***THE SUMMER FORECAST SPECIAL WILL BE MONDAY NIGHT...MAY 19TH...AT 9:30PM...THEN ON-LINE AROUND 10PM THAT NIGHT***

***UP TO THIS POINT...THIS HAS BEEN THE WETTEST START OF THE YEAR FOR THE STL AREA...MARCH...RECORD WET, NEAR AVERAGE FOR APRIL AND WET...SO FAR FOR MAY...RAINFALL...SO FAR FOR THE YEAR...22 INCHES...THAT IS 9 INCHES ABOVE THE AVERAGE.

THE PACE KEEPS GOING...A LITTLE DIFFERENT OVER THE NEXT 24-48 HOURS...A COLD FRONT ROLLED BY LAST NIGHT...LEAVING BEHIND A LOW PRESSURE IN THE SOUTHWEST...THAT IS A WATCHER AND WILL NICK US WITH RAIN...ESPECIALLY STL AND POINTS SOUTH ON THURSDAY...AND WITH THAT RAIN...IT WILL BE CHILLY...TEMPS MAINLY IN THE 50'S ON THURSDAY...20 PLUS DEGREE BELOW AVERAGE. THEN WE BREAK OUT OF THE WET ON FRIDAY...OVERALL...A NEW PATTERN PULLS TOGETHER...A HUGE RIDGE OVER THE WESTERN U.S...CHECK OUT THE AMAZING HEAT THERE OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS...AND A HUGE TROUGH OVER THE EASTERN U.S...THAT WILL SET US UP WITH A NORTHWEST FLOW...TYPICALLY A DRY FLOW THAT CAN TOSS A FEW SURPRISES FROM TIME TO TIME...LETS LOOK FOR A COLD FRONT COMING BY LATE SATURDAY...MAYBE POPPING A FEW THUNDERSTORMS...COOL OVER THE WEEKEND...ESPECIALLY SUNDAY....ANOTHER FIRE IN THE FIREPLACE...IN THE MIDDEL OF MAY!!!???

 STAR CHART INFO: 

If you have trouble spotting Mercury this week, look for Capella higher up and scan lower left from there. (This scene is drawn for 40° north latitude. The blue "10°" scale is about the size of your fist held at arm's length.) Sky & Telescope diagram

  Shown here are Mercury's positions 1 hour after sunset (as seen from latitude 40° north) all through May. Its phase as seen in a telescope is shown on various dates. (The blue 5° scale, for judging height above the horizon, is about half the width of your fist at arm's length.) Sky & Telescope diagram

 

these are from about 7 am as i stopped from my drive to work cedar hill

CLEARING SKIES OUT OF THE GATE ON WEDNESDAY...MORE RAIN BUBBLES UP FROM THE SOUTH ON THURSDAY...CHILLY TOO

WEDNESDAY:

CLOUDS THEN GOING PARTLY SUNNY

WINDS: WEST 5-15 M.P.H. 

HIGH: 70 DEGREES

WEDNESDAY NIGHT:

LOTS OF CLOUDS...COOL

WINDS:  EAST 5-15 M.P.H.

LOW:  50 DEGREES

THURSDAY:

CLOUDS WITH PERIODS OF RAIN...VERY CHILLY FOR MAY

WIND:  SOUTHEAST 10-15 M.P.H.

HIGH:  59 DEGREES

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT DAVE'S DISCO...A DETAILED LOOK AT THE WEATHER...SHORT AND LONG TERM AROUND THE STL AREA...ALONG WITH LOTS OF OTHER THINGS...LIKE THE COOL PIC OF THE DAY AND STAR GAZING IDEAS...YOU CAN FIND IT IN THE WEATHER BLOGS.

Alright i tired of no one stepping up and writting a post about the weather so im going to give it a try.......  So here we go.......  To start things off  Monday is expected to be a good 20* warmer than mother's day which was down right nasty to be outside in.  All thinks to that big ol' low pressure system departing off to the northeast. As the suface ridge moves out of the area  a more Southeastly wind will develop and transport warmer temperatures into the region.  Tuesday another bowling ball type storm system begins to take shape in the plains and move to the northeast dragging a cold front  southeast across the area.  Numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop and move into the area from the west.  Super cells are expected to be the storm mode Initially for western portions of MO and then turn more linear and is expected to move eastward through the region late tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.  These storms should be in the weaking stage as they approch the region however still can't rule out isolated severe storms within the line exspeacially from St. Louis points south and west where the SPC has issued a slight risk for severe thunderstorms.  Im not excited about this storm at all because as dave said the atmosphere is pretty zapped from the weekend storm. Never the less its still something to watch as the system approches us. Rainfall with this system should be in the 1-2" range with locally higher amounts possible.  After this storm moves out expect mostly cloudy skies and cooler temperatures for the rest of the week.   

So all you weather bloggers lets get back on track and start doing what we do best and thats talkin bout the weather.......

Given the gale-force winds and cold temperatures yesterday morning, doing something outside -- prior to the Mother's Day brunch we had planned for the afternoon -- was not the least bit desired. So, I elected to do something indoors -- watch TV.

I happened to catch a movie on TBS that I had never heard of: Weatherman. Starring two actors whose movies I tend to like -- Nicholas Cage and Michael Caine -- and a female actor -- cannot recall her name, but she was the one who rode Tom Cruise as they both rode the train in Risky Business.   

Few movies on TV hold my interest -- most are too predictable or silly or just plain boring or stupid. But this movie piqued and held my interest from the get-go. Weatherman had some strange moments -- and some verbiage that caught me off-guard -- and although I'm no prude when it comes to sexuality or human anatomy, a line in the movie gave me an education on something I had previously not known [and wish I still didn't know].

