Weather Check In!

High 90s, high humidity, heat advisory in SE Missouri. I have to do gardening before 9:00 a.m. and end up soaking wet, and not from the garden hose either!

Our first day in double digits all month (pretty sure...)
Took a shower this morning; didn't have to draw on the hot water at all; wash off fresh celery with cold water and it wilts. It's hot, I tell you, and no end to it in sight.

I am in Minnesota and we have heat advisory also.

Yeah? I hard-boiled an egg this afternoon just by running tap water.

>3 mnleona: MN represent! Apple Valley, here. Absolutely miserable out: not only was it pushing 100°F in the sun Tuesday (that's what my car thermometer said when I left work to grab lunch), but it's also ridiculously humid, and when there's actually a breeze, it's warm. Gah!

It's even going to be hot in the UK today/tomorrow. Not quite record breaking but high 20s (70-80 F)for a day or two.

And in Durban we have been hit by an antarctic cold front. It's now warmed up to 16°C. Mind you Cape Town's worse: colder, and with floods in low-lying areas.

>6 reading_fox: We're just north of the potential 33o C area...

Annoyingly, my topsoil hasn't turned up yet which means the mulch layer in the raised beds is drying out. I'll have to get Paul to water them tonight.

>5 saltmanz: yike, Minnesota is having it rough so far this year! My dad lives in Minneapolis. He visited us in NH last week, where it was in the 70s during the day and low 50s at night. He's wishing he'd stayed here...

Yes, Minnesota was hot yesterday but supposed to be in mid 70s today where I live and a high of 70s in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. I live about an hour north of the Cities. It does get very humid here.
By the way- I lived in West Texas when I was young and someone said it was so hot you can fry an egg. My sister and I tried and it did not fry.

It's raining and windy here, but the daytime highs are hovering around 20C. Looks like the next week will be more of the same. On the one hand, we need the rain, and it's nice not to have to water my garden, but on the other hand I'd prefer to be spending more time outdoors. I have already been reduced to HOUSE CLEANING. Shudder.

My sympathy to all suffering in heat - we had a week of temps in the high 30s (C) last year and it was very difficult. Hard for me to imagine higher than that.

Temperatures are mild here (Northern California, yes, north, above Sacramento) so far. In Fahrenheit, 80s, low 90s; for us that is a perfect summer temperature because as a rule we have lower humidity. Usually (and soon enough, I am sure) we hit the triple digits running and don't get any relief until October or November. Fire season has begun however, we have had very low rainfall this year.

Update: the topsoil turned up today. Apparently they'd tried to call me but obviously I'd not heard the phone.

We've split one of the bags across all 4 beds and will do the other later on this week. It was pretty hot work shifting it - the delivery was kerbside not down the drive.

The empties will be very useful for taking garden waste to the tip and not getting it all over the car.

It’s been wet and cold here. I’m ready for some temps in the 80s (Fahrenheit)! I’m sure one day Mother Nature will hit the heat button and summer will begin with a vengeance. The fire season is going to suck with all this undergrowth that has been created by the rain.

We've mostly been in the upper 70s (mid 20s) here during the day, and upper 50s/low 60s (15/16) at night. Perfect. It's been a little dry. When we get rain we only get about 1/3rd of an inch or less. We need a couple of day long soakers. On the plus side I think I can start swimming in the bay!

Last night more thunderstorms came through with a bonus Tornado Watch (downgraded from Warning), but luckily things were calm. No hail. No tornado. No power outage. Lots of rain though. It's super wet out and still kind of humid, but less so. Should be sunny and high 70s F today. I'm going to get the kayak out.

>15 clamairy: Same here until yesterday, it got up to almost 90 F here. Mid 80's today, then back to the 70's for the next few ydas.

It's much cooler today - temperature has dropped by around 10 degrees from yesterday. I'm busy cooling the house down, including the larder which was noticeably warm when I went in earlier. It's also raining.

The earthworms have also turned up, I wasn't expecting them until next week. We need to shift the other bag of topsoil so they can be planted in the beds. That will be this afternoon's job; Paul has headed into the farmer's market, and we'll need to do our Morrisons shop after he get back. Tomorrow will be a garden centre afternoon.

Nothing worse than unexpected guests, earthworms or otherwise. The beds aren't turned down, there's nothing to eat, and you had plans to attend a tuba concerto at the local primary school. When will they get the hint and sod off?

>19 MrAndrew: They've now been planted in the new raised beds and in the new bed created last year. I noticed that the topsoil in that bed has a tendency to bake hard because of insufficient invertebrates churning up the soil.

I just hope the blackbirds don't think I've put out a buffet for them - the wrens already think the insect house is one. Why they don't stick to the birch tree like the blue-tits do, I don't know - it's full of aphids to the extent that sitting under it means you have to clean the aphids off before going in the house.

62 F and sunny here, can't complain.

>20 Maddz: I've had a few unexpected guests I would have liked to plant in my garden, but not being earthworms, I think it would be frowned upon.

>20 Maddz: "Insufficient Invertebrates". Great band name.

>23 MrAndrew: Grin!

All bar the dregs of the 2nd bag of topsoil have now been added to the beds, and I am now going to start planting yesterday's purchases:

2 strips of climbing French bean, 1 green, the other purple. I have the poles set up now.
1 strip dwarf beans
1 strip leeks
1 strip rainbow Swiss chard along with a pack of silverbeet Swiss chard seeds (I prefer the latter)
1 6-pack curly kale (pretty well grown too - from a local nursery I've never really used before
1 strip purple sprouting broccoli
2 pots courgettes (1 with a bonus courgette). The 4 I grew from seed aren't happy and one died in the hot weather
1 pot basil

I also saw some globe artichokes which I'm ambivalent about (my digestion tends to complain if I eat them unless they are the really small antipasti type). I also saw other interesting things - asparagus, Florentine fennel, borlotti beans, pak choi. I might have gone for the borlottis but I'm a bit iffy on beans - I can only eat them if small which is why I tend to stick to French beans. Sadly the pak choi had already started to bolt - it seems to prone to do so as soon as the sun starts shining, otherwise I might have gone for a quick crop.

I have a pot of purple dwarf beans I started last week; I expect them to start sprouting next week. These and the leeks will need fencing in - otherwise I get amorous pigeons thundering through the veggie patch flattening everything in sight. The brassicas will need to be netted against pigeon raiders too.

ETA: First bed planted out. 3 lots of beans and the pot with 2 courgettes.

The other beds will be planted out over the course of the week.

Hey, please stay safe all of you going through intense heat right now!

We're keeping in the dark - curtains, windows and doors shut...

Heat index here in central Texas (that "feels like" temperature) hit 110° F yesterday -- 43+ C. And what am I doing? Loading up a wheelbarrow with anywhere between 400 and 500 pounds of rocks and dumping them in a different part of my yard. I'll do 4 loads a day, that's all. Taking my time, lots of breaks, and drinking over a gallon of water each day. I smell like New Jersey.

>27 WholeHouseLibrary: That's a lot of rock moving, don't overdo!

>27 WholeHouseLibrary: Your yard has Insufficient Igneous ?

>26 Maddz: Let us know how it's going when you get the chance, please.

>29 MrAndrew: They wrote a song about the geology here. It's called I'm Getting Sediment-al Over You. A large part of I-35 in Texas runs along a fault line. To the west, it is primarily limestone - very porous, lots of caves. To the east, you can dig down close to 200' and never find a rock of any kind. It's all dark, loamy soil.
Hence, major roads the head west are labeled RM (Ranch to Market) and ones that are on the east side are designated FM (Farm-to-Market. My brother-in-law is a farmer. Guess which direction from me he lives. He's 75 and still working over a thousand acres by himself every day - even in this heat; hardest working guy I've ever known.
The aquifers are deep in the limestone, so there are a lot of restrictions on what can be built (and where) to the west in Austin. With the influx of new tech businesses, the cost of housing has skyrocketed, and all the new development going on here is on what was fertile farmland. Considering that there's no significant rainfall in this part of Texas since early April, and most days, we're in 3-digit temperatures, and still haven't hit the hottest part of the year, farmers are compensating their losses by housing developments popping up in their fields.

We have 36°C in Bicester at 5 pm.

>32 haydninvienna: Yikes! Hope you're managing to stay cool.

>31 WholeHouseLibrary: The loss of farmland is depressing, but it's easy to understand why they feel that is their only (or at least quickest) solution.

>32 haydninvienna: 36°C in the shade in St Ives, Cambs at 4pm. Still 35° now...

>32 haydninvienna: & >34 Maddz: Am I correct in assuming that neither of you have any AC?

>35 clamairy:
When someone asks that over here we say, “What is AC? Alternating Current?”

Usually little use for air conditioning in domestic accommodation. It appears in some hotels and offices. Possibly apatrment blocks.

>35 clamairy: Correct. The temperature in the UK usually means it's not required. We might get a few days in the year when it would be nice to have, but it's not worth the expense and hassle.

I will say that my home office is at least 10° cooler than outside the house. It's the former garage and despite the flat roof the cement pad under the laminate keeps it cool. It also helps it only gets the sun in the early morning. (It does get really chilly in the winter though...)

>36 pgmcc: & >37 Maddz: I think the era of not needing it might be passing for some of you. Probably not you, Peter. But parts of England and definitely the mainland are going to have to make some changes.

>37 Maddz: My study is right at the top of the house and it’s very uncomfortable at present.

>38 clamairy: Southern England is going to have to start thinking about designing for hot weather. Building design here usually assumed a fairly equable climate with the concentration on heating. That needs to change. Also, few houses in the UK have insect screening. That is going to be necessary too.

>39 haydninvienna: Agreed. It's all very sad, but necessary. The death toll and the fires on the mainland are also very concerning.

>39 haydninvienna: Eastern England as well. It also depends on how close you are to the sea; a friend in New Milton (Hampshire) said it got to 32° there but the town is right on the coast. I'm far enough inland (and I guess Richard is too) that we don't get that cooling effect.

I'm working at various computers with mini-USB fans blasting away so it's not too bad but both my machines are downstairs. Still, I've had curtains and windows shut most of the day so the bedroom is warm but not stifling. We'll open windows and curtains when we go to bed.

We are due to get our double-glazing replaced soon so we'll look at shading then. One of the things that's suggested is a 'porch' over the windows; apparently it does block a lot of heat transmission inwards. The other thing will be to get more openable sections - our bedroom has a single full-height opening pane and no transom. All the older double glazing is like that - it's only the newer windows in the office and the even newer utility room that have transom windows. The other thing will be to get internal shutters.

I had to work on campus yesterday, but given that the trains and tubes are suffering poor service in the heat we've been allowed to work from home today. My laptop says it's 35C at the moment. My flat faces west so it's bound to get hotter as the sun moves around. I'll draw the curtains when that happens.

>39 haydninvienna: Yes, housing design has to change, and air con is not the answer unless we want to make the whole problem worse. There've been several articles in the Guardian recently looking at solutions, such as passive houses, or just ways to adapt existing housing. But the developers are of course resistant (and I'll say no more on that so as not to break the politics rule).

>39 haydninvienna: Can I pray for a miracle, that the world will re-start building in the Cape Dutch style of some 200 years ago? (Look at the pictures in the linked article.) The whitewashed walls reflect the heat, the wooden shutters (if you must paint them, British Racing Green is the right colour) are CLOSED by day and OPEN at night to keep the heat out and let the cool air in, and the thatch roof acts as insulation.

