<–Picture taken from the International Space Station of a thunderstorm (anvil) over Africa in Feb. 2008. The article said the top of the storm reached to 75,000 feet above the ground! You can see the shadow cast by the storm and the overshooting top. Click on the picture twice to enlarge, or view the picture and article here.  Check out the schedule to view the ISS when it flies close enough to see here in Michigan.

<–mobile home destroyed by 100 mph winds near Childress, Texas.  Winds of over 100 mph hit the Childress, Texas area Wednesday evening 7/29/09. A gust of 102 mph was measured at the Childress ASOS weather station. At least three people wereinjured. Trees were toppled, buildings damaged or destroyed and a train was blown on its side. There was also a swath of large hail 2.5 miles wide that damage crops.  The high winds hit at 10:29 PM, when it was dark and when some people were already asleep.  The town sounded the tornado sirens after a police office sitting in the WalMart parking lot said his patrol car was literally lifted off the ground.  At the hospital, patients were moved into interior halls.  The storm broke off rooftop air conditioning units and broke gas lines.  In June 2008, the town was hit by 100 mph winds that broke nearly ever east-facing (that’s right, EAST!) window in town.  In May 2006, an EF3 tornado collapsed a wall and took off the roof of the Childress High School gym, and destroyed a city maintenance barn and a $200,000 emergency operations vehicle.

We’ll be watching the thermometer very carefully today, as Grand Rapids is on the verge of setting an all-time temperature record!  If the high temperature today is 80 degrees or cooler, the average for the month will end up at 67.1 degrees.  If the temperature makes it to 81 degrees or higher, then we will tie the current record of 67.2 degrees (which has been standing since 1992)

By the way, it’s been a bright month considering how cool the overall temperature pattern has been.  Grand Rapids has recorded 63% of available sunshine, near normal for the month.  Only two days (July 1 & 2) have featured complete cloud cover!

A tornado touched down in Cordova, TN near Memphis, TN around 5 PM Thursday afternoon.  The tornado path was at least five miles long.  They have some great video of a tornado passing right in frong of a reporter in his newsvan. You can see transformers blowing out.  You may have to look around the site to find the video.  Look at the damage on this video! They had video of a tornado coming right across the road in front of them…transformers blowing out…truck flipped, part of the roof off a Kohl’s store.  Storm damage pictures from the Memphis area here.  Here’s a nice picture of the wall cloud.   Looks like maybe an EF2.  Olive Branch, Mississippi reports homes destroyed by a tornado this PM.  Two injuries in Grove Hill, AL. and at least one injury in the Cordova, TN. tornado.  Finally, a happy ending to a lost dog story.

<–Live radar of W. Michigan.  Showers moving in from Lake Michigan are fizzling.  They had 3/4-mile visibility in heavy rain at Waukegan IL, but as expected, the storms weakened over the lake.  They’ll be gone by daybreak more than likely.    Late this afternoon a tornado was reported in Capron, IL – near the Boone-McHenry Co. line.  Spotters reported gusts to 82 mph, nickel-sized hail and tree debris in the air!    More on the Illinois tornado from WREX here.   There’s a lot of concerts tonight (Beatles revival at the Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival), so come back here to check the radar.  The showers tonight will be mostly light and scattered.  Here’s Chicago radar.     Here’s GRR NWS radar, Great Lakes radar, SPC Meso-Discussions, Current Tornado & Severe T-Storm Watches, Storm Total Rainfall, latest surface observations, lightning data, GRR NWS discussion, Visible Satellite loop (daytime), Infrared Satellite Loop (night), Here’s Milwaukee NWS radar.

Seattle set an all-time record high temperature on Wednesday at 103. That broke the old record of 100 set back in 1994. Temperature records in Seattle go back to 1891. Other record temps. Wednesday in NW Washington included 105 at Sand Point, 104 in Olympia and an all-time record 96 in Bellingham. Many homes and businesses don’t have air conditioning, which has made things tough on residents. Temperatures will be hot today and a little cooler tomorrow.

More cast details released for “The Genesis Code”

Three more recognizable names coming to West Michigan to be part of the cast of “The Genesis Code”: veterans actors Lance Henriksen and Rance Howard and veteran actress Catherine Hicks.

Veteran movie bad guy Lance Henriksen will play “Dr. Hoffer”, Henricksen recently starred in ”Appaloosa” (2008) and played a minor part in “The Quick and the Dead” (1995) amoung others.

Rance Howard, the father of Ron and Clint Howard, and recently starred in “Angels & Demons” (2009) and “Frost/Nixon” (2008) will play “Dr. Tolley”.

