We saw 1/10th inch a week ago Wednesday while further north at my old place got 1.5" and some areas as many as 8" around Brainerd area.

I watered trees a few days ago bc it was getting that dry.

But now it's starting to rain today with promises of 1 to 2 inches before tomorrow. Nice & steady starting now with a counter clockwise rotation, moving very slowly. Supposed to head out east by the weekend and join the low pressure moving up the eastern seaboard. A summer noreaster in the works possibly?

Yep, I hope the 'summer noreaster' pans out. Could help me get caught up in a big way: such system often have locally enhanced rainfall here because of all the very warm water due SSW of me. Some years I jokingly call it the 'upper Bay monsoon'. But as I've posted before, too much at once can be a problem as well.

"too much at once can be a problem as well"

There you go. I wanted to do some field work on my old place, already a couple of weeks ago. Field conditions have been too wet so far all season.

Finally yesterday, I knew with the predicted rain, it was now or never. Checked things out the day before and it looked fairly dry. Arose early and managed to work up the field and get it seeded by afternoon. Had to go around some low dips because the wheels started spinning and I was afraid of getting the tractor stuck. Not the most perfect job I've ever done but done all the same. :-)

We many times are crying for rain by this time of year.

Most of my lawn is scorched now and you can see the green weeds. Another 1-2 weeks and drought sets in. Some of that may make its way over tomorrow but not holding my breath.

This system came in last Friday with severe thunderstorm watches. The system was wider than the distance it was from my location.

It yielded 3/16"! I'm pretty sure Moses is camping out in my subdivision.

Summer precip in NJ has been decent, despite the record heat earlier in the month, but I see there is drought in New England (think this is the third year in a row for them). Seems like that should be ending with the upcoming East Coast rain event/events..., seems like there is rain forecast every day next week (with widespread amounts over 3 inches, and multiple flood advisories even NOW).

May be my imagination, but I think August is now MUCH more drought-ridden than I ever remember years ago.

I hope the people that need this rain, get it, without it getting to the point of excess water and severe wind damage.

jurasico, I've kept rain records since 1982, and August rainfall in the central Appalachians has decreased significantly, but May & June rainfall has increased. July rainfall has stayed about the same.

Same here but only the last few years. July has decreased as well.

July and August are historically the wettest months otherwise. Luckily October has consistently delivered much needed rainfall before we go into winter. Its tougher here as some areas have all fall and winter to recover from summer drought.

Here is last night's system. Less than 1/4" for this northeast tracking system. I put a stake in the ground in multiple spots and could only get through the top 2" of soil. One more year and things will be a bit more established for me!

Beng, glad you have your own data to back up my aging (but still accurate) memory..., LOL. I also see July rainfall as being much less reliable (and subject to EXTREMES of both drought and flooding). I also see the increase in late Spring rainfall and also Autumn rainfall seems heavier (October used to be the driest month locally). You're in the zone CURRENTLY set up for this round of tropical rains; Jersey and other more eastern sections have not seen the deluges (and it's points further northeast that are still running deficits (Maine, NH, Ma, even down to LI). This current line is supposed to move east by tomorrow so coastal areas will experience the heaviest of the rains by tomorrow. And I see that the National Weather Service is NOT calling for the Bermuda High to give up any time soon. After a brief retreat to the east, it will build back west. I think that is another thing to note about how weather patterns just get STUCK for days on end and this is more common than it used to be. The historical Middle Atlantic/Northeast Summer weather that I remember growing up was much more "progressive". You'd have stronger cold/dry fronts from Canada descending every every 4-5 days with warm (to even hot), dry days after frontal passage and humid, unstable weather gradually building up to the increasingly humid air mass. One more difference, I seem to remember many more "air-mass" (non-frontal) thunderstorms that would pop up suddenly in the afternoons and bring a healthy dose of rain and lightening but then rapid clearing..., these kinds of storms seem a thing of the past in my neck of the woods, thus dryness can really become entrenched when the weather does get stuck.

