical sun until the next typhoon comes along. 

Video: Yasshi the palm tree survives a typhoon. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

First Real Autumn Cold Front Came Through Sunday To Help Us Flip The Calendar

A last blast of summer sun as an autumn-like cold front
approached St. Albans Bay, Vermont late Sunday afternoon.

 Sure, I've already unofficially declared summer over, but if you want to really mark the change of seasons, look for what I consider the first autumn cold front of the season.  

It's the one above all cold fronts that mark the real shift of seasons. It's the one that convinces you that summer is really over. 

This year's First Cold Front Of Autumn came through Sunday evening, at least in my opinion.  These autumn fronts are sort of an annual rite of passage, if you will. 

Oh, sure, we'll have a few more days in which temperatures will feel like summer. But the consistent heat of summer now feels like a thing of the past. 

The result of yesterday's cold front  is a crisp Labor Day today, with highs only in the 60s, perfect to hunt apples at your friendly area orchard. Tonight, the first frost advisories of the season go into effect in the Adirondacks and far corners of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, way up by Island Pond, Canaan and Bloomfield. Those are traditional Vermont cold spots anyway. 

The timing of this year's autumn cold front was exquisite. Right during the Labor Day weekend, which most people consider the unofficial end of summer anyway.  Most of Sunday was hard core summer, with temperatures going right up there into the 80s with moderately high humidity. A lovely beach day. 

Until the cold front arrived in northern Vermont very late in the afternoon and evening. 

Up at St. Albans Bay, the first cool breezes arrived well before the darkest clouds and showers came through. The wind abruptly shifted from southwest to northwest, creating some confused looking waves on the lake. 

As the temperature dropped through the 80s and 70s, the line at the creemee stand across the street got shorter and shorter. A few brief final bursts of sun caused the trees and the algae-filled bay to briefly glow tropical green, as if summer was trying in vain to hang on. 

Clouds, dropping temperatures and showers put an end
to a possibly last summer weather day of the year in
St. Albans Bay, Vermont Sunday. 

The clouds coming in were a summer/autumn hybrid too. Some towered up into those puffy thunderheads, typical of summer. But those were quickly replaced by the bland overcast of the colder seasons as the rain approached. 

After fairly brief, sort of heavy rain showers,  the front passed, and a last burst of now cool evening sun burst through, setting off dramatic rainbows. The rainbows almost like a fireworks display of sorts, saying goodbye to Summer, 2024. 

There's a decent chance that the 86 degree temperature we saw in Burlington Sunday could be the warmest we'll see until May or even June if next spring proves chilly. 

More cold fronts will come in now through winter, bringing ever colder blasts of air as we go through the season. 

For this week, those of us outside the cold hollows will awaken to an autumn like Tuesday morning in which most of us will see dawn temperatures between 38 and 48 degrees.

Tuesday will be another bright, cool-ish day.  Later in the week, it'll try to warm up again almost toward summer levels. But another front and or storm system should cut that balmy air off at the pass.  Next weekend's weather still looks uncertain, but early hints suggest more cool, showery weather by then.  

Still, September is usually a pretty pleasant weather month. The heat of summer is mostly over, but there's still plenty of time to enjoy the outdoors before nasty winter weather hits in a few months. 

Video: Footage of a change of seasons, mostly taken at St. Albans Bay on Sunday. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

I'm Now Declaring That Vermont Summer Is Over

Altocumulus clouds cover the sky over St. Albans, 
Vermont last evening. I tend to associate these clouds
with autumn, which is in keeping with my 
thinking that summer is over. 

OK, I've decided, summer is over. 

My ruling is the most subjective of them all, but it's plain our hot, wet, humid summer is behind us.  

That's not to say we won't have any more warm or even hot weather. Or humid spells. We probably will. But the season has turned. 

This feeling that summer is over almost always used to hit in mid to late August. In recent years, it seems like we have to wait until early or even mid-September for the bulk of summer to be over.  

And it's still possible we could have a long stretch of mid-summer like weather as the calendar turns to September. 

But the weather lately has checked all the boxes for calling an end to summer. 

There are so many signs. One is the spots of fall color you see here and there in the otherwise still green landscape of Vermont. That's typical of late August, but there does seem to be a bit more of that color than I usually see this time of year. That could just be my imagination or impression, who knows.

