Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Weather

  • Glorious Day for Flying

    I got so excited about my walk through Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood that I got a little ahead of myself in the story. I should probably back up a bit. Let’s start with the airline flight that brought me to this wonderful spot along the Charles River. A nor’easter blew through last week bringing bitter…

  • Today, a Town Dies

    Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Picher, Oklahoma died. Rest in peace. We’ve all heard of ghost towns, those places of lost hope and faded glory, of abandonment, dejection and crumbling ruins. It’s not merely a relic of a distant past. Modern day ghost towns also join the spectral realm while their inhabitants scatter for safer harbors.…

  • “Ya gotta be jokin’ – No we’re not!”

    “Ya gotta be jokin’ – No we’re not!” proclaims the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, the self-determined Worlds most exclusive Yacht Club, where only people who have actually skippered their own vessel on the lake surface can attain full membership. This becomes an extremely daunting task under the best of conditions. Additionally, conditions only allow it…

  • A Week in Maine, Part II

    We set up shop in the town of Rockland, in the heart of Maine’s midcoast region (map). This is a great staging point for daylong excursions up and down the waterfront, and out among the scattered islands accessible only by ferry. Days are pleasant, nights are cool, and light ocean breezes refresh the soul. I’ve…

  • …and Swains Island

    I came across a document for a government program recently that restricted its eligibility to “All United States citizens and nationals (residents of American Samoa and Swains Island).” In the United States all citizens are nationals. However, not all nationals are citizens so the distinction needs to be clarified parenthetically. Truly it’s not an issue…

  • Southernmost Northern Permafrost

    Permafrost is defined as soil that maintains a temperature at or below freezing for two complete summers and an intervening winter. Actual “frost” doesn’t need to be present. Also the extent of permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere varies dramatically. It depends on many factors including topography, seasonal weather patterns, and permanent climate change. There are…

  • England’s Desert

    England has a desert? When I think desert, I normally envision cacti, sand, camels and that sort of thing, but that’s an inaccurate and stereotypical point of view. A desert doesn’t require scorching heat. Antarctica qualifies as a desert. Some sources even claim that even England has a desert. It is located at Dungeness, a…

  • To Hel and Back

    Poland’s Hel Peninsula is an odd strip of sand jutting 35 kilometres into the Baltic Sea (map). It cradles the Bay of Puck along its inward side. At its widest point near the tip it reaches perhaps 3 kilometres. However, it slims down to a diminutive 300 metres or less across much of its length.…

  • Florida’s Southern Keys, Part I

    I’ll start off by saying that there’s a special place in heaven for those who leave unsecured WiFi connections open and available for public use. I thought I’d be totally disconnected from the outside world except for an occasional traipsing down to an Internet cafe but for an unknown Good Samaritan. Thank you stranger. You’ve…

  • Ice Melts, Border Changes

    Borders based on natural features cannot last forever. Topography changes over time, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but invariably it happens. You may have seen a recent article that appeared in CNN, Melting glaciers in Alps forcing Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders, that proves this point. It’s a fascinating account although the headline is…