What is your current yard temperature?

[Foxpalms]

Max temperature today was 77.5f/25.2c with 45% humidity in London weather will stay cool like this for a few days before warming up again low tonight is 17c. Looks like August will be hot and dry.

[Tyrone]

1 hour ago, Foxpalms said:

Max temperature today was 77.5f/25.2c with 45% humidity in London weather will stay cool like this for a few days before warming up again low tonight is 17c. Looks like August will be hot and dry.

I reckon at some point you will get tonnes of rain. The drought you are experiencing is by far 1000 times drier than the driest year in my area, and I’m on the driest continent on the planet. The driest year on record here was around 600mm of rain back in 2014. It didn’t seem too bad to me because I’d just moved from Perth where 600mm is sort of OK. But you guys have only had 1.5 inches or around 40mm of rain since January. That is so dry it’s ridiculous and so far out of the normal conditions that simple probability mathematics tells you that it has to be counteracted by something. You will get your rain back, but I doubt it will be gentle rain. 

[sandgroper]

Currently 14c and bright and sunny which is a stark contrast to the last few days. We are heading for 19c with more rain coming in this afternoon.

[UK_Palms]

23 hours ago, Tyrone said:

@UK_Palms

Your bananas are looking good. A lot better than mine at the moment. I hope you get some rain soon.

Just looking at all the pics of tall dead grass and you are lucky you don't have deadly poisonous snakes in the UK. You'd be treading on them if you did. Or they'd be flushed out by the fires and end up where you don't want them, like your house. 

Yeah the Musa Basjoo is doing much better now that it is onto its 2nd year in the ground. The pups that have come up are really taking off now too. I have tried to keep them fairly well watered though, which has definitely helped. I'm not even going to post an image of my other Musa Basjoo that has been neglected and not irrigated sufficiently. Pictures taken at 8pm tonight.

 

The Esente Maurelii banana is doing pretty good as well, although I don't think it is growing as quickly as last year. Possibly due to the drought, or a lack of feeding on my behalf. I'm just glad it survived the winter, unlike its twin that never came back. 

 

I am determined to take my Dwarf Cavendish to flower and produce actual bananas on it this year or next. I think the plan is to overwinter it indoors again this coming winter and then plant it out in the ground next May. Hopefully it will flower and finish up in time before the frosts arrive in November. It's not liking that small pot however and guzzles water like no other plant in my collection. It literally needs an entire watering can of water every single day, otherwise it sulks. 

 

3 hours ago, Tyrone said:

I reckon at some point you will get tonnes of rain. The drought you are experiencing is by far 1000 times drier than the driest year in my area, and I’m on the driest continent on the planet. The driest year on record here was around 600mm of rain back in 2014. It didn’t seem too bad to me because I’d just moved from Perth where 600mm is sort of OK. But you guys have only had 1.5 inches or around 40mm of rain since January. That is so dry it’s ridiculous and so far out of the normal conditions that simple probability mathematics tells you that it has to be counteracted by something. You will get your rain back, but I doubt it will be gentle rain. 

 

I have just added up my rainfall totals since November when this drought began. After converting mm to inches for each month, it is actually a bit less than I thought for 2022. I thought it was about 5.1 inches, but it is a fair bit lower. However the more recent deficit over the past 4-5 months isn't quite as bad as I thought. July, April, January & November exceptionally dry here.

--------------------------------

November - 0.12 inches

December - 1.79 inches

-------------------------------

January - 0.36 inches

February - 1.93 inches

March - 0.81 inches

April - 0.17 inches

May - 0.68 inches

June - 0.62 inches

July - 0.05 inches

-----------------------------

7 month total (2022) - 4.62 inches

-----------------------------

9 month total (since Nov)- 6.53 inches

 

London looks like Perth in February. Will the trees here survive the drought stress and regrow in spring, or could this be fatal? The native grass is being eradicated.

 

I don't know whether the native grass can recover from this now. It may take years to come back properly.

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Tyrone]

@UK_Palms I said you guys had only 1.5 inches, but that was wrong, you’ve had 5.1 inches which is still very little. 

London looks far drier than summer in Perth. Perth relies on irrigation in parks etc but I doubt that exists in London. I reckon you will lose a lot of trees there. I’d be surprised if the grass recovers. Once the rain returns the weeds will take hold first. 

Your bananas look good. I’m only growing Cavendish here. You can’t get M basjoo here. The banana industry here has basically prevented any banana varieties being imported into Australia or WA. 

