First: here is another review of the weak tornadoes that occurred on Tuesday of this week, NWS Green Bay webpage. Our very own Megan Syner went out and surveyed the damage in northern Marathon county and found a few trees knocked down. Here is one of the pictures:

Earlier this week I was talking about some 90 degree heat. It still looks like 90 is possible but a little later than first expected. At one point it looked like the "hot and muggy" was arriving on Saturday, now it looks like it might hold off until Monday. The wind will remain out of the west or northwest until then and that means relatively low humidity from today through Saturday. Temps will be in the comfortable low to mid 80s range today and tomorrow, then rise into the mid to upper 80s on Saturday and Sunday. I would be forecasting 90 or greater as early as Sunday but it looks like there will be a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday and that could put a lid on the temperature rise. If Monday turns out as expected, it could be the warmest day of the year and the first 90 degree day of the year for Wausau. The heat index could be close to 100 in the southern part of the area. The good news is that the heat will not last too long. A cold front moving in from the north late Monday will produce a chance of thunderstorms and reduce the temps a bit by Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. With such high heat and humidity, there will likely be a good chance of severe weather on Sunday, Monday, and maybe lingering into Tuesday.

Energy News:

When the high price of oil and gas first hit after hurricane Katrina in 2005 I told my wife that I was not going to pay $3.00 a gallon for gas. I bought a bicycle and have been saving about 30 bucks a month in gas costs ever since. Over the last year or two, I have seen a lot more bicycles and mopeds on the the road. There are even a couple people driving electric cars in Northcentral Wisconsin. Even the people who wasted a couple years complaining and encouraging politicians to sue oil companies (a completely worthless activity that will do more harm than good), are now finally doing what they should have in the beginning – driving less! Not only that, more people are using public transportation – such as buses. An interesting thing about the bus story, check out this quote:

Bus-based public transit has been hit especially hard by the sharp rise in diesel fuel costs. This has kept static the supply of hard plastic bus seats, while demand grows like the ear hair of the guy sitting next to you on the cross-town express. "High gas prices are really a double-edge sword," Virginia Miller, spokeswoman for the American Public Transportation Association, told The Christian Science Monitor. "While they are bringing more people to ride buses and trains all across the country, public transit agencies are facing challenges to meet their costs."

That has some systems raising fares or cutting service. Nearly half of the metro bus operators the association surveyed have increased fares. Nearly one in five have reduced service.

When demand goes up and the supply is limited, it is natural for the price (fares) to go up. If the price of fuel goes up, it is natural for fares to go up. What about reducing service? If you were in this situation, and your business was booming from increased demand, what would you do? What would Apple do if everyone wanted a Mac and were willing to pay a higher price? If you said – make more computers go the the head of the class. You get a gold star! If you owned an airline and you didn’t have enough seats/planes to go around because there was so much demand for your service, what would you do? If you answered add more planes to your fleet, go to the head of the class. What does a public transportation system do? Cut back service. According to the article above 1 in 5 metro bus services have cut back service! Just when the public is demanding more access to bus services, just when the public needs more bus service, the public system fails. Leave to government to shut down bus service just when people need it the most.

On a more positive note, solar power production is increasing in the U.S. Some people have speculated that solar power is following Moore’s law and will become much cheaper in the next few years. Others have said that there are many hurdles solar power is not following Moore’s law and we will not see a rapid reduction in cost over the next few years. It seems much of the speculation revolves around whether thin-film solar will become the dominant form of photovoltaic.

One of the other types of alternative energy that I am keeping an eye on is tidal power. This has been around for quite a while but has not made a "big splash" (pun intended). Marine Current Technologies has just connected the world’s first tidal power generator to the grid in Northern Ireland. Call me skeptical but most of these tidal power generators have not panned out. The problem stems from the ocean being such a harsh and corrosive environment. There are also a lot of living things that like to congregate on structures in the ocean and these cause problems as well. I wish MCT the best of luck but the track record for tidal power is not superb.

Lastly, how about a nice viewer photograph. This one was sent in by Denise Larson of Wisconsin Rapids.

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After yesterday afternoon’s tornado touchdowns, the state tornado count for the year is up to 31 and possibly 32 if a touchdown can be confirmed near Wabeno.  As Justin previously blogged, one of the tornadoes skipped across northern Marathon County touching down at least a couple of times.  Another tornado touched down briefly in Wood County, 6 miles north of Pittsville.  Thankfully all touchdowns where weak and brief, causing minimal damage. 

