Ray Wolf 🇨🇭🇨🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱

The garden year in review. 🌱 Spring - columbine, summer - monarda, fall - color mix, winter - snow on bristlecone pine.

Our food system is trapped in a #NitrogenNightmare 🏭 ⚠️ We’ve long been told chemical nitrogen fertilizers feed the world. The truth? A growing environmental & health crisis driven by fossil fuels and corporate power. Thread 🧵👇 1/5

Live music by Minus 6 in downtown Davenport at Common Chord.

Altocumulus lenticularis today over the Midwest, a rare occurrence here relative to my old stomping grounds along the Colorado Front Range.

Thought for the day. The common phrase is “as American as apple pie,” but apples originated in Kazakhstan. Meanwhile pumpkins originated in the US South and Mexico. So the saying should be “as American as pumpkin pie.” Bonus fact - Illinois is the leading grower of pumpkins in the US. 🌱

The Brewers and Rays are in the World Series, directly defying the narrative that small-market teams are bedraggled, woebegone, hopeless entities needing a white knight to save them.

“The administration is poised to set the US back years on weather forecasting rather than advancing its capabilities.” ☑️ It already has 📉

I don’t know if this is the case in other states, but in Iowa you can tell how desperate the Republican candidate is by how many “boys playing in girls sports” ads you hear. 🙄

Well it’s taken a little more than a year and some help from a landscaper, but we met all the requirements for National Wildlife Federation and Monarch Watch wildlife and monarch habitats. 🌱

Who would have thought two of the United States most significant internal terrorist events occurred in Oklahoma.

Very active butterfly viewing this weekend in the new garden favored by warm, sunny weather. Observed pearl crescent, clouded sulphur, painted lady, and monarchs. Also saw red admiral and some skippers I can’t id. 🌱

Hurricane impacts in Iowa - good weather for harvesting.

From the movie The Blob. Closing line - cop says “At least we’ve got it stopped”.” Steve McQueen responds “As long as the Arctic stays cold.” Seems like an unintentional foreshadowing of a future sequel. 🤣

Unfortunately the risks of potential tropical impacts for the Gulf Coast later this week have increased overnight, and the NWS comms outage that has two Gulf Coast offices in service backup and several NEXRAD radars missing continues into day 3. balancedweather.substack.com/p/nws-gulf-c...

Will the Chicago Bears stadium end up this good? For that price? 🤔

More than 24 hr after it started, a NWS comms issue continues with multiple missing radars and offices providing service backup. These sort of outages seem to be worsening in spite of the fact the vulnerabilities have been known for more than 2 decades. balancedweather.substack.com/p/comms-issu...

With a bit of imagination this looks like a sunrise. 🌱

Stokesia aster #FlowersonFriday

There’s a bit of irony here.

Fall and trees turning color are just around the corner when frost and freeze highlights start popping up in the Upper Midwest.

These guys are the gifts that keep on giving. If there is not a big blue wave from local to Federal elections, the vote is rigged. (Taken from Trump playbook where if you don’t win, it’s fixed.). Two can play that game.

I've made a few tweaks and bug fixes in the last week, and SPC REFS Viewer v1.0 is live! www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/refs/v...

The war against universities has been going on perhaps longer than many people are aware. Sadly my alma mater, Iowa State University, has fallen into this trap. Thanks to @profsecchi.bsky.social for bringing this concept to my attention several years ago. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

GOES mid-layer water vapor showing moisture from Polo streaming towards the Midwest. Predecessor Rainfall Event from a Pacific system in the central US, if too much moisture does not get cutoff in the southern Rockies? Wonder if that would be a first.

Still plenty of color in the fall garden. 🌱 And the pollinators are loving it.

Where is Sen. Joe McCarthy when you really need him? No witch hunt here.

The under appreciated pollinator, moths. 🌱 I’m not sure of the species here, but there are many of them around doing their thing.

3.25 inches measured this morning and 6.07 for the week. A single bolt of lightning at 3am sounded like an explosion.

I'm here to say I fully support all wolves, but especially the few who eat beef. insideclimatenews.org/news/1809202...

Best Monty Python skit ever.

Sometime nature is tough but everything is a balance. Life ends poorly for this tomato hornworm as it becomes food for a new generation of parasitic wasps. 🌱🍅

Goldfinch hiding in the sunflowers waiting for a turn at the feeder. 🌱🕊️

I received 0.99 inch of rain in my newly mounted gage. Just couldn’t get that extra 0.01 to make it a full inch.

Beyond pet peeve levels - it’s absolutely infuriating to me when economists and non economists refer to the US industrial ag system as efficient: that doesn’t factor in its massive environmental costs, ignores its dependence on subsidies & the distribution of its benefits to the already privileged.

Saved by the back door cold front bringing cooler easterly winds off of Lake Michigan into eastern Iowa. One of Midwest summers true pleasures, the lake breeze.

Ring of Fire. Note the location of the two MCSs relative to NWS extreme heat warnings and advisories. Classic pattern recognition is a forecast technique that has value from today’s forecast through week 2 outlooks.

Dew points across Iowa are quite high. Since corn and soybeans are maturing rapidly now, evapotranspiration is not a key factor. Rather the importance of the boundary in southern MN serving to pool the moisture is key.

My first dahlia. I think there will be more in the future if I can overwinter them successfully. 🌱

Cool family event this weekend - Scott County Emergency Management Fair. Great opportunity for learning disaster preparedness and meeting the people behind those services.

In a truly bonkers post, Trump says to "Let Data Reign." We're starting to wonder if he reads the news? www.raygunsite.com newrepublic.com/post/214947/...

Would be a sad day for Texas A&M which has a respectable weather and climate science program.

Pleased to see @ametsoc.org take a leadership role in climate by developing the Certified Climate Science Professional program. www.ametsoc.org/ams/educatio...

Very chaotic evening sky over eastern Iowa as indicated by the mini cumulus castellanus clouds.

Where are all those people who complained about EV impacts on power supply and the grid now that data centers are popping up everywhere sucking power and water from our communities.

U.S. Drought Monitor August 27, 2026 For the 50 states and Puerto Rico, the U.S. Drought Monitor shows 47.56% in moderate drought or worse, compared to 44.34% last week. #DroughtMonitor #Drought #Drought2026

My perspective on the looming question about the role of climate change in that terrible flood disaster in Nepal. My measured but factual thoughts. www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...

Thought for the day - I want my own personal computer, not your fucking cloud compute subscription service and associated data centers you greedy corporate bastards.

It’s a pollinator palooza in the backyard. Took awhile for them to find these plantings, but hopefully we are on the way to developing a vibrant local population. 🌱

NOAA terminated support for the Arctic Report Card last week. My commentary on why the Report Card is important to Alaska and the United States. alaskabeacon.com/2026/08/18/t... #Alaska #Arctic #Climate

Stopped at my favorite Italian bakery while visiting Chicago. The diversity of ethnic food options just in this one northwest side strip mall is outstanding.

Becoming a bit concerned regarding how few pollinators I’m seeing on these two sunflowers. Typically they are loaded with all sorts of different bee and butterfly species. 🌱