CoolHandMike

Mom reports from Oxford: "So a massive tree is down where 896 intersects with 841 there is no power from Jennersville to at least Hockessin wires are down on 89" We only got about another 2/3" up here and some pretty gusty winds. We're at nearly 1" for the entire day.

Clouded over and getting dark here in Reading. It's juicy out there. Fixed my WU issue--somehow they lost my account and I had to create a new one.

Definitely enjoying the cooler start to August this year. We've got .17" in the bucket thus far tonight. Though it seems the recent "maintenance" on WU has broken some things: This really pisses me off. I really need to come up with an offline solution for data-logging.

Yeah, huge bust up here. Grilled my chicken though, so that was nice. Can't beat this weather for early August as well, though it's very not normal and I'm just waiting for it to flip back to "moist inferno".

Sky looks pretty dark and ominous to my NW. 79.1°F/67.2 DP. Radar doesn't look that great though. I really want to grill tonight, we shall see.

Man, Wyoming is wild. I did a field study there 10 years ago and fell in love with all of it. So much naked geology, and so few people. One of my most favorite states, for sure. I'm particularly fond of the badlands in the north, with rainbow bands of sedimentation sliced here and there with exposed fault lines, where Cretaceous-aged fossils are continually weathering out of the lithography. I could spend an age exploring up there.

I'm here for the hype, but his percentage prediction map was just, well, like duh. Newsflash! Chicago or Boston ends up with the highest chance of a winter storm! I like (and highly respect) Ryan Hall but this was not exactly earth-shattering weather reporting. Still... sign me up? Sweatshirt weather tonight, definitely enjoying it while it lasts. This seems suspiciously like false fall imho, though quite early to boot. 65°F out right now. I'll take it.

Looks to me on GOES that the smoke monster might be ready for Round 3. I sure hope I'm wrong.

The gusty winds that arrived tonight following the front that swept through felt more like the typical change of pattern we usually get late August / early September. While it is most likely anomalous and no where near to being our somewhat seasonal pattern change, it does feel nice. Speaking of anomalies, 13.51" for me this July. Still have water in the bottom of the dry sump well. I remain trepidatious concerning future rain events. Turns out, a house on a hill can still flood, which was a sobering wake-up call for sure.

Just a sprinkle here a little while ago, but now it's crazy windy. 86°F down from a high of 92.

We got .01" and it has mercifully cooled down to 71°F now. Still crazy humid (windows are all fogged up) but after baking all afternoon in 90°+ heat, it's quite the reprieve. My parents down near Oxford picked up 1.15".

Parents already have .65" in SW Chester Co. Mom says the lights are flickering.

Nasty looking couplet east of Bel Air (ignore the purple relative velocity glitch):

My parents down in SW Chester County are about to get socked. We had a pretty decent outflow boundary gust push through here just now, and we might get some drizzle out of it. But the atmosphere is so juicy that I can't help but think it will hold together for a while at least. Lots of lightning, too.

It's still 94°F at 6pm. I want to grill some steaks but maybe if I just leave them on a pan on the back deck they'll cook themselves.

Good question. The rain barrels have a bypass that diverts runoff into the existing drain that runs to the curb/storm drain, so overflow isn't a concern. I do remain slightly concerned about the soaker hoses though, which is why we're reducing them to half-hour run times instead of a full hour. That said, we've barely run them and the water table is still just really high.

Ok, so, we were all under some pretty ambitious storm warnings this evening, but it's looking increasingly unlikely anything's going to fire off tonight in our region. This weather is nuts. Seems like we won't have enough instability to puncture the cap despite temps in the mid 80's and dewpoints in the mid 70's. PWATs have got to be through the roof. I will say that my perception of storm potential has changed significantly since our basement nearly flooded two weeks ago. I still have standing water in my dry sump well, something which we've never had in the nearly three years we've lived here. Before we received over 11" of rain in three days, I was all about the storms, but now... I'm actually less inclined to pine for, nor lament the scarcity of heavy rain. Classic case of being careful what you wish for, I guess.

Where? Link to an article?

Ooh I'm in the same boat. My PWS has been going strong on the original set of batts since late 2020. I really need to get up there and swap them out some time soon. On topic, I once again find myself working outside in the heat and humidity of summer. Today wasn't too bad, but I'm not especially looking forward to tomorrow and Friday. At least we have a 10 sq ft pop-up canopy to provide shade on the site, but it's not going to be pleasant. Thankfully, no tyvek this time around at least.

Drove through, and had to stop during, that absolute deluge in Exton this afternoon. Just could not see, driving 5 mph with the washers on "frenetic". There was no way in heck I was getting on the turnpike in that. Side note, I've noticed many of the beer stores did not completely sell out of pumpkin-themed beers last year and have been trying to sell them on discount ever since. I wonder if the "pumpkin-spice ALL THE THINGS" trend may be drawing down finally, in the beer world at least. Or maybe they already stocked it this year in late May and I already missed it.

I wish I had sandy soil. Nope, all clay. Muhlenberg, NW side. Weird thing that I haven't noticed before--we have soaker hoses for our gardens. One runs along the back of the house to water the mulched flowers and shrubs close to the house, One for the tomatoes and beans somewhat close to the house, one for the shrubs/trees planted along the back fence, and one for the squash garden on the far side of the house. I ran the hoses for the two closest to the house last night for an hour each. This morning, my sump pump began cycling on/off in ~10 second increments. The water was filling up that fast, and it hasn't rained in a bit. This happened for about a half hour before it stabilized. (Side note: pretty worrisome as I only noticed it while trying to leave for work at 5am. Ended up being late.) Granted, we've only had a working, float-switch operated sump since our flooding event two weeks ago, but I can't believe this is normal; we've been watering our gardens like this for a couple of years but the sump well has been consistently dry until two weekends ago when we got over 11" in three days. It's had at least a couple of inches of standing water in it since. I can't help but think that event somehow altered the groundwater flow in my neighborhood. Long story short, the next time we water, we'll cut it back to 1/2 hour per line and then closely monitor the ensuing results, if any, in our sump.

I'll be working outside in the heat all week again in NJ, but at least this time it won't be in Newark. Apologies to anyone who has to live there (or between there and Jersey City), but I'm sure glad I don't. Hot day here today, peaked at 92 and change, but once the back deck was in shade, it was actually pretty pleasant to do some grilling. What I'm kind of amazed at is how I still need to water my garden when there's still a couple of inches of water in the bottom of my basement dry well. Sheesh.

Pretty much the same over here. It's supposed to get down to 62 tonight, should make for some good sleeping weather with the windows open. If my neighbor's pool party ever winds down, that is. I'm gonna give em' until midnight to simmer down, then I start becoming "grumpy old man".

Got .86". Not bad.

I can assure you it is very much snap, crackling and popping out there. Already at almost a half an inch to boot.