E PA/NJ/DE Spring 2023 OBS Thread

[Birds~69]

BBQ-ing....77F/low DPs...really couldn't ask for much more.

[Mikeymac5306]

Played two softball games over the weekend it was like playing in a desert. 

 

Mowed the grass after 10 days and was basicaly the same. Looks like about the 10th-12th for the next legit shot at some rain here. Yikes. 

[JTA66]

People who mow low have dead lawns now. Mine is still generally green but the mower and tractor are in the garage until the rain returns.

Now the question is: water or let the grass go dormant??

62F/DP 45F

[JTA66]

2 hours ago, Mikeymac5306 said:

Played two softball games over the weekend it was like playing in a desert. 

 

Mowed the grass after 10 days and was basicaly the same. Looks like about the 10th-12th for the next legit shot at some rain here. Yikes. 

I remember playing outfield in 1999, the field was like concrete. Any ball that landed in front of you would bounce like a golf ball on pavement and quickly skip past you. 

[zenmsav6810]

1 minute ago, JTA66 said:

I remember playing outfield in 1999, the field was like concrete. Any ball that landed in front of you would bounce like a golf ball on pavement and quickly skip past you. 

1999 is really the first summer I remember (I was 5) and remember how dry it was. 

[ChescoWx]

A couple sunny but cooler than normal days to finish out the month of May. We will finish this month as one of the 20 coldest May month's since record keeping began back in 1888. We should see a warming trend with highs well into the 80's both Thursday and Friday before another backdoor cold front knocks temps down again for next weekend.

Records for today: High 94 (1942) / Low 37 (1961) / Rain 2.12" (1971)

[Albedoman]

1 hour ago, zenmsav6810 said:

1999 is really the first summer I remember (I was 5) and remember how dry it was. 

2002 summer was even worse gentlemen. I was in my early 40's.  Streams went completely dry.  1999 was also  a diminishing year of a La Nina pattern. But there is hope. In the winter of 2003 we had a wonderful snowy winter after the drought.   see link  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_2003

[Birds~69]

3 hours ago, JTA66 said:

People who mow low have dead lawns now. Mine is still generally green but the mower and tractor are in the garage until the rain returns.

Now the question is: water or let the grass go dormant??

62F/DP 45F

Screw it, I would let it go. Money/water/sewage and the upkeep isn't worth it only to keep getting fried.

I miss T-Storms...

73F/DP 46F

 

[RedSky]

The smoke is on it's way 

 

[RedSky]

Zero rain through day 10 on the ECM. Nothing through the run on the GFS. Things about to get real.

 

 

[Mikeymac5306]

3 hours ago, Albedoman said:

2002 summer was even worse gentlemen. I was in my early 40's.  Streams went completely dry.  1999 was also  a diminishing year of a La Nina pattern. But there is hope. In the winter of 2003 we had a wonderful snowy winter after the drought.   see link  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_2003

2022 I remember it was hot from April to almost end of September.  Days were brutal. 

[RedSky]

Hrrrr has the smoke death band over the area tomorrow

[Hurricane Agnes]

6 hours ago, Albedoman said:

2002 summer was even worse gentlemen. I was in my early 40's.  Streams went completely dry.  1999 was also  a diminishing year of a La Nina pattern. But there is hope. In the winter of 2003 we had a wonderful snowy winter after the drought.   see link  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_2003

Yup and that meant extended bouts of 90s because the sun didn't have to "waste energy" evaporating ground moisture and just fires up the ground and air.

I heard Matt Brudy (Mt. Holly NWS) on KYW this afternoon and he mentioned PHL has only registered 0.24" of rain for the month. 

There is still a little ground water reserves from the end of April deluges but that will eventually drain away and of course the ground surface is now bone dry as all the precip gets suppressed to the south.

I bottomed out at 54 this morning and hit 75 for a high.  Air Quality Alert was lofted but I didn't realize that this Canadian wildfire smoke is going to be coming from the east coast (Nova Scotia) vs further out west that has been getting hit hard and sending it this way (Alberta).

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/30/1178918224/canada-nova-scotia-wildfires-evacuations

[Hurricane Agnes]

22 minutes ago, RedSky said:

Hrrrr has the smoke death band over the area tomorrow

I saw Mt. Holly had tweeted this earlier -

 

[JTA66]

I was just out and you can smell the smoke. Has a nice aroma to it, actually.

[KamuSnow]

2 hours ago, JTA66 said:

I was just out and you can smell the smoke. Has a nice aroma to it, actually.

I smelled it earlier too, around 6pm or so, but not at the moment. Maybe a lot of pine type smoke?

[RedSky]

Smelled great like a camp fire earlier, now it's gone and experiencing a lull. Kinda like a winter storm..

[RedSky]

Family member says the smoke is a big joke there is none

[Birds~69]

48F/DP 44F

Creepy looking moon out there....

[ChescoWx]

Yet another in a long string of dry days on tap across the area today to close out a Top 20 coldest May and 2nd driest month in Chester County history. Some patchy smoke will be visible and you will likely smell it in the air at times today and tonight as smoke from the wildfires in Nova Scotia spread southwestward on the East/Northeast breeze. After another below normal day today we should warm to above normal for both Thursday and Friday to close out the week. Cooler weather again by the weekend.

Our next small rain chances look to be on Saturday.

[RedSky]

Only a slight haze and smell of smoke, it must have went north

[Newman]

The current scene from the desert of Berks County, a browning and crunchy grass that has expanded across parts of the yard

[Lady Di]

Oh Newman!  

Seems things are about to get real.  My front lawn has lots of brown spots too.  The dust from the driveway is awful and I refuse to close my windows!  I just throw a towel over the clean dishes until I put them away.  I'm old and never remember a May where it didn't rain and be cold.  2023 new record.  First time in recorded history.

[RedSky]

Good to know the Hrrrrr is as bad as forecasting smoke as snow and everything else.

 

[Newman]

The look for much of the latter half of this month has been the high geopotential heights across SE Canada and low heights across the SE. Stuck in the middle is weak flow and generally seasonable temps. Occasionally we'll get a disturbance to ride the ridge north of us and bring a glancing blow of showers and a brief cool down. That's what we can expect this Friday evening and Saturday as a disturbance and cold front moves through.

 

So, hopefully we get some showers this weekend

[Hurricane Agnes]

Another pleasant day today with relatively low humidity, a cooler low this morning (compared to the last couple days) of 49 and a warmer high of 79.  Expect that to change the next couple days.

When I was out watering, I didn't see/smell any smoke here, although I admittedly wasn't sitting outside all day either.

It's currently partly sunny and 75 with dp 54.

[Albedoman]

6 hours ago, Newman said:

The current scene from the desert of Berks County, a browning and crunchy grass that has expanded across parts of the yard

sand mound septic systems  are notorious for the lawn to dry our right away

[CoolHandMike]

2 minutes ago, Albedoman said:

sand mound septic systems  are notorious for the lawn to dry our right away

May be true, but my lawn is starting to resemble this as well here in Reading. No septic system here. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

[CoolHandMike]

Posting this for posterity.

[JTA66]

Anyone have access to the Euro weeklies? Curious if there are any signs of summer. Other than the dryness, I'm content to roll with our current pattern. Friday seems the the summertime version of this past winter -- a one day warm up immediately followed by pleasant temps.

69F/DP 55F