The “supermoon” is seen from Mexico city on 05 May 2012. The full moon on this day, the biggest of the year, is at 352.947 Kms, the shortest distance to earth in the year.
The Supermoon, as seen from onboard Groupama Sailing Team during leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 on May 5, 2012 from Itajai, Brazil, to Miami, North America.
A perigee moon, or SuperMoon, rises behind wind turbines on May 5, 2012 near Palm Springs, California. The moon appears especially big and bright during this once-a-year cosmic event as the full moon is at its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. The perigee side of its orbit is about 31,000 miles closer than the opposite, or apogee, side. The bright light of the full moon also hides all but the brightest meteors of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, the remnant debris trail of Halley’s Comet.
A perigee moon, or supermoon, rises behind wind turbines on May 5, 2012 near Palm Springs, California. The moon appears especially big and bright during this once-a-year cosmic event as the full moon is at its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. The perigee side of its orbit is about 31,000 miles closer than the opposite, or apogee, side. The bright light of the full moon also hides all but the brightest meteors of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, the remnant debris trail of Halley’s Comet
The “supermoon” is seen May 5, 2012 from Chevy Chase, Maryland. The biggest and brightest moon of the year is due to the moon being at its closest point to the earth during its orbit.
A haze obscured many views of the supermoon in Texas.
It was a bit cloudy when the Super Moon made its appearance.
As seen rising over the mexican american cultural center in Austin, Texas
Parts of Texas got a peek at one of the coolest lunar moments of the year last weekend. In the late hours of Saturday night, the earth was graced with a close-up of the moon when a full moon hit at the same time as the moon’s nearest orbit to earth (the technical term is perigee-syzygy, but “supermoon” is admittedly more fun). The moon was about thirty percent brighter and fourteen percent bigger, which made it the biggest full moon of the year.
Much of the East Coast got clouded out and couldn’t see the full lunar glory, and Central Texas was hit by severe thunderstorms right as the peak of the supermoon occured. But other parts of Texas were blessed with intermittently clear skies to witness the event. In the slideshow above, you can see images of the supermoon taken across Texas and other parts of the world. Discovery News also has a slideshow with photos submitted by readers.
Lone Camp Volunteer Fire Department chief Charlie Sims leads his crew while fighting a wildfire on September 1, 2011 in Graford, Texas.
A volunteer firefighter reacts as a wildfire jumps a fire line while fighting a wildfire on September 1, 2011 in Graford, Texas.
Lone Camp Volunteer Fire Department fire fighter Ted Hale fights a wildfire on September 1, 2011 in Graford, Texas.
U.S. Forest Service firefighter Erik Rodriguez battles a running wildfire on April 19, 2011 in Strawn, Texas. More than 160 area homes were destroyed in the wildfires that have been fueled by dry conditions, high winds, and low humidity.
Volunteer firefighters battle a running wildfire on April 19, 2011 in Graford, Texas.
A bull tries to escape a running wildfire on April 19, 2011 in Graford, Texas.
Fires burn in Graford, Texas on April 19, 2011.
A bull tries to escape a running wildfire on April 19, 2011 in Graford, Texas.
Emergency crews drop fire retardent slurry while battling a running wildfire that is threatning homes on April 19, 2011 in Strawn, Texas.
Emergency crews battle a running wildfire on April 19, 2011 in Strawn, Texas.
Emergency crews fly over a destroyed home while battling a running wildfire on April 19, 2011 in Strawn, Texas.
Remnants of burned down homes around the east side of Lake Bastop outside Bastrop. TX Tuesday September 6, 2011.
Firefighting helicopters dump water and flame retardant after loading up with water from a pond at Lost Pines Golf Club as they fight a fire in Bastrop State Park September 6, 2011 in Bastrop, Texas.
Firefighting helicopters load up with water from a pond at Lost Pines Golf Club as they fight a fire in Bastrop State Park September 6, 2011 in Bastrop, Texas.
Fire fighters from the Coppell Fire Department hit hot spots on a burned down house with water as they go to the wildfire-affected areas September 7, 2011 in Bastrop, Texas.
