After a January month wet night...

All Time record for this month
High: 34.4 C (25.1.2006)
Low: 13.9 C (29.1.1905)
Daily Rain: 212,9 mm (15.1.1915)
Total Rain: 244.1 mm (1915)

Chennai:
We received rainfall from yesterday Afternoon, initially it was a mild drizzle then it became showery and steady.
Mild showers thru the night.
Past 24 hr rain: 17 mm
Now (8:39AM) it's partly cloudy with rain cloud formations moving into city from east-north-east. It's bit warm now, signs of high humidity.
Last year also we had some showers around 10-Jan-08.

Latest satellite image shows...NOTHING.. for us.
Yesterday's cloud formation over us is melting away..
And we can see some activity near WEST of srilanka. And this will move west and cross Tamilnadu's Southern tip.


Here's the RAIN forecast from BBC for SATURDAY and SUNDAY.

Latest GFS shows..
A high pressure will be over us from 10-Jan to another 5 days.
This will give a good winter weather.
MJO
Latest MJO forecast shows...

SEVERE DRY phase for us till 22-Jan-09.
After that we move into a SEVERE WET phase.
We might experience a WET early february this year, if that happens then it'll be a UNUSUAL year to start.

Surprise Day in January!

What a surprise we woke up with slight drizzle.
No DEW around.
Temperature was mild with some slight breeze blowing from NORTH.
In the morning it was partly cloudy and with some signs of MORE drizzle.
Today thru the day we recorded high humidity..at 91%
Now (4:43PM) it's drizzling mild and steady.
More drizzles and even a mild shower is forecast for late evening. And from tomorrow morning this weather pattern will slowly move away.
Going by the latest Visible & IR satellite image...

We can see some mild cloud cover can be seen over most of North-Tamilnadu and South-Andhra.
This is causing some local formations and that too weak in nature.
We can expect this weather pattern for next 24 hrs and melt away.
Latest numeric models suggest... more rain for Southern Tamilnadu.

"Cold Wave in India Attributed to Global Warming"

'Cold Wave in India Attributed to Global Warming'
Taken from Newsbusters.org
Imagine yourself as a big time editor, and somebody brings you an article with the headline, "Cold Wave in India Attributed to Global Warming."

Wouldn't you strongly suggest a rewrite?

Well, no such sanity occurred at the Indian website Sify on Tuesday.

Instead, that preposterous title actually did get published atop an article of equally absurd and hypocritical content (emphasis added):

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

Mumbai: The recent cold wave sweeping across Mumbai and other parts of India could be attributed to global warming, experts said on Tuesday here at an environmental conference.
Addressing the ‘Combat Global Warming’ conference at the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) here, former Union minister for power and environment Suresh Prabhu said global warming was primarily a problem created and induced by human beings.

He said the increase in emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and methane had resulted in the situation, which could prove catastrophic if unchecked.

Prabhu said the cold wave that swept Maharashtra and other parts of India recently could be attributed to the phenomenon of global warming.

Astounding, wouldn't you agree?

After all, the foundation of anthropogenic global warming is that carbon dioxide placed in the atmosphere by man is exacerbating the greenhouse effect thereby making the planet heat up to dangerous levels that will melt glaciers and polar icecaps making ocean levels rise and eventually swamp coastal areas around the world.

Yet, conveniently, now that we have entered solar cycle 24, and the planet as predicted by many scientists is starting to cool, the global warming crowd is blaming it on carbon dioxide.

Which is it, folks: is carbon dioxide WARMING the planet, or COOLING it?

In the end, it's a wonderful position of infallibility these folks have created, for now regardless of what the weather does, it can all be attributed to man.

Sadly, the joke's on us, for poorly educated and biased media representatives not only don't recognize the hypocrisy in this position, but also certainly won't question it.

How unfortunate for all of us.