[Xenon]

100F day as (new) normal 

Rain everywhere but Texas 

[GottmitAlex]

33C/91F

And the dragon fruit are growing!!!

 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

4 hours ago, Xenon said:

100F day as (new) normal 

Rain everywhere but Texas 

*Sigh* this tracks. My daquiri can't hang. At least there's a breeze today. 

 

It's 100 with a heat index of 108 right now. 

[Foxpalms]

On 7/25/2022 at 11:49 PM, Tyrone said:

I reckon at some point you will get tonnes of rain. The drought you are experiencing is by far 1000 times drier than the driest year in my area, and I’m on the driest continent on the planet. The driest year on record here was around 600mm of rain back in 2014. It didn’t seem too bad to me because I’d just moved from Perth where 600mm is sort of OK. But you guys have only had 1.5 inches or around 40mm of rain since January. That is so dry it’s ridiculous and so far out of the normal conditions that simple probability mathematics tells you that it has to be counteracted by something. You will get your rain back, but I doubt it will be gentle rain. 

I think October it will rain quite a bit as that's when the drier weather usually ends you can never tell but looking at patterns it looks like the winter will be mild and average conditions (rain). The south east is not getting much drier or wetter according to the metoffice we are just getting more rain in the winter and less in the summer on a normal year here is we usually get something like 530mm of rain to 560mm. For the whole year London hewthrow has has 130mm with the majority of that in the winter and early spring it's slightly less here. There has been some rain here in the past week but it's been extremely light just dampens the top of the soil doesn't get to the roots it's also has been very brief maybe every other day it will rain for a couple minutes then stop it's more light drizzle than actually rain.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Foxpalms

[Foxpalms]

@UK_Palms A better banana for you might be Musa Dajiao they are hardy to -6/7c root and -2c stem and can produce edible fruit. Also how are you're Queen palms doing in the warm weather this month? Mine have grown loads.

[sandgroper]

It has been very wet since late yesterday afternoon, not sure how much we've had but there has been some flooding around Perth. Heading for 21c today with more rain coming in.

[RyManUtah]

75F, and actually raining, which is my first measurable precipitation since March. I’ve gotten 1.25” in the last couple of hours. 

A nice, cool week of highs in the mid to upper 90s and lows in the upper 70s ahead as the furnace backs off for a spell and the cooler, humid, tropical air moves into the desert 

 

 

[Foxpalms]

63f at London Heathrow with sun and clouds ground looks very dry. @Tyronegrass is all dead in London.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Foxpalms

[Las Palmas Norte]

My SW micro climate shade Temps have been 100F this week. North shade about 8 or 10 degrees cooler.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

95 with a heat index of 104 right now. Time to break out the flannel sheets and hoodies. 

[sandgroper]

Bright and sunny outside at the moment but more rain expected this afternoon heading for a top of 21c.

[UK_Palms]

On 7/26/2022 at 11:21 AM, Tyrone said:

@UK_Palms I said you guys had only 1.5 inches, but that was wrong, you’ve had 5.1 inches which is still very little. 

London looks far drier than summer in Perth. Perth relies on irrigation in parks etc but I doubt that exists in London. I reckon you will lose a lot of trees there. I’d be surprised if the grass recovers. Once the rain returns the weeds will take hold first. 

Your bananas look good. I’m only growing Cavendish here. You can’t get M basjoo here. The banana industry here has basically prevented any banana varieties being imported into Australia or WA. 

 

I suppose one problem we have is that our native vegetation isn't accustomed to the drier Med-like summers, let alone prolonged droughts that go on for a year or so. Most of the flora (grass, plants, trees) in Perth are adapted to it, so it probably doesn't suffer too much. Then again this drought has been pretty damn severe over here in places. The fact that London parks are almost becoming deserts now is concerning...

 

RIP to the water sources

 

They have nearly put out the Hankley fire near to me. It has been going for 4 days now and helicopters have been going back and forth all day still today.

 

@Foxpalms My Queens haven't grown that much at all this year mate. Maybe they are still settling in, but I suspect I have under-watered them quite badly and perhaps they took a while to get going following the winter. I'm not in London so I don't benefit from the UHI protection. They probably took -5C / 23F on at least one night during winter. They're alive and pushing growth fine, just not very quickly and they don't look great. Hopefully this coming winter is mild and they properly take off next year. I need to keep them better irrigated though too.

