January 2010

  • Consider the month of January 2010. Just like every January, we are closest to the sun on January 3rd. This time the full moon on Jan 30 is within two hours of its monthly close approach, producing the highest tides of the early part of the year. The close approach on Jan 1 followed the full moon and partial lunar eclipse of Dec 31 by 25 hours, so the tides were high then too. The new moon on Jan 15th was a solar eclipse when the moon was at its farthest from the earth, which helped produce a very long eclipse time. In a month with two tidal peaks we also see two eclipses.

    A variety of planetary aspects.

    If you are familiar with my 'agenda' here, you will know that I point to a variety of planetary 'aspects' as indicators of quakes and storms. Two of the big ones this year have been Mercury's conjunction with the sun and the moon's conjunctions with Saturn. Another big indicator has been the moon's conjunction with Jupiter, which is near Neptune now (as seen from the earth). Now also, Mars has moved into position opposite to Jup/Nept.

    [Note that I am not saying that every one of the above conjunctions produces a catastrophic event; but what I am saying is that if you look at past catastrophic events, that you will be able to 'account' for them astronomically. Last year magnitude 7 quakes happened two months in a row with the moon less than 2.5 degrees from the Saturn, and the largest quake of the year occurred when the moon conjoined Jupiter Sept 29th.]

    Look at the chart above and note that the important times in regards to the position of the moon right now are 1) when it conjoins and opposes the sun (new and full moons), 2) when it crosses the line between Mars and Jupiter conjoining Neptune, and 3) when it crosses the line between Saturn and Uranus. At the Dec 31 full moon, it was opposite the sun, and closest to the earth on the first. The moon conjoined Mars at the perihelion on the 3rd. It conjoined Saturn on the 6th. It will reach the sun on the 15th. Later in the month, the moon conjoins Mars again at the full moon and tidal peak.

    In the mean time, Mercury passed between the earth and the sun on the fourth, and Venus passed the middle of the backside of the sun on the 11th (superior conjunction).

    Here you see the planets at the time of the conjunction. You can also see that Venus is not really behind the sun since it is 50 minutes south of the center of the sun (the ecliptic). You see that Mercury is 3 degrees above the ecliptic and the moon is 3 degrees below it.

    The moon will be sweeping between the earth and sun and eclipsing, as Venus is making her pass behind the sun. At the time of the eclipse, the moon is high of the center of the sun and Venus is low of it, although all three are very close together.

  • Following that, the moon conjoins Jupiter and Neptune again on Jan 17, then it conjoins Uranus and opposes Saturn on the 19th. Notice that Jupiter is beginning to move passed Neptune and on to Uranus. On the 30th, the full moon conjoins Mars, as the earth is between it and the sun then.

    Just your luck.

    The earth makes one close approach to the sun a year. Venus makes one pass across the back of the sun each year. The earth passes between the sun and Mars, bringing it close to the earth, once a year. The tides peak twice a year, and Mercury is between the earth and the sun four times each year. There can be up to seven total solar and lunar eclipses a year, and those occur earlier every year. In 2010 we see a tidal peak, two eclipses, the perihelion, Venus conjoins the sun, Mercury conjoins the sun, and Mars opposes the sun, all within 31 days time in January.

    Unfortunately, at the end of January, we still have three cold/wet months ahead of us.

    • The end of January

    * Jan 13 : "The worst of the (first) cold wave of 2010 is over for the Southern U.S. Temperatures this morning across the southern tier of states rebounded substantially from the lows observed Saturday through Monday. Temperatures will continue to recover throughout the week as a major re-orientation of the jet stream takes place. By next week, a significant January thaw will occur over the Eastern U.S., and a period of stormy weather and heavy precipitation will impact the Western U.S."

  • Bear in mind that while the sun has reached its southerly most position, and is moving back toward the equator again, the northern hemisphere will not finish cooling off until the end of the first week of February. The same is true about the heat in the southern hemisphere. Feb 6th is about half way between the solstice and the equinox. I repeat, it is not as cold as it's gonna get yet. This is what is called the 'January thaw'.

  • As I said, after the eclipse on the 15th, the moon will conjoin Neptune then Jupiter, then oppose Mars on the 17th. On the 19th it will conjoin Uranus and oppose Saturn. At the end of the month, the earth will lie directly between the sun and Mars on the 28th, just before the full moon and tidal peak of the 30th. Feb 2nd will be a moon/Saturn conjunction.