Yesterday’s storms certainly created a challenge to forecasters.  Each tornado formed in very small supercell- like storm.  After analyzing yesterday’s tornadic activity…extremely high low-level moisture seems to be the key ingredient.  We had a very typical set up… dry air clashing with very moist air.  Dew points skyrocketed yesterday into the middle 70′s… a rare occurrence for northern Wisconsin.  Generally in all tornadic storms a strong updraft is needed.  The updraft feeds off the moisture near the surface, eventually creating low lying(scud) clouds.  If the updraft becomes strong enough, a very small yet intense area of low pressure forms.  This is when the low-lying clouds form in into an intense counter-clockwise rotating funnel.  The thing with yesterday’s storms was i have seen much stronger cells, with much stronger rotation never drop a tornado…many many times.  Every thunderstorm is unique in its on way.  But each tornadic thunderstorm cell yesterday was visually similar and relatively small in size.  We had some decent wind shear, but instability from the amount of surface moisture played the biggest role.  This in turn caused a challenge, because at times radar storm velocities indicated little rotation when in fact tornadoes where touching down.  This was the case with the Wood County touchdown.  Observing radar rain reflectivity was much more useful showing classic hook-signatures.  More than anything public, spotter, and law enforcement reports help a ton, so thank you folks.

Here is an radar analysis of each of the storms done by the national weather service..

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

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Multiple tornado touchdowns were the big story in the weather yesterday. Thankfully they were all weak and did not cause much damage, anyway, we haven’t received any reports of significant damage as of yet. Here are the reports that made it to the SPC. Two confirmed touchdowns in northern Marathon county about 5 miles north-northwest and 5 miles north-northeast of Brokaw. Here is a photograph of the ominous storm as it crossed Highway 51 just north of Brokaw. Picture taken by Ben Marten: The low hanging cloud is probably not a tornado but there may have been a small funnel in the vicinity, perhaps below the tree line. A farmer a bit farther east in the town of Hewitt (maybe the town of Texas) captured video of the tornado as it made a brief touchdown. You can view the video by going to this webpage on waow.com Take a look at the video player on the right hand side and click on #2. There you will find the raw video. I was lucky enough to intercept this storm as it moved further east into the town of Hewitt. By that time there was no tornado but funnel clouds were forming periodically and you can see the wall cloud-type structure in these videos. I hope you are able to view these. I took them with my digital camera and they are in the .MOV format. Download funnel_video_1_07292008.MOV Download funnel_video_2_07292008.MOV

There was also a funnel cloud and perhaps a tornado touchdown in Wood County a few miles north of Pittsville. I am still working on getting some pictures and video of this particular storm.

The third tornado touchdown occurred in or near Wabeno in southern Forest county. No pictures of this particular storm yet either and no reports of significant damage.

The thunderstorms were quite small but they were supercells. Maybe we could call them mini supercells. Given the small size, it was unlikely that any of these tornadoes would have become stronger than an EF1 on the Fujita scale, but even short-lived tornadoes such as these should be taken seriously as they can cause damage and fatalities (particularly from flying debris).

The severe weather is done for a while now. Today and tomorrow will be very nice summer days with lower humidity and high temps in the low to mid 80s. The next chance of thunderstorms will be late Thursday night and during the day on Friday as a warm front moves into the area. Temps will warm up into the mid to upper 80s on Friday and could hit 90 on Saturday before dropping back a couple degrees on Sunday. There will also be another chance of thunderstorms on Sunday. On both Friday and Sunday there will be a slight risk of severe weather.

It looks like we have a winner in our office forecast contest (how many 90 degree days during the month of July?). It is our intern Eric who forecast 2 90 degree days in July and was the closest. Officially we have not yet hit 90 here in Wausau this year.

Lastly, finally, as promised, here are a couple of pictures of my lemon tree and my orange tree. The lemon tree is 4 and a half years old and is outgrowing it’s pot. The orange tree is only a year and a half and had a mold problem last year so it is still a bit stunted.