And it introduced some interesting angles in regards to relationships -- between a man and a woman [divorced parents and the new man in the ex-wife's life], among men [the ex-husband and ex-wife's lover], among father and son, among parents and thier kids, and among their kids' and other kids and adults.

It was compelling and for me, memory and thought provoking. I could identify with some signficant core issues presented -- the untimely death of my father, whose approval of me was without question, but was something I questioned; and having been unable to communicate with him prior to his death [unable to tell him what he meant to me]. Also the dynamic of interacting with an ex whom you still love, and are still in love with, and yet they've moved on and are with someone else.  And dealing with -- and helping your kids deal with -- difficult people intent on doing harm -- to you and them.

Some pretty serious issues.  

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is twofold: [1] Just to ask if anyone is familiar with this movie -- if you've seen it and can recall these scenes, I'd like to know your take on some of the scenes. Because to me, the movie didn't connect most of the dots it presented, and nothing that occurred was predictable -- save for one thing. And the ending was just as odd as the beginning. It left a lot of loose ends. 

And [2] since Cage's job was a weatherman, the dialogue generated some questions about the science and practice of meterology. And so, Mr. Dave Murray, if you're so bored as to be reading my blog, I'd like to know if the premises made -- about being a weatherman -- are valid? 

1. Is the use of the greenscreen more difficult and complicated than the science of forecasting weather?

2. Is all weather throughout the world truly attributed to nothing more than the wind -- pushing heat or cold here and there, which in turn creates other weather patterns?

3. Are weatherman this well-paid -- $250,000 to $1.2 million?! 

4. Are weathermen provided lucrative kickbacks for product endorsements -- and required, per their contract, to endorse certain advertisers' products?    

Yes, this is a weird blog. No, it doesn't have much to do with the weather. Oh well.

Space Station Tricorder

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Any Trekkies out there? Remember the tricorder? Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock both carried them, and they came in mighty handy exploring "strange new worlds ...where no one has gone before."

On the International Space Station, astronauts are carrying an experimental device that looks strikingly similar: LOCAD-PTS, short for Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System. This handheld biological lab is the first step along the path to developing something akin to Dr. McCoy's medical tricorder.

Above: Astronaut Suni Williams (with flowing "microgravity locks" of hair) uses LOCAD-PTS onboard the International Space Station.

"LOCAD is like that tricorder in that it is portable, rapid, and detects a biochemical molecule," says Heather Morris, LOCAD scientist from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and an admitted Star Trek fan. But while tricorders could do almost anything from checking vital signs to finding alien life, LOCAD is a little more specialized: "LOCAD is specifically designed to detect and identify microbes on space station surfaces."

Sign up for EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS delivery It is a fact of life that wherever humans go, microbes follow. Biologists estimate that every human body has at least a trillion hitchhiking microbes, accounting for as much as 2% of a person's total mass. Most live in harmony with native human cells; others can make you sick.

LOCAD keeps track of these tiny lifeforms.

Here's how it works: An ISS crewmember uses a dry swab to take samples of surfaces where microbes might be lurking. Flushing sterile water through the swab converts the sample to liquid form, and the astronaut puts a few drops into the LOCAD. What's in the sample? The system gives its answer less than 15 minutes later. The whole easy procedure is done on location. Nothing has to be sent back to a lab on Earth, which would take time and introduce the possibility of contamination en route.

"It's important to monitor bacteria on the space station so we can find the best way to keep them under control," says Morris, who adds this curiosity: "LOCAD can't yet distinguish between live and dead bacteria." So no one can cry out, it's dead, Jim! "We're working to add this capability in the future."

Right: Heather Morris works on LOCAD technology in her laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

In addition to detecting Gram-negative1 bacteria like E. coli and salmonella, the latest LOCAD cartridges just sent up to station aboard shuttle mission STS-123 can alert the crew to fungi. Since fungi actually decomposed some electronics on the Russian Space Station MIR, they have become unwelcome "house guests." LOCAD can detect low concentrations of a common fungal compound; this allows LOCAD to find fungi on surfaces before the fungi have a chance to multiply.

By the end of the year, yet another cartridge will be available for the space station. This one will detect the presence of Gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococcus and streptococcus.

"Ultimately we want to provide cartridges for all kinds of micro-organisms and chemical compounds," says Morris. "We'd even like to be able to use our system to figure out what 'bug' an astronaut has if he or she becomes ill."

Lisa Monaco, LOCAD project scientist, adds her vision of the future: "What we are developing at MSFC has use not only on the ISS, but also on lunar missions, long duration stays on other planets, and most certainly here on Earth."

In the years ahead, as space voyages become longer and longer, it will be even more imperative to have ways of checking astronauts' health and monitoring electronics. For the record, no astronaut has ever become seriously ill on any space mission. However, the scientists point out that if an astronaut did ever get sick, it would take too much time to send a sample back to Earth, have it tested, and receive a long-distance answer. With next-generation LOCAD technologies, detection and diagnosis would be quick, easy, and on the spot.

Dr. McCoy, here we come.

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Author: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Hi, flooding is not much of a concern for my home, however, it is for many people that I know,and I enjoy helping them out. I also travel roads often closed due to flooding. I have not been able to find any information about the rivers. It has rained now ,for what seems to be forevver, so wheres is the news of the rivers? I dont want to find myself stuck in traffic because I was unware of the roads. Or come to home to a house of unexpected friends flooded out. Where can I find more information about excatly what rivers and roads are doing what?

Dave Murray,

I think  why  we are having  so many  earthquakes are because the earth was so dry.  Now we have had so much rain and the earth expands when its wet. 

Please respond.