The observations over 10 years

There are three primary areas where the rain develops during the summer.

If it comes from the south I have a high chance of getting rain. In general the rain doesn’t come from the south.

If it comes from the west it dives south. This is the most common occurrence. In fact it’s happening as I type.

If it comes from the northwest it breaks just as it comes in but then reforms east of me. Or its just a touchy I far north. This is the next most common occurrence.

For perspective many areas around me have had 3-5” of rain. I’m stuck at just over 1” from multiple rain falls.

The best answer is Cities. When we lived in Indianapolis, it was common to see a rain front come in from the west. As the front came into contact with the city, it would bow back and cup around the city. Most of the time once the front passed it would back fill. However there were times that the rain front would split an the areas east of the city would get no rain.

I have see the same thing happen where we live now but it is more complex as there is a long urban area from Greensboro, Burlington, Durham and Raleigh. When rain storms come from the north west they run along the northern edge of this urban area and hit the areas north of the city. I have seen an area north of that edge get, 2.5 inches of rain, and 9 miles south, get zero.

They keep screaming about things like CO2 changing the environment, but fail to recognize the significant affects of these large urban areas that collect heat and area several degrees higher that the farm and forested areas around them.

Of course the only way to reduce the effect/size of large urban areas is to reduce the population, and that is not feasible.

Remember reading a weather book and some university people somewhere in MI complained that an adjacent lake was a storm dump-hole (no Tstorms would ever make it across that lake). More serious, summer rain is a balance between what areas have updrafts and which don't -- updrafts are where the rain occurs, downdrafts supply the air to the updrafts. Water-vapor (molecular weight 18) is lighter than O2 (32) or N2 (28), so wetter areas with more moisture tend to be where the updrafts occur. So, the old saying -- rain begets rain (and dry areas stay dry). And since forests, even prairies evaporate about as much water vapor as an open lake (but cities don't evaporate water), and lakes tend to be cooler (less chance of updrafting), the above observations & replies are perhaps true. My 2 cents & certainly have seen this plenty of times over the decades.

This town which is considered quite small, has the same problem. Strong storms change direction, split or dissipate just before arrival. It takes a major weather system to deliver meaningful rainfall. In the land of 10,000 lakes, there are many lakes in the surrounding counties but none around this county, if that matters.

On the NE corner of Lake Ontario, the wind shear caused by lake breezes effectively dismantle any thunderstorm arriving from the WNW to N when they get to 7 miles of the lakeshore. It's worst in May-June-and early July when the lake is coldest. Also worst that time of year because most storms come from WNW to N. Once we get into warmer water temperatures in mid-July, the thunderstorms arriving from the WNW to N survive the lake breeze wind shear and we also get a number of storms arriving across the lake from the WSW to S.

Every year has at least one 3-4 week period w/o rain. Exceptionally, one year was 7 weeks from late June to early August.

I'm northwest of Milwaukee and the city tends to get more rain in the summer.

The only different I can find is that I'm higher elevation but so northeast of me that is also higher elevation. Its not much of different though - talkling 1050 vs 700.

Thanks for the comments thus far - interesting perspectives to look into.

Its curiosity at this point

What is your annual precipitation?

whaas, patterns can change. When I lived in southwest VA, for quite a few summers rain/Tstorms would always form to the south/southeast of where I lived, almost never hit my spot. One summer, things changed and instead storms formed over me and to the north, reversing things. And then that pattern lasted for several summers.

Where I'm at now in MD is similar to where I was in VA -- in the ridge/valley area of the Appalachians. One rule for summer rain (it has to be humid enough of course) is good chance of rain in the mountains when winds are calm/light with less chance in areas east and west of Appalachians, and when breezy, much less chance of rain in mountains with greater chance east and west of Appalachians.

These patterns can be maddening. But I have the same situation, I have watched radar loops for 15 years and know all too well what to expect, especially in summer.

After forecasts of 100% chance of heavy down pours on Saturday and not getting anything, the same forecast applies today. We are getting light rain as I post with amounts beginning to show in the bottom of the rain gauge but it's been hot & dry.