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One thing nice about this summer is that I have not used air conditioning as of yet. I don’t have central air so when the hot weather develops I put a window unit in the bedroom. It has been warm and humid enough on a couple of nights for my wife to be a little uncomfortable, but not yet bad enough to put in the window unit. I was thinking I might be able to go the entire summer without putting the air in, but this weekend will test the limits. I don’t know if I will be able to get by with just fans. We’ll see. How hot will it be. On Friday or Saturday we could hit 90 for the first time this year in Wausau. It will also be quite humid. Our only saving grace might be a few thunderstorms on Friday or Saturday. A few more clouds or a little wet weather could keep the mercury below 90.

Before we get to Friday and Saturday we have to get through today. It will be quite humid with thunderstorms likely in the northwoods this morning and then in central Wisconsin around mid-afternoon. Some of the thunderstorms could produce high winds or hail. You can get all the latest weather information by checking the weather page at waow.com , or you can check Storm Prediction Center website from time-to-time. The weather should clear up by late afternoon or early evening, making for nice conditions at the Wisconsin Valley Fair. The weather will also be quite nice for Fair-goers on Wednesday and Thursday before the heat and humidity return late in the week.

AGW News:

All kinds of AGW news has been hitting the wires lately and I will try to cover most of it. Yet another study has come out detailing the billions and billions of dollars of damages to different states in the U.S. Most of the problems have to do with rising ocean waters and drier conditions/water shortages in the interior U.S., especially in the West. These studies always make it seem like it is the end of the world, but how bad will it really be? Most AGW "experts" claim that all the warming that occurred from 1900 up until the present day has been because of humans (AGW). During this time the oceans have risen a bit and temps have gone up about a half degree across the planet (although the amount of temperature change varies from region to region and the half degree number is in dispute). Also during the time frame humans as a whole have experienced unprecedented prosperity with levels of poverty and hunger going down in the last 2 or 3 decades – the time when temps were being affected most by AGW. So historically speaking, it would seem as though AGW has had little effect on the economy of the world and perhaps has even been a net benefit. This could continue into the future with droughts and floods being offset by other positive developments (fair weather), or we could be near a tipping point, as many have argued where most of the effect going forward are nearly all negative (I kind-of doubt it myself).

With so much of the global consciousness focused on AGW, many solutions are being proposed and they don’t all involve extreme conservation – sacrificing progress and prosperity. A Canadian company has developed a way to trap carbon in concrete. Carbon Sense Solutions says that it can increase the carbon content of concrete by running carbon dioxide gas through the concrete while it is curing. This is of course a small amount of carbon dioxide as compared to the global output, but if it works and it is cheap, then why not. I think it is better to come up with new technology than force high carbon taxes on the world’s population.

…ok, some severe weather is occurring now so I’ll have to pick up this blog post again on Wednesday.

Meteorologist Justin Loew

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Well in Wausau we have yet to hit a 90 degree temperature this July or this summer for that matter.  Taking a look at this week’s forecast…we may just have one more shot before Friday the 1st of August.  Following tomorrow’s storm system, a surface high will push in from the west.  The upper level ridge will remain dominant over the west, continuing to bring scorching heat to the desert southwest.  The latest computer model runs begin to shift th surface high and the upper level ridge of high pressure eastward by Thursday.  This would allow decent warm air advection to the Great Lakes Region with winds out of the south west.  Thursday I am forecastin high temperatures in the middle to upper 80′s, yet if we see enough sun, 90 is not out of question.  We shall see….

So how rare is a non-90 degree summer?  We typically average around 3 90-degree days in the month of July alone.   And the last time we did not hit 90 once in an entire summer was in 2004.  The summer of 2004 was very cool.  Average high temperatures in May were nearly 5 degrees below average, followed by 3.4 degrees below average in June, -3.1 in July, and -5.3 in August.

Tonight and tomorrow we will also have to watch for the development of thunderstorms across the area, stay tuned to waow.com and tv9/34 for further updates.

