North Pole Weather 8/13/12

The sun rose at 5:33 this morning and will set at 10:16 this evening for 16 hours 43 minutes of daylight. We’re losing almost 7 minutes a day, and the sun at noon is now less than 40° above the horizon. We’re definitely on the down slope of summer, though the farmers market is now loaded with produce. The local carrots are here, and wonderfully sweet and crisp compared with what we can get at the supermarket. I don’t even bother to buy tomatoes except in summer.

My own garden is winding down too, in some ways. Starting in the middle of July I had first Summer Arts Festival, then a family reunion. I was back three days when the fair started, and just finished the last of the nine days of fair yesterday. (I was trying to get photos and succeeded most days, but yesterday I forgot to charge the battery on my camera.) It’s been a mixed week for rain – fairly nice Monday, a little rain for the 4-H horse show Tuesday and Wednesday, and generally nice to downright hot (70’s) for the rest of the fair week. My first few years up here it was a standing joke that it always rained on the fair, so I really can’t complain. But the garden has been pretty much fending for itself for nearly a month now, and the chickweed is definitely winning.

The delphiniums are going to seed, as are most of the perennials. The last of the lilies are just opening. I need to go through and pick beans, zucchini and snow peas, and possibly take what I can’t eat to the food bank. The weather is forecast to be clear and warm, so maybe I can get rid of the worst of the chickweed. At least there are no frost warnings yet, though we’re getting into the 40’s most nights now.

North Pole Weather 7/16/12

The sun rose this morning at 3:58, and will set at 11:53 this evening, for 19 hours 56 minutes of daylight. It’s only the second day this summer that the sun actually set before midnight. We’re losing about 6 ½ minutes a day, now, but it’s still civil twilight all night.

Last week was lovely weather, in the 70’s but dry—I had to water. It did rain a little last night, but only a fraction of an inch. The delphiniums are starting to bloom, and the first flowers are opening on the Maltese cross. I swear the delphiniums get taller every year; I get a crick in my neck trying to photograph them.

Tomatoes are now available at the Farmers Market. I don’t bother with those in the supermarket—they might as well be cardboard. But the local ones are vine-ripened and complement the lettuce from my garden. Cabbage, radishes, cucumbers, zucchini and onions are also in the market now, and greens of all kinds have been available for a couple of weeks. Rhubarb has been present from the start, and strawberries are also appearing. (I don’t buy them because I have a hard time keeping up with my own.) Wild berries should be available soon.

I’m off to the first day of Summer Arts Festival this morning, so that’s it until this evening. I just hope I can find a place to park. There’s a lot of construction on campus this summer, and it’s taken out almost all of the handicapped parking slots.

North Pole Weather 7/9/12

The sun rose at 3:35 this morning and will set at 12:15 tomorrow morning for 20 hours 40 minutes of daylight. We’re now losing about 6 minutes a day, and while the sun is still more than 45° above the horizon at noon, it’s dropping lower by about a tenth of a degree per day. It’s still generally warm by our standards (high 70’s) though we had a couple of days last week that didn’t quite make 70. No heavy rain, but quite a few light showers.

Two bean beds, and you can just see the peas climbing the trellis in the background.

The garden has gone from each bean and strawberry being a cause for celebration to wondering how I can keep up with it without turning vegetarian. I picked a zucchini yesterday that was over a foot long and weighed well over a pound. Thanks to the rapid growth our long days promote, it was still tender and tasty. But it is clear that I have to start checking the squash plants daily—they are already starting to shade out the lettuce in the holes around them. Peas have finally started blooming, and have shot up to the point that I need to raise the pea fence.

The squash is about to shade out the lettuce.

The delphiniums are now topping the 7’ lattice, and the first flowers are open. Still no flowers on the lilies or lynchis, but the buds have appeared on the lynchis, and two varieties of rugosa roses are in bloom. I wish sometimes that the Summer Arts Festival were sometime other than summer, but I’ve signed up again for the creative writing class. I think I’m going to have to find some neighbors who would like produce!

