Newsletter chitchat - September 24, 2024

[Cassel]

It might sound like a repetitive topic but with seasonal changes, the weather is always something we can talk about.

How has your summer been? Was it the same or different than previous years?

How about fall so far? Does it look like it might be warmer, colder, or the same?

What does the Farmer's Almanach say?

Let's chat.

[Susan Ewart]

We've been having unusually warm weather this fall.  It should be down to zero at nights now, but its still 10 degrees (Celsius) and it's supposed to be 25-30 Celsius during the days this week and into October.  There is usually snow on the ground in October.  I was reading in a local paper that the almanac said Alberta was in for a "deep" freeze this winter.  As far as I'm concerned, any time water freezes...it's a "deep" freeze.  I hope the almanac is wrong.  Summer started slow with lots of rain.  I keep thinking Alberta and BC are switching weather patterns with each other because where I lived in BC it mostly rained and now they are getting 30 degree days (at the coast) which is very unusual.  They were really hot this year while we had the rain.  Alberta is known for cold winters and hot hot summers, but of course Alberta is also known for quite unpredictable weather and severe temperature changes in one day.  

[Cristina]

I think the warm weather lasts longer every year than it did years ago.

This spring's weather was wet; it rained a lot, which was good after years of little rain.   

Summer was good—not too hot—and we could enjoy being outdoors. Now, it's looking more like Fall: windy, rainy, sometimes with patches of sun, and 15°C (around 60F).

[Ann Seeber]

Our weather here in the Mid-Hudson Valley on the East Coast of the US has been similar to Cristina. I don't know where she's located though. One thing different this year is the fall colors are not coming in like previous years. We're almost at the end of September and Applefest is the first Sunday in October when the tourist deluge is at its peak. Our area is a tourist trap for "leaf-peepers," and they'll be disappointed if they come now. I do love the Fall colors and this year it's rather dull. Today, 9/25/2024, at 5am the temperature is 55F/14C and is projected to reach 67F/19C and be cloudy all day. We had a lot of rain on Monday and my outside cat, Batman, refused to leave my porch all day! 🐈

[Rene Marker]

Where I am is finally back to seasonal temperatures for the month of September. In the first 21 days of the month, 19 of them set new temp records. We had quite a few days in the high 80's and low 90's. That is August temps, not September. We've also had very little rain and went into drought declarations. My grass is brown but the weeds are as green as can be. The last time my neighbor mowed was my lawn was August 23rd. We did have about an inch of rain Monday night locally but some of the drought areas of Ohio didn't even get that. However, due to the tropical storm that is predicted to become a hurricane overnight we could have rain all weekend.

As for the foliage, there have been trees in town that were turning in late August. My neighbor's tree that I love to watch in the fall is already changing colors. Extremely early! Even the leaf pickup in my neighborhood is going to start in mid-October due to leaves possibly falling early. 

I started doing an October daily album of fall colors in Ohio several years ago. I took photos of the leaves changing throughout the month. My neighbor's tree was still green at the beginning of the month and had changed and was losing the leaves at the end of the month. Last year it was already half changed by the 1st. That could possibly happen again this year and it might not have any leaves by the end of the month. So much for documenting the changes throughout the month... However, I will be out of state for a week and could see fall foliage on my trip.

[Gerry Landreth]

It was another hot and humid weekend here. The AC went out, making it a bit more uncomfortable than usual. Having lived through long hurricane-related power outages in Miami, I learned to cope. The upside is that I had power and lots of fans. Fortunately, it was a faulty capacitor that was under warranty. When the repair guy explained what a capacitor does, I resisted telling him I knew what it did. After all, I've seen Back to the Future 1, 2, AND 3! 

[Corrie Kinkel]

Spring here was very wet and cold and the summer started much the same way, but august was fine and not too hot. September until now was warm, about 24 Celsius with the nights about 16 to 18. All in all very pleasant you only notice it is going darker in the evenings by the week. In a couple of days we will have the lights on at dinnertime. But the weather is now changing to rain and much cooler, about 15 C daytime and under 10 at night. We haven't much autumn colors yet, but a some trees drop their leaves because of the very wet conditions in spring.

Today there was an article in the newspaper about the Dutch vineyards which we have since 10 to 15 years. Due to the climate change it has become considerately warmer and it is now possible to produce decent wines over here. But not this year! Because the wet spring the grapes are small and there are fewer of them too. For some growers it will cost too much to pick and produce wine with no profit left. One of them said in the interview that this year the birds will have a feast. 

[Roni Hewitt]

Mother Nature hasn't gotten the memo where I live also, down in the most southern part of California, along the Salton Sea.  Our daytime temperatures are still around 117° but our nighttime temps are getting down to the mid 80's.  We've been in the hundreds since April.  I live in the very low desert at 238 feet below sea level so we expect hot temps but it would be really nice if it would start cooling down soon. I'm so looking forward to being able to finally opening my doors and windows to air out my house.

[Daniel Hess]

Here in Western Kentucky, we are fairly fortunate in that we experience all four seasons.  I've lived places where Winters are long and cold with alot of ice and snow and Summers are short and humid.  I've also lived in Alaska where nights can get as long as the winter LOL.  I have no complaints this year.  

[Susan Ewart]

On 9/25/2024 at 1:59 PM, Gerry Landreth said:

It was another hot and humid weekend here. The AC went out, making it a bit more uncomfortable than usual. Having lived through long hurricane-related power outages in Miami, I learned to cope. The upside is that I had power and lots of fans. Fortunately, it was a faulty capacitor that was under warranty. When the repair guy explained what a capacitor does, I resisted telling him I knew what it did. After all, I've seen Back to the Future 1, 2, AND 3! 