I beefed up my rain collection equipment that will catch 60 extra gals. from the overflow. So over 100 gal. total which carries me through several days after a rain of at least 6/10". :-)

Nice setup, Bill -- brother has a similar setup w/a small, portable electric pump & a hose connection to pump barrel water uphill to another barrel in his small greenhouse.

Thanks!

I've thought about something like that so don't give me any more ideas. ;-)

A manual fuel pump for drums are also available.

The plywood top rotates on the galvanized pipe so I can swing the top to the side and dip a 2 gallon pail or watering can pretty easily into the white drum. Good exercise.

FWIW: I ended up with less than one tenth inches. About 1/3 of the brown barrel full. Next chance of rain, Wednesday. We'll see. :-\

Ya know ben,

After getting at the last 15 gallons, you would only get half a pail or less each dip. I'll be looking into some sort of lower drain (with pump) after all. :-)

Well, after being forecast heavy rains with severe TS's, we got less than half of a tenth of an inch rainfall last night. The line of TS split with heavy rain going to the south of us and to the north, then redeveloping further east of us. I know, it's hard to believe anything like that could ever happen, right? Well it's been a common occurrence this year.

Anyways, when watering my new, smaller trees, I've been doing just the mulch rings. I know, I know, the roots want to go out further than that but this has been sort of a crisis situation where I have a lot to water and they keep forecasting rain so I keep thinking we're going to get a 'drought buster' any day now.

Most of the new growth coming on the trees has slowed, so it's more or less maintenance of the tree to worry about, which I think uses less water than the growth period does?

I've been using my trusty 2 gallon watering can for my small trees and also for some of the water loving trees, in between hose watering.

In my country we've always thought if we could get one inch of rain a week, during the hot part of the season, we could have a real 'barn buster' of a crop (1" of rain penetrates ~2 ft down in our 12" deep, sandy loam top soil with sandy sand sub soil) according to some field testing we've done. (The frequency of watering will vary with different soil types so adjust this information for your soil type).

The question came to mind, how much do I need to put on when hand watering to be the same as, say, one inch of rainfall?

Below is a diagram with some calculations on how many US gallons it takes on a certain diameter circle to equal 1" deep of water.

This has been quite helpful when I water to make sure I'm doing enough without over doing it.

A google search on the formula for volume of a cylinder includes the formula for liters and Imperial gallons, so you can look it up if you want or just convert the US gal to Imp gal. (btw: there's more US gallons in the tank than Imperial). ;-)

Drought breaker has arrived!! (Wadena lower left in picture).

Can't see the rain gauge but more rain behind the initial blast of wind, small hail and heavy rain.

eta: 1-1/4" in the gauge as of 10:45 pm 7/17/20 :-))

More rain predicted tomorrow afternoon.

It was beginning to get dry here, but got some good hits and 3.71 inches last 10 days. Hagerstown and Frederick, MD to the east missed out, tho. Pic of 7-16-20 rain alone:

Weekly US precip map below, click on map area to get regional spots. Monsoon starting in US desert southwest:

https://www.wunderground.com/maps/precipitation/weekly

Near 2" total in rain gauge this AM with Off & On showers during the night.

I'm always glad that some places are getting rain even if I'm not bc a wide spread drought is always worse overall than scattered local droughts.

It doesn't take too long for drought conditions to occur here and this rain was a nice, slow, soaking type, that doesn't run off to someplace else, like the 'Gully Washer' type that we sometimes get. Won't have to water at least for a few days anyways. :-)

Those 40mph gusts came though from that MN system but only some rain to the south in Milwaukee.

Snapshot @ 11pm last night. Why on earth it was still in the 80s was beyond me but looking good to get 100% chance of rain over 3 hours.

For the love of Jesus not even drizzle just high winds.

Glad you guys got some rain.

Some of my turf is regrowing but plenty has died.

My lawn is looking pretty tough also. We got a sprinkle of rain last night.

Our soil is so sandy we ride the line between drought and a decent season every year.