" I think that is another thing to note about how weather patterns just
get STUCK for days on end and this is more common than it used to be.
The historical Middle Atlantic/Northeast Summer weather that I
remember growing up was much more "progressive"."

Agree completely.

Anyhow, we are now having one of the wettest summer spells I can remember, that was not due to a storm of tropical origin.

jurasico, just curious, did you used to post as subtropix?

We ended up with 0.8" with that last Thursday 19th system I posted above and then Sunday evening another half of a tenth. So not near what they predicted but enough to keep things perking along just barely. Which is many times the case here.

So I watered the Hemlock Sunday afternoon using 15 gallons from the 50 gal rain barrel because they were predicting some rain. What we got didn't hardly replenish any compared to what I used from the barrel. A quarter of an inch will fill the barrel from empty to full with the 20 ft. of rain gutter over the deck and service door over the garage.

Mostly just watering potted flowers and a couple of beds at this time and if the barrel is low, I'll just use faucet water for the beds. I'm also getting about 1-1/2 gal water a day from my dehumidifier that runs in the basement so my potted trees and sometimes potted flowers get that.

Most of my trees have been in 2 years or more by now so not as worried about watering them this time of year, as long as it hasn't been dry enough, long enough to diminish the sub soil moisture. Once the new growth for the year stops, I water less.

Next predicted rain here is for Wednesday so Tuesday afternoon I'll be monitoring things and hitting the Hemlock again with another soaker from the barrel by then. That thing looks like it puts out new growth until the end of August. So I leave it to nature to supply any moisture after that.

If we are lucky we might get 0,5" of rain this weekend, if so that will be the first rain in July. It won't help my dieing trees but at least I will get some water in my rain barrel to water my most prized seedlings. In the meantime we have the most forestfires ever recorded, the warmest July by far since records started in the 1700s and the worst drught since at least 1947, probably much longer. So I also agree, weather patterns are staying much longer than they used to just ten years ago. Three month of virtually no rain is unheard of before around here.

I would say that I first noticed the weather getting STUCK back in the 90's in my area (NJ/Zone 7). Noticed first with Autumn and into Winter weather. Then, there was just the plethora or WEIRD weather (record, protracted cold, record snow, record protracted heat, drought, FLOODING, warm X-mas eves, seasons out of sync, hurricanes, etc..)

The growing issues with precipitation in the East (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast), will be more related to distribution (rather than annual totals). Here, we are getting as much or MORE rainfall than ever before annually, but it seems more erratic. (So ironically, you can still have an increasingly frequency of seasonal drought, even as annual precipitation is increasing.) Currently, in the surplus phase.

P.S., "Three month of virtually no rain is unheard of before around here."

Where is "around here?

Got about 10 inches of rain in the last 72 hours here in central PA with more coming. Major problems.

Tom Tasselmyer just pointed out this is now the 3rd wettest month of all time in Baltimore history...or at least since 1879! But the other two months had remnants of tropical storms. So this is the wettest month without storms of tropical origin.

Several more inches are forecast tomorrow!

Last time we had significant rainfall over a 3 day period was 7" back in 2010 when one of my daughters was born. For most areas that much rain is extremely detrimental.

Sadly I dream of 10"+ of rain as its impossible to have flooding in my area.

We got nearly 2/10 ths inches early this AM with some thunder. The half full rain barrel is completely full again but this is not a deep watering by any definition of the word. Everything is sucking water this time of year so it dries up fast. I don't keep records.

Jalcon, hope things aren't getting too bad there. We don't know what flooding is. Might be some water up on the road, something like that or the fields might be too wet to cultivate. House flooding is uncommon in my area, unless you built near a river or flood plain area.

Now over 15" rain in July for BWI airport (just south of Baltimore, Maryland).

We're lucky to get 28" all season long! This average weather map is all too familiar. But what makes a difference here isn't just the amount of precip. it's when it comes and what type of weather we have in between. Hot & windy or cooler and partly cloudy. The lakes and streams are above normal because of the extra rain we're getting this time of year, but if you don't live by a lake or have land by a river, you hardly notice. Right in town we can get a 4" rain and the next day, by looking, you can hardly tell.

