The official NerdZoner's weather zone! How's your weather today?

[Tiffany]

Odds are the piece that mounts the tripod to the scope will look like a U with a post of some type on the bottom to mount into the tripod base plate. It will have either holes on the top sides of the U or possibly even captive bolts there.

Okay, thanks. I'll look for that. I do have a container with miscellaneous I don't know what it goes to stuff and I'll see if its there.

 

[Retro]

Lots of bad weather on the way for the southern parts of the UK.

Warnings of thunderstorms and heavy rain in southern England and Wales

Met Office issues yellow thunderstorm warning and says flooding and lightning strikes most likely in coastal areas

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

Lots of bad weather on the way for the southern parts of the UK.

Warnings of thunderstorms and heavy rain in southern England and Wales

Met Office issues yellow thunderstorm warning and says flooding and lightning strikes most likely in coastal areas

www.theguardian.com

Wow, that's some intense weather coming to the southern UK. Also noticed this in your weather alert as I didn't realize that Hurricane Kirk remnants were heading towards the UK. Wishing safety through your storms!

The weather service said it also had “increasing confidence” that ex-Hurricane Kirk would track to the south of the UK, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to northern France.

The Gulf of Mexico has Hurricane Milton which just strengthened to a Cat 5; 160 mph sustained winds. Milton's center is heading towards the Tampa area of Florida, but will affect most of Florida, eerily similar to Hurricane Andrew. Our disaster services are pretty tapped out from Helene. I have several friends that live in Florida. I'll be reaching out to them today.

 

[Retro]

There's definitely an increase in the amount of severe storms nowadays and scientists are attributing them to climate change, too. America seems to be particularly hard hit by them, unfortunately.

You know how fast 160mph winds are? A big jet like an A320 can take off at only 136mph and even an A380 is close to takeoff speed of 165-180mph. That's an insane wind, no wonder it does so much damage.

 

[data66]

Worried about my Dad in the direct line to be hit by the hurricane. He's in his 80s and will not come up here with us. We cannot go down due to obligations here that cannot be changed - out of our control. Just stuck.

 

[Tiffany]

There's definitely an increase in the amount of severe storms nowadays and scientists are attributing them to climate change, too. America seems to be particularly hard hit by them, unfortunately.

You know how fast 160mph winds are? A big jet like an A320 can take off at only 136mph and even an A380 is close to takeoff speed of 165-180mph. That's an insane wind, no wonder it does so much damage.

It is insane wind. Hurricane Milton is a Cat 5, 165 mph winds again, as of 4:30pm this afternoon. It will stay a Cat 5 until about 1pm tomorrow afternoon, then will be a Cat 4 at 150 mph winds. It will make landfall about 1am Thursday night as a Cat 3, 124 mph winds.

I really didn't know a jet took off at 136 mph. What a comparison!

Worried about my Dad in the direct line to be hit by the hurricane. He's in his 80s and will not come up here with us. We cannot go down due to obligations here that cannot be changed - out of our control. Just stuck.

Worried too, and also praying that he gets through this hurricane okay. I'm so sorry, so much uncertainty and so hard that he can't be there with you. Hopefully, the path wobbles a bit to a less populated area for your dad and everyone on the Florida coast.

 

[Retro]

@Tiffany looks like the damage from Milton is going to be extreme, unfortunately.

This article also explains what a storm surge is, for those who don't know. In short: large waves that cause widespread devastation. You don't want to be anywhere near one.

What is a storm surge?

As a hurricane approaches a coast, the churning winds force ocean water up on to land; atmospheric pressure from the storm also helps squeeze the water ashore. The shallower the continental shelf, the higher the threat of a dangerous surge. The water may take a couple of days to fully subside.

What is a storm surge, and what is the threat from Hurricane Milton?

Storm surges often pose great danger when hurricanes such as Milton hit – here’s what you need to know

www.theguardian.com

 

[Retro]

It's now weakened to a cat 2 storm, so it's better than nothing, I suppose. It's still done tremendous damage in the meantime, though.

Hurricane Milton live tracker: Storm weakens to Category 2 after landfall on Florida coast; 2 million customers left without power

Despite the hurricane's downgraded status, meteorologists are warning Hurricane Milton is still dangerous with 110 mph winds.

uk.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

@Tiffany looks like the damage from Milton is going to be extreme, unfortunately.

This article also explains what a storm surge is, for those who don't know. In short: large waves that cause widespread devastation. You don't want to be anywhere near one.

What is a storm surge, and what is the threat from Hurricane Milton?

