Earth's Warmest Year on Record

From Dr. Jeff Masters blog:

The final numbers are not in yet, but 2015 is virtually certain to beat 2014's record as the planet's warmest year since record keeping began in 1880. Nine of the first eleven months of 2015 set new all-time monthly records for global heat in the NOAA database, and the two most recent months that have been catalogued--October and November 2015--had by far the warmest departures from average of any months on record.

The new record was caused by the long-term warming of the planet due to human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, combined with a extra bump in temperature due to the strongest El Niño event ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific. Record warm ocean temperatures in the tropics in 2015 led to a global coral bleaching event, which is expected to cause a loss of 10 - 20% of all coral worldwide. The lingering warmth from El Niño makes 2016 a good bet to exceed even 2015's warmth.



Daffodils bloom across UK during unseasonal December weather

Unseasonably warm weather across the UK has seen daffodils begin to bloom as far north as Chester and Northern Ireland, as forecasters reported one of the mildest starts to the month of December in over 50 years.

The flowers, more usually associated with Easter than Christmas, have been seen around the country in a week when daytime temperatures were as much as 10C above the seasonal average.

Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline in Victory for Environmental Activists

Barack Obama has rejected a proposal from TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline through the American heartland, the Guardian has learned, ending years of uncertainty about the project.

Jane Fleming Kleeb, founder of the Bold Nebraska coalition of citizens, farmers and ranchers opposed to the pipeline, told the Guardian: “It’s a long time coming. I feel like, honestly, the boots have beaten the big oil suits for the first time in the country’s history on a big major infrastructure project.

 

Strongest storm ever measured on the planet to hit Mexico

Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured on the planet early Friday, with experts warning it could trigger 40-foot waves along Mexico's coast and "life-threatening" flash flooding.

Several million residents were told to prepare for the "worst-case scenario" as Patricia was expected to race ashore on Mexico's Pacific coast late Friday afternoon or early evening. The tourist magnets of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo were directly in the Category 5 storm's projected path.

Ex-Hurricane Oho on track to hit Alaska

Alaska and British Columbia are on alert to receive a very unusual dose of tropical weather: the remains of Hurricane Oho, which are on track to hurtle into the Alaska Panhandle on Friday evening. Oho completed the transition from a hurricane to an extratropical storm with 70 mph winds on Thursday morning, and after short period of weakening, is expected to interact with a powerful jet stream over the Gulf of Alaska and intensify on Friday afternoon off the coast of Alaska into a powerful 960 mb low pressure system with near-hurricane-force winds and heavy rain. A High Wind Warning is up for Sitka, Alaska for sustained winds of 40 to 55 mph with gusts of 65 to 75 mph on Friday. Sustained winds of 70 mph--just below hurricane-force--accompanied by 26-foot seas are expected over the offshore waters of the Alaska Panhandle from Cape Decision to Clarence Strait.

What's going on? Well, record-warm sea surface temperatures near the Hawaiian Islands the past two years have helped fuel highly unusual tropical cyclone activity in the waters surrounding the islands. The warmest water temperatures surrounding Hawaii are usually just below the threshold where a tropical cyclone can form and maintain itself, 26°C (79°F.) Water temperatures in these waters have been 27 - 28°C in much of the summer of 2014 and 2015, and that extra bump in temperature has pushed the Central Pacific past a threshold which allows more tropical storms and hurricane to form.

2015 National Encaustic/Wax Juried Exhibition

My work has been selected for this show at the Encaustic Art Institute in Santa Fe, NM.  The show runs from October 3-31, 2015.  

Bruce Helander was the Juror.  Helander is an artist, curator and the former Editor-in-Chief of The Art Economist magazine who has written extensively on contemporary art and is a regular featured columnist for the Huffington Post.   Highly regarded as a juror for art and museum competitions, he has served for the Philadelphia Museum and other leading institutions. He also serves as a consultant to several art fairs, including the LA Art Show.

New Gallery

I am so happy to announce I have been invited into the Phoenix Gallery as an Associate Member for 2016.  Phoenix was established in 1958 and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City.  I am looking forward to showing my work with the other Associate Artists in February 2016.  The gallery's address is 548 West 28th St., Suite 528, NYC with hours 11:30 - 6:00 Tues - Sat.

 

 

Fantastic Worlds: Science and Fiction, 1780-1910

July 1, 2015 - October 2016

Fascinating exhibit at the Smithsonian Libraries Gallery in the American History Museum,  Washington, DC.  Detailed online exhibit at the source link below.

Travel with us to the surface of the moon, the center of the earth, and the depths of the ocean—to the fantastic worlds of fiction inspired by 19th-century discovery and invention.  This exhibition explores the intersecting influences of science, innovation, industry, and the Victorian creative imagination through books from the Smithsonian Libraries and selected historical objects from Smithsonian museums.

Leonid meteor shower over Niagara Falls
Illustration from Edmund Weiss, Bilder-Atlas der Sternenwelt
[Image atlas of the star world], Stuttgart, 1892