SLOweather

As you no doubt heard (if you live south of Cuesta Ridge and north of the SB county line) today was the annual testing of the PG&E warning sirens. They sounded for 3 minutes at 12 noon, and again at 12:30 PM.

Here I am at my siren at the end of Righetti Road.

Over the more than 10 years we’ve been participating in the test, I’ve manned sirens at Branch Mill School, Pismo Beach City Hall, and this one.

While I was on station, this butterfly visited a mustard plant in front of my truck. I think it’s a Checkered White, Pontia Protodice. (But I could be wrong…)

A few minutes ago, at 2:18 PM PDT, the moon became full. It rises off to the SE tonight at 7:51 PM PDT and sets Sunday morning at 6:07 AM. The waxing gibbous moon has been pretty spectacular rising the last couple of evenings. It looks like our low clouds and fog may stay away until 11 PM or so tonight, so we should have a good view.

Known variously as the The Full Sturgeon Moon (good fishing moon in the Great Lakes), Full Red Moon, the Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon, Dog Day’s Moon, Nut Moon, Mulberry Moon, or Dispute Moon (Celtic…).

Interestingly, last year’s August Full Moon included a full lunar eclipse for us. This year, there is another, partial lunar eclipse, but we will miss it entirely. The best views are in Africa, Europe, and Asia. New England and a bit of the central Atlantic coast will see the final moments of the eclipse.

These 2 fires just started in the Edna Ridge area east of SLO, just before the rain started. That bump is Islay Hill, so these are north of Orcutt Road.

Enhanced detail from above, showing orange flame.

Just after I took these (~7:35 AM) visibility went to heck, and I can’t see them anymore.

========= PG&E DCPP Weather Forecast UPDATE for Friday 08/15/08 =============

A weak upper-level low, about 450 miles south of Diablo Canyon,
continues to bring monsoon moisture towards our area.

The doppler radar at Vandenberg AFB is indicating a band
of lighting and showers over northern San Barbara County moving
moving west-northwest towards San Luis Obispo this morning.
The SLO Weather lighting tracker indicates over 1,700+ strikes
this morning mostly southeast of San Luis Obispo

As this band of thunderstorms moves over San Luis Obispo, it
will produce mostly cloudy weather and lighting with a chance
of rain showers. Precipitation amounts south of our area have
been mostly light, with most of the rain evaporating before
reaching the ground. (virga).

Note: We have not received any precipitation since April, and
any rain that does fall will cause very slick roadways.

This band of thunderstorms should move out of San Luis Obispo
county by 1100 this morning.

At 6:50 AM:

For the last hour or so, lightning has been visible to the southeast of southern San Luis Obispo.

The SLOweather lightning tracker has measured strike rates as high as 25 per minute at 6:47 AM, and, as shown in this Wide Area Storm Probe loop, the storm continues to move toward us.

While the West Coast is in prime position to see the peak of this year’s Perseids meteor shower, our current late night and early morning marine layer and fog in SLO may put a damper on the viewing.

The peak is projected to be at about 4 AM PDT. The waxing gibbous moon, which sometimes plays a spoiler for meteor spotting,  sets at 1:14 AM, and sunrise isn’t until 6:22 AM so the skies should be at their darkest.