Unique things happening tonight

If you are someone that loves gazing at the sky, then you will want to check out the neat phenomenon that is taking place tonight. A total lunar eclipse will take shape this evening. A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth passes in between the sun and the moon, thus casting a shadow on the moon. The moon won't go completely black, but it will turn a dark red hue.

The good news is that the skies should stay mostly clear through the evening, thus giving us a great chance to view the eclipse. Unfortunately, temperatures likely will be below zero by that time so you are going to have to dress in layers if you want to check it out. The times to check out this phenomenon are listed above. If you don't have the opportunity to capture this image with your eye tonight, you will have to wait another 34 months! -ADAM


Without going into a lesson on fluid dynamics, convergence, or vorticity, let's take a look at an interesting little feature that occurred over Lake Michigan this afternoon. To the far left is a radar image, and to the near left is a visible satellite image, of a vortex that developed over the lake this afternoon.

Since the land surface was so cold today and the unfrozen lake relatively warm, rising motion developed over the lake (warm air rises) and the cold air rushed in (creating the convergence, or coming together, of air). An atmospheric disturbance passed through this convergence and created a vortex that headed straight south over the lake. As it passed over land, it dumped quite a bit of snow near Valparaiso, Indiana... to the tune of 7"! 5" fell in two and a half hours and visibilities dropped to an eighth of a mile. -Justin