We are having a really rainy week. It has been raining for the past three days. Today a friend and I went to the zoo in the pouring rain. It was fun even though we came home a bit soaked.

De_De, your story about the zoo reminds me of my trip to Germany and Luxembourg. We ended up doing a lot of sight seeing with umbrellas in the pouring rain. Luckily we had umbrellas so we didn't get too soak. Although on our trip to New York City a couple of years ago, we got caught in a thunderstorm while riding on a tour bus - it didn't have an inside. We had umbrellas but we got soaked anyway. (It ran down the umbrellas and down our backs.)

We have been having a lot of rain here too. We have mushrooms growing in our yard. I'm getting a little tired of clouds.

I'm surprised that today's heat index isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Surprisingly I'm happy that it rained today because we seriously needed it because everything was starting to dry up a lot and the heat index being 106 degrees wasn't helping for the past few days.

Right about now we are all getting ready to run to the basement, possible tornado! No big deal, we get plenty.

^^ I know that's scary! I hope everything's ok.
It's super hot here! It better rain so it can cool down. I need to start putting ice in my cats' water bowl outside.

It's very sunny and the heating index is 98 degrees. I'm with your idea kittengirl. I need to put ice in my dogs water bowl.

Rain, rain, rain, and wind when will the sun come out. We have this interesting cycle for the past few days. It will be terrible heat with unpleasant warm wind for two days, then a huge thunderstorm and then cold, wet and rainy weather for about three or four days and then the circle starts again

Right about now we are all getting ready to run to the basement, possible tornado!

Tornadoes can be pretty scary, yet fascinating at the same time. The town I grew up in was struck in a tornado outbreak when I was 10 years old. There was no internet or Weather Channel back in 1967; all we had was the sirens and the radio. Kind of scary not knowing what was going on. 21 tornadoes (including an F4) struck that day.

My part of town wasn't hit, but the next day we were able to see some of the damaged areas.

Now, it's all pretty quiet. It's been one of the rainiest Junes I can recall. All the yards around here are golf-course green and lush - but only if you mow them everyday. Mushrooms are peaking up everywhere too.

There was a small break in the clouds last night, and I managed to stargaze for the first time in about 10 days. There was a -4 Iridium flare in Leo between Saturn and Mars, and appropriately for this month, it was partially obscured by clouds.

I've been watching the high heat reports from the US southeast (up to 106F/41C). It only rarely gets that humid and humid here. Whew!

Edit, regarding Jupiter news mentioned on previous pages: Hubble examination seems to indicate that the recent impact on the planet wasn't deep enough in the clouds to leave any lasting effects (like the black spots associated with previous impacts). Also, the disappearance of the planet's South Equatorial Belt appears to be temporary - apparently it's just being hidden by some high-level clouds above it, and should eventually reappear. To quote one scientist, “Weather forecast for Jupiter’s South Equatorial Belt: cloudy with a chance of ammonia.” Read the whole article and check out pictures here.

Interesting hearing more about your weather, wild rose. Yes, isn't the air just so fresh and clean after a good thunderstorm?

I had a few good nights of viewing Mars and Regulus 'together', and was able to see the distinction in colouring. So lovely!

I won't have much success in finding Comet McNaught, because that direction (north-east) is the one way a very large city lies, hence much more light pollution.

6" diameter hail in Texas, Todd? Eep! And have you received any good thunderstorms of late?

De_De, I'm glad you enjoyed your time at the zoo, despite the wet weather and soggy clothes. You too, Pattertwigs Pal. (We're getting a few mushrooms in our yard too, PP.)

Boy Scout, did any tornadoes come near?

There has been quite a dirth in both ISS and Iridium flare viewings, and I hope they pick back up soon. Glad you got to see one in amongst the clouds the other night, stargazer. That's a very mysterious and unusual sight.

Interesting recent events on Jupiter, 'gazer. I've been following that, somewhat, on skyandtelescope.

Well, we've had quite pleasant temperatures lately with a nice mixture of sunshine and some good storms. But that is all to change later today: a humid front is approaching with the heat index up to 40C/104F in the next week. Ick and Ugh. Thunderstorms will be off and on, with potentially damaging winds tomorrow. Summer unofficially began so early this year (mid-May); we don't usually have this warmer weather until mid - end of June! I'm hoping this means summer will end earlier, and that August will cool down nicely. *wonders if her hopes are too high*

I was glad to catch one night's glimpse of Mars near Regulus, then the clouds moved in for a couple weeks.

That heat and humidity coming your way, jo, has been here the last few days. Who needs a sauna? Step outside.

In my post above I reminisced about the 1967 tornado outbreak that hit the town I grew up in, and went on to add that all was calm here.

I shouldn't have tempted fate. Minnesota was hit by a tornado outbreak yesterday afternoon and evening - experts are still determining just how many tornadoes hit the state, but it may come close to the earlier outbreak record of 27. Two areas hardest hit were Wadena, in the northwest part of the state - and Albert Lea, where I grew up. The Weather Channel was in contact by phone with a storm chaser in the area who described multiple funnels descending from clouds all around him. The largest hit west of town, has been described as a half-mile wide at the base, and may have been an estimated EF-3 (the same estimate given to the Wadena twister). (Experts will examine the damage to make an official estimate later). So it was a rather busy night around here yesterday. I'm grateful that I was able to contact my parents, whose neighborhood was apparently skipped over by the tornadoes.

We are begging for heat indexes of just 98 degrees. We are on our approx 15th day of over 100 degrees. And that's not just right at 100. I'm talking about 105's and even one day where we registered 112. The whole extended forcast is reading triple digits as well. And this are actually temperatures. Heat indexes are likely higher and not a drop of rain in sight. Could someone bring that rain over here to El Paso?

You can have some of ours. We just had a massive thunderstorm. I had to drive my brother to cross country practice in it (yes, they still ran in the thunderstorm...fanatics, all of 'em!) and coming back I couldn't see the road for all the rain coming down.

We didn't have any tornadoes where I was last night but we did get at least one thunderstorm. It knocked our internet, phone, and cable out. We get them through the same company. Actually, that wasn't necessarily a bad things since if we had had internet I would have wanted to spend all my time before work on NarniaWeb and I had other things I really needed to do. It's amazing how much stuff I can get done when I don't have NW to distract me.

whoa! it's been raining like crazy and then suddenly, we hot 90 degrees! this weekend is going to be hot! wow.

here in the Philippines, it's the rainy season but it still is scorching hot in the afternoon! woo, sweat all over! hope that it will cool a little bit.