Rain Train

For the past two weeks, upper level low pressure has settled over west Texas and western Oklahoma, pumping a steady stream of moisture north...

Ohio's Black Hand Region

A thick bed of sandstone stretches through east-central and south-central Ohio. Deposited in shallow seas and along river deltas of the Mis...

Two Hundred Years

From the perspective of our short life spans, we often assume that the assembly and formation of our continents and oceans were events of th...

Killer Heat

Now that the first heat wave of the summer is moving through the Northeast, we will soon be hearing about heat-related deaths in our major c...

Dog Day Cicadas

After several weeks of hot, humid weather, the annual cicadas are beginning to emerge in central Missouri. Unlike their periodic cousins, wh...

Settling Down

While humans evolved 125,000 years ago and had spread to six of the continents by 15-20,000 years ago, we did not establish towns and cities...

Stranded

After several weeks of hot weather and little rainfall, the Forum Nature Area wetland, in southwest Columbia, is drying up. An expansive, s...

Life on the Wing

The magnificent frigatebird, also called the hurricane bird or the Man O' War bird, spends almost all of its life in the air. Landing in...

Front Range Summer

As spring gives way to summer, the weather along Colorado's Front Range enters a predictable pattern. Daytime heating on the Piedmont ca...

Summer Solstice

Today is the summer solstice, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The changing seasons are ...

The Okefenokee

The broad basin that now holds the Okefenokee Swamp, in southeast Georgia, was an arm of the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the Mesozoic Era. ...

High, Dry and Fractured

The Great Basin of western North America stretches from the crest of the Sierra Nevada to the summit of the Wasatch Plateau and from souther...

Fireflies

Adult fireflies have reappeared in the dusk sky of mid Missouri this week. Members of the beetle family, over 2000 species inhabit our plane...

Fathers

In the great majority of animal species, the male parent's respon-sibilities end with fertilization; unfortunately, some human males adh...

The Great Dunes

The Great Sand Dunes of the San Luis Valley, now protected within a National Park, are a relatively new feature of Colorado's landscape....

Wild Borders

Most of us have planted trees and shrubs to beautify our property, provide shade or attract wildlife; sometimes they thrive and sometimes th...

Weather and Climate

The peak of the snowmelt season, a heavy mountain snowpack and an exceptionally wet spring have all combined to produce the highest flow in ...

Flying Mammals

A pair of little brown bats zig-zagged above our farm last evening, feasting on mosquitos, moths and other flying insects. Locating their p...

Man and Religion

Ever since man spread through southern Africa and dispersed across the globe, he has had plenty to fear. Storms, wild animals and hostile tr...

Brushpiles

One of the best ways to attract wildlife to your yard is to create a brushpile. We have several on our Littleton farm and they are often th...

The Verdant Plains

Driving back to our Colorado farm, it soon became apparent how much last winter's heavy snows and this spring's ongoing rains have t...

The Toba Winter

The eruption of the Toba Volcano, 74,000 years ago, was the largest in the last 2 million years. This "supervolcanic eruption" eje...

Big Sky, Short Grass

West of the 100th Meridian, the Great Plains of North America become semiarid. The rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains, higher elevations and...

The Blue Bird

One of my earliest memories is of a bright blue bird in the shrubs behind our Cincinnati home. Five or six at the time, I remember wonderin...

Tropical Savior

Tropical Storm Barry was a godsend for Florida, southern Georgia and the Southeast Coast, bringing 2-10 inches of rain to the area and putti...

Dragonflies

Part of our natural world for 300 million years, dragonflies patrolled the primordial swamps and coal forests of the Pennsylvanian Period. ...

Hurricane Stuntmen

Today is the first day of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which extends into mid November. These will be cherished months for travelling wea...