Well, we got our rain! Probably close to an inch over the last three days...perfect. Slow and steady.

Marcia, I was hearing great sighs of relief coming from my garden after the rain! No more gasping. Poor things! LOL

Hunnerbun, Thanks for the rain! No I'm not near Lynne Lake (not sure where that is?) I'm in Northeast BC between Fort St John and Fort Nelson. I bet there were fires all over in the last two weeks. I haven't heard of any damage to property up here except a gas plant got scorched.

Toots

Absoulutely no rain in sight here, and temperatures have been in the 30s. My rainbarrel went dry and we had to fill it from the pond. Craziness - we're turning into the prairies! :)

It seems my daily routine is to water the pots then turn on the sprinkler and water the flowers and grass. 35c/95f here today. They say if we don't get rain soon, it may be the driest June and July on record. Compare that to last year, when it came within half an inch of rain of being the wettest June and July on record. Oh well, can't really complain, we have all winter to do that.

Anyone in dry areas notice that the trees are getting sort of parched looking? It seems in addition to the brown lawns (where the weeds really stand out) there seems to be quite a few trees being attacked by aphids and some even are starting to develop yellow leaves. My cedar (dry spot against the house) and dwarf Alberta spruce both had spider mites, so I treated with insecticide and have been watering regularly. They say a stressed tree is more prone to bug and disease problems, so I'm trying to fight back by watering alot.

I think I am losing my pansies to the heat as well. I think that because they were planted in early June and already in bloom, they didn't have time to grow much of a root system so are more prone to drying out. I'll just keep watering regularly, hoping they return to their happy perky selves come fall.

Glen

It's been 3 weeks since we've seen rain after a very wet May and June. I didn't think it would ever dry up but sure enough - I was doing some digging yesterday (bye-bye floppy delphinium patch) and planted a shrub and yeah, it's pretty dry. The mulched areas still have moisture, though. We've been getting our share of the heat, it's 32C at the moment with blazing sun and a breeze. Good chance of showers tonight and cooler temps tomorrow. Hopefully some rain happens or my hoses will be going into overtime. After a couple of years of being pretty spoiled with lots of rain, I'm not looking forward to the task of watering.

Here in the "south" it's hot too! I watched it rain off and on nicely for two weeks of june after a very wet spring and got spoiled. all of a sudden, I go on vacation it hits 90f+ with 30+mph winds and my green lawn is brown and my poor mother is running around two houses (my brother left town at same time) trying to keep gardens alive! There's a reason she lives in an apt! Two days after I left, she hauled all my potteds in due to hail warnings! And then it didn't even rain, much less hail!

We do have cooler today (at least the clouds make me wishful think it is!) and a small chance of rain- likely maybe 1/10 an inch! Anyway, after this its WATER forever! Even my calendula are wilting and oh my poor ferns and beans!

OOPS! i do have one good thing to say-- Those two weeks were in Arkansas, where it was about 90 as well, but with humidity. Where I was visiting, the back patio has ceiling fans and the 5th wheels have AC! And the bugs eat us for all 3 meals!

OUCH ! ... the HEAT is crankin UP yet again! Sure is the reversal of the past two summers here in Alberta! Although, some places have been getting good soakings by the passing thunder storms, my area has seen as little as 1 1/2 inches of the wet stuff in the last six weeks! Darn, I should of planted watermelons this spring!

Terry

I wOuld like to know that too.... Today it was up to 29...WAAAY too hot for this gal. We are getting ready for our Communities in Bloom (judging day is the 31 July...) and as usuall, we have FIVE ppl who are actually out there working on the town. DH & I are getting up at 6am in the mornings so we can work befor it gets so VERY hot.... (BTW I am VERY new at this so I'm hoping I don't screw things up on here. If I DO, would somepne please let me know & straighten me out on it??? I'm not even sure I will know how to get back IN here.:(

Howdy flowers_grower, glad to have you join us! Where abouts in Alberta do you live?

It was a hotty today, +++++++++31C and tomorrow forecasted for +34C!!!

Sharon
Wainwright, AB

On my backyard thermometer it shows +35*C right now. Crazy hot.... but I'm loving it, especially when I remember the past two summers-that-weren't!

We are just hibernating in the kiddie(family) pool or our basement!

Ang

Yup, it hit 35C here today too. Of course this was the day we decided to haul in a bunch of rock for the new flowerbed............we must have rocks in our heads!lol

Yes, it was very hot here in Brandon today. I picked raspberries this afternoon in my bathing suit. As soon as I picked an area clean I turned the sprinkler that part of the garden, on the raspberries. When it was dead calm or the wind shifted slightly I would get sprinkled also. That was a wonderful way to pick the berries!