North Pole weather 7/2/12

The sun rose this morning at 3:15 am, and will set tomorrow morning at 12:33 for 21 hours 18 minutes of daylight. Noontime solar elevation (48° tomorrow) is declining by about a tenth of a degree per day, and we’re losing daylight at about 4 minutes a day.

Weather the past week has mostly been cooler, with some showers – highs are now in the low 70’s for the most part. Beautiful gardening weather, if it weren’t for the mosquitoes.

Yellow beans, about ready for the first picking

I’m going to skip #Writemotivation this time – the Summer Arts Festival is coming up, and I’ve signed up (again) for creative writing. Class runs from 9 to 4:30 5 days a week for the last two weeks of July so even the blog’s going to be a problem, though I’m planning to give a short review of each day’s class and assignments. More on that July 12.

The garden is ahead of just about any previous year I can remember. I had Italian beans for supper Saturday – first time I’ve ever harvested beans in June, and I’d better plan on the first picking of the yellows tonight. Saturday’s pick was far more that I expected – close to half a pound from a 10’ row. (If you’re interested, these are bush beans, very early, Gina for the Italian type and Rocdor for the yellows. Both do very well for me in Alaska.) Yesterday was the first serious picking of chard and a huge lettuce. Strawberries are showing red, too – I might pick some for dessert. And the tomatoes have shown up at the farmers market.

The delphiniums are budded and well above head height – the tallest is about even with the 7’ lattice. Daylilies, columbine and spirea are in full bloom, as are most annuals. Even the few roses I can grow here (mostly rugosas and spinnosissimas) are budded or blooming.

I love summer in Alaska.

North Pole Weather 6/25/12

I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that solstice has passed. It’s nice that it’s officially summer, but we’re already losing daylight. On the solstice we had 21 hours and 50 minutes; we’re already down to 21 hours 44 minutes, and the loss will accelerate from here on. I shouldn’t complain; we still have light all night.

The sun rose this morning at 3:01 and will set tomorrow morning at 12:45. It’s been

One of the bean rows, 6/24/12

hot lately, at least by Fairbanks standards, and the showers aren’t really bringing much rain. I was chased in yesterday by the heat and the mosquitoes without getting much done but the watering.

The garden loves it – at least when I remember to water! Once of the squash plants actually has its first female flower, and at the rate they’re growing, the beans may be ready for the first picking by the end of June. If so, it will be the earliest ever. The lettuce seed is germinating – just in time, as it won’t be more than a few more weeks until the squash has shaded out the lettuce I transplanted into the holes in the cement blocks that make up the raised beds.

The day lilies are starting to bloom.

Daylilies are starting to bloom, as are the domesticated roses, though the wild roses are almost through for the season. Quite a few of the transplanted annuals are blooming, though it will be a while before the Asiatic lilies and the Maltese cross show their flowers. The begonias are going strong, as usual. At least it’s supposed to cool off some today, though not rain.

Too bad that the peak of the garden produce overlaps the Fairbanks Summer Arts  Festival.

If the Earth were on its Side …

Click the image to get the links to participating blogs.

What point at the top of the atmosphere gets the most solar radiation on the day of the summer solstice?  Would you believe the North Pole?

Yes, that’s right. If the Earth’s pole of axial rotation were perpendicular to its orbital plane, the North Pole wouldn’t get any incoming radiation, and summer solstice would not even be defined. But with an axial tilt of only 23.5°, the pole still gets more radiation over 24 hours on the date of the summer solstice than any other point of the northern hemisphere on any date. Only the South Pole gets more, on the day of the winter solstice.

It doesn’t show up in temperature, first because much of the incoming solar radiation is scattered away during its long path through the atmosphere, and second because the ice and snow at the North Pole reflect much of the radiation back to space. (The second factor may be changing, and this is one of the reasons the Arctic is such a sensitive region.)

But suppose the axial tilt were 90°?

Uranus, as viewed by Hubble.

We do have one planet in our Solar System that approaches this: Uranus, with a tilt of 82.14°. But let’s stick with the Earth and assume it has a tilt of 90°. What would the seasons be like?

