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What's the weather like where you are?
- Thread starter general eclect
- Start date
It's been quite nice around here the past few days. No rain and a gentle breeze. Temps are nearing the nineties for highs and lows in the upper sixties to low seventies. It actually feels like fall might happen after all.
Earlier I was under Severe Weather Watch 666. I was a bit intimidated but nothing came of it. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Typical weekend weather lately.
Fall begins. 52• in Boston MA.
The leaves are falling.
The leaves are falling.
Rainy with a high tomorrow forcasted in the mid fifties. I think fall is on it's way finally. I'm sitting at over 42 inches of rain for the year. Just a bit more than the 32 inch average. Rain is not supposed to clear out until Sunday. At least the heavy rains fell North of me today.
Autumnal until Saturday then Summer returns.
I'm from Boston.
I'm from Boston.
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Hot and DRY!
It rained another three quarters of an inch over night. It seems to be a weekly event for the rains to start on Wed and continue into the weekend. Temp is currently fifty five degrees.
1% humidity--that's not a typo, ONE percent humidity--mixed with our famous Santa Ana winds are wreaking havoc across SoCal. (Some areas have humidity as high as 8%--not much of an improvement.)
Fires are raging, and we keep being told that--due to climate change--'fire season' is now year-round. It used to be a couple of months around this time of year, but no more.
On the national news yesterday I saw another result of climate change: the rapid, dramatic demise of a glacier on Mont Blanc, I believe. They showed before and after satellite images, the old ones from just 20 or 30 years ago, and giant pieces of ice falling off. Too bad we can't ship their melting glacier to our parched terrain. Of course, climate change is just a myth...
Fires are raging, and we keep being told that--due to climate change--'fire season' is now year-round. It used to be a couple of months around this time of year, but no more.
On the national news yesterday I saw another result of climate change: the rapid, dramatic demise of a glacier on Mont Blanc, I believe. They showed before and after satellite images, the old ones from just 20 or 30 years ago, and giant pieces of ice falling off. Too bad we can't ship their melting glacier to our parched terrain. Of course, climate change is just a myth...
We've had our first real blast of cold last night and tonight. Lows nearing freezing is not common for this time of year in Kansas. It made for some miserable mowing. It's supposed to warm up tomorrow and highs are back into the mid sixties predicted for next week. I'm not ready for winter just yet. Just a dash of what's to come wasn't fun.
I wish I could ship you some of my rain and humidity @MoodyBlues . It's still wet here. Another two inches of rain fell this week. With it staying cloudy and cold and the ground saturated, all additional moisture keeps the ground muddy and difficult to mow my lawns. Moss is growing in the cracks of the sidewalks. We are very near reaching 50% more rain than our yearly average.
I wish I could ship you some of my rain and humidity @MoodyBlues . It's still wet here. Another two inches of rain fell this week. With it staying cloudy and cold and the ground saturated, all additional moisture keeps the ground muddy and difficult to mow my lawns. Moss is growing in the cracks of the sidewalks. We are very near reaching 50% more rain than our yearly average.
My fellow Californians and I would gladly and graciously accept some of your rain and humidity, @olbriar. 
Your situation sounds kind of...miserable. Mud, moss, cold, rain...I can imagine it makes mowing difficult. Do you mow year-round, or is there a stopping point? When I lived in Dallas, everything turned brown and bare in the fall, through spring, except for my evergreens and my pansies. My gardeners only came every other week then, to rake leaves (which we composted), trim bushes, miscellaneous stuff. Here, the ONLY change in my yard is the mulberry trees losing their leaves! Everything else--roses, Bird of Paradise, my perennial flowers, camellia bushes, etc.--bloom as usual. I'm glad I'm home.
Your situation sounds kind of...miserable. Mud, moss, cold, rain...I can imagine it makes mowing difficult. Do you mow year-round, or is there a stopping point? When I lived in Dallas, everything turned brown and bare in the fall, through spring, except for my evergreens and my pansies. My gardeners only came every other week then, to rake leaves (which we composted), trim bushes, miscellaneous stuff. Here, the ONLY change in my yard is the mulberry trees losing their leaves! Everything else--roses, Bird of Paradise, my perennial flowers, camellia bushes, etc.--bloom as usual. I'm glad I'm home.
Warming into the mid-fifties.
You have to be in the sun though.
You have to be in the sun though.
My fellow Californians and I would gladly and graciously accept some of your rain and humidity, @olbriar.
Your situation sounds kind of...miserable. Mud, moss, cold, rain...I can imagine it makes mowing difficult. Do you mow year-round, or is there a stopping point?
There are only two popular grasses grown in my area though there are a few lawns that have something else. Bermuda and Fescue are by far the most popular. Fescue, is the most popular grass of the two, being luscious green and first to show new life in the spring and the last to go dormant. Bermuda is far more tolerant of the heat and dry that is normal for our summer months but it's slow to get going and quickly stops depending on the heat and light cycle. The Bermuda has stopped growing already. I have a few lawns left that I will mow one more time this year. The Fescue lawns are still showing growth and will likely need maintenance for another month. I rarely mow beyond Thanksgiving but I've seen the rare time another week or so of mowing was needed. A normal season contract is written for 30 and even up to 35 weeks mowing weekly. Winter is vacation time for the lawn guys. To supplement income, snow removal, tree trimming, and installing and taking down Christmas lights are popular. Some resort to flipping houses and such. I've always had my carpenter business to keep me honest during the winter months. Once I retire from that, and my wife has already retired from teaching, traveling some across the winter might come into play.
You could become snowbirds!
