Warmest Year on Record: 2023 “October—All Over”? No Chance as Angels Are With Us

WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD: 2023 “OCTOBER—ALL OVER”?-NO CHANCE AS ANGELS ARE WITH US

Bahamian Hurricane Rhyme Stirs Us Creative [sometimes Insecure] Writers from Our Subterranean Slumber, Shoots us like Goddess Pele’s Lava Fountains into Real World

“June—too soon; July—stand by; August—come it must; September—remember; October—all over”

Traditional Bahamian hurricane rhyme, now weirdly outdated by 2023 temperatures & solar activity

Coronal Mass Ejections [CMEs] Still Corrupting Earth’s Weather

If we thought the month of October would bring cooler weather—technically a month after official “fall”—autumn equinox, September 23rd—we earthlings have been proved wrong, again.

Northern hemisphere temperatures continue to blast hot days [& not-so-cool nights], even though some areas of New England and northern Scotland are experiencing the beauty of falling leaves and changing colours in coastal woodland and montane forests.

CMEs which began last month-9/11-with a direct hit on Earth September 19th, have been plaguing distraught scientists who issued warnings to stay indoors.

But magnificent #AuroraBorealis, top, has tempted viewers outside from Arctic circle [Reykyavik, Iceland] thru the British Isles, & as far as Michigan-Keweenaw Peninsula,MI above top rt. Photo l. courtesy NASA

U.S.-wide memorials to those lost 22 years ago in New York’s 9/11 attacks on World Trade Towers, 2001, were accompanied by earth-wide explosions [Marrakech prefecture Morocco where earthquakes rendered 2100 people dead, but spared the local Mosque] & floods in Greece & Turkey caused by unusual weather swings. Some southern U.S. states [Nevada, Texas & parts of CA border w/Mexico near Tijuana] also suffered, but first responders—geared up after last month’s flooding at Burning Man, at Black Rock, NV quickly restored order. Turkish/Moroccan authorities are still at work clearing rubble.

Historical Examples of Celestial Intercession bring Peace to Many

Following Hawai’i’s tragic loss of life in the August 8/8 Làhainà fires on the island of Maui—sparing the local church building—and last month’s Marrakech earthquake where the local mosque was untouched, many have compared such unusual anomalies within destruction with the horrendous bombing in WWII by the Allies of Germany’s Kölner Dom—Cologne Cathedral on the River Rhein/Rhine—below, which remained standing while all around was bombed to bits.

Begun in 13thC on a sacred site of previous Roman worship, the Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus,[Cathedral Church of St.Peter] is the highest twin-spired church in the world at 515ft/157m.

Construction began in 1248 on an edifice which was to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and also to be majestic enough for a Holy Roman Emperor. But work stopped and it was left unfinished c.1560. Attempts to complete construction began again in 1814 and a protestant Prussian overlord injected major funding in 1840s. The façade was completed to the original medieval plan in 1880.

In 1996 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Significantly, its original medieval name, the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, has ties to other northern nations like Anglian Northumbria, Celtic Brittany and Kernow/Cornwall-with influence in Anglesey, Wales and Ireland. Its Prussian overlords not only injected much-needed funding to complete the building, but effectively re-translated its medieval [Roman] catholicism to protestant worship; thus keeping it more in line with original 8thC non-partisan [though aligned with Rome] Pictish kingdom of Peterkirk monarch Nechtan, who pulled his nation out of heathen darkness into Christian light with his stone “Fite” kirks.

In Ortelius’ revealing map of Scotland [Britannia Minor]! 1595-1612, mention is made of tribes Caledonii, Attacotti, Maetae and Venicones-viz. Tacitus.

By making the Grampian Mountains [Graupius mons] stretch from Firth of Tay as far N as Ross & Cromarty, however, he may have misled many historians to think Calgacus‘ battle of Mons Graupius happened in Morayshire! Some still do!

N.Britain—Roman ‘Ultima Thule’ Beyond the Wall—Back of Beyond

Historically Scotland—Ortelius’ ‘Britannia Minor’, above, and Hadrian’s Legions’ ‘Ultima Thule’ is a prime example of map-makers’ guesswork, in the absence of real on-the-ground discovery/exploration.

