BlizzardNole

78 degrees felt hot walking this morning; can't imagine what it feels like in DC! Cape is gonna need one of these:

Wow nice rainbow pic! That shower disintegrated a it passed by to the north, but it temporarily sucked some heat out of the air making for a nice cookout earlier. It's HOT again and I am sweating bullets after only watering the garden beds. Hoping for a lucky t-storm tomorrow. A sultry 88 degrees coming up on 9 PM.

That is tropical milkweed. I usually buy seeds and start indoors and treat as annuals (I've never seen them in garden centers). They grow to 3-4 feet tall and bring in lots of monarch caterpillars, and other butterflies and hummingbirds love the nectar. They look best in clusters. Rabbits and deer will not touch it. I get lots of chrysalises from late July through mid-Sept, and find them hanging on fences, siding, tops of doorways, etc. They are like clock-work once they make the chrysalis, almost always hatching 10 days later. I usually bring chrysalises I find outside in so they can hatch safely. I've gotten good at getting them down -- I wait until they've hardened a little (couple days), and spray them with a little water, then carefully pull off with the webbing material they attach with. I also sometimes I'll bring in a dozen or so cats to let them make their chrysalises inside. Oh and lantana is a great butterfly attracting plant. Low maintenance and deer/rabbit proof. Here are some pics from last year: Just hatched on the deck: Bunch of chrysalises in an aquarium: Tropical milkweeds in a cluster:

Got a couple monarch caterpillars -- pretty good size already.

Butterfly garden is looking good. I've seen a few monarchs around so I should have caterpillars soon. The hummingbirds really love that tropical milkweed (tall, orange-flowered). Sometimes they even bypass my feeders for that stuff.

What a great day for mid-July -- still just 82 in early afternoon with low humidity and a breeze. Gonna throw something on the grill tonight.

Well that escalated quickly! Heavy shower developed quickly overhead -- heavy, big-drop rain, a little thunder, and down to 75 degrees.

Got 0.6 near Germantown; right at 2.0 for the month. Can't believe how regular the rainfall has been for my area after a very dry May. Key West again -- I bet that place is wonderful in the winter, but damn:

Not too bad so far today sitting on the deck in shade; just 82 at 11:30. I checked Key West out of curiosity with the outrageous 91 degree water temp...currently 92/78, and they were 89/76 at FOUR AM. Only went down to 88/75 from 5 to 6 am with a thunderstorm.

Weird how that works. I've had summers like that in the Germantown area where storms miss me left and right and I get cracked garden beds and fried grass. This year my area is a rain magnet with almost 8 inches for June and 1.4 for July already. I bet my area gets nailed Saturday evening.

Nice thunderstorm took a weird track right up I-270 and died out over Germantown, delivering a much-needed 0.8. The lawn and garden are happy.

Hope your little guy's appointment goes well and he feels better soon. Damn ticks -- I earned myself 38 days on antibiotics two summers ago because one of those things, and my mother in northern Calvert has that meat and dairy allergy from a Lone Star tick bite. Sun getting going here, and hoping for some rain later as my area missed out yesterday.

No rain for me this time. Woke up to thunder at 1:30 am but they missed. My mother in northern Calvert says 3.5 inches (four miles south of Dunkirk), and that it rumbled and poured all night.

We went to OC last Friday and noticed all the dust being kicked up by farm equipment along Rt. 404. I was surprised how dry things looked! My location was just lucky with a soaking 7.8 inches in June. It was very well spread out too, with no week letting less than 1.65.

I did not hear a thing either. Is there a way to look back at radar for several hours?

Woke up to 0.6 in the gauge -- I think it was after midnight but not completely sure. I'll count it as July 1.

At Ocean City for the weekend. It was cool most of the day with a stiff south breeze off that chilly water - in the mid 70s with bout 20 mph wind. Then about 4:30 the wind stopped suddenly, then shifted west and it felt like someone opened the oven door. Went to 94 in just minutes. It was so hot that I went inside. Couple hours later it shifted back and you almost need a sweatshirt on the beach.

Had a very busy workday and didn't know we had yet another big t-storm rolling in. It hit pretty hard with some 50-ish wind gusts, lightning and rain blowing in sheets. The purples on Radarscope were just north - I wonder if there was hail up there. Looks like about 0.7 more added to June's rich coffers, which now stand at 7.9 inches. Wow. Also dropped the temp to a nippy 62.

Picked up 1.25 yesterday from two storms. Total for June 7.2.

Ended and sun already coming out. About 1.0 fell in less than 15 minutes. This pic does not give it justice, but the yard behind us floods BAD when it rains this hard. The people on the right put in a huuuuge stone patio that takes up all but a couple feet from their back property line. Also the people a couple houses further up cemented their entire back yard. This makes the drainage a nightmare for the houses behind me. That stuff can't be compliant with codes.

LOL. I get off work at 5:00 and went out to get the grass cut with recycling coming tomorrow. I check radar and there's nothing anywhere close so good to go for my 45-minute job. After two strips I hear a thundercrack and look up at the sunny sky. Shrug. A minute later I hear a LOUD crack and look at radar and see this new cell forming right over top of me. Within another couple minute it's raining hard with multiple bolts. Now it's raining in sheets, with close CTG bolts, and still sunny skies to the NW. So much for that job! *reaches in the fridge for a beer.*

Good ground truth on LWX's radar estimate here. Just a couple tenths in my gauge with over 1" amounts all around.

Ha can you imagine Jeb if this happened again: Huge Central Texas Snowstorm of 1985

We've had three separate "thunderstorms" but only about 0.2 total of rain. So much thunder and so little rain.

Big, severe warned storm weakened and split right as it arrived. Still enjoying some thunder but not much rain. Thought is was gonna be a gully washer until the last minute.