P.S., "Three month of virtually no rain is unheard of before around here."

Where is "around here?

Southern Scandinavia, which is supposed to have a wet and cool oceanic climate, much like Scotland.

Huggorm, northern latitudes are PREDICTED to get MORE precipitation in the long run..., on a ANNUAL basis that is. But who really knows ?!

Locally (New Jersey/40 degree N.), we have been locked in a very tropical/oppressive airmass for about a week now. Dew points are in the mid 70's with torrential downpours at any time.

They are calling for rainfall tonight at the rate of one inch per hour and up to 4 inches of additional rainfall in the overnight. Every day for the next week and beyond calls for mostly overcast skies, temps into the 80's, super high dew points and sporadic rains (occasionally torrential), with high minimum temps (mid 70's). This is like Sumatra in the monsoon season! I guess if I want to see the sun again, I should visit Southern Scandinavia!

58d and cloudy. Feels like Fall. Light intermitent mist, not wetting much at all. Friday pm is next forecasted rainfall.

Here is a thoughtful and informative article about the current situation at Kew:

https://www.kew.org/blogs/in-the-gardens/wateror-the-lack-of-it

On a positive note, the ancient Pinus pinea looks at home with that brown grass!

Thanks for that article! I knew I wasn't the first to use a rain barrel. :-)

Too bad the lake is saline.

Sounds like the 'main water' is basically run through a softener. But I don't think using water with sodium to water trees is good but maybe they have something else figured out on their osmosis system.

Just starting to think about watering during what is usually our hot dry season in late July and August. I had just emptied the last of the rain barrel the other day on the Hemlock and Sugar maple (my two most chlorine sensitive trees). And have watered the other trees with city water. We've only had a couple of light rains this last two weeks amounting to a tenth of an inch total. So it is getting considerably dry.

Starting raining again today with a good 3 tenths and more rain forecast tonight and tomorrow morning. Hope we get at least an inch or more to help carry us through. We'll probably need more before the end of the month but usually by September, things are starting to cool off and rains become more numerous. At least the barrel is full again as of 5 minutes ago. :-)

Not getting jacked like the folks out west but 2.5" over 60 days has been a real treat with all the new plants. Typical average is 7.5" for that time period. Some areas as little as 10-15 away have 3x what I've gotten. I'm at a higher elevation so I can see it raining elsewhere!

Last August and September yielded 1.25". I'll throw in the towel if that happens this year.

whaas, We're usually always short on moisture for second half of July into first have of Sept. We have our extreme sun & heat during this time and 2-3" is the total average for each month.

We really need at least an inch a week on our sandy soil (totals should be at least 8" for that 2 month period). So even on a good year, we're usually a little short and some years the totals for this period are near zero and you're watering every other day or two.

Getting things established is the important part but I never thought it would be this difficult starting out where absolutely no shade is available. I'm depending on these 'better than average' years and some irrigation to get me through on this new place.

You just moved there a year or two ago, right? How's things looking so far? Good soil?

Bought the lot in 2015 and planted some things in the back corner that fall. Moved in coming up on 2 years.

When I originally looked at the lot I thought....this is going to be some nice soil! I was already familiar with the area where its mostly mesic soil with oaks, hickories and sugar maples.

Dense 60' Lindens at the back and fairly flat.

To my dismay the back corner shown above and beyond my property is this:

Dodge Silt Loam - Well Drain Silty Soil

Well drained silty soil. High available water
capacity. This soil is not hydric. The maximum
allowable erosion rate is 5 tons/acre/year. Not
highly erodible. Prime farmland.

There is literally 9' corn back there in the picture.

The majority of my lot:

Casco Loam - Well Drain Loam over sand

Well drained loamy over sandy soil. Low
available water capacity (NO!) This soil is not hydric.
The maximum allowable erosion rate is 3
tons/acre/year. Potentially highly erodible. Not
prime farmland.