Tacitus, writing A.D.98 on the life and character of his father-in-law, Roman General/Governor of Britain Julius Gnaeus Agricola A.D. 77/78–83/84, described the tribes of North Britain—Caledonians—as heathen tribes of warriors in a country few of his contemporaries knew existed. At the time Caledonia was split into two divisions: Dicaledonii ruled by Pictish kings, in Moravia [Moray] and Veniconi & Taexali in Mar & Buchan [Aberdeenshire].

Solitudinem faciunt Pacem appellant
They create a Wilderness and call it Peace—

Calgacus exhorting his Caledonians before Battle of Mons Graupius AD83

Roman Walls of Hadrian & Antonine built to Control ‘Warlike’ Picts

Roman legions—with their military god Mithras leading them north into unknown territory—were quick to destroy any signs of Pictish bull-worship which conflicted with their own pagan god Mithras’ birth— Hellenic pagan Mithra born under the sacred tree of life already bearing arms, able to ride (and kill) the mythic life-giving cosmic bull whose blood fertilized all vegetation. Pictish Class-I carved bull stones, viz. Burghead‘s 32 iconic guardian stones, were automatic casualties. One remains in British Museum. Others—thrown in the harbor—are still “missing”.

One intriguing reference from Roman authors following legions’ forays into Britannia Minor was that the Pictish citadel of present-day Edinburgh Castle, Braun Hogenberg 1581-8 map above, lower l. was the Castrum Puellarum, ‘Citadel of the Virgins’ or ‘Maidens’ Castle’ c.f. Maiden Castle, Dorset, ABD Maiden Stone. While the Aberdeenshire & Dorset icons refer to P-Celtic/Brittonic Mai-duinn=morning [ABD Maiden Stone casts no shadow at noon, but acts as sundial both a.m. & p.m.], the Castle in Edenbvrg was actually used by Picts to board up their young virgins while they went into battle, because the fortress was impregnable/safe.

It was a safe stronghold for other princesses. King Malcolm III [Canmore]‘s widow, Queen [later St.] Margaret of Scotland used it for her refuge after his death, A.D. 1093.

Other notable features of the capital city are: ‘High Street’, top, now the ‘Royal Mile’- its exact length; the town gate, bottom, near ruined Abbey of Holyrood; whose guesthouse was later transformed as official residence of the monarch in Scotland—the Palace of Holyrood House.

Also of note in Mercator 1595 maps, above top l.+rt. inset, Loch Ness is clearly marked with an opening to the North Sea on Moray Firth—today only accessible to boat traffic via man-made Caledonian Canal.

With Angels & Saints in our Corner, How Can We Lose?

Even in this 21stC age of materialism where the ‘Almighty’ is the dollar on the ground, rather than a spiritual presence from ‘Above’, thankfully there are moments of personal Revelation when a door—or a new path—opens up, where we thought there was no way forward.

But we gotta believe ❤ for it to happen.

Prime example of human belief in a higher power & fortitude when all light seemed dim, three pioneers stepped into a void on a beach on the Moray Firth [now considered part of Aberdeenshire, Scotland] in 1962 to follow their dream, and the spiritual community/ecovillage of the Findhorn Foundation began.

Dorothy Maclean, 1920-2020, pic.4 Canadian gardener communicated with the Devas, spoke to sweet peas and the pea fairy while she worked, was co-founder alongside her Brit friends Eileen Caddy who meditated while on the toilet in her ‘fifties blue caravan, far rt. above, with her ex-RAF husband Peter Caddy, a WWII vet. They all shared a dream of international peace. And growing their own veggies.

When their first year’s garden produced cabbages of such enormity that they could feed an army, all three realized they’d touched base with the ‘Great Spirit’—the Angels [FF member Joy Drake’s angel cards above 2nd l.]—and Universal Consciousness.

The Universal Hall was built [lower l.above]. Dorothy returned to die there, March 2020.

And the rest is history.

Findhorn Foundation celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, 2022. Winding down its workshop syllabus was chosen by team residents after the Sanctuary burned 2021.

Resource People Around the World

While it is tragic that Findhorn’s spiritual workshop initiative & on-site teaching seminars have come to an end—its last hands-on event was September 22, 2023—the Foundation continues with help from its RPs-[Resource persons] who have spent long periods at its Ecovillage on the Moray Coast.