It's those heat based, pop up thunderstorms and how strong and how many of them we get over the season, that make the difference which.

I'll be farming tomorrow, high around 77F. Hoping the rain forecast will be accurate or more so than what shows. That will mean rain tomorrow night.

Low winds with partial clouds will help out in the field.

Just a followup: We received 7/10" Monday night after the field was seeded, so couldn't ask for a more perfect deal. Then last night came over 2" again. I want to say the drought is over but it's still July and could be out watering in a week or two but these 2" rains do soak down and help replace sub soil moisture which I'm sure was severely lacking.

Funny, Just 12 days ago we had sufficient rain. Since then it's been more empty promises and of course, what can you expect in August.

Remember, only you can prevent drought stress. 😊

After a dry April, May, June and part of July, the first meaningful rainfall middle of July, then more soaking rains thrown in through July. It only took a week to begin getting quite dry.

It got so dry in those early months that even the substantial rains after the drought, though helpful, weren't enough to replace lost soil moisture and build any reserve soil moisture.

This time of year, everything with roots is sucking soil moisture and transpiring heavily, especially the large, deep rooted trees. So regular meaningful rainfall is needed or it can get dry pretty fast in this sandy soil, even with some supplemental watering.

This year has now developed into one where we've had just enough rain, at the right time, combined with supplemental irrigation, to coax a fairly decent season of growth. Now, just when we needed it, it rained last night, straight down, heavy at times, almost steady, tropical like rain for 12 hours. Totaled 3-6/10". I can almost relax knowing by the end of August, cooler nights and increasing chance or rains could finish out this season, ending more drought concerns.

Bill, some of that rain made its way to us last night! We had ample moisture May - mid July, but it has been dry the past three weeks. With the early rain and long period of warm, humid air, woody plants have put on impressive growth and it's now apparent how the landscape is closing in around us. No complaints here, but I'm definitely looking forward to some cooler weather.

That's great, Bill. Very good recharge.

Thanks!

I can water but only around each tree.

It's nice to rain soak the whole area deeply, now that the 'root elongation' time of year is upon us. :-)

Yeah buddy!

Its been rough here all...summer...long. Above average temps almost everyday, high beetle populations, anemic rainfall, ultra high humidity. Norway Maple, Malus, Aesculus, Betula,Populus are starting to defoliate. Only one rainfall above 3/4" since May. I'm tapped out with gardening this year.

Sorry to hear your drought has been so extended this season.

Lots of Maples beginning to turn here, maybe 30-40% in some cases. Some of that is certainly bc of the dry weather but I think it's also the long season we've had.

The Picea have set buds early compared to last year. The leaves on most of the trees are tattered and signs of bugs snacking is apparent.

Hard to say, we've had long, hot Septembers in the past but never when the season started so early. So will be interesting if that happens this year.

I just know it gets tiring having to water every few days. I try to have a rotation where large trees in the front gets watered one day (3 trees that should be on their own but I hate to not water bc the new growth just stops in this sand if too dry).

Some of the established spruce I left to fend for themselves but I finally gave in and left the hose lay on the ground to flood the area, a couple of times, by July and into August. I had one Spruce had a two foot central leader fall off when chewed around the base of it by something.

The pine screen was free range this year, the tip borers did more damage than usual on those and they lost a few leaders. Overall pine here can take the dry although new growth was limited to about 3-5".

The Sugar maple, Eastern Hemlock, Bur Oak, N. Pin Oaks got regular watering during the dry spells. Mostly bc those don't do well on the dry upland sites and I didn't want to see any drought stress damage or borers moving in.

All the small, less than 2 yo trees and shrubs get regular watering, when no rain.

Always a lot more work around here when dry. I thought it might be a dry season this year and early it was. But we got those few good rains when needed so it could've been much worse.

Good part, my utility bill was only ~$35 higher this month and that includes electricity running the AC more than usual and forgetting the hose faucet turned on all night, several times, which drips enough to increase the bill somewhat.

I'm sure the rain barrel saved some on extra water but this last rain could've fill things up several times. The excess just went into the ground. but what do you do?