Occasional musings on meteorology and other bits of Earth science
These two monsters are what is left of last spring’s purple sprouting broccoli crop. I have failed to get anything in the picture that provides a scale, but they are (my) chest height: so about 1.3m tall. Having been planted in 2013, the other plants did the usual thing earlier this year, producing a cropContinue reading A land of giants?
I spotted this nice example of a 22° halo on Sunday morning (5 Oct). I was driving along the A1 at the time, so I screeched to a halt at the first place I could park and grabbed a photograph. Not a very good photograph, unfortunately: it is taken with my mobile phone which doesn’t haveContinue reading 22° halo: storm coming soon.
I just got back from the 4th-year geophysics field course; as noted earlier, this was held at Montalivet-les-Bains, on the Atlantic coast of France, an hour’s drive North of Bordeaux. As usual, we ran the trip with staff and students from the Université de Paris Sud and the Universität Münster. Many thanks are due toContinue reading Sand, Sand, Sand …
I pulled off the A1 this morning to take photos of a spectacular ground fog, with some trees, churches and Arthur’s Seat sticking out of it. I would not like to say for sure whether it was advection fog or radiation fog. The wind was very light and was coming in from the East, i.e.,Continue reading Foggy autumn morning
The eruption of the Bárðarbunga volcano in Iceland rumbles on. It is having no observable effect on the MLS SO2 data, (See earlier posts here and here) but that is hardly surprising; it is not a very explosive sort of eruption. However, the record from our gravity meter has been showing a sprinkling of ratherContinue reading Iceland rumbles
As a physicist I have a (perhaps regrettable) tendency to regard geography as an alien subject: full of essay-writing and subjective opinions. But I do love maps. The part of the School of GeoSciences that houses the geographers has a lovely collection of old maps; when I have to visit this building I often endContinue reading Maps, maps, maps.
Just a quick update on what the blossom I posted about earlier in the year has turned into. The gooseberries have done well and been picked. The plums and cherries have been a big fat zero. As predicted, the cooking apples are looking good but the eating apples have fruit on only one tree outContinue reading Blossom: The update
My paper on sulphur dioxide as measured by MLS has at long last made it into print. I have been hacking at it, on and off, for over a year now; it seems to have gone rather slowly. I say “into print”, but it is still not all the way there as it is inContinue reading More on MLS and Volcanos
One of the few perks of this job is a summer beach barbecue for all climate and weather related staff. As it was held a Gullane Beach, somewhere between Edinburgh and where I live in Dunbar, I made the potentially rash decision to cycle there and back. Now, I rather assumed that I was fitContinue reading A summer day out
Summer seems to have arrived, and about time too. The East Lothian sky yesterday was full of textbook cumulus clouds as the Sun warmed up the ground, setting off convection cells. (Later in the afternoon the convection was enthusiastic enough to chase me in out of the garden.) On my way home from bellringing IContinue reading Intrusions and convections