>43 hfglen: Sensible and attractive.

Yes, new houses need to be designed for the coming century. I don't have central air. I have a ductless mini-split system that I use for both heating and cooling, and it uses a lot less electricity than central air. In this climate it keeps my house cool in the Summer, but it's not really enough to heat it in the Winter. (Though it saves me a ton of money because I don't need to use the oil burner as often as I would without it.) I also have a small awning on West side, which helps quite a bit this time of year. I plan to add solar panels on the roof.

Edited to add: One of the biggest issues here is that instead of several days of gentle rain we now get several inches in half an hour, like they do in the tropics. The older drainage systems in our urban (and some suburban) areas weren't designed to handle it.

>43 hfglen: That's lovely!

Definitely a couple of day s to work in the real office rather than from home... I'm laboratory based so don't get much option. The building is warm, but ok. The labs are warmer than they should be but also ok. Home is roasting. Bu ton the plus side I sat out in the garden till past dusk and it was still warm... fox, bat and hedgehog came to visit which was lovely.

37°C in the shade an hour ago... My home office is 25°C. I've been spraying myself with lavender water and sitting in front of a mini fan. Still got significant brain fog though!

Even if I didn't have the option of working from home, I wouldn't have been able to go into work because all trains on the Midland Main Line and the East Coast Mainline were cancelled today, and there will probably be some disruption still tomorrow depending on whether there was any track damage.

>43 hfglen: Or the Queenslander style, popular in that state in the earlier part of the previous century and again now? Wide verandahs, up on stilts to allow an open breezeway underneath. https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-a-queenslander-house-5186385..
Note that in that article they mention that steel roofs withstand cyclones better than tiles. One of my brothers in law had a Queenslander house in Townsville that had survived t least two major cyclones.

I'm in my "study" at the moment, and it's hot but it' now the shady side of the house. There's even a bit of breeze.

Still 31° at 8 pm and IT’S RAINING!

ETA: Didn’t last long though. As Banjo Patterson put it:

We don’t respect the clouds out there,
They fill us with disgust;
They mostly bring a Bogan shower—
Three raindrops and some dust.

This was definitely a Bogan shower.

The bad news was it was so hot today that when I went to water my vegetable garden with the water hose all that came out was a huge blast of superheated steam...the good news was the green beans were cooked in an instant so all I had to do was pick 'em and eat 'em.... :-)

Long-range weather predictions here in central Texas show no end to 100+ degree temps, and no significant rainfall for at least another two weeks.
Despite it being hotter than hell, our governor has chosen to not return there.

>51 alco261: Hahaha!!!
(I actually have a black hose, and sometimes the water is very warm indeed.)

>52 WholeHouseLibrary: Is he in Cancun? ;o)

>45 clamairy: agree that houses need to be designed better for the heat. I also want to add that schools need to also be designed for the heat. Where I live (and in many other places) schools don’t have air conditioning nor do their windows open far enough. Some don’t have windows that open at all! When it’s only 80 degrees out (F), the classroom gets stifling. Some schools are back from summer holiday in a week or two. They are going to be miserable!

British summer. Tuesday 38C. roasting. Thursday 18C and raining. Cold and damp. House still very hot from Tuesday's weather, but you need a coat to go outside.

>56 reading_fox: Yikes! Well, I'm glad the heatwave is over.

>56 reading_fox: Gone from shorts and skimpy top to sleeved top and jeans... I wish it would rain here - we've had none and the garden needs it.

>56 reading_fox: sounds like what it can do where I live. It’s nice to get breaks from the heat.

I'm hardly in the same category as WholeHouseLibrary is with his 100+ degrees in Texas, but out here in the mid-Atlantic, today is supposed to be record-breaking. We're used to summers with temps touching the low 90s, but today, we're supposed to hit 99 for sure with the understanding that we might surpass that 100 mark. Around my neighborhood, we have little brick houses dating back to the '40's. It's work to keep them sufficiently cool so that residents don't feel as if they're people-loaves being baked in brick ovens.

Spouse just decided he was going to run out to Target to pick out a pillar fan for the master bed room as the one currently in the bedroom has developed a rather distressing/annoying low-level clackety sound in its innards. (Not conducive to sleep at all.) I told him not to quibble over price if there were any bladeless pillar fans sitting on the racks in Target, but I suspect that others will have gotten to the best models ahead of him.

>60 jillmwo: Best of luck. I saw some good ones still at my local Costco the other day, if he strikes out at Target he can try there.

It's been pretty grim here, as well. I walk the dog at 8:00 am, and not on the beach either. We stay in the neighborhood under the trees. Of course the mosquitos are out in force now. Sammie is 12, and she's a Boxer (very short snout) and cannot handle the heat at all. We're both starting to feel trapped, but I'm very thankful to have a cool (if dark) place to hide.

Our heat is amping up today and will last all week. We’ll be in the hundreds. I’ll do all my outside stuff in the mornings and hang in the shade reading if/when I go outside. Grateful The Husband talked me into getting air conditioning years ago.

It's still hot here in Cambridgeshire - not as hot as last week's record-breaking temperatures, but hot enough. At least there's a decent breeze today. Tomorrow I have to take the car for the annual MoT and service - that's a 15-minute walk back home after dropping it off and a walk back to the garage to collect it in the afternoon. I hope they won't keep it in overnight. At least it's a UK-built Nissan so parts should be easily available, even though it's an old model.

I've been dodging in and out - I can tolerate about 15 minutes outside at a time - planting the last decorative items (a pot of dianthus with a lovely clove scent - Capitan Diaz, 2 pennisetum grasses, and a tray of nicotinia) while weeding the bed. I also planted out some rogue-seeded grape hyacinth (we found them in the middle of the new lawn last year), and some pots of herbs. The last 2 brassicas went out too - some scarlet kale which I'd grown from seed (not very successfully - only 2/15 germinated - it was some rather old seed).

Still to go out are 2 strips of Swiss chard - the white-stemmed variety. I'll wait until it's a bit cooler though - I have to decide where it can fit in as the 4 beds are pretty full and I will need to net it in otherwise the pigeons and blackbirds will have a go at it (the former will eat it and the latter pull it up). That leaves 11 white amaryllis I grew from seed last year; both my bulbs produced seeds after flowering. I started with 1 bulb years ago, that produced an offset which has been flowering the past few years. The original had produced another offset - still too small to plant on it's own.

When the weather cools down in September, I will have to look for winter bedding. Last year I put out a tray of dark red pansies and a tray of white violas; they lasted until last month. I also planted some dark red cyclamen which are still alive; I expect they'll flower again in September. I also want some Sweet William, honesty and physallis (if I can find the latter 2).

Talking about hot weather, we're finally getting the original double glazing replaced. The landing window is jammed open (it can only close partially), the seal has gone in the bathroom window, and the hinges on all the windows are really still. We're looking at windows with integral reflective blinds and are also talking about insect screens, especially for the bedrooms and kitchen. The only question is how long the lead time is - we've been hearing of months not weeks.

ETA: And that's the last of the veg planted out - the 2 strips of Swiss Chard. One strip went under an existing cage, the other went under a too small cage - hopefully the latter will deter the birds. Together with the Rainbow chard and the spinach and the various brassicas, that should keep us in greens for most of the winter. What I might do in the autumn when the courgettes die off is to plant some lettuce under cloches.

It’s 70 DF and quite breezy, lots of blue sky and some clouds. Low humidity. It rained yesterday afternoon and evening, but cleared overnight. The predicted intense thunderstorms went south of us. Pretty typical of a northern Wisconsin summer which is why we like it here.

I'm guessing we're in monsoon again. It rains every day or every other day through the year anyway, so I can't tell from that perspective, but it's been overcast on most days (I call it 'English weather' and at least it's a lot cooler than the usual 32ºC) for the past week or so. This is new since I moved to Singapore; I've only noticed in the past five to ten years - blame it on climate change.

Funny thing about rain ... In central Texas, we went from temperatures going over 100° F and no (significant) rain since late March. Temps got up to 107 long stretches on July and most of August. Then we got a couple inches of rain. The reservoirs actually got lower because the ground soaked it all up.
Temperatures dropped into the 90s, but the heat index remained high because of the high humidity. We got a lot of rain the last two days of August - so much so that this ended up being the 10th rainiest August in Texas on record.
The funny part is that when the tires got wet, they cooled down enough that they each lost 3 to 4 psi and I had to add air to all of them. Never seen that before. And they're holding air. It's not as if I had driven over Magnum Spikes.

Yesterday was the first non-shorts day for me since June. Temperature dropped and it rained. Today the shorts are back on, temperature about 20C, and the sun is shining.

30°C and a light Berg wind here. Definite signs that "spring is sprung, the grass is riz" -- or will be soon.

105F here. No rain. Depressing. Supposed to be like this for at least another week.

>67 pgmcc: Mmmm; maybe TMI.

Over here, thunder and pouring rain are predicted for the next however long. It’s going to be a wet September.

>70 humouress: i assumed no-shorts meant long trousers, and not shorts-off entirely.

But then again, considering >69 MrsLee: weather...

Past two days have been pleasant, normal sort of summer days. Now the humidity is building up again. We're supposed to get a decent amount of rain late this afternoon into the evening. (My county is right on the edge of being declared as having a drought.)

We’re having pleasant weather today. It’s been hot and hazy. The other night we had a forest fire smoke cloud over us that was so thick it created its own thunder and lightning! The rain was muddy!

>73 catzteach: Yikes! That sounds both very cool and kind of awful.

>73 catzteach: I do not like the sound of that smoke cloud.

Ah the beautiful fall weather. This coming week it is supposed to lower to the 90s, instead of 110+ and the night temperatures will be down in the 60s. Of course, now the fires come so that in spite of cooler temperatures, we still can't open doors due to smoke. :/ I am glad the fires have held off around here for this long, but wouldn't it be nice if El Nino gave us some of the rain? I'm just be silly, but of course it is no silly matter for those who have lost homes due to fires. I still go to sleep each night wondering if the homeless in the creek below my house will burn us out before morning. They have caused two such fires in town so far, with several homes lost.

Wow, am I prophetic? Today we had a knock on the door, it was the police telling us to get ready to evacuate as there was a fire in the homeless camp in the creek. I did my walk through the house grabbing the important stuff (after I put on my bra and street safe clothes), loaded it in the car, and was about to get out my evacuation list, but after 20 minutes, they said it was okay, and the fire was under control. They are still mopping up. The only thing I forgot on my first walk through the house was phone chargers, but of course those can be replaced. Funny how the brain works, my hands would reach for something, and my mind said, "Nope, Walmart sells that."

What is scary, is that there would be no way in that situation to get my cats. They both disappear when someone comes to the door. I still haven't seen them two hours later.

>77 MrsLee: Well, that's sufficient excitement for your week. You'e writing about it in such a calm tone of voice -- not to overlook your common sense as well in being ready to move fast in such a contingency (what goes on an evacuation list?) I'm so glad you're okay!

>78 jillmwo: Thank you. I did decide to have my glass of wine at 4:30 instead of 5:00. Might even have another one.