My first RP Gathering in 1988 as one of their worldwide network [am current RP for U.S.A.Hawai’i-Hilo] was the first where they were proud to be represented by spiritual practitioners in over 40 nations in the world. At that time I was resident in [& RP for] nearby Aberdeenshire-not too onerous a task. ❤

While this news of the Foundation’s last workshops may disappoint many, to me it seems only natural—in a 21stC milieu of extremes [poverty & riches; poisonous & organic; death & life miracles] that on one level they’re returning to the simple life in the blue caravan on the beach overlooking Findhorn Bay.

More sad news:last week iconic 300-yr old ‘Robin Hood’ sycamore featured 1991 Kevin Costner movie at Hadrian’s Wall National Trust Northumbrian WorldHeritage site was chainsawed/vandalized.

Police have held & released two suspects & continue to investigate reason for such vandalism on a special tree, beloved & visited by thousands.

One thing amid uncertainty: Nature always survives, Of that we are certain: Angels are still with us all—Creative Writers/Artists; first responders; ditch-diggers; television & movie strikers & production teams. Thank you, @SGA Hollywood for recognizing screen-writing talent; & thank you, Universe & Angels & Great Nature Spirit-we’re all still here. And we believe. @AAM @cleopasbe11 @siderealview ©2023MarianC.Youngblood

Earth Day: Celebration or Apocalypse Now?

Pacific Ring of Fire Responds to Himalayan Quakes
If ever there was reason to wish for a tsunami, this is it.

Overnight Monday 04/27/2015 Nepal’s sacred peaks suffered 142 aftershocks following-on to Saturday’s 7.8-mag.Richter blow. Same night, Japan’s new 900-foot raised beach in S.Hokkaido raises eyebrows. The Japanese agency blame ‘crustal shift’ and explain away the shoreline’s subsequent landslide/sinkhole-subsidence on ‘the waves’.
Nippon Seismic Agency claims “No human fault, just waves. Tsunami clearance not authorized”.
The new beach is, nevertheless, littered with human, biological, marine, plastic and nuclear waste.

Do they wish to take responsibility and initiate a clean up now?
Or, blame THAT on the waves, too?

Siderealview's Blog

EARTH WEEK STARTS WITH A BANG

“6.6mag. Taiwan S.Japan location 24º129’N 122º335E 01a.m. UTC April 20. 2015 Four hours ago, a massive 6.6 magnitude Richter earthquake hit coastal Taiwan and Southern Japan. Local agencies, already overburdened with ongoing (nuclear) clean-up, continue to report. Minimal U.S. press coverage—slow to extract reports from the world arena in (western) night-time, unless specifically targeted—may find that differences in international dateline/time-zones may not result in this event’s being buried, It may not fit into a neat, orderly media-orchestrated political schedule.

There are ramifications, however—especially for western U.S.A.

EarthCrisis or Early Warning?
Minimum ‘safe’ height: 146ft—most of Tsunami Alley: sea-level

MAGNITUDE 6.6 mwp
Location / uncertainty 24.129°N 122.335°E± 5.4 km
Depth / uncertainty 28.9 km± 4.4
Origin time 2015-04-20 01:42:58.470 UTC
Source: USGS

Two groups of Native American elders have summoned their communities, in preparation for uprooting and a move inland, away from their traditional…

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Solar Radiation Storms and Crossroads in Time

Erupting solar flares send spaceweather to Earth, but electromagnetic field changes also affect human temperament

On November 28th, 2011 a massive radiation storm hit Earth’s electromagnetic field — a direct hit from the sun’s Earth-facing side, exaggerated by the Northern hemisphere’s attitude to our solar parent. Freak storms have been experienced in the last week in all northern latitudes — from Southern (!) California to Oregon to the Midwest to New England to the mid-Atlantic ridge (including Iceland), following on previous eruptions in the Canary Islands (El Hierro, November 10th), and Nyamulagira, Congo. The current European and Asian storms stretch north through Great Britain, Orkney and Scandinavia to the Russian steppes. There have been spectacular aurorae borealis.

Most remarkable of all is that Northern Scotland (57ºN latitude) was almost the last to be hit. Throughout November, temperatures remained a balmy 50ºF. Even (spring-flowering) gorse burst into bloom. It recalled an equally abnormal episode in April this year, where temperatures in the same corner of Scotland hit all-time highs.

Then Nature descended in spades. 160mph winds hit the Hebrides, mainland Glasgow, Clyde and central Belt, the Highlands; hurricane-force gales funneled east to hit everything not tied down — trees included. Nobody was spared.

