Selecting the “best ever” videos is a very subjective process, and in some cases we chose to also include videos which were maybe just strikingly different or simply depicted a peculiar oddity, and therefore might not actually be entirely deserving of the "best ever" category in terms of being spectacular...
. .June 21st, 2009 - A Pink Summer Solstice Sunrise -- longest day of the year....
Today's factoid: here in the northern hemisphere at latitude 26 the solstice may be technically "the longest day", but by only a few seconds (?) and that sunset/sunrise for the next few days remains the exact same time minute-wise, as Earth's angle of tilt with the sun is at apogee (or apsis? or perigee?) of it's elliptical orbit (more oval than circular) for a few days before moving enough in the orbit to affect daylight's duration -- so the days do not start getting record-ably shorter again until the 26th, and not noticeably so for many days after that. Note that this first day of summer brought record breaking heat into the area, topping out at 96 degrees....
June 21st, 2009 - Father's Day Solstice, becalmed for two weeks now... Another factoid: summer solstice has also been referred to as the "Tropic of Cancer" for centuries, and was so named because the constellation corresponding to this position of the sun in the sky was Cancer when the constellations were named nearly 2000 years ago -- however, precession (the presence of a constant torque causing a drifting effect) has resulted in a shift of the position of the Sun and constellations so that the sun is now in the constellation Gemini on the summer solstice, so it should now be more properly known as the "Tropic of Gemini"? Sustained winds of 25 mph gusting to 35 - that's tropical storm strength, difficult to hold the camera steady. The strong winds persisted for seven straight days -- check the March archive for an accounting of this unusually lengthy "blow".... At daybreak, a stormy system is working it's way down the state toward us, with heavy rains of over half a foot reported just to the north. Looks like we are in for a cloudy, windy, wet day today with a peek at the start of the rainy season? We received an email from a visitor/viewer asking about "blue Friday", and what made the sunrise and sunset so obviously blue, when other days are not like that at all and tend to be gray when cloudy. The answer is: we have absolutely no idea, but assure you that it has nothing to do with the video camera, as the lens is not interchangeable nor does it have the capability to use filters like the old SLR cameras did. Does anyone out there know? We have noticed this before and the reason that we note the blue effect is that it is rare, happens only once every few months. Must be something like the humidity along with how thick the clouds are, or something like that... A warm front has rolled in overnight, temps up to 74 degrees at sunrise, almost a 20 degree jump from yesterday morning, but with the warmth comes the strong southerly breezes out of the Caribbean, and predictions of near record heat today and for the upcoming week or so. Recent patterns: record prolonged heat, record prolonged "historic" cold, now record heat again... At sunrise, about 73 degrees, very windy. Supposed to get up into upper 70s today and continue warmup thru the weekend. What a welcome change from the two week historic deep freeze, back to normal finally -- actually the temps today and for the next week or so are predicted to be above normal, but that is good... At sunrise, about 70 degrees, windy, but it was finally fairly comfortable. Supposed to get up to 75 today and continue warmup thru the weekend. Time to get out and enjoy, get in some badly missed workouts, shake off the stir crazy cabin fever cooped up feeling from the two week long cold spell... On day 9 of our relentless cold snap, we not only have incessant rain this morning, but we also have iguanas and geckos falling out of trees -- when they get too cold, they "freeze up" with hypothermia, loose control, and watch out below, plop! Lizard soup for lunch. Temps about 46 at sunrise, but it is no longer a dry cold and is now a wet cold, and the effect is much more biting. No sunshine today, supposed to rain constantly, and temps to fall to freezing overnight. What a year so far, way out of the ordinary from normal winter weather here. Just kidding about the lizard soup, but FYI, the green iguana is referred to as "pollo del arbol" by locals, which means "chicken of the tree" and is said to be quite tasty along with having the same virility effect as oysters. Not that WE need that... Day 7 of prolonged "Deeeep Freeeeze", temp at sunrise was 42-ish, slight breeze, with freeze advisory lifted, but wind chill advisory remains in effect this morning, along with fire alert due to low humidity. They say that we will experience a heat wave of sorts here today up into the mid 60's and then continue with a slight upward