After a hot summer the fall rains have started a little early. I’m definitely not ready for the rains. This time of year I’m behind on spraying fungicides, mowing etc. due to the bountiful fruit harvest this year. It appears that the heavy rains might help me considerably even though I’m not prepared for them. There are hundreds of small pear trees in the ground I planted this year. These rains are coming at the perfect time to benefit these trees. I used the el nino rain this spring to plant them. I cannot afford nor am I setup to irrigate acres of trees. Once the first year or two are passed new trees become better established. How are the rains in your area? Have the fall rains began yet?
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Fall starts in August in KS or are you calling it fall because the rains have begun? Still summer here in NY, but we get almost equal rain in every season- which is good when I’m wearing my nurseryman’s hat but not so much for the me wearing an orchard keepers hat.
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Alan,
August is supposed to be summer in Kansas. Fall is normally when we receive our rains. Like last year our seasons are not following the normal schedule. Thursday September 22 this year is the official beginning of fall. Rains start in those months ending in R here so we are getting the rain a shade bit early. The rain is better for me because of my new trees in the ground. Very unusual to get rains in August in my location in Kansas. We have a week of it in the forecast.
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It has been a cool and rainy August here, two things that August usually isn’t. I’m sure enjoying it. The only thing I don’t like is my grass continues to need mowed and usually it doesn’t grow at all in August.
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Derby,
I’m hopeful this rain will make your pears grows like crazy for you. Those you top worked are shaping up nicely. The fruit you got this year will be a drop in the bucket compared to next year if this weather keeps this up.
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They sure have started, and welcome - it was getting dry around here
True, will need to spray, tho
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We just missed out here on the rain the other day. Parts of N Iowa had 8+ inches of rain and everything down there is flooded. I think we only had an inch out of it… Its been very consistent around here this summer for rain and i’m seeing it with all the spot on the peaches i’ve had. I’ve mowed pretty much every 5 days all summer. Usually the grass nearest the street turns to crust and this year its stayed growing.
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East Texas: We usually sweat it out in August with little or NO rain and 100 degree temps until September. We’ve had a solid week of rain every day and our temps fell into the high 70’s and 80’s. No flooding this time…just good soaking rain. We have now had three days of sun. Enough time to get the grass cut and it is supposed to rain again this afternoon. I had been carrying water to a few trees that I couldn’t get a hose to and we had been daily watering everything else. The rain was so welcome. It is very early for fall rains to start…still very much summer here. Makes me wonder if it will be a early winter and a cold one. I’ll take the cooler weather and rain now though.
Katy
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I had almost 7 inches of rain in June, just over 5 inches of rain in July and now for August (rain in forecast Fri/Sat/Sun) i’m sitting at just over 6 inches… Its been a very wet monsoon type summer and i’m ready for a dry fall.
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In Michigan it is more like Kansas. Reliable rains start around Labor Day. Anything before is irregular thunderstorms. I used to reliably pick ink caps (a mushroom) in the woods behind my house between Sept. 10 and 15. This year we got early rains, but it was very dry until a week ago. All the dormant lawns including the dandelions are up. I seeded most of the cover crops in the garden, I will finish Saturday.
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Not here. We got a little bit of rain from the edges of thunderstorms two evenings in a row last week. Once again, it wasn’t enough to soak down to tree roots. It was enough to perk up some of the grass and the weeds. It’s cooled down to the mid 90’s. This is not what I’d call an early fall here.
We’re just entering the annual time period where hurricane activities are most likely to affect the weather in the southeast.
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E-C Iowa: The rain never stopped here this summer, though it has been well-spaced enough that we have avoided anything other than flash-flooding (except for NE Iowa this week). We have had excess rain this summer. We have had 21+ inches since Memorial day and 14 is average. We never really got the transition from the June/earlyJuly mesoscale convective system rains to more spotty “pop up” storms that usually happens in mid-July and August. The MCS’s just keep coming.
Oftentimes we get a nice weather pattern to set in after Labor day and we get 4-5 weeks of decent, sunny weather between 9/10 and 10/20 or so. Also the corn dies off, and our dewpoints start to drop towards the more comfortable range. At this point, with as wet as we have been it is hard to imagine that we won’t have more of the same wetness. Though the corn will eventually start to dry up and the dewpoints will start to be more sane.
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Let’s see???
Last rainfall…Mid March lol
Next rainfall…Late November
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Where in CA are you? My wife, son, and I brought unseasonable rain and cold weather to Anaheim when we visited in early June. Maybe we could visit your area too. Ha!
Amazing… Is it ever cloudy or is it sun just non stop days on end? Do automobiles become filthy without ever getting rained on?
You are welcome anytime lol
I’m in Livermore. Inland valley. 90-100F all summer and 14.46" annual rainfall.
Actually clouds are extremely rare as funny as that sounds. I’m originally from back east and the monotony of it can be a little much when everyday is sunny and blue skies. I actually miss the occasional thunder storm. And no, cars rarely get dirty when there is no rain, outside of some light dust that blows off when you drive hehe
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Consider yourself lucky that you don’t have to deal with 70F+ dew points for days and days. That is by far the worst part of summer up here. That humid air just sucks the life out of me. I look forward to the changing of the seasons and the colder weather.
I need to escape for August thru mid Sept somewhere that has no ragweed…maybe Easter Island.
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Sounds like our normal July-August weather. It does get monotonous. That’s why this August is so unusual. I do like the thunderstorms.
Yeah, think I’ll stick with our mid 40-50’s dew points, and 28% humidity 