LibertyBell

and clear blue skies

if we had a dry pattern though why did we still have an onshore flow? usually you need a downsloping flow for it to be that dry like 1966 was.

The reason why some of the more extreme climate forecasts from the 70s and 80s did not verify is because we have natural heat sinks in place (like the oceans) that store that extra heat energy. I liken it to a busted severe weather forecast that failed because the cap did not break. However, those natural systems can only hold for so long and at some point the cap will break and then we'll see an accelerated greenhouse effect. Let's just hope it does not do that for a few decades yet.

There are other benefits to having drier conditions beyond simply lower humidity and lower levels of allergens. I've noticed in our wetter years we have much higher populations of pests like ticks and mosquitoes. They are much lower when it's hot and dry. No doubt having a tropical rain forest like climate during the warm season will increase the risk of infectious diseases as not only are these pest vectors more common it's been proven that bacteria are more infectious in warm humid conditions than they are in drier hotter weather because they can be airborne for longer time periods when it's warm and humid as opposed to hot and dry (the opposite is true of viruses which spend more time airborne in cold and dry conditions, part of the reason why the flu virus and other viruses were so bad last winter.)

The first heatwave will be in June. A stray 90 degree day after May 20th, possibly near Memorial Day weekend. Nice low humidity pattern will continue.

It's like with Citizens United, the only way to beat the corporations is by Congressional action. The US is one of only two nations that allows drug ads-- the other one is New Zealand.

Yes, this works for me. Gets rid of some very annoying campaign ads too. I really wish they'd get rid of Big Pharma commercials. I'm aghast they're now allowed to advertise radioactive medicine on TV too. Pluvicto.....which is Lutetium 177 a radioactive isotope of a rare earth element. Side effects: cancer, death, throwing up dead body parts, skin turning red (they forgot to mention glowing in the dark.) Direct to consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs really should not be allowed.

Thats going to be wonderful in the summer to keep the humidity low.

Our first heat typically shows up near Memorial Day weekend so this would be right on time. Looking like wet and somewhat cool first half of May?

aren't you always though?

oh, 2000-01 is one of your analogs, Ray? December got things started pretty well....

so about 10-20 percent for the majority of our area

from 0.3 to 1.5 inches, pretty much right on target with forecasts

The rainfall totals I saw were NYC 0.80 Islip 0.50 and Lower Hudson Valley up to 1.50 inches. The predictions I saw were from 0.50 to 1 inch, so the forecasts were right on target.

Yes, southern NJ and Eastern PA have severe drought in some spots, but NYC and Western Long Island only have dry conditions and once you get to Suffolk County it's not even dry. Reservoirs are up around 95% which is pretty good.

But it was on target with predictions which were between 0.5 to 1 inch. We'll get another one of these storms next Friday. 1 inch plus rainfall events are not that common (or aren't supposed to be). Getting 2 storms like this every week is enough.

We had a drought last fall because of 0 rainfall from October through the first half of November. But the rainfall has been normal to above since then and our reservoirs are up around 95% I've never seen so many people whine for rainfall, it reminds me of the snowfall weenies who whine for 20 inch snowfall events. Our climate isn't supposed to be that wet and we're doing just fine. I haven't even watered anything yet.

That's why I love those dry downsloping W to NW winds!

we don't have any kind of drought here.

40 inches of rain per year are just fine, we don't live in a rain forest. If some foliage can't *cut* it, it needs to go.

and again D1 is NOT a *drought* sorry I meant D0 not D1. I confused the two. We have D0 in NYC and Western Long Island which is just dry not any kind of drought. In Suffolk County it's D nothing (not even dry.)

It's much better to have slight reservoir issues than having rivers overflowing their banks every year. Overflowing rivers causes MUCH more damage.

D1 is *dry* not a drought. No reason to get all frantic about it. It's not considered a drought by NOAA or by anyone else for that matter. Sorry I meant D0 not D1. I confused the two. We have D0 in NYC and Western Long Island which is just dry not any kind of drought. In Suffolk County it's D nothing (not even dry.) You people are as spoiled by the excessive rainfalls of the last 20 years as the people are who were spoiled by the excessive snowfalls of the early 2000s. How did you live through the 80s and 90s? We don't live in a tropical or subtropical rainforest, it's not supposed to rain like that here. We're not supposed to regularly get 2 inch plus rainfalls any more than we're supposed to get 20 inch plus snowfalls. Our climate is -NOT- supposed to be like that! And we had 0.5-1.00 inches of rain with this storm and some over 1 inch, which was right on target with predictions. NYC had 0.80 and Islip had 0.50 and the lower Hudson Valley had up to 1.50.

Yay I learned how to move a post (had no idea how to do this before!) They're all bad regardless of the amount and influence extends well beyond money into other areas. Individual dark money rich guys have far more influence than the amount of money you mentioned. Schumer alone has received 7.7 million from AIPAC members, which explains some of his stupid, outdated stances and why he's persona non grata here in New York and why he won't even show his face here anymore and why he needs to be primaried. AIPAC has been known to have undue influence on politicians which causes some very stupid and destructive decisions to be made. In addition to direct influence, they have an outsized dark money influence which involves creating superpacs and shell groups beyond AIPAC. It's too much to get into here, but by doing a little detective work, you learn a lot of very alarming things about dark money influence in politics that just should not be allowed to be there (including the exact amounts going to each politician by groups like AIPAC, API, NRA, PHRMA, ACS, as well as dark money shell groups they created, etc.) that the SCOTUS allowed by the very shortsighted Citizens United decision. It's why all this pac/superpac crap needs to be illegal as well as limiting all donations to one flat sum (no more than 1000). Actually even better to only allow for public donations via rigorous campaign finance reform.

it's officially nowhere close to a drought, we're in dry conditions but no drought. A little east of here it's not even that. It's a drought when we see yellow/brown dried up grass (my unofficial definition)