Picture of the Day - Museum Fire at Dusk

Museum Fire outside Flagstaff, AZ, after sunset tonight. *Update: 1,927 acres at 12% containment but no growth. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Perez (all rights reserved).

Shasta County LP Supercell Redux

Upon further search of Twitter I found some more amazing images of the low precipitation supercell thunderstorm that appeared over the skies of Shasta County in the Redding, CA area. I commend these photographers for capturing so well such mystery and beauty. View more such images in yesterday's blog post HERE.

Photo courtesy of Angela Walfoort (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Angela Walfoort (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Angela Walpoort (all rights reserved)

Photo courtesy of Denis Lincoln (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Derek Taft (all rights reserved)

Photo courtesy of Marisa Earlywine (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Tehama Co. Spotter (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Johnette and Jay @Sigrid_39 (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Monica Leard (all rights reserved).

Shasta County LP Supercell

Earlier this evening, a rare event struck Shasta County in the Redding, CA, area. A low precipitation (LP) super-cell formed and put on a dramatic show, triggering a radar-detected tornado warning, and dumped very large hail in some places. Below are my favorite images. See more such images in tomorrow's blog post HERE.
*NOTE: this very community was assaulted last summer by a large, dangerous fire tornado from the Carr Fire.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Teasley (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of RottenGOP on Twitter (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Mike Chapman (all rights reserved).

Photo by Monica Leard (all rights reserved).

Photo by Drew Tuma (all rights reserved).

Photo by Steve Laymon (all rights reserved).

Photo by Maureen Bonessa (all rights reserved).

Photo courtesy of Sandy Trent (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Lightning Types

The other day I encountered this graphic on Twitter and feel it is the best one yet in explaining the various types of lightning which have thus far been identified by science.

Graphic of the Day - Earth Full-Disc May 14, 2019

Note the unusually Winter-like storm pattern in the northeast Pacific Ocean headed towards California and the Pacific Northwest. Image courtesy of NOAA.

Picture of the Day - Straight Rainbow

Today I worked Day Two of the wine club pickup party at Le Cuvier Winery outside Paso Robles on the West Side and espied this unusual (to me) flat-ish rainbow to my north over San Miguel, CA. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Halcon Road Washout 2019

Today I drove mom down to Halcon Road in rural Atascadero to check out the annual washout of this unpaved road for our first time this year although this washout occurred last month. This roadbed normally washes out here in Winters of average to above-average rainfall which is to say it hasn't washed out much this decade. The clouds from the approaching next storm are visible in the background. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Picture of the Day - Fire & Water

Today I had a modified Kim Day in which I took the day off but in this case I did not go solo but joined the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on a business roadtrip to Santa Barbara with lunch at Harry's, book browsing at Chaucer's, and then a visit to the Gaviota Coast on the way home to hunt petrified whale bone. We took Highway 154 down in order to get to our destination quicker as well as to see the aftermath of last summer's Whittier Fire (which was not fully controlled until earlier this winter), an aftermath I had not heretofore seen with mine own eyes and it was eye-opening. Dangerous weather with the potential for flashflooding and mudslides is predicted for the overnight period into tomorrow. We were chased off of Gaviota Beach at Gaviota State Park late this afternoon by the first major rain bands of this strong Pacific Storm whose circulation will pass over the Central Coast overnight into tomorrow. Above is the view along Highway 154 looking eastward across the burn scar with ominous skies clabbering up and lowering. The long story of modern California history is that of wildfire followed by flashfloods and mudslides. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Picture of the Day - Here It Comes!

Late this afternoon/early this evening I was out rockhounding in my usual location of late and could not avoid noticing the spectacular sky yet with a note of foreboding as the ongoing fetch of subtropical moisture that has overridden the Central Coast the past several days is slated to finally bring in a powerful Pacific Storm in the days ahead. The story of this impending storm is written in this skyscape. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Tropical Storm Lidia Sunset

I was out rockhounding in Templeton early this evening and captured this image of the sun setting through a gathering gloam as a line of dying thunderstorms approached from the east. A bit later it rained in the area shortly after sunset. This moisture originated from the death of Tropical Storm Lidia which expended itself in the area of Baja California. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Last Student Teaching Sunset

Tonight was my last night staying late grading papers and inputing grades onto Aeries. This upcoming finals week won't require I do that as I have now done all the remaining heavy work wrapping up grades for the semester apart from the finals they take this week and their history notebooks. I had a ball this year, so much so I feel a bit of melancholy as the end nears and I must leave. It was an amazing experience coming back to my old high school in my mid-40s and student teaching.... the experience far-exceeded my expectations on every level.
Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Distant Ominous Lowerings

I captured two images worth keeping while out on my walk early this evening. The first one is two posts back. This one shows some ominous clouds out to the east of Paso Robles in eastern San Luis Obispo County's "North County." Some of the cloud bases featured in this image in the distant background look suspiciously like they might be associated with funnel clouds.

Lovely Lonely Lullaby II

Night-before-last I posted Russian trance producer Denis Kenzo's 2012 progressive trance gem "Lullaby Lonely" featuring the haunting vocals of Sveta B. a.k.a. Svetlana Pisareva HERE. That was the original version and was accompanied by some visually stirring video footage of our planet captured out of the various windows of the International Space Station. By chance I have subsequently stumbled upon an equally gorgeous extended version of the original track accompanied by footage of a nocturnal thunderstorm. Crank up your speakers on this super awesome chill-out track, click on the full-screen mode, and enjoy!

