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

Irene May Miss Us: The forecast track for what is expected to become Hurricane Irene later today is a good one: It appears Irene may miss the U.S. and leave us alone for good. Of course the track can change … be sure to check out the latest images and info in the red box to the right.

Hot Weekend: Heat, humidity settle in for weekend in Baltimore … Philly and NYC are expected to hit 98 degrees Saturday.

NOAA No Threat: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to assure the private-sector weather industry that it’s not a threat. Full story

Wagers On Hurricanes: Market takes wagers on hurricanes’ landfall

Tornado hits Wyoming town

New Look For TWC: Posted at CapitalWeather.com: The Weather Channel will launch a new logo, slogan and programming beginning on Monday… I think the new logo — which replaces the original from 1982 — looks very 1987.

Space News: NASA stumped by Discovery’s foam loss

Spacecraft loaded with high-tech cameras, antenna and radar begins 7-month voyage to Mars

NASA Space Station status report

From SpaceWeather.com: By almost all accounts, the 2005 Perseid meteor shower was subdued

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Friday: 1. Toronto 2. Kansas City 3. Oklahoma City 4. Chicago 5. Orlando … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Perseids! Perseid meteor shower peaked between 2 a.m. and dawn this morning with the possibility of hundreds of meteors visible! Perseid meteor shower photo gallery from SpaceWeather.com

Blast-Off! Spacecraft blasts off to gather Mars data

Indiana Storms: Strong storms sweep across Indiana

Irene Strengthens: Forecasters: Irene could reach hurricane strength as it approaches U.S. East Coast … latest data in the red box to the right

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Thursday: 1. Indianapolis 2. Chicago 3. Dallas/Fort Worth 4. Fort Wayne 5. Green Bay … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Weather News: Eye on Irene: The latest forecast track has a likely Hurricane Irene hitting the U.S. somewhere along the East Coast by Tuesday. All in the area should watch the current Tropical Storm Irene closely. [Latest news stories] The latest data and images can be found in the red box to the right.

‘Bizarre’ lightning strike to be studied: Lightning strike “sounded like dynamite exploding,” damaging 13 homes in central Mesa, Ariz., Tuesday afternoon

Climate change ‘means heat waves’

The perfect segue: NASA announces breakthrough in space weather forecasting

Space News: Perseid meteor shower peaks tomorrow morning: Details, maps and audio links (Audio lets you listen to ghostly pings when a Perseid flies by)

NASA prepares to launch a spacecraft to Mars with new tools designed to gather more data on the planet than all previous Martian missions combined. Full story

Emotions raw after astronaut’s two weeks in space

Quake News: Colo.-N.M. border rolled by “18-wheeler” earthquake. Live quake wire is in the left column of this page.

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Wednesday: 1. Toronto 2. San Antonio 3. Austin 4. Dallas/Fort Worth 5. Atlanta … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

Space News: Beware the Mars hoax! “On August 27th … Mars will look as large as the full moon… NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.” Wrong!

A tour around the moon — for $100 million

Weather News: The latest 5-day forecast track for Irene shows possible landfall as a tropical storm or hurricane along the coast of the Carolinas early next week. Get the latest updates on Irene in the red box to the right.

FEMA cash buried 203 nonvictims

Storms rip through northern Minnesota

Lightning strike damages 13 homes in Mesa, Ariz.

Lightning hits Minneapolis/St. Paul area homes

150,000 lightning strikes have Ontario burning

Down under, it’s a different story: Freak snow blankets southern Australia

Another in-depth Sen. Santorum NWS bill story: Will bill darken weather sites?

Someone needs to do something about the weather

Hottest, driest summer recorded in N. Michigan since 1988

Mobile Media and The Weather Channel(R) launch Lifestyle Alerts: New service includes travel alerts, baseball game delays, and more: Press release

Back To Space News: Cool purple Sun image posted at SpaceWeather.com

Shuttle’s future unclear after landing

September launch window shrinks for Atlantis as NASA engineers struggle to understand, fix foam debris issues

Watching tonight’s ABC News special on Peter Jennings helped me learn much more about a great journalist who my family watched beginning in 1983.