What goes on an evacuation list? Well, purse, keys, phone, my laptop, my important jewelry which is not necessarily valuable in a monetary way, but the stuff I love which means something to me and can never be replaced. Chargers for the electronic devices, my go- bag (which has a bra, a change of underpants, along with comfortable lounge clothes, pajamas, tennis shoes, socks, and I can't remember what else now. I have a hard time packing it, because I need to put items I won't miss in my wardrobe, but that I would want to wear. Also, the fit of the clothes must be checked now and then as my body changes sizes. It also has birth certificate and social security card, and a weeks worth of my prescription medication). I should probably have grabbed my mouth guard, and my travel kit, but I just didn't care that much. Toothbrushes are not that hard to replace.

I also grabbed my husband's wallet, keys and phone, because he pulled a disappearing act on me, wanting to get a closer look at what was happening. He is lucky to have survived the verbal lashing he got for that.

There is a much longer list if you have several hours of warning, but I suspect we will never have that.

Now I'm wondering if I should put a book in the go- bag, and if so, which one? A comfort read? A special one I would hate to lose? I suspect I would not be able to settle into reading a book if my house were in danger of burning down.

>79 MrsLee: Sweet cheeses. I am so glad it turned out to be safe to stay.

I have no clue what I would do. Not that fire is much of an issue here, but I guess if the grandmother of all hurricanes was coming I might decide to visit my son in CT. I'd have to wrangle the animals. Maybe I should put all the critical papers in the safe in an easy to grab pouch or something...

>77 MrsLee:
That is a frightening experience. You sound very organised and prepared.

I hope the cats have reappeared.

>74 clamairy: and >75 pgmcc: it was cool and awful and sad all at the same time. I’d never been under a smoke cloud like that, nor have I seen rain that muddy. But to know the fire is large enough to create it is pretty awful. There was another one yesterday, but it was about 20 miles away.

>77 MrsLee: how scary! I have go-bags ready as well. My biggest fear is also not being able to gather the cats. They see the carriers, scatter, and hide for hours.

This week we’ve been having hazardous air quality. Which means the kids can’t go outside for recess, and I have to exercise indoors. It’s becoming a regular September thing. :(

>81 clamairy: I think a large part of not panicking is thinking through the process, making a list, and preparing what you can.

>82 pgmcc: The cats came back, they always do. :)

>83 catzteach: I wonder if we could train them with treats to come when they see the carrier? It probably could be done, but one of mine disappears in the yard most of the day. And the other is just gone when the doorbell rings.

>84 MrsLee:
In the 1970s I used to spend the summer in a house in Donegal. A cat lived in the house along with seven humans. The cat spent its day by the warm range. Every summer one of the daughters of the house used to return from her home in Scotland with her husband and their eight children. They would stay from the end of June to the end of August. On the day they would arrive at the house the cat would run out the back door and only return after they had left at the end of August.

Oh jeez what a time, MrsL - I remember you saying a lot of homeless camped out in the nature area behind your house. Pretty scary how careless people can be. Glad everything is ok, including the cats.

>84 MrsLee: cats can definitely be trained like that. I’m part of a Facebook group called Adventure Cats. Those cats are trained to walk on a leash, go places in a backpack, ride paddle boards, and more. All trained with treats.

Two of my cats scatter and hide with the doorbell.

Glad all is well.

According to the weather app, it’s 4° C (43.2° F) in Bicester this morning. It’s only mid-September. It’s supposed to be still summery-ish!

>88 haydninvienna:
Our forecast for last night was temperatures between 4 and 8C. This morning is chilly but sunny. it is currently about 6C. Of course, we are a bit further north than Bicester.

>89 pgmcc: Thanks Peter, so it’s not just us.

>90 haydninvienna:
Well, I just checked and our temperature has climbed to 7C so far. I have a lot of garden work to do today, so a low temperature and dry is probably ideal. I’ll have my work to keep me warm. My Love is in the US visiting our daughter for our youngest grandchild’s first birthday.

>90 haydninvienna:
Now the Sun is ip we have hit 13C.

>88 haydninvienna: & >89 pgmcc: Wow, that quite cool. Stay warm!

Just did all the C to F calculations and ahem, 50 degrees is not cold. LOL. In a few months here it will be 0 or below for days or weeks at a time. That's cold. But I'm the same with heat. Anything above 75 is hot.

My sister and I had a laugh the other day. I told her our weather got DOWN to 70°F and she said hers got UP to 70°F. We met in the middle.

>95 MrsLee: I suspect that my sister and I could do the same, on occasion. Where are you both based?

ETA: Oh wait; we'd never get as low as 21ºC. 26ºC is 'break out the long sleeves' weather for us.

My sister is in eastern Oregon, and I am in the valley of northern California.

We've been having a lovely fall - no frost yet and very little rain. Most days have been in the high teens or low 20s and mainly sunny. Leaves are starting to change. Today is a bit cooler (14) and windy, though, and it was spitting a few drops of rain earlier. Tomorrow is supposed to be similar, but then sunny again, according to the forecast. I'm still working on finishing my front deck (but not very fast) so the good weather is appreciated!

Best of luck to all of you Florida people! majkia check in when you can.

As of last night's news time, Orchard Park, NY about 30 miles south of here had 59" (150 cm) of snow with more expected. We're about 30 miles from there and had basically none at that time, but it coming down pretty good now.

>100 Karlstar: The Husband mentioned that New York got four feet of snow. Yikes!

We’ve been super cold here. It was 10°F here this morning. We had indoor recesses most of the week due to the cold. The freezing fog was very pretty, though.

Cold. Snowy. Windy. But with bits of blue sky coming through. A perfect day to buy a 911. LOL.

>101 catzteach: They are way past 4 feet now, last time we heard they were up to 77". Snowing here again, but I think it is supposed to stop overnight. Mostly.

>102 Bookmarque: You bought a Porsche?

Yup. It’s a little like getting a bike for Christmas, but it’s awesome!

>104 Bookmarque: Holy batmobile! That's awesome, congrats!

>103 Karlstar: that’s nuts! We’ve had that much snow over a winter, but not all at once. The most we’ve had here at once is about 4 feet. And I thought that was crazy!

>103 Karlstar: When I was little, we used to travel to the Buffalo area to see relatives for Thanksgiving. Never saw 77 inches of snow there, though.

Stay safe!

>103 Karlstar: Yeesh! I have been following this story closely on the news and through the Weather Channel app videos. Incredible, really. At least it's 'fluffy!' LOL

>102 Bookmarque: Nice! Enjoy it (in a few months)!

We're northerners! Snow tires coming and we're taking it home. I've driven rear wheel drive cars in snow before and if you know what you're doing it's no problem. This is our first rear engine car, so it will be a little different and require some technique I'm sure. It will be fun!

>107 majkia: Thanks, we are good here. Today was mostly sunny, though we could see a band of clouds and snow to the south. Lots of stores and such are closed while people dig out. It is going to be interesting to see the supply chain hit with the major highways all closed for more than a day. You must have gotten lucky, we've had a few Thanksgiving holiday season storms over the years, always around my sister's birthday (Nov 20) and Thanksgiving.

>108 clamairy: It was weird, the reports from the south said it was very wet and heavy, but here it was very fluffy.

Some information and photos about the snow this past weekend.

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/11/20/1137579787/buffalo-western-n...

>111 Karlstar: Wow. Never in my life have I seen that much snow fall at one time.

>111 Karlstar: the clean up after a regular snow storm is time intensive. I can’t imagine what it’s like after something like this. Where do they put all that snow? Here in Oregon, we aren’t allowed to dump it into lakes or rivers because of all the other stuff that gets picked up with it. We have to make piles around town - parking lots and empty lots and such.

>111 Karlstar: and >113 catzteach: Back in 1996 (I think) there was a blizzard that hit New York City really hard. The city was very nearly closed down for three full days. The Sanitation Department piled the snow up in open parking lots and when there was nowhere else to put it, they took bulldozers and other construction equipment to dump the snow into the East River. (Which they can't do nowadays because it creates environmental issues.)

>111 Karlstar: Well youngsters, lemme siddown an tell ya 'bout the blizzard of '77.

That too was one monster storm which dropped something like 100 inches in western New York. At the time I lived in Rochester and around noon of the first day of the snowfall all employees were told to go home. I lived on the western side of Rochester and I rode busses to work. As we headed out my way the snow was blinding but the bus managed to get me to my stop. I made it in the apartment and just settled down to wait it out. The apartment was a 3 story affair and was built with landings where each landing had entrances for four apartments. About 8PM my buzzer rang. This was a bit of a surprise so I went down to the front and found myself looking at a cold and miserable co-worker. He lived further west and had spent several hours buried in his car on the road. Fortunately a highway plow had managed to free him. He made his way back into town and was able to get as far as my place before the roads again became impassible. I made some dinner and broke out a sleeping bag for him.

The next morning I was in the middle of preparing breakfast for the two of us when there was a knock on my door. One of my neighbors was on the other side and wanted to know if she could borrow a few eggs. She said she had a refugee from the storm and needed more food. We both laughed and while we were standing their another neighbor on the same landing opened his door and related a similar situation. I decided we better find out the overall apartment situation so I went to each of the doors on the three landings to check things out. It turned out everyone in the building had an emergency guest. Since we were all in the same situation the 12 of us (we were all single living in one bedroom apartments) decided a community breakfast was in order so everyone chipped in with whatever supplies they had. One other individual and I had the most eggs and I had more skills in cooking them any way you wanted so we propped open all of the apartment doors and my place was the egg place - a couple of the others combined their supplies of bacon and sausage and other their cans and containers of juice, etc. We turned the 12 apartments into a bring-your-own-plate buffet serve yourself breakfast line. Once everyone was served we all retired to our respective apartments and had breakfast with our guests.

The good news was, even though it was still snowing, by noon enough of the road to the west had been cleared so our refugees were able to make a run for their homes - they all made it.

In the days that followed there were all kinds of interesting stories about rescuing and sheltering friends, co-workers, and strangers.

At one point in the winter of 1978 the forecast was for another 77 blizzard and on that day a lot of people did not go into work (myself included) - that one turned out to be a false alarm.

>115 alco261: That’s a lovely story.

That is a great story! I remember that blizzard slightly since it meant a lot of snow days for me. Oh the forts and snowmen we built. After dad dug and snowblowed for what seemed ages though.

>115 alco261: Great blizzard story!

>115 alco261: What a fun story! Thank you for sharing.

Weather here in California is cool and mild today. The sun is shining through my ornamental pistachio trees which have all turned golden and orange, so the air seems to glow. We are hoping for a good rainstorm on Sunday.

"Not Quite a Blizzard Story": Thanksgiving 1980. I lived alone in Columbia, MO and was headed to southeast MO to my parents' farm for the holiday. I got off work at 5:00, drove my 1970 AMC Hornet to get a half-tank of gas (because that's all it took to drive the 3 hour drive). I have $6 and a Chevron credit card to my name. Then I got onto I-70, put my 8-track stereo on full blast and began driving east toward St. Louis. About halfway there, it began to snow. No worries; my dad had put snow tires on for me the weekend before (Thank you, Dad, because I had argued with him about the need for them). The further east I went, the thicker the snow, so I decided that I might want to listen to the forecast, and turned on the radio. I'm headed right into it. I cross the Missouri River, find a truck stop and use the pay phone to call my mom. She tells me to not go to the farm, but to go to my sister's in town, as my aunt had already wrecked her car trying to get to her farm. Then I stop in the bar, let a truck driver buy me a drink, and chat up a couple who are headed the opposite direction I am. They tell me it's pretty bad. However, I am 21 and too dumb to know danger, so I get back on the highway; visibility is nearly nonexistent, but I follow a snowplow all the way to my hometown, in which there is about 10 or so inches of snow. Took me 6 hours in a trip that I normally did in 3.