Summer solstice at the pole would be unbearable. Imagine the sun directly overhead at noon. Now stretch that noon out in time, so that the sun stays overhead for 24 hours. Hot? No place on Earth has that much incoming solar radiation today. Granted there would probably be clouds. In fact, there would probably be hurricane-like monsoonal storms unknown on our planet today. But it would still be hot.

By contrast, the South Pole would be in the middle of a six-month long night. It would have some stored heat left from the intense summer, probably enough to keep maritime climates above freezing. But it would still be dark except for the stars, the moon, and the southern lights.

The equator? At summer solstice, the equator would be pretty chilly. The sun would never rise or set, but just appear to sit at the northern horizon. As time moves toward the autumnal equinox, the sun gradually begins to rise in the north-northeast at 6 am, ride to its maximum height in the northern sky, and then set in the north-northwest at 6 pm. By the equinox, the sun would rise in the east, rise to directly overhead and then set in the west. But at the north pole, the sun has been spiraling gradually down the sky from overhead, until it finally just glides along the horizon at both poles on the day of the equinox, which begins a 6-month night for the North Pole and a 6-month day at the South Pole.

What happens if you add up all of the incoming solar energy over the course of a year? Not too surprisingly, the poles are the winners, with the equatorial regions being relatively cool. Given that water is much better at storing heat than land, the oceans would be warmer at the poles than the equator. Land areas are far more likely to follow a strong annual cycle. High-latitude continental climates would have tremendous seasonal variation, while maritime climates would be much more uniform. Monsoons, which are driven by these land-sea differences, would be extreme. And equatorial climates, which on our earth are primarily wet or dry, would be intensely cold near the solstices and as warm as they get on the equinoxes.

I haven’t actually tried this as a science fiction world—I want my planets to be habitable! But I do have a planet with zero axial tilt—Eversummer—in Tourist Trap. To quote Marna, the planet’s name must have been picked out by a publicity agent!

Note that today is the midsummer blog hop, and you can enter the draw for prizes by commenting. The prize on this blog is a PDF of one of my books, Homecoming or Tourist Trap (your choice.) In addition, anyone who comments on this blog is eligible for the grand prize drawing: 1st Prize – winner’s choice of a Kindle Touch or a Nook Touch
2nd Prize – a library of science fiction romance titles donated by various authors and an Anabanana Gift Card. Most of the books will be in digital format, with one print anthology.

No more than one comment on a single blog will count, but you can comment on multiple blogs to improve your chances.

Frozen Planet: DVD Review

When I heard that the BBC was making a documentary about the Earth’s high latitudes, Frozen Planet, I knew I had to have the DVD if they made one. When stories appeared that the part on global warming would be cut for US audiences, I was horrified – and relieved when the Discovery Channel relented – at least partly. Since I do not have cable or satellite TV, I had to wait for the DVD. Finally it arrived and I have been watching it – when I have time between gardening, marketing and writing.

As you may have guessed from previous reviews, I adore David Attenborough and really don’t understand why so many of his nature programs for BBC have been released in the US with different narrators.

The first episode is a general overview, followed by one for each of the four seasons – but the seasons used: spring, summer, autumn and winter, are not the seasons as usually defined. In fact they are not well defined, but appear to be based on the weather rather than the usual spring = the period from the northward equinox to northern solstice in the northern hemisphere and from the southward equinox to the southern solstice in the southern hemisphere. Roughly, they seem to define the period of continuous (or at least very long) daylight as summer, that of continuous or very long night as winter, and the period of alternating daylight and dark as the transitional seasons – but even this is not well followed. Other ways of dividing the seasons may be the waning, absence, reformation and solidity of sea ice, or the melting, absence, buildup and universal presence of snow. All seem to be used to some extent.

These first five episodes are almost entirely about the natural world: the wildlife, the weather, the geography.

