Have you noticed any differences caused by weather where you live?

[NNN0LHI]

I sure have. Normally this time of year my lawn has turned completely brown and went dormant by now. Can't put enough water on it to keep it green normally. This year it is as green and lush as it normally is only in the spring. Last month was the wettest July on record here in Illinois. And hotter than hell.

The yellow bug lights that we always put in for the summer are worthless. The bug lights attract just as many bugs as regulars bulbs would this year. Can't even turn them on this year without attracting thousands of bugs. Not sure what is causing that?

We normally keep our central air on a constant 76 degrees. Not this year. Had to lower that to compensate for how hot we get when we go outside for a few minutes.

Used to drink a couple of cups of coffee every morning sitting onside on the patio. Not this year. Too hot. Even in the morning before the sun comes up it is still too hot to sit outside and drink a hot cup of coffee.

Anyone else notice any differences from past summers?

Don

[FSogol]

1. We've been able to turn our A/C off for 6 days this August due to mild temps.

Completely unheard of here in No. VA.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. not just yes, but hell yes.

instead of drizzles and rains, we've had torrential storms with increasing frequency. Our temps used to be more temperate, and now, we hit 45 days in the 80s or higher. That is just crazy for Chicago. The insects are out of control, the floods, winds, storms have been huge.

Plus, it's a wet heat.

[CreekDog]

3. in SF we are having the coldest, greyest summer since 1971

the average high in July was just 63 (should be around 70).

and the overcast barely clears in the sunnier parts of the city and not at all by the ocean.

it has been brutally unpleasant. i came back from Alaska and was cold here.

[EFerrari]

12. In the south bay, Summer came late, was too hot and now, it's over.

Didn't it rain all the way into May this year? The humidity seems to be way up. Usually, it's so arid up here on the ranch, we have a humidifier going all day so our skin doesn't chap. Not this year.

Then, the heat was really brutal. The wild grass on the hill were I walk isn't brown, it's dead and crunches underfoot.

Mostly, there doesn't seem to be much "changing" of the seasons. They just slam into each other.

[reggie the dog]

50. I was in the bay area for 3 weeks this summer

In San Jose it was beautiful 80 and sunny every day with only some morning fog, all but one of the times i went to santa cruz it was foggy and 59 and it was foggy in san fransisco all but 2 times i went but luckily i saw the golden gate bridge without fog.

[chimpymustgo]

4. I live in DC. Tornadoes, floods, EARTHQUAKE, strong lightning storms a couple of times a week.

Trees toppling from high winds and water-logged roots. It looks like a rain forest here. And the power goes out every time it storms.

[jtrockville]

9. North of you, in Rockville MD. I concur - weather is devastating us.

We used to have violent, devastating storms maybe a few times a decade. Now it's a few times per month, and now recently, a few times per week.

It's crazy!

[Gman]

5. Last year was the hottest summer in 50 years

this year is more normal.

[old mark]

6. Posted about this before, but it is progressing - My fig tree is 3 weeks ahead of its schedule...

We normally do not pick our first ripe figs till the last week in August...this year I picked some very good ripe figs on July 31! I now have 3 trays of them drying in the kitchen, and over 1 1/2 gallons in bags (over 5 pounds each) in the freezer. I usually got 15 pounds frozen per season. I will have that by the end of the month, with plenty of them eaten out of hand and made into jelly as well. I expect to at least double the number of figs we harvest this season...and we are in SE Pennsylvania! Our tree shuts down in October, and I am interested to see if that is extended this year as well...

mark

[smokey nj]

7. It's been very hot and humid here in NJ, but we haven't had much rain.

[Canuckistanian]

8. We've had the opposite July and August weather

We had a hot, dry July and now August is looking like it may be the wettest month this year. We just had a major thunderstorm this morning.

[Divernan]

23. A friend of mine spent a week in July in Canada - said it

was unseasonably hot the entire time.

[Canuckistanian]

42. It's been an unbearably hot summer here

We've had more +30C (sorry, 86 Fahrenheit) days here in July than I can remember.

And the humidity has been brutal, at least for those of us who aren't used to so many days of 60% humidity.

[marmar]

10. It's been near, at or above 90 in southeast Michigan since late May, with little relief.

And when we get rain, it seems like it comes in these torrential downpours that cause ridiculous street flooding.

[enough]

11. Absolutely. (SE PA)

Everything is more extreme. Hotter and longer hot spells. Dryer and longer dry spells. When it rains it often comes down like a monsoon, which is not our normal pattern.

Also very intense winds in very localized patterns, as if we're becoming a "tornado alley." This also has not been our normal pattern in the past.

[1monster]

13. Florida's weather has been cockeyed for a decade or so now... When I firest moved

here thrity-six years ago, in hte summer, we had a heavy down pour lasting about fifteen to twenty minutes every day... usually at four o'clock, give or take a half hour. You could almost set your watch by it.

