Lets talk about the weather.

[Chainfire]

Last edited Sat Mar 19, 2022, 02:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I am in North Florida. Spring thunderstorms are the norm, they are no big deal. They come, boom for a half hour and and pass over.

Last night was the exception. At a little before sundown we got the worst thunderstorm that I have experienced in my 70 years. It lasted without break for nearly four hours. We lost power in the first half hour so I took my Kindle to bed. I could have read a paper book from the constant lightning. The thunder shook the house so bad that things literally fell off the walls. I had guessed that we had two inches of rain overnight, but my wife just checked the rain gauge that she had reset yesterday, we had 5" of rain in less than 12 hours. That is a lot of wet even for Florida.

I felt really sorry for my Black Lab. She usually only gives passing notice to thunder, but last night shook her up. I hope that along with almost no Winter, that this too does not become the norm.


Edit update: It is around 4:00 PM and the radar over my area is red again. We may be in for a 6"/24 hr. rain event. I now have fish asking for shelter in my barn.

[csziggy]

1. It was pretty bad here in Leon County, too

Though by the time the storm got here it was starting to break up.

On one level I was relieved. We've been transplanting stuff and putting in new plants so the rain was welcome. But dang - we don't need a month's worth of rain in one night, or the lightning. Oh, well, at least the Bay County fires are now out or under control.

[Chainfire]

2. I am in West Gadsden and is was a boomer to write home about.

We got a little break from the rain mid-morning, but it has started back up now. (1:45 PM)

[csziggy]

4. Yes, I watched the radar - and it was pretty bad there

My husband has a friend in Gadsden - off of Shay Rest Road - and spent yesterday morning helping to put a tarp over part of his roof. Sometime over the last few months, he'd lost some shingles and didn't notice until the previous rainstorm. They knew a storm was on the way so when he couldn't get a roofer on short notice, his friends jumped in and helped protect his house.


There is some nasty stuff over in western Gadsden right now. Since it is training to the NE it won't hit me. I'm in eastern Leon.

[MineralMan]

3. Weather in much of the country is getting more severe.

Southern California is in what looks to be a permanent drought. Meanwhile, other areas are getting drenched, like you are.

I expect more of the same the rest of the year, and perhaps far beyond that time.

[Elessar Zappa]

5. I live in the mountains in southwest New Mexico.

We’re in a horrible drought right now. Our pine trees in the forest are starting to die due to lack of water. Our creeks are dry and the Gila River is at its lowest level in centuries. People who deny climate change are crazy.

[underpants]

7. Both poles are melting at the same time. 😡

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216500905

[MineralMan]

9. I saw that post. Very worrisome.

[OnlinePoker]

10. The problem in California (and the Southwest in general) has been the El Nino cycle.

Since 2010, the state has had 6 years where La Nina conditions have been present during the "rainy" season, 2 neutral but below average, 1 neutral but above average and only 3 El Nino years (and only one of those a strong El Nino). Historically, La Nina years are very dry for the Southwest and it's been so for the last 2 years. Until the ENSO status moves into El Nino territory, expect the dryness to continue.

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf

[Retrograde]

11. Essentially no rain since the first of the year

We had a very wet December here in the San Francisco area, but no rain in January or February, and so far just one little drizzle in March. November-April is supposed to be the rainy season, when the aquifers get replenished and the reservoirs in the hills and mountains get refilled. What this means is a long, dry, burning summer and fall - and major impacts on the prices of produce nation-wide

[MineralMan]

13. Yes. My late parents owned a citrus and avocado farm,

or "ranch" as people there call it. They sold it just before they died, and I saw the sale through to its completion as their executor. It has already been sold again. The cost of irrigation and other expenses of growing both oranges and avocados have gone up so much that it is now impossible to show anything but a loss for those crops. The lack of rain means irrigation year round, and the water table in the aquifer in that valley has been going down steadily. It is no longer economically feasible to irrigate those crops.

The most recent buyer will almost certainly pull out all of the trees and turn the place into a hobby horse farm. They'll keep a few trees, I suppose, but citrus farming in that area is just about finished. The property had not made any money for several years, and had a negative income for some time.

While everything changes, that area has been a citrus growing area since the late 19th century. No more. An entire crop type will no longer be grown there. Avocados came later, but they, too are no longer profitable in that part of California.

It is a sad thing.

[underpants]

6. Everybody talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.

Poor doggie. We had lightning hit very near our house last week. I bolted out of bed and our boy needed Momma to comfort him.

[róisín_dubh]

8. I flew from BOS to PIT...

In some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced. From light rain showers that passed through the area, according to the pilot.
It was terrifying.

[Claustrum]

12. This is kind of funny.

I am watching a Korean drama about their national weather service and they are citing climate change as making their weather prediction tougher and tougher in recent years, as it is a fact. And people there just take it as a fact. No one is coming out and saying climate change is not real. Same thing to another Asian city's television that I watch. One programming does a lot of work for the government and I would see them advertising for ways to "save the earth" by recycling, turning off their lights and computer, etc. because climate change is real.

And somehow, in the most technological advanced country in the world, we have a political party that hops on climate change is not real while the rest of the world already accepted it as fact because it is a scientific fact.