Just think, splashing in the warm Atlantic or Gulf, or hanging out here in SoCal--though a wetsuit is advised for the chilly Pacific. Surf! You could surf!When we were in the worst of our [most recent] drought, homeowners could get rebates for having their lawns torn out and replaced with native, drought-tolerant plants--and, usually, rocks, lots of rocks. I filled out the form just to see what my rebate would be (it was based on lot size and how much of that was lawn); mine was ≈$25,000 (if memory serves).
I've always liked the kind of xeriscape yards that are common in Palm Springs and Phoenix, but when push came to shove, I decided that look just wasn't appropriate for my neighborhood. No one else did either, save for one house, and theirs turned out great--and not heavy on the rocks.
As I've lamented before, even though the drought was officially declared over in 2017, Arcadia -still- has its watering restrictions in place. I'd like to find a grass that's soft, luxurious, beautiful, doesn't need to be mowed--and needs very little water. Do you suppose such a creature exists?
What kind of projects do you do with your carpentry skills?
If I lived in your area @MoodyBlues , I would look into artificial turf. They make some great products that look outstanding, feel great under foot, take no water, and have a ten to fifteen year life in full sun. I'm surprised that the product hasn't caught on in a big way. If you work the numbers, even in my somewhat wet area of the states, it's cost effective for commercial and residential use. Factor in the cost of planting, fertilizing, weed prevention, irrigation, and mowing you can recover your artificial turf investment in seven or eight years. You make or save money the remainder of the life of the turf. It's a no-brainer IMO.
I primarily do the woodwork in new homes. My father was a carpenter so I learned the trade from an old school craftsman. I've been at the occupation since 1966 so I consider myself a journeyman Though not necessarily a financially rewarding occupation, it is fun to create and satisfying to know that my product will be enjoyed years beyond my existence. For the last decade or two I've mostly worked in very large expensive homes that have a lot of custom woodworking. Many of them have theaters and entertainment areas and the like along with the normal kitchen and living areas. Mostly they are party palaces and the woodworking is just part of the wow factor designed to impress. It's fun... sometimes challenging and puts the beans on my table.
I primarily do the woodwork in new homes. My father was a carpenter so I learned the trade from an old school craftsman. I've been at the occupation since 1966 so I consider myself a journeyman
Though not necessarily a financially rewarding occupation, it is fun to create and satisfying to know that my product will be enjoyed years beyond my existence. For the last decade or two I've mostly worked in very large expensive homes that have a lot of custom woodworking. Many of them have theaters and entertainment areas and the like along with the normal kitchen and living areas. Mostly they are party palaces and the woodworking is just part of the wow factor designed to impress. It's fun... sometimes challenging and puts the beans on my table.
The artificial turf thing has taken off here (SoCal), @olbriar...somewhat. But definitely not where I live. I've seen flyers for it, touting how natural it looks and the other stuff you said, but, you know, I just prefer the real thing.
I'm in awe of people like you who can take a piece of wood and turn it into something functional and beautiful, that will last, and be enjoyed, for many years. I've always imagined it to be a calming, gratifying craft, much like crocheting is for me.
Do you ever make furniture? Or dollhouses?
I'm in awe of people like you who can take a piece of wood and turn it into something functional and beautiful, that will last, and be enjoyed, for many years. I've always imagined it to be a calming, gratifying craft, much like crocheting is for me.
Do you ever make furniture? Or dollhouses?
I've made some furniture through the years and one doll house. Here are a series of pics of an interesting piece of furniture. It opened up to reveal a hidden room.
Man the weather here is just perfect!! Low seventies with no wind. I'll take more of this daily until spring.
Man the weather here is just perfect!! Low seventies with no wind. I'll take more of this daily until spring.
That immediately brought back childhood memories--the mental picture I'd made while reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It's beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
It's one of those rare days where our weather matches! (Mid-70s here, but close enough.)
Me too! Oh...well...I'll take more of this daily until spring.
Autumnal.
(It's the same for my valley, the San Gabriel Valley.)
It was super nice here today. Temps started out in the mid fifties and climbed into the upper sixties. It was the perfect day to mow and service my mowers. Out of nowhere a rain rolled though this evening. It didn't rain much but it dropped the temps. Just another in a long string of unpredicted rains.
I know I sound like a broken record [which we're both old enough to know what that is], but how I WISH we could have a long string of unpredicted rains. Shoot, I'd take a short string. I'm watching live coverage of yet another fire, this one in Pacific Palisades, where some of my cousins live. These damn Santa Ana winds, plus no humidity and high temps...just a disastrous combination.
I suspect those conditions have existed for centuries. It's just a huge problem now that it's populated. It does seem unfair to have too much moisture when it's needed elsewhere. I suspect there will be a time when man is more in control of the weather. Until then we'll just have to take what we get.
You're absolutely right--about the conditions. They're the same now as they were when I was a child--at this time of year. But, for the most part, the areas that have been hit hard by fires recently, including Malibu/Pacific Palisades, are no more built up than they were back then.
What has changed is global warming. Climate change is painfully obvious here in California. We're watching ocean levels rise, putting houses built decades ago in jeopardy, and we've watched 'fire season' go from around this time of year to year-round, due to changes in temperatures and precipitation. So forests and mountains that used to get plenty of moisture are bone dry...and one spark sets them off.
On a lighter note, when I was a kid I thought Santana (the band) got their name from our Santa Ana winds.
Oh! A tornado ripped through North Dallas last night, shredding houses and businesses, including a Home Depot, near where I lived. My daughter texted me from Love Field, which I used to drive past twice a day to/from work; she'd just wrapped up a business trip and was waiting for her next flight, to Phoenix. Later she wrote again--they'd been delayed, sitting on the tarmac during a tornado warning, and one touched down right at Love Field!