posted 05-04-2002 04:50 PM            

The sky is covered by patchy haze, odd looking trails similar to those pictured on the home page. The sky was clear for a while today but it just started creeping in from the west around 3:00. I just saw a jet traveling SW spraying a few minutes ago.

posted 05-04-2002 05:54 PM            

Readers please note: Boston, MA and Greenwich, CT are both COASTAL cities. The above-referenced and increasing general DRYNESS of the atmosphere along the New England coast is NOT NORMAL for this region.

Krissa, it is 6:45pm here as I write. The sun is virtually BLINDING right now, as it has been all day today. But at its current, pre-setting angular relationship to earth it is simply not possible to even look in its general direction, let alone anywhere near it. It is, literally, like a phosphorescent white blow torch lacerating the sky. The heat of it is literally burning into my skin sitting 6 feet from my northwest-facing window. I do not exaggerate.

posted 05-04-2002 06:51 PM            

We have what appears to be a storm front moving in from the west and there appears to be a greasy looking gray and black haze almost totally obstructing the sun now. White haze-like clouds are still blowing in from the west and the jets are now spraying in the western part of the sky in front of the approaching storm front. - Why am I not surprised by this? - Well at least I'm not really thirsty anymore. I mixed gingerale with apple juice and club soda and feel much better, but my skin is starting to itch now.

BTW, I'm looking out my north facing window and the clouds are starting to look sort of pinkish and black and really weird.

posted 05-04-2002 07:31 PM            

YES. I've also watched clouds completely *disintegrate* in a matter of minutes under the conditions you describe and have a great deal of serial photographic documentation.

Check this out:

2 May 2002
Scripps Howard News Service

Pollution particles rob storms of rain

Tiny airborne particles of pollution can rob tropical thunderstorms of much of their rain, but their presence in the tops of hurricanes may actually help strengthen the storms, new studies funded by NASA show.

Steven Sherwood of Yale University used data from several NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites to study how the particles, or aerosols, affect towering clouds that produce large thunderstorms in the tropics.

"I found that aerosols depress the size of ice crystals in thunderclouds over land and oceans, and as a result, may reduce precipitation," said Sherwood, whose study is published in the May issue of the American Meteorological Society Journal of Climate.

Common aerosols include mineral dust, smoke and sulfates. The particles are a necessary element for clouds to form, but too many particles make water or ice droplets so small that they're more likely to evaporate directly into a gas rather than fall as rain.

Previous studies have shown that ice particles are smaller in the upper reaches of thunderclouds when there is more pollution and when the rising air in the clouds (convection) is stronger.

Over regions where widespread burning of land takes place to clear it for farming, such as the Amazon River basin, aerosols have been found to reduce the diameter of ice crystals in clouds by as much as 20 percent. In areas over deserts, like Africa's Sahel region, where dust is the primary pollutant, there was a 10 percent decrease in the diameter of ice crystals.

Sherwood found the crystals are smaller in clouds over continents than oceans, which could be because there's more pollution generated over land. But the denser clouds also seem to play a role in how much of solar energy is reflected back into space.

Earlier this week, Andrew Heymsfield, a researcher from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., reported that a research flight into Hurricane Humberto last year found a large number of ice particles, some up to 7 millimeters across, in the upper reaches of the storm, about 39,000 feet high.

"We've found that a high concentration of small particles at the top portion of a hurricane (is) very reflective and they send more energy back into space than previously thought," said Heymsfield, who presented findings before an AMS conference on hurricane and tropical meteorology.

Large concentrations of small ice crystals can reflect more sunlight and lead to strong cooling near the tops of hurricanes, creating more of a temperature contrast between the bottom and top of the storm. That contrast in temperatures could possibly increase a hurricane's strength, just as a cold front moving into warm, moist air triggers powerful thunderstorms.

On the other hand, having more of the hurricane's mass (in water and ice) near the top of the storm could mean that it's losing some of its energy potential in the form of heavy rain through evaporation into the upper atmosphere, Heymsfield and colleagues noted.

By including the new information in computer models of hurricanes, though, it should eventually help improve forecasters' ability to predict whether storms are intensifying or waning, Heymsfield said.
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=DUSTCLOUDS-05-02-02&cat=AS

posted 05-04-2002 11:37 PM            

Before sunset, I did note that the sun seemed to be hotter than normal but all solar readings were normal.

posted 05-05-2002 06:43 PM            

Yes, quite the Haze Fest today, eh? I was up before 6:30am, too - things got off to an early start today.

And that sun - no joke. It is BLINDING. You don't need a solar reading to notice THAT.

posted 05-07-2002 01:34 PM            

The temperature is an almost unbelievable 80 degrees with 47% humidity. The sun is feeling like a blowtorch and is actually acting like one today too.

posted 05-07-2002 06:21 PM            

Yep. It has been that way for most of the afternoon.

Interesting that one can *almost* see the sky itself through this blanket of fairly uniform upper-altitude white haze.

Interesting also that the *blinding* sun of the past two days still manages to make its heat felt just as intensely through *this particular level* of haze cover.