Third friggin (can I say that word here, it's so appropriate!) lousy cold spring in a row! Normally, the outdoor garden centers begin to open at the end of the April, mmmmmm I doubt it this year! Are we again in for a delayed planting season, last year I had begun planting stuff out only into early June and then we went onto a crappy cool short summer ... oh, but at least we did not experience any earthquakes or tsunamis ... so, we can always look on the bright side of things, lol ... La Nina, she brings these crappy springs and unpredictable summers ... El Nino is the total opposite! The last strong El Nino was way back in 1998, that year we did not experience a spring, for on April 1 st. we went directly into summer, the Edmonton area recorded its last spring frost on April 16 th ... I had spotted the very first flush of leaves on the trees on April 10 th! That summer was hot and on the dry side, one of those freak summers that my watermelons and cantaloupes had turned out good ... I've since given up on growing that stuff and won't again until El Nino makes a strong return. SO READY TO MOVE TO A PLACE THAT ACTUALLY HAS A REAL GROWIING SEASON! It's depressing looking at photos from the warmer zones further south, green with envy, while we're still experiencing cabin fever. Maybe, I should have my greenthumbs surgically removed and then might not care so much about the weather, lol. Terrance

Supposed to get down to 46 here tonight. I'm not bringing anything in, not even the birds. They have a covered cage to go into. I know I should bring in the orchids, but I didn't find out about this until after dark, and I don't have any lights in the back. I'm not going out with a flashlight to bring in orchids. I don't have that many anyway, and they're all under the oak trees, so they should be safe. They survived 38 degree weather last year when I had to work until 11 p.m. and didn't get them in.

As is so often the case, the arctic air is going to come very close to us but it's too early to tell whether it will move over us or not, which of course is the difference between 10 degrees and 28 degrees. I am taking no chances - even if it doesn't materialize the potential for a serious arctic blast is there and I am going to spend all weekend getting everything ready. Here's the latest from the Seattle National Weather Service office. Showers will persist Friday night into Sat with colder air still working into the area. Both the GFS/NAM have trended lower on thicknesses by 12z Sat...1000-500mb below 5200m...1000-850mb below 1290m and 850 mb temperatures -8c Seattle northward. With pscz activity expected...things could get interesting Sat. Have lowered snow levels to near 1k feet...as low as I can go without introducing at least a mix of snow/rain in the lowland zones. However...this is not out of the question...especially north of Seattle if convergence activity gets going. Given this is still day 3...will hold off on mentioning any mix over The Lowlands as models often back off cold air. Long term...the extended continues to get more interesting with each run of the GFS and European model (ecmwf). Models develop a deep closed upper low over southern British Columbia with a high amplitude ridge at 150 west. This allows cold air from the Yukon to slip southward along the Canadian rockies. The both the GFS/European model (ecmwf) have trended colder with this airmass and now indicate a near 1050mb high sliding sliding southward. The main system of interest is a low that sneaks under the ridge and develops as it moves into either Washington or Oregon Sat night or sun. Depending on the exact track...its not out of the question that there could be a lowland snow event. The NAM-12 is going gangbusters with the low...deepening and tracking it into southern Washington sun...a near perfect trajectory for lowland snow. However...the GFS tracks the main low and moisture a little further south into central Oregon. The European model (ecmwf) is close the NAM-12/previous GFS runs that bring the low across southern Washington. Basically...the usual uncertainties exist as to weather the cold air and moisture will meet up perfectly. Not going to venture a guess at this point...but this system bears watching. Things do not get any less interesting after the possible Sunday system as very cold air remains banked up near the Canadian border. The GFS now drives a modified Arctic front southward into the the area Sun night/Monday with a closed upper low right over the area. Again...models like to do this in the extended and rarely pans out but the long wave pattern is favorable and things definitely are trending towards colder. For now...will keep with the highs in the upper 30s/near 40 early next week with lows near freezing...implying a threat of snow or mixed precipitation with the mention of showers.

kfrinkle, The latest rainfall projections for your area sure haven' gotten any better, and my part of Love County is straddling the line that divides the projected rainfall into the 3-6" category and the 6-9" category. Looks like the frogs are gonna be really happy and the gardeners much less so. Lisa, I imagine he is right. This year it seems like Norman floods at the drop of a hat. I imagine there will be lots of flash flooding and a lot of good old river flooding over the next few days. We had flash flooding overnight in part of our county (but not our part as most of that rain missed us too). Paula, It needs to be a big boat so it will carry a lot of potted tomatoes and peppers. All this rain has severely watered down the flavor of both tomatoes and plums. I suppose the tomatoes still taste better than grocery store tomatoes, but only just barely. Now that the peaches are breaking color and approaching the ripening stage, this big rainfall is going to come along and water down their flavor too. The rain hasn't hurt the quantity of produce we're harvesting but it sure has hurt the quality. As soon as they do the weather here on the noon news, it is back to the kitchen for me because I'm making plum jelly today. I probably should be outside building a plant ark and loading it up with 2 plants of each kind.... This morning, I heard on my county radio that a small amount of water (at that point, 1" deep) had just begun flowing across the Lake Murray spillway at Scenic Hwy 77. Hopefully that runoff from last night's very heavy rains north of us won't cause enough water to flow over the spillway that they have to close down the road. There's also a possibility that Lake Texoma may rise enough again to flow over the spillway again. The spillway is at 640 and the lake level currently is 637.70. It has taken it a couple of weeks to drop from the former high of 645.something and now it may go over the spillway for only the 5th time in its history. We weren't expecting the fifth time to occur so soon after the fourth time. We're expecting 3-6" in much of the area, with some areas getting 6-9". That much rain over a few days will fill up the lake quite a bit. It is funny. I thought it was mid-June and we were in the process of recovering from all the May rainfall. Suddenly, we're almost right back where we started, as if the two weeks of drying out never even happened. I feel sorry for anyone near the lake or river and especially folks downstream as they are about to have water damage and destruction all over again. On the bright side, all the rain made really nice-sized potatoes and lots of them which is wonderful since drought often causes smaller yields and smaller sized potatoes. Dawn