A SUNNY DAY IN THE HOOD

Tofino Wildlife

The Fall storms have started! If you’re a big storm watcher…..get your butt over here and you better bring your Tofino Tuxedo!

We have biblical rain at the moment with no end in sight! So if we submerge at least you’ll know where I’ll be floating!

Imagine that all of this is caused by the sun! The sun heats our atmosphere up creating huge wind storms!

All light is composed of little bundles of energy called “Photons”. Our orbit is roughly about 93 million miles from the sun. It takes a single photon about 500 seconds to get from the sun to earth. That photon hits your cheek and so you feel the warmth of that energy! That energy heats up the earth’s atmosphere which causes movement! That movement is transferred into the ocean. The ocean is in motion!

Question?…….If it takes 500 seconds for light to get to Earth, how long do you think it takes for that photon to get from where it was created (centre of the sun) to the sun’s surface?

Now,that’s a bit of a trick question,because I haven’t read anywhere two single sources agreeing on the amount of time? So the answer is somewhere between 5000 and 100,000 years!

Incredible to ponder to be honest! Imagine the next time your out in the sun and you feel the warmth of the sun. That energy was created long before everything in human history had happened and than some!

Also, consider this……….when that particle leaves the sun’s surface it has to go through the corona (the sun’s atmosphere) which for some strange reason is much hotter than the surface?

One day (maybe 5 billion years?) the sun’s fuel will begin to run out and the sun will begin to expand! It will expand so large that it will consume all of the planets!

I’d call that a bad day in the hood.

55 thoughts on “A SUNNY DAY IN THE HOOD”

  3. Very impressive crash in your awesome photo, Wayne! Is that a lighthouse in the far background behind those thunderous waves? And judging from your very illuminating commentary, time to stock up on SPF 9000 for us fair skinned earthlings!

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      1. Thanks Wayne. Those crashing waves are stunning. Do your videos ever capture the audio of the surf pounding against the rocks?

      3. Thanks Wayne. Those crashing waves are stunning. Do your videos ever capture the audio of the surf pounding against the rocks? 5 million years would take a visit to the Fountain of Youth!

      5. Thanks Wayne. Billion Million they’re both way too many zeroes. Supposedly the fossil record shows that Herons have been around for 40 million years. I wonder what they’ll look like in 40 billion? Planet earth itself…

  8. Oh, aren’t you cheery about the sun swallowing up the planets ! But interesting information about protons travelling through the sun and travelling to earth. I love the thought of a proton warming my cheek. Great capture of the storm waves.

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  10. Loved the picture – the ocean in a storm is so powerful! I personally am glad I will not be around to see the supernova of the sun, but if our kind survives, we may be living far way by then!

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  12. Wayne, you would make a good science teacher. Not only do you come equipped with jaw dropping pictures but you provide facts followed by thought provoking questions that would lead to an interesting class discussion.

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  16. Wow – those crashing waves and a dark sky with a hint of sun peeking through. This is a great photo – lots of action. You were brave to go out close to those wicked-looking waves!

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      1. That’s a very smart idea Wayne – given the surge and strength of that wave and spray, it would have knocked you over, or at the very least done some damage to your camera.

  17. These photos are amazing Wayne, it surely makes one think about how all this happens. I am down here on the Gulf Coast and they were predicting gale force winds a few days ago. I thought they would be like what you are seeing. But it was not quite like that. But I am noticing more about how the tides come and go. It is different every day and does make one think, how does all this happen.

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    1. thats interesting you mentioned the tides Sandra.
      As you are already aware, the tides are created by the pull of the sun/moon upon the earths water.(both salt and fresh)
      If you could somehow observe from space, you would see a bulge of the oceans on the side closest to the sun and on the opposite side. Both of these bulges do not move, they remain in place.
      Having said that, we simply pass through both bulges each day.

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      1. That is so interesting Wayne, thank you. Today we crossed the bridge, the weather and sunlight appear to be the same as the last time we crossed the bridge, to the naked eye, but today was completely different with more sand bars showing up and birds landing on them. Amazing how it is so different.

      2. I live by the tides here in Tofino. I actually wear a Tide watch.
        The tides are not always the same, they do vary. If we did not have the moon orbiting around us, the tides would be the same each day.

  18. Maybe the corona heat thing is like the hottest part of a candle flame being just above the actual flame … although I don’t know why that is either. :D … probably something to do with excited electrons! :)

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