25 replies to this topic

[FamilyTreeClimber]

I keep hearing from friends from in Missouri, Texas, and other parts of the US that they are having a dry Autumn.  In some areas, there was early rain, but it has now fizzled.  Is this holding true for where you live?

Last year, was a dry year for most of California.  We got early rain and snow in October and thought it was going to be another big year.  But, the rain died on us by November.  We had 10 days of rain between November and February.  Two things saved us from a drought:  the previous year we were at 150% of normal and February, March, and April were extremely wet months.

I can say we are doing well so far (knock on wood).  We started getting rain the 2nd week of October.  Now it has rained every week since.  We just had three major storms in a row (Weds through Sunday) that brought too much rain to some areas.  There was no risk of flooding where I live, but Napa Valley flooded, and some areas around the Russian River flooded.

Of course, our storms are nowhere near what you call a storm on the East Coast of the US!  But, this is a good start for us.  We have more rain coming Tuesday and Wednesday, then we've got a couple of days to dry out.  Hopefully, if keeps up and we won't hear that ominous drought talk that starts up at the beginning of January when they take their measuring sticks out to the Sierra Nevadas to see what the snow pack is.

So, has this been a good year in your area, a bad year, too much rain/snow?

[Shortpoet-GTD]

No rain-yesterday it was 76, sunny and very windy.
They laid off all the weather folks (not really) and simply have a sign on the local stations that reads-
"Warm and windy, no chance of rain."
(It's becoming frayed at the edges it's so old and overused.)

December 1st, used to be damn cold.

http://www.cpc.ncep....al_drought.html

Also- this link of average temps for Amarillo (1974-2012 only) has the statement-
"The temperature typically varies from 31°F to 51°F and is rarely below 20°F or above 68°F."
Yeah right-we beat that "rarely"
http://weatherspark....s-United-States

Edit-link added.

[Dustoffer]

Dryer and relatively warmer than usual up in the Rockies east of the divide.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

Shortpoet, How much does the weather in Texas vary?  I remember last year my friend in Odessa complained about the heat.  But, then, I think it was in January, the temps dropped into the 30s and they had snow.  It was a very rare event for them.

I'd say most of the year our temps have been lower than average.  I remember in August the weather people commenting on our inland valleys and how they were under 70 degrees.  Usually, it's 90-100 in those areas from June to November.  We finally got Summer weather in September, and then, October, was warming than usual.  So, while other parts of the US are getting warmer for longer, it seems our Summer is getting shorter.  We've already had frost warnings which usually don't appear until the end of December or early January.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

FamilyTreeClimber, on 03 December 2012 - 10:36 AM, said:

Shortpoet, How much does the weather in Texas vary?  I remember last year my friend in Odessa complained about the heat.  But, then, I think it was in January, the temps dropped into the 30s and they had snow.  

They have a saying here that if you don't like the weather-wait 5 minutes
but really, it's not all that changeable.

The Panhandle of Texas never does get much rain anyway, but these droughts seem to be getting worse.
Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern Colorado were the center of the dust bowl days, although it went almost
to Canada back then too.
We can have warm and sunny during the day with temps dipping down into the 30's but generally it's
a slow fall.
Of course we have fronts come in that drastically change it quickly, but not too often.

Today was a white knuckle day driving on the E-way; terrible cross winds. There are a few small turbines
south of town that were spinning like crazy but then again, how Chicago got the moniker "Windy City"
I'll never know because we're windier here.
I can't remember the exact quote but in one of John Wayne's movies he made the comment that
there's nothing between us and Canada except a few barb wire fences-no trees, no hills; nothing
to slow the winds.

[adam_a]

It's been in the 60's here the last few days. Normally it is in the 30's and snowing at this point. The weather varies here in Kentucky a lot but this is as warm as I ever remember it being in December.

[Phil]

Warm and wet in Northwestern WA state.  I've been out is short sleeve shirts the last few days but it's been raining almost daily for a month now and my solar panels don't like it one bit!    This beats snow any day though, I don't miss Chicago one bit this time of year, or Chicago summers for that matter.
.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

I have to laugh when people say "warm".  We who live in this part of California are not hearty at all.  Anything below 60 and we're in our Winter gear.  LOL  Of course, we have the fog to contend with which makes that 50 degree weather seem much cooler than it is.  I remember a quote attributed to Mark Twain (though I think that's been disputed) that was something like "The coldest Winter I ever spent was a Summer in San Francisco.  I can attest to that.  :D

The news confirmed that we have gotten a lot of rain thus far.  Our rain storms in the Autumn are usually mild.  A half an inch would be a good rain storm, an inch in one storm remarkable.   Some areas in the northern part of the Bay Area saw 12-24 inches over two days.  Sonoma County got most of the flooding.  Some vineyards were 2-3 feet under water.  North Bay (San Francisco) saw a lot of trees fall.  We're going to dry out starting Thursday, which is good, because many of the hilly areas are prone to mudslides and it's pretty saturated now.

