Fun in the Woods

Another Blog I read is called "Fun in the Woods" and found at this link.  It showcases the volunteer work on the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts.

Check it out.

Iceland Geologic Features 2013

Here is a short (five and a half minute) video I posted on Youtube that showcases some of the landscape in this country.

Enjoy.

Glacier studiess

I am preparing a lab for Physical Geography.  Now, I am not a glacier expert, but as a geographer, I am pretty fascinated by glaciers.  We have lots of glacial features around the area like cirques, erratics, drumlins and others.  And even in the Big Apple you can find some interesting features.

So for lab, I am going to explore a couple of glaciers I have visited.  After returning from Iceland for a conference I am currently reading about Sólheimajökull Glacier.  I have a masters thesis from the University of Iceland written by Bjarki Friis that is really good.  Google the name.

Cold fronts bring cooler weather for recreation

So the US has been blistering hot this past week.  While not a record, Westfield, MA had 98 degrees F yesterday afternoon for a high!  Add to that high humidity and it is pretty uncomfortable.

So today, we are expected a cold front to pass through the area.  Notice the station model data from this report from the AMS Datastreme Project.

You can see winds are coming from the south for New England whereas in Canada, the winds are coming from the west since the cold front has already passed the area.

Cooler air (from the west and northwest) are coming to New England!

Sustainability and Eco-health tourism

This chapter highlighted some of the consequences facing health tourism today.  While not comprehensive in all the positive and negative impacts of the industry, an attempt has been made to highlight two of the more pressing issues: health care equity and bio-hazards. 

Bristow, R. (2013) Sustainability and Eco-health tourism. In Sustainability in Tourism. Chapter 4 in Jenkins, I., and Schroder, R., eds. Gabler, Wiesbaden, Germany, pp. 67-82.

Available from Amazon or Springer Gabler.

got rain?

Well, the current radar for the states show some spots of precip.  Why rain at these spots?
Some of it is frontal lifting, whereas the rest is just convective.  Where air rises, if it cools to due point, we can get clouds and then precipitation.

The National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Image is a good site to see precip.

Looks like we will be dry in the northeast except for the humidity.

High Pressure along East Coast

A virtual sauna bath is what USA Today called the weather along the I-95 corridor today.  And I thought it was hot yesterday.

So drink plenty of water, or seltzer in my case, and minimize outside physical labor.

A high pressure means sinking air, where it then sprays out along the surface drawn toward a low pressure.  There are two mainland lows in the US: one in Nevada and one in southern Texas.

You can get some pretty neat (and detailed) weather analysis at the AMS Datastreme Atmosphere Project.

http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/dstreme/images/sfc_pres.gif

Here is the current isobar (lines of equal pressure) map.