There have been and will be differences in the weather. We are living in a constantly moving atmosphere, some times the random conditions will cause a lot of rain in one place, at other times some where else.

This pattern has been going on for millions of years, and puny man has done little to change it. If man is affecting the weather it is a one small area of the globe upwind and down wind of cities which put a lot of heat in the atmosphere. There has been no long term global effects.

When you build a city in the desert, don't expect to have unlimited supplies of water. There is a reason the area was called a desert

Glacier have been coming and going for longer than there was man, the world goes on,

Even when our ego says we are responsible, we have no control. Only GOD controls what happens on the earth.

Mostly wet here since June 1. July a bit drier, but only locally – BWI airport was a bit below normal (0.5”) for July, but the other two airport reporting stations were wetter than average in July, too. August – the jury of course is out as it’s only the 4th.

This is in sharp contrast to May, when I was worried about developing drought.

"There have been and will be..."

Who knew that if you drank enough of the cool-aid, you'd get so drunk you no longer made any sense.

Subtropix, I think I am switching back and forth between those two "lands". We were unusually dry for the first part of the year, and are now unusually wet. Our weather, here in Tennessee, is now having greater shifts than were seen decades ago. Most winters have been way, way milder than they used to be, but there have been exceptions that wreaked havoc on the plant world here. We've had two winters, in the past decade or so, where a significant amount of both landscape and natural vegetation has been hurt or killed. It's not just low temperatures, but the timing of, or patterns of, the weather.

One thing that makes me feel better (or not as unlucky) is when I see those in areas of severe drought, etc. We've had a few noticeably unusually dry years (drought), but not like those in other areas. I guess for having it bad, we here in Tennessee have had it pretty good.

We are in the Have Not land at the moment here in the PNW but not so bad as further south of us. Dry winter (minimal mountain snowpack, which is what we rely on for filling reservoirs and summer water) and an unusually hot and dry summer is posing some consideration of water restrictions in our area. Even the permanent snowpack has melted off significantly this year with our record breaking heat. And the giant "blob" of overheated sea water off the coast plus the promise of another El Nino winter doesn't look very good for the coming season and next summer.

I don't relish losing a few plants to excessive drought but I am more concerned about the state of the habitat for our wildlife. Rivers and streams are so low and warm that fish are dying and the salmon are unable to make their spawning runs. And salmon has a big impact on the food chain. Not to mention massive toxic algae blooms in Puget Sound killing off shell fish and harming those creatures - otters, seals, etc. - that feed on them.

It's just not a good situation at all and there does not appear to be any clear cut end in sight.

Gardengal, why do you think t he simmering El Nino, is not "a good thing"?

Won't that bring much needed rain to the West? Granted, it may bring lots of flooding.

Of course, while the West has had the freakishly resilient ridge of high pressure, east of the Mississippi, been fairly wet with below normal temps in a lot of places (along with sporadic drought areas). No serious concerns here (yet), but frustrating for gardeners who depend on fairly regular rainfall. It's all or nothing these days!

This is what local meteorologist are reporting:

"SEATTLE – There's a 90 percent chance El Nino will continue through
this coming winter and an 80 percent chance it will extend to early
spring 2016, the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center
reported Thursday.

That means the likelihood of warmer than normal
temperatures for the Pacific Northwest. It also means less precipitation but not
necessarily less rainfall.

It could lead to another tough season for local ski areas. Some were
shut down for most of this past season due to lack of snowfall. However, we've seen past El Ninos which included a blast of snow
at the start and the end of the winter with a lull in the middle.

But
if the snowfall is as low as it was this year, it cause more problems
for the water supply in Washington. The state is under a drought
declaration because there isn't enough snowpack in the mountains to melt
and flow to the lowlands through the year.

El Nino could be a
blessing and a curse for drought-stricken California. It's expected to
receive more rain to replenish its watersheds. But it could also mean
catastrophic flooding and mudslides."

The bolded statement is the one of interest. It seem sort of contradictory but since 'precipitation' includes snow and the accumulated winter snowpack in the mountains is what gets us through the dry summers, it's not a great prediction. btw, last year was a an El Nino winter and it was warm and dry. Very mild temps, very modest rainfall and no snow to speak of.