Cold wave in North India

Here are lots of headlines regarding "Cold" conditions in North India...
Dense fog disrupts rail traffic - December 21, 2008
Cold wave grips Bihar - December 18, 2008
Dense fog disrupts air, rail traffic in Delhi - December 30, 2008
Trains starting from Jammu cancelled - August 5, 2008
Heavy fog affects flights, train schedules in Delhi (Second Lead) - December 29, 2008
Flights, trains to and from Delhi delayed by fog (Lead) - December 29, 2008
Three die after falling off overcrowded train in West Bengal - November 19, 2008
Dense fog engulfs Delhi, hits flight, train schedules - December 29, 2008
Cold wave claims 50 lives
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New Delhi - Over 50 people have died as towns and cities in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state came under the grip of a cold wave, a news report said on Saturday.

"Over 50 deaths due to cold were recorded in hospitals across the state in the past week. Most of the victims were pavement dwellers," a government spokesperson told the Indo-Asian News Service, Ians.

The deaths were reported from districts such as Sultanpur, Banda, Jaunpur and Rae Bareli, which witnessed near-freezing temperatures.

Temperatures have plummeted as state capital Lucknow and other main cities such as Kanpur and Agra saw temperatures between 3.6 degrees celsius and 4.4 degrees celsius.

Little protection against cold
Beggars and the homeless spent the bitterly cold nights with little protection beyond plastic sheets and sacks, the reports said. They were seen lighting fires to save themselves from the bitter cold.

The thick blanket of fog disrupted air and rail traffic in the state. Even on the roads, vehicles moved slowly to avoid any accidents.

The state home department has issued orders for bonfires to be lit along roads for the homeless. It has also advised the local administrations of various districts to order the closure of educational institutions due to the extreme cold.

Indian weather officials said the cold would persist over the next few days.

"The cold spell will continue for at least another week even though the temperature could rise a little over the next 24 hours," state meteorological department director JP Gupta said.
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Chennai:
City remains mild after 2 nights of cold before 1-Jan-09.
Now the min. temperature is around 19.5°C.
For next 3 days the Max temperature will be around 29 deg and Min temperature will be around 19 deg.
Mainly clear skies and humidity around 50%, and this might go up after 48hrs.
No threat of rain and not even drizzles.

NASA Finishes Listening For Phoenix Mars Lander

December 1, 2008 -- After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep.
As expected, reduced daily sunshine eventually left the solar-powered Phoenix craft without enough energy to keep its batteries charged.
The final communication from Phoenix remains a brief signal received via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Nov. 2. The Phoenix lander operated for two overtime months after achieving its science goals during its original three-month mission. It landed on a Martian arctic plain on May 25.
"The variability of the Martian weather was a contributing factor to our loss of communications, and we were hoping that another variation in weather might give us an opportunity to contact the lander again," said Phoenix Mission Manager Chris Lewicki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The end of efforts to listen for Phoenix with Odyssey and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had been planned for the start of solar conjunction, when communications between Earth and Mars-orbiting spacecraft are minimized for a few week. That period, when the sun is close to the line between Earth and Mars, has begun and will last until mid-December.
The last attempt to listen for a signal from Phoenix was when Odyssey passed overhead at 3:49 p.m. PST Saturday, Nov. 29 (4:26 p.m. local Mars solar time on the 182nd Martian day, or sol, since Phoenix landed). Nov. 29 was selected weeks ago as the final date for relay monitoring of Phoenix because it provided several weeks to the chance to confirm the fate of the lander, and it coincided with the beginning of solar conjunction operations for the orbiters. When they come out of the conjunction period, weather on far-northern Mars will be far colder, and the declining sunshine will have ruled out any chance of hearing from Phoenix.
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Here's the last recorded weather in Phoenix's landing area:

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Some images from Phoenix:

What You can do in OOTY?