Thunderstorm Over Mount Wilson

KNBC-TV Los Angeles just tweeted this dual image (above) of a strong thunderstorm over Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County as viewed from down below in the San Gabriel Valley. Below is a view of the storm approaching that locale as viewed from the Mount Wilson Towercam.

Nocturnally Scintillating Noctiluca Scintillans

Somehow this magical 2015 outbreak of the plankton-like bioluminescent Noctiluca scintillans in Hobart, Tasmania in 2015 escaped my attention until I noticed THIS yesterday. It refers to an ongoing (as in March, 2017) outbreak occurring in Preservation Bay, Tasmania. While researching these two blooms, I noticed images of the same thing occurring in Maldives Islands as well. Apparently, the presence of this organism in this quantity can be a bad thing, but boy is it beautiful. I'd love to see a bloom of this organism but will have to settle for red tide along the California coast for now (something I have yet to witness). These images come from both Tasmanian outbreaks mentioned above. 

Photo by Paul Fleming (all rights reserved)

Photo by Dave Reynolds (all rights reserved)

Photo by Helen Wisby (all rights reserved)

Photo by Kev Morse (all rights reserved)

Photo by Lena Wisby (all rights reserved)

Photo by Lena Wisby (all rights reserved)

Photo by Ammonite (all rights reserved)

Photo by Leoni Williams (all rights reserved)

Photo by Leoni Williams (all rights reserved)

Photo by Jo Malcomson (all rights reserved)

Photo by Jonathan Esling (all rights reserved)

Photo credit unknown

This Opened My Eyes

I have been aware of this progressive trance track "Open Your Eyes" by Russian trance outfit Aurosonic for a few years now. However, for reasons I cannot now fathom, I never felt like sharing it heretofore here despite its abject "epic-ness". This sublime example of progressive trance (the best type) was released in 2013 and features the haunting vocals of Englishwoman Kate Louise Smith. Crank up your speakers and listen, feel, and dance. As hauntingly beautiful as this is, it is also difficult (at least for me) to catch every word of these soulful lyrics, so I include them below courtesy of songlyrics.com:

It's dark out here
In the pursuit of love
Completely unabridged
This silent fortress

My mind escapes me
Feeling it in my bones
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

Open your eyes
Open your eyes
I started blind
But now they're wide open

Open your eyes
Open your eyes
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

And how it breaks me

In the pursuit of love
Completely unabridged
The silent fortress
My mind escapes me
Telling my story well
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

(Alt )

Open you eyes
Open your eyes (open open)
The story's closed
Our love has broken down
Open your eyes
Open your eyes
The ties that bind
Deny us this love

Picture of the Day - Parking Limos

Today I worked five hours doing traffic control and parking at Halter Ranch Winery's offering of this weekend's regional Vintage Paso: Zinfandel Weekend. The event went smooth as silk today at Halter Ranch and I had a career first with parking three limos within a close proximity to each other and their fares despite limited space. As it turns out, one of the limos was being driven by an old high school schoolmate of mine, Rick Brown, Atascadero High School class of 1988. Also, the change of the April-like weather pattern back to wintry weather pattern manifested itself in the sky today as a more El Niño-esque weather pattern was revealed in the clouds which passed over today as yet another atmospheric "River in the Sky" a.k.a. Pineapple Express sets itself up for this area this coming week. Note: my work partner and brother-by-another-mother and best friend Mike at right in the image.

Picture of the Day - Self Same Sunset II

Tonight I shot this image at my Self Help Gang church home group in northwest Templeton during the later-winter Central Coast magic hour when light conditions are sublime for beautiful sunsets. The clouds are unrelated to any significant storm activity but a wintry weather turn in the weather pattern is a few days away. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Windfall Sunset

This afternoon into this evening I worked traffic control at the Rotary Club of Paso Robles Sunrise's 17th annual crab feed fundraiser. Once again, it was held at the Stallion Barn at Windfall Farms. Today was a gorgeous day of the sort that affirms and confirms I live in paradise. A year ago I worked this event in a windy, driving rain. And, as with a year ago, the Rotarians generously fed us salad and garlic toast and pasta with meatballs and of course, those crab legs with lemon butter. Every single person was gracious despite having to walk some distance from their cars. I even bumped into my friends Mike & Denise from the local rockhounding club. Last but not least, I had the privilege of observing the above sunset and a short time later, a spectacular moon-rise. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Another Kim Day At San Simeon

Today I needed another break from everything going on in my life. I had the privilege of sharing this second Kim Day of the year to date fellow members of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Unlike last month's excursion which ended up at San Simeon Creek Inlet after visiting other localities down the coast, today we solely visited San Simeon Creek Inlet. A strong Pacific storm had just gone through and churned up the beach, making beach-combing and rockhounding much more productive. What follows is my report in pictures.

Dennis the Menace

I found this brecciated jasper with chalcedony and quartz banding cobble.

Rockin' Ron and the E-man.

Brecciated Jasper with quartz and a small quartz crystal-lined cavity partly sanded down by wave action on the beach.

Highway One bridge

Sea Gulls pre-disturbance

Sea Gulls disturbed

This is probably a Hearst Ranch cow (#51) who ended up in a creek during the last storm and got swept out to sea and drowned during the last storm. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).