Dry here, about 28 mm of rain in July, when we usually have about 80. It rained yesterday, but only a mm or two. Bad winter, very cold before we had snow and lost some things; sweet cherries, peaches, a chestnut, a white spruce. Lost a few grafts wintered in the porch too, even the porch was too cold. Still, the rain yesterday is welcome, and there may be more today, nice dark clouds.

My take on El Nino has always been that it can result in a very wet pattern in southern areas of the US west coast, so not PNW. Incidentally, that same weather feature usually means a "nothing" winter up here in the Western Great Lakes as well. I don't relish that thought after last winter's freakish low snowfall up here.

Speaking of which, we were super-dry all last winter, very dry spring, all the way through April and May, and then very wet for June/July. Now. we're as dry as can be again! Not a very helpful pattern for landscapes, farming and nature itself. Meanwhile, right around us are pockets which have been very wet. But here in NE Wisconsin, it's terribly dry right now-except for those pockets.

+oM

That rain that was advertised a few days ago for Friday is now a no go. At the next update of the National Drought Monitor, I think areas of concern will be spreading throughout the Northeast and Mid Atlantic. August can be a very wet month climatologically speaking, but I don't know about this year. And what gives with the tropics this year..., Atlantic seems dead for August. I know that's supposed to be related to the El Nino. Oh, Wisconsin, that southwestern storm track can result in some interesting weather on the East coast with California storms, morphing into Gulf Coast storms, morphing into nor'easters. Depending on temps..., could be rain or snow, but based on one year I remember with a notorious El Nino, the East was a rockin' an' a rollin'. Yes, last two winters were hideous. Do think this winter will be milder overall.

Sub, you are apparently to my east, no? The scenario you laid out for how El Nino can operate sounds right-on to me, and it is that very pattern which leaves us up here high and dry, literally. The up side I suppose is that temps tend to be "moderate" too for us in El Nino years, but that is a relative term. Moderate winter temps here would freeze the whiskers off of folks in other areas!

The pattern I just don't see much of any more is the one weather people used to call "Colorado Hookers", snowstorms which organize roughly speaking over the Colorado area and then hook northeasterly into our area. Just doesn't seem to happen anymore, and this was one of, if not the, primary snowmaker systems for us. Meanwhile, just to our south in Chicagoland, they just can't get two dry days in a row. I saw on your precip map what looked like a better situation than that which we actually experienced here. Wonder what's up with that. Then too, it is so variable. Here in roughly speaking the Green Bay area, storms repeatedly have fizzled out as they approached our area-all year long now! But areas to our west have been soaked repeatedly. I'd be happy if that moisture would just even itself out! I know, not asking for much, am I?

+oM

I'm about 200 miles west of +oM and we've had a splendid spring/summer. It did get hot and sticky recently, but I had the good fortune to be in the mountains of Colorado. It has cooled back down and we another gentle rain this morning. It seems we get a nice rain about every 3-4 days. This is about as good as it gets for the upper Midwest. My only fear is that with a warming climate, we'll become a magnet for those seeking our gentle weather. ;)

Not too gentle there for the Winters of 2013-14 and 2014-15 was it?!

My original posting was really about the weather, not climate. Regardless what you may feel about climate change, we are always going to have to deal with weather, and it does seem as though there is a greater frequency of weird weather in recent years. (Time will ultimately tell what climate change will look like for any given area; it may get weirder.) A few years ago, we had near record annual rainfall (80 inches). This year, after the second brutal winter, we turned dry (except for a moist June). Now it's August and it seems droughty again. Autumn is typically the driest season here. Thunderstorm precip is completely hit or miss; but they do seem oddly rarer than they used to be at this time of year. Spent the day mulching and watering bushes (the lawn fends for itself and I consider that a waste of water (even in a generally wet climate). Tomorrow planting more ground cover to keep down soil temps and help the soil moisture..., planting lots of hardy Opuntia cacti.

I was being facetious. I don't think we have to worry about being overrun with people seeking our mild weather anytime soon. Water? Well, that might be a different story

I was just going to say, people will be migrating to the upper midwest and the northeast for the water! But probably not the winters, especially a winter like this past one.

We had an abnormally hot and dry Spring in eastern Massachusetts, which I hated because plants budded and bloomed far too quickly, and my transplanting window was about 1 week long. But rain has been pretty normal this summer. A little dry at the moment, but that is not unusual at some point during mid-summer.