Blackie

The JTWC course would take Shanshan straight towards Shanghai if it doesn't recurve.

Interesting thread, guys. I must have missed it when I posted some photos I took of a potted horse chestnut my wife has grown in our back garden last week in the photography area (http://www.netweather.tv/forum/index.php?showtopic=32452) - although Rustynailer did comment on that. My wife was saying that the horse chestnuts around Wisbech looked really weird with just the conkers and no leaves. At this rate we'll be left with no indigenous species and just loads of sycamore trees and rhododendrons everywhere! Mind you, as a kid I used to love playing with sycamore seeds, or helicopters as we called them. Maybe we were responsible for helping them spread.

Wow - that's huge. What's the projected path now?

Well done John. Great photo and it will make a superb one for the calendar. But commiserations to Anvil Crawler. A close run thing. Shame there couldn't have been space for both. Just a suggestion, but maybe when the calendar is produced there could be a collection of some of the best of the rest somewhere? I was lucky enough to have one of my photos selected for a calendar a couple of years ago (as Mr January - well, not me personally, my photo! ) and there were some fabulous finalist pictures which didn't make it, so they printed 13 of them in a panel on the back cover. It worked really well.

Rasta cloud, man? Bob Marley lives! I and I love it.

I think it's called luurve, tuggy. :lol:

All three of them are excellent Louby. And a nice level horizon with the middle one, too. Well done indeed. Looks as though August is going to be just as hard to pick the winning shot...

Daisy? Tulip? Rhododendron? Maybe a little weed, because it has been "weeded out" of the planets list by the astronomy world. Or perhaps a thorn bush because it has been such a thorny issue. I can just imagine Charlie Dimmock waxing lyrical about Plutoniensis Floribundum - and adding a water feature on it! Could be the basis for a new slant to this thread. If planets were plants, what would they be? I think Venus would be Deadly Nightshade. Beautiful, exotic but highly toxic. Any other suggestions?

Are you saying it's definitely probable then, kw? Seriously, could be a big worry if it maintains strength before hitting the Gulf. Looks like the hurricane season is about to spring back to life with a vengeance.

Well, there's Planet Hollywood. Named after the place full of stars, some of them with egos bigger than Uranus! :lol: But just imagine if the decision had gone the other way, you would have had to do three more cut-outs and try and persuade your kids that actually there aren't 9 planets after all, there are 12. Well, sort of... And imagine trying to teach them a snappy name like 2003 UB313. I wonder what sort of animal Disney would have made that as well? :lol: Edit: backlash against the decision has already started: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5283956.stm

OK, three from the ones I took in my garden a couple of days ago (and posted in the Photography area). 1. Altocumulus with irridescence and grapevine. 2. Altocumulus and jet with con trail. 3. Altocumulus and seagull. Peter

Thanks Paula. Yes, I can see now when I right click on your pic and those from Mark (Multi Cellular) and click properties. I may give that a go myself when I get a moment as I would need to put them on my site first. I thought you could simply add pictures into a post. Peter

Lovely shot there Tugmistress. I love silhouetted cliffs, and was lucky enough to get something similar at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland a couple of years ago. I can't enter them here of course, but they are on my website. As Shuggee says, there is some outstanding quality for August's entries. Mark's wave cloud (looks like leaping ethereal dolphins to me) is stunning, as is the other sunrise photo with the yacht and golden-tinged cloud. And I love some of the other entries as well. This is going to be even harder than July to pick a winner! :blush: I got some shots in my garden at lunchtime yesterday which I posted on the photography area. Some nice translucent altocumulus (I've always called it mackerel sky). Nowhere near as dramatic as some on here. But I may enter one or two. How do you post photos into a thread like MPP, rather than have them as thumbnails?

Thanks for the guidance, Shuggee. Mind you, I still can't make my mind up. For me, these are the plus/minus points: *Anvil Crawler (not Cralwer as you have at the top, btw) - stunning capture of the lightning strike, made by the baby cloud. Shame it is slightly off-centre. *John Cox - exquisite shot. Beautiful colours and superb framing. *Mr_S - awesome cloud, like a spaceship. Works well with the silhouette foreground, although I would have liked to see the sides of the cloud. *Osbourne One-Nil - very atmospheric with the dramatic rays and nearest fields sunlit. Makes you feel all shivery. *Paul Sherman - lovely pastel colours and nice reflection. Perhaps it needs more striking clouds though. *Rustynailer - amazing lightning over the water, and it works well with them way on the left and the town nestling in the bay on the right, plus I like the car lights in the foreground. But the cables across the lightnight distract. And you need to get your sensor cleaned, Russ. Those dark specks are caused by dust. I know I'm being picky, but you have to in order to narrow it down to one. Think I need a bit more time on this...

Sorry Shuggee, I missed the previous voting round. I think WiB asked something similar before, but can I just clarify the basis on which the votes are being cast? Are you looking for the best picture, period? Or are you looking for the best weather photo? As it is a calendar for Net-weather, I would have thought the latter is the case. One picture stands out a mile as a great calendar shot, but other pictures are more weather-related... Peter Btw, I thought the overall quality of entries was very good. There were some superb photos which never made it this far.

A good friend of mine in Shanghai I chat to on MSN every day told me that it was very hot and sunny there while the typhoon was hitting further south. Seems strange that it should have had such different weather. I haven't been to Wenzhou but I certainly know that it is a developed area. News reports here said that 1.5 million people were evacuated, which shows just how densely populated it is. Any news locally on where they think Wukong is likely to hit?

