Rick Price has his hands back on the camera trigger.....Here we see some bison at Waterton.The Magical Rick Price

First Full Day of FALL
Fall Pictures by Bob Shannon 2014

California which feeds most of the country....Now through Dec 31
BAD to WORSE

All California crops will be depleted or ruined
All Fruits and Veggies from Central WA same

Oranges “Water costs have been obscenely high which will be reflected in sales prices in order for growers to offset the increased expense.  The industry is mindful, however, of its obligation to move a quality product to the market at a reasonable price.”

The group also forecast Mandarin variety sizes would be larger than in past seasons due to the large amount of trees now in production, however prices would again reflect higher water costs.

In terms of Navels, CCM forecasts volume will be equal to or slightly less than last year’s forecast due to the drought.”All of the above is predicated, of course, on a moderate winter without freeze related losses,” Nelsen said.

ORCHARDS "

NEWMAN -- Rumors drifted across the parched Central Valley that a bidding war for water might push auction prices as high as $3,000 an acre-foot, up from $60 in a normal year.

Yet, Ray Flanders needed water to keep his orchards alive. So this spring he sealed his bid in an envelope, climbed into his truck and drove 70 miles to hand-deliver it to the Madera Irrigation District, which had water saved from 2013.

And he waited, along with 71 neighboring drought-damaged farmers, to learn his fate in a year that has made water a precious crop for those whose supplies have been cut off and the lucky few who have some to spare.

"If I didn't buy that water, we'd have 800 acres of dead trees," said Flanders, who manages the generations-old Nunes Farms outside Modesto.

Rick Price
Alberta, Canada

The severe drought is likely to remain or intensify during the next three months in most of California, Nevada and Oregon, according to a new forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center.

The drought is already classified "D4" as an extreme drought situation, the worst possible, in most of Central and Northern California, said Anthony Artusa, a NOAA meteorologist who put together the new drought outlook report and map.

"By definition, it can't get worse," Artusa said.

Fall means hot mornings, thirsty fields, smoke in the air. There are days when, as John Muir wrote in 1894, the heat seems “to flow in tremulous waves from every southern slope.” This year, the dryness has a menacing, premonitory, permanent feel. Promised deluges turn into ten-minute mists, and a longed-for El Niño doesn’t come. The flies are bad. Lake beds, exposed, are full of old recliners and junked cars. Reservoirs have sunk to half capacity and are falling fast. In year three of a punishing drought, the terrible question arises: What if it just never rains again?

For the customers, nothing has changed in the big, busy McDonald’s on Broadway at West 181st Street, in Washington Heights. Promotions come and go—during the World Cup, the French-fry package was suddenly not red but decorated with soccer-related “street art,” and, if you held your phone up to the box, it would download an Augmented Reality app that let you kick goals with the flick of a finger. New menu items appear—recently, the Jalapeño Double and the Bacon Clubhouse, or, a while back, the Fruit and Maple Oatmeal. But a McDonald’s is a McDonald’s. This one is open twenty-four hours.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/15/dignity-4

Leaf Pics by Bob

Summary and Sources
EARTH & SUN DIGEST of 2014/09/25

Solar Flares:  two M Class flares, one each on 9/18,23
Kp of >4: on 9/19 three Kp4's & one Kp5; on 9/24 five Kp4's
Earthquakes 6M+: a 6.2M on 9/24 in Argentina, then a 6.0M on 9/25 in Solomon Islands
Deep Quakes >300 km with 4M+ quake: nine in Fiji Area (9/19,20-2,21-3,23-2,25-1), two in Japan area (9/20,21), two in Kurils (9/18,25)
Volcanic Ash over 8 km:  Sheveluch on Kamchatka, Russia, to FL380 on 9/24

Reference Web Sites

California/Nevada Map
http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs/

Daily Geomagnetic Data
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/DGD.txt

Daily Solar Data
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/DSD.txt
http://www.spaceweather.com

Volcanic ash eruptions of 8+ km
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports_weekly.cfm
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/Volc_ash_recent.shtml

World Earthquakes
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/ (Tap on mag>4 to limit entries)
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

MOON PROJECTIONS
from Stephen on PINPOINT NEWSLETTER
Far Point (apogee), Near Point (perigee), and Milestones between
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html

Event Day & Time UTC
  September 2014
Apogee     20 14:23
Equinox    23 02:29
Equator NS 23 18:06
New Moon   24 06:14
Mid AP     26 11:27
South Limit 30 19:29
Max AP     30 21:35 5 min
  October 2014
Perigee    06 09:42
Equator SN 07 01:57
Full Moon  08 10:51
Mid PA     09 11:24
Max PA     11 23:03 4 min
North Limit 13 13:33
Apogee     18 06:06
Equator NS 21 01:14
New Moon   23 21:56
Max AP     24 00:10 19 min
Mid AP     24 01:42
South Limit 28 00:58

Donald, Editor