Just Kick The Can & Have Summer Shove Autumn Out Of The Way More & More.

[Rainshadow]

I made this Facebook post and expect it to turn into a climate change mud fight in 4, 3, 2, 1...

I don't want to talk about the future, who exactly knows, but the present pinching of fine autumn just stinks.

[philastorian]

I feel like I'm about to go out of my mind if this summer doesn't end soon. Haven't felt this way since I lived in Texas (for what were then two of the three hottest summers on record). It's not so much the heat (nothing feel hot after Texas!) as the planning every move around when it will be cool, getting enough water on the garden, etc. 

[ACwx]

The heat alone is one thing - while unpleasant that's not bothering me much yet because I know we didn't get into our true summer pattern until the 2nd week of July this year, early summer was fairly chilly.

It's the lack of rain / thunderstorms that's getting on my nerves. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say I've only heard thunder at my house no more than 3-4 occasions this entire year. While a small part of this as always is due to random hit / miss convection (Manahawkin area only 20 miles north of me got slammed with 7" of rain earlier this week while I got nothing), this has been an exceptionally boring summer for thunderstorm activity in eastern NJ. I expect a good amount of storms to fizzle out after passing Philly anyway, but not to this proportion.

When you combine that with the unrelenting above-average temps for much of the past 6 weeks, it feels like I am in Groundhog Day. Especially because over the same timespan the tropics (worldwide but especially the Atlantic) have been dead quiet. There has just been nothing to even look at on weather maps. Tracking drought conditions is as exciting as standstill traffic. 

Chart shows # of 90 degree days at PHL in August, used to have years with less than 5 such days every 2-3 years but 6 out of the last 7 years have had a pretty high number  

[ACwx]

Also just following up on that chart - the record appears to be 17 90-degree days for August. After today I think we'll be at 15 days for 2022, and the forecast ahead looks hot so we have a legitimate shot to break the record.

[Rainshadow]

1 hour ago, ACwx said:

Also just following up on that chart - the record appears to be 17 90-degree days for August. After today I think we'll be at 15 days for 2022, and the forecast ahead looks hot so we have a legitimate shot to break the record.

We will break it.

[Rainshadow]

1 hour ago, ACwx said:

The heat alone is one thing - while unpleasant that's not bothering me much yet because I know we didn't get into our true summer pattern until the 2nd week of July this year, early summer was fairly chilly.

It's the lack of rain / thunderstorms that's getting on my nerves. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say I've only heard thunder at my house no more than 3-4 occasions this entire year. While a small part of this as always is due to random hit / miss convection (Manahawkin area only 20 miles north of me got slammed with 7" of rain earlier this week while I got nothing), this has been an exceptionally boring summer for thunderstorm activity in eastern NJ. I expect a good amount of storms to fizzle out after passing Philly anyway, but not to this proportion.

When you combine that with the unrelenting above-average temps for much of the past 6 weeks, it feels like I am in Groundhog Day. Especially because over the same timespan the tropics (worldwide but especially the Atlantic) have been dead quiet. There has just been nothing to even look at on weather maps. Tracking drought conditions is as exciting as standstill traffic. 

Chart shows # of 90 degree days at PHL in August, used to have years with less than 5 such days every 2-3 years but 6 out of the last 7 years have had a pretty high number  

Pretty much tells you the thunderstorm story when our general thunderstorm thread is stuck on July 25th.

[Rainshadow]

3 hours ago, philastorian said:

I feel like I'm about to go out of my mind if this summer doesn't end soon. Haven't felt this way since I lived in Texas (for what were then two of the three hottest summers on record). It's not so much the heat (nothing feel hot after Texas!) as the planning every move around when it will be cool, getting enough water on the garden, etc. 

It just looks like fleeting breaks between now and Labor Day Weekend.

[ErieWX]

Legit shot at 90 in town on Monday. That would put ERI at 6, above the 3.7 normal. Nothing like the 17 recorded in 1988, but I’m thinking an EWR or VAY thermometer situation that might have been fixed 

[mshaffer526]

Agreed @ACwx.  It seems like every storm event this year has been just isolated, borderline strong stuff. Can't remember the last time we had a strong frontal passage with an accompanying squall line.