Storm surges often pose great danger when hurricanes such as Milton hit – here’s what you need to know

www.theguardian.com

Indeed, storm surge is very dangerous and can't always be forecast very well. An example is the different topography of Western Florida (Gulf of Mexico side) versus Eastern Florida (Atlantic side), is that Western Florida has a huge continental shelf that runs from the Florida panhandle to southern Florida. This shelf depth is about 400 feet deep from the coastline and once it ends, the sea floor begins about 16000 feet. Storm surge numbers are affected because of this long shelf that extends from the coastline. Surge has more power because of the long shallow area and waves can really cause severe inundation quickly. Forecasters have to calculate shelf depth, times of the tides, and the energy of a hurricane to determine likely surge. What was interesting about Milton's eye wall coming into Tampa Bay, was that if it did surge into the bay, the surge would be over 15 feet, however, Milton wobbled a bit before it made landfall and landed a bit south near Sarasota. The energy from Milton actually drained the Tampa bay (surge moving outward towards the Gulf of Mexico), because of the location of the storm's landfall. This saved Tampa, however caused much tragedy and destruction around Sarasota. Tampa Bay did get hit pretty hard with Cat 3 winds, lots of damage and about 20 inches of rain.

It's now weakened to a cat 2 storm, so it's better than nothing, I suppose. It's still done tremendous damage in the meantime, though.

Hurricane Milton live tracker: Storm weakens to Category 2 after landfall on Florida coast; 2 million customers left without power

Despite the hurricane's downgraded status, meteorologists are warning Hurricane Milton is still dangerous with 110 mph winds.

uk.yahoo.com

Milton has caused tremendous damage and several lives lost from a EF2 tornado that hit. So many people on the west coast of Florida aren't as experienced in hurricane preparation as their fellow Floridian's are on the east coast. There were an extreme high number of tornadoes that preceded Milton before it made landfall. I'm still waiting to hear back from a friend of mine that lives on the east coast to make sure she's okay.

 

[Astro What]

Meanwhile, in the land of solar storms... it brought us this, honestly the only time in my life I've known it to be this bright this far south (East Texas).
Pardon the shakiness... was an iPhone and hands are having an Arthur fit right now.



I really need to spend some time with the Nikon D7200 to learn how to use it at night.

 

[Tiffany]

Beautiful picture @Astro What. I'm out late at night with my dogs and somehow I missed it. Glad to see you captured such an amazing once in a lifetime picture.

 

[Retro]

That picture looks alright to me focus wise and is a great picture. Seeing the aurora all the way down to Texas is quite something.

 

[Retro]

I'm still waiting to hear back from a friend of mine that lives on the east coast to make sure she's okay.

Fingers crossed, please do let us know.

Thanks for the useful clarification on storm surges and those shelves on how they make the effect worse.

 

[live627]

Aurora overlayed by a saguaro so you know for sure that this is in the Sonoran Desert (random photo not mine)

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Photo gallery

PHOTOS: Aurora borealis spotted across Arizona (Oct. 10)

ABC15 viewers sent in their pictures of the aurora borealis as it was visible across Arizona Thursday night.

www.abc15.com

Here's one from Cave Creek, a northern suberb of Phoenix, again, not mine

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[Tiffany]

Fingers crossed, please do let us know.

Thanks for the useful clarification on storm surges and those shelves on how they make the effect worse.

I heard from my friend yesterday. She's pretty freaked out. She has lived in Florida for over 30 plus years and has been through lots of bad weather and hurricanes, but she said never like Milton. There were three EF3 rated tornadoes on the east coast of Florida and one of them was in her city which caused extensive damage in some areas. Her neighborhood was spared that severe damage, but lots of fences down, broken trees, roof damage, broken glass and debris everywhere she said. I'm so glad she's okay. She's actually native born from the UK and moved to Florida years ago.

The tornado that took a path through her city was rated an EF3 at 140mph. I have a correction to above post #359, as earlier evaluation of the tornado damage the other day was an EF2, but the rating has now changed to EF3's.

Aurora overlayed by a saguaro so you know for sure that this is in the Sonoran Desert (random photo not mine)

Here's one from Cave Creek, a northern suberb of Phoenix, again, not mine

Great pics! Love them both; unique. Thanks for sharing! The pic with the cactus reminds me of something from the original Star Trek when the crew would go down to a planet's surface for investigation and the background sky would be pink.

How's your weather? I heard on the weather channel the other day that Arizona is still experiencing really hot temperatures for October.

 

[Tiffany]

To posts #346 and #347 @Astro What, I did look for those parts to my telescope, searching in peculiar places where the lens and tripod support thing might be and so far, I haven't come across yet.

Texas has been in such a drought for so long, like months, I've forgotten what rain is like. This morning, I woke up to some light rain. I checked my radar and apparently the rain started about 7am. It was so nice to see. Our area and maybe most of Texas has felt like a dust bowl for months.

Tomorrow, our weather forecast includes the potential for severe weather. The "potential for severe weather" isn't as bad has the "severe weather" forecast as "severe weather" is a sure thing. Part of October and all of November is usually like spring, where the jet stream drops and stormy weather is more possible which can include all of the bad stuff. We're getting a late start, because it's been a very warm October, but thanks to a cold front coming in, we can expect some stormy weather tomorrow. Rain is even back in the forecast on some days over the next two weeks too. I'm pretty happy about that. I'm sure I'll be complaining how cold it is in mid-January.

How is everyone's autumn weather? Have you hit freezing temperatures yet? I see that Arizona is finally getting a nice break in the heat again with some cooler weather.