    * Jan 16th : Flood & Storm Risk with Storm Walloping the Southern US; Travel disruptions, flooding and localized damage to property and crops are all threats from a storm moving into the South from the Gulf of Mexico this weekend. Damaging storms will erupt over northern and central portions of Florida on the southern edge of the storm later today and tonight. The greatest threats of the storms will be wind damage like downed trees and power lines and localized flash flooding. Rain Encompassing the South, Eyes the Northeast Next. California Storms to be Unrelenting. California will be hit hard by an onslaught of major storms this upcoming week. Each storm will cause mounting problems like flooding and increasing threat of mudslides. Along the California coast and all windward-facing slopes, rainfall totals could easily exceed a half of a foot by the end of the week. That means serious flooding is likely, and there is a high probability of destructive mudslides even outside of recently burned areas. The Sierra Nevada range will get dumped on big time with 2 to 4 feet of new snow during the course of the week.
    Too much snow: Scottish ski center closes. LONDON - A ski center in the Scottish Highlands was forced to close Friday — because of too much snow during Britain's coldest winter in 30 years. LONDON - A ski center in the Scottish Highlands was forced to close Friday — because of too much snow during Britain's coldest winter in 30 years.

    * Jan 17 : A magnitude 6.3 quake has occurred in the Drake Passage, just before the moon conjoined Neptune and Jupiter.

    * Jan 21 : "One of the most powerful low pressure systems since record keeping began in the 1800s slammed the West Coast yesterday with hurricane-force wind gusts, large hail, and torrential rains that have created flash floods and dangerous debris flows. The storm, centered just offshore near the Oregon/California border this morning, set an all-time record for the lowest pressure ever recorded along the southern Oregon coast yesterday. Medford, Oregon hit a pressure of 978 mb (28.88") yesterday afternoon, beating their old lowest ever pressure of 28.93" set in 1995. Northern California came close to setting a new record for lowest pressure as well, as Eureka, California hit 980 mb (28.93"), nearly matching the old record of 979 mb (28.91") set on Feb 22, 1891."

    "The storm, the latest and strongest of a series of El Niño-fueled storms to assault California this week, is expected to bring heavy rains of 1 - 3 inches over much of of the state today, wind gusts of up to 45 mph near the coast, and heavy snows of 1 - 2 feet to the Sierras. Arizona is expected to receive heavy rains of up to five inches from the storm. The storm will wind down by Friday, and California will have brief respite Saturday, before the next storm hits on Sunday and Monday. Sunday's storm should be much weaker, and the state will get a chance to dry out Wednesday and Thursday. However, another parade of storm is forecast to impact the state beginning on Friday the 29th, according to the latest long-range forecasts of the GFS and ECMWF model."

    • Early January

    ***A countdown to a potentially hazardous event***

    [You will note that the title is taken from a response that was made to my posts in the GRAHAM HANCOCK MESSAGE BOARDS where they asked me NOT to post countdowns that might SCARE readers. I stopped trying to post there, and posted this here instead. As you can see, there are so many aspects in the first week of the year that it would be impossible to pinpoint times of say, a blizzard that takes three days to move across the country.]

  • Dec 31: Full Moon and partial Lunar Eclipse - the earth passes between the sun and the moon.
  • Jan 1: Lunar Perigee - the moon's monthly close approach to the earth (a monthly gravitational maximum). The perigee will follow the eclipse by 25 hours. On the 30th, it follows the full moon by just 2 hours; THAT will be the early peak of the tides for 2010.
  • Jan 3: Moon conjoins Mars and opposes Jupiter and Neptune at the Perihelion - the earth's yearly close approach to the sun (a yearly gravitational maximum). The earth will make a close approach to Mars Jan 28th, near the full moon on Jan 30 when the tides peak next. See Jan 30 in the perigee calculator.
  • Jan 4: Inferior conjunction of Mercury to the sun - Mercury passes in front of the sun.
  • Jan 6: Moon conjoins Saturn and opposes Uranus - see the section at the bottom of the page abt the moon and Saturn and quakes. (The last conjunction was Dec 10, and there were four 6+r quakes. In Jan and Feb 2009 7+r quakes coincided with the conjunctions.)

