AM Sunday, August 30, 2015 - Introduction and Predawn Notes

  Weather Notes - The Return of Heat and Humidity
  Night Insect Chorus
 
  After what had been a fairly dry, cooler-than-normal week, the last weekend of August turned warmer and more humid again. Saturday the 29th was partly to mostly cloudy and hazy, and the Indianapolis Southeast Side dodged scattered showers and a few thunderstorms from morning through nightfall. Only a Trace of rain fell here; barely enough to wet the pavement outside during afternoon and evening. The low on Saturday was 64°F and the he afternoon high was 82°F. The real difference from last week was that Dew Points reached the upper 60's°F range during that afternoon and hovered there past dark. Even at midnight we were still at 75°F with a Dew Point of 67°F.

  Now at 2:00 AM the sky is overcast, with clouds now thick enough to cover the Full Moon (actually about half a day past Full). Earlier on Saturday evening and even past midnight, there were thin clouds and cloud breaks letting the Moon show through. The air seems still. The Temperature is 73°F with the Dew Point still at 67°F, making the Humidity 81%. The summer insect chorus is at full swing, just as it's been on every mild night this month. I'm hearing constant Cricket chirps all blending together like a long, suspended note. Along with that are the whirring sounds, buzzes, and sharp clicks of other Long-Horned Grasshoppers. (What I'm not hearing in the back yard, as usual, are the "croaking" sounds of Katydids; I often hear these in more wooded and rural areas around us, so I think they're just not as attracted to my property for some reason.)

  Even with all of this summer-like weather and night life around, there have been a few signs of the change of seasons here and there, and this seemed like the perfect time to start this blog. Why did I start it at all? There are a lot of reasons, but here are the main ones:

•  The main reason I want to keep notes in blog form in the first place is because I'm at the point where it's easier to do this, in a lot of ways, than it is to keep handwritten notes. Not to mention it saves paper (unless I print these out) and the entries are saved "in the cloud" and hard to lose!
•   I was making too many notes in my amateur astronomy blog about other things like weather changes, bird sightings, and other animal sightings and plant changes in and around our property. I wanted to keep Feather Run Astronomy more strictly about astronomy! So I started this one to keep track of everything else! 
• In four weeks, on September 26, I'm planning to attend a workshop and become a volunteer water tester for Hoosier Riverwatch and the Sierra Club. I'm hoping that this blog will also help me keep track of where I go and what I find through this program as I get more involved.

  We'll see where it all goes from here. I'll keep adding entries when I can, and I'm hoping they'll be interesting ones!