I hope things change for you soon. We had a mini dry spell from about July 1st-10th but since then it's been a gret pattern of heavey rains along with and followd by above average temps. I know it can be frustrating because even all of the wattering in the world isn't the same as rain. We got some heavy rains yesterday and one of by bottle palms newest frond opened right up. Now if we can get these lingering clouds out of here so we can hit 90 like they've told us we would the last 3 days. Good luck and hang in there.

Its been fustrating to have to water so often. With the heat and intense sun everything is baking dry and even the garden hose can only do so much. Some light showers have worked into the city, thank you Lord. There appears to be some heavy ones moving this way on radar, let's see if they make it. Most of the summer they just would dry out or move North or South of the city and metro area.

Its raining outside now, but nothing very heavy. I know there's some pouring rain to our south. Hopefully there will be some heavy rain mixed in with this light rain and give us some real precipitation! But it looks like Thunderstorms are predicted a lot throughout the week so that means lots of chances for rain (Hopefully they wont all miss us again and again!).

Been dry here too, waaaaay dry! Very little rain in my area for the summer - and some people are complaining about a few clouds... ;)

A bit of rain today--not that much though. I'm surprised that they don't lift us from a 'drought watch' to a 'warning'. I see those chances of thunderstorms in the extended but we've had sooo many hot and torrentially humid days and still we couldn't pop a single, normal, summer thunderstorm for weeks. Thunderstorms (at least in the summer) seem much less frequent than they used to be. They're predicting a strong hurricane season, but so far it seems pretty wimpy. This summer was weird, last summer was weird, every season in fact seems weirdly unpredictable now.

Yeah this hurricane season seems pretty weak so far which is a good thing for all the people vulnerable to them, but its disappointing that they forecasted it incorrectly. But I shouldnt say anything about the hurricane season yet since the worst of the season usually doesnt occur until mid-late august to late september. The summer has been pretty unusual and last summer was too. Fortunately at least this summer was a very warm one but there should have been a lot more rain especially with that major heat wave in July.
And I definitely agree that every season is getting very unpredictable. This past april had several days in the 90, march brought a very windy nor'easter that actually damaged homes, Feb and Jan brought constant snow storms and december was pretty mild with november being very mild (no freezes and no daytime high temperatures were at 50 and above every day for the entire month of November). That pretty much highlights late fall of last year to early spring of this year and every month was out of the ordinary. So far this August has been pretty typical except for the lack of a good pouring rain.

I can't even imagine having to water every day/other day-we
have been so fortunate here with plentiful rain and it's clear in the unbelievable growth this year!

May+7"
June+15"
July+7" and
+3" this month with more on the way tomorrow/night.

Good luck guys,maybe the upcoming pattern shift will change you fortunes,or at least your Fortunei's-

May 3.57"
June .62"
July 2.64"
August 1.06"

Not a very good spring and summer to say the least in central Virginia

Yesterday's rain was enough for the insects which makes the birds survive, but it was still dry under the trees when the sort-of-rain fell. Maybe we had .11-15 of a inch -tops.

I was warned not to wish for rain because once it starts here it keeps coming. Its down into the 80s now because we have a "marine flow" from the Ocean.

One reason rain clouds dry up as they appraoch the big cities, especially on hot days is because of the "thermal dome" over the city evaporates the clouds. This year's record warmth and lack to tropical waves of rain up the coast has left trees and bushes dying here in the city. Its sad to see.

We got one of those automated calls from the county calling for odd/even day watering, time restrictions, etc., I'll comply (though I think it doesn't really pertain to hand-held hoses--and I do NOT water my lawn anyway). I literally ripped out a part of my front lawn and replaced the grass with Opuntia cactus and mulch--they're doing great!

I have heard it said that thunderstorms will move up and under the NYC Metro Area "heat dome", but it also true that all the particle soot in the area helps to contribute to locally higher rainfall. Still, this Summer has seen very, very little area wide. It really looks though that the pattern is changing. Much more a south/south east ocean flow. It'll be HUMID, but only moderately warm (80's not 90's and 100's) and maybe even some flooding rains later in the week if you can believe it. What's weird is how quiet the tropics are. It was/is supposed to be a record bad season and I was reading yesterday that both the Atlantic and Pacific are actually abnormally quiet for this time of year. Time will tell. This affects us because September and October can be very dry months around here--unless tropical storms play a role.

PS., Greg, I can't even imagine how stressed out NYC trees are (bad enough in the suburbs!). I mean sooo much concrete right up to their trunks. It's a miracle anything can survive there. It always impressed me how gorgeous NYC's gingkoo trees look though despite the awful conditions.

Njoasis, Greg, TZ and everyone else up north,

I hope things change for you all up on the northside of the east coast...it seems like it's been forever since you had a good soaking rain. We have had a few good thunderstorms with even a sighting of a few tornados a few weeks ago here in VB. One was sighted down the street from me...how crazy is that?

Here's to the rain Gods for answering our prayers, as well as to the big guy up there as well!!! Please help out our friends up in the northeast... they really need your help...amen!!!

