We lucked into a big thunderstorm last Monday, so we haven't been as dry as some parts. Cooler temperatures will be very welcome. While the house has been bearable closed up, the cats aren't thrilled with the heat.

Not possible to be without air in this heat. Been in the mid to upper 90's for days now with dew points now in the 70's. It was only supposed to be 93 today, but then it shot up to 97 unexpectedly..., I think because the weather models are falling short because the ground is sooo dry, that is why I will be doing a rain dance tonight!

P.S., My cats are spoiled and used to air but they still wanna go out on the deck and lounge for some reason. Oh wait, just like me..., 'cabin fever'! Already have put off some gardening chores till the Fall.

Still in te '90s. Parts of Mass got rain last Friday and parts will get a fair anount Friday...but parts haven't gotten anything.

Not us. I'm in Western NY, and we're 7 inches below normal for rainfall. Not only that but my local weather anchor tweeted a map that shows we've now been upgraded to Severe Drought. It's really sad.

I'm really worried about our wells going dry.

Got 1.25" last night here.

there was a downpour here last night. Not sure how much, as lately IT ONLY RAINS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, but the rain yesterday was not as much as forecasted. Will check official stats later. There are more showers scheduled this weekend, but then it heats up again above normal. Still, we are better off than areas to the north or south (north Georgia and area), so not worried about fire. This is year two with a very similar pattern. In the year of Hurricane Irene, we had 80 inches of rain!

P.S., Lovemytrees, are you under any watering restrictions? Here, there is almost no reporting on the drought, no restrictions, no worry, no nothing., be happy, etc...

Only gardeners seem to GET IT for some reason!

In my area we aren't under any restrictions, because we all have wells. They can't legally (at least I don't think so) tell us how much water to use. If our well runs dry, then it's our wallet that's on the line, not theirs.

I woke up to a steady rain this morning. It rained for several hours. It wasn't a torrential downpour or anything, but it's better than anything we've had in months.

When I was at the grocery store super early this morning, while it was still raining, I was in line as the cashier was ringing up my stuff, and there was this little old lady ahead of me. She had been quite lively while we were waiting in line, but I thought she had already left, when I felt someone slug me HARD on the arm. I turned and looked and it was her, she smiled and said, we haven't gotten rain in months, and now it decides to rain during the fair?

So even during a drought some people will still complain about the rain. lol I hate to admit that my skinny little arm hurt for an hour afterwards. Even though she was about 75, she was a spry little punk!

So far, looks like a bit of drought relief south and west of NYC, but not so much north and east of it.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge2/RFC_Precip/

Hopefully this pans out for our Yankee (and southwestern!) friends:

http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/p168i.gif

Well, the weather seems to be shifting gears for me now, periods of rain, some moderate, some heavy, some light, over a prolonged period of time..., days, so looks like NJ is pulling out. LI and and points north and east may still be waiting a bit longer.

As usual, when there's too little rain somewhere, there's too much somewhere else. Which would be a statistically obvious thing _anyhow_ but it does seem to apply with seasonal rainfall patterns over the eastern 2/3 of the USA. Once storms start favoring one area, they seem to keep doing it. This year so many big storm systems that would normally cross upstate NY and New England seem to have diverted far to the south, south of the Mason-Dixon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-shmNbxAqs

I feel like we are completely caught up here - maybe a little beyond - and that's what this map of "last 90 day rainfall-departure from normal", shows. But to the south of me many areas are running above normal.

David, I get the feeling that we had a temporary respite, but will soon turn dry again. We had all those flood watches up, but most of the rain fell further west and south and much less along the coast (from NYC out east).

Yes, drought DOES feed on itself. August used to be the wettest month of the year here before the dry weather of September and OCTOBER (which is a gorgeous month but statistically the driest), then it typically picks up again in November. Of course, it depends on tropical storm activity too, but if August is dry, then we are going to be deepening drought in the Fall.

P.S., Isn't North Georgia and area still in drought too, south of you?

Yep there is an area of drought around north Georgia. cf: United States Drought Monitor > Home

At least there is finally some Atlantic tropical activity at the moment, even though it will dissipate over MX/TX/the SW before it gets anywhere east of the Mississippi.

subtropic, interesting. Since 1986 when I started recording in Blacksburg, VA, then since 2004 in west MD, August is a dry month. May, June & July the wettest & Sept wildly variable depending on tropical stuff. October is dry in both locations too.

beng it's interesting to compare June and August precip. August precip. in the east is best in locations near warm water; but I don't think it's entirely due to synoptic scale tropical systems like hurricanes. It seems like during dog days of heat and atmospheric instability, they just get more pop up storms the closer they are to hot water. I've already had my first "upper bay monsoon" storm, that popped up over Joppa, MD, and moved ENE into Cecil County.

