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NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Weather Thread

We're under a tornado watch for another 30 minutes. According to the radar, all the 'activity' is west of us though.
 
We had a round of storms move through quickly late yesterday afternoon that knocked out power to 600k households in the state and then we had another round that came through from round 2:00 a.m. until maybe 6:00ish this morning and we're now at about 700k without power.

Looking at the outage map in Metro Detroit, it looks like our neighborhood is one of the few without losses but everything to the east and south of us looks affected. I didn't notice much in the way of trees down on my run this morning but I could hear the hum of the generators and there was a lot of flooding out there.

IIRC, at its peak there were nearly 850k households without power from the storms from a week ago today.

On my run Sunday morning I went through another neighborhood and could still hear plenty of generators running. One of the local tennis and swim clubs were allowing members without power to set up tents on their grounds so at least the kids could be "camping out" and there were shower and dining facilities available.

Yesterday we invited my daughter's friend and her parents over for dinner and some time away from their house and neighborhood that still didn't have power. We got a text from them this morning that power on their block finally came back on around 6:30 a.m. today... only about 160 hours from when they initially lost power! Yikes! :oops:
 
It's still summer and will be for a while longer. The warm weather will likely continue into early part of September, but sometime around mid September we'll feel a disturbance in the Force and note that a seasonal change is beginning. Maybe it'll be a cool morning or an outlier maple tree with a few leaves starting to yellow, but you'll someone silently register the change is definitely coming.
 
It's still summer and will be for a while longer. The warm weather will likely continue into early part of September, but sometime around mid September we'll feel a disturbance in the Force and note that a seasonal change is beginning. Maybe it'll be a cool morning or an outlier maple tree with a few leaves starting to yellow, but you'll someone silently register the change is definitely coming.
I predict this will be the hottest September on record for Ohio. Not sure about Michigan, because of the UP, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's in the Top 5.
 
I predict this will be the hottest September on record for Ohio. Not sure about Michigan, because of the UP, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's in the Top 5.

It honestly didn't feel all that extraordinarily hot here in SE Michigan this year. Yes, we had a week or two of really hot weather, but that's nothing new. I wouldn't be surprised though if we still had one of the warmest summers on record because I'm sure it probably got slightly warmer earlier in the year than it normally would and we still have days in the forecast with temps expected in the mid-to-upper 80s. I imagine it's the summer weather starting earlier and lasting longer that will make a bigger difference in the long run.
 
This morning when I walked outside there was a certain crispness in the air. The thought actually entered my mind "wonder if I should maybe wear a jacket?" Of course I didn't, but am recording this to document a psychological phenomenon. On the drive in to work the thermometer in the car registered 52 degrees F. Looking on my phone now, I find a picture taken of me grilling in the back yard this past April. I specifically recall the temperature because I wondered if the ambient temp was such that it might slightly slow the cooking time. In the photo I am wearing shorts, a tee shirt, and sandals. The temperature at that time was 48 degrees.
 
We are on the "no coat" side of 57 degrees in the AM. In the Spring we will be on the "coat" side of 57 degrees. I think it is just mental for me, as if you are used to not wearing a coat, you can manage a bit colder, but if you are always wearing a coat, you just continue to wear it.

PS. I cannot wait for Fall...
 
Having a constantly complaining middle schooler has presented a new problem with this transitional weather: they complain that it's too cold in the morning on the way to school but if they want to take a light jacket or hoodie they complain in the afternoon that it's too hot or it makes their backpack too heavy if they stuff it in there. Is there anything a kid won't complain about?
 
Raining today too. Maybe that's good for the seeds in the garden I sowed on Sunday, but maybe it's too much too late.
 
It started raining pretty hard around 5:45 yesterday evening and hasn't stopped yet. We're forecast to get up to about 7" today.

Last week during all that rain, we had a pretty strong storm come through that lasted maybe an hour. We had strong wind and hail but I didn't notice any damage in our neighborhood. This weekend one day I was picking my daughter up from a friend's house downtown and they still had trees and limbs down everywhere in their neighborhood. The mom was surprised when she asked if we still had a lot to clean up and I said there was nothing by us.

I guess it was even worse up at the beach by my in-laws house. A bunch of their neighbors lost their boat lifts or had a lot of damage. They also had two jet skis wash up on their beach from who knows where! They called the sheriff's department to report them but nobody has come to claim them (though they do have registration numbers on them) and the sheriff's department hasn't had a chance to come get them either. So my FIL and his neighbor pulled them up onto the beach and just left them there. I wonder how long we have to wait until I can say we've got some free jet skis...
 
