Science is fun and smart and mysterious and mystery-solvious all squished into one. And it could tell you just exactly how big, heavy and massful itself it. Check it here! But be warned, once you start checkin’ it, you can’t stop! (But it’s because it’s fun, so it’s ok!)
Wondering what to get that special someone for your anniversary? Wish you could say “you’re sweet!” with something a little more special than a daffodil or a petunia? Well, then Rafflesia Arnoldii might just be the flower for you!
We call him Arnie Raffs for short. Look at him all cute and rainbowy!
Arnie Raffs has everything! He’s red – the color of Love! He’s got big Hawaiian looking petals – Aloha! And he’s the biggest flower in the whole world!
And he's made of yarn over at Dessy TAB's Zpiderd Zigh blog!
But just like with anything that’s really worth it, this flower’s not easy!
First off, Arnie only grows in Southeast Asian Rainforests… so he’s a little tricky to get to.
And Arnie’s a growing boy. He gets too hungry to live on just sun and dirt. He likes meat! Specifically bugs. And he can’t exactly floss and brush his teeth. So he’s got a little case of halitosis…
Some meanies call him the corpse flower. But we don't like to judge.
But hey, since Arnie’s technically a parasite, he doesn’t have any messy leaves or roots to deal with. Although, he still might be a bit of a handful…
"Look, Susie! It's a giant smelly flower! Maybe you should stick your hand in it's spike-hole! Yeah... there you go."
Clouds are fun. They can be white and fluffy or grey and wispy or dark and horrible. And they’re all just made of the same ol’ water vapor that’s in boring boggy fog (sorry Froggy).
That’s something good to keep in mind when you see something super extra crazy roaming the sky like a roll cloud.
Oh, hi. Don't mind me. I'm just a vortex to an alternate universe. Cold fusion works there. Nothing interesting really.
Yes, roll clouds act like they’re boring. They just laze around and roll over and over. They don’t really connect with other clouds. But don’t let them fool you. Roll clouds are a kind of Arcus cloud, which means there’s bound to be a thunderstorm hiding close by.
Arcus clouds form from the downdraft around a thunderstorm. This is different from their distant cousins, tornadoes, which form from updrafts. So feel free to gawk and stare and snap pics with your i-telephone. There’s no chance that funnel you see at the end of the cloud is going to dip down and throw a house at you.
Still, according to ’90s styled website, Weatherscapes.com, a roll cloud can be “both a fascinating and menacing sight while it is approaching at high velocity.”
"We save load time by using grey scale. Our 28K Modem visitors will thank us."
And if you want to learn more about roll clouds and other arcus clouds like Shelf Clouds, the more modern Weathersavy.com should have everything you need.
"We target the 56k modem demographic. Their discerning taste demands attractive backgrounds like our "LoRes_Parchment.bmp."
OMG, everybody! We’re so excited for tonight’s Flakedelic birthday party. The world’s largest snowflake is turning 125 today!! What did you get Big Flaky? The Googs’ got him a big ol’ animation. With a cow!
Thanks Google! How'd you know I like cows so much?
Yep, that snowflake had quite a day back in 1887. Supposedly, it was 15 inches across when it plopped down on Montana!
But it looks like most of Big Flaky’s buddies are off partying elsewhere today. The only snow sprinkles we’re expecting are from Michigan over to Western PA.
Looks like it's a paper cut-out snowflake kinda day most places.
are you a cumulus cloud whose head is getting a little sunburned? or a jewish cloud that just can’t find a kippah that fits? how about a different cumulus cloud who’s embarrassed by a lumpy head?
my mom says i'll grow into my lumps.
well look no further, because pileus clouds are just what you need. yes, pileus clouds: just place one firmly on the tip of your top for some stylish sizzle!
my pileus makes me feel more confident, more free, more ME!
so just how do you get your very own pileus cloud?
all you need is warm, moist air to push up through the top of your cumulus cloud tower throughout the day. then, wait for a layer of moist air to form up above your tower. as your moist air layer grows and floats up, it’ll cool and turn into a lovely skullcap custom made just for you!
proud to be a cloud with my rainbow pileus!
questions about pileus clouds? ask me!
love,
molly “slowly accumulating the 411 on cumulus” reisner
You might have noticed this year has been a little light in the snow department. Mama Nacho’s apparently been taking a break after all the Thunder Snow she doused us with last year.
Our snow sense is tingling, though! There’s already a bunch of icy flakes dancing around the Northwest, and we’re expecting it to stretch its way all the way over to the northeast this weekend!
Sorry Texas and Florida... you just get sunshine!
To get all those Midwest and Northeast Weather Fans in the mood for the white stuff, here’s a frosty tale of winter wonder straight from the time of Disco!
The year is 1977. On the night watch, local Weatherman Ray Biedinger protects the citizens of Miami, FL from danger with his trusty Weather Radar. Early in the morning, January 19th, he spots the unthinkable. Taking quick action, he sounds the alarm:
“Cold with rain showers and the possibility of snow!”
Hardly believing it himself, he keeps his keen Weather Eye on the situation, ready to report any changes. Sure enough, later that morning, temperatures dip below freezing and the first flakes began to fall. For the first time in recorded history, the townspeople of Miami awake to snow!
Artist's rendition
But the local population need not fear. Thanks to Weather Man Biedinger’s early warning and the warm Miami sun, which melts all the snow by 9:30am, everyone rides out this funky, flakedelic storm safely.
