What's the weather like where you are?

[digitS']

There is rain .

This year is not as dry as last. We are in an area "abnormally dry," according to the national drought monitor. Normal vs Abnormal These are important words to keep in mind when considering drought conditions.

Of course, drought in New England means something different than drought in southern Arizona. My corner of the world is a little like a combination of northern Arizona (the mountains) and New England . (Maybe with a little Nebraska prairie tossed in.)

Friday, it rained a little ... 1/3rd of an inch. Actually, that was more than the monthly total of the entire month of September. It was more than August's total rainfall. July's also!

In fact, if you add the rainfall up for those 3 months, it would only amount to about 3/4". Shoot. A tenth of an inch rainstorm every other week sure doesn't amount to much!

"Drought" is both an environmental and economic term. Farmers deal with drought by having difficulties growing their customary crops. Native species of plants and animals can have serious problems in drought conditions. But of course, the flora and fauna of the Olympic Peninsula rainforest would be different from what lives on the Nebraska prairies.

Rain! A little fell yesterday and a little more is falling today. I wonder if the intermittent showers over Friday, Saturday and Sunday can amount to more than what fell in July, August and September ...

Steve

[applestar]

It's raining here also -- dismal, dreary, cold steady drizzle, no doubt from the trailing swirl stirred up by Matthew. With the MASSIVE system and cloudcover sitting to the Southeast. This morning was DARK at 8am. So dark that I couldn't really see out of the window with the interior lights on.

Not complaining. I sowed some seeds yesterday. All the shrubbery and trees need this rain after the summer drought to prepare for the fall and winter dormancy. My remaining tomatoes and even some of the pepper leaves are getting spotty though, and the last three container Petite Nigra fig fruits split in the rain. (I should have harvested them yesterday)

[pepperhead212]

It rained here yesterday from 11AM to at least 6:45 PM, when I finally came in out of it! It may have kept raining until now, as some trays on my deck, which were about 2/3 full, are overflowing now. And it is 57° out there, which is much cooler.

[rainbowgardener]

The weather finally broke here and we are having a long string of "perfect" weather - highs in the 80's, lows in the 50's, clear, not humid, sunny, beautiful blue skies and starry nights, and NO RAIN!. We had a half inch a couple weeks ago and a couple other smaller rains all summer. This in an area which normally gets 4" of rain a month, every month of the year. Long range forecast (which of course isn't necessarily accurate) shows no rain until the first of NOVEMBER.

We are in extreme drought, short term and long term.

[rainbowgardener]

This is a map of the rainfall from Hurricane Matthew. I think the bright blue in the middle is ten inches. You can see the little corner of NW GA, where I am and where we are in extreme drought, did not get a single drop of rain from the hurricane.

[applestar]

Its 36°F out there right now, and will likely go down to 34° F by dawn.... dewpoint 31 according to lowest forecast

[applestar]

We are under frost advisory until 9am. Current official temp is 37°F with "feels like"* of 35°F.

*"feels like" -- is that same as "wind chill" and "(heat) index" ?

[digitS']

A windstorm on Friday, killing frosts, an average temperature of 50°f over the first half of October - none of that is very unusual. Certainly, the growing season is effectively over.

Here is what is unusual: the local Weather Service reports that there have been 12 of the 15 October days with at least some rain.

We have been out of the drought in 2016 but the summer weather has been very dry - a total of 2/3 of an inch of rain fell through the entire 3 months of July, August and September. October so far has had 2.84" of rain!

The lakes and rivers must be rising from very low levels. I know that our soil is dry. Hopefully, the evergreen forests and other perennial plants can benefit from finally getting some moisture.

Steve

[applestar]

GORGEOUS MOON! DD's and I each got a turn looking at it through the spotter scope before the clouds obscured it.

[pow wow]

Very windy yesterday. Right now it's 6:30 am and -4C/25F.

[imafan26]

It is 79 degrees with a few sprinkles. Trade winds at 14 mph. Its a nice day. I have a few days off in a row. Yesterday, I cleaned the house and today I am running errands. I bought a new range to replace my 25 year old Frigidaire and I took a screen door down to the screen shop for repair and to put on a pet screen. My cat thinks the screen is a cat door and he keeps breaking the screen. I found a 12 year warranty water heater, now I have to find a plumber. I took the car to the shop. The electric lock works when it feels like and of course at the shop it did not misbehave but as soon as I went grocery shopping, it decided to go on strike again. Needless to say, it would be a good day to work on the weeds and maybe I'll get to that some time today. Oh, yeah, before I do that, I have to fix the irrigation controller. A wire came off and two valves were leaking. I fixed the leak but I still have to work on the wiring.