There is only one other soil class that dries out faster than mine in the county. The one soil I don't miss is clay. When that dries out during drought only a slow soaker will reverse the effects.

It less about actual precip and more about your actual soil structure and biology than anything

Did you end up getting a nice rain? I saw some going through but it might have been east of you.

Much hotter than forecasted this weekend.

94 yesterday. 90 right now with full sun and 20 mph sustained winds.

That 2/10ths over the last 2 weeks won't get me too far with the extended rain forecast. Crossing fingers for tomorrow.

Ended up with nothing after the 3/10ths rain on Friday. Maybe a little mist on Sat.

Ten day forecast doesn't look good either, Sunny & hot.

They did get more than me further east on Saturday, some got inches.

Be typical for me going dry now this time of year.

Even an inch wouldn't have lasted long so we depend on rains coming frequently.

Good part is, the new growth has ended and most things are hardening off now so watering is less critical but don't want things to get bone dry either. Some maples still trying to grow but you can notice the bark thickening up on most trees with branch wounds closing up.

I'll water Hydrangeas, flowers and new trees/shrubs the rest of the season but not in the amounts like early season. The flowers start backing off in blooms anyways by Sept.

I added another faucet to the front of the house this spring so I have a lot less 'hose dragging' to do than previous years. :-))

There's always that 'chance of an isolated thunderstorm' and once in a great while it happens and without being forecast. An inch of rain in a hour is not unheard of.

I'm glad we're not coming out of a recent severe drought with a 'catch up' of moisture levels in front of us. And we have good amount of new growth already, so now it will be just getting things through the next month or so. At least a 'yard size' project like I have is not extremely hard to take care of.

Our first frost is usually the middle of Sept. (end of growing season).

Hopefully our fall rains will start by then and maybe a TS or two before then. :-)

Getting dry, grass going dormant. Watering the trees has begun. Chance of rain on Tuesday AM. If we don't get meaningful rain soon and it stays hot, the next few weeks can't go by fast enough.

We're going to have to pack our rain barrells and hoses to head off to CA soon!

Yeah this summer blew. Summer is very dry yet very humid so many leaf diseases are causing premature defoliation plus widespread rust disease in the lawn. Thats a real treat with dogs and kids.

More 90+ degree days than typical. Borers tearing up trees. Japanese beetles are still flipping eating trees leaves. Didn't they get the memo that its almost mid August? Just trying to help mother nature here and she punches me in the face.

Ah what the hell, there is always next year!

" Ah what the hell, there is always next year! "

You sound like a farmer! lol

Our grass turned brown overnight. I dug out the sod for a new tree planting and soil is dry over a foot down and will be two feet if the forecast is correct and it's near 90 for the next week and windy too.

Been watering a tree or two a day in a rotation. Still waiting for an unexpected TS to bloom up but with 'dog days of summer' here the cold fronts aren't very strong so no cloud lift.

Bill, don't let your hemlock dry out.....

Rain continues here non-stop. Nearby corn fields are half bare because seeds were washed out or drowned earlier.

Well, seems like someone is sharing their rain now, it finally turned over after more than three month of drought. But it came with a storm and I lost eight large trees yesterday. Hate when storms come in summer when the trees have leaves catching the wind

Jurasico,

Turning hot but not TOO dry might be a good thing. Because all of my BLEs that pushed out new mid-summer growth are going to need to harden it before winter.

Agree about the AC. I don't think this has been the hottest recent summer by any stretch (Baltimore's Dean of Weather Tom Tasselmyer pointed out that was 2010) but it IS the most humid summer I can remember. Even during the dry spell, it was humid because of how wet it had been in May. Also the WORST year for lawn weeds I can remember. My lawn was almost 100% weeds in 2006, I have been getting control of it since then. It's like the heavy rains of May washed a lot of weed seeds out of the ground. Areas where I hadn't seen crab grass in 3-4 years, are now full of it again. Infuriating! But I had some old quinclorac that was probably expiring anyhow...using it up this year.