This example of ‘freak’ weather coursing through the northern hemisphere may not be considered memorable, when the current solar cycle is through with us, but it is unusual, to say the least.

And, as we know, other consequences of seismic disturbance — earthquakes — such as the ongoing and terrible nuclear waste toxicity spreading through the Pacific ocean in the aftermath of Fukushima — are still fresh in our minds.

If Katla caldera erupts, the icemelt from its glacier would spill billions of gallons of water through Iceland's east coast into the Atlantic

The current concern is that the massive six-mile-wide crater of Katla caldera near Reykyavik will explode, melt its overhanging glacier and spew billions of icemelt over the eastern seaboard of Iceland and into the Atlantic ocean.

Eyjafjallajokul ejected enough ash to halt air traffic over Europe/N.America in 2010

By comparison, the ash cloud precipitated last year by Eyjafjallajokull which halted all air traffic over Europe and North America, would seem like a minor incident.

Traditionally it was thought there was no connection between solar storms and terrestrial seismic activity — earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and their tendency to precipitate hurricanes, tornadoes, and wind storms round the globe. But this received wisdom is changing. Looking at the past year alone, much seems to have occurred following the Sun’s elevated status to ‘active’ (NOAA sidebar two below, right) in line for solar maximum, 2012. Solar activity in the last two months shows increasing frequency of M- and X-class flares at an alarming rate.

“I hear hurricanes ablowin’
I know the end is comin’ soon
I hear rivers overflowin’
I hear the voice of rage and ruin”
— Credence Clearwater Revival, 1969

CROSSROADS IN TIME
One of the most insightful prophecies/predictions of the Maya elders for this time is the message of change.

4 Ahau: Food scarcities. Half the katun good, half bad. The return of Kukulkan

In the 20-year period (katun) which began in 1991 and will complete in 2012, they anticipated this katun would bring ‘scarcity and the arrival of great leaders’. It is also the katun of ‘remembering knowledge and writing it down’.

In their words, we are fully immersed in a time of ‘change and conflict’. Change comes externally from weather, elecromagnetic fluctuations in the earth’s magnetic field, natural phenomena, celestial disturbance (solar flares) and trauma inflicted by others unable to stop themselves ‘exploding’ their own inner drama. Conflict stirs in the form of personal challenge, grief, bewilderment, depression, anxiety, and fear. Many are going through these experiences at this time.

The Maya (through indigenous ancestral transmission and present-day descendants) believe that it is not a time to fear. We are at a crossroads. “Now it is time to choose a new path, decide on a new Self and community direction, to venture into the unknown, to find our true identity of being”. While devotees are already flocking to this ethos in droves, others will choose to stay on the same path, console themselves with the familiar, and invest a great deal of effort in maintaining the status quo.

Photons, zero-mass light particles, (Gamma Rays), detected in space by the Fermi Space Telescope in earth orbit

The Electric Universe theory (Thunderbolts publications, lectures, symposia) explores the direct connection between the Sun’s storms — M-class solar flares, CMEs — and their effects on Earth systems: electrical, radio, television, power supplies. Certainly in 1859, the Carrington Event that produced world telegraph blackout and spontaneous fires, has provoked discussion ever since, particularly as a similar event now would create culture-wide chaos; but it is only in recent years that the solar electrical connection has extended outwards into the Universe to encompass plasma filaments, stellar explosions and the plasma tails of comets; and to explain that, contrary to former belief, the void is not empty, but teeming with electrical charge.

Richard Feynman explains most graphically:the Nature of Nature

We on planet Earth are also electrically-charged beings. The conduit which transmits charged particles from the Sun to humans is the same conduit which steers weather through the Earth’s electromagnetic field, and into the human electromagnetic field.

Solar activity is known to influence human consciousness (from the simplest seasonal affective disorder –SAD– to extreme summer joy and productivity) and, this logically extends to the effect photons have on our human DNA.

Radiation affects the central nervous system, brain function and balance, along with human behavior, and all psycho-physical response in between. So flaring from the same star can cause us to feel nervous, anxious, jittery, dizzy, irritable, lethargic, exhausted, and suffer short-term memory lapses. We can sometimes even feel nauseous, distracted, and suffer headaches.

The Thunderbolts project encourages inter-disciplinary knowledge and collaboration of astronomers, physicists, archaeologists, mythologists and biologists bringing together understanding of previously unrelated subjects. They plan to address some of their ideas during their multi-faceted Symposium next month, January 6-8, 2012 in Las Vegas: The Electric Universe: the Human Story.

