gravitylover

I'm not even at 5" altogether since the beginning of July. Both "big" storms didn't even add up to 1.5" and everything else has been .5 or less. June was bone dry. It's crazy how big the difference is around the region and how it shows in such a small an area.

You got rain yesterday? Lucky... Not a drop here. Again.

Just hold that rain off on Thursday and Friday. I have some outside work scheduled and the next opening for this contractor is 3 months away. Thanks.

^^ 2020 the gift that keeps on giving.

I was sitting outside last night and the yard was filled with them! That was pretty cool to see this late in the season.

Boy I can't buy more than a few hundredths of an inch of rain lately. I woke up Friday morning and it was wet and I got excited but it was only .09". I could sit and add it up but I don't think I've had 5" total since the beginning of June.

Yeah, snowstorms are worse. The power goes out here pretty often in winter storms and boy does the house get cold in a hurry when that happens. At least during the other 3 seasons the chances of frozen pipes are pretty slim and while it sux to sleep when the dewpoint is in the 70's its better than when the house is 38°. We've had a few early and late season snowstorms that were just devastating and made life really suck.

I don't understand how everybody thinks power restoration can happen much more quickly than it is. For instance, there's a street lower down on my hill that had over 70 trees down, those have to be cut out before the trucks can get in to deal with the ONE that took out the power line. There are many streets like this and many problems similar to this. What about the dozens (hundreds?) of snapped utility poles, do you think the suppliers just happen to have replacements for them just sitting around waiting to be used? What about the specialty crews that do that work, how many can each company have available? With staff reductions over the last few years they have to draw on assistance from other areas but those companies also have reduced staff. I get it that rates have ballooned in most areas and the expectation is that maintenance and service should be better but, unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not defending the power supply co's and I can't stand that we're all stuck paying more for a system that's inherently broken but when I watched a group of my neighbors screaming at a guy that was assessing the damage so he could call in the right kind of crews to solve the problem and he was from Illinois and had just finished driving here a few hours before that I realized that people's expectations are simply too high. They all seemed to think he was just going to jump in the bucket and fire up the chainsaw right there on the spot, that's not how it works. Sorry I'm just getting tired of the complaining. We live in an area plagued by an antiquated network of overhead supply lines and there is no easy solution to that or to the storm damage that follows. A little bit of self sufficiency can go a long way, a decent small generator goes a long way as does a rooftop or yard solar installation (if you can afford it) can ease the pain.

They got us back on around 11am today. We were out buying some new appliances and light fixtures to replace the ones that blew when the power surged before it went down. Gonna do some eatin' now then take a nice hot shower. Yay.

We did for a few years but now that I have the backfeed set up as safely as it can be I'm going to keep on keepin' on with that. It's nice to have running water, can't do that with an extension cord. I'm not saying it's the right solution but it is the best at the moment. Want to know another annoying one? Getting the permit to have a tree cut down by a town authorized tree company is $600.

Just getting the permit to do it correctly starts at over $1k here. Then with the different licensed contractors it's another couple $k, all for a plug. Oh wait, you can't just have it done simply,, the generator has to be able to communicate with the breaker panel to tell it to switch the main so you need a new smart panel. It also can't be done with a portable generator, it has to be a permanent installation like a Generac. By the time you're done it won't be under $10k and if your property won't allow for proper distance from the house and property lines you won't know until after you've paid the licensed surveyor. But don't worry the town has a list of contractors and such to choose from and a few aren't related to members of the entrenched political elite.

The tree damage here is insane. Most places probably won't have power back for at least a week. Big, small, branches, whole trees and an unbelievable amount of downed wires and snapped utility poles. The gusts over the hilltops were well over 70, I guessed at low 80's for a few minutes based on 75 foot tall trees bending halfway to the ground and getting most of their upper leaves stripped off. The noise was awesome! I only got a total, including the rain around 10pm, of .75" so that was a non issue. That ESE/SSE wind just nailed these trees that aren't hardened to wind from that direction.

