Yellowstone sees more thermal activity
Yellowstone National Park is one of nature's most beautiful locations. However, underneath this region lies an active supervolcano as the park sits on top of a large caldera. Due to its number of active geysers and hot springs, Yellowstone has become the most watched supervolcano in the world.
On July 10, thermal regions below the park literally melted a portion of a popular road. Asphalt will often soften or melt when air temperatures exceeds 120 degrees Fahrenheit, or near 50 degrees Celsius. Observers also reported some "uplifting" of this road, which may be due to the rising of magma deep within the Earth.
The so-called hot spot that recently developed closed a 3-mile-long road called Firehole Lake Drive, which is an offshoot of the park's Grand Loop Road. It provides access to Yellowstone Park's many geysers and a spring. Hikers have been warned to stay away from this area as there is a high danger of stepping through solid-looking soil right into boiling hot water.
Scientists who study Yellowstone's ever-changing thermal features say that similar events are normal for the park. There have been occasions, due to the temperature fluctuations, that asphalt can become soft or sticky. However, observers say that the melting or "liquefying" of pavement is "extreme and unusual."
The road is expected to reopen very soon, which also leads to Firehole Lake, another one of Yellowstone's popular destinations. In early July, photographs taken around this region show massive amounts of stream that makes it look like there's a "forest fire." In the mid 2000s, there were only patches of stream around Firehole Lake. The comparison between these two time periods is "striking" from observers.
One of the key signs that scientists look at for pending eruptions around active volcanoes are the frequency of earthquakes. In three days, earlier this month, Yellowstone recorded 53 tremors. The movement of magma underneath the park will often trigger small earthquakes.
At this point in time, scientists, including the ones at the U.S. Geologic Survey, don't believe that an eruption is on the horizon. Since the late 20th Century, there have been concerns of an eruption as there was increased ground deformation and earthquake activity, but nothing occurred as the activity soon subsided.
Mankind has never seen a massive volcanic eruption. The last one was from Toba in Indonesia about 70,000 years ago that literally dropped the human population from about several hundred thousand to just a few thousand people.
A super eruption of Yellowstone would literally put our planet into chaos. The massive amounts of dust and ash from an explosion would destroy our nation's food supply in the central U.S. and dramatically cool the Earth. It would take decades to recover from this type of event. The chances of this type of eruption happening within the next 100 years, or even within 10,000 years, is extremely small, but there's always a statistical chance.
More temperature 'extremes' across U.S. are reported
By CLIFF HARRIS
Climatologist
Despite the fact that last week saw some of the coldest midsummer temperatures in 198 years, since the same period in 1816, "1800 and Froze to Death," in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast, it was not "the second coming of this past winter's 'Polar Vortex,'" merely a very chilly cold front from Canada. By extreme contrast, the Far West saw record triple digits and wildfires. Where these widely-opposing air mass clash, we see record rains and floods.
Through Typhoon Neoguri weakened as it hit Japan, it did alter the path of the North Pacific Jet Stream. This in turn allowed polar air to spill into a deep trough of low pressure in Canada and into the Great Lakes region, the Upper Midwest and points east. By the end of the week, the unusually chilly air reached all the way south to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Light frosts, extremely unusual to say the least, were seen near the border of Upper Michigan and southwestern Ontario early Thursday morning.
'Supermoons' in the summer sky
If the 'full moon' of this past weekend looked much bigger than usual, it's because our nearest celestial neighbor is relatively close to the Earth, the closest in more than a decade.
This latest full moon appeared larger and brighter than usual due to its elliptical orbit. Also, the position in the sky was almost directly overhead giving the moon the appearance of even greater size.
There will be two more 'supermoons' this summer in August and September before the moon pushes away slightly in its orbit around the Earth.
North Idaho weather outlook
As of this Thursday, July 17 writing, we had seen a streak of 11 straight days with afternoon highs in the 90s in the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls areas of North Idaho. The rest of the weekend into early this week, however, promised somewhat cooler temperatures with highs mostly in the mid 80s and morning lows near 60 degrees. There was likewise the chance of widely scattered thunderstorms in the region late in the period, mostly over the mountains to the east of the valley.
Our hottest reading since the current heatwave began on July 7 with a scorching 98 degrees on Player Drive on Sunday, July 13. We didn't reach the century mark, but we did come close to the record maximum for the date of 102 degrees set 88 years ago in 1976.
On Wednesday, July 16, Spokane soared to 99 degrees at the airport.
It was 97 degrees at Post Falls and 96 degrees at both Fernan Lake and here in town in Coeur d'Alene.
There were some much hotter temperatures, well above 100 degrees, elsewhere in the region on Wednesday. Hanford, Wash., reported a torrid 111 degrees. It was 109 degrees at Pasco, Nearby Wash. Walla Walla, Wash., sweltered at 106 degrees. It was 104 degrees at both Pendleton, Ore., and Lewiston. Medford, Ore., came in with a record 103 degrees.
Longer-term, following more normal mid to late July temperatures in the low to mid 80s, we should see more 90 degree plus 'Sholeh Days' return between July 26 and Aug. 3. I see another 15 to 20 such scorching days before the summer of 2014 "bites the dust," literally, in mid to late September. As of Thursday, we had only gauged a mere .08 inches since July 1.
Thanks to a very strong, stationary ridge of high pressure camped over the Inland Northwest, both Randy Mann and I see only "isolated showers and thunderstorms," mainly over the mountains to the east of us, during the next couple of months. Enjoy the sunshine!
Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com
Weekly Weather Almanac
• Week's warmest temperature: 96 degrees on July 16
• Week's coldest temperature: 62 degrees on July 20
• Weekly precipitation: 0.03 inches
• Precipitation month to date: 0.08 inches
• Normal precipitation month to date: 0.63 inches
• Precipitation month to date last year: 0.35 inches
• Precipitation year to date: 21.13 inches
• Normal precipitation year to date: 14.58 inches
• Precipitation last year to date: 15.04 inches
• Normal annual precipitation: 26.77 inches
• Total precipitation last year: 25.93 inches
• Precipitation predicted this year: 33.70 inches
• Wettest month on record (since 1895): 9.91 inches in December 1933
• Wettest year on record (since 1895): 43.27 inches, 2012
• Driest month on record (since 1895): 0.00 inches (14 times)
• Driest year on record (since 1895): 15.18 inches, 1929
Readings taken week ending 3 p.m. Sunday, July 20