Muskoka Lake

The gorgeous area of Muskoka , 250 Km  north of Toronto is well known for its lakes, rivers and forests. The area which was covered by 2 km ice sheet during the last glacial age 20000 years ago now is source of crystal clear springs, hundreds of lakes and falls . The Canada shield which includes oldest and hardest rocks on earth is located in this area. Muskoka lake is the largest lake in the area which covers 120 km2 (46 sq mi) surrounded by many cottages. 

Lut Desert a salty, hot and dry desert in Iran

A Park and a City

SunnyBrook

Sunnybrook is not just a park in a city. It is a hub of lots of activities during all seasons.  A stable with a training field, bike trails,bike roads, dog parks, bbq areas, restauran, cricket fields are among the those activities. It is located at heart of Toronto. At the intersection of Eglinton west and Leslie this park makes the biggest park along Don river valley. Sunnybrook in autumn is so beautiful and attracts many people from across the city. This park is also connects to Toronto Botanical Edward garden through a beautiful creed.
Here some pictures of gorgeous landscape of the park during fall of 2015.

More than just Thousand Islands

The Thousand Islands located between the USA and Canada between province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the U.S. Almost 20,000 years ago a huge glacial sheet which was dominant for a million years starts to melt and finally goes back to its current location in  north pole. Releasing a huge amount of water results in creation of thousand of rivers, lakes and islands.It is known as Thousand Islands but they are not one thousand islands, they are more. It constitute an archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the south east border of Canada with the U.S. in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.

The 1,864 islands range in size from over 40 square miles (100 km2) to smaller islands occupied by a single residence, or uninhabited outcroppings of rocks that are only home to migratory waterfowl. To count as one of the Thousand Islands, emergent land within the river channel must have at least one square foot (0.093 m2) of land above water level year-round, and support at least two living trees.


As magnificent Saint-Lawrence River pushes its way to Atlantic ocean, it goes through a lots of  rocky islands.Its width reaches to several kilometers in some points which makes it a significant water way for commercial or leisure purposes. Following pictures show some of the islands and the surrounding areas during a lot day at the end of summer.

Algonquin park , A colorful view in fall

Algonquin park one of the largest provincial parks in Ontario Canada, creates a colorful landscapes during fall. Here you see my recent trip to this beautiful natural park. It is located about 300 kilometers north of Toronto in Muskoka region. In spite of its cold snowy winter it has a pleasant mild weather during summer and fall seasons. Trees are mixture of evergreen and deciduous "falling off at maturity" leaves which gives photographers a colorful scene everywhere.The soil is rich of glacial fluvial nutrients which support growth of varieties of plants.The land is covered by a large numbers of lakes in different sizes.You also may find many past glacial forms and landscapes as well as a meteorite crater in this area. Just remember you are walking on one of the oldest rocks on earth.

Which cities pay more for climatic changes

If sea levels rose just 16 inches (40 centimeters) by 2050, the flood damage in port cities could cost a trillion dollars a year.Explore this map to see which cities in the world are most vulnerable—and which stand to gain or lose the most cash.
This study conducted by National Geographic Magazine. Following map shows economic lose of major cities across the world.It is supposed that cities will continue to build protective constructions which grab lot of money from governments or people's pockets.

1- Lowland coastal cities will suffer more
2- South and Southeastern part of Asia will suffer highest lose, financially and physically. Most of this area have a very low elevation from the adjacent ocean.
3-Most vulnerable areas are populous areas with lots of economic activities.
4- Eastern part of the USA (from New York to Miami) has the highest concentration of people, industries and big modern ports which serves not only the US but also rest of the world.
5- Africa and Australia as old and elevated continents show less damage comparing to other continents.One exemption is low land of Nile delta which hosted Alexandria and Port Said (elevation 5m and 3m respectively).