Fire fighters from the Coppell Fire Department prepare to hit a burned down house with water as they go to the wildfire-affected areas September 7, 2011 in Bastrop, Texas.
Coppell Fire Department (Dallas, TX area) hit hot spots with water as they go to the wildfire affected areas around Bastrop. TX Wednesday September 7, 2011.
oppell Fire Department (Dallas, TX area) hit hot spots with water as they go to the wildfire affected areas around Bastrop. TX Wednesday September 7, 2011.
Coppell Fire Department (Dallas, TX area) hit hot spots with water as they go to the wildfire affected areas around Bastrop. TX Wednesday September 7, 2011.
The first wildfires of 2012 are still burning in West Texas, but the Texas Forest Service says they’re mostly contained at this point. It’s a good time to take a look back to the record season of wildfires last year. All told wildfires in 2011 burned nearly four million acres, almost three thousand homes, and took two lives. In the slideshow above, you can see up close the toll they took.
Carlos Barrilia pushes mud from The Lounge bar in the Strand District after it was flood damaged by Hurricane Ike September 19, 2008 in Galveston, Texas.
Large waves from Hurricane Irene pound the Ocean City pier, on August 28, 2011 in Ocean City, Maryland.
This 25 September, 2004 NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Jeanne moving over the eastern coast of Florida.
Waves are seen crashing around homes as Hurricane Irene arrives on August 28, 2011 in Hampton Bays, New York.
US President George W. Bush in Marine One flies over a damaged residential area near Galveston, Texas, while touring Hurricane Ike damage with Texas Governor Rick Perry September 16, 2008.
Workers prepare to remove a sailboat washed up onto the edge of the highway into Galveston by Hurricane Ike September 21, 2008 in Galveston, Texas.
A street is flooded on Coney Island after Hurricane Irene hit, in New York, August 28, 2011.
Residents walk on the beach past a damaged access ramp on Rockway Beach after Hurricane Irene swept through the city, in New York, August 28, 2011.
Justin Mudge walks through the muddy interior of his great uncle’s gun shop which was destroyed by flooding caused by Hurricane Irene on September 1, 2011 in Prattsville, NY.
A message to the city management is painted on the side of a trailer following Hurricane Ike September 21, 2008 in Galveston, Texas.
The 2012 hurricane season is predicted to be relatively calm in comparison to past years, but meteorologists are still warning residents in coastal areas to take precautions, according to forecasters from Accuweather. The group said today that there is still a possibility of “home-grown” tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Fronts coming down during June and July could cause energy to break off and develop tropically,” Paul Pastelok, the lead long-range forecaster for Accuweather, said.
But even slow hurricane seasons can wreak havoc. On August 17,1992, during a relatively slow season, Hurricane Andrew slammed the East Coast, causing more than $26 billion in damage and killing more than 60 people. Continue Reading →
The Deepwater Horizon rig seen before the explosion.
Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon 126 person crew after an explosion and fire caused the crew to evacuate.
Long slicks of oil could be seen for miles after the spill
Local fisherman who signed on to help with the oil clean-up operation on May 1, 2010.
Oil boom barriers that were expected to stop the spread of oil lie washed up on the beach after heavy swells and winds hit the coast of Louisiana on April 30, 2010.
Rescue crews hydrate a Northern Gannet bird that was covered in oil on May 1, 2010. A giant oil slick threatened economic and environmental devastation as it closed in on Louisiana’s vulnerable coast.
Workers prepare a ship loaded with oil barrier booms as they wait for heavy swells and wind to subside before continuing the oil clean-up operation. The wind started to strengthen and blow the 600-square-mile slick directly onto the coast, where a rich variety of wildlife were at risk in the maze of marshes that amounts to 40 percent of the US wetlands.
A worker from United States Environmental Services helps load oil booms onto a boat May 3, 2010 in Pass Christian, Mississippi.
A dead fish is seen on the beach May 5, 2010 in Pass Christian, Mississippi. The BP spill was the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Environmental Protection Agency scientist Archie Lee collects a sample of sand as Peter Kalla also of the EPA watches May 3, 2010 on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Prisoners from the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center line up as they prepare to undertake a training exercise to learn how to cleanse oil from birds affected by the oil slick from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in New Orleans Louisiana, on May 3, 2010.