 

[ErieWX]

1 hour ago, mshaffer526 said:

Agreed @ACwx.  It seems like every storm event this year has been just isolated, borderline strong stuff. Can't remember the last time we had a strong frontal passage with an accompanying squall line.

 

Yeah my guess is that last year was more progressive. It seems like we would have 2-5 days of heat, a front, 2-3 days of cool, rinse and repeat. Plus there were tropical threats mixed in with all of that. 

[Rainshadow]

40 minutes ago, ErieWX said:

Yeah my guess is that last year was more progressive. It seems like we would have 2-5 days of heat, a front, 2-3 days of cool, rinse and repeat. Plus there were tropical threats mixed in with all of that. 

Yeah no tropical connection moisture, big dent on rainfall amounts.

[philastorian]

18 hours ago, ACwx said:

It's the lack of rain / thunderstorms that's getting on my nerves. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say I've only heard thunder at my house no more than 3-4 occasions this entire year.

 

There's an excellent novel by Tea Obrecht - Inland, iirc - in which one half of the story is underscored by one woman's protracted, building ache for a drink of water in the middle of a big Western drought.  I have thought of it again and again this summer.  I well know how it can be worse (when I lived in Texas it was so dry that the ground was shifting and water pipes were breaking - insult to injury!) but it's always hard to remember a pain that's worse than the pain you're currently experiencing! 

It'll at least be a relief when the nights get cooler next week.  I'm always happier when I can open the windows and night and really cool the house down that way.  Looks cool enough that we may be able to avoid turning the ac on. 

[Rainshadow]

19 hours ago, ACwx said:

Also just following up on that chart - the record appears to be 17 90-degree days for August. After today I think we'll be at 15 days for 2022, and the forecast ahead looks hot so we have a legitimate shot to break the record.

We could conceivably end up with 20 days with the way PHL ASOS has assisted this summer.  Today was the best "chance" to not hit 90F and it is already 87F at PHL at 11 am.

[ErieWX]

1 hour ago, philastorian said:

There's an excellent novel by Tea Obrecht - Inland, iirc - in which one half of the story is underscored by one woman's protracted, building ache for a drink of water in the middle of a big Western drought.  I have thought of it again and again this summer.  I well know how it can be worse (when I lived in Texas it was so dry that the ground was shifting and water pipes were breaking - insult to injury!) but it's always hard to remember a pain that's worse than the pain you're currently experiencing! 

It'll at least be a relief when the nights get cooler next week.  I'm always happier when I can open the windows and night and really cool the house down that way.  Looks cool enough that we may be able to avoid turning the ac on. 

Yeah we kind of have it good because we don’t really have a true “dry season” unlike most places in the world, who either have the Mediterranean summer dry season or wintertime continental dry season. That means there’s always an opportunity for relief the next month of the current month is dry. 
 

The main issue for us is not getting rain during growing season for agriculture when it actually matters the most. Of course for myself, it matters the most in the winter time when the cold air is already in place 😉

[Parsley]

7 hours ago, Rainshadow said:

We could conceivably end up with 20 days with the way PHL ASOS has assisted this summer.  Today was the best "chance" to not hit 90F and it is already 87F at PHL at 11 am.

92 today at PHL today. 😆 

88 IMBY. Sun still packs a punch. 

[iceman56]

42 90+ days at PHL as of today, 6th most on record.    Just missed here at 89.3.

[SalemCountyNJ]

High of 90

[ErieWX]

73 for the high today IMBY. Some highlights below of the tall ships festival this weekend. Really some neat history and was able to tour most of the ships.
 

Heat and dews arrive starting tomorrow. 

 

[mshaffer526]

89.2 for the high yesterday. 

[ACwx]

21 hours ago, Rainshadow said:

We could conceivably end up with 20 days with the way PHL ASOS has assisted this summer.  Today was the best "chance" to not hit 90F and it is already 87F at PHL at 11 am.

Yea on Friday evening I looked at NWS' point forecast for PHL for Saturday, they were predicting a high of 89. Ended up at 93. Big assist for sure.

