Hurricane Agnes

LOL They need to be watered more often when mother nature doesn't do it, but it's nice to sit outside on the patio and enjoy them! Am up to 68 with dp 51 and it's nice out as I weed (the weeds have been fierce this year).

Yeah when you have them planted in the ground, they can handle it. But these are potted and not "hardened off" yet. The next couple days with overcast, are actually the best time to put them all out because I can avoid sun scald of the leaves until they adjust. I have a Dekopan mandarin that can go out but the other 3 citrus are limes (key lime, Thai lime, Australian red lime) and those are more sensitive to the cooler temps, and the plumies will end up with yellowing and dropping leaves if they have sudden or prolonged chill in the 50s (that's how they go dormant in winter in FL and HI). Forgot that I also have a fig, so that can actually go out in those temps.

4 small citrus trees, a coffee plant, a tropical hibiscus, a stephanotis, and 2 plumerias including my big one that instead of dropping its old blooming inflo stalk this past winter (when I had it in a dark cool corner of the unfinished part of the basement), it started blooming from it again! That plumie is always a late bloomer - usually not until August. And it has a bunch more bloom buds on that inflorescence too. I guess that's a nice bonus but under the artificial lights, the bloom is yellow. In the sun, the flowers are normally spirals of light and hot pink with a little yellow in the center (pic below from about 4 years ago). The sun was trying to come out earlier here but it has clouded back over and temp is up a degree to 67 with dp 51. At least I do have the AC off.

66 here with dp 50 and overcast after some drizzle this morning (with a low of 60 earlier). I have some potted tropicals and subtropicals in my basement that are demanding to go out for the season and I usually get them out just before or around now, but some don't like below mid-50s temps either, which I have had most of the overnights this month except for a handful. I gotta get them up and out this week though.

Ended up with another "surprise" 0.01" of rain after midnight (I saw the radar stuff the night before coming in from the SW although it mostly diffused), and bottomed out at 58 earlier this morning. It's currently a breezy 66 and mostly sunny with dp a more comfortable 51.

Sun finally broke out. Temp recovered to 73 with dp 69.

Sky is brightening and got a grand total of 0.01". My high did end up being 90 and temp is down to 72 with dp 68.

Starting to get some light rain. Nothing measurable yet as the line has bee fizzling as it slides in. Temp is down to 76 with dp 67.

Some kind of outflow boundary from that cell in Bucksco blew through here and temp has dropped. Now down to 80 with dp 65. Getting convection on the lightning detector.

Wait... there's more!

Mt. Holly is busy!

Another warning up -

Game on!

I did hit 90 today so far but it's currently "back down to" 89 but with dp 73.

Norman up with the Watch -

I bottomed out at 72 earlier this morning and then it clouded over with some pop-ups in the vicinity. I may get fringed by one. Currently overcast and 76 with dp 71.

You're welcome. Figured it would be your "summer reading"! I'm already flopping around at the bottom of that rabbit hole myself going through that 1889 pt. 1 file.

Got some RERs up - so far 1 new record and 2 "ties" - My high for today ended up being 94 and I'm currently at 90 and mostly sunny with dp 69.

Found the 1888 data. It is in the 1889 Pt. 1 PDF (selectable via a drop-down menu) at NOAA's Signal Corps data at that link - https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Docs/Signa-Corps-WB-Annual Have to scroll down but for example, starting from "pg 254" of Pt. 1, you start to see the individual observer station reports (earlier tables appeared to be the data for full stations that had all the instruments). So the first "Coatesville" reference (just from a quick scan) appears on "pg. 285" (the page number printed on the document) and it appears that the first obs readings started in March of 1888 for monthly/annual mean temp. Then on "pg. 328" are the "max/min/range" temps for Coatesville Mar. - Dec. 1888. Then the piece de resistance - the precip for Mar - Dec. 1888 in Coatesville (doesn't distinguish frozen from liquid, it appears to just be total qpf). (I blame you for this! )

From what I understand, the Army "Signal Corps" was "officially" recording weather observations before the Weather Bureau was formed, so I expect he may have been submitting his observations to them. And LOL!!! I just found this site - https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Docs/Signa-Corps-WB-Annual Guaranteed you'll go crazy there - I just randomly pulled up the 1888 "annual report" which is a PDF and there are summary observations in there by state (just scanned and saw one for Kansas), plus other odds and ends "military" stuff. And yup - I can imagine what he had seen over that time and how the place changed over the years (there were mergers of adjacent villages to form what is now "Coatesville").