Meteorologist

Brian Niznansky

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It was a great summer weekend across the area, in fact, I would rate it 10 out of 10. Temps were warm, the humidity was low, it rained on Friday afternoon and then ended up dry later Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. I hope everyone was able to get outside and enjoy it. Most of this July has been quite nice. The best part is that we have received enough rainfall. Sure it was nice over the last 5 years when we had drier than normal weather because there were more sunny weekends, however, it was hard for me to enjoy knowing how the farmers were suffering through the periodic droughts. This year we have experienced reasonable temps as well as sufficient precipitation. Temps have been so "reasonable" that we haven’t even endured on 90 degree day as of yet, which means I am not going to win the latest forecast contest in the weather office. The contest was to predict how many 90 degree days would occur in July. I forecast 5. Our intern Taylor picked 7. Megan went with 4. Brian projected 3. Our other intern Eric looks like the winner (for coming the closest) with a forecast of 2 90 degree days. In reality, it doesn’t look like we will hit 90 even once this July (officially in Wausau). If the skies would remain sunny on Tuesday we would have a chance, but it looks like there will be some clouds and a chance of thunderstorms so that should put a lid on temps. Wednesday will be close with high temps in the mid to upper 80s. Thursday will be slightly cooler than Wednesday. So it looks like our next best chance of hitting 90 will be over the weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday look to have the potential for high temps at least in the mid to upper 80s. Thunderstorms chances will be mainly on Tuesday and Friday with slight chances lingering into the weekend. It is the week of the Wisconsin Valley Fair so you know there has to be at least a couple hot humid days with chances of thunderstorms.

Space News:

There is a ton of AGW news to get to, as always, but I don’t want to bore you by mentioning everyday, so I decided to go with some space news tomorrow because today is the 50th anniversary of the creation of NASA. To get you up to speed on the big anniversary, Wired.com has a large spread about the agency on its front page, including this article about all of NASA’s achievements. Some of the interesting things I learned: NASA used to be called NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. The mission statement of NASA is "To improve life here, to extend life there, to find life beyond." To find life beyond, is one of the more exciting efforts. Here is a little trivia nugget I was aware of: What was the first word spoken when humans landed on the moon? The answer: Houston. The complete first phrase was "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

The writer of the article makes this odd statement near the end:

The idea that a few wealthy space enthusiasts could somehow supplant NASA and come anywhere near matching its achievements — ever — is laughable, or would be if it weren’t given so much credence in certain corners of the popular consciousness.

This is in reference to the budding private space industry that has garnered a lot of attention in the last couple years. I don’t think it is laughable to think private companies could achieve many of the things that NASA did. All the satellites, landing on the moon, the space shuttle, etc… were all mammoth accomplishments that no other organizations were able to achieve. The engineering feats were amazing for the materials they were working with and the technology that was available. What has changed in the present day is that more knowledge is available (open and free), more technology is available, and more manpower is available, for all the private space firms. They have the benefit of all that NASA has learned over the years. The playing field has leveled. Throw in the drive for profit, exploration, and excitement, and I might even say the private space firms are pulling ahead in some areas. Bigelow already has a small scale inflatable hotel in space. Virgin Galactic is on pace with their plans for suborbital flights. They are planning on unveiling WhiteKnight today. There is also speculation that WhiteKnight2 could make an appearance at EAA later this week. I am sure there will be a lot more information on this coming out tomorrow.

In other news: Phoenix is still having trouble scooping Martian dirt and analyzing it. I am still waiting to see some of the data from the analysis that has occurred thus far. Seems to be taking a while.

Lastly here is a cool photograph of some drops of water on a flower petal, taken by Roger Glocke of Tomahawk.

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Quiet weather is in store for Sunday once again with temperatures hovering in the lower 80s which is still seasonal for this time of year.  We still have yet to hit 90 degrees and I have to admit that I’m anxious to see what the Autumn season will bring, the pattern is bound to swich sometime!  You may have noticed some haze in the sky today and hazy sunshine is expected for Sunday as well.  The reason?  Well, smoke from a fire in southern Canada is pushing southeast into the Upper Midwest.  Since winds aloft are faster than winds at the surface (winds increase with height), a west-northwest wind will carry the smoke towards our area causing just some hazy conditions, but air quality should not be affected.  To check the latest air quality status from the Wisconsin DNR, go to this website!

A quick post for tonight but I came across these space articles that I thought you would be interested in! On August 1st, the first total solar eclipse in 2 years will take place.  Remember that the solar eclipse is the one that you cannot look directly into or else you can damage your eyes.  For more on the total solar eclipse coming up click on this news article!  There were a couple of other neat articles that I found too – one is on the secret of colorful auroras based on a study from NASA (I want to see these someday) and another is about the famous Perseids meteor shower that will be returning in August – there’s almost nothing better than watching shooting stars on a warm, summer night!  That is all for tonight, enjoy the articles and have a great night!