Even the warm spells have an autumn feel. 

Tuesday evening a brief surge of warm, humid air was making its way into Vermont. In full summer, it doesn't take much to bring such weather into the Green Mountain State, so spells of muggy weather don't have much wind when they arrive at our doorstep in, say, July.

But Tuesday evening, as I sat in my outdoor tub enjoying the cool water, I watched the trees sway in a gusty south winds. It's starting to take more force to drive toasty air into Vermont. 

Cold fronts have lately been bringing cooler and cooler air to the Green Mountain State. The opening salvo was those three days that never got out of the 60s for highs last week. It got down to 51 degrees in Burlington this morning. That's not particularly chilly for this time of year, but it was still the coolest morning since June 28.

The forecast has more cool weather on our agenda.  After a brief squirt of somewhat higher humidity Saturday and parts of Sunday, Labor Day promises to be a classic crisp Vermont autumn day with sunshine and highs only reaching the 60s. 

Even the type of cloud cover we're seeing lately screams autumn. Last evening, we had a beautiful display of altocumulus clouds, which look like a series of small cotton balls covering the sky.  I associate this type of cloud with autumn, because it seems I see them most frequently in September or October.

The sounds outdoors have changed, too. I'm hearing far fewer songbirds and plenty more crickets, which is a classic autumn song list, if you will. 

Of course, there are more scientific and less subjective definitions of autumn than my own "feelings" about it. 

Astronomical autumn begins at 8:43 a.m. EDT on September 22. 

Meteorological autumn, which is an easy way for climatologists and others to assess a season's weather, starts September 1 and lasts through November 30.

Summer, at least measured in Burlington, Vermont, looks like it will be among the top five warmest. We were headed toward warmest summer on record, but the last ten days or so of cooler weather looks like it will keep 2020 in the top spot.

And, if Burlington gets at least 0.58 inches of rain during the expected showers on Saturday, it will become the city's tenth wettest summer on record. 

Long range forecasts suggest we'll have a warm, and possibly wet autumn here in Vermont. Long range forecasts aren't always accurate, but those hot predictions ahead of this summer proved accurate. And autumns have definitely trended warmer in recent years across Vermont. 

Seven of the top 10 warmest autumns in Burlington have happened since 2011. So, though summer might be over in my opinion, bouts of summer-like weather still seems to be on the horizon for awhile yet.  

Peak Of Summer Brought Us A Brief Break. Now It's Back To Humidity, Downpours, And Eventually Heat Again

On average, if you have to pick the exact height of summer, it's right around July 21.

My Quick Fire Hydrangeas are what I consider at their 
peak and prettiest right now. They follow the season starting
off white in early summer, turning pink at the peak of summer
and gradually going to a russet in the autumn. 

That's right around the time we've had half our heat waves, half our spells of humidity. The hottest days of summer are often right around that date. 

You start to notice the start of a journey toward autumn about now.   

Vermonts trees, forests and hillsides are still the royal green of summer, but a few of the leaves are looking tired or ragged. If you look closely, you see hints of red in the swamp maples.  

As I sat out in my yard last evening, I noticed a relative lack of birds compared to spring and early summer. We're starting to see the sun set a little earlier. 

July 21 this year turned out to be a little cooler than it has been lately, belying the reputation as the peak of summer.  The high temperature in Burlington Sunday was 79 degrees. That ended a streak of 19 consecutive days with high temperatures of 80 degrees or more. The streak was good enough to become the sixth longest set of consecutive 80s on record. The longest such streak was 29 days in 2018.

Chances are, the hottest temperature of this summer came early in the season. The toastiest we've gotten so far, at least as measured in Burlington, was 96 degrees on June 19.

We might be halfway through summer, but there's plenty of it left. Plenty of time for more downpours, sunny days, heat waves, you know the drill.

UP NEXT

As of today, Vermont's summer weather of 2024 is up to its old tricks. Like we've seen so often this summer, it's gotten humid and wet, with locally heavy downpours. That'll be our state of affairs through Thursday.  

As has been so often the case this summer, National
Weather Service radar is lit up with rain, with 
locally  heavy downpours in red. Image is
from around 6:40 a.m. today. 