These days, the weather is anybody's guess. In 1997-98, we had (seemingly) almost constant rain from November to March. Then no rain at all. Wild fires started in the state in June and by July, every country in the state had at least one wild fire. My county had three at any given time. It was so dry that the July Fourth fireworks display was canceled, even though they were set off in the middle of a bay.

The only regular weather patterns we have now are irregular.

This year, we had a (very) long cool spring. Most years we have a short, hot spring. Different from our past four seasons of warm, hot, very hot, and winter (What most folks north of us would call spring).

[Divernan]

25. I recall the daily storms in the 60's - how are the bugs?

In the 60's, if I took my kids for a tricycle ride on our sidewalks, the mosquitoes from the drainage canals at the end of the block would eat them alive if I hadn't doused them in bug reppellant (god knows what chemicals were in those, back then). And I used to have some insect control people spray our yard and inside the house once a month - again, god knows what chemicals we were exposed to). But I sure did jump if I reached into a cupboard to get something, and found a palmetto bug! Didn't like that coral snake next to the garbage can either!

[1monster]

47. We have pretty decent mosquito control in this county. Not sure how long that will

continue, though. We have an independent mosquito control board, but the county commission is making a very strong effort to take it over...which will mean less mosquito control and no accountability.

[Mojorabbit]

40. I am in central Florida and I agree

It has been a regular topic of conversation here. It is screwing up my fruit trees and they are bearing later. When we do get afternoon storms they seem to be strong ones.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. Cooler than normal summer here in SoCal desert

[Warpy]

15. I'm in the southwest

and we've been in a "once in 500 years" drought for over 15 years. In fact, they're talking about a return to dust bowl conditions here. Our monsoons have fizzled out year after year, this year being no exception.

The water situation in my particular corner of the area will likely be adequate for my lifetime but perhaps not far beyond unless weather patterns change again.

The southwest has had wild climate swings before, occasionally wiping out whole cultures. This might be one of those "normal" swings or it might be something more deadly. Only time will tell. In the meantime, forget that backyard garden and lush front lawn, they're just not going to happen.

[Bitwit1234]

16. Here in the northern part of Minnesota on the Iron Range

we've had to RUN our air conditioner non stop. I can't believe that we have had so many 80 degree days. And rain. You would think we have a monsoon season. You cut the grass on Monday and Wednesday it is ankle high.

[Odin2005]

44. Same in Fargo!

Rain and humidity, all fucking summer.

[Scruffy1]

49. I was just up in Hibbing

Everyone was complaining about the heat. Here in Minneapolis we have always had some spells of hot muggy weather but nothing like this year. I really started to notice the climate change about fifteen
years ago. The range of some animals such as the possum has been steadily moving north. Also some weeds and grasses that are native to Iowa have moved farther north into the twin cities. The biggest change I think is that our weather is more variable with more storms and heat waves.

[Champion Jack]

17. We picked tomatoes in July

we never had them before mid to late August before. Bugs seem to be worse.

[slackmaster]

20. My Supersteaks are finally starting to ripen

I'm fighting an opossum or something in my yard.

[harun]

18. East Coast was out of the norm. Hotter and dryer. Plants ahead of schedule

in ripening. I think we will be in for a crazy winter. Hot and cold swings seem extreme.

[slackmaster]

19. Cool, green, and lush around here this year

A rainy Spring followed by a hot summer inland has increased the amount of onshore flow - The "thermal low" effect.

[pipi_k]

21. Seemed warmer than usual this summer...had to use

AC in July instead of being able to wait for the one week in mid August when it usually gets that warm up here in the Hilltowns.


Plants and trees that normally bloom two weeks after those down in the "flat lands" came out around the same time, or very shortly thereafter.


OTOH, this past winter we had more snow than we've had in the past 8 years or so.

Everything seems to be changing...some changes are minuscule, others are very obvious.

[Divernan]

22. Heat/humidity in my part of PA has been comparable to Central America

Morning, Don,
Thanks for an interesting thread. All our experiences may be what statisticians would call anecdotal, but I have little trust in reports funded by private parties (BP - hey! 75% of the oil spill in the Gulf has been disappeared) or public agencies (US govt., with not one shred of scientific evidence - hey! 75% of the oil in the Gulf is now "gone".)

I used to take advantage of off-season summer prices to go on scuba-diving trips to Honduras & Belize in Central America, as well as the Central Pacific/Micronesia. The combination of heat/humidity was very close to unbearable, and quite debilitating. I've experienced the same impact from many days this summer in Pennsylvania. I've lived here for just over 40 years, and that's a first.