[digitS']

It warmed. And, stopped raining ... for 2 days. I finally mowed the lawn. It was too wet in the shady areas for about the last 2 weeks, plus.

Nothing very dramatic, the afternoon temperature was 68°f and there have been 2 other October days equal to or greater than that by a degree or two.

The most rain we have had on any given October day has been less than 1". Sprinkles count and there have been 2 or 3 other October days when it didn't rain. And, I've lived on the Pacific Northwest Coast and can recognize rain, hard and continuous. But, this is not the coast here -- it's more like the Wild West! I mean, the official John Wayne Trail is less than an hour's drive south! ... or, a day's hard ride, Pilgrim ...

Tomorrow, we will likely hit the 2nd wettest October on record. The record is from 1947. I'm olde but I wasn't even alive in 1947! (... but, my brother was ... )

Steve
it's raining

[imafan26]

Its' still nice here, a few sprinkles here and there. I think the Pacific gyre is sending most of the rain to the Pacific Northwest. We are sitting in mostly dry air with a few sprinkles being carried in on the trades. Most of the storm systems are moving around us and the rain is falling on the ocean.

[applestar]

Sustained 32°F since midnight and 30°F now -- I'm hurting all over from yesterday's work to save plants, but so worth it. Hopefully, the ones I wasn't able to bring in yesterday are still Ok under their covers....

[imafan26]

I guess your winter has arrived.

[jal_ut]

Good Sunday Morning!
Overcast, 57 degrees, calm. Nothing in the rain gauge overnight.

[imafan26]

It has been raining for the past 24 hours more or less with a few breaks. Not a hard rain but anything from a light drizzle to moderate rain. It will help the weeds grow for sure. It is actually the better rain for us since it is slow enough to soak into dry ground and that will eventually replenish the aquifer so it is more desirable than a deluge that just floods and runs off into the ocean. Right now the temperature is 69 degrees and may go up to the low 80's.

[rainbowgardener]

85 and sunny! We had total less than half an inch of rain in Oct! Forecast is maybe rain on Thurs, but currently it is shown as 40% chance of a thundershower giving .05 inch of rain. The drought forecast is for our area to stay in drought through Jan (the end of the forecast period:

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/wint ... ign=buffer

we are predicted to have a warmer and drier winter than usual, i.e. more of the same pattern we've been in since May....

[digitS']

In some ways, it's amazing that there are such extreme differences, one part of the US, to another. In other ways, it's not as surprising. Here's a surprise - extremes. Records set.

Areas of Tennessee and Georgia may see the driest fall on record. Some weather stations in that area are already reporting drought records. Looking back just a few years ago at 1985 and 1993 when there was extreme drought ... wow!

Your records have to be older than here but last month was the wettest October here with records back to 1888, I believe it is. I'd like to pretend a willingness to share but we came out of a 2015 drought with a very dry summer, 2016. Maybe you can look to Pacific ocean salmon and shrimp in your stores to appreciate the rain that has fallen recently in the Northwest. If we can get through winter with a good deal of soil moisture, it should also mean good wheat crops in 2017.

Now, if I can just get the garden cleanup finished, out there in the mud and before snow!

Steve

[jal_ut]

Cool and sunny 53 degs F at noon today. Looks like the bees will get a chance to come out for a cleansing flight.

[applestar]

Weather forecasts here are COMPLETELY unreliable -- this morning's predicted 35-36°F turned into 30°F. Heavy frost (not mentioned). This has been a trend. I am subtracting 5 degrees from every forecast from here on out.

[rainbowgardener]

Our temps have been going down rapidly, now mostly in the 60's with lows in the 40's. But dry, dry, dry. The only rain in our ten day forecast is Wed 11/16, a 50% chance of .03" inches of rain. We had a total of .08" of rain in October (the lowest October rainfall since the dust bowl days of the 1930's). Normal would be over 4 inches. This year to date (Jan through October) is the driest year EVER recorded in Chattanooga in the 150 years or so we have records. AND as a consequence we are having tons of wildfires, which is not typical around here.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/loca ... ze/396432/ (fires-wrap-city-smoky-haze)

Even though some folks do not want to hear it, this IS what climate change looks like.

[Taiji]

Weather forecasts here are COMPLETELY unreliable -- this morning's predicted 35-36°F turned into 30°F. Heavy frost (not mentioned). This has been a trend. I am subtracting 5 degrees from every forecast from here on out.