Workers put the finishing touches on the Pollution Control Dome at the Martin Terminal worksite in Port Fourchon, as BP rushed to cap the source of the oil slick from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in Louisiana, on May 4, 2010. The well wasn’t completely sealed until July.
In the slideshow above, you can see photos of the spill. And for a look at some of the lessons learned, read our earlier piece, The BP Blowout, 2 Years Later.
Police rescue a dog that belongs to David Lowe’s daughter after a tornado destroyed her home
A resident works to clean up after a tornado damaged his home
April Bridges pauses while digging through the remains of a house she was at when it was destroyed by a tornado
Patricia Daugherty searches for her belongings after her home was destroyed by a tornado on April 3, 2012 in Arlington, Texas
April Bridges searches through the remains of a house she at when it was destroyed by a tornado on April 3, 2012 in Arlington, Texas
David Lowe carries his daughter’s dog, Phoebe, after the dog was rescued from the rubble of a destroyed home
A view of the storm
Multiple tornadoes touched down across the Dallas/Fort Worth area causing extensive damage
Residents search for personal belongings after a tornado destroyed their home
As many as ten tornadoes touched down Tuesday around Dallas-Fort Worth, flattening tanker trucks, throwing trailers in the air and damaging many homes. Several hundred homes have been damaged and at least seven people were injured. You can see a slideshow of some of the people and homes affected above.
Wastewater from poultry plants contains nitrates which, like fertilizer, are nutrients that can make plants grow
As the poultry industry expanded from it’s original roots in East Texas, communities have also found reasons to be concerned
The industry contends that poultry pollution is not a threat
Environmental groups have been arguing that big, chicken growing operations are indeed point sources of pollution and should be more strictly regulated.
Big poultry plants use millions of gallons of water to clean the chicken carcasses and the plant itself.
Texas is a major player, ranking sixth in the nation for poultry production
Today StateImpact Texas reporter Dave Fehling takes a look at the effects of Texas’ growing poultry industry. Massive farms have brought up concerns about pollution: where all the waste from the chicken plants is going, and what effect its having on Texas waters. Above is a slideshow where you can see some images of “Big Chicken” operations and learn more about their impact on rivers and streams.
Pati Jacobs on her cattle ranch outside of Bastrop, Texas
“Four months ago this was just bare dirt. There was nothing,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs says the drought has been “devastating.”
Cows roam at the 235-acre Bastrop Cattle Company ranch.
During the peak of the drought, the cows here grew starkly thin and had no grass to graze on.
“What most people don’t realize, this wasn’t a one-year drought,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs say the drought has likely put many ranchers out of business.
There is no way to overstate the severity of the drought. Last year Texas had its driest year on record, paired with some of the highest temperatures we’ve ever seen. But even as the situation has improved for some thanks to a relatively wet winter, other parts of the state are still in the worst stage of drought.
For ranchers like Pati Jacobs at the Bastrop Cattle Company ranch east of Austin, Texas, the toll of the drought was enormous. Pointing to a stock tank on her 235-acre ranch, she notes that just a few months ago it was completely dry. And the same goes for the grass her cattle like to graze on. “Four months ago this was just bare dirt,” she says. “There was nothing.”
A NASA image of Pine Island Bay along West Antarctic’s Walgreen Coast. The bay deposits into the Amundsen Sea, which is absorbing a significant amount of slipped glacier ice. Although most of the surface of this ice shelf appears smooth, the presence of several ice cracks suggest that several fragments will break off and form icebergs in coming summers.
Satellite image of Iceberg B-15, the largest recorded iceberg. It once had an area of 3,100 square kilometers, which made it larger than the island of Jamaica.
An iceberg drifting on the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica.
Photos taken as part of NASA’s 2009 mission to study Antarctic ice sheets, sea ice, and ice shelves. This photo was taken at an elevation of 2,000 feet above the Bellingshausen Sea in West Antarctica.
These pieces of floating ice broke off from a fjord in Marguerite Bay, on the west side of the Antarctic peninsula.
Floating ice on the west coast of the Antarctica Peninsula, just north of the Antarctic circle.