Rainfall has been highly variable overnight and early this morning, as is typical of summer. The northern Adirondacks of New York have had enough downpours to trigger a local flood warning up there early today. 

Areas of heavy rain also showed up on radar across far northern Vermont, though I haven't seen any indication of a flood risk there. 

Meanwhile, Burlington had just 0.04 inches of rain as of 7 a.m. 

We'll need to watch out - once again - for instances of flash flooding over the next three days, with Thursday the likeliest day to produce trouble. If indeed we get any trouble. 

The risk of flash flooding is the usual harassment we've had all summer: There's a chance of isolated flood problems, but nothing widespread or super scary like on July 10-11. 

The rain we're getting this morning will tend to taper off as we head toward noon. In the afternoon, we'll see some more showers and thunderstorms erupt.  That's when an isolated, slow moving thunderstorm in one or two spots could cause some new local washouts or culvert problems. The chances of this happening today are quite low, but not zero.

The sticky weather that's returned will, um, stick around for a few more days. Nights will be stuffy, but at least days will only reach the low 80s, as clouds and showers will hold temperatures down a little. 

Wednesday will be sultry again with the usual hit and miss storms. Afternoon and evening are the most likely times for that, as usual.

We start to get some weak boundaries and cold fronts approaching and passing through Thursday, which will make even more showers and downpours and storms erupt in the humid air. That's why I'm eyeing Thursday as a potential flash flood day, again in a few isolated places. Most of us will be fine, but we'll need to keep an eye out. 

DRYING OUT?

Beyond that, there's good news and bad news. High pressure that originated in south central Canada will drift in from the west and northwest by Friday.  There's been record heat in central and western Canada, so the air with this one is warm. 

Friday and Saturday might well end up being warmer than earlier in the week. But the humidity will temporarily crash so we'll have a couple of fairly comfortable sleeping nights and some really decent beach days over the weekend.

Bonus: As it looks now, we might have at least four consecutive days of rain-free weather with this. 

This high pressure looks like it will want to strengthen overhead and also team up with the dreaded offshore Bermuda High. Early indications are this will set us up for another hot spell, with more 90 degree days possible starting Sunday or Monday.  

Autumn Be Damned: THIS Is Peak Foliage Season In Vermont

You might have seen me write enthusiastically about this time of year in past springs, but I can't help myself.  

A rainy spring afternoon Wednesday in my St.
Albans, Vermont yard. Even "bad" weather is
simply gorgeous this time of year. 

So, I write about it, take photos and shoot videos two of which you can see at the bottom of this post.

We're now experiencing what I regard as "peak foliage" here in Vermont. 

No, we're not having a super duper early autumn. You can relax. It's just that the moment when everything blooms and turns green in Vermont is simply magical. 

I just like this spring peak foliage even more than the one in the fall. It's in many ways more beautiful than fall colors. And bonus! There's not so many tourists blocking the roads.

In a way, I'm glad that the total eclipse of the sun that drew perhaps 200,000 people to Vermont hit on April 8, not May 8. Early April is not Vermont's prettiest season. At that time of year, the trees are bare, the grass is still mostly brown and there's lots of mud underfoot.

Now that we're into May, the gorgeousness of the season is all around us, everywhere you turn.

Flowers after a rain storm this week in my St.
Albans, Vermont yard,. 

The hayfields are the most luxurious green imaginable speckled by countless yellow dandelions. 

The farms in the Champlain Valley now have the same quality, color and texture of a red carpet look on an A-list celebrity created by one of the world's top designers.

If somebody like Christian Siriano should ever come to Vermont for inspiration, now's the time to do it. 

Every routine thing we in Vermont do this time of year feels like a special treat. 

Driving home after work into Franklin County the other day, I noticed all the multitudes of sugar maples, with their job of providing us with sap and syrup done for the season.  

All those maples seemed to be celebrated by unfurling billions or trillions of tiny leaves, which will eventually grow into the thick lush greenery of summer. The way all those baby leaves glistened when backlit by the sun looked like an immense green fireworks display. 

Brand new sugar maple leaves in St. Albans, Vermont. 

Pulling into my driveway in April and early May, I'm greeted by an audience of happy yellow daffodils, bobbing slightly in the breeze as if delighted that I had arrived. 

