An Eclipse, then Rain Before the Weekend
A few interesting weather notes tonight…
First of all, there is going to be a total eclipse of the moon tomorrow night, the only one until sometime in 2010. As you c an see from the chart below, the event begins shortly before 9PM, reaches totality somewhere around 10:30, and ends shortly after midnight on the 22nd.
Unfortunately, it looks like most folks in Georgia will not be able to view too much, since the forecast is for increasing cloudiness Wednesday evening, as the next storm system moves in. That’s too bad, since this is one that will be visible from beginning to end for much of the eastern part of the country. But, step outside tomorrow night if you have a chance, to see a rare event. You can find more at NASA’s Lunar Eclipse Page.
Georgians hoping for some relief from the drought shouldn’t mind missing the eclipse too much, since the oncoming clouds herald a very good chance for significant precipitation. The latest HPC numbers call for over an inch through Saturday morning, and more rain over the weekend. This is actually down a bit from their morning outlook, which predicted up to three inches of rain through Sunday morning. Accuweather is calling for 2 inches on Thursday or Friday. Any way you slice it, the additional rainfall combined with last Sunday’s rain will increase stream runoff, helping Lake Lanier refill.
Meanwhile, the city of Atlanta has decided to keep the most of the current watering restrictions in effect this spring and summer, allowing the filling of swimming pools, but prohibiting any type of outdoor watering as outlined by Governor Perdue last week. Gwinnett has committed to allowing pools to fill, but is holding its cards to its vest when it comes to easing the watering ban, and DeKalb county has yet to make a decision. The big concern appears to be the requirement that each water authority reduce its summer consumption by 10% from a year ago, when level 2 restrictions were in effect statewide. Since Atlanta had more strict regulations than the state last year, it would be very difficult to allow more outdoor watering than they permitted last year and still meet the 10% mandated cut.
Finally, the Crave blog at CNET.com, which normally highlights new developments in technology, reports that Lake Mead could be dry by 2021. Lake Mead was formed on the Colorado River by Hoover Dam, and its water supplies much of Southern Nevada and California. Already, the lake is down by some 50 feet from its normal level, something that is painfully obvious in pictures, since a white ring on the mountains show where the level should be.
Southern Nevada is already taking steps to conserve. When I was in Las Vegas in December, I was told that it is no longer permitted to install a lawn in residential properties, and the desert look is becoming popular. The Home Depots and Lowes in the area have artificial turf in stock, ready to install.
The water shortage in the lake isn’t caused by a lack of rainfall in the Las Vegas area, which is typically desert-dry. Instead, the problem is further up the Colorado, where recent winters haven’t had the usual amounts of snowfall that runs off into the river.
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