Paleocene

It will be a fun afternoon for kid-pickup-from-school in MoCo tomorrow, we're all back full time. And my 3rd grader walks!

Has anyone else been getting chewed on by oak mites? Yikes.

I weenie most/all posts that please me, I view it as a positive emoji.

This event seems like it could be quite bad. Why isn't this thread spicy? Is the main tropical thread spicy? I'm scared to go there.

Getting dumped on here in Silver Spring since dawn.

Can confirm that my neighborhood and yard are a sopping mess. I'm near the 5.74 dot in SS.

I'm going to Maine on Saturday, opting out of the complaints :-D

Alert: it is really nice outside.

We pulled the trigger on that this morning. Air feels fresh in Silver Spring, after quite a while of having things sealed up.

I was a teen in Harrisburg PA in the early 00s and I remember one day in August maybe 2001/2002 when there was a shocking level of wildfire smoke that made the sky brown/visibility terrible. It was much worse than what we currently have. IIRC it was due to some big wildfires in Quebec. But that stood out to me because I had never seen it before. I've been in the DC region 10 years now and I do remember some gray/hazy days due to smoke, but this one seems unique.

Goodbye blue skies hello smoke. The light is so strange in the early AM and dusk. That orange hue.

Steamy! Mowed the lawn this morning, hoping for some tropical rains.

Well, hopefully the weakest trees/limbs already got cleaned out by those storms last week? Either way, hoping for some gentle deform band action here in lower moco.

Strategically heading to Maine for 10 days starting Saturday, so, hoping I come back in time for the next cool cycle

Open windows? In late June? Inside the beltway? What reality is this

They're much quieter this morning in Silver Spring. Peak was definitely ~2 weeks ago.

I have been wondering about this. Any ecologists or entomologists on the board? I think it's safe to assume that paving streets and building structures removes their habitat and reduces their numbers, but what's the ideal cicada habitat? Is it dense forest? Or do they prefer more open, meadow-tree boundary zones? I haven't had a chance to go out for a hike or anything... what are they like in the woods? They seem to do just fine in the mostly tree-covered suburbs. Do they do better with specific trees? So many cicada questions, so little time

Yesterday I had my son and his friend (second graders) at a neighborhood park. They noticed a young maple tree (15 feet ish) was covered with cicadas. Naturally, they grabbed the trunk and shook it as hard as possible. It was quite a spectacle - no guarantee of accuracy but at least 50 cicadas blasted off in all directions, shouting their displeasure. Hilarious!

For posterity, this was the noise level in my backyard around lunchtime yesterday: https://streamable.com/o83pag I've been poking around with a decibel meter on my phone (no idea how accurate it is) in the neighborhood and under certain trees have been getting readings as high as 55-60 lol.

A nice pleasant cicada song this morning through my open windows. Yesterday I noticed they chilled out in the hot afternoon hours -- less singing. Here's another vid that I took today: https://streamable.com/1mj738 A bit louder than yesterday?

If you're wondering what it sounds like, check out this video I took on my cell phone this AM. This was walking back on a neighborhood street after taking my kid to elementary school. Volume up! https://streamable.com/5wd0ga

They are singing in silver spring today!

Don't mind the warmth after a pretty mild/cool spring, but could use some rain. Sunny lawns in my nhood are drying out already! Of course, I'll probably be eating those words when we have a pattern flip in June or something and rains for 3 weeks straight

We prolly have similar microclimates, my yard has holes near trees, but I haven't seen any live ones. My yard is mostly shaded by two large poplar trees though. In warmer spots around the 'hood (that get full day sun) we have spotted a few on the trees.

Nice, I have a 430 outdoors at a brewery in silver spring. Hope it holds off til at least 6