Conowingo Dam, An eagle and dinner, and the photographer's feeding frenzy

 

Heron still there, Sunday

Heron with the new Black Friday Lens

Prints of our photos

We printed two pictures today to put in the bedroom.  You go to the website, upload the picutres (I had carefully cropped them to 8x10 dimensions in the latest MICRODEM, which means that I programmed that functi0nality).

Cormorant eating a fish.  Also sunset patterns of light.

Heron flying off.

Black Friday--Head to the Mall!

Black Friday, the traditional day to go to fall, found us looking to enjoy great weather and follow tradition.  We rode the metro to Smithsonian, then exited to the Mall and walked to Eastern Market.

Along the way we checked out The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden next to the closed Arts and Industries Museum, both parts of the Smithsonsian, and then the Botanical Gardens which were full of families going to see the model trains exhibit. We passed the Capitol, and a small bird on its grounds.

Ripley Garden still has lots of flowers.

Botanical Gardens has flowers, and trees with fall colors.

Hiking, Photography, Mapping

Today dawned chilly and wet.  The weather forecast predicted clearing skies in the afternoon, and hoping for good light, we held off hiking until late afternoon when the hoped from sunlight would make for great photos.  The forecast did not disappoint.

The "Eiffel Towers" at Greenbury Point, seen in the 2017 county lidar.

Our hiking route in red, thumbnails of the photos where the camera captured a GPS position (less than half of all photos, so the camera's GPS leaves something to be desired), and our route in red.  The base map is the lidar intensity, near IR-like image. 

One of the pictures (the blue thumbnails in the NW corner of the map; at the scale of the photos, you don't see much of the turkey vulture).  We keep hoping for a more interesting bird, but at least when you see the full resolution images the red face adds interest to the photos.

Roses--spring and fall color in the garden

April

May

August

September

October

November

Halloween Flooding--too dark to see the cormorant eating

It flooded again Halloween, but peak water was as 0200 (2 AM) the next morning.  It was also raining heavily, there was a chance of tornadoes, and I stayed in bed.

But it reminded me that I had not posted pictures of the cormorants last weekend, so here they are.  Click photos to see the full resolution.

More flooding--but a pretty sunset

We are living in a new normal.  California is burning, the East Coast is flooding....   No idea why, no need to get alarmed, change our habits, just keep on keeping on.

Last Sunday we had another flooding event, right at sunset with premium fall colors.  Not as bad as the last time, so we could walk between the flooded road and the hillside, and document the beauty.

This week the city unveiled a $50 million plan to "solve" the problems downtown--when the flooding is like this and the only serious effect is a road closed, they have major problems.  The paper didn't report how much time it will buy, and what will happen then.  Politics has a lot of problems with science issues like this, where there is no free lunch and people have to make choices that will effect their pocketbook or their ability to fleece the public.

Enough heady thoughts, just enjoy the fall pictures,  Don't think of it as flooding; it's just reflections and the play of light on the water.

Warriors

Sometimes the warriors are on the water, and sometimes they are on the parade field.

The reviewing stands are empty; both groups of warriors enjoy the fall afternoon for their own benefit.  This week has the last fall parade; the seniors have only 3 more parades after that, and the warrior athletes even less.

If you have a good monitor, the full size below shows a lot more, including the boat's name.

Melissa-Ground Truthing the Flooding Model

Melissa was the first  recent storm that did not do most of its flooding at oh-dark-thirty.  There were two peaks, near sunrise and sunset.  Thus it was the perfect time to verify that the lidar DEMs and my flooding model do a good job predicting flooding.








If you have a good sized monitor, scroll down for a better sized graphic.

Art in the flooding

Just after sunrise.  The road in the foreground is covered by flooding, providing a perfect reflection from the trees.  The clouds in the background look like mountains.

Resilience--the cemetery is at sea level

I watched the flooding at noon and 4 PM Friday, sunrise and sunset Saturday, and early morning Sunday.  We had a mix of sunny and cloudy periods, with some nice lighting effects for photos.

My model for the extent of flooding based on the reported high water mark, reached near sunrise and again at sunset Saturday (the last post shows the tide gauge records).

Noon Friday.  The road along the cemetery is flooding, but not yet closed.

Noon Friday (same time as the fish frenzy a few posts back), and a funeral has to deal with the high water.

Sunrise Saturday.  The aviation park is underwater, with pretty light and reflections.

Saturday.  Turbulence as the water floods over the low wall and onto the road.

Sunday morning.  Ripplies record the force of the water.

No sign of the "seawall" or road.

Waves over the seawall

Student parking.  Flooding has blocked two of the roads into this area, and the remaining road is one way in.

High water park, almost into the pavilion.