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Tuesday: 1. Minneapolis/St. Paul 2. Phoenix 3. Houston 4. Dallas/Fort Worth 5. Orlando … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

P.M. Updates: Discovery crew speaks | Crew’s accomplishments

Dicovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 8:12 EDT, after both landing opportunities today at Kennedy Space Center in Florida were waved off due to “rain showers off the coast.” Some residents in Southern California may have heard the sound of a sonic boom instead of their alarm clocks. From NASA:

Space Shuttle Discovery touched down this morning at Edwards Air Force Base in California to successfully conclude NASA’s Return to Flight Mission. STS-114 was the first Shuttle mission to fly since the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and the STS-107 crew on Feb. 1, 2003.

Live Coverage: Streaming Video: NASA TV | NBC News live video for Windows Media Player/broadband users (opens new window) | MSNBC live video | NASA Return to Flight page … The major broadcast and cable news networks are also covering this live.

Weather/Webcam Images: California live weather and webcam images, includes satellite images from AccuWeather, Intellicast and Unisys

Stories: Space shuttle streaks toward California landing after weather woes in Florida | Discovery landing plan shifts west | NASA cancels Fla. landing for Discovery | Highlights of Discovery’s re-entry | See the landing tracks and detailed landing info

Nice image of the Moon and Venus posted at SpaceWeather.com

Weather News: Sandstorm hits Baghdad

Tropical Storms in Atlantic pose no threat

Rainbands offer better forecasts of hurricane intensity

Toronto plane crash update: Investigators have turned their attention to the role a severe thunderstorm played in last week’s crash of an Air France passenger jet after uncovering no evidence mechanical failure was to blame, the lead investigator said Monday. Full story

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

Weather Delays Shuttle Landing Until Tuesday: From NASA:

5:04 a.m. [ET] – Discovery’s landing attempts are waved off for today due to unstable weather. There are two opportunities at Kennedy tomorrow morning. The weather at the landing site is just too unstable this morning.

Weather delays landing of space shuttle: Next possible landing time: 5:08 a.m. EDT Tuesday, with burn descent toward Earth beginning just after 4 a.m. EDT. | Central Florida weather, live webcam images includes satellite images from AccuWeather, Intellicast and Unisys | AP story | Highlights of Discovery’s re-entry | Space shuttle program faces critical juncture | See the landing tracks

Live Coverage: Streaming Video: NASA TV | MSNBC live video | NASA Return to Flight page … The major broadcast and cable news networks will also be covering this live.

Glimpse of Discovery: I was able to catch a one-second glimpse of Discovery as it flew by over North Texas at 6:16 a.m. local time. It was mostly cloudy, so I only saw it briefly. Later Sunday, I saw some of the interviews given by the astronauts aboard the space shuttle. I pray they return home safely.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Dueling auroras

Weather News: Tropical Storm Irene forms in Atlantic … At this time, it is not expected to affect land. The latest updates are in the red box to the right.

Sex offenders banned from Florida storm shelters

Miami Int’l Airport suffers holes after lightning strikes

7 dead as Typhoon Matsa swept through eastern China

Deadly Calif. thunderstorms trigger slides, floods

Report: N.S. utility not to blame for power outages

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

Discovery Undocks: Space shuttle Discovery undocks after nearly nine days at orbital outpost | Astronauts remove 2 1/2 years of space station trash | See Discovery and ISS in parts of the U.S. early Saturday, Sunday morning

Raining Perseids … Meteor shower peaks this Friday

Network of sonar sensors to provide tsunami warnings for 27 countries

Geologists hit San Andreas Fault’s active zone

Weather News: USDA designates counties in California, Oklahoma, and Texas as agricultural disaster areas | The North and Central Texas drought continues: Maps of rainfall this year from the National Weather Service

British still obsessed with weather

Bermuda may be affected by a tropical depression, which is expected to become Tropical Storm Irene:Track

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

A smattering of stories this morning: Giant ocean waves more common than thought: Last year’s Hurricane Ivan generated an ocean wave that towered higher than 90 feet at one point, says a study…

Typhoon Matsa menaces Taiwan, shuts markets

Weather phobia turned to fascination

Here are some images of a grass fire on July 23 that burned hundreds of acres near WXnation.com’s headquarters in far north Fort Worth amid a warm, dry summer (Images link to large versions in a new window):

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Thursday: 1. Toronto 2. Dallas/Fort Worth 3. Detroit 4. Indianapolis 5. Denver … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

New Tropical Depression Follows Harvey: Tropical Depression Nine and its track

Tropical Storm Harvey soaks Bermuda. Updates to both systems are in the red box to the right.

