The Leeward Islands missed by a hair.... Omar passes on through...

It's Sky Watch Friday post time!! Please visit Tom, Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Imac's SKY WATCH BLOG to participate in Sky Watch Fridays, which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!! A huge thank you to Dot, the mother of this fabulous blogging event!!! It is so interesting to see skies from all over the world!!! How truly wonderful it is to be a part of something as incredible as Sky Watch Friday! Today, I would like to share with you my sky this morning. We had an amazing double lunar corona in the western sky as we awaited Mini-Dew's bus this morning.

A corona is produced by the diffraction of light from either the Sun or the Moon by individual small water droplets (and sometimes tiny ice crystals) of a cloud. The corona consists of small number of concentric colored rings around the celestial object and a central bright aureole. The angular size of the corona depends on the diameters of the cloud droplets - small droplets produce bright coronae. Coronae differ from haloes in that the latter are formed by refraction from comparatively large rather than small ice crystals. Reddish colors always occupy the outer part of a corona's ring.
~source

I only wish that my photographs did it justice. I played with settings until I literally ran out of time. I am always impressed with coronae. Here are several different looks at it. Ours today was inspired by some outrageous fog... the thickness brought visibility in most of the area down to about 100 yards. It was so thick that I could actually see the mist in it between myself and the car in front of me and had to use wipers. Talk about being on cloud 9. More like cloud 9 was on me. The fog started to thin out as the sun started to rise; however, it's still extremely thick out there.

Onto the tropics, the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, St. Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis Islands are breathing a sigh of relief today in the wake of the near miss by MAJOR Hurricane Omar over-night last night. That's right, the very strong yet compact Omar breezed (quite literally) right through the islands of the northern Leeward Islands, neglecting to make landfall and moving quickly on out to the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Omar, though compact in size, packed a powerful punch that was thankfully missed out on by the islands. At his maximum strength, he was carrying in his swath, sustained winds up to 125mph, as a category 3 hurricane! His fast movement is a good thing. He didn't even stick around to drench the islands with rain, which is good since they are still recovering from the impacts of the devastatingly torrential rain impacts of Hanna. Interesting little tidbit, Omar is moving so fast, that he's outracing NOAA's satellite floater, which is set up to capture images of him. Wow, a major hurricane in mid-October. Crazy.

On the flip side, the remnants of Tropical Depression 16 are being highlighted as a low risk system. Tropical Depression 16 happens to be the first tropical depression of the season to have not been named. It's been an active year.

That's it for me... still recovering from my pain in the neck.

Have a lovely day,
~Dewdrop

No, the 2008 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Basin is NOT over!

Well, look at what happens while you're resting and recovering... a hurricane! Hurricane Omar is gaining strength in the eastern Caribbean, now up to 85mph winds... he seems to be headed for the Virgin Islands and all that stuff (hmmm... that reminds me of a Chuck Norris joke, which I WILL NOT be sharing here.) They even suspect that Omar could become a category 2 hurricane before landfall. Of course, then, it will sail off into the open seas of the Atlantic, so Hurricane Omar is only going to be a threat to land for the next couple of days, but not to the continental US. Assuming a category 2 landfall, structures will be impacted some, but the biggest problem with Hurricane Omar is the torrential rain that the islands can expect to get from this system, regardless of strength. He is already dumping buckets of precipitation on already saturated soil and on rather mountainous terrain which adds the risk of mudslides.

NOW THAT A DISTINCT EYE AND EYEWALL HAVE DEVELOPED... A GOOD CHIMNEY EFFECT CAN BE ESTABLISHED AND OMAR COULD GO THROUGH A BRIEF PERIOD OF RAPID INTENSIFICATION AGAIN. IT ALSO ISN'T OUT OF THE QUESTION THAT OMAR COULD ACHIEVE MAJOR HURRICANE STATUS JUST BEFORE THE CYCLONE REACHES THE NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLANDS.

As if that wasn't enough, and really that's the only big player, there is Tropical Depression 16, which is a disorganized mess over Honduras. Nothing solid about this storm, but if it were to get its act together, we would call it Paloma... who came up with THAT NAME?! Worse, we are stuck with that name every six years until Paloma is devastating. Good grief! I would like to nominate myself to the tropical cyclone naming committee please.

As for me... well, I tried my hardest to rest yesterday, which is not an easy feat when you feel mostly ok, just a little sore and achy and you know the laundry needs to be done and the house could use a good cleaning. My body was really good about putting me back in my place. I took frequent breaks and even a nice nap, when my body finally told me ENOUGH! I am sore today and according to my chiropractor, my muscles in the area where I was injected are tighter than ever, so apparently, I won't be one of the blessed ones who feels immediate relief after the first injection... nope, not me... my body decided to fight back. Great. So, I am still sore. My belligerent bones are still disobeying the guidance of chiropractic adjustment, and since I will need 2 more injections soon, I am stuck with only acetaminophen for pain relief... barely touches it. sigh... the picture is arbitrary, but it made me feel hopeful. Did I mention that I hate hospitals and their ridiculousness?! Another story, another day.

5:00PM Update: Hurricane Omar continues to strengthen.

STRONG CONVECTIVE BURSTS HAVE CONTINUED TO DEVELOP IN THE EYEWALL AND RADAR DATA FROM SAN JUAN HAS INDICATED OCCASIONAL DISTINCTMESOVORTICES ROTATING AROUND THE INNER PORTION OF THE EYEWALL.

Have a supercellular day!
~Dewdrop

Recovery...

Well, when those tropics wake up, they really come to life. We currently are watching 4 areas, two of which are tropical depressions. The most impressive looking one is in the Caribbean, Tropical Depression 15. That one has not got its convection wrapped around the center, but it does have an impressive burst of convection east of its rotation center. The next most impressive has a high probability of development, if it stays over water. It is located in the western Caribbean near Honduras and Nicaragua. If it does stay over water, it will most likely be classified soon as a tropical depression. Another area, near sad looking Tropical Depression Nana is another area of somewhat organized convection, which is also east side heavy; however, the environment does not favor significant development.

As for me, I'm feeling a little baaaaaaaad. lol. I had my back procedure yesterday. I had been going to "pain and torture" appointments earlier in the year, changed over to chiropractic care when that wasn't working, and he suggested pain management to work with him and help progress to be made. Yesterday, I had a cervical epidural injection of cortisone and anti-inflammatory medicine to help with the pain resulting from a cervical spine with degenerative disc disorder, bone spurs and a backwards curvature. Unfortunately, much of the time, my C1 is pressing on the base of my skull. Fortunately, I have a team of medical professionals working diligently to correct the problem. Besides the bruising on my left hand resulting from the blown first IV run and a super low blood pressure (90/31... yikes) in recovery, yesterday went off without incident. My wonderful gtb shared some lovely before and after video with me captured on his phone to demonstrate the effects of sedation. I am in significant pain today, I guess as gtb suggested, while things shift around in my body as my swelling goes down. Because of anesthesia used, I was told not to drive for 24 hours, and am staying home today to recover. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers yesterday. The idea of someone injecting into the area around my spinal cord was unnerving. After hearing possible outcomes including paralysis, coma and death... my nerves were a little edgy. I am resting up today, after gtb took excellent care of me last night.That's it for me today... time to drift off into slumber...

Toodles,
~Dewdrop