According to the Electric Universe theory as proposed by Thunderbolts scientists, solar flares and photon waves are changing the fabric of our very reality and have a powerful effect on our cells, causing our cellular memories to awaken and clear.

Veil nebula, constellation Cygnus the Swan, traditionally described as a 'cloud of ionized dust'; in Electric Universe theory seen as electromagnetic plasma filaments

They are also convinced, like Maya experts, that “cultural archetypes of world mythology can now be understood through the sciences.”
‘Thunderbolts of the Gods’ David Talbott, Wallace Thornhill (2005)

“Photon energy is capable of resonating at much higher frequency than normal human emotion. It can calibrate the human system to this higher frequency, bringing consciousness into line, so that we begin to remember our soul’s purpose.”

Many believe that this speeding-up of consciousness — instant manifestation of the desired object or circumstances — is what has triggered such great interest worldwide in systems like the Law of Attraction, the Abraham-Hicks movement and the revival of New Age consciousness-raising techniques.

Photon energy connects instantly — at the speed of light — affecting all human electrical systems, most especially thought processes, so that with this new influence it is important to exercise discipline; that in expressing what we want, we practice care in not expressing what we don’t want. Or that will manifest instead. If one is in process of change and transformation, this energy works well. On the other hand, for those stuck in the past through victimization or anger, more of that will continue to manifest.

Philosopher, psychonaut and astral traveler, Terence McKenna, before he died in 2000, believed that we would become consistently and more purposefully attracted by the Eschaton — his anomalous state of ‘unknowing’, a ‘transcendental object at the End of Time’, which draws us into awareness of the ‘New’ — and that time would speed up to such an extent that in those End-days, we might be unable to experience the passage of time in the same way we did even one decade ago; indeed, compared with the concept of time of a generation, a century ago, we are already surpassing such reckoning monthly, weekly, daily. He believed this ‘Attractor’ will speed us up even more. Hence those of us aware that the phenomenon is happening are better equipped to handle the transition from ‘old human’ to New Human.

It has been suggested that, particularly during the winter months when we feel light deprivation and shortening daylight hours, we make the most of every opportunity to ‘breathe in’ available sunlight, in snatches throughout the day, in order to refuel the body’s resources. It is only twenty days until the turning of the year. Then, after solstice, the days will lengthen once more.

Before we know it 2012 will be here and with it the fulfilment of Maya prophecies: it is an exciting time to be alive — with more revelations in store.
©2011 Marian Youngblood

2010 Odyssey Two: Space Weather

Festive gingerbread 'helpers'

The cookies are baked, the turkey/veg-burger (goose) is cooked, the Christmas pudding has been scoffed and the Festive Season is still with us. Not only that, Mother Earth seems to be taking charge, so we may have to stock up on a few more supplies and stores to see us through: it may be some time before this cold snap is out.

I am being a little self-driven here, but the temperatures in Northern Scotland recently have been a little more akin to Estonia and the temps in Estonia rather more like Scotland. Estonia had a rapid freeze over Christmas, but by Boxing Day it was blazing sunshine and thawing. We in the northern isles, on the other hand, had a solstitial temperature of -16ºC (approx. 25ºF) and more snow descended. One day of sunny plus degrees and then a refreeze. It’s down to minus something awful again tonight.

It all has something to do with that great author Arthur C Clarke who first predicted a new civilization with his 2001: A Space Odyssey and then followed it with the lesser-known sequel 2010: Odyssey Two.

Or, it could just be that dreaded winter high pressure over Iceland.

All summer long we prayed, begged, cajoled the elementals in Mother Earth’s atmospheric arsenal into giving us a high pressure over Iceland. These little devas may have been listening but they weren’t about to hand one over. A high pressure over Reykyavik in July and August just about guarantees the eastern and northern portions of the Scots peninsula temperatures like you would not believe!

We did have one tiny blip; I do remember. It came and hovered over this long-forgotten plain for two weeks around the time of Wimbledon. I remember this because when it’s Wimbledon, they are serving strawberries to the punters in the interval while the rest of us are craving the taste, the whiff of that red juice; our gardens are trying their best to ripen the much sought-after fruit, and it usually comes two weeks later after everybody has forgotten who won.

Not this year.