They have put rain totals at 150% of normal in most of the Bay Area.  Sacramento, which can be hot and dry half the year, is at 197% of normal for rainfall.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

I still say, the hell with the tar sands pipelines and lay huge water lines.
I thought of that a few years back when the Mississippi was flooding. If we could just transfer it somehow.
It's true today as well.
California gets all the rain, and we're high and dry. Phooey!

[Phil]

I had acreage in the Sonoma Valley, beautiful place.  It was like what Napa Valley was before it became so commercialized from what I was told.  What I miss most is the restaurants, cordon bleu within walking distance.   Food of all nationalities, all five star.  My guilty pleasure was a Nepali restaurant called Annapurna in Santa Rosa.   Then there was the Cantina for Mexican, the Kenwood for California cuisine, etc., I could go on and on.  Of course that was near a decade ago.

Where I live now is wonderful weather wise.  It has the lows of California with highs about 20 degrees cooler.  Snow a touch more and rain is almost identical, about 35 inches/yr.  Unfortunately the restaurants are so bad I can out cook any of them so we rarely go out.  The good news is my friends and neighbors rave about my food!

Warm for me is mid 50's and above.  That's what I call tee shirt weather.  Probably not too comfortable if you're just sitting around but just fine if you are moving a little, walking, yard work, etc.  That is plenty warm particularly if the sun is shining.

I hear what you say about CA though, growing up near Chicago, I was used to the cold.  A couple of winters in the bay area and I lost my cold tolerance.

[tigerlily78]

It's been considerably warmer than average here. The average high for most of December is 54 and the low is 32...  most of the past three weeks we have been 64 to 72 degrees for the daytime highs. Night time lows have rarely dipped into the 30's. Mostly been in the high 40's and mid 50's at night. Usually by now we have had to turn on the furnace at least overnight, but so far we have gotten by with a couple of portable electric radiators in just the bedrooms to keep them from getting too cool overnight.

I haven't done any Christmas shopping or crafting yet! The weather has just been too nice and I get sucked into projects out in the yard. Today my son and I did go and help with toy distribution for a local charity... once the morning rain passed it was t-shirt weather. We were all getting sweaty heads in our Santa hats.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

Phil, if you were up in the Sonoma Valley, then you probably spent time in those hot Summers.  I'm often amazed with California weather in that places that get the coolest in Winter are often the warmest in the Summer (unless you are up in the Sierra Nevadas where you may never experience warm).

We haven't had a day over 60 since the beginning of November.  We are finally drying out from the last big storm.  Some areas (not where I live) were in danger of mudslides, so it is a good thing.  But, another storm is heading our way at the end of this week.

It is almost as if your temperatures have gone up and ours have gone down.  I wouldn't say we've had a real Summer in about 5-8 years.  I heard that last week in Boston they were in the 70s.  That's crazy!

Shortpoet, you can have all our extra rain. ;)

[Shortpoet-GTD]

December 10-and we finally got a baby powder dusting of snow. Cold -13 degrees.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

But they're predicting high 60's in a day or two.

[Phil]

Yea, we usually had a couple of weeks of 100 plus in the summer.  Up here we may get a couple of weeks near 80.  I was up on a hill which is surprisingly cooler than the valley floor.  I'd swear it was easily 10 degrees cooler just going from 25 feet elevation to our place at 600 feet.

It did get so cold once that a water pipe froze and and burst in the attic.  I have pictures of several inches of snow on our deck also.  Microclimates are amazing things.

[Earthling]

Is your Autumn weather normal?


What's "normal?"

[tigerlily78]

Earthling, on 15 December 2012 - 01:25 AM, said:

Is your Autumn weather normal?


What's "normal?"

You might try using a dictionary to help familiarize yourself with the term and then use a google search from there.

[Earthling]

tigerlily78, on 15 December 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

You might try using a dictionary to help familiarize yourself with the term and then use a google search from there.

Apologies, allow me to clarify.

What's "normal" Autumn weather?

[tigerlily78]

You could visit a weather related resource online as see what is historically normal for your area. As in my post I mentioned what the average low and high are for this time of the year.

Let's not be obtuse.

[Earthling]

tigerlily78, on 15 December 2012 - 10:03 AM, said:

You could visit a weather related resource online as see what is historically normal for your area. As in my post I mentioned what the average low and high are for this time of the year.

Yes, that's possible, but that information could only be used as a guide, an unusual weather event  is always possible in the chaos called weather.

I recall the UK summer of 1976, which was exceedingly abnormal, but still only a one off.

[tigerlily78]

And the question was, "is your autumn weather normal?"  If you are experiencing an exception from the normal, then the answer would be "no".  What's so hard to understand about that?

I am beginning to get the impression you are just trolling for the sake of trolling.