Reporters vist the Fukushima Nuclear power plant

For the first time Japan allows reporters to visit the plant after the worst nuclear accident in history.

As we recall the terrible event took place, Japan was hit by a terrible earthquake and tsunami back in March of this year.   It is said to take about 30 years to clean up the damage surrounding the plant.  The reactor will be encased in reinforced concrete and steel plates, and will need to be inspected in the future to reseal its permanent tomb.

I am not certain that our nuclear plants are completely safe.  We see with climate change how strong storms and flooding have been affecting our landscape.  We have seen earthquakes here and quakes have been felt in the Midwest.  There were plans to build new plants in the US, if so they will need to revise backup power for these plants that  must pump water to cool the reactor.

Dual Polarization Radar

The Doppler radar site that covers our area (a good part of eastern PA and much of NJ), is being upgraded by February 2012. This upgrade will allow Meteorologists to detect and measure rainfall and storms with much better accuracy.  In some instances, a developing tornado can hide within a rain wrapped storm.  This new technology will help increase warning time to the general public.

Here is a youtube video from the National Weather Service which gives a good idea of the impact this technology will have on forecasting.

On a final note, looks like rain is on its way.  The NWS has posted its forecast,  rain for Monday and Tuesday.

Asteroid 2005 YU55 - twisters & tremors in OK

As I wrote before on October 30th, about the near fly by of the Asteroid 2005 YU55 and how it will pass very close to the Earth tonight.

Here is a video from Nasa explaining how the Asteroid is tracked; http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=77341&media_id=119025761


I have heard reports from storm chasers of multiple Tornadoes in Oklahoma and more aftershocks were felt as well.


Here is a great video from Storm Chasers in Oklahoma, this was filmed yesterday. You can see the hail on the ground.  At 2:40 minutes in you see the Chaser talk about his car that flipped over because his steering wheel locked up on him.                                           

Courtesy of Extremetornadotours.com on youtube.

Frozen fall colors

After our early snowfall, the frozen temperatures  had an effect on the timing of color change of the leaves.
Per an article found here : NOAA fall Foliage , it states that the color change process is interrupted and some leave may not make its full change before the leaves fall from the trees to get ready for winter.
I took some pictures yesterday while I was in a commercial park.  It is nice that business put effort to decorate the landscape to make it a nice place to be.  The last pic here is from Blue Bell, PA, it is a good indicator of what a tree looks like halfway through its color change.  In the background you can see a few trees in different stages.  One tree had it's leaves fall off much earlier, could have been from storms we had before.

a fall of all colors

Red Reflections of fall

Half

Daylight Savings Time

After tonight we need to check all our gadgets from the microwave to our car radios, to see if we need to set them back by one hour.  The good news is that we gain one hour of sleep!  Hope that everyone enjoys the remainder of their weekend.  Be sure to adjust your clocks, the time change actually is in effect at 2 AM.