When Wimbledon was being served strawberries, the huge luscious berries in my strawberry bed were at their ripest. They were more delicious than any I can remember. So, some of us poor misguided souls thought the summer of 2009 was going to be another nine on the global-warming scale of one to ten.

It was short-lived.

I am not ungrateful. Those berries tasted so delicious, I can sense the tingle in my mouth even now. But two weeks after Wimbledon, two weeks into the height of strawberry harvest, we in Scotland were plunged into rain. And it rained from the end of July until the end of November and then the snow came. I think you might call that a little unfair of Santa’s little helpers in the department of the stratosphere over Iceland.

I should explain.

Stylized Jet Stream flows

The jet stream, just like the Gulf Stream, whooshes perennially by these shores. It arrives from the west and comes in a kind of wavy motion, following the temperature boundaries where, for example, cold from the polar Arctic region meets warmer air masses from the tropics. Jet streams are caused by a combination of atmospheric heating – solar radiation – and the earth’s rotation on its axis. The main commercial relevance of the jet stream, naturally, is in air travel, as flight time can be dramatically affected by either flying with or against the jet stream.

Meteorologists use the location of the jet stream as an aid in weather forecasting. But, as we know, weather is no longer predicted as you and I do it, looking at the sky and feeling the wind change; cloud-watching; most weather forecasting nowadays is predicted by computer with numbers on charts.

Forecast for the first week of January 2010, courtesy Unisys

But there is something comforting about looking at a temperature gauge or a barograph or barometer and seeing the wavy line change from low to high. If the movement is rapid, excitement is tangible: good weather is on its way.

This is where the high pressure comes in. High pressure attracts warm and warm brings clearing skies and clearing skies make clouds disappear, dissolve, evaporate and we get that yellow glowing thing in the sky called the solar orb, sunshine. I know, I sound as if I haven’t seen it since July. It is almost true.

A high rotates as a cyclone with isobars travelling in a clockwise direction; northerly air stream (wind from the north) heralds the end of a low pressure and the start of a high; ; So when a high pressure sits overhead, in the cyclonic centre it is a still, clear day. High pressures centered over Iceland tend to sit; generate another friendly high and sit again. So the northern isles of Great Britain benefit by osmosis. By contrast, if the high pressure of June, July and August lingers (as it did throughout the summer of 2009) over the Bay of Biscay, then the edge of the high is too far away from our northern shores and all we get is the edge spin, suggested above: the following edge of a counterclockwise low drags after it a high; and conversely the following edge of a high brings an anticyclone low. Bay of Biscay high equals northern Scotland low, low low. That translates as cloud: rain, rain, and more rain.

July through November the lows bred more lows and hung over us like a meteorological hangover.

Arctic illusion or high pressure reality: snow in the North

Now, rather late on the scene, the high pressure has arrived; and because it is winter, those clear open skies are so clear and open we are receiving Arctic conditions daily. No cloud to keep the temperature from falling. Below zero freezing conditions more usual in eastern Europe at this time of year. Snow-clad landscape; white mountain ranges sparkling in clear air fifty miles distant.

At times like this our forebears would gather round the fire after a splendid seasonal feast and tell stories. Nowadays, of course, there is tele: and after New Year, if the snow is still with us (forecast is for it to continue) there will be more TV: for our American cousins and for those with satellite reception it will be Rose Bowl season: days on end of watching the sport of bling: football. I don’t begrudge the fans: we all need something to exercise the mind when the body is hibernating and adjusting to the rigours of winter.

We as a society have become near-immune to what is called in meteorological circles ‘severe weather’. But let’s think about that for a moment.

We have been subject lately to some pretty severe space weather. I heard (but it’s only a rumour) that another solar surge is on its way. We know that during the current solar minimum sunspots are infrequent, but, like the unexpected flare which took us by surprise on July 7th this year, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can play havoc with our geomagnetic systems. Now that we are (practically) all on the same grid (electrical, telecommunications, satellite, computer, transport, GPS navigation), power-driven systems are extremely susceptible to solar storms. It’s not just snow freezing the light cables and clogging the plumbing: a mass power failure would not be a good thing while temperatures are as low as they are at present. We might suddenly come to the scary realization that the wall is very thin between us who are dependent on our winter heating systems for warmth and the homeless man lying wrapped in newspaper under the freeway.

Let’s look, just for example, at the strongest geomagnetic storm on record: the Carrington Event of September 2nd, 1859.

