Weather & Space News Blog
 since Feb. 2003
 WX - Telegraph abbreviation for weather often used with Morse code
 The Wire - Name once given to the telegraph

Big snow hits N.M.: Some areas receive more than a foot … Resource: N.M. weather and live webcam images

Texas Panhandle gets up to 7 inches of snow: In the extreme western part of the Panhandle, around Texline at the New Mexico border, as much as a foot of snow has fallen. Weather and webcams for Amarillo and Lubbock

Weather Channel launches new version of Desktop Weather application while Sirius Satellite Radio selects WSI Corp. for marine weather data

Space News: NASA probes Mars rover instrument problem

N.Y. teen wins science competition

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Tuesday: 1. Albuquerque 2. Amarillo 3. Lubbock 4. Dallas-Fort Worth 5. Los Angeles … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Snow Updates: Deep snow takes its toll on mailboxes along rural roads | Maine gets federal aid for snow costs

One Final Winter Blast?: CapitalWeather is monitoring a possible storm threat for the D.C. area later in the week through the weekend

Severe weather uproots trees in Florida

Weather so perfect it’s strange: 2004 weather best in Midwest

Wintry weather returns to parts of Oklahoma

Storms may reduce water bills for L.A. residents

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Monday: 1. Albuquerque 2. Los Angeles 3. Orlando 4. Dallas-Fort Worth 5. Tampa … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Some current happenings in the worlds of weather and science:

Portland At 102: Latest winter storm in Maine puts Portland over 100-inch snowfall mark

NY Streak: At least 40 inches of flakes have fallen on New York for the third winter in a row – a streak unmatched in the 136-year history of recorded weather. Full story

Big Quakes: Earthquakes rock New Zealand, Turkey

Shrinking Glaciers: Group warns of shrinking glaciers’ effect

Bright Light In Night Sky: Fireball sighted over Pacific Northwest on Saturday

Preparing For The Worst: Drought emergency declared in Washington State and West, South brace for fierce fire season

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Sunday: 1. Denver 2. Atlanta 3. Los Angeles 4. Louisville 5. Dallas-Fort Worth … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Maine Snow Update: Winter storm dumps more snow on Maine: Total snow accumulation expected to be 10 to 20 inches…

5.7 quake shakes southeastern Turkey

Space News: Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA

Texas county abuzz as Amazon.com founder plans spaceport

And, in the Astronomy “Picture” of the Day: A message from Earth

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Saturday: 1. Boston 2. Portland, ME 3. New York City 4. Burlington, VT 5. Honolulu … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Snowfall By The Foot: 1-2 more feet of snow expected in Maine … Maine weather and webcam images

N.H. snowfall may reach 12 inches by late Sunday … N.H. weather/webcam images

Snow again over Northeast: New York City nears record, Maine could see two feet

More Snow For Motor City: (OK, that was a stretch…) Weekend snow may create road hazards: New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible … Detroit weather/webcam images

Meanwhile … Bay City Bakes, To Cool Down: Record-setting weather expected to end: Friday’s high of 87 in San Francisco broke a 91-year-old record by 1 degree to become the hottest March day in the city’s history.

New Look, Programming Coming To Weather Channel, Weather.com: The Weather Channel Cos. will soon unveil on-air a new look and new tagline — “Bringing Weather to Life” — plus new programming as part of its brand evolution campaign. Full story

Tornadoes Or Not Tornadoes?: Plans to name a new minor league baseball team after a tornado that killed 94 people and injured almost 1,300 a half-century ago are drawing criticism from a historian and survivors of the deadly storm. Full story

Opinion posted in Onalaska Community Life: Weather forecasts are partly to mostly not too informative

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Friday: 1. Atlanta 2. Boston 3. New York City 3. Indianapolis 4. Los Angeles … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

The Problem: The National Weather Service says too many Kansans are ignoring weather warnings… The Solution: New Storm Team 12 technology called Select Warn, used in partnership with the NWS, will be able to issue warnings only to towns in the most danger… The whole story