NW, If you copy the link from Metsul you can get it translated on Google. Click on "more", next to Froogle at the top. Go down to the bottom right and click on Translate. In the Translate box, paste the URL link where it says Translate a web page, and choose Portuguese to English, and hey presto. It isn't a perfect translation, but it works well enough to understand most of the article. Even works on Chinese sites, after a fashion! Cheers Peter

This was on the BBC a few days ago, showing similar crop marks from the air in Wales: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/5253824.stm Fascinating.

Link to a story on the BBC this morning: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4782413.stm Death toll up to 104, including 41 people killed when a building collapsed on them. Sounds as though it was pretty catastrophic, and it could produce even more devastation inland even though it has now been downgraded to a TS. I have been to villages in the mountainous area of Jiangxi province which is on its path, and the houses are very flimsy. Many of them are right by rivers, so any rise in the water level or sudden surge and they wouldn't stand a chance. That's why so much destruction was caused by the previous storms in other provinces. Sorry, Darren, I don't have links to satellite images. I just hope things quieten down for the people in this part of China. Life is a struggle there anyway without this onslaught by Mother Nature. Peter

Craig will be tucked up in bed as they are 7 hours ahead. This is a link to a story from a Hong Kong business paper that went on the internet just now: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail....&con_type=1 It says wind speeds were up to 216kmh and 1.5 million people were evacuated. A couple of ships capsized and two deaths reported so far, but I am certain there will be many more - on the coast and way inland as it churns through south east China. Peter

Welcome aboard, Kittie My weather station is still in its box waiting for me to put it up and connect it to the PC. But in layman's terms it's bl**dy freezing here in my converted garage office, although looking up through the skylight I can see quite a bit of blue sky and some puffy clouds. Think of putting on my fleece and a pair of socks. Maybe even my milkmen's fingerless mitts!

Got the guanxi already. The train tickets were sorted. It was the plane tickets I had poblems with. Mind you, I am in the middle of writing part of a guide book on China, so I need to spend more time here...

I didn't mean Shanghai itself was in danger, but that they are worried about the impact where it will actually hit. I think you will be fine in Shanghai. The area at risk seems to be the same places that got hit by the last two. Are you permanently in China, or just a temporary contract? When I get a chance I must try and learn Chinese properly too. I only know a few phrases atm - and they are ones that could get me into trouble! I was planning to come over to Beijing and Tibet again for the new Lhasa train from next week but had to cancel because I couldn't get flights. With today's security alert and flights being cancelled to and from Heathrow I'm glad I did now. Might get back to Shanghai in November though. Good luck with the weather. Peter

I see you are online from Ningbo, Craig. How is it looking there at the moment? Peter (Pi Ying Hua)

Reuters story this morning Looks very serious for people in affected provinces in China. I just spoke to a friend of mine in Shanghai and they are worried about it. This was the Reuters report: Half million Chinese flee as super typhoon nears Thursday August 10, 07:39 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - More than half a million Chinese have fled their homes in the path of a super typhoon, the strongest to threaten the country in 50 years, as it churned relentlessly towards the southeast coast on Thursday. Saomai, one of three storms to have hit East Asia in the past few days, has already dumped heavy rain on Taiwan and was just hours from an expected landfall between Hong Kong and Shanghai, just south of the booming city of Wenzhou. Storm tracker Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com) graded Saomai a category five "super" typhoon -- its highest category. Chinese state media said it was the most powerful storm system to threaten the country since August 1956, when a typhoon hit Zhejiang triggering a tsunami that killed more than 3,000. "Some meteorologists said that the typhoon might grow stronger," the Xinhua news agency said, adding that it could be fuelled by remnants of the weakening and west-headed tropical storm Bopha. "Saomai is packing winds of 216 kph (134 mph) and has outpaced forecasts," Xinhua quoted Li Yuzhu, head of the Zhejiang provincial observatory, as saying. The centre of Saomai was 140 km (87 miles) southeast of Wenzhou at 6 a.m. British time, moving northwest at 25 km (16 miles) per hour. Wenzhou residents were reinforcing windows and doors against the storm and stockpiling drinking water and food, state television said. Wenzhou airport had closed and hundreds of passengers were stranded because of cancelled flights, one airport manager said. "We don't know when we will open again," the manager, surnamed Zhou, told Reuters by telephone. "The wind is only fitful but rain is really heavy here." GONG ALERT Airlines in Taiwan also cancelled some domestic and international flights even though the island escaped the brunt of the storm. Hong Kong cancelled several flights. Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, once a prosperous foreign treaty port and now a manufacturing centre, has a central population of 1.3 million, but there are 7.4 million in the greater Wenzhou area. Xinhua reported that Zhejiang had already evacuated 305,000 people and the neighbouring province of Fujian 266,000, as heavy rain, strong winds and a high tide hit the area. Officials in Wenzhou's Cangnan county resorted to television, Internet, text messaging and even two satellite phones to alert residents about Saomai. They also prepared 30 gongs, a traditional instrument in ancient China to warn people of disasters, the local government said on its Web site (www.cncn.gov.cn). Much of south China has been repeatedly battered by typhoons and tropical storms this year. Hundreds have been killed by rainstorms, mudslides and floods. Tropical storm Bilis killed more than 600 last month and typhoon Prapiroon killed about 80 last week. Tropical storm Bopha fizzled to the south of Taiwan this week and another veered towards the east of Japan. Typhoons and tropical storms are common in Taiwan, southeast China and the Philippines during a season that lasts from July to October.