You can enjoy the cool weather.
Travel in the Nilgiris Railway. A blue colour train with wooden coaches with stream engine and cream with wooden coaches, large windows and Aweseome journey.
Go for long walks in the chilled weather.
Visit country side and feel the real ooty weather, culture.
Dont forget to visit golf at the Gymkhana Golf course. (Only members are allowed).
Visit the Testates and Factories. There are plenty of Tea estates around the Ooty Rural & urban areas.
Visit the Mudumalai forest sanctuary. (It takes around 2 hours from Ooty)
Visit Defense Services Staff College.
Visit 6th mile and also the 9th mile (Movie shooting spots. Very calm & green area. Very peaceful area.
You can get form Fresh Carrot on the way.
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The natural scenic beauty of Ooty or Udhagamandalam as it is called now is something that has to be seen to be believed. Situated on the Nilgiri mountain ranges as part of the Western Ghats, this hill station was developed by the British rules as their summer retreat. Ooty is called as the queen of hill stations and the place truly justifies the title. Nestled in a deep valley on the Tamilnadu side of the Western Ghats, Ooty is visited by millions of tourists every year. It is situated at a height of 1350 meters above sea level and borders the state of Kerala on the western side.

There are many wonderful tourist spots in and around Ooty and a single day is not enough to visit every one of them. There are many parks in Ooty; some famous ones are Government Botanical Garden, Centenary Rose Garden and children’s park. Talking about gardens, Ooty is the venue of the famous flower show every year in which thousands of beautiful and unique flowers are kept on display and for sale. This flower show is a truly spectacular show indeed. Right in the center of Ooty is a big lake on which you can enjoy a boat ride. Ooty is also very close to Doddabetta Peak, which is the highest point of the Western Ghats at around 2300 meters. A visit to Ooty cannot be fulfilled without a ride on the toy train. The train starts from Mettupalayam and winds its way around the Nilgiri Mountain towards Ooty and the sights on the way as it approaches Ooty will take your breath away.

Ooty is well connected by roads and the nearest regular railway station is Mettupalayam and the closest airport is Coimbatore. There is plenty of accommodation available, right from cheap budget hotels to luxurious five star hotels. The best time to visit Ooty is From March to July when the temperatures will hover between 15 degrees centigrade to 30 degrees centigrade. The winter months of September to January are very cold with temperatures sometimes nearing freezing point. One visit to Ooty is compulsory in any nature lover’s iternary.

Low temperatures thru India

Chennai:
Recorded another low temperature night.
19.4°C (6:39am)
Latest satellite image shows some activity over the South-east bay region.
And some GFS suggests, we might have some showers after 7-Jan-09 and before 20-Jan-09.
But at present we can enjoy this DRY and LOW temperatures for next 3 days.
India:
All over india is experiencing a COLD wave.
Here are the recorded LOW temperatures.
New Delhi: 8.2°C
Mumbai: 12.8°C
Kolkata: 14.4°C
Ahmedabad: 13.0°C
Bangalore: 14.0°C
Bhopal: 12.4°C
Bhubaneswar: 16.0°C
Dehradun: 6.4°C
Goa: 18.4°C
Guwahati: 11.8°C
Hyderabad: 13.9°C
Lucknow: 8.5°C
Nagpur: 11.9°C
Patna: 9.4°C
Pune: 8.6°C
Srinagar: -1.8°C
Trivandrum: 19.8°C
Shimla: 5.7°C
Ranchi: 7.7°C

Cyclone "Billy"

A classic Cyclone photo of cyclone "Billy", here u can see it's leaving Australia. Taken on 25-Dec-08.

Live webcam shot from Antarctica

This photo is of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station taken every 15 minutes (if a relay satellite is available for transmission) from the roof of the National Science Foundation's Atmospheric Research Observatory which houses NOAA/ESRL's Clean Air Facility. In order to preserve the life of the camera, it is tilted down onto the snow when the sun is in the field of view, which occurs for several weeks around sunset (March) and sunrise (September) when the sun marches in a circle above the horizon. From mid-April until mid-August the moon and the aurora australis provide the only natural lighting. The new station can be seen to the right in the photo; the old (circa 1973) domed station is to the left. The new station is elevated above the snow to prevent it being buried by the drifting snow (the present fate of the old domed station).

Maitri - Weather sticker

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