Sun Shots and Solar Flares

The brutal heat and dry continues across most of the Florida Peninsula, but at least it makes for some cool sunset shots. Above, the drying St. Johns River swamp.

Below: Three shots as the sun slides below some tall grass. It is as hot as it appears in these photos. Today temperatures peaked around 90° F. (32.2° C.) but it felt much hotter as the humidity increased significantly. With dew points rising into the 70°s the humidity rose into the 50-60% range. For example: A temperature of 90° F. with a Dew Point of 70° = a Relative Humidity of 52% and an apparent temperature (heat index) of 97° F.

Calculate your heat index here.







Below: A recent hot, smoky sunset at Port Manatee.



Below: A God shot as the sun's rays peak out behind a cloud. At least there are increasing clouds. . .which gives us some hope for rains to return in the future.



Below: A distorted sun setting over a steamy river.



UNUSUAL JUNE HEAT WAVE

At least we're not suffering through this current heat alone anymore. An intense blast of heat set new daily high temperature marks in 14 states from Texas to Minnesota Tuesday, including a remarkable 103°F in Minneapolis. It was the hottest day in the city in nearly 23 years, since 105°F was recorded on July 31, 1988, and the second earliest date the city had ever hit 100°. Minneapolis' earliest 100° day came on May 31, 1934, when the mercury also hit 103°. Yesterday was the 5th consecutive day that the Austin, Texas Bergstrom Airport tied or set a new daily temperature record. On Monday, June 6, the airport hit 103°F, the earliest in the year that location had ever hit 103°. Record keeping began there in 1942, and the last time Austin was so warm so early in the year was on June 14, 1998, when the mercury hit 109°.

SOLAR FLARE

Below: While this has nothing to do with our current heat wave. . . in recent months, the sun has awakened from its longest and quietest period since the satellite era bgan in the late 1970s. An increasing number of sunspots, solar flares, and Coronal Mass Ejections have occurred, as solar activity builds towards a peak expected in 2013. On June 6, the sun unleased the most spectacular solar flare ever captured on video, highlighted in the Youtube link below.



A spectacular solar flare erupted at 06:41 UTC on June 6, 2011, when magnetic fields above sunspot complex 1226-1227 became unstable. The blast produced a massive Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that was not aimed directly at Earth. This is perhaps the most dramatic and beautiful solar flare captured by the cameras on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO.)

Additional movies and information are available at spaceweather.com, and additional information on the latest solar activity is available from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.