Conversely in June, storms are still being triggered by frontal passages and MCC originating in the midwest...these stay away from the water. In coastal NJ, for example, August is wetter than June.

PRISM_ppt_30yr_normal_4kmM2_06.png (PNG Image, 900 × 639 pixels)

PRISM_ppt_30yr_normal_4kmM2_08.png (PNG Image, 900 × 639 pixels)

Thanks, david. Interesting to toggle the screen between those 2 months. August is definitely drier generally over the states. Also that the highest mountains in AZ & NM get more rain in Aug than I do (SW monsoon). If I get May, it shows it as the wettest month here -- this concurs w/my records.

If a more continental perspective is taken, then indeed August is the "wettest" month, in that by that timeframe, the atmosphere has had the time to become fully charged with moisture. I've seen numerous occasions of copious rainfall amounts during August, including one year-I shant give away my antiquity by naming that year-when being stationed up in the western U.P. of Michigan, doing a summer work-study thing with USFS-my last day on the job was preceded by a night of training thunderstorms, with 5 to 6 inches of rain falling across the entire region. This happened to follow an entire summer of heavy precip in that area, so flooding-even though the "soil" in such areas consists of sand and gravel with a few rocks thrown in for good measure-became widespread. This area is 100% forest, so it was amusing to see guys fishing in the ditches, etc. as all waterways were connected there for a while!

Interesting. Here in Maryland, August is the driest summer month by some margin.

Well, right...driest in your part of Maryland, but not at Ocean City. Or even much closer to me:

ABERDEEN PHILLIPS FLD, MARYLAND - Climate Summary

Interesting. It has to be something about the bay temperature and possibly influence from hurricanes, etc.

That average June snowfall of 0.9" seems a little...suspect...haha.

"That average June snowfall of 0.9" seems a little...suspect...haha."

LOL, I had never even looked at that row of data because it's not what I consider important on that chart.

That IS interesting, I would not have assumed there would be such big average differences in precipitation patterns over a relatively short distance. But like I said, while August is historically the wettest month for me (coastal NJ), the last few years have been droughty in August. And I can swear that garden variety pop up thunderstorms (that used to supply the majority of summer rainfall), have really decreased in frequency in July and August, even when the atmosphere seems juiced and ready (June is traditionally very dry here as David mentioned).

But there has been an increase in extreme rainfall events. Saw a report out the other day, that looked at extreme rain events in the USA. The BIGGEST increase was in the NORTHEAST quadrant of the country (I can post a link if you are interested.) Right now, moisture is okay and not worried about fire, and still a need to mow the grass so not too bad, and triple-digit heat has ended.

Here is the latest drought monitor. North of the Mason-Dixon line, it do seem to get dry fast. I note the continued drought in New England, California, Georgia and developing drought on the east coast of Florida along the length of the peninsula (in what should be the rainy season!). Though that SHOULD help with the Zika situation in Miami!

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

Here is link to an article about an unusual drought of hurricanes in the USA, Gulf, & Caribbean. (Which do contribute to East Coast and Southeast precipitation.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/08/04/the-u-s-coast-is-in-an-unprecedented-hurricane-drought-why-this-is-terrifying/

David, your link is interesting. The length-of-periods averaged are variable, so it's difficult to make comparisons, but look at "dry" Crisfield, MD for ex:

http://www.sercc.com/cgi-bin/sercc/cliMAIN.pl?md2215

My avg annual rain ~12 miles east of Cumberland is 40.80" for 12 yrs (more if I'd been recording here in soggy 2003), but the last couple decades have been a bit wetter than the dry 30s and late 50s thru the 60s (as a kid I remember the hot, dry summers w/scorched lawns), at least in west MD. Cumberland actually averaged around 40" yr (more than Hagerstown) in the first couple decades of the 1900s.

Oh, yeah, for the current US dewpoints, the below is good & even progresses thru a short period in time when you click the "play" button just below it:

http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/surface/charts/us-dewpoint

Yep, the people on the lower eastern shore have relatively cool (in spring) water to the NW, W AND SW, so the suppressive effect on mesoscale storms is very strong. I didn't realize it would be that strong though...less than 3 inches of rain for 3 months in a row! That's worse than many Shenandoah Valley locations. Crisfield seems one of the worse, this location is not as bad:

http://www.sercc.com/cgi-bin/sercc/cliMAIN.pl?va6475

New England predicted to get some major relief by the QPF. Let's hope it holds.

http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/p168i.gif

Yes, I see that too! Glad to hear Northeast will finally see widespread, significant RAIN from upstate NY, to New England, down to Long Island (especially critical) and in NJ. Humidity levels are off the charts already and saw a local forecast for dew points around 80 F.. Yesterday, I did do some yard work and house painting, this morning, I went out for the paper and came back as sweated up as if I had ran a marathon. Hopefully, no one will be complaining about flooding now.