But since we have had hot and dry weather here, where we live, we have NO mosquitoes. None! It is wonderful! I can't remember the last time we had no mosquitoes this long into the summer.

Talking to someone who came and picked my 2 bushes of red currants tonight (they are going to make currant jelly with them) and they live about 15 miles north of us, have had a lot more rain this summer and have a lot of mosquitoes in their yard. They couldn't believe that they didn't get bitten once this evening while picking the red currants.

Brenda

Hi Crazy gardener, thnx for the welcome... Actually I see we are neighbours...I think you are from Wainwright??? I'm from Viking AB. Small world isn't it? it's hot again today.. Was talking to one of my daughters near Cold Lake... They have bee camping there for the past couple of weeks, just got home this afternoon... Boy do I wish I were there... I want a lake so bad I can FEEL that water, lol. Guess I'll have to make a cool tubbing fill the bill...:( Are you finding that your flowers (a lot of them) have bloomed & finished already, waaaaay befor they should have?? A lot of ppl around here are saying this, and I know our meadow rue SHOULD keep blooming till I thinik around the middle of August but it finished a couple of weeks ago. Just seems strange. My evening scented stolks are (some of them) nearly finished too. BTW What is this 'clipping' thing that I see at the top of ppl's posts??? (I'm still trying to figure out how to do things on here, wasn't sure I was even going to find any answers on here... I gather I must be doing something right, this time round;)
Valerie

LOL! I think you're doing fine Valerie! Howdy! When I signed on this spring the Test forum (you'll find it on the GW forum list)was pointed out to me to practice posting messages and pictures.

Pretty wide spread heat again, eh? I am literally dreading this. Sorry all you heat lovers, but I am one grouchy zombie when it gets like this! A cool bath feels so good on hot skin when you don't have a lake, definately some relief is in order. Me and the dogs have a date with the river (which feels like a bathtub these days its been so low and slow I guess) as soon as this laundry is done!

Thank gooodness we had some rain in between heat waves though. DH is out starting to cut our pathetic hay field as we speak. The rain came too late for it, sadly.

That reminds me Brenda! Maybe I'll take a pail with me to the river because the rasberries look great and there's a black current Bush there too calling my name. Maybe I can get enough to make some syrup or something! Too chicken to do it in my skimpies though! LOL!

Toots

Valerie, there is a Clippings thread in the FN conversation area, it explains what's it all about. Pretty cool feature that GW offers, I didn't like it at first, but I like it now ;)

Yes, you are a neighbor, a hop, skip and jump from me.

Sharon

Now that was a heat wave!! Since Sharon started this thread in June, we have had only a couple of days when it didn't get around 30 degrees or more. I was just sick of it already - I don't get holidays at the beach!! Well today we are having our first rainy day since early June - it's been raining steadily and we NEED it! Supposed to be 30 again tomorrow... sauna time... ooogh.

Happy you got some rain, Gil! I hear ya about being sick of the heat. Its really a shame to complain, but enough already, eh?! DH and I literally got sick the other day sitting on the tractors and we had hats on and I even have a partial cab on my tractor. Even felt gross the next morning.

Hope you get enough rain to soak things down :^) Do like Valerie and soak in a cool tub of water if you can't get to a beach!

Toots

Apparently, the temps are record breaking all over Canada.

We had a quick downpour of rain last evening, only lasted 15 minutes, but it was still good to smell that wonderful fresh smell in the earth. We're expecting rain again at midnight, this time I hope it stays for awhile and rains all day or better yet week ;)

I would just like to take one day off from watering my pots and containers. LOL

Sharon

Hi toots, and thnx. You are in zone 1b? Where abouts are you? I also love the lake but we just don't have any where I live now. Sonds like you farm or ranch?? Been there, done that. Was a good life at times, still parts of it I miss.
Our heat has been horrendous here too, but we did have a good storm once a day for the past few, cools things down for a while. We had about an inch today in about a 1 1/2 time span...it really came down. Which was a good thing, because my SIL & her Dh about 14 miles from us had quite a little prarie fire going this afternoon,started by lightening. Then another storm moved in & gave them a good wetting...there were 6 fire trucks there for a while. Somwhow where they live they missed the showers till this afternoon.

Valerie, I'm in NE BC sort of the northern edge of Peace River country. We raise some cows and DH works locally in the oil patch. I still love this more than 9-5 work and city life, but ask me in a few more years and I might have changed my mind!

We've had fires up here too, but enough rain between these heat waves to put them out. Hopefully they stay out!

Toots

Somebody turned up the furnace again!

It's hot here today and for the next few days!