 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Tyrone]

Had a minimum of 3.9C this morning and a maximum of a very sunny 22.9C which felt very Spring like. Now the clouds are rolling in for wet windy weather for the next few days. Maximum of 12C forecast for Saturday. 

[Silas_Sancona]

Warm n' soupy  and waiting on -any- rain, at least here at the house..



While many areas around town have see some the last few days, dry here and in many neighborhoods on this side of town.  Overall issue is the pattern overhead atm..  While there is PLENTY of moisture (" fuel", if you will ) in the air, being stuck between 2 centers of high pressure over the last several days does a few things that cut into opportunities for widespread rain / storms..

Most obvious is the current, upper level " steering " flow is weak and un-directional, so storms that form don't move much.. ( Great if one forms overhead, or creeps towards your neighborhood )

Storms that have popped are often quick, " pulse-type " storms that blow up and die within a couple hours..  at least here in the valley.. Terrain in the mountains provides extra lift, which helps storms last a bit longer up there.

Too much " debris " clouds around from dead storms in the mornings, which cut into daytime heating that would help generate more storms later..

" Stuck " Mesoscale Convective Complexes that wander around nearby and don't clear out fast enough ..and also cut into daytime heating ( lingering clouds after storms have died out ).

No robust " triggers " IE: Stronger Inverted Troughs / Easterly Wave activity ....disturbances that help stir up the atmosphere / provide ideal lift for organized storms / outflows. What we have now would be like sitting in a stagnant pond..  In many cases so far, many of the disturbances  are in the weakening phase as they pass through, or pass more over Sonora than directly over AZ.

While dry here, and in many parts of Tucson proper,  many areas of the state have seen decent rainfall..

Pattern is supposed to shuffle around a little this weekend / early next week, w/ the High pressure area currently hanging over CA. and the PAC. N.W. shifting east, and the overall High pressure area sprawled out across the south central U.S. re-centering itself just east of the 4 corners.. That could provide better upper level steering and keep any Meso Scale Complexes that develop from getting stuck in any one place for too long.  ...That's the idea anyway...  Monsoon season has it's own idea on how things play out though,  so, we'll see what happens.

The one good thing about this pattern is temperatures are being held down by all the extra moisture.  That said, Cooler " heat " still doesn't water things.  May the yards flood soon.

[Tyrone]

After the 22.9C day yesterday we had a warm minimum of 14.3C and really most of the night sat around 15,16C which is more like summer mins for us. This July seems to have had everything from frost (-1.8C) to this level of warmth, except copious rain. 

[cbmnz]

About to record the first July that I can remember to not below freezing at all. Still a high likelihood of doing so in August.

[Tyrone]

It got to 19C today, then the cold front hit and in the wind change it dropped to about 11C.

[UK_Palms]

Max of 26.3C / 78F on Thursday after a few below average days with temps in the 22C / 72F range. Quite a bit of cloud cover too, but not a single drop of rain due to the blocking effect. I am still stuck on 1mm for July with 2 days left. Only 0.6 inches for summer so far. Crystal clear skies today and also getting warmer again too. I am going for a max of 28C / 82F here today. The warm-summer Med (Csb) theme remains entrenched into August.

It turns out Kew doesn’t water their lawns then after all… @Tyrone

We’re not going to have a conventional autumn or ‘fall’ here this year as the trees are already abandoning their leaves in masses now to conserve water and survive. Many will perish probably in coming weeks/months…

The first round of hosepipe bans have been introduced with fines for people using them. This was inevitable. My county of Surrey and London will be next in coming days. It’s probably too late now to have an effect. 

Major heatwave setting up here again for August. Probably 100F in London at least. Hard to beat the 40.3C / 104F that we saw earlier this month. Famous last words there…

Edited July 29, 2022 by UK_Palms

[sandgroper]

Very cold, wet, dark and stormy outside this morning, currently 12c at 7.30am heading for a cold top of 16c. The coming week looks very similar to this with the temps between 15c and 20c and a fair bit of rain.

Edited July 29, 2022 by sandgroper
Spelling correction

[Tyrone]

Cold wet wild windy day today. It’s really the first bit of real winter cold front weather we’ve had down here. We should have got it in June but instead it came at the end of July. It’s 7C at 8am going for a balmy top of 13C. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Another frigid day in SE TX. 94F with a current heat index of 101 at 7:30pm with no rain in sight. At least there's a nice breeze and I'll take 101 over 115. 

 

Wild to be picking all the dried pinestraw out of my pots in July. 

