Monday Musings

Over the past week, auroras have danced in the sky, with visibility as far south in the US as Texas and New Mexico. We have had excellent viewing opportunities in the dark skies of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Indigenous societies  have interpreted these sky-lights in various ways. But what do modern scientists say? Solar Cycle 25 is  approaching Solar Maximum , a period in the approximate 11-year cycle when we will see intense, stormy Sun activity. Once the maximum is reached, the north and south magnetic fields of our star will flip, and the Sun’s activity will gradually slow to a “solar minimum.” The  Space Weather Prediction Center , a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) branch, actively tracks the science behind solar events. Daily information regarding the number and intensity of solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CME), and the aurora forecast is available at the above link: you can click on the individual areas and watch their progression. Trad

Greetings readers! Much has happened since my last blog on September 23rd. First, Hurricane Helene struck Florida, then traveled northward, continuing through Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and  western North Carolina . The precursor rains in the Carolinas and Tennessee precipitated havoc when Helene arrived by the  “brown-ocean effect.” We were fortunate to live just east of Boone, NC, where the major storm had reached. We had over 11.62 inches of rain in 24 hours, but here at our home’s mountaintop location, there was no flooding. Our community egress road exits onto a small country road that travels along a “run” (Appalachian word for creek) before it reaches Rt 421. The run flooded that road and its bridge. Thanks to our community leaders’ foresight, we have a secondary emergency exit directly onto Rt 421, so we were not trapped. Winds brought down many trees, and then trees continued to fall due to oversaturated ground and pine’s shallow roots. A small landslide dislodged a s