It's been yet another hot miserable summer for most of the country with great disparities in precipitation. Either to wet or too dry. In fact every state was near or at the record in one or both of the measurements: Too hot, too wet or too dry. The big surprise. One of the wettest summers on record for Arizona.

Statewide Temperature Ranks 2021-Summer.jpg


Statewide Precipitation Ranks 2021-Summer.png
 
The temps here have been pretty pleasant over the past week for this time of year but it has been so rainy and drizzly. Combine the constant rain with the slightly warmer than average temps and things are soooo humid. We don't have a dehumidifier (we generally don't really need one here) so I've resorted to turning on the ac for about 40 minutes each evening to help circulate things a little bit more and take some of the dampness out of the air.

If it were about 20º cooler, I could light the fireplaces for a bit each morning and evening to do that. Oh well, it could definitely be worse this time of year and the extra moisture and warm temps have my lawn looking spectacular!

Some of the lawns in our neighborhood look like a mushroom farm right now.
 
Another weekend in the 80's on tap. Which means highs in the 40's are just around the corner.
 
There's a big cross country invitational across the street from our house tomorrow. Looks like there's only a 20% chance of rain. Wonder if Junior wants to set up a concessions table in our driveway like he did when he was in elementary school? Back then he had the Cute Kid thing going on and managed to make over $300 selling cookies, cider, donuts, coffee, bottled water, and rice Krispy treats the last time he did it.
 
The sun is out! First time I've seen the sun all week.

I was afraid we'd already started out terminally grey fall/winter season. Hopefully we get some sun for a few days now as I'm taking the Girl Scout troop to an archery lesson tomorrow and then my daughters to the zoo on Sunday for a Halloween event.
 
I took my daughters to the Halloween event at the zoo yesterday afternoon and the temps were in the uppers 70s and low 80s. It was by far the warmest Halloween at the zoo we've ever done. Looking at the 10-day forecast, it appears we're going to have the above average temps through this week and then daytime highs should be in the low 60s for a while... still pretty nice for this time of year.
 
All this unseasonable warm weather is delaying the turning of the leaves. We're maybe 15-20% now where I know in years past we've been almost 50% around this time.
 
One sign of Winter is when these roads close for the season:

Independent Pass, Colorado
Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn NP
Going to the Sun Road in Glacier NP

Another sign of Winter when the first of Colorado Ski Areas opens:

Wolf Creek
A- Basin
Keystone
 
Windy, cold and rainy here today.

Objectively, not most people's idea of pleasant weather.
 
I've actually shut off the AC and have the windows open full time. This is the first time since April. I'm not sure if my lungs can handle the fresh air.
 
There was a particular day I remember when I was going to Michigan State during the early 1990's. It was I think in January and the temperature got up to 73. That was freakish. Like 50 degrees above normal temps. I also remember seeing snow accumulation as a child in the 1970's during the month of May.
 
It was one of the hottest summers on record in much of the eastern U.S. and Midwest and one of the wettest. Hard to believe that it was one of the wettest for California as well, though it all seemed to come at once.

2021-10 Temperature Ranks.jpg
2021-10 Precipitation Ranks.jpg
 
It was one of the hottest summers on record in much of the eastern U.S. and Midwest and one of the wettest. Hard to believe that it was one of the wettest for California as well, though it all seemed to come at once.

View attachment 55440View attachment 55441

I wonder what those maps/numbers would look like broken down by county... Places like California and Texas are so large that it's entirely possible that extreme weather in certain parts of the states really drives the statewide averages.
 
I wonder what those maps/numbers would look like broken down by county... Places like California and Texas are so large that it's entirely possible that extreme weather in certain parts of the states really drives the statewide averages.
Well, this isn't broken down by county but it does give a more regional breakdown of the drought in Texas and other states.

Drought Monitor 2021-11-09.jpg
 
We've gotten small amounts of snow daily since the day after Thanksgiving. Enough to keep the ground barely white and then mostly melt by the evening. We got a couple inches of snow last night that actually left some icy roads this morning. Not enough snow to actually do any winter sports, but quite picturesque all the same.
 
We've gotten small amounts of snow daily since the day after Thanksgiving. Enough to keep the ground barely white and then mostly melt by the evening. We got a couple inches of snow last night that actually left some icy roads this morning. Not enough snow to actually do any winter sports, but quite picturesque all the same.
The afternoon high temperatures for the next few days in the ATL will be in the high 60s/low 70s.

winner-win-meme.jpg
 
Wow, it was 52 out at lunchtime. That's a good 15 degrees warmer than you'd expect for early December.
 
Snow flurries much of the late morning and early afternoon. I like flurries.
 
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