Meteorologist Megan Syner

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It was an interesting day across the area in terms of weather.  We started out with clouds and that kept the atmosphere fairly stable during the first half of the day but what surprised me is that as one area of storms moved into central Wisconsin, they were able to hold together and actually strengthen once they crossed Highway 39/51.  Why would this be the case?  Well, I guess one reason would be that the storms were feeding off of there own energy causing them to strengthen, another reason is that by midday, the morning clouds were thinning allowing the storms to build further.  Either way the morning convection set the stage for the later convection that would develop ahead of the main cold front.

This afternoon there were 2 distinct areas of storms, one area that developed near MSP and pushed into SW Wisconsin and another area that formed over far NW Wisconsin slid across a portion of the Northwoods during the evening.  The storms across the Northwoods did reach severe criteria with hail up 1" reported 1 mile north of Sugar Camp in Oneida county.  Up to half-inch hail was also reported in St. Germain and Crandon.  I think it is safe for me to say that central Wisconsin didn’t see much activity because the atmosphere was just too stable due in part to the morning convection that passed through.

Things have quieted down significantly and drier air will continue to push in behind the cold front.  The weekend is shaping up great, especially Saturday where less humid conditions and lots of sunshine will prevail.  Sunday will feature a mix of sun and clouds with an isolated shower or thunderstorm possible south of Highway 10 as a weak wave of low pressure passes by.

Also of note, there was a deadly tornado in the Northeastern U.S.  To read more about click on this link!  That is all for tonight, have a great weekend!

Meteorologist Megan Syner

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An update today on the strange ring seen in the sky in Athens on Wednesday evening (scroll down to yesterday’s blog post for pictures). Yesterday I suspected it was either a swarm of insects or some sort of smoke. If I had known the ring was 300 feet in diameter I would have ruled out bugs. It turns out it was a type of pyrotechnic (fireworks) called "dragon’s breath". You can find more details on the new waow.com. You can think of it the same way you think of blowing smoke rings with cigar smoke – except this is on a bigger scale – fired by electricity.

What you see in the sky today is a lot of low grey clouds. Eventually this afternoon the clouds should break up a little and allow temps to rise into the low 80s. A cold front moving in from the northwest will produce a 40% chance of thunderstorms from mid afternoon through around sunset. There is a slight risk of severe weather but this could be tempered a bit if the low grey clouds hang around awhile longer than expected. Any rain should clear up after sunset and Saturday should be quite nice with plenty of sunshine. Another weak cold front will move through Northcentral Wisconsin on Sunday and produce a slight chance of thunderstorms, then more high pressure should keep things dry on Monday. As most people would expect, it looks like warmer and more humid weather will return next week just in time for the Wisconsin Valley Fair. High temps will be in the low to mid 80s for most of the fair and there will be a couple chances of thunderstorms Wednesday and Thursday.

Energy News:

There has been a large variety of energy news piling up over the last few days so I am going to briefly touch on a few of them.

Have you ever heard of thermoelectrics? These are materials that generate electricity from heat (or more specifically a temperature gradient). Sounds great doesn’t it. Researchers from Ohio State University have made a breakthough by creating more efficient thermoelectrics. Still, they are just barely efficient enough to be practical for everyday use – like making electricity from the heat that comes off your car engine. There are other drawbacks as well. The thermoelectrics are made out of telluride and thallium which are very expensive and somewhat toxic. Thermoelectrics will continue to have important niche applications but don’t expect them to help out with high energy prices.

Ethanol has been in the news a lot this year – first as the liquid fuel that was going to save us and then as the government sponsored boondoggle that wasted taxpayer money and caused the price of food go up. This is GRAIN ethanol we are talking about. Maybe grain ethanol is not the best bet, and you would think waste based ethanol (from agricultural by-products, wood chips, and sawdust) would be better. This article describes some of the newest developments in waste based ethanol. Apparently there are 28 new plants coming online in the U.S. I wonder if the old wood products plant in Park Falls is going to make ethanol? Anyway, are there any unintended consequences not being though of when it comes to waste-based ethanol. I can’t think of too many right now except that the material being used to make the ethanol used to go into compost. It used to return to the soil. I am not sure if not having the compost would be a significant negative consequence, but it is something to consider.

