Buresh Blog: March global temps. & April skies

April 11, 2018 — After a Feb. of "no winter", mother nature continues to remind us who is boss with an active & generally cool weather pattern continuing well into April.

The global March temp. report from the University of Alabama, Huntsville shows the cold over the Eastern U.S. & Pacific NW while the overall pattern since the late 1990's continues to show general warming:

April / early May skies provided by Sky & Telescope:

April 17-18 (night): Saturn, rising in the east-southeast about 1 a.m., is its farthest from the Sun since 1959.

April 18 (evening): A delicate crescent Moon is cradled in the Hyades cluster and less than 2° from bright Aldebaran.

April 21 (day/evening): Astronomy Day, celebrated since 1974. List of U.S. astronomy clubs.

April 22 (evening): First-quarter Moon is in constellation Cancer, 2° or 3° below fuzzy Beehive star cluster.

April 22 (all night): Peak of the modest Lyrid meteor shower, which can yield 5-10 meteors per hour after midnight.

April 24 (evening): Use gibbous Moon to spot constellation Leo and its alpha star Regulus, about 3° ahead of the Moon.

April 27 (evening): Brilliant Venus, low in west, sits midway between Hyades and Pleiades open star clusters.

April 30 (evening): The full Moon and bright Jupiter cross the sky together in the constellation Libra, the Balance Scales.

May 6 (predawn): Eta Aquariid meteor shower, bits of Halley’s Comet, peaks. Best time: 90 minutes before dawn.

May 8 (evening): Jupiter reaches opposition (opposite the Sun); now closest to us, it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise.

Moon Phases

Last Quarter       April 8,      3:18 a.m.EDT

New Moon           April 15,    9:57 p.m. EDT

First Quarter       April 22,    5:46 p.m. EDT

Full Moon            April 29,    8:58 p.m. EDT (Pink Moon, for phlox; also Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon)

The hurricane season is less than 2 months away - begins June 1st - & forecasts are beginning to be issued.  One of the more traditional & generally reliable forecasts was issued by Dr. Phil Klotzbach at Colorado St. University & will be updated in late May.  For the moment, the forecast is for a slightly above avg. season:

And while on the topic of hurricanes.... the NHC has issued its post storm summary on devastating hurricane Maria - click here.

Cox Media Group