How about you?

Make sure you drink your water and give your plants a drink too ;)

Sharon

Here is a link that might be useful: Wainwright Weather

Ditto for here, but we are keeping cool in the pool...

Ang
***move on over kids -- Mom's going in the pool too!***

Sheesh. I've been tempted to turn up the furnace myself the past few days - literally turn it up! It has been cool and rainy here, and only the mosquitoes are loving it. And we're not loving the mosquitoes. I finally got outside for a couple of hours this afternoon when the wind was strong enough to blow most of them away.

Marcia,
shivering

It's neat to view this thread again, reading the earlier stuff is like reliving last summer.

The past couple of days have been cool, with a strong NW wind. Today was a bit warmer, 21 or so, then it's suppose to be more seasonal for the next few days (our average high is 26c).

But overall the weather has been pretty decent, you can definitely notice the increase in growth in plants from week to week but unfortunately, the growth in the weeds as well.

Most notably, I started a banana plant (musa ensete) from seed this spring. A few weeks ago, I estimated that it's doubled in size from when I planted it, now it's starting to grow by leaps and bounds (they love moisture, heat, sun).

Glen

Ang that's a cool photo of your kids! Looks like alot of fun!

Glen, ahhhhhhhh, you noticed that this is an old thread ;)
Keep us posted on your Banana tree.

I shouldn't complain, I guess parts of BC are hitting the 40's! That's HOT!

Marica, I sure hope the faucet stops dripping and that you'll get some sunshine/heat soon, hey, but that will raise your humidity right up.

We were suppose to get rain this Monday, but that changed to another hot scorcher day!

Can I say the S*** word in July ;)

Sharon

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Sharon! The kids had fun "posing" for it too!

And NOOOOOO to the S*** word until December!!!!! LOL

They WERE talking about a "major storm" building for Sunday but it seems to have dissipated thankfully (***keeping fingers crossed that it stays this way***).

Ang
melting.... and wishing she could send this heat over to Marcia!

Absolutely not, Sharon!!!!!!! (Can someone direct me to the thread that we had on increasing font size and changing colours?)

Funny, though, I was just thinking how +30 and - 30 are almost, ALMOST, equally as intolerable. LOL

Shauna

I don't complain about heat because the alternative is January.... According to our forecast, the heat will reach us next Thursday. But, you know, the heat is always about a week away, it seems.

That thread is over in Conversations somewhere, Shauna. You have to put font size = inside of these things, and put a number in. I put 50. Then after, you put /font inside another set of . For the colour, you put font color = inside the . Just remember to spell colour without the u.

We have been having a heat wave for a bit. But today it is 37*C out with high humidity so they are saying it is like 44*C tempature. Some of my flower petals even look like they are melting. It is supposed to cool down to 25 and 27 on Wednesday and Thursday but be back up into the 30's again after that. Water...water...water.

Shelley

Furnace on here too. It was 36° this afternoon - no idea what the humidex was but it was HOT! Supposed to be like this for the next week or so with just a couple of breaks where it will go down to 25°.

I was praying for rain - got it. Prayed for the rain to stop - got it. Prayed for warmth - got it. Should i go out and buy a lottery ticket? LOL

Marcia, while you're at it, pick up a ticket for me too. You seem way luckier than I am!lol

Yup, it was 36C here yesterday and today's supposed to be the same except that the humidity is going higher, so the forecasted humidex temp for today is 51C. I've been in cooler saunas!

Eek! 51°! That's nuts. Even i would complain about that! LOL Only supposed to be 39° with the humidity today. Dh wanted to go and pick blueberries but i hope he gets that crazy notion out of his head!

Question: how come the mosquitoes are still so bad in this heat? >:(

LOL! I wanted to pick blueberries too, but last night I said screw that and bought a bag of frozen ones. It's pretty much the same here. Thank gawd I have air conditioning.

I was just outside setting up my sprinkler. There are construction dudes resurfacing the street outside my house and I almost sprayed one with the sprinkler and was just starting to apologize, when he jumped in it and said aaaaaah, thank you so much! LOL it was funny. I left it going on the sidewalk in case all the young tanned construction dudes want to wrestle in it or something HAHAHA sorry I had a Sharon cougar moment there for a sec. LOL!

Sounds like a lot more fun than berry picking! I could have used a sprinkler this morning, but i took a cool shower when we got home instead. I felt sorry for the dog. He has to come everywhere with us so dh left a bucket of water for him beside the truck, and it was hot!

