Cold, Cold Spring and the Late, Late Sun

Seattle's landmark building, the Smith Tower -- when it was built it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. I took this on a sunny Thursday afternoon, when I accompanied my boss on a task downtown.

Greetings, internet people. As I write this it is night time, and it is the start of the month of May. May historically has been the month where you know Spring has arrived.... The local daffodils and snowdrops and bluebell flowers are up, the air feels fresh and warmer than Winter (sometimes you even have 80F degree days) and the trees have been green on the hills for a month.

But not so, this year.... More on this later.

Work for me has slowed down a little, as there has been a lull in the case my boss has been working on, so the extra time has given me some ability to get a few things done around the house, and take care of my cat, trying to get her to gain weight.

The Columbia Tower, on the right side of the picture. When built, the Columbia Tower was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Within a few years, that slot was taken by another tower in Los Angeles. I took this on my phone the same sunny, warm Thursday I took the pic of the Smith Tower. My boss, an attorney, was participating in a deposition on the 36th floor. 

I also have been riding my bike more. For the past year, I have to admit I haven't been riding my bicycle as much as I used to. I used to ride it five miles a day (or night) -- 365 days a year. But after a couple years of getting little, if any, sleep while taking care of my ailing mother, I really didn't feel like going out in the freezing cold and riding my bike around the neighborhood a few times, or down to the closest urban area and back. Sometimes I just didn't have the energy to do so.

But, lately I've been forcing myself to do it, because -- well -- you have to. My mother passed away in November, 2021, but the lack of decent sleep for the two previous years socked my health a good one. I found myself tired all the time. I am just now getting back to what I feel is normal. The energy levels are higher.

Now, as I either ride my bike around the neighborhood during the afternoon or drive to work and back, I naturally look up at the nearby hills -- hills which usually are fully greened on April 5th. That date struck me as odd because I had a girlfriend at the time (in the 2000s) whose birthday was on that date. I started noticing this trend in 2003 and 2004, when I started noticing that the hills were fully green on that date. For a couple years I even marked such things (trees green, trees in autumn colors, temperatures, etc.) on a calendar.

The view from one of the mid floors of the Columbia Tower in Seattle. It was a beautiful day that Thursday. Visible in the picture is the Federal Building (center of the pic, a square, beige tower with square, orange roof, and the First Interstate Building (I think it has a different name now), which at one time had the highest office rents in Seattle.

Every year since 2003-2004 the first week of April was pretty much when one could guarantee that the hills were finally great because the trees were finally leafed out. It was like nature's time clock. I am certain I have even mentioned it on this blog back in 2015-2016.

This changed in 2016 and 2017, when the trees began to be a week, and then two, and even three weeks late. I think last year they were 17 or 18 days late (I probably remarked about it on my blog here).

This year? The leaves on the trees are A MONTH LATE. 30 days, give or take a couple.

It was May 5th when I noticed that the leaves were all mostly budded on the hills. 

Now, in the news media and other media there is a lot of talk about "Climate Change" and "Global Warming", and I'm sure that those concepts are accurate, globally.

Looking down a local street in late December, 2022. It was nice getting a little bit of snow just before Christmas. It was one of the few Christmassy things to enjoy, really. Although we've had snow days at least once a year over the past several years, we haven't had a ton of colder weather, although we have had more nights where the temperature hit 20 degrees F or less than I remember when I was a kid.

But here in my neck of the woods, the trees have been late for several years, the frogs have been late in their croaking in Springtime, and the cottonwoods have been late in their letting loose all of their 'cotton' into the air.

Something is haywire. And I think what is haywire is related to the Sun. As you can see in this chart below (from NASA), which I've posted on this blog before, the Sun's solar irradiance has been gradually dropping for 15-20 years, and it dips even more during a Solar minimum -- and the years 2016-2021 were the Solar Minimum.

And, at the same time, the "peaks" of the most recent Solar cycle -- 2012-2013 -- matched the Solar MINIMUMs that we experienced in the 1970s and 1980s and 90s.

SOLAR FUN.....

For a memory refresher, here is that pesky chart again.:

See the yellow lines? Those indicate Solar Irradiance levels since 1900. The thick yellow line is the average. The thinner yellow lines indicate the levels of Solar Irradiance during the various Solar Cycles. You'll notice that the two Solar Minimums, in the mid 1970's and early 1980's had more Solar Irradiance than the most recent Solar Maximum that occurred in 2012.

Now does this data mean anything? It's hard to tell. The NASA article from which I pulled this chart doesn't go into detail on Solar Irradiance and climate, Solar Irradiance and what affects, if any, that it has on agriculture, plants, or even radio propagation. In fact, I can't find any information online, on any website, about Solar Irradiance and whether it affects those things.