Aircraft-induced hole observed at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Camp, Antarctica.
Ice sheets floating on the Grandidier Channel on the western coast of the Antarctic peninsula.
An image of a polar ice cap at Lake IJsselmeer near Amsterdam.
Truck tracks imprinted on a West Antarctic ice sheet.
A report published in this month’s Journal of Glaciology traces the evolution of West Antarctica’s glaciers. The study, produced by the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), reveals that parts of West Antarctica’s floating ice fleet are slowly but surely breaking apart and sliding into surrounding sea waters.
The team’s conclusions reflect data taken from nearly 40 years of satellite imagery. “Anyone can examine this region in Google Earth and see a snapshot of the same satellite data we used,” Joseph MacGregor, a research scientist associate and lead author of the study, said in a release accompanying the study.
The greatest source of concern is a disintegrating ice shelf in West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea Embayment, which saw the highest rate of ice loss from 1972 to 2011. Researchers are particularly worried about the state of the Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers, which thinned considerable over the past ten years. Evidence of existing fractures in remaining ice shelves suggest that the pattern will continue in the future.
See for yourself in the slideshow of photos above (collected by StateImpact Texas intern Filipa Rodrigues) which contains several satellite and up-close images of West Antarctica’s glacier population. Combined, they illustrate just how majestic, vast, and vulnerable these glaciers really are.
Yana Skorobogatov is an intern with StateImpact Texas.
The drought has affected Texans across the state. Haskell Simon, a rice farmer in Bay City, could go without water a third year in a row.
The intake from the Lower Colorado River sends water into irrigation canals. This year it will sit idle.
Rice farmers in southeast Texas like Billy Mann may face another year of little to no water from the Highland Lakes for irrigation.
Joe Crane in front of his rice drying and storgage plant in Bay City, Texas.
Many rice mills and drying and storage facilities in Southeast Texas didn’t see much work last year. If they’re cut off again this year, the slow business will continue.
As the clock struck midnight Thursday, many rice farmers across southeast Texas had to face a sobering reality: for the first time in history, they will not have water for their crops. “It saddens me because like I said, my family’s been farming rice since 1905,” says rice farmer Paul Sliva. “This will be the first year we haven’t. There’s no other crop than rice for me. It’s gonna be a weird year. It’s gonna be a sad year for me.”
The lakes that hold that water mean different things to different people. For the people that live on the lakes – and many of whom make their living off of them – they’re a boon to property values and business. But when massive amounts of water were sent downstream to rice farmers last year, more than three times the amount used by all of Austin, in the midst of a record drought no less, the lakes neared historic lows. And that hurt the lake interests, like the construction company owned by Buster Cole. He says rice farmers don’t appreciate the financial impact of their withdrawals from the lake.
“They have no respect for the impact of what’s happening on our Highland Lakes, from economic property values, business owners, all the things involved,” Cole says. “Everybody’s involved in this, and it’s bad.” Continue Reading →
The Highland Lakes have come dangerously close to reaching historic lows during the drought.
Thousands of gallons of water are trucked in each day to keep the taps flowing in Spicewood Beach
Although Spicewood Beach sits on Lake Travis, falling lake levels have led the community to run dry.
Longtime resident L.J. Honeycutt says TK.
Receding waters have ravaged communities in the Highland Lakes.
A volunteer “security guard” goes on patrol in Spicewood Beach
Dr. Jack Sharp studies hydrology at UT’s Jackson School.
Will Silver Creek Village be the next town to run dry during the Texas drought?
Nelson Brock works for the community water system in Silver Creek Texas, He’s watched wells dry up as nearby lake Buchanan recedes.
Residents in Silver Creek Village worry their wells, which depend on Lake Buchanan, will soon run dry.
After a year of record-breaking heat and drought, it began to seem inevitable that a town in Texas would run dry. What might have come as a surprise is that the town would have a name like “Spicewood Beach.”
“We didn’t get any warning!” said Robert Salinas on a recent afternoon.
It’s an example of the way the Texas drought is throwing into question the usefulness of old distinctions between surface water from Texas lakes and rivers, and groundwater from Texas wells.
If it happened at Spicewood Beach, could it happen to another Highland Lake well?
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