Glad it is raining there! Watching a hard rain is so much better than having to water every day. Let's hope you get all of the water needed.
Daniel

Do we start 'the ark' now, or wait awhile??

We've had a couple days of very nice rain and things look very lush! What a blessing
and it's ALMOST AUGUST!!!!

the radar map is amazing... almost no precipitation anywhere in the country except a single line of storms running all the way from Canada down to New Mexico. Never seen anything like it!

http://www.weather.com/outlook/driving/interstate/map/interactive/55447?from=tenDay_topnav_driving&animation=false

On the other hand, the rain is already past us here and I don't think we got over 1/4" total... oh, well... another day, another (illegal) watering.

(We're on on even/odd, no watering from 10 am to 5 pm regime... can't possibly get everything watered properly on that schedule - and I maintain it is unconstitutional or illegal or something, since it doesn't provide equal access to public water - the even people get fewer days during the ban than the odd...

yes... I am a curmudgeon!)

Are you saying you're not 'odd' Jim? LOL

I couldn't resist that one--you asked for it--okay! :o)))

Well, .55 inches total

YAY!

I think your "heavens" are upon us right now, 2 hours N-E! Thanks for leaving some for us! :)

Almost an inch here in Minnetonka.........funny - I am so close to Jim's house. The rain patterns this year have really been strange. Most of this summer it has been raining all around the Twin Cities leaving us high and dry.

Hutchinson got 3/4". What a relief. By the time it reaches 60 degrees I will be able to dig in my gardens and not get muddy. Things are so dry the trees suck every drop right up. Now if it would only do that again tonight!

The heavens really opened up in my part of Southern Indiana. We got 2" on Wed. and 5" on Thurs. That 5" is the most my rain gauge has measured in one day. We also had the coolest July in recorded weather history...not one day hit 90 degrees. Strange!

grrrr... our official weather station says we got only .10 of an inch... like a giant umbrella over us... Teresa got an inch just a couple miles away?!

back to the hoses...

I am so glad for you. Now, if only we could get some of that! Our forecast (Northern VA/D.C. area) is and has been "scattered showers and thunderstorms" for several days, but have we gotten any more than a few drops to settle the dust? Noooooo. The hoses are running and the meters are, too!!! We're thinking a second mortgage may be in order...

Idiothe,

We're in the hilly part of Golden Valley and it has been much the same for us, everywhere else gets at least a shower and we just see the clouds pass. I'm sure our neighborhood is on the minus 18" end of the precipitation deficit. We're on the North Shore now so I don't know how last night's rain was at our house. The NWS says 0.46" at Crystal Airport so I'm hoping it didn't pass north of us (again).

I just checked... our local weather station reported a total of .88 inches for the entire month of July... I've already got the hoses going, trying to capitalize on nature's scanty contribution...

Idiothe, you DO know that I would have 'ribbed' anyone who had posted the line
"the even people get fewer days during the ban than the odd...", right? ;O)

Just making sure no one would imagine I did that to you, for any other reason than 'fun'!!!
It's been a little, *tense* around here, lately, so I'm just making it clear I have no sinister
motive in teasing you--it was late at night, okay!! And I figured you could take it, being the
*good-humored guy*, I take you to be!! :o))

I get a little 'slap-happy' as the adrenalin kicks in, to keep me from falling face-down
on the keyboard that late at night!!!

I am always open to good-hearted ribbing... I think humor is the only thing that gets us through sometimes... Hey, I'm the guy who made the crack about not mowing or crushing puppies!

tease away... I've been married 40 years this month - I'm used to abuse!

LOL--I KNEW IT!!

My poor hubby has one up on you, though--41 years on the 10th! We BOTH have to have
a lot of good humor---it's helped us slide through the occasional *bumps* on the otherwise
'blissful' road of marital partnering!!!

In fact, I was just thinking about this element of our marriage the other day, after we were in a
rather *heated* reaction to a 'failure to communicate' more properly (really on both sides)!
One minute we were 'blame casting' (not pretty nor productive, I know--I don't recommend it)
and the next we were laughing! We've learned to temper the flare with an injection of levity!
Most of the time, it works!

I'm soo thankful for good humor!!! :o))

Oops, I think I've hi-jacked your thread, Melissa! Gulp!!!

White Bear Lake got .6"--which means I got 4 1/2 inches in less than a week. And my yard is reveling in "real" moisture. I'm not trying to brag here, I am just repeating what manyhosta said in that our rain has been so erratic this summer, and the West side of MPLS has really come up short. This is an aside, but I have a friend who is a master gardener, and she said that since hose watering is often a futile effort to really help plants. She says she strews handfuls of Epson Salts around which enables the plants to soak up the water better. Anyone ever hear of that? I've never tried it myself, but I know there's potassium in the salts, so it shouldn't hurt anyway. Mary

I have no idea about water absorption. I give Epsom salts solution to my clemmies as a foliar feed and scratch the salts into the soil in spring for the magnesium boost. It perks them up and they do love it. And, it's very cheap.

Reporting from Orono (just west of Wayzata)... 6/10's of an inch on Friday and a total of 2.4" for the month of July. Geez, Jim. You're only about 10 miles from us as the crow flies. Maybe we have to start making burnt offerings to the rain god. I have a few Undulata Albomarginatas we could toast. Lois

Well, the local weather station says we've had 2.4" in July... I don't believe it was that much!

But, we're about to get dumped on again. And sadly, I just checked the animated loop and it appears that once again, Jim, you missed it.

Lemme tell ya, there's a MAJOR light show happening outside right now!

I have no idea how much rain I got last nite but I was out weeding this morning and I have mud caked on the bottom of my shoes. Must have been quite a soaking!