Another change has been the fierce storms, which have come up very quickly - not a long, slow summer rain, but skies so dark at 4 p.m. that the lights by the Turnpike tollbooths came on, windshield wipers could not keep up with the torrential downpours, and ALL traffic pulled off onto berms/shoulders for up to 15 minutes until the worst of the storm blew through. I compared it to the tropical storms which used to quickly pop up at certain times of the year when I lived in central Florida back in the 60's. That's the only other time I've seen cars pull off the road because of visibility problems, i.e., windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the downpours.
ON EDIT: See post 13 above - for a description of these daily, brief Florida downpours.

Bugs? Hardly any, which is a first in all the years I've lived here. I don't miss the wasps I have had to battle for decades, or the mosquitoes - but am concerned by lack of bees around my flower gardens.

I've installed ceiling fans throughout my house, and have been comfortable without turning on the central AC, except for days when the humidity has been quite high - and even then, I can leave the AC set about 8 degrees higher, because the fans make up the difference. I highly recommend stocking up on ceiling fans at the end of summer sales, for anyone who doesn't already have them. Start out with the kitchen & bedrooms, if you can't do the whole house at once. Since we are eating out much less, if at all, and cooking at home - it's great to have a ceiling fan there. And the bedroom fans make for very comfortable sleeping, with much less electricity required than running the central AC for the whole house.

[morningglory]

24. N. Florida here. Hot as the hinges of hell. We went green (er)

yesterday. Put up a Lehman's catalog, clothesline on pulley system from back porch to the nearest tree. Like a NY tenement building clothesline from the last century, or maybe now. Joyfully hung a whole line full of flapping underwear, etc. Went in to watch the news to see how Obama family is doing here in town. Tropical Depression #5 is doing a loop-de-loop move and it has rained 5 times on my line full of clothes. Last night my husband went out to lock the hens up in the coop for the night. I asked him to see if my clothes were dry yet. Haha, or as the kids say now ROFLMAO. Still damp. During the night it rained very hard several times. Don't think Pres. O is going to be able to swim today in sunshine. I bought some "SpaceSaver cucumber" seeds. It is late to plant, but I want to put them into a pot, and save some seeds for next Spring. See how they do. My niece bragged about her Parade Green bunching onions. She has onions all year and plants to give away. I googled "Parade Onion)and got a hit on an article from The Onion: Small Town Hosts Gay Shame Parade!" They are a hoot! It is ungodly hot. Usually in summer I can go out and work for an hour, watch butterflies for a half hour with a jug of ice water, then come inside to recover from the heat stroke symptoms for an hour or two, then back out. This year I just can't take it outside for very long, or very many times during the day.

[Crystal Clarity]

26. (Maine) Overall this summer has been much drier...

Water level in the Lake is the lowest I've ever seen it.

Also this past winter has been much more mild with way less snow. We had our usual spell of sub-zero temps in Jan/Feb but it was of a much shorter duration. Plus, my sister in NJ had accumulated winter snow measurement totals nearly equal to ours! Nuts!

Another observation; Not nearly the normal amount of mosquitoes, but way more flies it seems.

[Crystal Clarity]

33. Just to be sure I wasn't imagining the seemingly unusual dryness of this yr....

I checked out this national map showing drought conditions in different parts of the country for this yr. Here are their stats as of August 10, 2010.... http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html They have my state listed as "abnormally dry".

For those of you experiencing wetter then normal conditions, I'm sure there must be similar info available. I don't have time to look myself at the moment but it'd be interesting to see if someone else finds it.

[Frustratedlady]

27. Hey, neighbor! Iowa has had a ton of moisture, as well...

The Mississippi River should be fairly low, but it has stayed high all summer. Our rains have been almost daily and the temps are awful, in part because of the humidity that stays high.

If you are forced to stay in because of the heat, you might as well have winter. At least I can get warm and wouldn't have this horrid humidity to deal with.

[GoCubsGo]

28. It hasn't been below 95 degrees in the daytime since late May

With a few exceptions, it's been mid- to upper 90s, with heat index up into the 100s. I dread getting my power bill. I have to run the air, or the house gets musty. It's also too humid to hang the laundry outside half the time. We can go for weeks without rain, and then get dumped on. Needless to say, the mosquitoes are horrible. Granted, in my neighborhood, they're usually bad. Many of my neighbors don't understand the concept of cleaning out their gutters.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

29. Fruits and veggies coming in season early

Seems like all the berries, raspberries, blackberries, blue berries etc. were ready at least 2 weeks ahead of schedule here. My concord grapes are now ripe and they are generally in September. It rained so much this spring that I never did get my lower garden planted. It was standing in water the beginning of June and when tried to rototill it around June the 11th, still too muddy. So just went with the higher ground garden. Our storms seem stronger in intensity. I swear the other night the wind switched around so much in about five minutes it rained in heavy on three sides of the house. Hot and humid here in North East Ohio. We don't have AC so I really notice when it hangs on for week at a time. Have some new species of bugs have never seen before. Wasps are trying to move in the attic already, so worried what the winter will bring.