    ** Dec 29: New Year Blizzard to Bash New England.
    ** Dec 30: 5.8r quake 22.1 mi SE of Calexico, CA. The Sept 19th quake was 5.1r and 24.8 mi SSE of Calexico, CA. The Dec 30th quake was the largest of the year in California, and the largest since June of 2005. In 2005 the tides peaked on Jan 10th. Please see "On The Timing of California Earthquakes" below.
    ** Jan 3: Record lows sweep across parts of U.S. Magnitude 6.5 quake in the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands archipelago in the Pacific was hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake today, less than an hour after a 6.5-magnitude temblor triggered a warning of possible local tsunamis.
    ** Jan 4: Record snow in Korea, China and New England.
    ** Jan 5: A magnitude 6.7 quake near the Sandwich Islands was followed closely by a 6.9 quake in the Solomon Islands. Another magnitude 6 quake in the Solomon Islands makes three magnitude 6+ quakes in 24 hours just before the moon conjoins Saturn.
    ** Jan 7: 5 days in double-digit subzero temps. The weather hasn't let up since sweeping into the eastern U.S. earlier this week. A 4.1 quake in California just after the moon/Saturn conjunction, just like in Sept.
    ** Jan 8 : Midwest in deep freeze — with no end in sight. Blowing snow and frigid temperatures have left the Midwest in a deep freeze for most of the new year, with the possibility of more wicked weather next week, a forecaster said Friday. There was another winter storm developing, but weather forecasting models disagree over its direction. There is going to be a significant storm next week, no question about that, the uncertainty lies in tracking its movement.
    ** Jan 9 : Aftershocks continue in the Solomon Islands, and one was a magnitude 6.3 today, with Venus half a degree from the center of the backside of the sun.

  • Icy hazards persist through U.S. The unyielding cold spell gripping much of the nation was expected to hang on tight over the weekend, though some areas that saw snowfall during the week were expected to have drier weather. The National Weather Service said 5 to 7 inches of snow was expected across western Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas, it has snowed every day since New Year's, a stretch that meteorologists say is unusual.
    Snowfall was heaviest in Minnesota and parts of South Dakota, where some drifts were too big for snowplow drivers to clear. In Mobile, Ala., hit by a rare arctic chill on the coast, a Salvation Army spokesperson said shelters were "filled to the brim." One that normally holds up to 28 homeless men a night has been averaging 115 in recent days, she said. Coldest spot: Nowhere was it colder than in Bismarck, N.D., where wind chills hit 52 below zero Thursday and the temperature reached 14 below. Wind chills were still near 50 below in the Dakotas for a second day.

  • Jan 9: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.5 occurred about 25 miles southwest of Eureka, Calif., at 4:27 p.m.!!

    ** Jan 10 : Cold snap cripples South. The great American freeze continues, bringing unexpected snow and ice to many parts of the country.

  • Jan 11: Superior conjunction of Venus to the sun - Venus passes behind the sun.
  • Jan 15: Solar eclipse.

    * Jan 11 - Harsh freeze hits Florida's citrus groves. Orange Juice Futures Tumble at Open.

    *** Jan 12 - A magnitude 7 quake has occurred in Haiti, and has been followed by 5.5 and 5.9 aftershocks. This quake is the largest known to hit the area.

    "We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies. We anticipate there will be between 100,00 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number," Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, the Caribbean country's interior minister, told Reuters on Friday. Granted the casualty figures are accurate, the 7.0 magnitude quake that hit Haiti on Tuesday would be declared as one of the 10 deadliest earthquakes ever recorded. The tsunami in Dec 2004 killed 225,000 people.

    2005

    Near the top of this page, I mentioned the moon/Saturn conjunction as an earthquake marker; here is an image of the planets for December 26, 2004, the day of the magnitude 9.1 quake and tsunami. That was the third largest modern earthquake. You will note that it was a full moon, Mercury was conjoining Venus, just before the moon conjoined Saturn. Notice that with three aspects happening together, it would be difficult to determine the exact time of these events.

  • Looking at the perigee table below we see that in 2005 the perigee was within one hour of the new moon on Jan 10th, making that the early tidal peak for the year. That means that the quake and tsunami occurred 15 days before the tidal peak that year, while this year the Haiti quake has occurred 18 days before the tidal peak. In 2008 the killer quake in China (2008 05 12 - Eastern Sichuan, China - M 7.9 Fatalities 87,587) happened on May 12, while the tides peaked on June 3 (Jun 3 13:09 357250 km N- 6h ) when the perigee was within 6 hours of the new moon.

    You will want to recall that 2005 was the year of Katrina, and was the last time that California saw quakes over magnitude 6. Following the quake and tsunami, California saw what was called the 'storm of the century' on Jan 10th, 2005. This year, the tides peak the second time on September 8th, the statistical peak of the hurricane season.

    *** See this Jan 18 article entitled California readies for onslaught of storms which says that "The weather service is predicting that this will likely be the wettest week in Southern California since early 2005."