gravitylover

I see a mention of frost in the forecast this morning. I need to scramble and figure out how to cover the parts of my garden that are still producing now. The two warmish days we just had got the late planted tomatoes to pop a bunch of flowers, same with the string beans. We've been enjoying the things that are still happening and I'd hate to lose them now knowing that we really have a few more good weeks ahead.

The place I was mountain biking today was changed dramatically by Floyd. One section of trail in particular I named Floyd. 21 years later you can still see how 15" of rain in just a few hours ripped 4 feet of topsoil off and rolled 2 foot boulders down the hill. On the other side of the hill there's another spot where the creek that's usually 2-3 feet deep went to 15 in spots and shredded the canyon walls. I was out driving during the heaviest part of the storm and it was intense! I'm glad I did it and saw it rain that hard but I dont think I need to see that again.

I saw a really cool smoke effect this afternoon when we were out riding. The contrails from a jet had crystallized in the smoke layer and there was a dark stripe across the sky with waves emanating out from it like the wake behind a boat. It was hard to see with the naked eye but put on a smoke lens sunglass and it was awesome.

Looks like some serious rip currents for the S shore of LI.

I may just barely break 60 today, it's still mid 50's now.

Looks like 43 here, it's still 41 over at KDXR. What about that smoke... yech

I noticed that last week. You have been able to see it above the clouds since last Thursday. As I started to type this Janice Huff was doing a smoke forecast.

That's off a little bit here. It has me at .75>1.5" and my total was .64.

While I didn't get the big totals being seen elsewhere around the region here's my obs from the local stations that I posted in another thread - "Nice little slug of rain here today but again, I seem to have missed the big numbers. Several stations within a mile are at .64 but 2 miles south it's 1.3 and 3 miles north it's 1-1.2 so there's a pocket where it was considerably less. It's pretty awesome how many stations are on WU in this area now, last year there were only 3 or 4 but now there's a dozen within 5 miles. Pretty cool."

I'm also of the mind that activity helps recovery. I've been known to push those limits often to the dismay of doctors but, so far, it has worked in my favor most times. IMO busted ribs are mostly just uncomfortable as long as it's not the kind of break where a bump might puncture a lung. Nice little slug of rain here today but again, I seem to have missed the big numbers. Several stations within a mile are at .64 but 2 miles south it's 1.3 and 3 miles north it's 1-1.2 so there's a pocket where it was considerably less. It's pretty awesome how many stations are on WU in this area now, last year there were only 3 or 4 but now there's a dozen within 5 miles. Pretty cool.

.01 here, .03 2 miles south and nothing 3 miles north. It's been wet though with thick fog yesterday and this morning mixed with unmeasurable mist and light drizzle so it's wet but not really, it's dry under the trees still. Another miss...

Yeah I try not to ride when it's wet because when I do I seem to wreck and it never ends up good. After 2 1/2 wet years there is a lot of moss and lichen covering the rocks and it gets super slippery when it's even just a little bit wet. When I have a chance to think about it my risk tolerance is way down lately, unfortunately I seem to still ride like I used to when I'm in that brain shut down mode when I'm in the thick of it. Heal up quick. Nice and wet out there this morning but the ground is nearly dry under the trees again so part of my garden has been nicely watered this week but the other half is dry and dusty, so strange that it's so different 20 feet apart. I harvested turnips today after planting them 5 weeks ago and they were huge, what should have taken 60 days took less than 40. String beans are doing well, peppers are doing great, lettuce is slow as are carrots but herbs are going nuts and tomatoes I planted from seed at the beginning of August are 2 feet tall and starting to flower. It also looks like I'll end up with a nice second potato harvest. All in all a successful second round out of the garden so I think I"m going to try planting some more stuff just to see what happens (seeds are cheap), if the real cold holds off until mid November I may even get a third round in which would be really cool after getting such a late start.

I don't know if there are more of them but they are more aggressive this year than they used to be. I can't go out in the driveway wearing shorts after the sun goes behind the trees in the late afternoon without getting thoroughly chowed on and my wife has been getting so bitten up when we do things that we both have taken to wearing jeans from about 4pm on no matter what the temps are.

I could see significantly denser clouds to my north from those showers. They did spill over somewhat and were pushing quite cooler air as that happened but it was momentary and fleeting. If you're more sensitive to the details in times of more passive weather it can still be plenty active, this was one of those times.

Heh. I was just thinking the other day that some people have their lives documented in photos after a couple of posts on Fb and I realized I went years where nobody took my picture unless I was visiting my parents. I had a nice camera for a while and mostly took scenics, the few pics I took when I was doing things were in the bag when the thing melted in a house fire. There's a 13 year period that I have almost no pictures of. Yup, nearly perfect day. Looks like we have a few more coming up.

Oops, I just realized that's 10 years off, it was 1987. Sloppy thumb typing

Massive vertical relief does it every time. From Denver up to the tunnel is nearly 7k feet and the ridges are another ~2k up from there. It's even more dramatic in California, try from Death Valley up to the ridge along Mt Whitney where it's over 14k or from Weed (on I5) looking up to the top of Shasta where it's over 12k. I think the best I've seen is from the water to the top of Mt St Elias in AK where you're looking up over 19k but it's over a much longer distance.

I was in Denver one day in August 1997 and it was 109* near downtown. A little over an hour later and about 60 miles away it was 26* and snowing heavily as a cold front was dropping into the area. I left the city wearing shorts, no shirt and barefoot with the sunroof out of the car. As I drove along I had to close the windows and turn the heat on, then it was time to put on some shoes but all I had with me was sandals. When the snow turned from spits and fits to heavy snow I stopped next to an overhanging rock to put the roof back in and grab a jacket out of the trunk and there was 3" of snow on the ground. Another 15 miles west and it was 85* again and I was way overdressed. I love that place

It drizzled for a minute here, not even enough to wet the ground under the trees.

It's hard to know what I actually got overnight, local stations range from .08 on my street to ~.6 at a station within 2 miles. Now there are a whole bunch of them within a couple of miles, some just a block or two apart and they all have different numbers. I know that it was a steady rain for a while, it seemed like it should have been more than a tenth but not more than a quarter. Anyway, yeah, damp but plants that were stressed aren't anymore and are progressing on a more normal autumn course.

With how challenging life has been this year I'd be fine with this. I sure won't mind if my garden keeps producing for another two and a half months.

I posted earlier in this thread about being in the vicinity of this cell and watching it get its act together. This was one of the most impressive cells I've seen in this area for a while, I'm not surprised it blew up like this.

It didn't miss completely, I got another .04 bringing it to .31 for the day. Weekly total of 1.14", add that to the inch and a half the week before and I'm just over 7" since the end of May. Soil moisture is good the first few inches but rock hard and dry below that.

.27 on the day and it looks like I'll split the goalposts on the line sinking south so that's probably it. With the rain at the beginning of the week I barely broke 1". Heckuva way to break an 11 week drought.

Looks like I slid through the lightest rainfall area with the batch this morning but the next round is incoming and is aimed right at me. I guess another inch or so will only do good things for the well so bring it on.