Auroral oval over Europe

This CME is named after British astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the solar flare with unaided eye while projecting an image of the sun on a screen. Geomagnetic activity triggered by the solar explosion electrified telegraph lines, shocked technicians and set fire to their telegraph papers. Aurora Borealis, (Northern Lights) spread as far south as Cuba and Hawaii; auroras over the Rocky Mountains were so bright, the glow woke campers who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.

God forbid we should have another Carrington Event. We are ill-equipped as it is. In Northern Scotland, where there is no such thing as a motorway, autostrada or freeway, it takes council services all their time to grit icy roads to fragile outlying communities. People’s boilers and gas central heating break down and service technicians can’t reach remote districts because roads are impassable. This is what our society now expects: instantly accessible power; we are failure- and breakdown-intolerant. We do not expect the unexpected and yet the signs around us all point to Mother Nature giving us a shakedown.

I consider myself to be one of the fortunate ones: in that I have a winter store of homegrown vegetables, chickens that lay when it’s not too bitter, and an accessible supply of wood and (dare I say it, that politically-incorrect fuel): coal. If we get a severe storm warning, either earth weather or space weather, I shall, with angelic help, get by. I am not so sure about the flimsy-skirted, T-shirted commuter driving home in her mini without her winter boots, a hat or gloves, who gets caught out in the snowstorm or marooned in a drift.

If the devas are showing us signs of natural occurrences as we enter that long-heralded epoch beginning in twenty-ten, to keep us on our toes, may I suggest we prepare ourselves for what might be a year to remember.

Muckle Spate and Sunflower Update

November sunflower: supported by invisible puppet strings from the heavens

In case no-one’s noticed: it’s November. Snow has fallen in Colorado, the Rockies, Kamchatka and Iceland. Frost came to Northeast Scotland, but it was puny compared with what descended last week AND last month AND September: we’re talking floods here. What they used to call – when country people were country folk – a Muckle Spate.

Now there have been spates and floods before. Weather in Scotland, or Ultima Thule, is and always has been the topic which gets most discussion year-round. It’s because of its location:

Americans in particular are amazed to learn that the Moray Firth in Scotland lies at the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska.

For the latitude of Ultima Thule, the farthest and northernmost point of habitable land, read nine degrees below the Arctic Circle, or what is euphemistically named the Northern Temperate Zone. So it’s not unreasonable to experience weather conditions which are enormously influenced by the Atlantic Ocean on one coast and the North Sea on the other.

The powerful warm Gulf Stream current maintains waters mild in Ultima Thule

At the northern end of the Atlantic, the Atlantic Conveyor kicks in, swimming through the Bristol Channel, up the Irish Sea, through the Minch and cresting at the entrance to the Pentland Firth. A small portion of this powerful warm current (more affectionately known as the Gulf Stream or North Atlantic Drift) noses its way along the Pentland Firth between Orkney and Mainland Scotland and curls back south to run inland along the Moray Firth, so-called Aberdeenshire’s North Coast. In historical summers, it has been known to create balmy climes for residents of these northern shores.

For those not aware of these obscure locations in an otherwise frozen belt of Icelandic waters, GoogleEarth will happily provide up-to-the-minute and up-to-the last aerially-photographed section of the Moray Firth, Orkney and Shetland Isles and Mainland Scotland.

The River Deveron near Duff House at Banff

Aerial photographers, however, have had a difficult time of it these last three months. Unless, that is, you were racking up overhead shots of flooded football pitches and river basins fulfilling their description as ‘flood-plains’. Some photographers have documented Council employees who have had to stop road-laying and sweeping to race to the aid of a vast area of housing and newbuild schemes on the ‘rescue’ list in need of sandbags, rehousing the homeless, or pumping out flooded basements and High Street shopfronts.

The fact that these new houses were built on ‘flood-plain’ in the first place is something this blogger prefers not to discuss at this point.

Abnormally high rainfall in September washed out roads in the Highlands and Scotland’s West Coast at Oban and Skye. Over a four-day period in October, rivers Don and Dee in Aberdeenshire overflowed and took out roads and bridges in Banchory, Kintore and Inverurie and claimed the life of a farmer. The Rivers Spey and the Lossie at Elgin on the Moray coast reached record high levels. The Deveron at Banff flooded golf courses, links, part of the Old Town and made the A98 coast road impassible.