Our dry spells usually end up with a TS too, not necessarily severe but can be, usually scattered. Many times after the first hard frost in mid Sept. the rains begin again.

Hemlock gets watered every fourth day, 15+ gallons. I'll fill the rain barrel with garden hose when no rain. Let it warm and disperse the chlorine. Still no rain in 10 day forecast.

Randomly came into my feed as I was watching weather for a shipment.....Billings, MT is at 104 degrees today. They average 0.79" of rain for August. Here we are complaining about too much rain or too little rain lol

Some of us don't even know what dry really is!

I have to turn on my A/C at least overnight not so much to cool the temp but to lower the humidity in the house to keep the inside from getting mold & mildew. 36.5" (927 mm for Huggorm) of rain here since the first of April.

Sounds fantastic. I've been waiting over a decade to get a summer like that!

Yes humidity is so thick the windows make it look like its rained outside in the morning

Running three hoses right now. Well pump kicks on every 5 minutes to keep up.

I miss the sand point and extra pump I had in the outbuilding on my old place. Used just for watering in the yard plants and garden.

Our nights have been in the high 50's to mid 60's so we've been able to open windows and have the ceiling fan on. There's been heavy dew in the mornings which everything that grows in the yard likes. Literally drips off the leaves and into the ground.

I try to water towards evening so the plants have time using the water before the mid day heat arrives.

Takes me 16 hours to water so I can't do it at night!

"Takes me 16 hours to water so I can't do it at night!"

That would be a long time even during the day!

I think I would be inclined to add a built in irrigation system if that were the case.

Or at least some sprinkler heads I could just move around and go do something else.

I just need to get through year 3 or so. I only do this 1x a week for this year's plantings if I don't get any rain. I'm usually outside for 30 minutes on 1.5 hour intervals.

I'm a tree nut so its my own fault!

Not as bad as it sounded. :-)

I'll do 5 trees in the front yard at one time, maybe an hour or two.

Back yard more flexible. I don't worry doing pines, they can take it. The rest on an as needed basis, once or twice a week. Exception is Tsuga, 3rd or 4th day depending on drought duration and intensity. I'll be in 3rd year for most everything next year.

Came in with a good 4/10ths of an inch of thunder/rain this morning.

I had just watered all the trees in the last day or two so it was very helpful.

I figured out the formula for diameter of my mulch circles, and how high a gallon of water will fill that circle.

10 gallons on a 4 ft mulch circle is the equates to approx. 1.3" deep of water.

So by using my 2 gal. watering cans, or 5 gallon pails, I can know exactly how many gallons I put on each tree and how many 'inches of rain' it's equivalent to. I think that makes my watering more efficient so I don't waste water and I know exactly how much each tree is getting.

We need about an inch of rain here weekly to keep plants happy. Some trees like a little more.

Even though 4/10th won't last long, at least I can keep track of what gets the right amount of water and how often.

I need to find some type of short distance low profile sprinkler. Almost to emulate a sprinkler can moving around within the call it 4-5' circle. Any ideas?

I was in shock and awe when my rain gauge hit 1" today. Its as if these mini fireworks went off in the rain gauge and the trees starting doing the shimmy.

My two favorite spray heads:

Fan Sprayer with spike:

You can stick the spike into the ground and leave the nozzle at a low angle.

This will cover a 4' wide, 5' long area around the tree with fairly high volume, low pressure.

Works good for a mulched area that absorbs water fairly quickly.

This next one I modify the 'Shower' part by running a 0.030" dia. drill bit into the existing small spray holes so you get more volume and less pressure. They used to sell one that was that way out of the box but the new ones are too fine of a spray with too much pressure.

Modified spray head:

I use this when I don't mind standing out doing trees or flower beds. Puts out water fast so I end up going over everything once, until percolation won't keep up, then go over a second time or even third time to thoroughly soak everything.

8/10" came slow and steady, yesterday afternoon and through the night. We really needed it.

The grass is completely dormant and I had emptied the rain barrel Saturday on the water loving trees.