We could always live more efficiently. Just when you think you have squeezed every last penny from conserving, here come some new home designs called smart homes. As mentioned in the article the main prohibitive aspect of this type of home is the cost (isn’t that always the case when it comes to new technology). The only thing I don’t like about the design is that the house it completely airtight. I like at least a little natural air flow through my house.

More on the conservation side of things – once again we have an article espousing eating less as a way to help with the energy squeeze. This time it comes from the angle that it takes less energy to grow vegetables than it takes to grow meat. If this is so – why are vegetables so darn expensive – I can’t figure that one out.  I know there are a lot of overweight Americans but even I was surprised that the average American eats over 3,700 calories a day. Yikes! Double Yikes! The average person only needs 2000 to 2500 calories a day. Even when I am working out at the gym and trying to put on muscle I barely get up to 4,000 calories per day. Anyway, as if you haven’t heard it a thousand times before, keeping your weight down is extremely beneficial in multiple ways. Ok, so you could save energy through the agricultural process, you will also save because it takes less gas to haul you around if you drop a few pounds. Research has also shown that carrying less weight helps stave most age related diseases. People who exercise are smarter, have a more positive mood, sleep better, etc… The list goes on forever.

What about vertical greenhouses? This is an idea that has been tossed around for a few years but never gets too much traction. Take a look at the article to see some artists conceptions of what these "towers of green" would look like. The idea is to save money by building skyscraper greenhouses within big cities – that way you don’t have to pay so much in transportation costs. One of the architects from the article claims that a 30 story tower could feed 50,000 people. I doubt it. I don’t think these designers have ever grown a plant. Most fruits and vegetables we eat require "full sun" to grow. Within a skyscraper, the only side that gets full sun is the south, and each new floor or level of the tower covers up the one below it. When you go to a greenhouse, what do you see? The roof is mostly transparent in order to allow in the sun. If a vertical greenhouse was built, it would have to be built at an angle – each additional level would have to be offset to the north in order to allow sun onto the lower level and thus it would not be efficient use of space within crowded cities.

Lastly, here is a blog post about one of the "forgotten" aspects of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In order for wide adoption – they have to look cool.

Have a great weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew

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Here is something you don’t see everyday: Click on the images for a larger view. What the heck is that? By the way, thanks to Jay Ellenbecker and Bruce Wassman of Athens for sending the pictures in. Many people in Athens saw this ring start out as a small mushroom cloud type structure near the ground before rising up into the air and forming a ring. Right now I am 50/50 as to whether it is smoke or if it is a swarm of small insects. The ring lasted about 10 minutes before dissipating. It is unusual for smoke to last so long but it is also unusual for insects to swarm in such a uniform manner. According to Brian Niznansky, one person called in last night and claimed it was from fireworks. I couldn’t say for sure because I was not there. Something else that would help is if someone had video of the event.

I doubt we will see any smoke/insect rings in the air today because there will be a bit more wind out of the southwest. The wind will bring in a bit more humidity tonight and tomorrow as well as warmer temps. High temps on Friday will reach the low to mid 80s. A cold front moving through the area tomorrow afternoon and evening will produce a 50% chance of thunderstorms, some of which could be severe. After the front moves through it looks like very nice weather once again for the weekend. The humidity should go down and the weather should be dry. High temps will be in the low 80s on Saturday and in the upper 70s on Sunday.

Space News:

In the recent past I have reported on the retiring Space Shuttle and the new Orion Crew Capsule being developed by NASA. There is another story in the background that hasn’t made much news and that is the effort to build an alternative rocket to launch the Orion Crew Capsule. Apparently a few engineers at NASA are unsatisfied with the current rocket under development and they are privately working on an alternate design that will be safer and more functional (or so they say). I think it is great that they are taking this initiative, just as long as it is not taking up double the tax money.

Also, the Mars Phoenix lander mission might be extended an extra 30 Martian days.. It was only designed to last 90 martian days, but is doing quite well so far. While we are waiting for some of the science results, here is an article with a nice picture of the winter sun on the Martian horizon.

Meteorologist Justin Loew

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