Fast forward 5 years. I'm living in Texas and have a 2-year old in the backseat. It starts raining; torrential, blinding rain. I'm driving on a two-lane (Farm to Market) which had no shoulder, and no place to pull over to wait it out. I followed the taillights in front of me. If he'd gone in the ditch, so would I have. I finally got to the next little town, and pulled over into a parking lot to wait it out. When I took my foot off the break, it was shaking, I was that terrified. When I got home, I called my mom, and reminded her of the snowstorm that didn't scare me at all. She laughed, and said, "Isn't it amazing how much smarter we get when we get older, and when we have kids to worry about?"

>115 alco261: >120 theretiredlibrarian: Great stories!

>115 alco261: Heh--the Blizzard of '78 definitely wasn't a false alarm in eastern Massachusetts...

Well, I just looked it up, and the news story said it was 6". Sure felt like a lot more at the time. Probably because it was such a early storm and they weren't prepared for it. We just had a snowstorm of 4" here a couple of weeks ago that took the weather forecasters by surprise, and the snow crews definitely weren't ready for it. Fortunately it was on a Friday night, so it wasn't too bad. Typically southeast Missouri doesn't get a great deal of snow until late December or January. Today it is currently 59 degrees; rain predicted for tomorrow.

>115 alco261: That’s a great blizzard story! It’d make a great picture book for kids!

I see there's some dicey weather out there...just rain and 50 degrees in southeast Missouri.

Stay safe, everyone. Stay home if you're in the blizzard or tornado risk areas.

(Just cool and windy here.)

Just went to town and picked up eggs, croissants and bourbon. All necessities for a nice, cozy snowstorm which we should be getting tomorrow.

>127 Bookmarque: Sounds to me like you have the real essentials in the house, when it comes to anticipating a winter storm. Hope that the weather doesn't get too nasty for you.

>127 Bookmarque: I believe that’s the storm that hit us on Sunday. It dropped about 8 inches in my part of town. 10 - 14 inches in other parts. Stay safe and warm.

If it would only turn to snow soon! Freezing rain right now and I don't relish the busted trees and branches if it keeps up. Come on snow!! Am sticking to the house today and at least tomorrow. Generator on stand by should (when) the power go out.

>130 Bookmarque: Freezing rain is the worst! I hate it so much. I like winter to get cold and stay that way (freeze-thaw is bad for the plants) and all precipitation to be snow. We're due a couple more days of warm (highs from -3 to -5 C) and then it goes back down into the -20s. Current forecast says snow flurries from Friday onwards, but probably no significant amount.

Yeah this weather pattern is crazy as it's coming from nearly due south so the upper atmosphere is too warm for snow, but it's already cold below and thus, freezing rain. I'm going to need microspikes just to go get the trash can at the end of the driveway.

Snowing in Minnesota now and we have a winter storm warning. It is still dark so I will see more after we see daylight. Yesterday my trees were all frosted.

Pouring rain all day here in southeast Pennsylvania. (But feeling rather glad that there's no snow to prevent a meet-up with colleagues in the city.)

It's cold (by our standards) in Oxfordshire. Last night down to -7°C (19.4°F if my mental maths is correct) here and hasn't been above freezing all day. Brilliant clear day though. I could enjoy this sort of weather if I didn't have to walk on pavements.

I checked in the other day with my kids who live in Texas, where a tornado touched down. My son (Dallas) was fine. My daughter (Ft. Worth area) said that my oldest granddaughter (13), who walks to school after her mom leaves for work, hunkered down in the bathroom with the cats; the younger granddaughter was already at school, and the school went into tornado drill mode. My daughter was driving right into the worst, so she turned around and got shelter at the school administration building. Everyone in our family is ok.

The snow has fallen and melted twice. Call me simple, but my inner-child cannot wait for it to stick.

Well that's a relief for you retiredlibrarian. Phew.

We got about 8 inches of wet cement. I mean snow. Broke two shear pins while out dealing with it - one on each snow blower. Luckily we had spares and got the driveway mostly cleaned up.

Cloudy, 40 F. (4 C.)
7pm in Charlotte, North Carolina

Luckily it's not cold enough for snow here, but we are expecting lots of rain with 20-40 MPH winds, with gusts up to 50 MPH (80 KM) tonight and tomorrow. Batten the hatches! Secure the rigging!

>136 theretiredlibrarian: glad they are all ok. Tornadoes in December! Who would’ve thunk it.

It’s been sunny and cold here. We are supposed to stay sunny and cold till about Sunday night. Then we are supposed to get more snow. This winter is starting much like the winter of 2016, which we around here affectionately call “snowmageddon.” That was the year a school gym collapsed. I’m hoping this year does not follow suit.

>136 theretiredlibrarian: Scary stuff! Glad everyone is safe.

Over in tropical Singapore it's been overcast for days - quite unusual but we're seeing it more often now. Climate change nay-sayers explain that! Yesterday I took the dog out for a quick walk and though it wasn't raining, there were patches on the pavement that were wet. As I was crossing one my foot suddenly went out from under me and before I knew it I was up in the air and then dumped on my bum right on that patch. Fortunately I was more startled than anything; we're flying tomorrow and I wouldn't have been too happy if I'd been hurt.

The local council recently covered up the drains and put pavements over the top but there's a slow run-off from behind some of the houses along the road. Because there hasn't been much sun, there's a thin slick of algae across the pavement in those places which I didn't notice until I landed in it.

A few days ago we had a thunderstorm that hit and took out (only) the router power supply. Fortunately I had a spare, so we were only off the air for half an hour. Right now it's sunny and "34°C feels like 42". Good time to stay indoors and read.

Snow again today and tomorrow in Minnesota. Schools are closed or delayed openings. Since our location is right next to the Wisconsin border, they also list school closings there. It looked like a Norman Rockwell painting with the snow on the trees but not great for driving. Chrismas Day will be a high of 10*F.

Winter storm alert in the midwest. Snow predicted to hit St. Louis around noon. Only a few inches expected, but the wind chill may be as low as -30. Stay safe, everyone.

Even here in the Florida Panhandle we will have lows in the 20s! 4 nights.

Christmas Eve (Saturday) is supposed to have a high here in PA of 22 degrees. Today and tomorrow, we're expecting significant rain, flash freezing and other indications of winter. Be sensible and safe, folks!

I was looking for this thread--I wanted to inquire if our NoCal members (MrsLee!) were okay after the recent earthquake. (Yes, earthquakes aren't weather. But starting a separate thread called "Geological Check In" seems a little over the top.)

>149 Marissa_Doyle: Thank you for posting that before I did. MrsLee, your fans are thinking of you! And knowing that Catzteach is less than a million miles from the epicentre, thinking of you too.

I hadn’t heard of this. Best wishes to GDers who might have been affected—MrsLee and Catzteach that I know of.

She hasn't posted since Monday, I hope everything there is ok.

We are expecting a 'historic' snowstorm here, though as usual most of it will be south of us. High winds (up to 60 mph?) and lots of whiteouts and blowing snow. We'll see if it ends up as grim as they are predicting, they are preparing for electricity outages.

>149 Marissa_Doyle: I think we might fairly include all earth processes that affect people, and I hope everyone is okay, too. There were some small earthquakes north of us a couple of weeks ago, but it was days later that I realized the faint weird rattling I heard in the house must have been caused by them.

It's still stupid cold here. -29C this morning, on the way to a "high" of -26C, but of course it's windy enough that it feels like -40C. It has been in the -30s for several days. We have a warming trend coming, though. Friday's high is supposed to be -18C and then it goes into single digits and possibly even 1C on Boxing Day. I could really live without it going over 0 because everything just gets mucky, but -1 to -10 are really nice for getting outside and going for walks.

>153 tardis: That's cold!

I’m ok. The earthquake didn’t reach this far north. Mrs. Lee has been active on FB, but I don’t know if she felt the quake at all.

The weather here, though, is pretty cold. It’s 6° F right now (-14 C, I believe). We have freezing fog and are supposed to get 3 inches of snow. But it’ll be in the 50s by Christmas.

I'm about an hour west of Jill. We're having plain old rain right now, but the sidewalks are slippery. Both of our sons are driving here tomorrow, from MD and NY, and we're a little bit worried about them, since there's ice in the forecast. We're hoping the rain will stop early enough for the streets to dry out before the temperature plummets. But they've had plenty of practice, and I suspect they'll be fine. We haven't seen our grandkids since school started, so I figure we'll hardly recognize them.

Thanks for thinking of me! I meant to come to the pub and mention it, but busy busy you know.

We are two mountain ranges away from where the earthquake was, but my husband felt it and watched our curtains move. Nothing off the shelves in Red Bluff. I slept through the whole thing, even my cell phone shrieking the alarm, which is what woke my husband.

Some of my friends on the coast have a different story. Lots of shattered glass in their home, some of their neighbors had broken gas lines, etc. The earthquake took place in the town we visited last month. The bridge we drove over is no longer safe, there is a 6" crack in the road on it.

Best of luck to everyone! No snow expected here, for which I am extremely grateful. I am under both a Flood Warning* and a High Wind Advisory**. Luckily my kids aren't traveling here until Saturday. I don't envy my son his ferry crossing Saturday night, but winds should have died down a bit by then.

*10-15 foot waves expected on the ocean side, and 3-6 foot waves on my usually peaceful bay. :o(

** 20-30 MPH winds, with gusts up to 55 MPH.

All of a sudden I’m sort of glad for the boring English weather! North American weather is a touch too interesting. Best wishes and safe holidays, all.

In central Texas, the temperature dropped 25 degrees in the past two hours -- currently 29°F and quite windy. The wind chimes are a cacophony of noise right now. Expecting temperatures to drop into single digits for the next couple of nights, but absolutely no precipitation is expected.
Back in November, I hung a curtain (drape?) at the bottom of the stairs to lessen the downstairs heat pump from working overtime while the upstairs one gets a free pass. It seems to be working. Sitting here in the kitchen, I can watch the curtain "breathe" with the change in air pressure.
Will be starting a fire in the fireplace in a little while, but all my firewood is relatively small-diameter dead branches. Maybe a dozen pieces reach 3" in diameter, so it's all going to go fairly quickly.
Sadly, the coldest part of the year is in February.
Best wishes and hope for a safe outcome for all, no matter which environmental condition you are dealing with.

Not sure why, but I'm not really in the mood to watch The Day after Tomorrow.

>160 WholeHouseLibrary: Ha! My daughter sent me this message yesterday, "Isn't this the storm from The Day After Tomorrow?" She included a screenshot of the Weather Channel warning for what they are calling a 'Bomb Cyclone.'

Stay warm!

I’m sitting under a winter storm warning.  7°F and falling.  I’m enjoying it, but I hope essential workers are receiving hazard pay.

It's a little below zero and I think the light snow has stopped. No drama.

>161 clamairy: I really wish they'd drop that 'bomb cyclone' term.

