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.

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

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.

Freezing rain covers Toronto

Toronto went  below zero C last night and caused the city to experience a very icy condition across the city. A day before the ice storm the city temperature went well above 3 C. As a result, part of the previous snow melted and refrozen 24 hours later. Toronto roads are slippery and some old trees could not tolerate heavy weight of ice and fell down on streets and power lines.Some areas across the city, black out and power shortage is a major problem. Because of ice storm TTC stops using street cars to save the energy.250,000 of Toronto residents are without power(here). Toronto continues to have below zero C temperature so black ice will predominate on the city streets for more days to come.The park and street trees are covered with icy crystal clear freezing rain.

Lord Simcoe Goes to Lake Simcoe

Simcoe remains me a name and many places.John Graves Simcoe (1752 -1806) was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796.At the time our american neighbours were struggling with their independence from British empire he constructed longest road in world and called it Yonge. Yonge street was a military road to connect southern part of Ontario province to northern part. He also established York city. York city later called Toronto. Lake Simcoe located at the northern extension of Yonge street. It is almost 85 km north of lake Ontario and city of Toronto. Lake Simeco is the  the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. Lord Simecoe called this water body Simcoe in memory of his father.But to me this lake remind me last ice age too.Lake Simcoe is remnant of a huge ,thick ice sheet which retracted hundreds of thousand years ago.Lake Simcoe is one of thousands of lakes that has been left behind.Lake Simcoe satisfies every body with different tastes. Scientists, tourists,sailors,fishermen and photographers all enjoy its beautiful landscape and stunning water which was named before simcoe by natives of Huron Ouentironk ("Beautiful Water").

Following pictures were captured during my last week short trip to lake Simcoe.

A Golden Pot

Spring temperature suddenly arrived. Toronto's temperature is now well above 22 degree Celsius. Today, a warm front arrived from south west and brought a hot,humid weather . To surprise us more, a beautiful rainbow formed just above Toronto downtown. Sun rays hit small water drops in the atmosphere with a certain angle. The result is breakdown of the sun light into seven colors.Mix of a cloudy sky,sun and Toronto city created a magnificent picture of nature and the city.
Picture captured 6:30 a.m.May 15,2013,

Only one Earth

Earth Day is around the corner. April 22 is approaching fast. In this image from ISS 450 km above the earth surface, the cities glowing in a blue background. It also shows that cities grow at a rate that might be mistaken for a sky full of stars and galaxies( earth is up and sky is down).More crowded cities means more pollution and more need for a proper management.One study shows that nearest Earth-like planets could be 13 light-years away.Recent discovery which released April 18 2013 revealed that outside of our solar system in a land far far away, we may find three earth-like planets . But to reach one of it (Kepler 62e) you need to travel 1200 years in speed of light. It means with current technology we have to stick to our blue-green planet to survive.For how long we can exhaust the earth resources without thinking about this fact that it is only one planet called Earth?
The following video clip filmed last year but it is still true in most big cities.

Toronto and Garbage problem

Toronto day and night in winter

Toronto capital of Ontario province is the largest city of Canada with 5.5 million population. Toronto is a modern city which established in 1793 by Lord Simcoe, governor of Canada. It was named York. Later the city decide to change the name to Toronto which means "meeting place" in a native language. Winter in Toronto is long, snowy and cold but beautiful.Its location along the great lakes gives the city a unique milder climate comparing to the interior territories of Canada.Toronto at night shows all of its beauty in form of lights of well organized streets. These pictures which dated to 19 of January 2013 are taken by International Space Station from 400 to 500 km above the earth surface and Canadian Space Agency distributed it through its Facebook.

Toronto in night 19 Jan. 2013 lake Ontario at the top 

Toronto at winter 19 Jan. 2013 Ontario lake at the bottom 

Colours of Fall 2012

Temperature in Toronto was above average in the fall of 2012,and slowly decreased.So Toronto and surrounding area showed colourful landscapes in a long period of time.

Snow squalls in Toronto

Snow squall and gusty winds slammed Toronto

January 25th 2013 East York Thorncliffe Park Drive.

Major Storm

                               Toronto hits by a major snow storm


Totally 30 centimeters snow fell in Toronto and surrounding area

Global warming is true

 This is a really hot news:

The temperature hit 36.2 C at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon, breaking the previous record for July 17 of 35.2 C set last year.

Read more: http://www.cp24.com/news/temperature-soars-to-record-high-in-toronto-1.881694#ixzz20w0zuj74

This remind me global warming. The average temperature of the world increasing.

 NOAA prepared a map for month of June ,2012 which is very helpful. Red means above average. Almost all land surfaces shows above average temperature.Specially northern hemisphere with more land masses comparing to southern hemisphere shows higher values. It is noteworthy that Siberia , Greenland and north of Canada receiving higher temperature than before. In these areas glaciers and polar icebergs are reducing their sizes each year.

Above average temperatures throughout the world in June, 2012.  Courtesy  of   NOAA

      

Hot days in Toronto

Temperature hits 36.3 Celsius which with humidity you feel it like 41C. Such a high temperature is very rare in Toronto.

 Toronto has only been that hot once, when it reached 38.3 C on August 25, 1948 according to measurements at Pearson airport.

Factor in the humidex and Thursday was felt like somewhere in the mid to high 40s.

If it doesn’t quite beat 38.3 Friday July 6,2012  could still be the hottest July day on record, beating out the 37.6 C high on July 7, 1988. Temperature records at Pearson have been kept since 1937.

A temperature record was also broken on Wednesday when the city reached a high of 36.3 C, shattering the old record of 36.1 C set on that day in 1955.

The extreme heat is caused by a high-pressure system sitting over the city that’s warding off weather and keeping the jet stream well to the north.