2025-07-04 22:48:33
Tom Lye
Bidston Observatory, Wirral, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-19
Sunny and hot over the last few days with the first rain coming last night - increasing clouds and spots of rain tonight with a big downpour coming soon. A nice group at Bidston Observatory with multiple folks holding the antenna and finding the beeps!
2025-06-12 22:23:35
Tom Lye
Bidston Observatory, Wirral, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-19
Lots of heavy rain this afternoon - walking through the woods and you could feel the clouds wanting to release for a long time before they did. A clearer sky this evening but it felt like there was more static in the air. I liked moving around a bit more this time and playing with the signal.
2025-05-20 21:29:54
Soph Dyer
Paulinengasse, Wien, Austria
Austria
NOAA-18
"We used to swim in the river at this time of year" a friend laments. It's true that the unheated, outdoor public pools have been open for almost three weeks, but I doubt that they've had many visitors. As a Northerner, I am tempted by the icy rewards of cold swim but I know that this is not what most Viennese have in mind when they think of the Freibäder. From the other side of the Polar Jet Stream, my sister, Ray, writes that the UK has been dry and wam. It's so dry that the earth on the farm has cracked into irregular, tessellating shapes. Earlier in May, when visiting family in England I read sections of my mum's childhood diary. The diary had been left out to cheer-up my Gran who has dementia. Each entry opens with a single line about the weather. On this day in 1971, Hampshire was the "same as yesterday", which was "a bit windier". Two days prior, it had been "very sunny and warm", my mum's 12-year-old self wrote.
2025-03-23 10:08:54
Richard A Carter
University of York, Campus East, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-19
Equipment troubles finally subsided for today's pass, resulting in a pleasingly expansive view of Europe and parts of North Africa. One interesting aside is that the wind was such that it blew through small gaps in the antenna, making distinctly musical notes in the process - can imagine a speculative art project in which the antenna is turned into a sort of instrument, working alongside the distinct notes of the NOAA transmission coming in. It would be quite the composition!
2024-12-01 10:07:00
Sasha Engelmann
Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-19
In a recent article on 'Clouding knowledge in the Anthropocene', Kate Lewis Hood proposes a "cumulative reading - where cumulative shares an etymological root with cumulus, a type of cloud (OED, 'cumulate') - that shifts from clear skies to fog, between atmospheric transparency and opacity" (2018: 83). Exploring poetry including The Weather by Lisa Robertson and Drift by Caroline Bergvall, Lewis Hood suggests that "such experimental practices enable a shift from asking whether to read or interpret in a certain way to engaging with the weather system of a text: its unpredictable changes and complex patterns" (2018: 185). If today's weather system in London was a text, it might read like this passage from Robertson's The Weather: Our skies are inventions, durations, discoveries, quotas, forgeries, fine and grand. Fine and grand. Fresh and bright. Heavenly and bright. The day pours out space, a light red roominess, bright and fresh. Bright and oft. Bright and fresh. Sparkling and wet. Clamour and tint. (Robertson, 2001: 10)
2024-06-12 20:04:12
Soph Dyer
Dordolla, Italy
Italy
NOAA-15
A musician, Pietro, joins us for the satellite pass. The alpine village of Dordolla is so small, we just needed to walk around for word to get to Pietro that we were at the only bar. There is a light drizzle. N makes a beat to the sound of the satellite, tapping the puddle with his foot. Pietro makes a sound recording. He is a drummer. The air is thick with moisture. The energy of yesterday's electrical storm has dissipated, but the clouds have not broken yet.
2024-09-06 10:29:48
Sasha Engelmann
Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-19
For the second day, the weather is damp, grey and dark, with intermittent rain. The park was wet and puddled, but plenty of people were out walking, having coffee and running with dogs. I breifly cuddled with Moonpie as Dave arrived at the park: 'you're one of the only people he runs up to like that, and also lets pet him' Dave said. By the time that sentence was finished, Moonpie was off again, racing to the other corner of the park. I collected some specimens - a leaf of clover, common yarrow and a tiny bump of moss found on the damp brick of the wall outside the house - to explore with the microscope. The 'weather worlds' of these small plants came alive under the lens - the moss danced with long whitish filaments that I learned could be sporophytes, and its stems and leaves bristled below. The yarrow was difficult to bring into focus because of its three dimensionality, but slowly the tips of leaves came into view, and I saw that it was covered in micro droplets. The stem of the clover almost shimmered, and I wondered if this was water coursing within the tissue, or just a quality of the surface.
2024-09-02 12:15:45
Sasha Engelmann
Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-18
A fine drizzle was carpeting the neighbourhood as I went out with my tape measure Yagi antenna today. I wasn't expecting the rain, so I found a still densely foliated Plane tree to give cover. Later in the day, en route to South London, the rain had started again. I had checked and rechecked the weather report before getting on my bike, and all that was predicted was a lot of cloud. I remembered what my scientist colleague said earlier this summer about the increasing moisture to be expected in a climate-changed Northern Europe based on a wobbling jet stream. Despite the moisture-laden air, the rest of the day was textured with immense relief, new knowledge, and support from my partner T. Two cats offered their emotional energies too.