Perfect Pet - Friday 11/14/08

Benny and Bobby are 10-month-old Terrier mixes.

Benny and Bobby have spunky personalities and a love for human contact. They would love to be a part of your active lifestyle…train them to pay doggie sports or take them on runs and hikes. The hardest part will be choosing which brother to take home with you. Perhaps you’ll want to adopt them both!

Watch a video of Benny and Bobby HERE.

Benny and Bobby are available for adoption at the Marin Humane Society.

Benny          Bobby

Rainbows and Virga

Virga is rain that evaporates (transitions to a gaseous state) or snow/ice that sublimates (also transitions directly to a gaseous state) before reaching the ground. Our unique weather in the Bay Area creates numerous days with virga. You can see a rainbow in virga just like rain that reaches the ground.

Perfect Pet - November 1st

We highlighted a lovely cat from the Berkeley Humane Society (510-845-3633) on Friday, November 1st.

Nefertiti was rescued from an animal hoarder where she lived with 70+ cats. When she came to our shelter on February 28th, she was very sick; underweight, rotten teeth, parasites and infection. She had to spend a few months in our hospital recovering. Her teeth have been removed but she eats just fine. The discoloration under her chin was from acne and the medication to clear the acne.

Nefertiti is a loving girl who adores human affection. She will nuzzle you, requesting your adoration in return. She can go home with other cats. She has been with us for too long and needs as loving, forever home.

Nefertiti is 2 years old and has been spayed, vaccinated, micro chipped.

The yellowing is from acne medicine and the yellowing is going away.

Contrails

Q: How is a contrail formed when a jet airplane is flying high overhead?

A: Contrails are condensation trails. Like the exhaust from a car's tailpipe during cold conditions, contrails from when the hot air from a jet's exhaust cools and the water in it condenses into a cloud.

Jet contrails create an estimated 20% cloud increase in heavy air traffic corridors with the best weather dynamics, cold moist upper troposphere air. This does not include the South or Southwest. The clouds decrease solar energy, which cools Earth's surface and reduces the Earth's energy losses resulting in warming.

The three days follwing 9/11 climatologists found temperatures fluctuated by 2.16ºF more without air travel than when normal flight patterns prevailed. The greatest change occurred in areas with the greatest contrail coverage, Midwest, Northeast, and, to a lesser extent, Pacific Northwest.

From 1975-1994 North America temperatures rose by almost 0.5ºF per decade aided by increased cirrus clouds due to air traffic. NASA scientists estimate contrails/cirrus clouds will enhance the greenhouse effect by increasing surface and lower atmospheric temperatures by 0.36ºF to 0.54ºF per decade.