Source: National Geographic Magazine

A Monster Snow Storm Hits The U.S

Current cloud system in North America NOAA, Earth Google

While here in Canada (January 26, 2015) a very cold and high pressure system has predominated       (temperature  minus 12 to 14 Celsius in southern Ontario), our coastal neighborhood experiencing a very severe snow storm with high winds. It is expected that 30 to 90 centimeter of snow will fall on Northeastern territory of the U.S. Worm and moist air of Atlantic ocean plays a major role in severeness of snow.Wind speed depends of closeness and strength of high and low air pressure. Closer and higher difference between these two pressures systems result in winds to pick up their speed in direction of low pressure.Strong low pressure has been formed in Atlantic coastal area of the United States. At the same time a high pressure hanging around eastern part of Canada not too far from Atlantic ocean.This high pressure sending strong wind to the north east of the US, where a very low system is waiting to attracts wind and moisture to form a windy, cloudy sky. Winds blow toward the center of low pressure. As a result, wind from Atlantic ocean hits the coastal areas while trying to spin around the low pressure center.

Courtesy of  Weather-forecast www.weather-forecast.com/

Collision between two system lowers the temperature while increasing the relative humidity. A cold air mass that reached to a saturation point will precipitate in form of rain or snow. In the northeast scenario very cold weather forms snow blizzards which might be reached to a historical record. we have to waite and see what the sky has in its store for us.

It happened in seconds

A big volcano eruption released a hug amount of ashes and dusts in just seconds. Colima volcano in Mexico, has a long history of eruption but never been captured in a webcam. Colima  located in the Western Mexico region on Mexico’s central Pacific coast. A webcam which is focuses on the volcano activity caught its spectacular eruption. Plumes of ash went up to 5 Kilometer into atmosphere while the resulted cloud grew up to nine kilometers.It is reported that since 1585 it has erupted at least 30 times.

If it is cold,Take care of your Nose more!

As seasons change Jet-stream also changes its course. Jet-stream these days flowing down to the USA border with Mexico. As a result of it, cold fronts (which have high pressures) following (indeed boarding) the Jet-stream while increasing its domain from Canada to Texas in the USA.This week temperature in Toronto reached to minus 16 Celsius, so far, and some provinces experiencing minus 20 and below.Protecting yourself from extreme weather is a common sense but protect your nose too. Keeping your nose worm halts a kind of virus( rhinovirus)  which grows inside of peoples' nose. Cold weather activate the virus.At the same time your body immune system is weak as the temperature goes down. Consequently the common cold make you busy with running nose, sneezing and coughing. Scientists at  Preceedings of National Academy of Sciences of The USA concludes:

Rhinovirus is the most frequent cause of the common cold, as well as one of the most important causes of asthma exacerbations. Most rhinovirus strains replicate better at the cooler temperatures found in the nasal cavity than at lung temperature, but the underlying mechanisms are not known. 

AIRASIA Flight missing , Blame I.T.C.Z

A Malaysian flight missed amid a thunderstorm. So far there is no news of the plane and its passengers and crews.
 At this season the south east of Asia in under influence of severe thunderstorm resulting from Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone.It is said that the pilot asked for deviation from  their regular path to avoid thunderstorms.
The Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ (pronounce itch), is the region that circles the Earth, near the equator, where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres come together.In Asia, countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippine located in this area.The intense sun and warm water of the equator heats the air in the ITCZ, raising its humidity and making it buoyant. Aided by the convergence of the trade winds, the buoyant air rises. As the air rises it expands and cools, releasing the accumulated moisture in an almost perpetual series of thunderstorms.
ITCZ moves to southern hemisphere from September to march. Now it is somewhere around 7 degree south of equator. As a result wind moves from north east to south west and brings lots of moist from Pacific ocean  which collides with winds from southern hemisphere. The result is up warding air and severe shower in short period of time.
The solid bands of clouds may extends for thousands of kilometers and sometimes is broken to smaller segments.
Therefore, up warding  hot, moist winds and down warding cold air which delivering a significant amount of water may be responsible for a natural and human disaster.

