CAPE

I pretty much said the same thing in my post above in response to Maestro's post. I have fond memories of 1986-87, esp Jan and Feb. Was that winter a cold neutral? I have seen some references to it as a weak Nina, but not sure that's correct. The latter half of the winter behaved more like a NIno IIRC. It also featured some decent HL blocking.

Sorry not laughing at you, but the bolded made me laugh. A SE ridge (and generally warmer temps along the east coast) is pretty typical in La Nina years, esp moderate to strong La Ninas. As always, other factors/indices will impact the overall pattern as well, so not like it's always a complete torch all the time. Lucky for us, this winter looks to feature a pretty weak event, and may end up being more of a cold neutral. Given our apparent "new normal" background state however, I would still expect frequent episodes of SE ridging, with the mean trough located out west.

Just be sure to only vote once.

Not that anyone should be based on what any of these climate models are depicting at this point, but this pattern should look familiar. Hard to bet against the 3 month DJF h5 mean looking something like this when all is said and done.

I am approaching 7" for the month here already. Mosquitoes have been a non issue so far due to the spring larvacide, but starting to see a few now, and those late summer tigers may become a problem. Could use a few days with no rain lol. I am going to start reseeding this weekend. I will do it in sections, and hopefully have all of Sept-Oct to get it established.

I'll overnight the sprinkler.

Winding down now. 1.52" Best electrical storm I have seen in years. Amazingly only one brief power blip.

Haven't heard/seen T & L like this for a long time here. Impressive.

Constant booming thunder with this line moving in. Sounds kinda vicious. I think I will wait it out and then head to work.

Yeah I thought about that, but not sure how well that would do in the woods either. As far as nitrogen, clover does well here, so I have taken that as a sign of nitrogen deficiency, but then I believe I read clover adds nitrogen to the soil. Either way I let the clover do its thing, as it likes to grow and it is green lol. I have added extra nitrogen while fertilizing, and never noticed any difference with the grass health.

Yeah its pretty typical for around here. Slightly acidic which is fine. The primary issue is cool season tall fescue not doing well with the high sun/high temps of mid summer here, combined with all the larger trees surrounding that area, and extremely well drained soil. Grass thrives in Spring and early summer, then starts to struggle mid to late June, and goes downhill from there, and ultimately burns and goes to thatch, specifically the full sun areas. The grass that gets partial shade hangs in there for the most part during the brutal heat and high sun angle of mid summer. I am going to try a blend that is specifically engineered for full sun and can supposedly endure the brutal heat and dry soil.

Looks pretty wet over the next couple days. We need the rain! Hey if it keeps the heat at bay, I am good with it. Not too much though..

I'm drinking one of these

The one on the right is right up my alley.

Some may try to claim one or both of the last 2 winters were a Nino, but the atmospheric response was anything but. Technically, 2018-19 was a weak Nino, but it was puny. For all practical purposes, the last 2 winters were warm neutral.

Picked up 0.2" of rain overnight when that line moved through. Didn't hear any thunder, just 2 separate downpours.

That may in fact be the long term trend, but there are always going to be variations, and other influences will likely mitigate that from time to time. At some point everything will align and the Pacific will be "favorable" again. That will probably happen 10 times before we see the next -NAO winter.

ENSO state is a major driver, so especially when it is clearly in a Nina or Nino phase(moderate to strong), there are established, reliable correlations that can be made about the general pattern. I cant see that suddenly "not working" anymore. Last winter the ENSO was warm neutral and the Pac SSTs were pretty warm everywhere. The winter before, the Nino was super weak and undefined, and there was little atmospheric response until very late. MJO can dominate under those conditions, and especially last winter we saw that, with the strong tropical convection persistently where we didn't want it.

Yeah that's what I am thinking. I started around August 15 last year and it came in fine. I have the starter fertilizer and I think I will cover the seeded areas with a layer of peat moss, and soak it.

lol Pretty much He parrots what other people say, but does it very very badly.

That must have been surreal. I saw the aftermath of an F3 a few miles from where I used to live in Carroll county years ago, and it was pretty shocking.

So my Black Beauty "Sunny" grass seed blend has arrived. The soil is nice and wet now. It is a tad early, but with the soil nice and workable over the next few days, should I start reseeding? Going to do it in small sections (places where the existing grass has gone to thatch). It takes 10-14 days to germinate anyway, and if it goes dry- as you all know- I have a sprinkler. I don't want it to burn up as its getting established, but the sun angle is getting lower by the day.

It constantly vacillates between pure crap and pretty decent, and everything in between. Pretty useless, like all of these LR climate models, at 3-4 month lead times. That being said, we pretty much know what the baseline is at this juncture for the winter months, so start from that. (expect total suckage as the default)

That is an impressive pressure wave.To say the least. Not going to speculate what the cause was.