>164 Karlstar: It's a whole lot easier to remember (and to say) than it's actual name, which is: “explosive cyclogenesis.”

i've noticed that local media has started using the term"rain bomb". I think it's a little too trite to compare heavy rain causing localised flash flooding, to an actual bomb.

>149 Marissa_Doyle:: I'd like a "Geological Check In" thread. I'd check in once every million years. No pressure (pun not intended).

>165 WholeHouseLibrary: They really need to find a better name that doesn't have references to explosions, but thanks for the explanation.

It went from a little windy and rain here to very windy and some snow in the last 2 hours.

>166 MrAndrew: *groan*

I am awaiting arrivals of offspring today and tomorrow. I really want to see the family but at the same time, wish everyone would just stay home and stay safe. It's cold and damp out there -- uncomfortable conditions without any of the picturesque, seasonal elements.

I woke up early this morning (around 2AM) to the near incessant ringing of our front doorbell. I went down stairs, opened the door and found the snowman begging to come in from the cold.

You-all make me profoundly grateful that I live where I do. Warm but usually not oppressively hot in summer, cool but usually above freezing (we've had frost roughly one night every five years since we came here; snow not in recorded history), adequate rain, though with occasional floods (unlike parts of the Northern and Eastern Cape, where they have had not a drop of rain in the last 5 years). And AFAIK we're in about the second-most geologically stable place in Africa. The most stable being the Kaapvaal Craton (particularly around Barberton in Mpumalanga, but extending into the Free State), which has hardly changed in the last 2000-million years. The nearest I've experienced to an earthquake is the result of early mining in and around Johannesburg, where disused shafts and tunnels collapse regularly.

Strength and good luck to those who need it.

>169 alco261: Did you let him in, with a warning about the peril he was facing inside?

>171 clamairy: It turned out the main issue was the wind so we let him stay out on the unheated but glassed in porch where it was still cold enough to keep him in one piece...in other news our neighbor said his minister had to jump start the candles for the early morning service today...

Currently 7pm, sunny and 29ºC in the suburbs to the west of Sydney. Expecting a heatwave from Melbourne to Brisbane for Christmas Day.

Just caught up with the news on BBC Radio 3 (about 4 hours late). The temperatures they report for Montana are way below a normal freezer here, and getting on for those associated with storing Covid vaccines. Do we have any members in Montana? If so, I can only wish you the warmth that Humouress and I are enjoying.

-7* F and wind chill of -27* F in Minnesota. My Texas granddaughter is in Des Moines because roads are closed due to blizzard conditions. Hope the roads open today. Next week in the high 30s.

We bottomed out at 9°F (windchill way below 0°) and at some point I need to take my dog for a walk. Needless to say it will be short!

Still holding at just below zero. Sunny.

it was 50F yesterday, and pouring rain with high winds that knocked down power lines all over. we were without power overnight but it was restored this morning, although we have a gas generator that is sufficient to maintain the furnace and refrigerator and chest freezer so we weren't cold and fortunately didn't lose any large trees on our property.

it was only 6F when I got up this morning though, so I am blessing the power company work crews that labored all night in single digit temperatures to get our lights back on!

ETA I am in southern NH

Looks like we got down to around 10F overnight, currently 12F with windchill below zero. Luckily the wind has dropped about 10-20mph, just sustained winds in the 20-30 range now. Another 8-12" of snow expected. Complete travel ban has been on since yesterday.

This is from the front sidewalk looking across the street.

>179 Karlstar: oh my. where are you located? i hope this doesn't disrupt any holiday plans you might have for tomorrow?

>180 Darth-Heather: We are in Western New York, right between the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario snow belts. I just saw a report that said Buffalo, 20 miles south of here, is getting 4-6 feet. They might be working on a record for Nov/Dec snowfall, since south Buffalo would have gotten up to 13 feet.

Our plans for the family get together tomorrow have been cancelled. The travel ban might be lifted by then, but hard to tell at this point. It is supposed to stop snowing here later this evening, but the wind will keep blowing it around for a couple of days. It is snowing harder now than when I took the picture.

>181 Karlstar: I am sorry for the travel issues, but your photo is so lovely!

It is finally "warming" up after a really cold week here. Yesterday it got up to -31°C after several days in the -40s, and today looks like it will be in the high -20s. Sunday night the temperature dropped into the -40s, and it didn't really get back into the -30s until Thursday afternoon, then dipped again Thursday night. My truck was very unhappy with the temperatures, even though it was plugged in. It's good without being plugged in until its colder than about -25, but at -40 it needs to be run for a while before moving, and may need help starting. I discovered my digital outdoor thermometer doesn't read below -38, after it hadn't changed for a few days, but temperatures at the weather station at the airport got down to -48. Fortunately it was mostly calm. Wednesday was the worst, and I got a touch of frostbite, even all covered up, when I was skiing with the dog. We weren't going far, either. Amazingly, Duncan (my dog) was always happy to go out. He didn't stay out long on the really cold days, though.

The temperature scales for degrees C and F meet at -40. Any way you look at it, it's cold.

Forecast for next week is mid -20s. It will seem balmy.

The western and northern parts of the state were hit with freezing rain. Some highways are still closed. My brother is one who was out working in it. He was trying to keep one mountain highway drivable. In my part of the state, we have warmed up and things are melting quickly. It’s supposed to be 55° F here today and tomorrow. It feels really warm out right now. It’s 45° F. :D

Very windy (just under hurricane force), but warm (58F) and rainy yesterday on Cape Cod. But the tides were crazy: it was the monthly high tide, and that combined with storm surge and the wind direction meant that the road to my mother-in-law's house near the beach was under two feet of seawater. Even stranger was that the tide was high just before lunchtime...and then never went out again till much later in the day. The wind and storm surge more or less kept it in place.

This morning it was 15F and blowing whirls of ocean-effect snow, but only a couple of inches.

Sunny, 26 F. (-3 C.) in Charlotte NC just before 4p on Christmas Eve.

Crikey! Stay safe and warm, everybody, and Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it.

>182 MrsLee: Thanks MrsLee, it is a winter wonderland here! It is still blilzzard-like conditions, the snow band has been stuck right over us all day. It is supposed to slow down in a couple of hours and finally stop around 9 PM.

>185 Marissa_Doyle: That's crazy storm surge! I hope everyone and everything is ok.

We just were dealing with a burst pipe. Luckily, although it was touch and go, we got the water shut off to the bad pipe and still have water to the house. Here in Florida, pipes are close to the surface, particularly down by the water like we are. Just sand and that sand gets washed away when the bayou floods the yard. Oh well. Tomorrow we'll celebrate and Monday we'll deal with it.

I hope that all of you who are caught up in storms and extreme weather are safe and warm. We've had a lot of coverage on BBC here in the UK and it all looks most alarming. I'm hoping that my elderly friend in the Philly suburbs will call today so I know she's okay.

>190 Sakerfalcon: The death toll is quite high for a Winter storm. My heart goes out to those who lost someone, and those who had to deal with lack of heat. I've been through it, and it's stressful.

Sunny, 25 F. in Charlotte, North Carolina just before 10am

>169 alco261: Thanks for the laugh.

It is 0* F now and wind chill of -12*.
Prayers for the ones getting hit so hard with ice and storms.

All the way up to 17F today! Another 2-4" of snow expected. My sister, who works in a hospital in Buffalo, has been there without leaving since Friday morning.

>187 haydninvienna: I hope you had a Merry Christmas too, sorry I'm late!

Hats off to her; she is clearly a very dedicated lady!

Temperature currently at 30, very little wind chill, and another dusting of snow predicted for this afternoon. Then later this week, it will be 60s and rain. From Thursday to Saturday, the furthest I left the house was to get wood for the fire from the back porch. But no doubt in the coming weeks, we'll have more snow and cold.

>191 clamairy: It's awful, especially for older or vulnerable people. Surprisingly, my friends said that they hadn't had any snow at all, although it was very cold. She said Boston hasn't had snow either.

>195 Karlstar: Well done to your sister. I hope she is able to have a break soon.

Keep warm and take care everyone.

>198 Sakerfalcon: Thank you, she was able to get someone to work this past holiday weekend, so she finally had time off. We saw her and the rest of the gang at the combined holiday gathering Sunday.

It's been "raining" here for the past three days, with temperatures varying above and below the freezing point. LOTS of tree damage. I spent a good portion of yesterday lopping off branches that had previously been up too high to reach, and whacking as much ice off exposed limbs and leaves. I've got very old Live Oak trees, and they don't shed their leaves until their replacements sprout in the spring. My yard looks like the pictures could have been taken in Ukraine, except no craters. It'll be in the low 40s this afternoon.

The East Coast of the U.S. is supposed to feel an Arctic Blast over the weekend. (I think the high on Saturday is supposed to be 12 degrees Fahrenheit. It's the wind chill that is supposed to be the real problem.) Spouse and I have re-arranged all of our usual routines so that we can manage without ever having to leave the house in such conditions. Note that this Arctic Blast is only supposed to be with us for 2 or 3 days at most.

I would have liked to just stay in during the brutally cold weekend but I must attend my niece's birthday celebration on Saturday morning. It was just as cold on the day she was born and we all went to that, so I guess she won't accept excuses :D

>200 WholeHouseLibrary: When we lived in Round Rock, near Austin we had Live Oak trees.

I was up at 5:30 AM and it was 17*F and high was 20*F at 6:15 AM. It is 2:00 PM and 7*F. Got colder during the day. May have a low of -20*F tonight, without the windchill, and tomorrow a high of 5*F. Saturday a high of 32*F. Crazy weather. I have family in Texas.

>203 mnleona: I see you're in Minnesota. Brrr!

Stay safe >200 WholeHouseLibrary:. At least you have electricity this time.

My weather will be more like >201 jillmwo:'s, with our low for the wee hours on Saturday morning bottoming out at 3° F, and winds close to 30 mph. I will be staying inside, if I can. It depends on how much of a fuss Sammie makes.

Good luck with that party, >202 Darth-Heather:! I hope you don't have to travel much.

We got hit by the arctic blast earlier this week. We were in the negatives Monday morning. Windchill put us at -8. It lasted two days. We’re in the high 40s today.

Bwahaha!!!

It's 1 degree right now. Eh, normal.

Clear, 68 F. (20 C.) in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Rain expected tomorrow.

I think they said a high of 9F tomorrow here with wind chills in the negatives. Could be worse, Potsdam NY is expecting a high of -8F tomorrow.

Cold here in Singapore with daytime temperatures stuck at around 25°C (that’s a couple of degrees below the nighttime norm for the year; I used to wonder how people noticed a 2° drop in temperature when I first got here 25 years ago. I can definitely feel the 7° difference).

I haven’t seen the sun since we got back from Sydney 2 weeks ago and it’s been raining non-stop. It’s long sleeves and jumpers weather here for me and the kids are in hoodies. (Having said which, the kids are always in hoodies and shorts, rain or shine 🤷‍♀️)

Durban has 26--27°C right now, depending on where you are (airport, beachfront or "Outer West", which last is about 2000 ft above sea level), with a possibility of thunderstorms. Shirt, shorts and flip-flops here. Expected minimum 17° tonight.

>211 humouress: >212 hfglen: Envious ... Actually even sort of envious of >208 Bookmarque: and >210 Karlstar: : anything would be better than this endless greyness.

