Clouds - Is it just me ?

Hello Group ,


Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?
I have had only four good ( that is completely clear
with the Milky Way standing out brightly against the dark background
,very little haze) nights in the last five months . This does not
count the nights when it clears up after say 11:00 PM when I call it
quits ( when I wake and find it clear )for the night . True ,I do not
keep a record of the sky conditions but this is the way it seems to me
..
Am I all wet here , what do you all think about this ?

Leonard

Leonard wrote:

Hello Group ,


Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?
I have had only four good ( that is completely clear
with the Milky Way standing out brightly against the dark background
,very little haze) nights in the last five months . This does not
count the nights when it clears up after say 11:00 PM when I call it
quits ( when I wake and find it clear )for the night . True ,I do not
keep a record of the sky conditions but this is the way it seems to me
.
Am I all wet here , what do you all think about this ?

Leonard
Contrails.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020511/fob1.asp

I don't think it's just you. Here in Denver, for the last several years,
the evening skies right after sunset have been much cloudier than they were
20 years ago.

I have kept somewhat of a log. Twenty years ago I was averaging over 100
observing nights per year. Since 1998, I've averaged less than 65 night per
year. Granted, I don't get as excited and cranked up like I did 20 years
ago, but I'm still quite active so it's not just that I'm not observing as
much.

I do also make note of events such as meteor showers and lunar eclipses that
I miss because of cloudy weather, and I seem to have more noted in the last
10 years than the previous 10.

I've almost gotten to the point that I've considered selling off some of my
stuff because I just don't use it anymore.

Clear skies (yah right),

Francis Marion

I heard recently from ocean/satellite studies that the average ocean
temperatures have increased substantially due to global warming, with a
resultant increase in cloud cover and precipitation over the northern
hemisphere. CO2 concentrations are up from 250ppm? to 380ppm? average, which
could be the cause for the increased ocean temperatures.

RC

Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?


Up here in the Puget Sound area of the northwest, we are experiencing an
incredibly cloud free summer. . .for a couple of months now, night after
night of clear skies. I suppose payback will come around though, but
tonight it's out with the scope again.


--
Martin
"Photographs From the Universe of Amateur Astronomy"
http://home.earthlink.net/~martinhowell

Present-day cloud cover percentage is directly related to the aggregate cost
of all your current astro equipment.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
And the Lunar Picture of the Day http://www.lpod.org/
************************************

"Leonard" wrote in message
om...
Hello Group ,


Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?
I have had only four good ( that is completely clear
with the Milky Way standing out brightly against the dark background
,very little haze) nights in the last five months . This does not
count the nights when it clears up after say 11:00 PM when I call it
quits ( when I wake and find it clear )for the night . True ,I do not
keep a record of the sky conditions but this is the way it seems to me
.
Am I all wet here , what do you all think about this ?

Leonard

Leonard, as a prolific visual observer for some 50 years, I can offer some
perhaps enlightening info re trends in the number of clear nights available for
observing...at least with regard to Mid Atlantic/New England regions.

Since I use every clear night for variable star observing I have a very long
and complete record of how patterns of clear skies have changed. Without
question, there were far more clear nights back in the 1950's and 1960's than
in later years. Some forty years ago in the NYC area the clear nights figure
ran about 1 in 3. During the 1980's and 1990's there was a very slow but
noticeable and steady decline to around 1 in 4 or even 1 in 5.

However, not quite two years ago there was a dramatic alteration in East
Coast's weather patterns. The jetstream took up a position typical of the
so-called Spring Pattern and it has remained essentially unchanged in location
ever since (except for a brief tendency toward normal late the the Spring of
2004).

This trough in the atmosphere typically results in a stationary frontal
boundary existing roughly along the Appalachian range and creates almost
endless cloudiness in the Northeast. The number of nights available for
observing over the past 20 months has dropped to little better than 1 in 10.
Recently, I went from July 15th for August 17th without a single clear
evening...something never before even approached in my 50 years of observing!

To be quite honest, the situation is so exceedingly strange that I am becoming
concerned that the jetstream's longterm abnormal position position may herald a
permanent alteration in the climate of eastern North America (i.e. very much
wetter). Whereas the situation was initially passed off by many local TV
meteorologists as just odd, I note that it is now becoming something to comment
on regularly with absolute amazement when offering their dismal forecasts.

CNJ999

Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?
I have had only four good ( that is completely clear
with the Milky Way standing out brightly against the dark background
,very little haze) nights in the last five months . This does not
count the nights when it clears up after say 11:00 PM when I call it
quits ( when I wake and find it clear )for the night . True ,I do not
keep a record of the sky conditions but this is the way it seems to me
.
Am I all wet here , what do you all think about this ?

Leonard

I have wondered the same thing. It seems that 20 years ago, clearer skies
were the norm.
The sick earth!

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/sci....ap/index.html

Leonard:
Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?
I have had only four good ( that is completely clear
with the Milky Way standing out brightly against the dark background
,very little haze) nights in the last five months . This does not
count the nights when it clears up after say 11:00 PM when I call it
quits ( when I wake and find it clear )for the night . True ,I do not
keep a record of the sky conditions but this is the way it seems to me.
Am I all wet here , what do you all think about this ?

Since you don't say where "here" is, I can't say whether you're all wet
at the moment or not. Chances are, however, that you are literally all
wet but otherwise right on the mark. Some climatologists say that
global warming is the cause of increased rainfall and more frequent
intense storms in the eastern U.S. It's easy enough to check the
records for my area (near Annapolis, Maryland) and find that we are,
indeed getting more cloudy weather and rain than we used to get. Used
to be in August my grass was mostly brown and I had to cut it every two
weeks. In recent years it has never gone brown in the summer, and for
the past two summers it has needed cut every five to seven days. You
can find people all over the eastern U.S. who will relate similar
stories.

On the other hand, the right wing's position on global warming is that
it doesn't exist except as a left-wing myth, invented to deprive
American corporations of profits -- like other left-wing myths such as
the claim that mercury and arsenic in our drinking water are somehow
bad.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

On 18 Aug 2004 11:31:19 -0700, (Leonard) wrote:

Merciful heavens , is it just me or has there been
more cloud cover the last two or three years than say seven or eight
years ago ?

There is no doubt that Earth's climate is changing at an alarming rate.
Certainly, in recent years some areas have become drier and others wetter. There
is nothing to suggest that such trends won't continue.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com