May Weather Thread

[Tyrone]

We'll I'm sitting right under the sub-tropical ridge at the moment which means unending high barometric pressure, clear skies, days in the low twenties C and nights around 5-7C for about a week. I can handle the day max's, but the lows being consistently single digits tends to slow things down. I now can't wait for the subtropical ridge to move just that little further north, which means it will be wet and cloudy, but the night temps will pick up a few degrees, and then we can get winter over and done with.

regards

Tyrone

[Walter John]

The Beatles white album, side 4, track 4.

Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

The kings of my garden, they're all whinging

Cause it's okay, for the queens

The queens and the parlour

They are laughing at the children of the kings

Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

The Dypsis of Pembana always smiling

And a growing to a "T"

The Stilts are having problems

Need a massage from the local birds and bees.

Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

10 mils of rain last night , followed by a very cold morning,

Still Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

[Exotic Life]

After a little cooling off this week and some needed rain.. because everything was dry and dust.. Tempeture's going to rise again this week... in the end of the week it's look like maybe we can get 25C again and it's still spring!

Passion flower loves the weather from the last two weeks...

Robbin

Edited May 18, 2008 by Exotic Life

[amazondk]

Keith,

That was a pretty good storm. Do you get tornados there? The rain continues here. But, there are signs that things are drying out a bit. At least the tempertures are still mild.

dk

[_Keith]

Keith,

That was a pretty good storm. Do you get tornados there? The rain continues here. But, there are signs that things are drying out a bit. At least the tempertures are still mild.

dk

Hey Don,

Good to hear from you.

Actually, yes we did get several tornados in neighboring communities 20 mi. to the north. We don't get the super nasty ones like the midwest gets, but they do a bit of damage non the less. Our first true warmth is heading in this week in the mid to upper 80s. This has been a really cool spring thus far, and dry. With the summer heat comes the Gulf Showers in the evenings. It will be very tropical like, heat, humidity, and regular rains, from now till late September.

Did you plant any more palms on your new property since the trip when you planted the Oil Palm.

Keith

[amazondk]

Keith,

We even get some small tornados here. They are not too common, but do happen. Weather conditions like those in North America real can not happen here due to the shape of South America, which limits the impact of cold fronts from Antarctica, and also the distance to get to the equator. There are some severe weather events further south, but nothing like the midwest. Yes I did get some palms in the ground. On mothers day weekend I planted 5 coconuts in a group. The oil palms are doing well. Speaking of oil palms I am looking at getting a community palm oil project going to compliment community forestry management in a federal settlement program here. This is not a project that would destroy the forest to plant palms. To the contrary it would help generate income for the settlers and help maintain the forest cover. While researching the subject I hit upon a company in Costa Rica, which used to be Chiquita Bananas there, which has some oil palm varieties with higher cold tolerence. You might want to check this out - Oil Palms . Check under products and services.

[Tampa Scott]

ITS RAINING ITS RAINING. I have not had rain since April 6 (2.16") DID I SAY IT WAS RAINING ? It is stopped (.04").

[bubba]

May 19,2008-Our rainy season has yet to start in normal fashion.We have had a cool,dry May until this weekend when the wind came out of the West and it was Hot and Dry.Strange.

[Josh]

I came across this data about the wet seasons for east central Florida. I noticed how in the thirties and fourties we had late arriving wetseasons occur more often. Which is similar to the 2000's. Maybe its just a cycle. Florida was hit by many hurricanes in the thirties and fourties too.

wet season data

Edited May 19, 2008 by Josh

[Tampa Scott]

I got a total of .21" after the rain was done for the day. The lake out back is now showing a beach line. The water line has been going down fast in the last 2 weeks.

[_Keith]

We turned in right around 4 inches over 2 days. Sure took the edge off, so much so that I can't plant right now in some places.

Where I have done no soil improvement, soils are too wet even after 3 days. Place where I added compost last year are just right. Amazing how a 2 to 4 inch layer of even rough compost, laid right on top of the soil with no digging in, can change soil structure so much after only a year with nothing else done.

[Josh]

We just received a little under a half inch of rain today. woo-hoo. The yard still looks like a pseudo-desert though

Edited May 20, 2008 by Josh

[Tyrone]

The Beatles white album, side 4, track 4.

Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

The kings of my garden, they're all whinging

Cause it's okay, for the queens

The queens and the parlour

They are laughing at the children of the kings

Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

The Dypsis of Pembana always smiling

And a growing to a "T"

The Stilts are having problems

Need a massage from the local birds and bees.

Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

10 mils of rain last night , followed by a very cold morning,

Still Dry baby dry

Make Licuala sigh

It's cold but it should be wetter

LOL. You should be a song writer Wal.

It sounds like we're having similar weather then. Luckily I don't have a stilt, because if I did, it would be falling off its stilts. My Dwarf malay appears to have started hibernating now.

We come out from under the high later in the week, with moister warmer nights and days still in the low twenties. Maybe my Dwarf Malay will come out of hibernation for a few more mm's of growth before winter totally stops it.