Light snow, rainy Thursday

Rescuers find S. African miners after 5.0-magnitude quake, one missing

Space News: Check out the cool animation for a partial solar eclipse visible in parts of the U.S. on April 8 at SpaceWeather.com

Fort Worth Skyline From Beach: I managed to snap this shot of the Fort Worth skyline from Beach Street over Interstate 30 on Wednesday (thanks to a Wal-Mart truck making a slow left and causing me to wait at the light). Image links to larger version in a new window:

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Thursday: 1. Chicago 2. Los Angeles 3. Boston 4. Toronto 5. Orlando, and on Wednesday: 1. Boston 2. New York City 3. Orlando 4. Miami 5. Syracuse … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Mount St. Helens Update: Mount St. Helens’ eruption causes no worries, bark was worse than its bite … Resources are in yesterday’s post below…

Weather News: Storm clean-up in North Carolina

Icy blast cuts into Northeast’s spring fling: Wind chill plunges below zero days after temperatures hit 60s

Tornado tears through New Zealand town

Quake Month, 2005: It appears that we’re in “earthquake month”

Cool Image: Another incredible desktop background image candidate has been posted at SpaceWeather.com

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Tuesday: 1. Boston 2. New York City 3. Hartford 4. Albany 5. Burlington … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Mount St. Helens Erupts: Mount St. Helens erupting again | More from Seattle Post-Intelligencer … Resources: Live VolcanoCam and dome growth animation (thanks to Geoff Scott of Spokane for alerting me to the animation link)

Weather News: Snow falls in NJ/NYC while storms are likely in Dallas-Fort Worth tonight … Live national radar, Northeast radar, DFW radar, Current watches/warnings, Weather/webcams for NYC, New Jersey and Dallas-Fort Worth

Storms in Houston knock out power at Hobby Airport; More on the way … See live weather and webcams for the area

Storm may bring heavy snow to parts of N.H. Tuesday … Weather/webcams

Drought in the Northwest could spell trouble: Story

From the world of webcams, concerns raised about privacy

Space News: Dark horse makes bold claims in space race: Aera announces launch pact, plans flights in 2006

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Monday: 1. Houston 2. Toronto 3. New Orleans 4. Orlando 5. San Antonio … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Media hype redefines ‘major’ storm in Maine: According to this story, those in the media say storms are rightly treated as a big event.

Google Weather: Discovered in SearchEngineJournal: Google has posted to its blog that visitors can now type in “weather” followed by their ZIP code or city, to get a forecast provided by Wunderground.

Moderate earthquake (5.4) rattles eastern Quebec

Space News: Astronauts’ futures uncertain

Moon probe could kill conspiracy theory

Astronomy Pictures of the Day: View from Everest and Mercury’s successive positions

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Sunday: 1. Houston 2. Dallas-Fort Worth 3. Los Angeles 4. New York City 5. Phoenix … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

My Top 25 Meteorological Songs: (Disclaimer: may include songs with only brief references to weather)

I’ve thought about making this compilation for a while now (I’m just now putting these into a playlist in my iPod). I’m not really sure if it will be of any use to you, but since it’s a relatively slow weather weekend, there isn’t much else to post here anyway. Links take you to the artists’ official Web sites and Amazon.com’s CD review/sales pages. Here we go…

#1: Cloudbusting
Artist: Kate Bush
Album: Hounds of Love
Released: 1985
Chance of being played on my iPod: 100%
Comments: Based on the novel "A Book of Dreams" by Peter Reich, this song is about a boy whose father is viewed as a threat for making a machine that created rain and is taken away by the government. An amazing video (one of the best of the 80′s) stars Donald Sutherland as the father and Bush as the boy. I remember seeing the video at the beginning of 1986, along with the excellent video for "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)."