Ah yes, the "flux capacitor", need to pick one for my DeLorean.

[Susan Ewart]

On 9/25/2024 at 2:55 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

Spring here was very wet and cold and the summer started much the same way, but august was fine and not too hot. September until now was warm, about 24 Celsius with the nights about 16 to 18. All in all very pleasant you only notice it is going darker in the evenings by the week. In a couple of days we will have the lights on at dinnertime. But the weather is now changing to rain and much cooler, about 15 C daytime and under 10 at night. We haven't much autumn colors yet, but a some trees drop their leaves because of the very wet conditions in spring.

Today there was an article in the newspaper about the Dutch vineyards which we have since 10 to 15 years. Due to the climate change it has become considerately warmer and it is now possible to produce decent wines over here. But not this year! Because the wet spring the grapes are small and there are fewer of them too. For some growers it will cost too much to pick and produce wine with no profit left. One of them said in the interview that this year the birds will have a feast. 

I wonder if they can leave them on the vine and make ice wine?

[Doska St.]

Hello all,

here in the southwest of Germany, we had a wet spring, which I thought was good, because our roses enjoyed the early hot days of recent years, but not us. At our age, that really reduces our motivation to move around, we only do what is necessary. We are getting more and more Mediterranean temperatures here. We have to water our garden in hot summers with expensive drinking water, but this time, thanks to the rain, that only happened once. August was only a really hot and humid summer month and ended abruptly at the beginning of September, thank God. We were only able to use the terrace once this year, otherwise it was too windy and rainy or too hot again. (It faces south). The foresters reported that the groundwater was replenished again this year. Our small lawn didn't burn this year either. It's getting autumnal now, but we also have lovely, pleasantly warm sunny days in between - in German, called "Altweiber summer".

Here is a scrap from our rainy July 24

 

 

[Ann Seeber]

3 hours ago, Doska St. said:

Hello all,

here in the southwest of Germany, we had a wet spring, which I thought was good, because our roses enjoyed the early hot days of recent years, but not us. At our age, that really reduces our motivation to move around, we only do what is necessary. We are getting more and more Mediterranean temperatures here. We have to water our garden in hot summers with expensive drinking water, but this time, thanks to the rain, that only happened once. August was only a really hot and humid summer month and ended abruptly at the beginning of September, thank God. We were only able to use the terrace once this year, otherwise it was too windy and rainy or too hot again. (It faces south). The foresters reported that the groundwater was replenished again this year. Our small lawn didn't burn this year either. It's getting autumnal now, but we also have lovely, pleasantly warm sunny days in between - in German, called "Altweiber summer".

Here is a scrap from our rainy July 24

 

 

@Doska St. This is a very nice layout! I only have one question: what is that on the left side that seems to have some text?

[Corrie Kinkel]

12 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I wonder if they can leave them on the vine and make ice wine?

Probably not because, there are very few grapes and they are small and will not ripen any more. Maybe they can do a couple of bottles for their own use, but certainly not commercial.

[Corrie Kinkel]

5 hours ago, Doska St. said:

Hello all,

here in the southwest of Germany, we had a wet spring, which I thought was good, because our roses enjoyed the early hot days of recent years, but not us. At our age, that really reduces our motivation to move around, we only do what is necessary. We are getting more and more Mediterranean temperatures here. We have to water our garden in hot summers with expensive drinking water, but this time, thanks to the rain, that only happened once. August was only a really hot and humid summer month and ended abruptly at the beginning of September, thank God. We were only able to use the terrace once this year, otherwise it was too windy and rainy or too hot again. (It faces south). The foresters reported that the groundwater was replenished again this year. Our small lawn didn't burn this year either. It's getting autumnal now, but we also have lovely, pleasantly warm sunny days in between - in German, called "Altweiber summer".

Here is a scrap from our rainy July 24

 

 

Doska very nice layout and I can sympathize with you, we had very much the same summer as was the case in many parts of southwestern Europe.

[Rene Marker]

What a difference a few days and the remnants of a hurricane can make! My grass is a lot greener than it was due to the rain we've gotten in the last 36 hours. Rain is still forecast off and on throughout Monday. We are not out of drought conditions though, we didn't get enough rain for that.

The "eye" of the hurricane is settled over western Kentucky and the outer bands to the northeast are over southwestern Ohio sometimes coming as far north as me. I know it is not as bad as those who have suffered much worse in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, eastern Tennessee and North Carolina but southeastern Ohio had extremely high winds yesterday and a lot of power outages. Over 320,000 last night is down to around 200,000 today. A lot of power companies in Ohio actually sent units to FL to help (we had one go from my town), never expecting that there would be outages here from the storm! Most of the outages are because of trees coming down from the winds.

But, some areas in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee are actually cut off from the rest of the world. Roads have caved and floods have wiped out whole towns. The town of Ashville NC can only be reached by air, no roads are passable to get in or out. 

Mother Nature must have really been upset about something!

[Ann Seeber]

Just checked in with Jackie & Corey who now live just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. They had a lot of rain Thursday into Friday, but it has eased off now and she said they never lost power. They are very lucky! 🍀

[Rene Marker]

4 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Just checked in with Jackie & Corey who now live just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. They had a lot of rain Thursday into Friday, but it has eased off now and she said they never lost power. They are very lucky! 🍀

I just looked at the radar again and the "eye" is pretty much still sitting and spinning in the same area as this morning. After no rain earlier today, I'm at 90% chance for the rest of the day but it does seem to be light rains and not heavy downpours.