Posted at the link. And I briefly hit 94 for a high so far but am currently at 93 with dp 70. I did venture out to put my patio umbrella up and it's the good old-fashioned blast furnace of last year out there.

After the meltdown in this thread, I ended up going on a journey back in February, into the history of Coatesville, a place so close but that I really had little background on (other than one of my lab benchmates when I had first started at that job almost 40 years ago, lived there). I was really surprised that there was an actual steel mill there (that had specialized in rolled and cast parts, and is still there). But the other thing I noticed was that there were several references, including schools, that were named "Gordon" and that started me down the rabbit hole. So looking up this name (and knowing when his observer records were done), I stumbled on a 1940 Census entry, took a screen shot snip of the Census page's header and one of the entry with the name, and combined them as a single image (attached). Based on the age listed in 1940 as being "94", that would make his birth year 1846. The address on that entry "1219" corresponded to that page's "E. Lincoln Highway" list of homes. And THAT corresponded with one of the addresses listed for W.T. Gordon for the "Substation History" as enumerated in 1956 (also attached). But here is the kicker, and I had to eventually take a break obtaining a "smoking gun" connection, but I also found a 1921 reference to the Climatological Observers that year where his name appears, and it includes the title "Prof." (for "Professor" - the old designation for teachers), and that snapshot is attached. And that sent me back, back into time to find that he graduated from what was then West Chester State Normal School in 1875, which is of course now known as West Chester (State) University (attached) and he was listed in that 1895/1896 Directory of alumni as being "Prin. of Schools" ("Prin" for "Principal"). And this then lead me to one of many vaunted references to his "retirement" in 1918 as "Superintendent of Schools", "after a service there of forty-two years" (attached). So this "W.T. Gordon" ("William T. Gordon") was appointed "Superintendent of the Coatesville Schools in 1876. So based on the Observer records, he actually started out as one of the earliest observers when the program first started under the Weather Bureau (under USDA) in the early 1890s. I did some "modern day" screenshots of the observer locations of the 2 houses that were listed (1st was "547 E. Main St." later moving the obs to "567 E. Chestnut St" and 2nd 1218 E. Lincoln Highway") - both attached below. It's probable that different houses were there on those properties back in the late 1800s and through to at least the 1940s when he was still alive, but it was interesting to see nonetheless. Note the first "building" is obviously newish and wasn't there back in the late 1800s but is on the lot where the first obs were done. Assuming this is all the same guy, it makes perfect since that an educational professional (and Superintendent) who perhaps had this as a hobby, would be so detailed with the records. I wouldn't be surprised if some students may have done readings too... There's quite a bit there about this family (and his sons including one who worked at the steel mill). So like I said, I went down the rabbit hole and some of it was also due to a guy who has a Facebook page with literally thousands of archival pics of Coatesville from many eras including going back into the 1800s. His page is here - https://www.facebook.com/A-History-of-Coatesville-Pa-Mark-Ford-Webmaster-675536869267910/ (I don't do Facebook but if there are public-accessible parts of a Facebook page like this one, that are interesting, I'll go peruse them and I spent days going through some of the pics that this guy had)

Maybe I'll put it in that thread then because what I believe I have found is the reason why he was so meticulous with the record-keeping (assuming this is the same guy).

Let me go through and gather what I saved in my "electronic folder" on who I believe is him (including some screenshots of stuff). Was debating where to stick it since I am trying to avoid the trolling threads where his name came up, so may want to stick it in one of your other threads.

Your post made me "look" and I have now hit my first 90 of 2022. Dewpoint is a horrible 70 and it's mostly sunny.