rose festival weather

 Here it comes again: the early-June shower pattern for areas around Portland.

Since the Rose Festival carnival rides are always on the lawn by the Willamette, it's a good bet that they will become muddy in the next two weeks. Portland itself is only in the half-inch zone at this point, so nearly not mud. Living an hour north is big though, as we are forecast to see over an inch by the 4th of June. Much of that comes on the 1st/2nd as of now, so several days of pattern mutations are still available.

I'm trying to whack down some blackberries before damp times return, and the new 62v whacker is doing nicely with its bonus torque over the 18v model. 

Don't make me get out the chainsaw!!

Another yard task is to burn the debris that has accumulated near our driveway over the past two+ years. Some showers are expected tomorrow, so that would be ideal as long as the winds are not active. Hopefully by the weekend the yard will be looking far better than it has in a long spell!

wow - best geomag storm in ~20 years!

 

That's a kP index of 9, class G5. Pretty much top of the charts! 

The yellow highlight marks the time when we were outside.

8:35 - sunset is very soon. The rest of the world is having a fine time; now our turn is coming!!

10:00 - not really dark yet, but photos already show the colors. Amazing.

11:00 - full blast, nearly all-sky coverage. Even visually we can tell green from deep red areas. Even areas around the moon are showing the glow, due west of us. To the NE it looks like an early green dawn is breaking.

We shut down about 12:20am, 8:20UTC. Two cameras taking dozens of images at different settings, in attempts to catch both colors coverage and detail in the curtains. I'd never thought such coverage would happen at 46° latitude. Photos are coming in from Florida Keys and many other southerly sites. Wow!