Current weather 

Mangrove stopped Tsunami

Ten years ago India plate moved towards Indonesian plate and as a result an earthquake as equal as a 23000 atomic bomb released to neighborhood areas. In a few minutes a big wave was made by earthquake waves which reached as far as south Africa. Tsunami wave reached to 20 to 30 meters in some areas and killed 230,000 people across the region, most of them in Aceh of Indonesia and India and Sri Lanka. But one village escape the Tsunami wave in Thailand. Villagers in Baan Nai Rai survived  the earthquake-driven tsunami - which killed 8,000 in Thailand, on December 26, 2004 - thanks to the protection provided by the dense mangrove forest.

With a population of 700, only one person was killed in the village even though the south of Thailand was one of the hardest hit areas by the killer wave 10 years ago.
Mangroves trees protects the soil and create a natural shelter against Indian ocean waves. Mangroves are still important for villages but danger not only coming from Tsunami, but also those developer who want to destroy mangroves trees to establish a tourist resort and a hotel. If it happens deforestation and soil erosion will destroy the village worse than a Tsunami.

YALDA A night to remember

Winter is coming and autumn is going out.Geographically speaking northern hemisphere will go to its shade more often and southern hemisphere will expose more to sun. Yalde celebrate by Iranians and some other nations as longest night of northern hemisphere which equal to winter solstice (first day of winter). Yalda word comes from Syriac language (a forgotten language in Lebanon  and Syria) which means birth. In first day of winter longest night will happen but since then day length gradually will increase in  a rate of a few minutes every day. So more sun light and thus it is sun's birth. Since earth travel a big curve around Sun, changes in day and night takes a month to be noticeable. While in northern hemisphere experiencing more darkness and northern pole is completely covers by earth shadow (no sunrise for six months), in southern hemisphere longest days are predominated and they have summer (in south pole no sunset for six months). In northern hemisphere days start to increase their length , in southern hemisphere days length shrink. In both hemisphere length of day and night would be equal at first day of spring (spring equinox) for northern hemisphere and first day of fall for southern hemisphere (fall equinox).In northern hemisphere day continue to increase their length until reach to first day of summer which is called summer solstice.Summer solstice in northern hemisphere  equals to first day of winter in southern hemisphere hence winter solstice. All of the above changes happens because of inclination in earth axis.

 Earth axis is an imagery line from north pole to south pole.This line makes almost 23 degree to its perpendicular rotational axis, called axis tilt.Without axis tilt there is no seasons(no temperature exchanges) and length of day and night were equal (very hot every day, no north and south poles).As the year progresses and the earth revolves around the sun, the tilt of the earth’s axis doesn't change. The axis is 23 ½ degrees away from a straight up and down line relative to the sun’s position. This means that for some of the year ( northern hemisphere summer), the North Pole is aimed toward the sun, and some of the year it is aimed away from the sun ( northern hemisphere winter). It is vice versa in the southern hemisphere.

So remember Yalda many geographical astrological changes have happened to make your planet livable and beautifully desirable. 

Summer Solstice Northern hemisphere

Winter solstice Northern hemisphere 

Last temptation of Fall

Winter will arrive  officially very soon. But still some landscapes of Toronto lure us to look again for  more pictures before all disappears.  All pictures are from Riverdale  park east and surrounding
areas.

View from Millwood Rd.  Bridge , East York

Solar storm is not scary

A solar flare is a huge explosion on the sun. It's energy is equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs.
 Now one of those solar flares or solar storm is coming toward Earth in a form of a huge storm which may effect our communication devices such as mobiles and satellites.
But scientists are not worried and believe it will pass above the planet earth and may not touch our green and blue planet . it is believed that it is coming with speed of 2.5 million miles per hour and will meet our very high atmosphere Friday morning.
More Info

Atlantic ocean is taking apart

Continental drift is true and still at work. According to continental plates theory large chunk of land and ocean floor masses moves toward each other or falling apart. Consequences are earthquakes and upward movement of magma to earth surface. Atlantic ocean floor is spreading deep under Iceland.