It's an optimistic time of year in the world of nature. This natural green hopefulness is a refuge from the human world, the one with way too much war, cruelty, hypocrisy, insanity and stupidity. 

I usually get up in the morning pretty early, often around or a little after dawn to let Jackson the Weather Dog outside to update himself on how spring is progressing.

Full light hadn't hit yet, but the yellow daffodils and deep blue hyacinths glowed in the early morning dim light, as if  powered by some internal electric current. 

The robins at that hour give us a chorus of happy morning music. Somewhere, a cardinal's loud "shpur schupr" call echoes across the yard. That's only outdone by the caw of a crow atop a poplar tree, inviting a couple crow friends over the enjoy the morning.  

Forget turning on the TV morning news for updates on the latest madness in Congress, or the war death toll, the latest dumb criminal trial, or the convenience store holdup. 

The early morning spring birdsong, the beautiful organic aroma of blooms and mud and new growth, and all that green punctuated by colorful flowers is all the news I need this time of year.  

It is a little sad that nature is the only island of sanity in this world. But I take what I can get, and embrace it. You can't ignore such a special time of year. 

Videos:

I planted tons of daffodils around my St. Albans property over the years. You can't welcome spring without daffodils, so I went all out. Following video also has a brief cameo from Jackson the Weather Dog, who was studying the effects of a sunny day on daffodil growth.

To view video, click on this link, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Next up, various glimpses of spring in Vermont, as our surroundings develop endless shades of green, with other wonderful pops of color. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

Study: Cost Of Climate Change To Be Much More Expensive Than Mitigating Temperature Rise

Climate change is becoming a big drag on the global
economy and a new study suggests that will keep
getting worse in the coming decades.

 It'll cost six times more money to deal with the cost of unmitigated climate change between now and 2050 than it would to keep global temperatures from reaching more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

Doing nothing to blunt climate change would cost roughly $38 trillion per year by 2049, concluded a study published in the journal Nature.  

As Artstechnica.com reports:

"They find that we're already committed to warming that will see the growth of the global economy undercuts by 20 percent. That places the cost of even a limited period of climate change at roughly six times the estimated price of putting the world on a path to limit the warming to 2 degrees C."

A common talking point among those who are fighting efforts to limit climate is that those efforts are too expensive and a drag on the global economy.  The Nature study completely contradicts that position. 

Nations worldwide would feel the economic effects of climate change, whether it be poor developing nations and others considered to be at the top of the economic heap, like the United States and Germany. 

It's not that economies will stop growing in the coming decades due to climate change. It's just they will grow more slowly than they would have without it.

You'd think that extreme weather brought on by climate change, such as floods, powerful storms or intense hurricanes would create the brunt of the coming economic chaos. Those events would indeed have an effect the researchers concluded.

However, just the overall increase in heat distributed throughout much of the world would have the biggest effect. The added heat on balance would harm crops and hinder labor production. (Which, as an aside, makes efforts by Florida and Texas to block municipalities in those states to provide rest and water breaks for outdoor workers look especially stupid).

Southern parts of North America and Europe take an economic hit from climate change while northern reaches benefit. The minority of nations that might actually benefit a bit from global warming include Canada,  Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden, according to the study. 

The pattern repeats in the United States. Southern states take a bigger monetary hit from climate change compared to those closer to the Canadian border, 

Much of the economic harm through the middle of this century is already locked in due to climate change. But emissions reductions done now could go a long way toward blunting economic hard after 2050 from climate change is already locked.

You can read the Nature study for yourself at this hyperlink. 

 

The Eclipse Will Make Its Own Weather In Vermont And Elsewhere

 They tell me it's sensory overload when a total eclipse of the sun arrives, like it will on Monday.

Monday's eclipse path through Vermont. Expect big
changes in the weather and nature during the 
event, no matter what sky conditions are like at the start.

It's looking like Vermont will have a partly obscured view of the eclipse. High thin clouds will be increasing at the time of the event. We'll still be able to see it. The spectacle will just be filtered by the high clouds somewhat. 

It's a better scenario than the low, thick clouds we had with the storm Thursday and Friday. 

With at least some sunshine still in the forecast, you'll also notice how the eclipse will make its own weather. 

