Day: July 1, 2021💾

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I have off from the work the last week of July

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I have off from the work the last week of July … 🏊‍♀️ ⛺ 🛶 🚶‍♀️

I am thinking I will probably head out to the Finger Lakes National Forest and do the normal circuit of state parks and other places I like to visit out in the Finger Lakes, a mixture of swimming, cooling off in gorges, sightseeing, kayaking, fishing, hiking and camping on long summer nights. I might end up spending a few nights in Pennsylvania, but I’m not set on it, as I kind of like the simplicity of just setting up a good campsite and staying there all week.

Vacation means lazy afternoons

NASA satellites see upper atmosphere cooling and contracting due to climate change

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NASA satellites see upper atmosphere cooling and contracting due to climate change

The sky isn't falling, but scientists have found that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting in response to rising human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Combined data from three NASA satellites have produced a long-term record that reveals the mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling and contracting. Scientists have long predicted this effect of human-driven climate change, but it has been difficult to observe the trends over time.

"You need several decades to get a handle on these trends and isolate what's happening due to greenhouse gas emissions, solar cycle changes, and other effects," said Scott Bailey, an atmospheric scientist at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and lead of the study, published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. "We had to put together three satellites' worth of data."

Together, the satellites provided about 30 years of observations, indicating that the summer mesosphere over Earth's poles is cooling four to five degrees Fahrenheit and contracting 500 to 650 feet per decade. Without changes in human carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers expect these rates to continue.

Wood water mains hundreds of years old found in Albany

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Wood water mains hundreds of years old found in Albany

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)- Wooden water main pipes were removed by the City of Albany Water Department while they were doing some work near City Hall. They said the wooden water mains are a throwback to the late 1700s. Fireworks celebrate NY reaching COVID vaccine benchmark

Tree trunks bored through the center were laid end to end, sending water from the Maezlandtkill, northwest of Albany, to a reservoir at Columbia and Stueben Streets. The Maezlandtkill was used as a water source from 1797 to the 1920s.

The County Courthouse occupies the site where the reservoir was located and eventually, the wooden mains were replaced with cast-iron pipes. The pond at Wolfert’s Roost Country Club is still fed by the Maezlandtkill.

Electric Power Monthly – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

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Electric Power Monthly – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

I was noticing the spike in electric generation from oil in February 2021, but that's actually not surprising as that was when there was deep freeze down south, when dual fuel gas plant couldn't get cheap natural gas, so they burned oil.
 
Still nothing like 20 years ago when a lot of regularly power plants burned oil, especially in the north east. Oil has fallen out of favor as a generating fuel, with cheap natural gas and tougher air quality standards limiting sulfur to reduce air pollution and acid rain.
Map: Chittening Pond Fishing Area