Geography tells us that Iceland is close to arctic circle and cold weather and glaciers predominate the island. At the same time hot and gaseous magma coming to surface in Iceland. Recently a new activity in an old volcano has released a large amount of ashes and gases to atmosphere. That,s why Iceland is called land of ice and fire.

Steam and smoke rise over a 1-km-long fissure in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga volcano system, August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Nescher 

Bardarbunga (Bárðarbunga) is a large central volcano lying underneath Iceland's 500-m thick Vatnajokull glacier in the center of the country. It is located at the junction between the eastern and northern volcanic rift zones in the area where the present-day center of the mantle hot spot beneath Iceland is thought to be.
Bardarbunga has had about 300-400 eruptions during the past 10,000 years which includes only 23 eruptions historic times (approx the past 1000 years), i.e. it seems to erupt currently at rates of approx. twice per century, the last one having occurred in 1910. A massive explosive-effusive eruption in 1477 resulted in a large ash and pumice fall-out deposit. 

SPRING NOT INSTALLED YET

Moon and Venus over Toronto's  extreme cold morning sky
 Feb 27 2014 

Southern Ontario in Canada experiencing one of the longest and worst winter for this time of year. Wind chill alarm has already issued by Canada Environment. According to the weather prediction the temperature tonight will goes down to  minus 23 C. just before dawn which with wind chill might be felt  minus 30 C. High pressure and attributed very cold polar air will remain effective over the region  for another week, and gradually will warm ups or moved out by a warmer front by end of next week.Snow squall already caused a chain accident on Highway 400 north of Toronto which involved 100 cars... and more snow are coming.

 Maybe there is no spring for Canada this year.

Polar Effect

Coldest day of Toronto Jan.7 2014 

Toronto,today experienced a very low temperature. Very cold high pressure which originated from north pole is responsible of such a cold day.
Extreme cold weather in my location reached to -22 c with wind chill - 29. In some places temperature went down to -24 C with wind chill factor -40 C.

Below picture taken early in the morning. Above picture of the city taken Jan.7 2014 at 5:30 pm.Temperature is around -17 C with wind chill -24 C.

Torontonians awakened by Frost Quake

An earth quake might be triggered by various factors. A volcano, a movement deep inside the earth layers, a movement around a subduction zone may result in an earth quake. But in Toronto some people heard a very loud bang last night (early morning around 2-3 am)Jan 3rd 2014 which is related to extreme cold weather and recent ice storm.  It looks it happened before  north of Toronto at the end of December 2013. The cause of the big bang is not earth tectonic but frozen earth. As a result of a sudden deep freeze inside a dry ground, ice expands and cracks. Extreme cold weather continues for 3 days and temperature wend down to -23 C in my balcony weather station in East York Toronto.Northern areas such as Richmond hills experienced -28 C. Temperature at the moment (around 1 pm) is -18 C. With the wind chill the temperature  feels like -27 C. Such an extreme cold weather happened years ago in 1981.So a very cold ice expands and water from surface penetrates inside the dry soil and freeze inside the ground below. Frozen ground expands but doesn't have enough room for its expansion. This circumstance results in a shallow cracks in ground and surrounding rock. Geologists called this phenomena Cryoseism which may happen inside a glacier or a frozen ground. Some Torontonians not only heard it but also felt it. They called police and complained a gunshot or earth movement.

Courtesy Citynews Toronto 

A City is Frosted

More than 100,000 Toronto homes -- and about 60,000 households elsewhere in Ontario -- remain in the dark as crews struggle to restore service following a weekend ice storm that may have contributed to six deaths.

Temperature in Toronto will reach to minus 13 degree C and keep stay below zero for at least 5 days.Wind direction  brings cold air mass from west and north to southern Ontario. My weather station in my balcony shows the temperature minus 6 degree C and dropping.The sky is clear  which indicates to a high pressure in air which cause stability and no movement in air.Under current circumstances low temperature will dominates for a while in southern Ontario and beyond. Here are some pictures from my neighborhood.