April 2
March went out like it came in, a miffed house cat. A bit on the nippy side and breezy, but no roaring.
After the last post, most of Sunday afternoon we had big fluffy cumulo-flakes that disappeared almost before hitting the ground. Very pretty but no moisture gained. Monday morning a bank of freezing fog rolled thru, giving a lovely ice show for a few minutes as the sun broke out, before the wind picked up and erased the display quickly.
The warmth finally came back today after another brisk day yesterday, and it looks to stick around at least for a few days. Precip is anybody’s guess as we get back into a northwest flow for the next few days, which usually means nothing wet for us. Perhaps some more for the foothills to add to the foot of fresh snow that Brandon reported from west of Mountainaire Lodge last weekend.
If we can get some more of these nice clear skies tomorrow night, there could be a double treat. A coronal hole solar wind stream is on it’s way and should be here any time now. Looking at the solar wind data from NASA’s BEHIND spacecraft, where the stream has already arrived, there is certainly a disturbance on the way and it should arrive at ACE soon. If you are interested in catching the auroras over the next few nights, watch here for the action and the Real time auroral oval from the CSSDP to see what’s cooking.
Treat #2 is a 9:15pm pass almost directly overhead by the International Space Station after rising a bit south of due west. We saw the 9pm pass this evening and it was incredibly bright, and the Jules Verne supply vehicle trailing along behind was very bright as well. Didn’t have time to grab the camera, but I caught it on it’s next pass at 10:30. The image below is a composite of 3 shots as it rose from the horizon and faded into the darkness when it left sunlight and headed around the dark side of Earth.
