A Dry Heat
Monday, June 30th, 2008Whatever we were supposed to have for Spring never arrived. We’re 10 days past the Summer Solstice (June 20) and the effects of our dry, hot Spring are still evident.
Our Spring in Stuarts Draft started with highs around 60 and lows around 40. Those temperatures continued, edging slightly upward, until we had highs in the 90s to kickstart June. Lows around 70 at that time made for a bit higher electric bill than normal as the air conditioner had to work a bit of overtime.
But the heat wouldn’t have been so bad if there was some rain to go with it. From March 20 to June 20 (Spring), Stuarts Draft had 11.55 inches of rainfall. That sounds like a decent amount, but exactly 2.00 inches of that rainfall came in a four-day span from April 19-22. There were several other large rainfalls throughout our Spring:
- 0.72 inches on April 3
- 1.02 inches on April 26-28
- 1.83 inches on May 8-12
Combined with the 2.00 inches mentioned above, that’s 5.57 inches, or nearly half the Spring total, in a total of 13 days.
By comparison, we had 57 days with 0.00 inches of precipitation measured during Spring. We also had four days with measurements of 0.01 inches and 11 days with measurements of 0.10 or less. In total, that’s 72 days, or well over two months, of one tenth of an inch of rain or less.
And the dryness continues. Counting last night’s quick rain, we’ve had just 0.97 inches of rain since our last good rainfall on June 8 (1.75 inches from June 4-8). That includes 14 days of no rain at all.
So it’s no small wonder that it’s starting to look like Fall has arrived early in our area. The grass and the weeds seem to be fighting to see which can create the largest patch of brown on the lawn. I cut the grass on the highest setting on the lawnmower last time (about two weeks ago) and that’s the only thing that has saved some of the grass to this point. Our neighbors’ yards look like we’re well into November.
Various neighbors are trying their best to salvage what they can. A small oscillating sprinkler is only going to do so much, however. It’s not likely to heal the cracks in the dry dirt, nor is it likely to create an oasis it what is quickly becoming a desert.
While some areas of our country are flooding, ours is starved for water. And just when we thought we might get some, with forecasts calling for a 50-70% chance of rain from last Thursday through Sunday, the storms miss us and provide their relief to other areas of the state.
Our current forecast calls for a 50% chances of thunderstorms this afternoon and a 20% chance of isolated thunderstorms tonight. After that, the forecast doesn’t call for any rain until a 30% chance of thunderstorms on Friday, July 4.
At this point, I’d be okay with Mother Nature raining on the Independence Day festivities. We’d be okay with rain, period.