#2: Here Comes The Flood
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Album: Peter Gabriel
Released: 1977
Chance of being played on my iPod: 95%
Comments: One of Peter Gabriel’s best songs and closer for his first solo album. Love the opening line, "When night shows, the signals grow on radios…"

#3: Summer I
Artist: Vivaldi
Album: Four Seasons
Released: 1725 (First published in the collection Opus 8)
Chance of being played on my iPod: 90%
Comments: The first and only classical CD I own, thanks to plenty of airplay on The Weather Channel’s "Local Forecast" segment sometime around 1994.

#4: A Little Rain
Artist: Tom Waits
Album: Bone Machine
Released: 1992
Chance of being played on my iPod: 85%
Comments: "November" was a close second choice, but I have decided that
is the best Tom Waits song that makes reference to weather…

#5: Song For a Winter’s Night
Artist: Sarah McLachlan
Album: Rarities, B–Sides & Other Stuff
Released: 1996
Chance of being played on my iPod: 80%
Comments: This Gordon Lightfoot song leaves no questions as to what it’s about. Great listening while snowed in.

#6: The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix)
Artist: Kate Bush
Album: Hounds of Love (Remastered)
Released: 1986, Remastered in 1997
Chance of being played on my iPod: 75%
Comments: How many songs have Meteorology in the title? The middle segment of this remixed version of "The Big Sky" is best, as the voices of several "meteorologists" describe what the clouds in the sky look like: "This cloud should be removed immediately! That cloud looks like industrial waste!"

#7: Red Rain
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Album: So
Released: 1986
Chance of being played on my iPod: 70%
Comments: From flooding to rain, Peter created some great songs in the 70s and 80s, and the album "So" is amazing.

#8: Lightning Crashes
Artist: Live
Album: Throwing Copper
Released: 1994
Chance of being played on my iPod: 65%
Comments: On the best album of 1995.

#9: I Wish It Would Rain Down
Artist: Phil Collins
Album: …But Seriously
Released: 1989
Chance of being played on my iPod: 60%
Comments: Demo version is pretty cool too.

#10. Thunderstorm
Artist: Matthew Sweet
Album: In Reverse
Released: 1999
Chance of being played on my iPod: 55%
Comments: Epic 9+ minute closer to his best album since “Girlfriend.”

#11: The Tide Is High
Artist: Blondie
Album: Autoamerican
Released: 1980
Chance of being played on my iPod: 50%
Comments: Chance of high seas, 100%

12. Purple Rain — Prince (How could I forget this one?)
13. Summertime — The Sundays
14. Summertime — DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
15. Rain King — Counting Crows
16. Steal My Sunshine — Len
17. Here Comes The Rain Again — Eurythmics
18. Electrical Storm [William Orbit Mix] — U2
19. Sunshine in the Shade — The Fixx
20. Sunshine in the Rain — Ryan Farish
21. The Light Is Shining — Twila Paris
22. Rain — Madonna
23. Boys of Summer — Don Henley
24. Fire and Rain — James Taylor
25. Play in the Rain (Continued) — Lindsey Buckingham
Bonus: Dreams — Fleetwood Mac (Mostly off–topic, but mentions thunder, and it was one of my first memories of hearing a song on the radio — ironically during a big storm)

I’m certain that some of your favorite songs with weather themes are not listed here. If this is the case, feel free to add ‘em to the comments link at the bottom of this post.

My Favorite Meteorological Album: (Disclaimer: may include songs with only brief references to weather)

Hounds of Love
Artist: Kate Bush
Released: 1985
Chance of being played on my iPod: 85–100%
Comments: In Nov. 1985, I remember hearing Kate Bush for the first time as then–Top 40 station K–104 in Erie, Penn., was playing "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" in high rotation. A few weeks later, I decided to buy this album on cassette tape and was immediately amazed at how different yet spellbinding her music was. I’ve been a big fan since. Most of the songs on this album have references to relationships, water, and weather: Thunder is mentioned and heard in her biggest U.S. hit to date, "Running Up That Hill," clouds appear in "The Big Sky," rainmaking comprises "Cloudbusting," and the entire second half of the album, subtitled "The Ninth Wave," is about a woman who spends a night alone in water and dreams of drowning. Reviewers on Amazon.com and epinions.com seem to have nothing bad to say about this album. Neither do I.