>213 haydninvienna: Oh, sorry, I didn’t make myself clear. We have the endless greyness. Plus humidity.

>213 haydninvienna: Sorry pardon, it's grey here too. And we've had some rain since my last post here.

ETA: and now it's raining again, quite hard.

>213 haydninvienna: Same here, earlier this week they said on the weather that the last sunny day was Nov 26. There was about an hour of sunshine yesterday though.

Thirteen below this morning. Clear skies which is part of the reason.

All right, I’ll stop complaining now (except to Mrs H).

And we don’t tolerate spammers.

Relevantly, sort of: I’ve just bought a copy of The Wrong Kind of Snow from the British Heart Foundation shop. This is a day by day account of British weather over the centuries, giving descriptions of notable weather events from contemporary sources. Historically, the weather on 3 February in Great Britain appears to have been pretty dull, with only a description by Samuel Pepys of a great wind storm on 3 February 1666; and on 3 February 1820 John Keats showed the first symptoms of the tuberculosis that would kill him.

Well, here in southeast PA, it's bright and sunny. (She says in her chirpiest voice.)

But the temps are falling. It was just at the freezing point when i got up at around 7am and it's fallen five degrees in the three hours since. The overnight low is supposed to be something obscene, but all anyone cares to talk about locally is that the Philadelphia Eagles are going to be playing in the Superbowl in a week. Jerseys in green and white as far as the eye can see!!

It was -14C here yesterday, and today it's -4C on the way to a high of 3C. And highs will be above 0C for the next week or so. This is not ideal in February - I'd rather it stayed below 0 because it can trick the trees into thinking it's spring, and we can (and will) still get back into the stupid cold range. Also it melts snow and then we get ice, which is never good outside a skating rink.

And if it's warmer, the skunk(s) will wake up and by the smell, there's a den in the snowpile beside our driveway. We need to block off the access to under our deck because we don't want anyone moving in there when the snow is gone.

>221 haydninvienna: You seem to have hit me with that one; just this morning I ran across a reference to the most damaging tornado to have hit Britain, back in December 1810 in Hampshire--a T8 on a scale of 10.

-16 C here today, up from the -20s over the past few days. Normal winter temperatures, but feels cold after the mostly warm January we had. But it's sunny here, and has been most days this week. We got some fresh snow a few days ago, and one of my friends is out setting tracks on the ski trails right now. Since I love cross country skiing, this is a great place to live!

Last week we had a few days above freezing, and two days with freezing rain. The trails got really icy and a bit dangerous. I'd rather it stayed cold until it's time for it all to melt.

>224 Marissa_Doyle: A bit of googling gives the date of that tornado as being 14 December 1810 (see https://www.torro.org.uk/research/tornadoes/extremes) in which case it isn’t in the book. The entry for 14 December is a long passage from Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee, about the severe winter of 1917. The toro.org.uk page gives 3 tornadoes in the UK that are believed to have reached T8, and the Hampshire tornado is one of them.

Unfortunately the book doesn’t have an index.

>220 haydninvienna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g00NplDnLLQ

>206 Bookmarque: True. Thanks for the laugh. I am in Minnesota so understand.

We are getting 3 rounds of snow. Yesterday, I got 2"-3" and more to come around 3 PM today and more tomorrow. Sunny now and 13* F with a wind chill of 1* F.

It's turned very cold again today. -37C this morning at the airport, about -33 at my thermometer in town. We're supposed to have a high of -22 today, but it's still below 30. That's -35, -27, -8, and below -22 for those who use degrees F.

But it's sunny!

We're back in the deep freeze, too, although not as cold as NorthernStar. The outside thermometer says -23C, although my phone app says -26C. Windchill makes it feel like -34. Good day to stay home, read, and bake!

Supposed to warm up to -4C on Saturday.

I will be frost protecting plants the next three or four nights, looks like next week, too. We may even get snow here in California!

Am spending the night in a friend's house near MSP hoping that I can still get my flight out tomorrow afternoon to California. More snow is imminent, but these people are professionals and deal with snow all the time. The inbound flight isn't coming from a bad weather area and if the storm breaks up when it's supposed to, I should be fine. If not I can always go later and if that fails, just head back here and chill another day or so before heading home. My husband will have to have fun without me!

Nothing but rain predicted here, thankfully!

Best of luck to all of you facing adverse conditions. Stay safe and warm.

Currently under a tornado watch.

>233 Bookmarque: You may have professionals on your end at dealing with snow, but we are expecting snow in California, too, and it tends to be the end of the world here (in the lower elevations, those in the mountains take it in their stride, not sure which part you are traveling to), so be warned. Also, safe travels.

In eastern PA, we had sleet briefly this morning, but we're expecting a high of 70F tomorrow. Very soon after that the Olive (now they're naming storms after reindeer?) remnants are supposed to bring us some cold precipitation of unknown sorts.

Am heading south to SLO and hope that I can get to Paso Robles ok. You'd think they'd be used to flakes by now. LOL.

At the other end of the world, a state of disaster has been declared due to floods in much of eastern South Africa. We are now bracing for Cyclone Freddy (lately downgraded to a tropical storm), due to make landfall in Mozambique tomorrow. Heavy rains are expected in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KZN provinces, with the already-flooded Kruger Park probably worst hit. And in Zimbabwe, of course.

>233 Bookmarque: Good luck with the flight and the weather.

>239 hfglen: I hope the flooding ends soon.

we missed the worst of the cold (it wasn't) and snow/ice here, mostly just got some sleet overnight.

>239 hfglen: Best of luck to you and yours.

>237 Jim53: Olive is my favorite reindeer!

I have snow drifts in my yard and some are 4' high. Strong winds but not in a blizzard. I live on a lake and the wind is really blowing hard across the lake which is all ice and snow. They are asking people to stay home if they can.
Floods and ice are bad.
Stay safe.

>242 Darth-Heather: I don't know, she was pretty mean.

>239 hfglen: Hoping for minimal problems for y'all.

>239 hfglen:
I hope the weather does not cause you too many problems. Keep well!

>238 Bookmarque:
Safe journey.

>239 hfglen: Oh no! Stay safe!

>243 mnleona: That does not sound fun at all. I hope you have someone to help you clear it.

>238 Bookmarque: What Peter said.

Thanks guys. Made it to phoenix no problem. One more hop.

>250 Bookmarque: Good luck! I hope you're flying around that big storm.

>250 Bookmarque: I hope you get to your destination!

>239 hfglen: I hope the storm doesn’t do too much damage.

We are cold here. It’s 10 degrees right now and is expected to get down to zero or colder tonight. Snowed all day, too. The worst thing about this kind of weather is indoor recess all day. :) The kids get cabin fever pretty quickly.

We are -12F now but the snow has stopped until next week.
Stay safe.

...so I see Hell (Michigan) froze over this morning 28F

4"+ snow here in Red Bluff, CA. We are 300 feet above sea level. Still snowing. I tried to tell my boss I couldn't get to work, but he said my card could, plus he knows I grew up where it snows. I kind of want to take some photos of the cemetery in snow anyway. Oh, there is a ten a.m. burial scheduled.

-23C (-9F) here at 11 am, but the sun is out and the sky is so blue! It's beautiful!

Sunny, 80 F. (27 C.) in Fernandina Beach, Florida, in the mid-afternoon.

20F with overcast this afternoon.

The rain from Freddie started a few minutes ago, and already seems to have paused for a while. But then we are about 1000 km (600 miles) as the crow flies from the action. Storm made landfall at Vilankulos, Mozambique, and appears to be heading for southern Zimbabwe / northern Kruger Park.
Thank you, everybody, for your good wishes.

Made it fine to Paso Robles and had a laugh at the dusting of snow on the chairs by the pool just now.

Snowy and cold here. It even snowed in the valley a couple of days ago. Portland, OR set a record snowfall: 10 inches. And they are expected to get 7 more tomorrow. In Bend we only had about 5 inches fall. It was sunny and beautiful today. It was in the high 40s. I sat out in the sun and enjoyed the warmth.

>261 catzteach: I saw your weather on the news. Stay safe.
I am getting more snow and ice starting tomorrow.

Piper is supposedly on its way here. According to the Weather Channel that means 3"-5" snow, ending as freezing rain. AccuWeather says less than 1", with a lot of freezing rain on top. Neither one sounds good.

Keep warm and safe everyone.

>261 catzteach: My friend in Portland walked 2 miles home in the snow wearing sneakers the other day because people said "Oh it won't really snow!" The next day she got her Yaktrax out!

Here in southern NH, we are expecting snow tomorrow, although the predicted totals have changed a few times in recent days so I don't know how much to expect. The latest forecast has us in the 3-8" range.

Based on the potential for 8 inches of accumulation during the course of the day, our 3- day state lab audit has been postponed to start on Wednesday. Audits are nerve-wracking, so I was really looking forward to getting over with.

I am hoping it will end up being closer to the 3" side of the range, because the parts we need to fix our snowblower have still not arrived. We spent the weekend shoveling last week's snow from our 50 yard driveway, but at least that was light fluffy stuff. It still took two of us two whole days to do it all, and I don't really want to do it again anytime soon!

50s and sunny! But snow coming soon! :'-(

And we made it home! No problems, no issues. Dodged all the snow, but had fun driving in some accumulation for a few miles. The road hadn't been plowed quite yet so there was 6 or so inches of fresh powder to play in with the Jeep. Keeps me sharp.

It’s been raining here nonstop for about 24 hours and while it may not be the torrential buckets of a couple of months ago it’s no mere drizzle either. Weirdly, given that daytime temperatures for 1° north of the equator is 32°C (feels like 37, according to the Weather app),my car’s a/c is heating up the car. It’s set for 24°C and the dashboard says that the ambient temperature is 22°. While the a/c has wafted not-cold air at me before, this is the first time it’s been warm.

Looks like I had another 5" of snow, more or less. Since it is snow on snow, hard to tell. It was a wet snow so on the trees and pretty. It will be in the 30s today and more snow on the way.

Partly sunny, 72 F. (22 C.) in Charlotte, North Carolina

Currently 75 F; daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, and forsythia are blooming. So naturally, the prediction for the next 3 weeks is that it will not reach over 50F. So right now, we're having Fake Spring.

Low 30s. Snowing slightly. A little breezy.

Today we had snow, rain, sunshine, hail and buckets of rain with a sunshine overcast conclusion to the daylight. No, I did not garden.

what, no tornadoes? What a let-down.

It was raining cats and dogs today - really bad weather for mice... :-)

I woke up to snow in London today. Not very much, and most of it has gone now, but it was a surprise!

>276 Sakerfalcon: How fun to see it in London.

>276 Sakerfalcon: Snow? In London? In March?! Unheard of! You must be freezing -- strength to you.

Snowing in Bicester too.

>279 haydninvienna: Man that makes Brizzy sound good!

>271 theretiredlibrarian: - surprisingly similar in Manchester UK - had a lovely flowery walk this weekend. Current forecast for frost and snow. Unlike london it hasn't arrived here yet.

Still snowing in Bicester and getting heavier.

>281 reading_fox: >282 haydninvienna: Good luck with the snow!

It’s hardly “real” snow. Too wet and not falling fast enough. But it’s starting to lie a bit now (7pm).

Snow in London? How often does it snow in London? Is it unusual? I’m sure it’s unusual in March, but other times of winter?