[MorningGlow]

30. Yes--stupid hot, and for the entire summer

Usually we're more temperate, with a few "hot spells" that only last several days, broken up by cooler, wetter weather. Not this year--it's been hot (and very little rain) since June, and it hasn't let up once. At the end of June/beginning of July I was visiting my brother in Southern California (inland) and it was hotter back home than in California. That's a big :wtf: right there.

Because of the unseasonable heat and lack of rain, my garden has been for shit. Last year it was cold and rainy, so the plants rotted; this year I've got lots of flowers but nothing's fruited. Finally got tomatoes starting last week but they won't ripen--they're still green. Usually we start getting tomatoes in early July and can't eat them fast enough.

My official assessment: weather has been seriously fucked up. (And that's a technical term. ;) )

[Divernan]

31. Kansas City & St. Louis, MO have been killing hot and humid

I have a daughter in one city, and elderly (late 80's) friends in the other. Heat has been in the high 90's or 100 degrees for weeks on end, and with the humidity/heat index, we're talking 108 - to 115 degrees!

My daughter parked her car on a recently asphalted parking lot one afternoon and when she got back to it, the interior heat was 118 degrees.

The towns have opened air conditioned shelters for people during the days. My huge concern is what would happen if electric power supply failed, and whether the infrastructure for the power grids in this country have been properly regulated, inspected and maintained. I had occasion to deal with a case involving Duquesne Light in PA (my supplier), and through discovery for a case filed with the Public Utility Commission, learned that the company had overloaded their system causing repeated transformer failures & losses of power to business and residential customers. Plus they were years behind on their tree trimming, such that major storms caused hundreds of trees/limbs falling on lines and cutting off power to many neighborhoods simultaneously. Meanwhile, Duquesne Light used the most expensive law firm in town (old boy network/Duquesne Club) and paid its executives handsomely.
When you privatize a "public" utility, put in inadequate government regulations (minimal, if any, fines for violations) and then don't bother to enforce even those weak regulations, you put the public at risk in what can be life and death situations.

[Po_d Mainiac]

32. Which of the dozen 25yr rain events over the last 12 months are you asking about? n/t

[Bobbieo]

34. Yuma not as hot as usual but have the high humidity but no rain all summer.

[L0oniX]

35. This is the hottest summer I've ever felt here in Florida and I have been here since 83.

Day after day the feels like temp is in the 100's.

[Tesha]

36. Some of our leaves falling already...

... and its way too early season-wise.

I'm sure its the heat and lack-of-rain stress they're suffering under.

It's been in the 90's with humidity in the high 60's and 70's all summer long.
Storms whip through with high winds and spotty rain. And where it DOES rain
everything floods, because when 5 inches of rain fall in a single storm burst
the rain all goes down the storm drains or under the overpasses.

It's been interesting.

[ThomWV]

37. Watch how late the Great Lakes freeze and the resultant lake-effect-snow

It gets hotter and we get more snow. This is how it works. Places where it rains, it will rain more. Places where its dry, it will be dryer. Some places that are wet will become dry, and vice-versa. In any event the extremes will become more frequent.

[eppur_se_muova]

38. We've had ten days of record heat.

Just missed the record for a few more days -- and the records were set in 2007 & 2008.

[ibegurpard]

39. much wetter and cooler than normal this summer in southcentral Montana

[mnhtnbb]

41. Our heat/humidity started in APRIL this year--the kind we usually get late July/August

No relief all summer.

We get drenching thunderstorms or nothing, it seems. We're running behind on rainfall for the year
and for the season.

We landscaped this house 18 months ago (naturalized, no lawn)and I'm still having to water to keep
shrubs from dying in the upper 90 degree heat without rain for a week or more. This landscaping should
be able to get by, once established, without watering in the summer. That isn't going to happen
if this kind of heat returns again...and again...and again.

[Odin2005]

43. The weather here in Fargo has been out of whack for 4 years now.

This summer has been unbearably humid.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

45. One of the coolest summers since I moved here 32 years ago

The fog used to come in after 3 or 4 days of triple digit days. This year the fog is always around, If not right here, close off coast keeping things cool. Must be hot inland.

[Luciferous]

46. Yep. I live in Northern Illinois as well, and this is the most humid

summer I can remember. I've also noticed the bugs, especially the mosquitoes- not surprising with the amount of rain we've had.

[REP]

48. It's been very cool here - cooler than usual (Silicon Valley)

August is usually not very hot here, but I usually don't have to wear flannel. September is often very hot, so we'll see.