2-Minute News - December 30, 2012

Good morning folks. Lover hate Jeff Masters, he sure puts the relevant stuff together for you in one place. The US drought is still quite exceptional. We are not expected to see much rain crossing over into the new year so expect that kind of start to 2013 with us needing major precipitation in some areas just to get back near normal. The Mississippi River is still falling. No major quakes but a lot of upticks like here in Central America. Galapagos were actually rocking as well. Across the Pacific we saw a few moderate tremors in Japan. Afghanistan was shaken by an evening earthquake that hit as high as 6.2 on some meters. Near Antarctica there's rumbling as well, at least it's not south of Australia anymore. And the situation in Kenya is getting desperate as flooding is getting very very bad. A lot of people dead, thousands displaced from their homes so far. Back down under for our Tropic Watch. Cyclone Mitchell off the west coast will not hit land but the cloud shear and precipitation have been and will continue. Freida off the east coast is getting very strong and an eye is developing just as it's headed for New Caledonia. Gamma burst from Centaurus just 8 hours after a gamma burst from Centaurus got double tapped from way down south in the sky. Top space weather story is the coronal hole stream. Yesterday I noted it struck but it had only started the show. This morning there was another wave striking our magnetosphere. I'll start from the beginning. Recorded this last night. Think of that fast stream acting like a shovel bunching up the slower particles ahead of it. The second panel from the top shows a density spike of that bunching. Just before the 29th and the ace electrons show a spike just before the new day broke as well. Then up top you can see the speed increases as expected. The beginning of the 29th this is confirmed by the ace solar wind telemetry in the yellow and orange. And the ghost electrons show a break in the pattern at that same time. The induced resonance began just above 2 hertz. Then there is this morning and clearly another wave has struck our magnetosphere. Moving to today's charts on the far right you see these increases beginning. The induction magnetometer is responding in kind to the solar wind even getting a bit of instability in our shield. Luckily no plasma penetration. No major earth side eruptions but the new guys on the left seem eager to show off. Let's see how this goes. The new sign off is right for my state of mind the old one just kind of feels better. Eyes open. No fear it's 5.55am eastern time and that's the news. Be safe everyone.