It’s snowing very heavily here at the moment. We are supposed to get 4 to 8 inches. I live in snow country, though, so it’s really not a big deal. Still hoping schools are at least on a two hour delay tomorrow. I could use the extra time in my classroom.

Snowing in Bicester again this morning—thick, wet stuff with wind behind it. Snow at tis time of year isn’t unknown here, but this is the heaviest I can remember for March.

>285 catzteach: Once or twice a year in the early '80s, usually in January. But it was cooler then.

Was around Kilauea, Hawaii, yesterday and it was very windy. I heard today that wind speeds were gusting up to 100 mph. I'm not sure if it was really that high, but ...

BBC News says that Cyclone Freddy, having gone back out to sea and caused more chaos in Madagascar, is apparently now aiming for the Zambezi valley, threatening floods in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Next week is the spring equinox but winter had one last blow in store for us - we have received 10 inches of heavy wet snow in the past 12 hours, and this storm is expected to continue for another 12 hours or so. My road had not been plowed yet so my drive in to work was rough; I hope it will be improved soon so I can go home. At least we still have power in the office, so I can hang out here and make tea and go online :)

>290 Darth-Heather: I wish you the best of luck with your commute. My brother is in North Bennington, NH and he has not had power since this morning. By 9:00 AM he'd already gotten over a foot of snow and was expecting another 10 inches.

Luckily its just wind and rain (mixed with weird half frozen bits) here. I did sneak up to Long Island Sound to see what was happening. I shot some video and took some pics. I couldn't really stand steadily for any or it. Wind gusts are about 50 mph.


Click on this photo to see the video.

>291 clamairy: I heard the Hudson Valley got hammered, lots of power outages. We got 6"-8" last weekend, this storm just added another 2", we missed the brunt of it.

>291 clamairy: oh boy, the Bennington area got totally slammed this time around. We are southwest of there, about 20 miles, and ended up with a total of 16 inches, but a friend of mine in Bennington got almost 2 feet.
We just got our power back and I hope your brother and my friend get theirs back soon too. Thank goodness for generators!

>292 Karlstar: Yes, I was checking the Albany forecast yesterday. Awful...

>293 Darth-Heather: My brother got over two feet, with some drifts that looked close to four feet because the wind was so bad. Last I heard he still had no power. I hope your friend has the stamina for all the snow removal. The first thing my brother did was clear a path to his propane tank so he can get a refill.

>294 clamairy: My friend is a volunteer firefighter for the town, so he's been busy with lots of first-responder calls, between cars going off the road and people with generator fires... He showed a yardstick in his driveway that measured 28 inches, which is a big challenge for the plows. The big difference seems to be at what time it turned from rain to snow - that one degree can make a big difference!

Jason hasn't had electricity at his house since Monday night and the current prediction is that it will be restored tomorrow.

My power went out Tuesday morning but was restored yesterday afternoon so that wasn't too bad. As long as the generator keeps the heated cat beds on, there is no mutiny. :)

64* at 6AM and supposed to be a high of 90* with rain. It is getting more humid but I will take it over ice and snow.

We've been having absolutely wonderful weather in SE PA, perfect for walking outside, etc., but I didn't think the grass should be turning brown in May. We need some rain quite badly. I realize others are in more dire straits in this respect; at least we're allowed to water.

It was so hot here today that the grocery store was forced to re-label all of their ice cream as "flavored milk." ;-)

Beautiful, warm, sunny; low 80s in SE Missouri. Could use a good soaking rain though.

Gorgeous and abnormally dry here as well. I'm watering plants every day. Not something I should need to do this time of year.

Very dry here too. There is a huge forest fire about 100 km south of here, but fortunately it is not near anything critical, and the wind has been blowing the other way for the past week. While I was away, I hear the air quality here was terrible due to the smoke.

Mid 80s and dry. Too dry. Hopefully the thunderstorms in the forecast develop and we get some rain. But only up here. Husband and I are going to the southern part of the state for the weekend and rain would be a bummer.

We've had quite a bit of rain, and some impressive thunderstorms. There was a crack of thunder last night that scared even my normally chill cats. I don't know if it's helping the forest fires enough - sounds like they're importing a team of firefighters from South Africa, and the Canadian Armed Forces are involved, too. Most days temperatures are in the mid 20s (C), although today our high is only 16C. Anyway, I'm fine with the rain - saves me watering the garden, which is all to the good.

6 AM it is 64* and humidity of 90*. Rain keeps missing us.

They'd suggested it would be a more pleasant day today in SE Pennsylvania. It would be a cooler 75 degrees than yesterday's high of 95 degrees (F). What they neglected to mention was the arrival of the HUMIDITY. "Scattered showers" may be hitting other locations in the TV meterologist's viewing audience but we're just getting the irritating stickiness.

Humidity is a hate crime

50 F. (10 C.) in the Highlands of Scotland at 11pm.
Sunrise is 4:30am, sunset at 10pm!

>308 nrmay: Are you using blackout shades/curtains this time of year?

still no rain and the lawn is brown, green leaves are turning yellow and falling and the farmers are complaining. Sure hope we get some soon.

>310 Bookmarque: Very dry here, too. They keep predicting rain that never materializes. My Sycamore tree is losing leaves. I have been watering my plants every day. And the sky is white because of the Canadian wildfires.

>310 Bookmarque: & >311 clamairy: You are having our California weather. We, on the other hand, are having pleasant temperatures, in the 80s with low in the 60s, and some afternoon thunderstorms.

Sounds like great weather to further your recovery, MrsL. Rain will come eventually, I hope. Until then we'll cope. We got an ass ton of early spring rain and snow melt, so plants with deep roots will be ok.

We'll be at or near 100°F in another day or two. I'm going to miss the green grass.

We still have the haze from the fires in Quebec. I feel for the people who live here.

Oh boy! We got a whopping .03 inches of rain yesterday. :o(

Rain? What's that? Very dry here and very smoky. The area received just over 1" of rain in May, but that was all at the beginning of the month. Currently 58F here, temps have been quite pleasant.

>313 Bookmarque: Same here, plenty of early spring rain, but the trees are starting to drop leaves and branches in protest.

Rain! We have rain! It probably won't last as long as needed, but I'll take it.

It's cool but smoky in my region. The jetstream is dragging the smoke down and around us.

>309 clamairy:
Just in Scotland on vacation, so l’m enjoying the novelty of sunset at 10pm.

>320 nrmay: That makes sense. Enjoy!

Pretty grim here this afternoon. I've got 4 air purifiers running in the house. The sky is graysh orange. My brother is 14 miles West of me and they actually got rain last night, but he said both cars had gray sludge on them this morning.

To quote my daughter who lives in NYC (which had the dubious distinction of having the worst air quality on the planet yesterday) trying to put a humorous spin on the situation, "I wish global catastrophes didn’t impact me personally."

52* at 5:30 AM and much less humidity.

I can't make up my mind if I really would prefer a humid 92 degrees to this smokey 77 degrees (F).

>323 jillmwo: The smoke is a bit more hazardous. And depressing!

>324 clamairy: Agreed. I'm dying to go out for a walk but don't feel safe doing it. Love the quote from your daughter!

We've had a break from the smoke here, until today. The wind changed and is bringing it all back here, and it is forecast to be worse tomorrow. It is also desperately dry again. There are no fires close to us, but I heard that Tumbler Ridge (a small town several hours south of here) was evacuated today. It was about 28°C here today, and forecast for over 30 tomorrow. >308 nrmay: Here in northern BC sunrise is at 4:03 and sunset at 10:17.

>326 NorthernStar: Ugh. I'm so sorry. That warm dry air isn't going to help things.

>325 Jim53: I tried to take a short walk on the beach with the pup yesterday evening, but we were driven off the beach by gnats. You'd think the smoke would have chased them all away. It's definitely not safe to walk for any length of time. I'm still seeing people doing it, though. I haven't seen anyone running since Wednesday morning.

Yesterday (June 8) Philadelphia was named as the city with the worst air quality on the planet. It's better here today; the haze has diminished. They're still telling people to be cautious in terms of outside exercise. Looking forward to the rain that they're promising us for next Monday.

I’m sorry the east coast is having such icky smoke. Mrs. Lee and I know very well what that’s like. It’s not pleasant at all!

We’ve had lovely weather for this time of year: 80s and mostly sunny with some thunderstorms.

Summer has finally arrived in Oxfordshire. Twentyeight degrees Celsius (82.4° F), bright and clear, with a thunderstorm warning from the Met Office.

Nice steady rain all morning and is supposed to last all day. Yay! My plants and my water bill are thankful.

Honest to goodness thunderstorm in Bicester this afternoon after a hot (29℃, say 85℉) and humid day. Thunder, lightning, pelting rain. Still raining at 7.30 pm.

78 F. (26 C.) and raining in Charlotte NC at 4pm. Air quality is moderate.
Hard to believe I was in Scotland for 2 weeks with beautiful weather and no rain the entire time.
I did not want to leave all that nice fresh air and come home to smoke.

>326 NorthernStar:
Loved those long days in the Scottish Highlands.
And I could live very happily in B.C. or Canada. On this recent trip I met a nice couple from a town on Lk Huron in Ontario. I love that Ontario touches 4 of the 5 Great Lakes. Another interesting girl on the same trip had just received her Canadian dual citizenship. She had applied because her grandmother was Canadian; I was intrigued because MY grandfather was Canadian.
Here in Charlotte, sunrise is about 6a and sunset at 8:40p.

Thunderstorm here in London this afternoon. Hoping it will break the humidity somewhat.

Ugh - we had a couple of lovely days over the weekend with sun and brilliant blue skies, then sometime after midnight the smoke moved in again. I woke up to close the windows, but the smell of smoke is everywhere. This is the worst yet.

There is a site that posts the results of air monitoring stations. (https://map.purpleair.com/) There are several measurement scales available, so the numbers don't necessarily compare to what any of you may be familiar with, but it's showing me a scale of 1-11. 1-3 is ideal air quality. Anything over 10 is "Reduce or reschedule strenuous activities outdoors, especially if you experience symptoms such as coughing and throat irritation. Avoid strenuous activities outdoors. Children and the elderly should also avoid outdoor physical exertion."

Right now we are at 35, and it was 38 at one point.

>336 NorthernStar: I use PurpleAir! The scale must indeed be different because last week I believe we were over 400. (The color of the dots were brown.)

OMG it's raining!!!

Just a little.

Still something.

>337 clamairy: - probably the US APA scale - if I change to that we were over 600 overnight. The wind has changed again, and the smoke has cleared.

Hooray for rain! We just had a few drops too. Better than nothing!

>338 Bookmarque: The storm we got last night actually provided my area with nearly half of what we have lacked in yearly precipitation thus far. A towel I put in an upstairs window to protect the sill was DRENCHED.

Feast or famine, right Jill? Crazy. It's raining still, but a nice steady rain, not too hard. Glad of it though I hope it clears off for the weekend when we have a friend visiting. Plus I'd like to kayak tomorrow if it warms up.

>335 Sakerfalcon: In Bicester too. Repeat performance of the day before—thunder, lightning and torrential rain.

Sunny, 82 F. (28 C.) at 5p in the piedmont of North Carolina.
Air quality has moved from 'good' this morning to 'moderate' now in the late afternoon.
Light breeze - I can hear my wind chimes ringing.