[ACwx]

22 hours ago, philastorian said:

There's an excellent novel by Tea Obrecht - Inland, iirc - in which one half of the story is underscored by one woman's protracted, building ache for a drink of water in the middle of a big Western drought.  I have thought of it again and again this summer.  I well know how it can be worse (when I lived in Texas it was so dry that the ground was shifting and water pipes were breaking - insult to injury!) but it's always hard to remember a pain that's worse than the pain you're currently experiencing! 

It'll at least be a relief when the nights get cooler next week.  I'm always happier when I can open the windows and night and really cool the house down that way.  Looks cool enough that we may be able to avoid turning the ac on. 

True, it could always be worse when talking about drought conditions in this region.

Anecdotally I find our house doesn't really start cooling down til temps outside hit 65 or so. And since the coolest temps don't happen til after 2-3AM usually, I look for lows in the 50s in order to make a difference in house temperature by the time I actually go to sleep, especially with the hot "ambient" temperature our house would have this time of year with no ac. Unfortunately it's difficult to get lows in the 50s this time of year since I'm only about 5 miles from the ocean and warm Atlantic temperatures linger well into September and October.

[DelcoWx]

22 hours ago, philastorian said:

There's an excellent novel by Tea Obrecht - Inland, iirc - in which one half of the story is underscored by one woman's protracted, building ache for a drink of water in the middle of a big Western drought.  I have thought of it again and again this summer.  I well know how it can be worse (when I lived in Texas it was so dry that the ground was shifting and water pipes were breaking - insult to injury!) but it's always hard to remember a pain that's worse than the pain you're currently experiencing! 

It'll at least be a relief when the nights get cooler next week.  I'm always happier when I can open the windows and night and really cool the house down that way.  Looks cool enough that we may be able to avoid turning the ac on. 

Our property management org decided this would be the year that the balconies in our complex would be rehabbed or replaced, and ours is on that list. Work started right after the 4th of July weekend. They're using the big front lawn of our apartment complex as a staging area, complete with a small concrete mixer, and we've got a birds-eye view of the whole mishegas.

So, to keep the noise to a minimum (ha!) and the dust from the jackhammers and afore-mentioned concrete mixer out, they removed the screens from our sliding door and the dining room window. They basically "shrink-wrapped" the door and the window from the outside, so we can't open them and we can't get the nice cross-ventilation from the bedroom windows. We haven't turned off our central AC since July 11. 🙄

You have no idea how ready I am for fall. 🤪🤣

[Rainshadow]

16 minutes ago, ACwx said:

Yea on Friday evening I looked at NWS' point forecast for PHL for Saturday, they were predicting a high of 89. Ended up at 93. Big assist for sure.

They went higher than MOS, which has been a joke way too low, but between the dryness and that ASOS, not high enough.

[philastorian]

1 hour ago, ACwx said:

True, it could always be worse when talking about drought conditions in this region.

Anecdotally I find our house doesn't really start cooling down til temps outside hit 65 or so. And since the coolest temps don't happen til after 2-3AM usually, I look for lows in the 50s in order to make a difference in house temperature by the time I actually go to sleep, especially with the hot "ambient" temperature our house would have this time of year with no ac. Unfortunately it's difficult to get lows in the 50s this time of year since I'm only about 5 miles from the ocean and warm Atlantic temperatures linger well into September and October.

In the afternoon, we're shaded in the front by big pines and in the back by the bulk of the house. If it's going down to the 60s, I can generally open windows after dinner and it will be cool enough to sleep by bedtime and then cool enough by morning to keep the house comfortable through the next day (with shades drawn and windows closed, of course) up to about 90.  It's funny, I don't know many people who are used to managing temps that way, and my friends react with a kind of "oh you poor thing!" but I'm just crawling out of my skin right now with my contacts drying out from the ac and waking up in the night as it cycles on and off and little things like not getting to hear the birds when I wake up!  Bring on fall! 😄

[ACwx]

On 8/26/2022 at 3:33 PM, ACwx said:

It's the lack of rain / thunderstorms that's getting on my nerves. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say I've only heard thunder at my house no more than 3-4 occasions this entire year.

...law of averages? I guess Mother Nature heard me complaining lol, got a decent hit earlier this afternoon with a few light rumbles of thunder