Juliancolton

Who wants to make a run at 90F tomorrow?

Quite chilly out there today with the unexpectedly gusty wind. It certainly can't be said that we didn't get a "real" spring this year. Months and months between last real snow and first sustained warmth.

Garden threads invariably devolve into just lawn minutiae, nobody needs that kind of energy in their life. Everything in my hoop house is thriving. Even on these cool and windy days, as long as that late April sun is shining, it's bound to be toasty in there. Electric heater keeps it AOA 70F at night, which is when the young plants do most of their growing. The only tranche still inside under grow lights is tomatoes. Even though natural light would be a little better for their short-term vigor, I like to let them get just a bit more established so they have better odds of fending off any minor pathogen pressure once the hardening off stage starts. I've had a couple season-ending early blight outbreaks from just the most tenuous contamination sources. A worse heartbreak I've never known.

Lows were 30.0F yesterday and 30.2F today. Nothing too terribly remarkable, but we gladly take boring at this critical point of the growing season.

Some pictures in the aftermath of the Amenia, NY tornado

Very well could have been the precursor circulation to the confirmed Kent touchdown. This is pretty bonkers.

Hmm, looks like a bumpy shelf cloud to me but static pictures don't always tell the whole story. Pretty gnarly looking in any case... contrasts nicely with the snow flurries falling this morning.

Anyone seen any photos of the supposed funnel cloud in Lagrange?

Hail to my south in Lagrange, hail to my north in Millbrook, nothing here. Wouldn't have thought it possible if I didn't see the pictures. Good lightning show, though.

Hopefully everyone has a clear view to the west around 3-4 pm tomorrow. Should be a photogenic little line.

It's the same here, incidentally. Once in a while you find a blade of ornamental grass mixed in with the acres of weeds.

That's (part of) why I grow everything from seed these days. Between sowing, germinating, potting up, etc. it keeps my hands busy with garden stuff from February onward. My lawn has been off to the races despite the inconsistent warmth so that's four hours per week of outdoor "fun" whenever I can be arsed to start.

You are correct that I didn't start keeping my half-assed snowfall records until the winter after that. I do remember that it was about 8" before the changeover and then got mostly washed away by the afternoon. The Taconic better approximates the line between majority rain/majority snow for that storm than the NY/CT border I think.

I remember it well. It started out as heavy snow. I was watching it from the kitchen, having just made lunch, I think it was steak and eggs but it may have been a PB&J. You know I never used to like PB&Js until I became friends with a guy down at the barber shop. Oh jeez, what was his name? Ah, it doesn't matter, he sold me on these things, he said to me, he says, you have to make them with extra-- and this is something his girl taught him, she was just a sweetheart. She reminded me so much of Barbara's kid. How's Babs doing these days? So like I was saying, I turned on the TV to watch Bob Barker's show, what's it called? Is he still alive? I tell ya, one time I ran into him at the airport in Chicago, it may have been Cleveland but I think it was Chicago, nice guy, just real down to earth. I was in line to get a rum and coke, I preferred RC Cola but they said they didn't have any, and I recognized him right away. This was before wearing face masks became popular so you could still recognize people. Anyway, I paid for my martini-- oh, what was his name?? Give me a minute, it'll come to me.

...yes... "we"...

1.60" of rain here. I won't lie, I'm a little bummed that I couldn't even manage any discernible flakes from this thing. Looks like the NE hills of CT are getting clobbered pretty good. January, April, October, it doesn't matter... eastern SNE always wins.

That ship sailed centuries ago. Local NIMBYs pose much more of a danger to the region's long-term health than monied NYers spending three weekends a year in the mountains.

Agree, plus I think they might get more snow, as well.

I'm a fan of using the snow depth and related maps vs. 10:1 snowfall in marginal setups like this. Using positive depth change, even the snow-friendly NAM paints this as a NNE event with perhaps a slushy coating at middling elevations further south. Hard to disagree.

There are starving children in Africa who would don't have any snow to shovel, you'll shovel and you'll like it

Garlic is growing nicely here as well. I've never grown it before this year, but I don't think there are that many ways to screw up a bulb crop. I have about 150 row-feet shared between three varieties, so hopefully at least something performs well.

Most scientists make lousy science communicators. Fauci toiled away behind the scenes for decades and then suddenly got thrust into the position of the international face of the pandemic response. It's really an unenviable situation. Put Bill Nye or someone on the TV to hype up the vaccines, and let the good doctor return to his wheelhouse.

When was the last time you had the chain sharpened? Dull teeth are really insidious... you might not realize it's an issue since it happens gradually, but it makes the saw, and you, have to work a lot harder to make the same cut. It was a game-changer when I learned how to file properly and now touch up the chain before every use.

Does it look like the other two can fill that supply gap? That's a heck of a drop at this stage of the rollout. Either way, I appreciate the heads-up on that. Who knows how long they'll wait to tell us that other options should be pursued.