Weather

[b54red]

After nearly six weeks of extremely low humidity and no rain we have been getting at least an inch a day for the last six days and it is forecast to continue through the next ten days. I see Septoria leaf spot in my future as well as busted, tasteless tomatoes. At least I got to pick a couple before the rains got too much. The cukes are loving it though.

Bill

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

It has been summer here for a while even though it's May. The weather people are saying it feels like July, and they're right.

We can say the same thing about our weather here this year too. Unusually warm for May, like July.

[AlittleSalt]

The ten day forecast is for five more days with highs around 96F 35C, and then five straight days of temperatures of 100+ 38C and hotter. It is way too early for that kind of heat, and I may lose my garden to it.

I have lived through two summers like that here. 2011 holds the record for most consecutive days above 100 (It's humid here too), but 1980 was a much hotter summer. It's one of those things that you have to live through to understand the differences. Like you all up north who go through months of real winter. I can read all kinds of info, but I don't know what it is really like. Some of my in-laws live in Arizona where we all see those really high temperatures, but they tell me it's a dry heat and not that bad.

[Gardeneer]

The day before yester, they forecast 90% of rain. Guess wahat ? We didn,t get a drop of tain.
Well, I figure they cover their a*s by putting down that % sign. 90% chance rain also means 10% of no raing. And the 10% wins.

[bower]

Waking up this morning to snow on the ground. Just about half centimeter, no biggie, but it tells the tale of how cold it was last night. Greenhouse is partly snow covered too, and 45 F inside there. Just hoping that my tattered row cover did the trick for peas, lettuce, greens already planted outdoors.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Snow! You poor thing! Ugh! I can't imagine. Good thing you have a greenhouse. Sympathies.



Nan

[ddsack]

bower, it's been in the 80's here, and too hot for me to be in the sun during the day putting in my belated gardens. I was jealous of you when you were having your early warm spring weather. Now you have my deepest sympathy! Wish there was some way to even out these crazy erratic weather patterns, but I fear we better get used to it.

[bower]

Dee you're right I think, erratic weather is here to stay. The funny thing is, we're already used to it here, at least to some extent. Our weather has always been crazy.

And we do have two or three days of miserable weather, often snow, in late May every year. Victoria's birthday is basically cursed. The parks are opened to campers on that holiday weekend every year, and mother nature retaliates with a big thumbs down.

Just back from the farm, we dug a few 100 ft drills for potatoes in the couple of hours before it started to rain again... mixed with flakes of snow. I had to high tail it back home to close the greenhouse vents before all the heat from our hour of sunshine is gone. It worked out perfectly enough... all is well for now.

[AlittleSalt]

After doing a little bit of research - there were some extremely hot days here in late May in the 1920s. I wish that records were kept before 1898 here. That would be some important info to compare what it's like now to when there were no cars.

The long term (10 days) forecasts change daily. This morning, they were saying 105F/40.5C next Wednesday and Thursday. Now they are saying it won't be that hot - closer to 100F/38C - still too hot, but just not as much. The normal high is 87F/30.5C for this time of year. No rain... May typically has a lot of rain here with thunderstorms, tornadoes, and large hail. There hasn't been anything like that here...which is very odd. I've lived here for 53 years.

[galleri]

Lots of rain over the last week and a half, and now we are gearing up for the STS to come through here. Before I was worried I would have to be out in the heat all summer watering the garden and using the sprinkler, now I am worried there might be too much now :/

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

After doing a little bit of research - there were some extremely hot days here in late May in the 1920s. I wish that records were kept before 1898 here. That would be some important info to compare what it's like now to when there were no cars.

The long term (10 days) forecasts change daily. This morning, they were saying 105F/40.5C next Wednesday and Thursday. Now they are saying it won't be that hot - closer to 100F/38C - still too hot, but just not as much. The normal high is 87F/30.5C for this time of year. No rain... May typically has a lot of rain here with thunderstorms, tornadoes, and large hail. There hasn't been anything like that here...which is very odd. I've lived here for 53 years.

When there were no cars there were more horses and more smoke stacks and chimneys burning coal and wood day and night.
The movies you see of London and New York City are BS the sky and air was black with smoke.
Houses were covered with soot and the rugs and curtains had to be taken out and beaten in the spring and the walls washed.
Hence the term spring cleaning.
Kerosene saved the whale it came along just in time because the whales were depleted due to whale oil being used for lamps.
All the streets and houses were lit with lamps and then gas lamps and then electric lamps.
Even up into the 20th century right up till they built the highland lakes in central Texas rural people lit their houses with kerosene lamps.
We have literally went out of antiquity in the last 70 or 80 years in America in some places.

[Nan_PA_6b]

In Pittsburgh, just before my time, the steel mills put out so much pollution that the men would wear a white shirt to work, and carry another one with them. At work, they would change out of the first shirt, now dirty with pollution, into a clean one.


Nan

[Worth1]

Which way to Pittsburgh paw?

See that big black cloud up yonder in the north?
Yep.
Well that's Pittsburgh.
How soon will we get there paw?
About 6 hours if the horses don't choke to death.
What are we going to do when we get there paw?
Fist thing is you're gonna get a job sorten coal and I'm gonna get me a job in the steel mill stoken furnaces.
Yer maws gonna get a job doing warshen an sewen and little sisters gonna hep.
What about school paw?
We ain't got no time fer no schoolen we gotta work and work hard 15 16 hours a day sun up till after sun down.
Six full days a week and half days Sunday.

Paw I miss Mississippi already.
I do too son but we gotta make a liven.
Lord only knows share croppen ain't getten it an ole man Jenkins done went up and kicked us outta the shack we was a liven in so we hadda do sompen thanks to that hot spell last year.
What about catfishen?
There wont be no catfish were we a goin, least none you gonna wanna eat any how.

Worth

[bower]

One thing about the wierd weather, some things are way out of sync with the normal time of flowering this year. Strawberries are blooming already before the leaves are on the trees. Today I noticed buds ready to burst on the chives - normally they flower at midsummer here so they will be nearly a month out of season. Most annoying, the rhubarb is bolting while the stalks are only half tall. As for the tulips... they're late! So far this is the strangest year yet for flowers at the wrong time.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Yep.
There's a great book about Pittsburgh's mills, I think it's called Out of This Furnace.


Actually, it was 12 hours on, 12 hours off, one week on night shift then next on the day shift. It meant working one Sunday round the clock 24 hours and having the next Sunday off for 24 hours. The mills went all day & all night, "Keep the mills running full" was Andy Carnegie's plan for financial success.



Nan
PS- sorry I'm so far off-topic.