Some Awesome Photos

Well, I’m awed anyway.

Some of the 15000 vehicles damaged during Hurricane Sandy lined up on a New Jersey air strip. [Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images]

 

Full view of the air strip. [Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images]

 

A dust storm capped by clouds sweeping across the Indian Ocean west of Australia. (The dust was once part of Australia.) [Reuters/Brett Martin/fishwrecked.com]

 

A green aurora in the distance, the gas flares on the Bakken oil patch in the foreground. The flares are from fracking wells. North Dakota is now the second largest oil producing state. (Texas is first.) [cap from International Space Sation video via Krulwich's blog at npr.org]

 

Flooding in London. [via indiatalkies.com]

 

Typhoon Bopha photographed from the International Space Station. [nasa.gov]

 

Drought-struck river bed in Kerala state. [indiatalkies.com]

Extreme Weather

I don’t want to get into a big post on climate change, but I do think a few photos may be of interest. These are all from the US via Boston.com.

Storms lashed the Northeast. So far this year there has been an enormous amount of damage caused by wind and rain including some server farms near Washington. Lose a connection? Now you know why.

NY Mets pitcher warming up before a game in Washington, DC. [Associated Press]

Meanwhile, one of the worst droughts in American history is afflicting the Midwest. About half the continental US is now suffering drought conditions.

Illinois cornfield. The plants in distance have been left for examination by insurance adjustors. [Associated Press]

But this is the picture that sums it up for me. This is part of the Mississippi River bed near St. Louis: