This month’s cool nights and warm sunny days make it the most popular month for pumpkin picking! In fact, according to the University of Illinois Extension, 80% of the pumpkin supply in the United States is available in October. Pumpkins for Halloween are planted in May because they are a warm-soil vegetable. Here are more fascinating facts about pumpkins from the University’s website:

Pumpkin Facts
• The top pumpkin production states are Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California.
• Pumpkins are grown primarily for processing with a small percentage grown for ornamental sales through you-pick farms, farmers' market and retail sales.
• Around 90 to 95% of the processed pumpkins in the United States are grown in Illinois.
• The largest pumpkin pie ever made was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds. It used 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.
• Pumpkins originated in Central America.
• In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
• The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds.
• The name pumpkin originated from "pepon" – the Greek word for "large melon."
• Pumpkins are 90 percent water.
• Pumpkins are fruit.

For more pumpkin info, you can go to www.urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins

Posted by: Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider
Filed under: Bonnie • Halloween

Miss the brilliant colors of the Northern Lights this week? It’s not too late to catch the next bright astronomical display. Mark your calendar for the Perseid Meteor Shower on August 12^th & 13^th. Astronomers expect this to be a spectacular event with a peak display of 80 meteors per hour.

If the weather is clear, look to view Perseids in the northeastern sky in an open field.

Here is more from NASA Scientist Dr. Tony Daly from SpaceDaily.com:

“The Perseid meteor shower is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle. Every 133 years the huge comet swings through the inner solar system and leaves behind a trail of dust and gravel.

When Earth passes through the debris, specks of comet-stuff hit the atmosphere at 140,000 mph and disintegrate in flashes of light. These meteors are called Perseids because they fly out of the constellation Perseus.

Swift-Tuttle's debris zone is so wide, Earth spends weeks inside it. Indeed, we are in the outskirts now, and sky watchers are already reporting a trickle of late-night Perseids. The trickle could turn into a torrent between August 11th and 13th when Earth passes through the heart of the debris trail.

2010 is a good year for Perseids because the Moon won't be up during the midnight-to-dawn hours of greatest activity. Lunar glare can wipe out a good meteor shower, but that won't be the case this time.”

Courtesy: NASA

An iReport of the Northern Lights: http://us.cnn.com/2010/IREPORT/08/04/northern.lights.irpt/

Enjoy the show!

Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider

Posted by: Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider
Filed under: Bonnie • Weather

Monday morning, and no break from the heat in the South. Temps today in Charleston, SC will feel like 115-117 when you add in the humidity. That is dangerously hot, so there is an excessive heat warning in the SC low country. Heat advisories are peppered throughout the South, and I’ll show you that on the big program. There will be storms and pockets of rain from SC all the way out to NV, but the severe weather threat is not high today.

At least the heat has broken in the NE and MW for the most part, but the flood warnings continue for parts of IA and outside of Chicago too. That’s from the weekend rains and dam burst, but at least there is no rain in the forecast until Wednesday afternoon.

Some more good news: no tropical storms or hurricanes to worry about today. Bonnie fizzled, there are some storms in the gulf that are not organized, but it looks pretty good in the tropics today.

Monsoonal rains are still around the four corners, but that is typical for late July.

The heat, that is slowly driving me bat-crazy, will hang around for the week, mainly in the south and west. See you out there on a sleepy Monday.

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Bonnie • Heat • Severe Weather • tropical storm • Weather

Relief oil well on hold as Bonnie forces Gulf evacuations.

It’s Friday, here’s your weather heads-up:

Tropical storm Bonnie is headed to South FL. this afternoon, probably south of Miami. It has 40 mph sustained winds, gusts to about 50 mph. It isn’t very strong, but it will bring a storm surge of about 1-2’ and 1-3” rain along with it. The problem starts this weekend when it heads towards the northern gulf. It looks like the path, if it holds together, will take it directly over the gulf oil slick. That would help to break it up more, but it will spread it inland a little farther too. We’ll wait and see how strong Bonnie becomes before it gets there.

Other than that, heat is back for the S and MW. It heads to the NE tomorrow, where DC will reach 101. Ouch.

Severe storms will roll north of there today, in the MW, Great Lakes, and into the NE.

All right, keep it tuned to us for the latest on Bonnie, I’ll have the updates all morning.

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Bonnie • tropical storm • Weather