Need some rain here in the hills

tennmike

This August will go down as the driest on record here in East TN. So far this month, the total rainfall has been 0.020 inches. Two hundredths of an inch. It's dry; humidity today was 33%. No rain forecast for the next couple of weeks. Unless it rains soon, there won't be a fall cutting of hay, and corn and soybeans are not growing; farmers are hurting right now. Come on, rain!

Big Chief

Oh yeah, come to Texas..............cold front later in the week is forecast, temps will be under a 100 for the first time in months.

tennmike

Big Chief wrote: »

Oh yeah, come to Texas..............cold front later in the week is forecast, temps will be under a 100 for the first time in months.

Yeah. The four seasons in Texas are: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and The Two Weeks of Fall which are a lot like the other three. :punch: :tooth:

woodsrunner

We are 12-14 inches below normal also. Today, however, we did get a heavy thunderstorm that dumped 1.65 inches on us! Our temperatures have been sky high all summer, and since 1 June we've broken 16 record highs and some of these have stood for years. That our weather patterns are changing can't be denied, but I think-without anything to base this on-that it's more of a natural occurance than being man induced.

A big factor that's affecting those of us who farm or plant crops is the awefully high night time temperatures. This affects the growth cycle of most plants and has a very bad effect on soil temperatures. My soil at the 1 inch depth level has exceeded 110 degrees every day since early June. This has virtually shut down my okra and eggplant production. We always plant the first cycle of turnips for the market the first week of August. I did, and not a single seed sprouted due to the exceedingly high soil temperatures. I'm making plans now to put at least some of my raised beds under shade cloth just like we did with tobacco some years ago. It isn't easy being a Planter!

bml

Rich, your not alone when it comes to gardening pains. I've got healthy, vigorous tomatoes and pepper plants that are loaded with blooms, but I've been suffering from a low fruit set percentage because of the night time temps. Fortunately, the last 10 days have been a bit more reasonable as far as temps are concerned, so I've got a few hundred baby peppers and tomatoes.

NN

A lot of the cotton is hurting here.

tennmike

Rich, the jet stream has been a lot further south than it normally is in the summertime. This has made the rain patterns shift more to the north, and leaving us dry in the south, southwest, and midwest. Normally, the jet stream is further north in the summer, but this year it has sat smack in the middle of the country and won't move.

bullsi1911

I was in my hometown last weekend, and one of the people that collects the weather data for the San Antonio news said that the last time they got rain over a 1/4 inch was in October. Almost a YEAR without decent rain.

It's getting bad down here.

Michakav

I have not had the rain problems that you guys did, but in PA, the gardening season was moved up about 3-4 weeks. The last frost was in early April instead of May, and the way the night time temps have been, it looks like the first frost will be early also.

I still had a pretty good season though, but I am worried about my Dorset Naga's. They are just now setting LOADS of peppers, so I am probably going to have to tent them at night very shortly.