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Saturday: 1. Phoenix 2. Los Angeles 3. San Diego 4. Vancouver 5. Orlando … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Winter Storms In Japan, Europe: Snow in Tokyo and northern Japan disrupts air travel, causes warehouse to collapse, kills 1

Europe gets hit with a big chill: Snow, ice disrupts flights in Netherlands, France

Latest story and some pictures of the snow in Britain

Little Earthquakes II: Officials: No tsunami threat as earthquake “swarm” that began last weekend results in thousands of small earthquakes off the Oregon coast

Volcanic rumblings at Alaska’s Mt. Spurr are spurring hazardous conditions for extreme skiers, snowboarders and pilots Details

World Of Webcams: Logitech sells its 25 millionth webcam (one of them belongs to me … WXnation Webcam 1 from Fort Worth)

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Friday: 1. Los Angeles 2. Dallas/Fort Worth 3. San Diego 4. Orlando 5. New York City … Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Thursday: 1. Los Angeles 2. New York City 3. Orlando 4. Kansas City 5. Vancouver … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Around The World: GlobalFlyer’s safe landing completes the first solo, around-the-world flight without refueling (Video inside)

Weather News: Commuters in Britain are being urged to stay at home to avoid the worst winter weather in years

Summary: As one man completes his trip ’round the world, several people are instructed not to leave their homes…

Bug Blogging: WeatherBug has added two new blogs, citing success of its event blogs for hurricanes and Groundhog Day: The first is a corporate blog, where “Chief Chirp” Stephanie Blozy has chirped up about the use of the word “bug” in the company’s name. She has also started her own blog…

Weather News: Midwest, California get some snow; South Texas gets rain, storms

Little Earthquakes: 4.6 earthquake strikes northern Arizona, and 3.5-magnitude quake along Quebec border … Remember, a complete list of the most current earthquakes is in the lower portion of the left column on this page. Other quake resources are in the right column of our National/International page

Space News: Strange space burst could be new object

College students examine shuttle debris

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Wednesday: 1. Syracuse 2. Houston 3. New York City 4. Los Angeles 5. Buffalo … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

NYC-Area Snow: Tri-State residents dig out from up to 9 inches of snow

Other Snow Stories: Viewer snow photos from Philly

And Virginia’s snow-king winner from Monday’s winter storm is . . .

Does D.C. need to toughen up when it comes to snow?

WTAE-TV’s ThePittsburghChannel.com takes on a blog title, format for winter storm reporting

Back To Rain? More rain possible this week as Los Angeles inches toward rain record … L.A. area weather/live webcam images

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Tuesday: 1. New York City 2. Boston 3. Syracuse 4. Detroit 5. Toronto … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

D.C. Snow Arrives Later, Has Less Punch Than Expected: The National Weather Service’s forecast early Monday suggested up to 6-11 inches of snow in D.C., but it appears only 2-4 inches will fall. Some reactions from the region are captured in this great CapitalWeather.com post, Emotions run high during storm

Updated expected total snow accumulations from the National Weather Service (data from early Tuesday): Philly: 5-9 inches; NYC: 6-8 inches

Images: Current Wunderground radar image | Latest watches/warnings/advisories; airport delays; and live weather/webcams by city

Stories: Storm shuts schools, delays Northeast flights | Parts of Massachusetts may get another foot of snow | Storm expected to dump up to a foot of snow in Connecticut | Winter storm drops more than 8 inches of snow in parts of Virginia

Space News: Report: Japan eyes manned base on Moon

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Monday: 1. Washington, D.C. 2. New York City 3. Baltimore 4. Boston 5. Pittsburgh … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.