>340 jillmwo: Holy crap! Not that I want it all at once like that, but we need more. I think we only got about ⅒ of an inch yesterday. We're only at .3 of an inch for the month so far.

>342 haydninvienna: Alas, almost no rain still in London. The 30 seconds or so that we had the other day just increased the humidity to the point where our office felt like a sauna.

>345 Sakerfalcon: Two things that British building is going to have to learn about: air-conditioning and insect screens. Screens are not a requirement of the building standards in Australia but I've never lived in a house in Australia without them, and never seen a house here with them. They also provide some protection against the entry of wind-blown sparks in a bushfire (although I suppose if you are depending on your insect screens to keep the fire out you're already a goner). I've not so far commented on the fires in North America but I seriously grieve for the people and the life that has been destroyed. In Australia it's a situation we are all too familiar with.

We've had two full days of rain and cooler temperatures, both badly needed in the areas with wildfires, but I'm not sure they're getting what they need, or if it's even enough for them.

In any case, I'm glad for it. It's only 11C right now, and I'm doing housecleaning, baking, making pasta sauce and using the steamer/juicer to make rhubarb juice, none of which are fun when the temps are higher.

>346 haydninvienna: As I live in a 2nd floor (US 3rd floor) flat, and have just adopted a cat, I have recently got screens for my windows. Keeping the cat in and insects out is a win-win. We had window and door screens when I lived in America where they are essential for keeping out mosquitos and other nasties, and I think they are such a good thing. I hope not to need them for protection against sparks though.

It is 47*F at 7AM where I live in Minnesota. The farmers really need rain.

>346 haydninvienna: Perhaps a tad off the topic, but your comment about brush fires reminded me of a story in my news feed yesterday. The U.S. National Archives sent out a piece about the "Presidential Herd" of goats given to President Reagan that have proven to be a god send to the Reagan Presidential Library in California. The goats do a remarkably effective job at eating all the low-end brush/ground cover which then serves as a form of fire break protection for the Library against the wildfires.

>349 mnleona: I feel your pain. The State of Pennsylvania yesterday put the entire state on a drought watch yesterday, asking for voluntary water conservation. The center of the state is farm country and they're getting worried.

>350 jillmwo: Not so far off. Goats are remarkably good at eating thistles and have been used in Australia, I believe, for that purpose. No information on whether donkeys will eat thistles though.

Still not any rain except for one day, but temperatures are higher - 70F. Had to pour buckets of water on a couple of my bleeding hearts because they were parched.

Those are plants, right?

We got ¼ of an inch of rain yesterday!!! And it came in the late afternoon, so it had a chance to soak in overnight.

>353 MrAndrew: Dicentra, I think. Also called Dutchman's Breeches.

>354 clamairy: Today's news is that the small town of Citrusdal (Western Cape) is cut off from the outside world because the only road in has been washed away in last night's floods.

>355 hfglen: That must be where all of the moisture that should have been falling in North America has ended up...

Yeah, plants, LOL.

Still no rain. More buckets needed for plants. Plus I put the birdbath out, too. Critters need water even though it seems weird with the Wisconsin river just 75 yards away.

Temperatures in triple digits (F) for the foreseeable future here in central Texas. And muggy.
On the bright side, much like, but to a magnitude lesser in effect of the fires in Canada blanketing the east coast, Texas is dealing with fires from Mexico (It's how they clear farmland in preparation for new crops.), I've not seen blue sky for about two weeks now -- until just a short while ago. One patch of blue-gray. It gives me hope.
Still, I missed this morning's planetary (five of 'em!) alignment. Alas.

Showers off to the west, but they will probably miss us. Bah. But the weekend weather was pleasant which was good since we had an out of town guest.

It's been raining steadily here since yesterday. There's even a heavy rainfall warning out until Wednesday.

We are supposed to get some new windows installed tomorrow. I'm kind of hoping they reschedule because my husband was going to remove some of the siding and a few other prep type things, and it just hasn't been possible.

Last night, 30 minutes of my television viewing was interrupted (over the course of two hours) for weather alerts of severe thunderstorms, tennis ball-sized hail, flooding, a tornado, and other high wind activity. I got four minutes of a Texas 4-inch rain. That means after the rain stopped , I was able to measure an average of four inches distance between the raindrops on my driveway.

We finally got a bit more rain this weekend. I took my little travel trailer into the mountains near here (Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park) on Friday, to be ready for a trail run/walk on Saturday. This was the 10th annual Summit Run-it. It goes from the highest part of the Alaska highway up an old road to a communications tower site. 12km round trip, with 380m (1250ft) elevation gain. After weeks of dry weather, it was cool and a bit rainy. Last night rained all night, and we woke to see snow on the mountains almost down to the highway level. It was a good test for my little trailer. I was warm and dry all night. It was mostly sunny on the way back, but there have been a few little showers here. I'm hoping some of that rain fell on the Donnie Creek wildfire south of here. It is now officially the largest fire in BC wildfire history. It is very close to the Alaska Highway now in a few places.

Woo hoo! It's raining!!!

Mostly cloudy, 75 F. (24 C.). Thunderstorms expected shortly.
Air quality - moderate.

While it's nothing compared to the tornadoes in the Midwest or the heat wave that the folks in Texas are experiencing, we did have some excitement in our neck of the woods in SE Pennsylvania last night. Gusting winds brought down trees locally and the Philly TV reporters were out this morning in our neighborhood with camera men capturing the various vehicles pinned underneath the foliage. We had some branches come down but never lost power.

By a curious coincidence, a small tornado arrived between Inanda and Phoenix, on the northern side of Durban, last night. Minimal damage, as far as I can make out. In our suburb we had intermittent heavy rain. It is now calm and sunny.

We got smoke - lots of it along with air quality warnings, very noticeable odor, and very gray skies. The warning is supposed to drop down to acceptable pollution levels sometime tomorrow.

My sympathies and best wishes to everyone roasting in the Southern states. I hope you're all coping. And those of you with lots of smoke, I hope you're inside with your APs running.

The smoke is back here, but it's only about 1/4th as dense as it was earlier in the month. I can still see it and smell it, but I managed to do a little bit of outside work. I probably shouldn't have but I am so far behind I felt I had to.

>366 hfglen: I imagine tornadoes aren’t all that common there?

We are starting our first heat wave of the summer. Only in the high 90s for my area. Other parts of the state will get hotter.

Clam, so sorry your area is still dealing with smoke. I know how icky that is.

I saw Alberta, Canada had a tornado. I did not realize they had them.
We have a heat advisory today and we may get some rain.

>370 mnleona: Yikes. When I first moved to New England in 2000 tornadoes were extremely rare. By the time I left 18 years later there had been multiple tornadoes in the area. I don't think anyone has normal weather anymore. :o(

>370 mnleona: Alberta gets a few tornadoes every year. There was a bad one up here on the outskirts of Edmonton in 1987 (27 people died, 300 injured) and I've seen the odd funnel cloud that didn't amount to a tornado, but mostly they're in the central area between Edmonton and Calgary. The video of this most recent one was pretty astonishing. Very glad it didn't hit any towns and no humans were seriously hurt. Sad about the homes and livestock lost, though.

>371 clamairy: yeah, I've seen a lot of changes, too. For one thing, we're half a planting zone warmer than we used to be (4b, up from 3a). It's also consistently windier than it used to be and we get more warm spells and freezing rain in winter.

Today is a cool, windy, rainy Monday, but I'm doing some big batch cooking and I got more library ebooks, so it's all good.

Partly sunny, 92 F. (33 C.)
Thunderstorms expected mid-afternon.

air quality - moderate

>369 catzteach: very rare. The weather bureau say no, it wasn't a tornado but a "landspout" (like a waterspout but different). The picture looks mightily like a tornado.

Today's temperature on Venus is 735 K (462 °C; 863.6 °F). Air pressure is a bracing 92 bar, or 92 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level on your earth. The good news is that the wind speed is less than 5kms/hr, unless you want to head up to the cloud layer where it might be up to 85 m/s (300 km/h; 186.4 mph). Take an umbrella, sulphuric acid rain is forecast!

Don't talk to me about the greenhouse effect.

>375 MrAndrew: :D Thank you for helping us put things in perspective...

>375 MrAndrew: This explains a lot about you.

Okay. We gave in and turned on the upstairs AC units today. The electric bill will now triple in dollar amount.

>378 jillmwo: You must be much hardier souls than I am. I've had my mini-splits running for weeks. Though, admittedly, that was more to dry everything out than to cool it off... Until recently. It has gotten hot lately. I am very thankful that they do not use a ton of electricity.

>379 clamairy: Most of the month of June wasn't all that bad for us. Certainly, there have been some years when we've felt we needed to get AC going in the bedrooms much earlier than the end of June. But the overnight lows this year really hadn't been uncomfortable. Then suddenly the past four nights, the temp has never dropped enough overnight to be comfortable.

My husband is in a theater production for the next couple of weeks and they'd already had one performer who was forgetful of the consequences of not staying hydrated and eating at least one meal a day. She ended up fainting on a flight of stairs during rehearsal. Luckily there was a nurse in the cast, but the troupe had to call the EMTs to make sure the young woman was okay. The next night, the director called everyone in and spelled out in words of one syllable the need to pay attention to conditions, whether it be air quality or heat or whatever.

(So I stamped my foot this morning at breakfast and said we had to get the AC set-up done one way or the other. And it only took him one unplanned trip to the hardware store to get things in place.)

>380 jillmwo: Yikes. I'm glad she's okay, but it is hard to remember that you suddenly need twice as much fluid intake as you did couple of months ago.

Yes, I was really enjoying the open windows at night in June... and the sound of happy crickets. And then I wasn't. I was sticking to the sheets and it wasn't sweat, it was just humidity. Yuck. I'm glad you have your units set up and ready to go.

In SE Missouri, we've a bit of a break. A little rain this week...a shower July 4th right before the fireworks display made our family/friends bbq so much more enjoyable. Our house is right by the city park fireworks display, so we always have 20-25 people.
Supposed to get back into the high 90s next week. Both our electric and water bill were 3x what they were the previous billing period.
Today it's only supposed to get in the high 80s with possibility of some rain. Here's hoping I don't need to water the gardens as much.

We finally got rain! One whole inch! Unfortunately some other parts of New York State got 8 inches yesterday and there was at least one fatality. It was supposed to be cloudy and drizzly all day today, but the sun is already out. I thought I was going to have a DNBR day. I guess not.

Where I am we're about to embark on a series of 90 degree days with matching humidity. The rain over the weekend was great but I suspect we're about to enter the dog days of summer. (Particularly as yesterday, the Philadelphia airport had the highest number of cancelled flights of any airport in the country due to weather. It's so nice to feel special...)

By our standards it's bitterly cold here -- maximum 12°C (about 53°F) here yesterday; snow in Johannesburg and on high mountains. Snow in Jhb is unusual, more because at this time of year the air is very dry than because of the temperature.

Oh>385 hfglen: I'm going to come visit! In the US Mid-Atlantic region, we're hitting 90 degrees F (32.2222 in Celsius) for the next week with matching levels of high humidity. The A/C will be going at full tilt and dinner selections will shift to either cold salad or grilled "whatever". I would welcome 53 degrees.

>385 hfglen: I'm with Jill. It's not as warm out here as it is in Philly. But the humidity has increased, so it feels like 90s.