Sunday Rain? Maybe.

After looking at the latest forecast model runs I thought I'd throw this image up on the blog. The image above is from the latest North American model and it does show possible rain on Sunday. The latest GFS run also shows a chance for rain on Monday as well. I don't expect a washout this weekend but I do think that Environment Canada's weekend forecast is a little too optimistic. That's not a shot at Environment Canada by the way, they do a great job and their data makes my job possible. Consider this forecast a "second opinion." Tonight looks to be clear and cool. Tomorrow I expect a sunny start with cloudy periods developing in the afternoon. As for Sunday...let's go with mainly cloudy with a chance of showers. Have a great weekend!

Did you see them? Ernie did.

Did you see them? The Northern Lights? No? Well I didn't see them either so don't feel bad. I even made the trek up Armour Hill to escape the light pollution our fine city produces and still no luck. I wasn't the only one either. Armour Hill was packed full of cars facing the northern horizon hoping to see the famous waving curtain of green light. In the end I didn't see anything and left dissapointed...and I wasn't alone. The lights were barely visible in our region. They were dim and very low on the horizon but those who made the trip north of the city were treated a view of the Aurora Borealis. Ernie Silhanek snapped this image at around 11pm near Bobcaygeon on Tuesday night. The lights were not as brilliant as expected (which is why the image below appears dark and a little grainy) but, after fielding a few calls from dissapointed night sky watchers, here is proof that the lights were visible in our region. They just weren't as intense as the famous images we're used to seeing from Canada's far north.

Nature's Light Show

This shot comes courtesy of NASA. I love NASA! This image is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and shows the sun's northern hemisphere during the eruption of a solar flare on Sunday. What an amazing shot! Accoring to NASA this image's colour scheme displays temperatures ranging from 1 to 2 million degrees. (Kelvin Scale). Wow! Sunday's solar activity likely marks the start of a "solar maximum" (the last of which occurred in 2001) which can be bad for satellite and radio communications but great for natural light shows. The light show I'm talking about is of course Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights. These mass ejections of plasma and solar particles interact with Earth's magnetic field as solar particles collide with the oxygen and nitrogen atoms in our atmosphere. These collisions can result in amazing displays of colour and light. This recent coronal mass ejection (CME) was aimed toward earth and those particles will likely have made the 93 million mile trip to Earth potentially giving us an amazing light show normally visible only in the far north. This means that tonight, if conditions are clear, a green (and hopefully red) lightshow may be seen as far south as the great lakes. Let's hope that things clear up this evening!