I saw the lightning but no rain materialized at my house. We did get 0.51" Friday according to the neighbor's rain guage, for a July total of 1.1". Sigh.

3/4 of an inch Friday night near Hutchinson and 1 3/4 inches last night. Unfortunately last night's came with some hail. The trees protected my hostas for the most part, some hole punched leaves but certainly could have been worse. They got golf-ball size just a few miles west of me so I'll just be thankful for the rain. We got more over the weekend than we have during the entire spring and summer. Wish my apples and veggie garden fared as well as my hosta.

Last storm was only a trace for me, but over an inch so far today of steady light rain. We need it - feels cool like fall instead of August. Love to get a rain like this once a week thru fall.

Hail nailed me 2 weeks back so would love to see rain trigger a flush of leaves.

Paul

rained Hard all morning here in red wing...
YAAAAAY HAPPY RAIN DANCE!

Bless the rain on my sandy soil! No dragging hoses out tonite. I couldn't believe how cool it felt when I left work this afternoon. I heard sometime this weekend maybe 91 degrees and hot next week. Ouch.

I just checked a couple of electronic weather stations nearby, and we had somewhere around an inch as well.

YAAAAA HOOOOOOOO

A little over an inch in the Hutchinson area. Yeah! Happy Dance time. I've actually heard my sump pump run a couple of times.

Six tenths of an inch in my rain gauge in White Bear Lake. I'm happy with that! Yesterday the weather man stressed again that the Twin Cities are in a very serious drought, so every little bit helps! Mary

We got about an inch and a half of rain in the last 24 hours, much needed and much appreciated.

Right after my post last night, ANOTHER 1.9 inches fell!!!

We had about 2.2 inches in less than 24 hours.

We need it, but I sure hope it all sinks in!

Say, for anyone who'd like to find a "weather station" nearby (rather than just looking at your own rain gauge), check out: http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/ListStations.asp?selectedState=MN&selectedCountry=United+States

Not all stations report rainfall, but I have 3 within just a couple miles of me! It's great!

Here is a link that might be useful: Minnesota Weather Stations

Finally!! Yesterday morning my husband reported 1.1" in our rain gauge, and this morning, another 2.2". And the lightning was over the top. The hard rain knocked a lot of leaves out of the trees, and they were all yellow. I suppose the trees were stressed from the dry weather. I hope all the hostafolk around the Twin Cities had similar good fortune.

We got 3.5 inches through yesterday and early this morning in Apple Valley. That would be the heaviest rainfall in many years. Probably this century.

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH-we have had only a sprinkle-radar maps show all of you with even more rain this weekend. I have the sprinklers running again...wish we had an automatic underground system. Oh well. AND, it is supposed to be in the upper nineties tomorrow. I'm heading out to do all the work of the weekend today! DH has some digging to do, but he doesn't realize it yet-lol (me, not him!).

Not sure what I got here on the east side of Minnetonka. I put an empty dishpan out on my deck and it overflowed by 5:00am this morning. I could be one of those places in the Twin Cities that got 6"!!!!

Walking on my grass barefoot is like walking a a giant squishy wet sponge! There is standing water in some of my planters which I will have to dump. No complaints here.

Teresa,
There's a weather station in Minnetonka that reports a total of 2.91 inches. I'm guessing that you might have gotten some of that overflow is possibly from the roof.

At any rate, nearly 3" is SOOO great!

Let's hope that the water soaked in!

Oh, and it looks like the northern metro may be getting some more!

No Melissa - the dish pan was 18 feet away from the roof. no chance of overflow there. And the planters are 30 feet from the house. The neighbors sandbox (8" of sand) has standing water in it.

Ok, now you're just bragging...LOL

The air is still again and it clouding over. I hope it doesn't storm. I barely got 1/4" yesterday and today. Over by Isanti 2". Just not interested in dragging out hoses again.

Jodi

Is everyone ok out there in the Lake Minnetonka, Plymouth and White Bear Lake areas?

(Tonight's tornado reportedly passed just a mile north and west of us but we didn't even have a drop of rain nor a breeze.)

Same with us... photos and video of the funnel one mile north of us, but we were outside watching it pass... only light breezes and a few drops of rain... just a few miles away, 5 and 6 inches of rain, hail, and high winds. Lucky pass for us...

We were on the way home, so we missed the whole show. Our neighbors saw everything. The tornado funnel cut across Lakeview Golf Course, which is just across the bay from us. It shattered trees on the course and at a house directly across the bay from us. It then entered the bay, becoming a waterspout, and spewed lake water all over the houses. North Arm is only about 1,200 feet wide at our house, so the funnel was about an eighth of a mile from us, 600-700 feet. Incredibly lucky for us, the funnel veered a little north and did a lot of tree damage three houses to the north of us. We just had one medium-sized willow branch blown down at our place. There was no rain falling at the time of the funnel, and the sirens started wailing just after it passed our house. We were without power for about six hours and without cable/internet for 18 hours. Another lucky pass...

5 1/2 inches in the wee hours of Sat. morn in about a 3 hour period. I had to do some mopping up in my basement, I haven't quite figured out where it came in. When hubby gets home he gets to crawl around and see if he can figure it out. Only fair, since I got mop duty. But a small price to pay for finally getting some moisture, even if a lot of the last one ran off.

White Bear escaped the hail and tornado. We had a quick heavy rain that left us with 1/2 inch rain (2" for the weekend). That was one fast moving storm! I'm glad you guys Out West escaped the tornado damage--that was way too close for comfort. But to miss the rain was really sad what with all you went through. Sadly there is no rain forecast for about a week now. Mary

Glad everyone was lucky, even if you had to mop, hostaholic. No fun.

For us...still no rain. No fun.

Good soaking overnight - 2 1/2" - so nice to see garden and yard soils getting a bit looser.

Paul