Gotta love the generator drone when nearly every house on the hill is running one Thankfully I may not have to listen to it for much longer, apparently they just have to connect one more problem area a block from me and they can turn on the whole hill, NYSEG is being aggressive and telling us 9pm. Of course, now that I figured out how to run the whole house (sans AC) with my 5500 watt generator they're being efficient and getting the job done. I learned how to get 240 volts to the house without blowing things up but the surge when the power went off fried the well pump control box so I also learned how to replace that. I cut out the tree that came down on the back fence but the neighbor won't pull it off from his side so I can bend the fence back into shape, he's saying I need to figure it out from my side. I guess my dogs are gonna get a yappy dog snack sometime soon. I met the person down the street with the weather station so I guess being home most of the day wasn't entirely a bad thing.

I'm having a terrible tomato year, almost lost all the plants, nursed a few back to sort of productive but not like usual. We're at least a few days with no power, they're still assessing but my guess is with all the trees down and a bunch of poles snapped in half it's going to be at least a week. When I kicked the generator on yesterday it fried a bunch of electronics which sucks but it is what it is. This morning everything started up fine but 2 minutes later the well pump shut off and won't come back on so... THIS SUX

Or even northeast, hence noreasters This was just too much and too long from the SE.

Of course.

I don't think the outside damage on my property is too bad, a couple of good sized branches down, it took out 3 sunflowers and 6 cornstalks though All around me it's a mess but mostly large branches rather than whole trees. Like I just posted in the main storm thread I think it's due to the unusual wind direction, we never see 50+ from the ESE so all of these long heavy branches that aren't hardened to wind from that direction gave up. The utility line damage is impressive due to so many branches, in some places the tension on the lines was so high they ripped out from the poles and wrapped around things like a spring popping. They're wrapped around trees that were stripped of their leaves and from jumping around on the ground the streets and lawns are scorched and a few places they stopped when they wrapped around cars and scorched the **** out of them. Crazy stuff for a 4 hour storm.

I was explaining that to my wife earlier, we never see winds of this strength from the direction it came from today. The tree damage is impressive for sure. My power will likely be out for a week or so which sux when you need it to run the well pump and have 4 people that need a working toilet. I rigged up a solution but it's questionable so I'll shut it down overnight and hope when I fire it back up in the morning and hope it doesn't blow out any more electronics, it took out the microwave and dehumidifier when I turned it on.

I got a whole big .65" so not much rain at all really but the wind did some damage. There are trees down everywhere, power lines on the ground that we had to drive over to go out and get dinner and gas lines a half mile long at the 4 stations that have power. There are no traffic lights working around town either which creates chaos. Apparently we aren't expected to get power back for 4-5 days which really sux so I rednecked a way to backfeed power into the house from the generator but it's questionable so I'll shut down overnight. I can at least run the well pump when the gennie is running so that's good. When I flipped the switch the microwave and dehumidifier blew out so I know there's something not quite right but the $10k, plus the cost of the Generac , that it would cost to have it done right is prohibitive. The only other option is run a few extension cords from the portable generator so we have lights but that means no running water and with 4 people you have to be able to flush the toilet.

Garden getting a solid soaking now and the wind is for real. This is turning out to be one of the better summer storms in a few years.

.12! FKNA yeah

I've had a few showers, the only heavy one was the first around 10pm last night that dropped .12". The wind has also been light and inconsequential so far. I'd be OK if it stayed that way.

It's a very warm 81/68, mowing the lawn is a lot of effort considering it's not that warm or humid. Summer days...

No no, I drive a slow car... fast @rclab there hasn't been the variety or quantity of butterflies as in years past but they have increased the last week or so and there are some real beauties, I even saw a Monarch a few days ago. Unfortunately it was only the third one this year whereas last year there were hundreds.

Yes. The land is very warm and in many of the areas it's going to run through also quite wet from the last few weeks of heavy rains. There should be plenty of heat energy to be gained from the warm land and it will be wrapping in lots of moisture off a very warm ocean just offshore. It's going to be an interesting one to watch.