A Shift In The The Earth's Rotation Axis... The Rivers Get Some Much Needed Dry Time To Fall Below Flood Stage... Also We Get Ready To Spring Forward!

Hey bloggers. I hope everyone had a blessed day! Before I start talking about what we can expect weather - wise over the next few days, I wanted to point out that Daylight savings time is coming up! Yes, it's time to Spring forward!

United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, And guess what?? Tomorrow is the Second Sunday! So don't forget to set the clocks up an hour before you head to bed tonight.

Now lets get to the weather!

We have some mild weather on the way bloggers! Yes, I'm talking about 60s moving into the area before this weekend. How nice does that sound?? Tomorrow we may not get out of the upper 40s do to a passing weak cold front tonight however that will change soon enough! Take a look at this weeks high temperatures in this map below.

At this time I believe we could actually hit the 60s sooner then what this map I put together above shows. We may hit the 60s by Wednesday. With near 60s on Tuesday! However right now models are leaning toward the temps on the map above so this is a good starting point for now.

Now I do see Partly cloudy skies over the next few days bloggers with lots of dry weather this week! This is GREAT news for the Wabash River. This will give the rivers much needed dry time to fall below flood stage. Take a look at this map looking at the Wabash river below.

Remember to view any image in a larger form just click the image!

You can see that the Wabash river is currently sitting at around 14.07ft which is still around 3.7ft above flood stage. However it has been falling and it will continue to fall as I see no major rain events in the forecast this week. Looking at the chart above we can see that at this time the Wabash river is expected to be just under flood stage at 10.9ft by 7:pm EDT Thursday the 17th. This is amazing news if you live by the rivers!

Take a look at your quick cast below.

Quick Cast.....

Sunday we will look for partly cloudy skies across the area. A few more clouds move into the area that evening / night but overall not to bad! Expect a high Sunday around 47* degrees with a low that night right around 27* degrees. Winds light between 5 and 10 mph.

Monday we will look for more partly cloudy skies across the area through out the day. A High Monday right around 49* degrees with a low that night around 29* degrees. Winds light between 5 and 10 mph.

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Well, bloggers I do have more news related to the Japan 8.9 earthquake that hit Friday! Believe it or not this 8.9 quake did in fact shift the earth's rotation axis by about 25 centimetres!! So the question I'm sure everyone wants to know after hearing that is "How can this affect us?". Well, here is some info to answer that question below.

Initial results out of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology show that the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rattled Japan yesterday shifted Earth's rotation axis by about 25 centimetres.

INGV's report, which came hours after the devastating quake, is equivalent to "very, very tiny" changes that won't be seen for centuries, Canadian geologists say.

Only after centuries would a second be lost as each day is shortened by a millionth of a second, according to University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall.

"Ten inches sounds like quite a lot when you hold a ruler in front of you. But if you think of it in terms of the earth as a whole, it's absolutely tiny; it's minute," he said.

"It's going to make minute changes to the length of a day. It could make very, very tiny changes to the tilt of the Earth, which affects the seasons, but these effects are so small, it'd take very precise satellite navigation to pick it up."

Earth's rotation will now shift at a different speed because the globe's mass has been redistributed, said Michael Bostock, a University of B.C. earthquake seismology professor.

He used an analogy of a figure skater pulling in his or her arms to spin faster because weight has been reorganized.

"Ultimately, if you change the length of day, you can change the length of time a given point on Earth receives sunlight and doesn't receive sunlight," he said. "But will this affect us in our lifetimes? Absolutely not."

The researchers said that although the minuscule change may be undetectable, it still illustrates the punch behind Japan's earthquake.

Last year, NASA reported that an 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Chile shortened the day by 1.26 millionths of a second, according to computer-model calculations.

NASA had estimated that the Chilean earthquake shifted the globe's axis by about 10 centimetres, National Geographic reported at the time.

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So even though they say Only after centuries would a second be lost as each day is shortened by a millionth of a second, it sure does sound scary to hear that the earthquake shifted the earth's rotation axis! Even though this has happened in the past it is still amazing that an earthquake can do something this major! As I have said in my many other post "My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected during this event".

So on that note bloggers. I wish you all a great day and a blessed day.

Take Care!