Loving That High!

This weekend looks to be a busy one in Peterborough with the Peterborough Ex on both days at Morrow Park, "Our Fest" (in Support of Our Space) on this Saturday at Nicholls Oval and the 30th anniversary celebration of the Peterborough City Soccer Association set to take place this Sunday at Eastgate Soccer Park. While I can't promise a rain free Sunday, tomorrow is at least looking promising. That area of high pressure to the east of us is continuing to block the track of that "low" to the west. Does this mean no rain for Saturday? Not entirely...but most of the day looks to stay dry. Expect a somewhat sunny start to your Saturday with increasing cloudiness into the afternoon and a chance of showers (maybe a thunderstorm) late day. As for Sunday...there is a good chance of rain but I don't expect a wash out (knock on wood). Have a great weekend!

Will We See The Perseids?

Will we see the Perseids? There's a question I've been asked quite a lot over the last few days. My answer? Yes. If you can get away from the city lights you will ikely see dozens of "shooting stars" which is both an unfortunate and incorrect term. The Perseids are, of course, not stars but are meteors. They are litterally the remnants of the comet Swift-Tuttle whose orbit intersects Earth's. As we pass through the comet's orbit, this debris enters our atmosphere and burns up in a dazzling display of light that is a treat to watch on a clear night. A clear night, however, is not the only caveat to see the peak of this meteor shower. The constellation Perseus must also be visible and not hidden below the horizon . The image above (courtesy of NASA) is shaded red where tonight's peak will not be visible. As you can see, most of the planet will be able to enjoy tonight's show pending clear conditions and I think the night sky will be mainly clear for tonight. As for the best time to keep an eye to the sky...between midnight and 4am. If your outside between these times you can expect to see as many as 50 to 100 meteors an hour. Very cool!

What the heck was that?

Sunday, for the most part, was a typical rainy summer day...I did say for the most part right? That was not the case for Rob Williams and his family who were spending the weekend at their cottage north of Peterborough on Mississauga Lake. Just check out the pictures sent in from Rob's son Scott below...

Scary! I forwarded these pictures on to Peter Kimbell at Environment Canada as the family was concerned that this may have been a tornado. Peter was kind enough to check some radar imagery from around that time (6:30pm) and it does not look like a tornado was responsible. That is not to say the wind that caused this damage wasn't dangerous. After speaking with Rob for some time today it sounds as though all of the trees downed appeared to fall in generally the same direction. He also told me that some of these trees were quite large and appeared healthy before being blown over. So what caused the damage? It sounds as if this was likely the result of a downburst or microburst that followed a very heavy downpour. A microburst is a very localized column of heavy, sinking air that produces damaging "straight line" winds that can move with great velocity. (Straight line as in no spinning). Tornadoes spin and tend to leave a chatoic mess in their wake with trees falling and landing in various directions. Bursts tend to push trees down in roughly the same direction which is the same kind of damage described by Rob. I'm happy to tell you that this burst resulted in no injuries to cottagers in the area...just some property damage. For a description of what a downburst or microburst is see the video below that i put together a little while ago.