The sixth program is about how humans interact with the polar regions. Our species evolved in the Ice Age, so it is hardly surprising that we invaded the northern parts of the continents almost as soon as we could reach them. Two domesticated or semi-domesticated animals made this spread to northern climates possible: the dog and the reindeer. Early migrants and their descendants today relied heavily on the polar oceans, as agriculture of any kind is difficult in permafrost country (though I was a little surprised that permafrost was never really mentioned.) There was little mention of wild plant foods, though in fact berries and other wild plants are definitely part of the arctic diet, and the arctic in spring and summer has high productivity, as indicated by the number of migratory birds that breed at high latitudes. Today human interactions – and impacts – are more often focused on resource extraction.

Antarctica has had quite a different history. Undiscovered until relatively recently, its fauna has evolved with a lack of land predators that could make it very vulnerable. Luckily Antarctica is protected by international treaties so most of the human activity there today is scientific research. But how long will that remain true as our appetite for resources increases?

The seventh program is the “controversial” one. I’m not sure what the controversy was supposed to be about. The program shows observations at both ends of the Earth that demonstrate the thinning and melting of sea ice in the Arctic and collapse of ice sheets, which may act to buttress glaciers draining the interior, in Antarctica. The importance of enhanced glacier calving to sea level rise was touched on. The cause of this warming might be controversial, as is the use of weather records to observe it, but these were not even mentioned. Just the observed changes, and their possible impact on both the human inhabitants and the animals of the polar regions.

As an atmospheric scientist for most of my professional career, the only thing I considered even remotely controversial was the lack of any mention that human activity might in any way be responsible for the observed changes. Somehow I don’t think that was what had Discovery Channel worried.

North Pole Weather 6/18/12

For scale, the top of the lattice is 7′ above the ground.

The sun rose at 2:58 this morning and will set at 12:47 tomorrow morning for a total of 21 hours 49 minutes of daylight. Day-to-day change this close to the solstice, which will occur at 3:08 PM June 20 our time, is less than a minute, and the sun at noon is at its highest for the year at 48.6° above the horizon. It is quite light at night now. Luckily I’ve lived up here long enough that I have no problem sleeping in full daylight.

The first beginnings of beans

Weather has been mixed, with sunshine, clouds, showers and the occasional thunderstorm. Not enough water for the garden, though; I had to water yesterday. It might make 80 today – I think I’ll get the garden work done early, while it’s still cool!

The yellow beets come up in clusters. The reds are a 1 seed = 1 plant variety.

The white iris are in full bloom, and the wild roses and dwarf columbines are a little past their peak. The day lilies are budded, though not blooming yet, and the delphiniums are chin-high. The Maltese cross, Asiatic lilies and tall columbines are up, but not showing buds yet.

On a more practical note, the beans are in full bloom and are starting to show tiny bean pods, and the strawberries are also showing the first tiny green fruits. The beets had reached the point where they needed thinning, and I got to that yesterday. Beet thinnings braised in a little olive oil — yum! The squash is budded, but so far only male flowers. Herbs are thriving, and the two that are perennial, chives and a local mint, are doing their best to take over the garden. The first lettuce transplants are actually starting to bolt. Sad to say, the weeds are thriving too.

Lettuce starting to bolt.

Notice the new badge on the upper right of my site? I’m participating in the Blog Hop June 22, with a post about summer solstice on a planet with a really large axial tilt — like Uranus. The prize for this site will be a pdf of one of my books — your choice.  To enter the drawing just comment on the June 22 post, but be sure I have a way of contacting you! Note that if you comment on my post you will automatically be entered for the grand prize.

Hello there!

On Friday 22nd June (Pacific Time) the SFR Brigade will be holding its first ever Blog Hop to celebrate Midsummer. 36 fabulous science fiction romance authors will be telling you mystical or scientific stories related to the event, and they’ll each be giving away a prize – books, gift cards, swag bags…and lots more!

Plus there’s TWO GRAND PRIZES!

1st Prize – a Kindle Touch or Nook Touch
2nd Prize -a library of science fiction romance titles from over 20 authors (these will be mostly ebooks with one print anthology), and an Anabanana Gift Card.

All you need to do to enter is pop along to the blogs listed below and comment on as many as you want (only ONE comment per site will count as an entry). Each time you comment at a stop, you’ll earn one entry into the grand prize – so the more sites you visit, the greater your chances of winning. The winners will be drawn at random on the 24th June and announced on this site. The list of participating authors can be found here. Spread the news!