Take care everyone!!!

Laura in VB

It seems like the atmosphere is about to pop and change is in the air. The National Weather Service has a front stalling at/near the coast and trailing thunderstorms for days--that wannabe Gulf storm is also moving back (south) into the Gulf and may intensify, and this moisture too may come into play later in the week up the coast. Tomorrow, calling for a heat index of 98 F. with tropical downpours--we'll see we've been disappointed before. I was able to water today because it's an odd day (the 15th) and I'm odd--at least the stress address is. I don't know about a rain dance but I'm sure if I commence some outdoor project the heavens will open up.

Today was really bad because its just been cloudy all day. The sun hasnt peaked out once! I wouldnt mind a cloudy day if there was some rain, but not a drop today! Hopefully we do get some tropical downpours on Monday (with some sun too!).
Laura, a tornado right near you is unreal! Although they are so rare along the east coast, when they do touchdown, they always remind you to stay alert during thunderstorms! I clearly remember the strongest thunderstorms I have experienced. There probably at least 10 or so that I remember as being really strong.

Im probably going to have to water my plants today before the heat gets to them tomorrow, but hopefully the rain does come and helps us all out!

Good luck!

Yes they are calling for rain again, but so far the storms are shirting us once AGAIN. New Brunswick NJ has been getting a lot of action so at least its closer. I do pray it changes like meterologists keep predicting. But so far today is another dry day. You can even hear the thunder off shore.

Thanks for the nice prayer Laura. God hears and knows all things. In His time. Amen.

NJOasis, not sure if you've been getting some of the storms but we have stayed sooo dry. The city trees and bushes are honestly dying or showing real bad heat stress. As you see so far, no rain again.

Yeah the rain missed here too! It is very cloudy and humid out there so you know it was close, but nothing fell. Im amazed at close we were to getting soaked and didnt get anything at all! But there are a few storms in the area and although Im sure they will all somehow manage to miss us all, they will definitely be close! Fortunately everyone near me keeps their trees and lawns well watered so none of them look really bad, but some places near by have very bad looking trees. And my pool is losing a lot of water so we are definitely losing a lot more water than we are getting!
Good luck! I hope we all get a downpour soon!
-Alex

Thanks Alex. As you see in my new post - we got hit. At first it rumbled for hours and I kept saying "stop threatening and just rain!" It started with the big drops faster and faster and then eased up and I thought "Oh know". Then it started raining heavy until it reached a downpour, more crackling lightning and some downpours for an hour. Finally the ground received some water - I was getting concerned about the lack of water. My rain gauge read 1 inch. Did you get rain this time?

Still very, very dry here. Those storms that many of you reported were probably very localized. We need a steady, protracted rain event to restore the aquifers and reservoirs (locally and upstate NJ and NY). There are reports of rain coming, but many of these systems seem to have passed much further to the south lately (like NC). I am a big rain lover here--which is why California never had much appeal despite its palms.

Speaking of drought, I just received my Ravenala (Traveler's Palm).--Yes, I know it's not a palm but still a plenty cool plant. What does the Traveler's Palm have to do with drought you say? Well, it gets its name from its use. In Madagascar (its homeland), people would drink the volumes of fresh water that accumulate at the base of the leaves.--(Fell in love with them in Miami.)

I also love travelers palms!! One of my favorite plants even though they arent palms (related to birds of paradise very closely though). The largest ones are impossible not to notice. I wish they looked as nice in pots as they do in the ground but at least you can get a decent sized and nice looking plant.
Good luck!
-Alex

I got mine off of eBay for only $24.00 from a Hawaiian grower. The plant was big and healthy and arrived in EXCELLENT condition. By the way, Hawaii is in the middle of extreme drought conditions (worse than ours).

Im going to have to definitely look into that! Thanks for the source. I would love to see some pics when its all potted up. And Hawaii is definitely in a terrible drought. When I was there recently you could see the entire forest was dried up (the forecast wasnt very lush on that side of the island, it was kind of like a savannah. They said that the trees would become green again when it started to rain. The hotels didnt show any signs of drought and neither did any of the nearby streets because it was amazingly well maintained, but once you got past the hotel, a lot of the island was suffering from the drought. They also had a huge fire on the island of Maui which (If I remember correctly) was started by someone, but it took out a large portion of the savannah-like forest. At least we are getting some small amounts of rain here every once in a while. Some parts of hawaii arent even getting that (although there are parts of Hawaii that do get rain every single day even in this drought). Hawaii has such a diverse climate, but even though they are in the middle of the ocean, they seem to get droughts too!
Good luck!
-Alex

Yes, Hawaii has a extremely diverse range of climates--truly amazing! Honolulu is actually very arid with only about 22 inches of rain a year--considering its tropical heat, this is nothing. What's interesting is that it has a winter rainy season and summers are quite dry and sunny (opposite what you find in S. Florida and much of the Caribbean--or much of the subtropics for that matter where summer is the rainy season).Of course, the windward sides of the island can report precip values of over 400 inches a year! Amazing! P.S. It actually rained here today!!