trend into the weekend. Bout time, might be able to stand the cold to get out and exercise today, been sedentary for several days now, getting out of shape. We are remembering fondly the record heat wave that we experienced just last month, only a couple of weeks ago, what a change... Wind Chill Advisory until 10 a.m. this morning, temperature was about 45 degrees with slight breeze, skin-numbing cold, not quite bone-numbing, high is supposed to be only about 65 today, sunny but chilly, not bad but not great... As '09 comes to a close, we have posted our observations of the region with a "year in review" summary. If interested in perusing what we feel were significant events here locally, just click on this link. Low temps this morning about 52 in the region, high temps today to reach only the upper 60's -- feels like the first day of winter here, but the days start getting longer now, more sunshine, more warmth, up to around 80 by the holiday weekend. We will point out that altho the clouds in the above video may give the impression that later in the sunrise would have been more colorful, but this was as good as it got, the color quickly faded from this point on, and the sun came up hidden behind thick clouds (see next video below for second take at official time of sunrise). Photo shoots on the beach are a common daily sight, sometimes we run across several per day if we are out and about much -- on a few occasions we have encountered total nudity (mostly classy personal stuff, with some "Playboy" material but still artsy)... December arrives. The final month of '09. The final month of the 00' decade (aka the "Oh Oh!" decade). The final month of the decade that has already had some fairly negative adjectives prefixed to it. Some bad hurricanes and natural disasters. Economic disasters and financial swindles. 911. Bushwacked. Terrorism. Wars. Global warming. On and on to ad nauseum. But, like all bad times, they are usually looked back upon as the good times because of what good did manage to transpire, positivity, fond remembrances, "the good old days" of being younger ("I remember back in '08 when...") -- let's all endeavor to ensure that the future being worse is not one of the reasons that the initial decade of this century is eventually viewed in a nostalgic manner (we know that the official technical calendar end of the decade is actually at the end of this year, we are referring to the logical decade, years with 0x in them). On the last official day of hurricane season, we are happy to report that our area not only was not subjected to even the threat of a hurricane but we experienced less tropical activity in this "bowling alley for hurricanes" than did the midwestern and northeastern regions of America. Seems that we have the increasingly frequent El Nino effect to thank for that. Regardless, this last year has been notably the most unusual weather-wise that we can recall ever observing, with the major difference being that specific types of weather typically reserved for certain months was exchanged with the typical weather for other months, whether forward or backward exchanges. And of course the noticeably prolonged hot weather season starting early and ending late along with record high tides gives us cause for concern here on the low lying coastal/swamp region. But hey, it's now the cool dry season, with the start of tourist season, time to enjoy the nice time of the year here, altho crowded, and have an end of hurricane season hurricane party in honor of Hurricane Hedonism, and forget that a new hurricane season is now only six months away... We are posting the following video on the "best of" page only because it points out a rarely seen feature on the beach in the form of sand bar rivulets (be sure to check out the other ones linked to in the archives below, as this first rivulet of seven straight days was not well documented in the video...). "A rivlet runs through it" -- through the sandbar that is. Sandbar tidal rivlets are rarely seen here, and this was the first of seven consecutive sunrises that they were observed to have formed.
April 26th, 2008 - Noisy Wind but Unusual Clouds,
March 23rd, 2009
March 12 2010 - A chilly, cloudy, windy, stormy "blue Friday"...
February 21 2010 - Temp at 59 at sunrise, light breeze, almost warm, up to 76 today...
Valentines Day 2010 - A chilly morning, 44 degrees, "feels like" is 40-ish...
January 21 2010
January 16 2010 - Warm but Windy...
January 15 2010 - Historic "deep freeze" cold spell officially over!!!
January 9 2010 - Raining Reptiles...
January 7 2010 - Take 1 of 3
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January 3 2010 - Take one of two before sunrise...
December 21st, 2009 - The Winter Solstice
December 7th, 2009 - Sunrise Photo Shoot...
December 1st, 2009
November 30th, 2009
July 4th, 2009 - A "big eagle" sunrise for the fourth, happy day...
April 1st, 2009
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