I hear you. It's a very complicated process here to predict what is going to happen. First of all, I have to enter a neighboring zip code into the weather channel site to get the closest 7 day forecast for where I live, because it's more accurate than the forecast for my official zip code. The 2 to 6 degree difference between the 2 zips is actually closer to what actually happens here.

Then, from that predicted low, I have to subtract an additional, say, 2 to 4 degrees to get what my actual air temperature will probably be in this location. Then, (are you with me?) (I'm lost) I've found that it will frost here even if the air temperature is as warm as say, 38 to 41 degrees. I've had a skim of ice on the birdbath when the air is maybe 40 degrees and ice on the plant leaves and on the top of the vehicles. Then, taking into account the margin of error...But, I've learned to make these very complex calculations almost instantaneously. Necessity is the mother of invention, no? I don't dare to move away; I'd have to learn all this again.

[applestar]

Yep. I think paying attention to these forecasted weather vs. actual conditions in your garden is one of the first, imperative learning curve, especially during the critical turnover from winter to spring and fall to winter. ...and of course the weather patterns change every year so the sooner you get the hang of "the adjusted temperature formula" the better.

You are doing a great job though

...I think this year's weather -- I'm being constantly thrown off.

25°F and hoary frost this morning --- forecast had been 32-33°F

[rainbowgardener]

Still drought, drought, drought; still nothing but clear and sunny in the ten day forecast.

And we have wildfires that have been burning for weeks on all the mountains around us. Too much smoke to get helicopters in, and so dry and warm .... Air quality is on orange or red alerts depending on the day, from all the smoke. The smoke is not quite so bad out where we are, but going in to downtown Chattanooga it is terrible-- my eyes burn, my throat hurts, my chest gets tight. There are warnings out especially for young and old people (like me) not to be out too much and especially not to exert yourself outdoors too much.

It really does look like that; visibility is like a bad fog.

One good rainy day would do so much to clean the air and slow the fires down, but it is like it has forgotten how to rain here. We haven't had an actual rainy day (as opposed to brief showers) since June, in an area which normally gets four inches of rain every month. Temperatures remain above normal. Prediction for 11/17 is 77 degrees - SIXTEEN degrees above normal.

It feels like the end of days.

[applestar]

What an unfortunate luck and turn of events for your first year+ in your new home!

...but by all accounts, this is not normal/usual, so hopefully you will see a more pleasant aspect of the area weather patterns over the next year.

[rainbowgardener]

I hope so. None of us anywhere know what is to come. All of this is VERY unusual by historical norms, the heat, the drought, the fires. California, where I grew up, has always had summer fire season (though not nearly as bad as now). This area never did; it would ordinarily have been way too wet and green for fires to spread.

However, this is not normal times. We have no idea if next year will go back to closer to historically expected rainfall or if this is the new normal. I am of course hoping for the former. I didn't intend to be moving to the desert. It has been a tough gardening year here and lots of what I planted re shrubs and perennials didn't make it. But I do like it here; not sorry I moved.

[latitude33]

Calling for a 60% chance of rain...Yay! Finally getting seasonal temps with day time high around 70-72...brr

[!potatoes!]

been raining most of the night! finally! high today in the 70's, which is unseasonably warm, but i'll take rain and no need to build a fire gladly.

[ACW]

London had its first proper frost last night ,now gone midday and theres still frost on the west facing roofs.despite being very sunny.
I think I will have to pick tthe last few green tomatoes and chop down the asparagus ferns .
Its been a fairly warm autumn winter so far ,weather man says frosts for the next couple of nights .
Most of the leaves have fallen except for the weeping willow that unfortunately shades my garden ,that looks like it will hold onto some until mid december ,meaning rakeing the lawn for another few weeks ,they do compost well especially with the addition of plantain skins which I pick up at work.

[digitS']

... All of this is VERY unusual by historical norms ...

I grew up in northern California and southern Oregon, in gardens from my earliest years. My first gardening on my own was on the California coast. I moved here, nearly 50 years ago. Very few growing seasons have been missed, I didn't have gardens mostly because of moving my residence, I believe I can count them on my fingers but all within a 100 mile area, N to S. Some of those seasons were made up for because I worked on farms and at a greenhouse .

There have been weather ups and downs, certainly. Years ago, the notion of another Ice Age probably got a little more local attention because so much of the geography around here was formed by glaciers. When actual climate change was first talked about in the 1980's, we experienced a "wet" growing season, locally. I remember thinking that, shoot - if this is what we can expect here, it isn't going to be too bad ...