The NASA article says that because Global Temperatures are going UP while the Solar Irradiance is going DOWN seems to indicate that Solar Irradiance and Global Temperature averages are unrelated. Or, any effect the Sun has on Global Temperatures is far outweighed by human-caused greenhouse gases.

The inside of the Columbia Center on a Thursday afternoon in late April. It was only 3:30 p.m., and I wondered: where were all the people?

Now, I am not a scientist. Neither am I an expert on climate. Nor am I an expert on the Sun.

But, that said, it sort of amazes me that talk of reduction in Solar Irradiance, and its effects on nature, and on plants, never seems to be discussed. Even on radio forums and websites, it's crickets. It's almost as if no one has bothered to investigate it. On some ham radio forums it's all Rah Rah Rah look at how awesome Cycle 25 is turning out to be. 

It's odd, though, any time I turn on my radios the reception is not indicating that the new Solar Cycle is all that awesome. Lately it has indeed improved slightly from the nuclear winter conditions in 2017 and 2018, when sometimes the Shortwave band literally sounded like there had been nuclear war, but it's been anything but spectacular.

WWVH, located near Kakeha, Kauai, Hawaii, near Kokole Point, on the western tip of Kauai Island. WWVH gets out really well. I never used to hear them before the last Solar Minimum kicked in around 2016-2017. WWVH still sometimes covers WWV, Fort Collins, Colorado. And often WWVH is alone on 10 Mhz.

An example: I've been hearing WWVH on 10 MHz nearly nightly. Earlier tonight I heard WWVH at S4 signal levels ('S5' is top level signals), with WWV being a no-show. Ever since I first turned on a Shortwave radio several decades ago I never even heard WWVH, much less heard the station drown out WWV.

I also do not recall NOT hearing WWV when I was younger, ever -- yet it's a frequent no-show lately, and I've got better receiving equipment than I had when I was a kid.

Like many MW DXers and SWLs, I look forwards to the propagation conditions on those two band improving over the next few years. But the lateness of the trees on the hills makes me wonder what is going on with the climate. This lateness is a trend that's been going on here for 7 years now. 

What's up, Mr. Sun? What are you giving us? Taking a short vacay?

My L520 needs some minor surgery.

On to other things. My red guitar, my Lotus L520, has decided to go on strike. The input jack is not working. I think the 'tongue' part of the jack wore out. It doesn't hold the plug of the instrument cable securely. I've tried some small adjustments and workarounds, but it's just not going as planned. So I shall have to replace the jack. That also means I've got to rout out more room for the new jack, because it's bigger than the original one, and there isn't enough room for the new jack unless I rout out more room for it. Work.....

Squeakers, when a kitten.

In much better news, my cat Squeakers is getting better. She is eating more, and seems to be gaining weight. I still give her kitten formula at least once a day to ensure that she gets enough nutrition and hydration. I keep her separate from my other cats so she can stay warmer and isolated from the rest of the house (I simply can't afford to heat the entire house very well). She's always meowing when I approach the door to her room, wanting to get petted, and wanting me to watch her eat. :-)

Sometimes ya just have to count your blessings.

'Gettin' High' with BUCKCHERRY

I'll end this with a couple rock tracks, because -- why not? 1999, when Buckcherry's "Lit Up" came out, was a pretty good year for rock music. Not only was it the year the US music industry made the most money in its history, there was a lot of good music produced during that time period. In fact that entire decade -- the Roaring 90's -- gave rock music a major kick in the backside. And bands like Buckcherry provided part of that 'kick', with upbeat rockers like "Lit Up" and "Ridin'".

I remember putting this song on hard drives for radio stations, way back when. The day I remember most, it was a sunny day in Belltown (a Seattle neighborhood just north of Downtown). I had just put "Lit Up" on a hard drive for our mainstream rock format, and I went out for a walk during lunch. It was 80 degrees, and a great time to work in Seattle. I enjoyed my job, putting music on CDs and Hard Drives... BPI was a good place to work.

Here is a vid of Buckcherry playing "Lit Up" live in Japan, 2005.:

Singer Josh Todd, who wrote much of the song "Lit Up" (along with Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson -- the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones also apparently played guitar on the recording), was writing about a drug he had used in the past, but when he and his girlfriend had their child some time before Buckcherry got popular, he gave up all drug use.

Commendable!

Here is the video for their next big hit, "Ridin'", which came out in 2001. The album this track came off of, "Time Bomb" (also released in 2001), was really good. Sort of like G'N'R meets AC/DC, and Hollywood to the max, dude. And guys, look at all the rock chicks in these vids.

Definitely, it was another era.

 

Well, that's about it for now, folks.

Until later we meet again,

C.C. May 10th, 2023