PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE: On Thursday, Oct. 23rd, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, off center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from almost all of North America. The action begins at approximately 2 pm PDT. Get the full story from Science@NASA. 

How many bottles of water go in that beer on the wall?

A lot.

"Beer has to have water," said Luis Cayo, general manager for the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Los Angeles, which has survived many droughts over the last 60 years. "The amount of water in a standard can of beer is about 92 percent."

This drought, however, is the most severe on record, and there's no end in sight. Agriculture operations and manufacturers across California are drilling deeper, paying more, and competing with each other, with wildlife and with residents for water. But in the brewing business, it's not just the water going into the cans which is now at a premium. It's the water used to clean tanks.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/california-drought/drought-beer-california-breweries-hit-dry-spell-n229771

To better communicate the risk of severe weather, outlooks issued by the NOAA National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center will add two new categories effective today. The change is being made to better describe the likelihood of severe weather, and bring better consistency to the risks communicated in the short and medium range forecasts for the nation.
The SPC’s Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 severe weather outlook categories will change from the current four (see text, slight, moderate, high), to five: marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate and high. The marginal category will replace see text, and the enhanced category will indicate risk levels at the upper end of a slight, but below a moderate. In addition to the words, numbers and colors will be used to convey the threat.
The changes are being made based on feedback from customers. As the NWS continues its efforts to evolve into an organization of the 21st century, this information will better prepare decision makers.
“This change is part of the National Weather Service’s efforts to build a Weather-Ready Nation,” said SPC Director Russell Schneider. “It reflects our increased ability to forecast hazardous severe weather and advances our ability to communicate hazardous weather risk to the public.”
With these changes, the probabilistic information that has long been available and used by professional meteorologists will now be better represented in the graphical information most frequently used by the public. The format changes will also improve the use of SPC severe weather forecasts for customers who incorporate SPC outlooks into GIS systems.

Though this year’s El Niño is now predicted to be a weak one, it still spells more a chance of a wet, cool winter for most of Texas rather than a dry one, according to the Texas State Climatologist.
Robert Burns, Texas A&M University ExtensionThough El Niño will likely be weaker than earlier predicted,  

this winter’s weather is expected to be cloudy, rainy and cool, according to the Texas state climatologist.  El Niño refers to warmer-than-average ocean water temperatures off the Pacific coast of South America, said Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist, College Station. A moderate to strong El Niño usually means more moisture to parts of the Southwest and Southeast during the late fall and winter. El Niño translates as “The Boy Child,” because it usually peaks about the time of Christmas.

Rick Price

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