Best regards

Tyrone

[ruskinPalms]

Weather has been perfect the past week. Many little showers and heavier rains at times with highs in the mid 80s F and lows in the mid 70s F. All my palms better be growing now!

[SubTropicRay]

Bill, let's enjoy this while it lasts. So Fla is pretty dry right now.

[bubba]

We are getting hit by a Red Bomber that stretches from the Lake to the Ocean.Taking some severe incoming.

[_Keith]

We are getting hit by a Red Bomber that stretches from the Lake to the Ocean.Taking some severe incoming.

We have a whole squadron flying circles around our house right now, according to the radar, that is. Hoping for a little incoming, myself.

[bubba]

Keith,That incoming was wicked bolts followed by boom boom ..out go the lights.Very heavy rain.Enough to put out the muck fire burning in Lake Okeechobee.

[amazondk]

Things are starting to dry out a bit around here. When it doesn't rain the sun heats up real fast. I have to water my plants again.

dk

[_Keith]

Rains here were quite gentle, it rained off and on yesterday all day and into the night.

Looks like our first 90s may be on the way, if you believe weather.com, that is. Forecast are for 2 days at 90 and one at 92 during the next 7 days. It was overcast today, but the combo of heat and humidity was still pretty stifling. Dogdays are on the way.

[amazondk]

Keith,

I was interested in where Dog Days came from so I looked it up. The answer is:

The term "Dog Days" was used by the Greeks (see, e.g., Aristotle's Physics, 199a2), as well as the ancient Romans (who called these days caniculares dies (days of the dogs)) after Sirius (the "Dog Star"), the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun.

Popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" - Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true owing to precession of the equinoxes. The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that that star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

I did not know that it went back so far. I guess when you have nothing but summer, like I have here the Dogs day is nearly every day. Today is not too hot though as it is raining. The 80's F are actually cool for our location. The norm is low 90's for a large portion of the year. And, in reality the dogs do move pretty slow as the temperature rises above 90 F. Our real dog days are in August through till about the end of October when every day is between 95 F and 105 F. The night time temperatures though are pretty much the same year around.

dk

[_Keith]

Don,

That is interesting for sure. I tend to look up all kinds of things on the just out of curiousity too, and have been doing so for years. Sometimes, I am amazed at how unaware I was before the Internet.

In this area, we refer to the dog days as those with high humidity with highs in the 90s and most importantly, with NO WIND. During these times, which can last up to 3 months, we set into patterns where big thunderheads start to build around mid morning and by mid afternoon comes big rains. And some summers this happens day after day after day. I remember one year it was over 40 straight days. Of course the worse dogs days are the ones the days after a big rain with no wind. With the evaporation, when you open the door to the house to step outside it is quite literally like stepping into a sauna. The tropical plants love this weather and grow like they are on steroids.

I have a very open site here, many times I curse the wind, but there also those days when I pray for the slightest bit of a breeze, and many time I do get it. I get a lot of relief from the dogs days with those breezes that people with conventional back yards do not. To everything there is an upside and a downside.

[Exotic Life]

Average

Daytempeture: 18C/64.4F

Nighttempeture 9C/48.2F

I'm happy that the weather is since a couple years always warmer then average Here under the forecast for the next couple day's... Good periode again to come ...

Tuesday 26-05

Day: 24C/75.2F

Night: 14C/57.2F

Some clouds and Sun and dry

Wednesday 27-05

Day: 27C/80.6F

Night: 18C/64.4F

Sunny with blue sky's later that evening there is a change for some thunderstorms.

Thursday 28-05

Day: 25C/77F

Night: 12C/53.6C

Sun with blue sky's and dry

Friday 29-05

Day: 24C/75.2F

Night: 14C/57.2F

Some clouds with sun, but dry!

Palms love the weather.... May is gonna be one of the warmest months ever... it's coming now on a second or thirth place... maybe in the end of the week on number one?

Robbin

[SubTropicRay]

Dry conditions have taken a foothold here and are firmly entrenched. How likely is it to have two consecutive dry summers?

[Walter John]

It's raining cats and dogs here, Yoo Hoo.

[Cycadcenter]

Wal,

Looks like we're in for some good rain up at Childers too.

Raining there now and 40-80mm forecast for both Friday and Saturday.

Bruce

[eastern.nurseries]

Low forming off the coast tonight, it will move down to Fraser Is and drop the dogs and cats off here tomorrow.

[Tyrone]

A similar style low is going to form off the west coast too. Rain tonight and tomorrow.

regards

Tyrone

[_Keith]

I'd settle for at least dog or cats. Over here on the US Gulf Coast it will be sprinklers for at least another week. Man, I sure am tired of watering. Come on rains. I can handle the water bill, but the labor (me) is killing me.

[bubba]

Don, Great read.The "Dog Days" are here but a front temporarily cut our daily thunderstorms.In the Amazon,do you get the same pattern of early clear and heat with latter day thunderstorms?Is lightning as bad as in Florida?

[Wai`anae Steve]

NOt worried about the temp here in paradise, but 3 inches of rain this month is just feeding my weed problem. Here is the rain chart showing about average for May.

Rain in Wai`anae Steve's Hale. Well not in the Hale :-)