LOL, couger moment, sounds like you're a couger in training girlfriend ;)

Right now it's a comfortable 21C, but it looks like were going into the furnance again this weekend! We are desperately needing RAIN! Can you wish that for me Marica, since your wishes are coming true ;)

Question: how come the mosquitoes are still so bad in this heat?
You need to get some dragonflies in your garden.

I've noticed the grasshoppers are coming out in full force now too.

Sharon

Mmm, hot construction dudes.

The past few days have been unbearably hot (35C) and abnormally humid (humidex around 45-50). Last night that culminated into a thunderstorm with about 10 minutes of heavy hail, about the size of marbles. Came straight down, though, without wind so little damage. I was panicking a bit, though, picturing everything shredded to bits. I wasn't home when it happened, and when I got home after dark I went out and inspected with a flashlight and was glad to see all is well. Landed up with about half an inch of rain, too.

Today is a pleasant 24 and it's starting to cloud over again. Lows tonight and tomorrow are predicted at 12 and 13. The plants can use a rest from the heat, and our house (no A/C) can stand to get a good cooling off to get ready for next week which is supposed to be hot again. Hopefully it won't be so humid, that's harder to take than the heat, I think.

It's just about unbearable here too and it's not as hot as some of you have had. The Humidex is about 40°. We have no AC either, but fortunately we have a nice cool basement.

Sharon, i don't know if i should pray for rain for you or not. You realize we got about 6 weeks of it here, eh? :>

Carman, Manitoba (roughly halfway between me & Laurie and Brenda) broke the all-time Humidex record for all of Canada today. The humidex was 53. That is NUTS! It was freeking HOT today. At work I spent 15 minutes outside loading the truck and it felt like I ran a marathon.

I think we should have the option to dial up what ever heat we want..it was +4 here this morning before 6am..bbbrrrrrr..with the fog it looked at September :-(..not that I would want +53 with the humidex..savona

Gotta love cougars in training : D. I have visions of a soft drink commercial running through my head, Gil. Anybody watching "Age of Love"?

Sharon, did you not get any of the rain on Monday night? We had a lot of it with a really ugly looking storm. From about 10 PM to 2 or 3 AM. Green - yes, green clouds formed and they were swirling in every direction. It blew our barbecue off the deck! And it's a pretty big barbecue. Fortunately, not too much damage and we didn't get the hail. Even more fortunate is that it wasn't a tornado. Edmontonians still watch those skies pretty warily - 20 years later. Even after the rain, though, our lawn still feels a bit dry and crunchy so it wasn't enough rain.

I actually had to put a fleece on tonight for a bit while I was outside. I just got a bit chilled. But it is a big relief from that hot, hot, humid stuff we've had over the past week. I think I can appreciate the heat just a bit better now that we've had some of this cooler air descend upon us.

Shauna

We'll probably freeze if it goes below 20°! LOL We had a pretty good storm early this morning and it has helped cool things off a bit. It's about 21° here now and feels quite fresh. Of course, the mosquitoes will be nice and fresh too now. We had a great hatch of dragonflies earlier but there aren't so many around now. Hopefully there'll be another hatch soon!

Savona, +4°! That is nuts. Weird, weird weather.

Well it took you long enough Marcia to send some of that precious rain over here on the west, kind of reminds me of the Canada Post, but thank you anyways, it is so much appreciated. HUGS!

We're suppose to get more rain tomorrow too! Whoooohoooo!

oh btw, everytime it rains I have this song in my head. LOL

Sharon

Here is a link that might be useful: Rain, rain, come again!

You're welcome! We got a bit of it here too, but not enough. Crazy, eh? Praying for rain one month, praying for it to quit raining the next, and then back to praying for rain. The trouble is, Sharon, your high will only be +12°! That's a tad chilly!

Forecast overnight tomorrow in Calgary? +3deg C. Brrrrr....

Crazy!! Let's hope they're wrong!

Marcia +12C will be a relief from the high 30's, the plants will appreciate the cool temps for a few days too.

Oh boy GC, hope Mr. F doesn't come to visit you so soon!

Sharon

Sharon, just heard this morning that there's heavy rain in your area. The rain dance must have worked, eh? :>

Darn tooting right Marcia, its coming down in buckets, everything is so lush and green again, but floppy ;(
Oh well, we really really need this good soaking.

Thanks for dancing for me ;)

Sharon

Ha, I have been doing the un-rain dance....and the un-storm dance...and well the un-frost dance. It seemed to have worked too.....the sun is out this morning. My poor plants have been flattened, blackened, have holes in the leaves. Poor things, but some of them are real troupers, and are still blooming. Who know the dahlias could handle so much?

I think we all need to dance more.....how bout the un-flop, unflatten dance. ;-)))

Good to hear you got some rain Sharon.

Sierra