One of Gen. Wade's bridges a little worse for wear

Overnight on Hallowe’en and into the early hours of November 1st, the total expected rainfall for the month of November fell in six hours, and put Aberdeenshire Council into the red in its attempts to rescue and rehouse residents made homeless by rivers Carron and Cowie bursting their banks at Stonehaven and the rivers Bogie and Deveron flooding new houses at Huntly.

Aberdeenshire’s North Coast shares something in common with those river valleys in the glacial excavation grinding through the Mounth, the Cairngorms, and the Grampian and Ladder Hills. They have always had extremes of weather. Prophets of global warming suggested cooling temperatures for North Britain in 2005. Yet in the interim, except for the Wet Summer of 2009, Scotland has experienced record high temperatures. House building in floodplains has progressed apace. No wonder Mother Nature decided this year to rebel and balance the books.

She did something similar in the summer of 1829. It was the year of the Great Flood, or in the Northeast vernacular, The Muckle Spate o’ ’29.

If records are to be believed, three months’ worth of rain fell in one week in August of that year, inundating crops and farmland, transporting cattle, sheep, dogs and men from their homes downstream for miles. Bridges were heavy casualties. Even those robust granite bridges built by General George Wade (1673-1748) in 1724 to withstand the weight of his marching troops and to guide his mapmakers through the wilds of Scotland on their first attempt to document the country for King George I. But two centuries have elapsed since then and road- and bridge-building has advanced a pace. Or have they?

Turra United: the fitba' pitch at Turriff, Aberdeenshire

In November, 2009, the Dee washed out the road and bridge at Banchory. Banff causeway was underwater and the Don bridge at Inverurie had water level with the arches. The Old Dee Bridge at Aberdeen was closed, as were roads involving bridges supplying Oldmeldrum, Kintore, Dyce, Turriff, Huntly, Stonehaven, Glass, Keith, Aberchirder, Ellon, Deskford, Banff, MacDuff, Elgin, Findhorn, Forres and Alford.

For all our computer-generated map-making and architect-free design models of flood plains, physical geography and world climate patterns, one would think we had learned something. Last week’s freak storm suggests we haven’t.

I thought you’d like to read a brief excerpt from the vernacular poem ‘The Muckle Spate o’ ‘Twenty-nine’ by David Grant, published in 1915 by the Bon-Accord Press, Aberdeen. Its subject matter was focused on the River Dee at Strachan (pronounced Stra’an) – a mile of so from the base of the Mounth. If you need a translation, I might suggest you ask someone from the ‘old school’ and keep handy a copy of Aberdeen University Press‘s Concise Scots Dictionary. Enjoy.

Giant sunflower and stone circle after three storms

Oh, yes. My giant sunflower: she weathered all three storms. She flowered during October, turning daily towards the light until it no longer rose above the shelterbelt of trees. Then, holding her south-facing stance, she pulled her yellow petals inwards as if to cloak her next (a sunflower’s most important) operation: to set seed. She showed a little yellow up until yesterday, but her colour is now mostly gone. Unlike her two less-lofty companions, she has not gone mouldy; but I hesitate to describe the activity presently occurring in her centre as ‘seed-setting’.

It rained again today after three days of watery sun. I think she may still have time to stretch herself into the record books: as the latest-bloomer of all time to brave insane weather and still reach her goal: the Giant Sunflower of Ultima Thule. Spates be damned.

The Muckle Spate o’ ‘Twenty-Nine by David Grant

‘At Ennochie a cluckin’ hen wis sittin’ in a kist,
Baith it an’ her were sweelt awa’ afore the creatur’ wist;
We saw her passin’ near Heugh-head as canty as ye like,
Afore her ark a droonit stirk, ahint a droonit tyke,
An’ ran anent her doon the banks for half-a-mile or mair,
Observin’ that, at ilka jolt, she lookit unca scare,
As gin she said within hersel’ – ‘Faur ever am I gyaun?
I nivver saw the like o’ this in Birse nor yet in Stra’an.
Faur ever am I gyaun, bairns? Nae canny gait, I doot;
Gin I cud but get near the side, I think I wad flee oot.’
We left her near the Burn o’ Frusk, an’ speculatit lang
Gin she were carri’t to the sea afore her ark gaed wrang,
An’ may be spairt by Davie Jones to bring her cleckin’ oot,
Gin she wad rear them like a hen or like a water coot.’