Temperatures

Forecast highs Monday afternoon are in the low to mid 50s.  I'm not sure whether meteorologists have factored the eclipse into that prediction. But I strongly suspect afternoon highs Monday will be a little cooler than they would have been without the eclipse.

The eclipse hits Vermont right around 3:30 in the afternoon.  Usually at that hour, we're approaching the high temperature for the day. But with dimming, then disappearing sunlight, the journey to a high temperatures will be interrupted. 

The chill during the eclipse will be noticeable for sure. As the Washington Post explains, a dry environment will get about 8 to 14 degrees cooler during the eclipse while readings will only drop by 5 to 10 degrees.

The air is forecast to be quite dry over Vermont during the eclipse, so there could be quite a cool down.  A wild card is for places that might still have a snow cover.  Light winds are are also in the forecast for Vermont eclipse time. 

 I wonder if places that still have a snow cover might see the bottom drop out of the temperature. It could be akin to those clear, cold winter evenings when the temperature crashes big time when the sun sets.  It'll be a fun experiment to see.

For fun you ought to bring a thermometer out. Leave it in the shade, as that will measure the ambient air. Note the temperature as the eclipse starts, and see how it changes as things gradually go dark, then light again. 

The temperature might actually reach its minimum a short time after the eclipse is over.  It takes time for the sun to start heating the atmosphere again. 

Wind

Like I mentioned earlier, we're not expecting much in the way of breezes on eclipse day. But this time of year, updrafts created by the sun mix the air, which does create some wind even if there's no storm nearby to generate anything strong. 

You'll probably notice some light breezes before the eclipse starts. Chances are, they'll diminish during the eclipse. That's because the sun won't be there at the peak to generate those updrafts.

Wind direction might change, too.  I'm curious to see what happens at my house in St. Albans. During the day, winds more often than not come out the west. Often at night, the breezes shift to more easterly as cool air drains off the Green Mountains into the Champlain Valley. 

Will this wind shift happen during Monday's eclipse?  Inquiring minds like mine want to find out. 

Showers and Clouds

Eclipses can help squelch showers and thunderstorms, too. That won't be a factor in Vermont, as instability showers are not in the forecast for Monday. 

It might be fascinating to watch Texas. Severe thunderstorms are in the forecast Monday for part of the eclipse path down there. Severe storms usually on the sun heating the lower atmosphere. That encourages the updrafts that help towering thunderstorm clouds grow.

That's why, in the summer, thunderstorms usually hit in the late afternoon and evening. That's when the clouds have taken the most advantage of the sun's heat. Those thunderstorms usually diminish after sunset. 

As the sun disappears in the eclipse, will wannabe thunderstorm clouds shrivel like they do during a typical sunset? And will they re-form after the eclipse is over? Chances are they will, as other factors in the atmosphere will encourage the Texas storms. 

Nature And Pets

Animals will surely be confused by this event. 

This time of year, robins around my house seem to break into happy song as dawn breaks and issue alarm calls when the sun is setting. 

Will I hear those alarm calls when the eclipse starts? Will the happy songs start once it's over?  Pay attention if you can to what happens with nature and animals around you during this event. 

As people get louder, nature gets quieter during an eclipse. 

Also, it might be interesting to see how your pets and other domesticated animals behave.  Will they act like they do at sunset? Or get confused and agitated?

Your dog will be fine, by the way.  Unless you take them into a crowd where they might get nervous or get themselves into trouble.

I'm lucky enough to live right in the middle of the path of totality. I know my dog will be fine. Jackson will be happy as long as he gets to participate with us. He'll be out on the deck with my husband and me enjoying the spectacle. 

There's no need to put eclipse glasses on your pets. Unlike humans, they're smart enough to never look at the sun, and they won't start doing so during the eclipse. 

People

This isn't weather related, but as you can imagine, total eclipses generate big feelings. Of course, during an eclipse we know what's going on, we know it's not dangerous (unless you're dumb enough to look directly at the sun without special glasses) and with the exception of certain eccentric politicians, an eclipse is not any kind of omen to worry about. 

Still, even the most calm, rational people get overwhelmed by eclipses. Embrace the emotions. Your heart might race, you might be brought to tears, or be lost in the thrill of it, or you might have other strong emotions or none of the above. 

Just be you and embrace the spectacle.