Crepuscular Ray

6 minutes 39 seconds is well worth seeing - nearly as good as the 7-09 I saw off Africa in 1973. It feels like it lasts only 20 seconds, but provides great opportunities for photographing the diamond ring, Bailey's beads and the corona (solar cycle allowing).

The harvestmen 'spiders' in Queensland are pretty scary, at least that's according to the big butch men from the electricity company who were moving the cables underground when I was staying at a friend's house: seven of them, none less than 6'4, were climbing over each other to get away. Guess which 5'1 pommie sheila had to dust the poor wee things off the cables (that's the harvestmen, not the wussy electricians)? If it hadn't meant the electricity not being turned back on for a few months, I'd have shown them the black widow nest in the front yard!

Given how badly they seem to have been affected by the wet weather, count yourself lucky. Like butterflies, they seem to be very, very scarce this year.

Haven't managed to read all the way back through the posts, but the domesday scenarios are way out of line. The speeds/energies that particles in the LHC will manage are exceeded every day by millions and millions of cosmic rays that bombard the Earth's atmosphere, and those in the LHC will be contained in a magnetic field and are very, very unlikely to escape and wreak damage on the planet. The same is true for any miniature black holes, which will exist only for billionths of seconds.

On a related subject - In areas where there's been something other than cloud to look at, the volcanic dust in the atmosphere seems to be making itself noticed. http://spaceweather.com http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1...8&year=2008

Got woken up by a few rumbles of thunder at about 8. It's now been raining steadily for more than an hour - the first decent rain this summer.

The flying ants have finally appeared this afternoon - it's the first warm and humid day we've had. There are only a handful, though, and they're more than a month later than usual.

Why was a daddy-long-legs talking to your cousin on facebook?

Saw the first one of the year a couple of months ago, although he looked quite small and underdeveloped and haven't seen any since then, thank goodness. Hardly any butterflies, the herbs on my windowsill haven't got greenfly, hardly any wasps, no ladybirds (as opposed to the hundred of harlequin ladybirds last year) and no flying ants. Sadly, I think there's a nest of the unmentionable stripy things at the bottom of the garden.

SC, have your contacts had time enough yet to even start working out whether this level of activity is statistically unusual, let alone come up with any theories? CR

That's fascinating. I've not heard anything about the shifting magnetic pole having an effect on the climate/local weather. Any links?

If that's aimed at me, I wasn't. I'd distrust 'media sources'; they're more interested in selling advertising space than the truth, and many of those textbooks that I've read or worked on that claim that we're going to get hot dry summers don't seem to be able to substantiate their claims as far as I can see. There are always a lot of ifs in the text. The track of the jet seems to me to be following what most of the models say - more or less where it would usually be in winter (if not a bit farther north) and farther south in summer. But then, next year, for all we know, the various other effects like ENSO and the jet stream that crosses the northern Pacific (can't remember the name) will flip and we'll get broiled, baked and fried, the trains will grind to a halt and we'll all whinge about it being too hot instead. Ho hum.

Swifts look like a double-ended scimitar and go sqeeeeeeeeeeeee. When they fly low, they're noticeable larger than swallows and martins. Swallows are smaller, dart about, don't make much noise and have forked tails. They sit on telephone wires, which swifts don't. It's been an awful year down here for both as there have been almost no insects for them to feed on at all.

Looks like the winds are pretty strong, which might have an effect on that - whatever, I'm glad I don't live there.

I didn't say it was unprecedented (I've live though more than 40 English summers after all), it was more of a way of questioning whether any sensible forecaster promised us a "Mediterranean summer".

Um, sorry, pardon my ignorance, but don't most of the models predict that even though average global temperatures are rising, there's nothing to say that the UK will get hot sunny summers just averagely warm and less sun? Basically, if anyone can come up with a concrete reason for the jet stream to have stayed this far south two summers running, it would be interesting to hear. (goes and hides in bunker)

I went to Canterbury for the day - not a good idea - even in the crypt of the cathedral, it was like a sauna. The train trip back to London took 4 hours rather than the 90 minutes advertised because of the speed restrictions. I seem to remember getting through about 4 litres of water just to stop feeling thirsty.

The second one is definitely a gladdy - even it it appears to be growing at a funny angle.

In this country, you're very lucky to hear a Turtle Dove as they're being pushed out by Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons and are now back on their way south. Well done for spotting it. Grey Wagtails are cute - nearly as cute as the flock of 40-plus Long-tailed Tits than amble through my garden most days.

Hi Bob - do they have anything to way about whether they think the slightly more than normal activity in Alaska might be related to the activity in Kamchatcha (sp?) and South America?

Great pictures Jurgen. Crepuscular rays are among my favourites, as you might guess from my name!

http://spaceweather.com CR

I'm not normally down in Sussex, I was just down there for the weekend. I usually only see them here in my particular patch of n/w London later on when the ants are flying - there aren't any nesting sites that close so it's only when the ants from the Kensal Green mega-colony fly that I see them. In a bumper year it's yucky - entire streets are carpeted with ants, but at least it provides food for the Swifts.

You're right; it doesn't seem like summer until I hear that 'squeeeeeeeeee' and see them batting about.

I may be a bit slow (as ever) but has anyone else seen Swifts yet? I saw three in East Sussex yesterday afternoon, but haven't seen any reports of others elsewhere, which seems a bit late compared to the last few years.