Catherine Hicks who may be most best known most recently as the mom on “7th Heaven”, and also starred in “Child’s Play” (1988) and “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) will play “Myra”.

The main characters of “Blake” and “Kelsey” will be played by Logan Bartholomew (parts on “CSI” and “Ghost Whisperer”) and Kelsey Sanders (parts on “CSI” and “iCarly”).

The rest of the cast includes: C.R. Lewis will play “Shane”, Adam Chambers (”Night of the Living Dead 3D” (2006) and parts on “CSI”, “ER”) will play “Marc”, Jerry Zandstra (Pastor at Wayland CRC) will play “Rev. Wells”,
Michael William Freeman (”parts on “The Mentalist”, “Bones”, “The Closer”) will play “Chase”, Ben Murphy (tv parts inclduing ”JAG” and “Navy NCIS”) will play “Professor Campbell”, Jamie Kramer will play “Michaele”, Chris Yen will play “Lin Chen”, and Roger Garcia (bailiff on “Days of Our Lives” 1997-2007) will play “court clerk”.

Louise Fletcher will play Ellen Taylor
Ernest Borgnine will play Carl Taylor
Rich Franklin will play Coach Edwards
Fred Thompson will play Judge Hardin

First casting news 7/28/09:

The first batch of casting news is coming out today for “The Genesis Code”, with three acting heavyweights and a middleweight… a middlewight fighter that is.

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<–Badwater Basin, the lowest spot in North America, 282 feet below sea level. In the summer months Death Valley, California is the hottest place in North America. With the mean upper-level ridge over the Western U.S., this month has been unusually hot.  The average temperature for the month has been 104.7° (that’s an average of all the high and low temperatures) and that is 4.2 warmer than average.   Temperatures have stayed above 90° at night each of the past seven nights.  The high temperatures this month have been between 115° and 128°.   Thirty-one of the last 32 days have brought above normal temperatures.  The average yearly rainfall at Badwater Basin is about two inches and they haven’t had any measurable rain since Feb. 16.  In 1929 no measurable rain fell at Death Valley and there was a 40-month stretch from 1931-34 when only 0.64″ of rain was recorded.  The hottest temperature ever was 134° back on July 10, 1934 and in 1917 they recorded 43 consecutive days with high temperatures above 120° and 52 total days above 120° for the season.  For anyone really into self-torture, the Ultramarathon run in mid-July is a 135-mile NON-STOP run that starts in the heat at Badwater Basin and goes up 13,000 feet of total vertical climb to end on Mt. Whitney.   And there is NO PRIZE MONEY (the winner gets a belt).  The record for the 135-miles is 22 hours, 51 minutes and 29 seconds.

After taking off what seems like an eternity from “blogging” here at www.woodtv.com, I’ve decided my new “mid-year’s resolution” will be to start blogging again.  Please read them!

By the way, I’m now recording a quick daily forecast clip for my Facebook friends. 

More to follow (I promise!)

Sorry its been awhile since I did this part of my blog… I took some days off, then I got sick…. I’m also behind in writing several reviews including the fun romantic comedy “The Propsoal”, the sci-fi drama “Moon”, and the thriller “Passengers”….

New at Theaters (Friday): “Funny People”, “Aliens in the Attic”, “The Collector”
Limited Released in Grand Rapids market: ”Food Inc.” (Celebration RiverTown), “The Hurt Locker” (Celebration North & Celebration Crossroads)

Best Bet(s): This weekend is pretty much wide-open, but the movie getting the best reviews is “The Hurt Locker”, but is only playing at limited theaters including Celebration North and Celebration Crossroads in the Grand Rapids market.  “Funny People” is getting decent reviews, and “The Collector” is getting good reviews – if you like horror – think “Saw” franchise.

New on DVD (Tuesday): “Dragonball: Evolution”, “Fast & Furious”, “Miss March”

Best Bet(s): depends on your preferences, if you like the “Fast & Furious” franchise, this one got pretty good reviews…. if you like raunchy comedy “Miss March” might be your bet…. if you are a “Dragonball” fan, maybe that’s for you, if not, rent something else listed below.

 CLICK HERE TO FIND A MOVIE SHOWTIME

Next Week at Theaters: “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”, “Julie & Julia”, “A Perfect Getaway”, “500 Days of Summer” (limited), “Stoning Of Soraya M” (limited) 

Next Week on DVD: “Fragments”, “Labor Pains”, “Mutant Chronicles”, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”, “Obsessed”, “Race to Witch Mountain”, “The Soloist”

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY: 

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