North Pole Weather 6/11/12

The beans are close to blooming already.

The sun rose this morning at 3:06, and will set tomorrow morning at 12:37 for 21 hours 31 minutes of daylight. The gain has slowed down a little, to 4 minutes a day, and the noontime solar altitude is nearly constant around 48°. Darkness is now controlled more by cloud cover than by whether the sun is above the horizon.

We’ve had thunder several days this month, with hail a week ago and a storm that knocked out power for an hour or so last Friday. So far the garden is fine. The

The outer leaves of the lettuce in holes edging the raised bed are ready to cut.

first small buds are showing on the squash and beans, and the lettuce and herbs have reached cutting size. This time last year, I was still planting bean seeds! Strawberries and wild roses are in full bloom.

Highs are in the 70’s when it’s clear, and we reached 79 last Friday (which is probably where the energy for the storm came from.) Next week looks like more of the same – highs in the 70’s, intermittent showers. I’m not even having to water much, though it would be nice to have more sunshine.

P.S. later in the morning: the first bean blossom has opened, and I also have flowers on my “Sweet Pea” tomato.

Strawberries are blooming, though it’s hard to tell them from the white violets.

North Pole Weather 6/4/12

The sun rose this morning at 3:22, and it will set tomorrow morning at 12:19 for 20 hours 57 minutes of daylight. The rest is twilight, but a fairly bright twilight with sunset/rise colors never fading (if the clouds break up a little.) Noon solar altitude is now 47.7°, and the day length is still increasing by about 6 minutes a day.

3/4 of the vegetable garden as of May 1. The “empty” holes are seeded.

Weather has been showery but relatively warm; enough rain to make long trike rides problematic; not enough total rain to help much with the plants. Of course every time I water, it does rain!

The vegetable garden is ahead of where it’s ever been before by the end of May. All raised beds are planted, and all but one row of the holes along the edge. I think I’ll use the remaining holes for a second seeding of lettuce. (I’ve had good luck seeding beets in the holes, and most of the “empty” holes in the photos are in fact seeded.) I transplanted the lettuce plants into the holes along the outside of the squash bed, planning to harvest them before the squash leaves shade them out.

Dwarf columbines, June 1. They not only are hardy and bloom early, they self-seed with abandon.

The dwarf columbine, strawberries and white violets are in full bloom, as is the spirea. So is the white iris nearest the house, and I spotted the first wild rose last night. I planted most of the flower boxes, tubs and hanging baskets last weekend.

#WriteMotivation final check in:

1. Get the garden going. Given the earlier springs up here lately, I’ll try to get the beans started indoors by April 25 and the squash by April 30; plant outdoors before Memorial Day. Get seeds in before Memorial Day if possible. This will involve getting the hoops to support plastic covers up on all three raised beds.

I didn’t quite get it all in before Memorial Day, but I did get the raised beds dug and the vegetable transplants in Memorial Day weekend. Just about everything else is now taken care of — far earlier than usual.

Spirea, photographed from my emergency exit 6/3/12.

2. Keep up daily blogging using my existing schedule: Alaska weather Monday, review Tuesday, quotation context Wednesday, wild card Thursday, Jarn’s Journal (back history on my sf novels) Friday, Science/technology/health Saturday, and Six Sentence Sunday Sunday.

Done.

3. Keep up Context? Tweets daily @sueannbowling

Done.

4. Put at least two interesting science links a day on Homecoming’s page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Homecoming/109303925759274

11:15 last night. The colors intensified later, though the sun had still not set at midnight.

Done.

5. Get outdoors for at least a couple of hours a day when the weather cooperates, either gardening or tricycle riding.

Done.

6. Read over entire trilogy for flow; put bits on Six Sentence Sunday; find a beta reader or two if possible.

I’d still like a second beta reader, but otherwise done.

5:20 pm, 6/4/12

P.S. it hailed about 5 this afternoon. Most unusual for Alaska–we just don’t have the kind of storms here that I grew up with in Kansas.