The End!
Considering this weekend’s less unusual northern snow is likely to stick around a little longer, we’ll be breaking out the Magic Weather Snow Tires. Be sure to watch where you tread too!
The Magic Weather Van’s nabbed the stories that matter most to you. Whether it’s weather or not, we’ve got you covered!
That’s right we’re about to lay down some beserk alerts for you. Today is the first Friday the 13th of 2012! It’s also the first 13 of 2012!! Surmise what you will. And, as USA Today reports, we’ll be spotting this trend with two more FD13′s coming up in April and July – spaced exactly 13 weeks apart! So much surmising to be done!!!
One thing’s fer certs, we can expect a chance of Freaky Deaky around the country today with pockets of Bad Mojo in the Midwest. There also seems to be a Black Cat front moving toward the East Coast today, so be on the look out for long, strategic stares and fast moving crossings.
But just because today’s the 13th doesn’t mean bad luck has to take you off guard. You don’t have to end up like this:
Or this guy:
And definitely not this little guy!
So always remember Froggy’s Five Friday the 13th Tricks:
Remember those days when the sun shone from the time you got up to the time you were getting ready for bed? And remember not having to use a phone/ipod/flashlight to find your Van keys after work? And remember when you could read a book outside (maybe on the roof of your Van) at 5pm?
Well it’s time to grin, cause those days will soon be here again! Happy Winter Solstice!!!
We know – “But this is just the first day of winter! How can you you be tick-tockin’ ’bout those nice long days of summer already?”
Well, long-long-ago British peeps didn’t build a giant hinged stone circle to light up on the solstice for nothing.
Scientists just discovered that a bunch of the stones came from Pembrokeshire - 100 miles away! Now the mystery is how they got there. We're pretty sure it involved magic and possibly a Van..
Today we’re not just celebrating the shortest day of the year, but also the day when every day starts getting longer! Now instead of looking outside, knowing it’s gonna be dark even earlier than yesterday, you can confidently say we’re well on our way to a brighter day!
We’ve checked around – Solstices don’t get any better than this. The Summer Solstice? Well, not to mention that’s when days start getting shorter (kinda the opposite of today), but there are more mosquitoes too!
Yay!!!! Mosquitoes don't like the cold - 10 points for Winter Solstice!
And besides those two solstices, the pickins’ are pretty gol’ darn slim. We scrounged up this 1990s video game. It compares itself to Super Mario 3 and Tetris. We think it might be a little more like 52 pick-up, judging by the ad:
So we are proud to announce that today has just won the prize for Most Awesome Day of the Year Based on Optimistic Outlook for the Future. Go Winter Solstice! Here’s some Solstice-y music to play us out:
Welcome to a new segment on the Magic Weather Van where we bring you exciting tales from around the universe. We call it Tales from the Universe!
We don’t want to leave out all our neighbor planets just cause the Van spends most of its time on Earth. So we scour the intergalactic circuits to bring you only most gripping stories out there. They may be chilling! They may be thrilling! They may even be silly-ing. But they’re always for-real-ing! (mostly)
This week’s episode is
Oooo… Sounds spooky! You might want to sit down for this one. Already sitting down? Well alright then! Grab some popcorn and enjoy! Continue reading →
the other day when matt n’ i traipsed out of the van for a south brooklyn sunday shuffle and saw this amaze-me daisy, we happenstanced upon a chock o’ flock o’…GREEN BIRDS?!
at first, we were all huh? then we were all, no wayyyy. AND THEN, we were like could those be…PARAKEETS?!?! upon closer inspection, we realized our new avian acquaintances were…
parrots! engaging in ritual staring contest.
why on mama nacho’s green earth were parrots hanging out in magic weather HQ (that’s 11215 for all you vansters keeping score at home)? sure, our gluten-free options are plentiful if you’re a celiac parrot, so i could see why they’d want to aloft across the street from the delish brooklyn commune.
upon even closer inspection (we do a lot of inspecting when we take a walk outside. it’s more of a walkspection.), we realized that it was the Magic Berry Tree these tropical wingnuts were pining for:
magicus parrotii berriesium (official latin name) on a happy rays day
thinking quick on his sneakers, matt captured some ferocious berry eating:
those beaks could not stuff enough in their gullets! just what was their eating process you will soon learn? ”It alights upon it, plucks the bur from the stem with its bill, takes it from the latter with one foot, in which it turns it over until the joint is properly placed to meet the attacks of the bill, when it bursts it open, takes out the fruit, and allows the shell to drop,” according to wikiparrotpedia.
actually, i smudged the truth – that’s for carolina parrots. which are all dead, thanks to yours truly (am speaking on behalf of humanity. i have never and will never specifically harm a parrot, unless it is fighting me for nachos. till the death i say!).
these brooklyn parrots are from a lot more south than carolina…they have a topsy turvy past that starts in argentina, makes a pit stop at JFK, and then flutters from there to all over various tracts of brooklyn! basically, they are immigrants with wings. wingmigrants? yeah, those. you can read all about these hearty smarty city parrots here.
and you can watch a bunch of them freak n’ fly out when the cops and hawks trail their tail feathers here!
brooklyn parrots are tough, so don’t mess with their nests, or their magic berries:
hey! i'm squawkin' here! watch your beak, bird-brain!
never underestimate the power of the parrot to pop up in the peculiariest of places! does polly want a cracker? no! he wants a magic berry.