This area has less than 20" of annual precipitation and less than 2" during the 3 months of summer. To have a 3 or 4 rainstorms and a couple inches of water spread over each summer month was great for the gardens!

It didn't last. One of the fairly recent, "wet" growing seasons was characterized not so much by rain but by cool, cloudy weather. The clouds just would not go away! A normal cool start to the season extended an additional month -- it was like trying to garden in alpine conditions.

More recently, the growing season has been characterised by not infrequent record high temperatures. If not quite drought conditions, we have still had very dry weather. I mean dry by not coming close to those 2" of summer rain we used to be able to expect.

Changeable has become the new normal. Outside of a very dry summer 2016, we have had adequate precipitation, including a record-breaker October rainfall! Last winter was warm but rainy and a snowy winter is predicted. Thankfully! We should continue to have an adequate aquifer for summer water. Continuing but no reason to think guaranteed.

We should learn from each other, in our varied gardening environments. These forums make that possible .

Steve

[imafan26]

It is raining again. Curious, on the days I work it is windy but the sun is mostly shining. On the days when I want to work outside it is cloudy and rains all day. Unfortunately, this is normal weather for this time of year. The only abnormal thing is that it is very breezy a couple of months early so the the rain comes in bands. While we haven't had torrential rain or massive flooding the ground is still pretty saturated none the less. The weeds are happy. It is 68 degrees now. I am wearing my "winter clothes", sweat suit and socks. I am using a heating pad for a bed warmer.

[applestar]

I imagine there is this exact aspect map somewhere, but I ended up taking screenshots and overlaying weather maps from two different weather apps in a 3rd drawing app, changing the opacity of the thermal image in the process. Heh, it's cold outside and I had time to play


...interestingly, it turned out that the two maps were not an exact match even when scaled and rotated, though I did try...

[ACW]

Well London has had its 5 or 6 days of frost every morning and day time temperatures around 40F,now we have a couple of days with high 50s ,and miserable low cloud and mists keeping everything damp.
the really chilly spell came with very light winds ,meaning busy london air pollution was unpleasant ,last few days has seen a good breeze which shifts the pollutants,and makes breathing easier.

[imafan26]

It is 68 degrees now with 100% humidity. It has been raining all night and the last time the sun came out was Wednesday. It may clear for a little bit today but more rain is expected for the weekend as well. Not much wind and the rain is coming from the southwest so it is more like cold Kona weather.

[digitS']

We are taking things by thirds and halves.

At 1/3 of the way through December, we have 1/3 of an inch of precipitation, in the form of snow. We are falling 1/3 short for where things should be for annual precipitation.

In November, there was 2/3 of normal precipitation. The 1 1/2" fell as rain.

The limited recent moisture follows a very dry summer but the greatest amount of October rain of any month in history! This is not the monsoon country of Arizona and New Mexico, 1,000 miles south. The geography is interesting in that part of the world, desert yet cut by water erosion, everywhere you look. Here, 1/2 of the moisture that has fallen in 2016 came in a single month's time and yet we back to being 1/3 short. I am hopeful that we will have more winter snow to maintain soil moisture and give some relief to our higher elevation, evergreen forests.

Steve

[imafan26]

It is still cloudy and wet on most days. I finally got out and cut my wet grass and the weed whacker survived. This morning it is 64 degrees and forcast to get a little colder down to 62 degrees as the cold front passes over the next few days.

[applestar]

Currently, it's deceptively sunny -- temperature outside is 21°F. It seems unreal but I know its even colder in the central parts of the US and north.

We had a bit of snow on the ground this morning -- mostly still unmelted, and the winds are roaring -- small wonder considering the significant drop in temp. And the muddy ground wasn't entirely frozen yesterday -- stiff but still sank down under my weight, so the thermal differential must be playing havoc.

[imafan26]

It is hard for me to imagine 21degrees and sunny. I am really cold at around 64 degrees. It will get up close to 80 but I will be inside at work for most of the day. It is still overcast with very little blue sky showing. More rain is coming. I got out to water the yard (well mostly trying to avoid watering the weeds), and I got 10 snails. I need to throw out more slug bait. The rats are eating the slug bait. I picked up a box yesterday and it started coming out of the bottom of the unopened box faster than I could contain it. Slug bait is expensive and it does not kill rats.

[pepperhead212]

Today it was in the low 20s and VERY windy, and getting into the low teens tonight. That is why I harvested all the rest of my greens, and covered my rosemary in a hoop house, with a heater in it.