U.S. Forecasts > Canadian Forecasts?: American broadcasters say they do a better job forecasting severe weather than their colleagues north of the border because they spend more money on weather technology. Full story from the CBC … I’ve finally found the opportunity to use the “greater-than” symbol in a headline!

Toronto Jet Crash Updates: An evacuation by the book | Black boxes recovered

NASA Says New Spacewalk Not Necessary: NASA rules against another shuttle repair: Commander Eileen Collins described on Thursday how widespread environmental destruction on Earth could be seen from the shuttle: “The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it’s so very thin.” | Fallen crew honored … STS-107 crew

Discovery is scheduled to return to Florida early Monday morning. More NASA Coverage: NASA’s Return To Flight page | MSNBC coverage | Discovery history/timeline | NASA timeline

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Wednesday: 1. Toronto 2. Minneapolis/St. Paul 3. Phoenix 4. Denver 5. Dallas/Fort Worth … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.

NASA’s Steps To Repair: Astronaut pulls insulation from shuttle’s belly, but may face another shuttle repair | Live NASA TV feed

Tropical Storm Harvey Forms: Slight chance Harvey could become hurricane as it heads toward Bermuda | Tropical storm warning issued for Bermuda … Updates and images are in the red box to the right.

Lightning kills Boy Scout at Utah camp: The accident marked the second deadly lightning strike to hit a Boy Scout camp in the last week.

The Weather Channel(R) Interactive launches weather extension for Mozilla FireFox Browser: I’ve tried the original ForecastFox extensions, which used Weather Channel and then AccuWeather data. I’ve just installed this one from the extensions page and will see how it compares…

Toronto Plane Crash Updates: Wind shear probable cause of plane mishap | Bad weather tabbed as likely responsible | Air France chairman praises crew

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

Report: All Aboard Toronto Plane Crash Survive — Possible Cause Is Wind Shear During Severe Storm: All 297+12 reported aboard Air France Flight 358 were miraculously able to escape. MSNBC coverage and live Windows Media video feed | Coverage from CBC and CTV and Global TV | Live feed/coverage from CP24, Toronto (right column). Toronto weather and webcam images

20th Anniversary Today Of Fatal Delta Crash Caused By Wind Shear At D/FW Airport: Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fatal crash of Delta Flight 191. Just after 6 p.m. on Aug. 2, 1985, Delta Flight 191 crashed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 136 people on board and a motorist on Highway 114. The airliner was trying to land in a developing thunderstorm and experienced violent wind shear caused by a microburst. The crash resulted in additional airport weather stations relaying data to traffic controllers, as well as the creation of microburst alerts at DFW Airport, and across airports worldwide. Full story, including almost 300 images and more than 20 video reports from 1985 … The crash was the largest crash in Texas history and is at No. 71 on the 100 biggest air disasters list.

NOAA Updates Hurricane Outlook: The updated outlook calls for an extremely active season, with an expected seasonal total of 18-21 tropical storms (mean is 10), with 9-11 becoming hurricanes (mean is 6), and 5-7 of these becoming major hurricanes (mean is 2-3). More details and interactive hurricane tracker

NASA Fix: NASA decides to fix shuttle during spacewalk: Fabric dangling from Discovery to be removed as safety measure | AP story

NASA coverage and live TV feed

Weather News: San Diego County downpours blamed for one death

July was third hottest July ever in Phoenix

Boy struck by lightning awakens from coma

Drought in NW drains reservoirs and ruins orchards

NBC’s 24/7 Weather Plus is now streaming online at KARE-TV 11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul and WGAL-TV 8 in Susquehanna Valley, PA. A complete list of all 19 NBC sites streaming Weather Plus online is in our Super Sites page.

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

Download WXnation Podcast #5 – August 1, 2005
(Time: 17:05 / 7.9 MB) Right click/'Save Target As' or 'Save Link As' | Show notes

Weather News: July continued its assault on the record books Saturday when Denver’s temperature hit 101 degrees, beating the July 30 record of 100 set in 1972. Full story

Space News: Discovery may need unprecedented repair

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Is this the 10th planet?

Quake News: Magnitude 3.3 earthquake hits Mount St. Helens Sunday USGS: Quake likely triggered overnight collapse of large section of rock at north end of growing lava dome … The live quake wire is located in the left column of this page, and more quake resources are in the National/International page

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