WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Saturday, March 06, 2010

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: LAKE MONSTERS AND METEOROLOGY PART TWO

Hello again. Today I am going to continue with my look at meteorological explanations for lake monster sightings.

Following on from Terence Meaden's study of water spouts as a possible explanation for these lake cryptids in an 1976 issue of The Journal of Meteorology, Sir Peter Scott also looked at the same subject in The Journal of Meteorology volume 2 number 13 p.19 in an essay titled Devils and the Loch Ness Monster 1: Some Questions.

In this essay Scott says: 'I am very much interested in your article in the Journal of Meteorology, vol 1 no. 4 pp.118-124, and agree that it may be the explanation of a number of Loch Ness sightings. It may be worth following up a few details, if data exist, to answer the following questions -'

Sir Peter then goes on to ask what meteorological conditions were like on the date of the sighting on the Loch. 'Also, what sort of tracks do the water devils take and how do they relate to wind direction? Do they produce `humps` on the water and also, do they give the impression of a body with humps? Finally, could the water devils create a long column of water that looks like the neck and head of the Loch Ness Monster?' (1)

Meaden replied in the same issue of the journal by explaining that various types of weather fronts, e.g. sea breeze fronts, could produce the conditions necessary for a water spout. He then says he would welcome a list of 'recent unexplained sightings' of the Loch Ness monster in an attempt to analyse the meteorological conditions at the time. He then goes on to say that the passage of land devils and water spouts can alter local temperature….`the direction of motion of the water-devil might be expected to bear some relation to the wind direction of the new air mass….

'It is unlikely that two or three water-devils would appear in line in such a way as ever to be mistaken for a `body` with a number of `humps` . It would appear to be possible for a water-devil to produce a long, narrow, solid-looking column of water that could fit the description of the head of the Loch Ness monster, especially if it should pass over and levitate flotsam such as water-weed or other vegetable matter… Most of the `monster` sightings which have been made on the waters of Loch Ness may eventually be accounted for in a number of different ways, and some of them may indeed prove to be animal in origin, but it is nevertheless considered that the meteorological mechanism proposed here is pertinent to at least a few of the sightings. From time to time, water devils have been seen, and recognised as such, on other lakes and rivers, so that watchers on Loch Ness should be prepared as well to meet similar phenomena at, albeit, infrequent intervals.' (2)

1.Sir P.Scott Devils and the Loch Ness Monster: 1:Some Questions. The Journal of Meteorolgy vol.2 no13 Nov 1976 p.19
2. G.T.Meaden. II: The Reply Sent to Sir Peter .The Journal of Meteorology vol.2 no.13 Nov.1976 pp 19-21

The Alarm Third Light

Your head on my shoulder
Two months you`ve been a soldier
I feel so sick inside
Two months you`d have been alive

So no one here knows your surname
No one knows from where you came
The red cross takes you to your grave
For which your government kindly pays

White cross upon the hillside
There lies that unknown soldier
No one can remember your name…

No comments: