How's the weather in your area?

[ChrisM]

Skip, I wore my lucky black-and-gold outfit to our Local yesterday to watch the game. I got many approving and encouraging comments on my mid-calf black pleated wool skirt, black merino tights, and gold strappy stilleto-heeled sandals.

After the win we of course took a stroll down to Bourbon street to see the craziness. The street was absolutely packed shoulder-to-shoulder with screaming football fans!

Carnival is definitely in full swing in New Orleans!

Chris

[Jack Williams]

Well, it's been basically a lovely day here since about Christmas! It's now officially a drought! Not that I am complaining, but the farmers are running out of feed etc.

[Jack Williams]

Further to that: The news yesterday was that this has been the driest summer for 100 years! I do know that 1 inch cracks opened up in the lawn. Hasn't happened before. Door sticks which hasn't happened before. Different whichever way you look at it.

[AMM]

Further to that: The news yesterday was that this has been the driest summer for 100 years!

I'm not familiar with NZ climate. Would you expect it to get wetter as winter comes on or dryer?

[crfriend]

Well, it may be the balmy summertime in New Zealand, but here in central Massachusetts it's looking more like March than May. Current temperatures are running about 15 degrees (F) below normal, we're under a freeze watch for tonight, I had to scrape frost off my car this morning, and a storm that ripped through in the wee hours of Saturday morning caused the temperature in the house to drop so dramatically that it had disastrous and tragic results for five newborn kittens we were taking care of. We may lose some of the leafy vegetables and herbs from our garden tonight.

The plants that are still in pots have all been brought back inside, and we've had to turn the heat back on. This stinks.

[Since1982]

Count your blessings Carl, you could always uproot and move to sunny south Florida where it's a humid 90 to 100+ degrees from April Fools to All Saints Day, ( Nov.1)with the various Hurricanes pitched into the brew. It's such great fun putting your most important "things" in your car and rushing off to a safe huge hotel several times a year and knowing that if the threatening storm hits you can say byebye to all the rest of your belongings including but not limited to your house and everything you care for.

I like to think I'd really enjoy 4 seasons a year instead of 2. Hot and cold, nothing in between. The first cold snap tradionally comes Nov.1st, the first Hurricane warning in mid May. Yes, I think it's about time I at least visit my roots. I was born in Reading Pa. Nov. 1st 1941. with nothing but faded memories of that part of the world. Most memorable of that time is standing on top of Mount Penn and looking down at Reading when I was 15 on a visit from Florida.

[Jack Williams]

Well, it's been raining quite a bit now the last few days, but cant say the house or anything has returned to normal just yet.
It usually gets wetter in winter here, which we are just starting now. Lost "fall" which was just part of a wonderful summer!

[Uncle Al]

Most of the severe storms, tornado's and flooding went north
of us. I feel really bad for the people who lost practically
everything in the recent tornado/flooding activities. A week or
so ago, one of the Interstate Highways, in Tennessee, was
flooded. There were 70 auto's under water and one of the
school districts sent their bus'es to retrieve passengers from
a train that ran into the flood waters.

Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri had 37 tornado's.
Thank goodness there were only 3 deaths reported from the
tornado ravaged areas. I guess the warning systems have
greatly improved to keep the death toll this low.

Uncle Al

[Jack Williams]

The "WeatherBomb!"
Well, the map looked pretty dramatic, and we were going to be blown to bits and rained into submission. Where I am, flood is not a problem, but I was a bit worried about my trees being blown to bits. But all it really did was dump plenty of rain, which everywhere really needed. Suddenly everything which I had watered and/or fertilized over the record summer,plus all the grass, weeds and everything else, have burst into life like it's spring! And we're no where near the winter solstice yet. (new photo on the day coming up!) A lot happened in the south of the country compared to here, but according to the insurance companies, not a big deal to what could be expected. The forecasts were good, and stock had been moved to higher ground; people were prepared. I did ship a few drips into a couple of towels...

[Jack Williams]

Here are a couple of photos of now.

[AMM]

Well, here in the Northeast USA, it's gone from late winter to mid-summer in the course of just a week or so. Daytime temperatures up to 90 F (almost 35 C), nighttime temperatures supposedly down to 60 F (15 C) (though I think it's hotter) and 100% humidity.

I've switched from 25-30" skirts with tights, petticoats, and long sleeves to knee-length skirts, bare legs, and T-shirts which have to be wrung out every 1/2 hour or so. I've reprioritized my sewing -- above-the-knee cotten gauze skirts or even tunics on an emergency basis.

Everybody longs for thunderstorms, even though we know it will be just as hot and even more humid when they pass.

[crfriend]

Everybody longs for thunderstorms, even though we know it will be just as hot and even more humid when they pass.

Well, we got some of that yesterday, and it was the most violent weather event I've witnessed save for an all-out hurricane. Based on the motions of trees and the impact force of the rain, my guesstimate of wind-speed reached 60 MPH and possibly a bit higher in gusts. Three of the trellises in our garden were blown over, likely with the loss of the (ill) grapevine that lives on one of them. Our cars in the driveway -- even in the lee of our house -- were rocking on their suspensions.

This was a very localised event; the regional airport about 15 miles distant only reported light rain and a 23 MPH gust, and a municipal airport about 10 miles distant reported the thunderstorm and also a 23 MPH gust from the due west; our blast came from the south-southwest and was a howler We got torrential rain (1.75 inches in 10 minutes, possibly more) and enough wind to knock lots of tree-limbs down and blow them some distance. Once again the sound of chainsaws...

The National Weather Service is predicting more today.

THERE WILL BE A LOW PROBABILITY OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARRIVING BY MID MORNING. AFTER A BRIEF BREAK...ANOTHER ROUND OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY THIS EVENING. IF ENOUGH SUNSHINE DEVELOPS...THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SIGNIFICANT WEATHER EVENT FOR THE REGION. THE MAIN THREAT WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS...BUT AN ISOLATED TORNADO CAN NOT BE RULED OUT.

I am so not looking forward to this.

[AMM]

Well, here in the Northeast USA, it's gone from late winter to mid-summer in the course of just a week or so. Daytime temperatures up to 90 F (almost 35 C), nighttime temperatures supposedly down to 60 F (15 C) (though I think it's hotter) and 100% humidity.

Update (3 weeks later): no change, except that night-time temperatures are higher (20 C or more.) Still (almost) no rain. I've taken to using the airconditioner in the afternoon. And summer has barely started -- is this a preview of July and August?

Micro-minis suddenly seem really sensible. I still have sewing plans, but it's hard to get the initiative to do any moving around.

What's it like in the rest of the world? Maybe someone from Down Under can send us some reports of 50-100 cm snowfalls to take our minds off our weather....

[john62]

This morning driving to work 5degrees C, for the first time in months, maybe a year this month more than average rain top temperture today is predicted to be 13degrees C, this is in Melbourne down south of Oz.

John

[skirted_in_SF]

The wind died down a bit today and it was barely warm enough (~60F) to wear my new 19" pleat front cargo skirt to the beach. Inspired by others here, I got it to wear hiking and this was the first outing for it.