[Foxpalms]

92f/33c with 55% humidity with a feel like of 100f/37.8c in northern Mediterranean Spain. Night temperatures around 24c with 85% humidity. UV index 9. Lots of nice palms here for 41n syagrus, Bismarckia, Washingtonia and phoenix. Couple archontophoenix,kentias around and dypsis. 

[Tyrone]

Max today of 11.6C with much of the day in the 7-10C range. Coldest day of the year and I believe it snowed on the Stirling Ranges today. 

[Silas_Sancona]

A clear and swampy start to the final Saturday of July



Now that we're out from under the stagnant,  " trapping " high ( being stuck in an area between two high pressure centers ) that had sat over the region over the last several days,  S.E'rly flow in the upper atmosphere has picked up and things are looking better for widespread, organized storms / deep outflows surviving the journey off the mountains, or northwest from Southeastern AZ, up through Tucson and here in / around Phoenix..  Could be an active day ..but, knowing how things have played out recently on this side of town,  ...we'll see what happens.   Was out at the local Oasis yesterday and boy is everything looking thirsty..

Moisture for very heavy rain is there for sure.. Think Precipitable Water ( P'Wat. ) content is over 2"/ 50.8mm  here atm  ...That is extremely wet for the desert at any time of the year.

Fyi: Precip. water content is simply a measure of the moisture content in a column of the atmosphere.. that relates to how much precipitation could be wrung out  so, 2" of Pwat. would = roughly 2" inch rain totals  ..on average..  if a storm managed to squeeze out every drop of moisture contained in an air mass overhead.   A few spots to the southwest of Phoenix, into parts of California have Pwats exceeding 2.5"/ 55-59mm atm..   Could be a very active day for the deserts of S.E. California today as well since moisture and other factors like ideal surface heating, lack of a strong cap in the atmosphere out there are ideal.

Las Vegas and areas near the AZ/ NV border that usually miss out on " decent " Monsoon season rainfall have been getting nailed over the past few days. ( sitting in a better area for guiding storms into those areas this past week )

Northern Mexico continues to be quite active as well.. Video is from Hermosillo, in Sonora:

https://twitter.com/Furvel75/status/1552830919223885824?cxt=HHwWgICqic3f4YwrAAAA



As we start August, keeping an eye on California.. Pretty good chance of a moisture surge ( or two ) across the state next week.  We should stay active as well ..but,  will have to wait and see just how active things actually are..  That said,  While the season has another 50-60 days to go ( NWS ends the season on Sept. 30th )  it is August  ..if we're going to have a good year, it is now  ...or wait till' next year..   Looking at pictures, can see how dry things are atm in the neighborhood compared to how things were looking as we started August last year.  While it has happened, rare that September ends up extremely wet.  We'll see though. Been an odd year so anything is possible.

  Fingers crossed we can fill in the two obvious gaps on the map below.  ...and flood the yards few times, lol.





 

[UK_Palms]

Looks like a max of 27.1C / 80F for me on Saturday. Massive problems in the deserts of London. This is what 4-5 inches of rain in 7-8 months does. Multiple fires raging on multiple fronts across London & SE England. I counted 23 active fires at one point yesterday evening. Over 9,000 wildfires in the UK this year now with 2,000+ in the London area alone. Absolute tinderbox.

 

Here we can see the famous Kew desert. This is the official Met Office station at Kew Gardens. It is probably on 0.5mm / 0.02 inches for the month & 5 inches for 2022.

 

My local playing field in my village is gone. Like the grass doesn't even exist there anymore, except for the very centre of the field, but even there it is dead. People are supposed to play cricket on this field @Tyrone @sandgroper Not sure if it can regrow back somehow, or whether it will need to be replanted now??

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Tyrone]

@UK_Palms The grasses you’d be growing in the uk are cold growing species like tufted rye grass etc. These take the cooler weather but need lots of water compared to the warm weather grasses grown in Australia for example. Most of our grasses are not tufted species but grow from a runner or a stolon and can handle high heat and drought better. Once the rains return to the UK they would likely have to scatter vast amounts of lawn seed to get them growing again. 

[Tyrone]

Sunrise this morning. 

The rough weather is moving in quickly. In reality the clouds are brilliant orange. The picture has come out darker and more pink. 

[Tyrone]

A few minutes later it looks like this.

[sandgroper]

Very wet, windy and stormy this morning heading for a wet top of 20c. 

[JohnAndSancho]

90f with a heat index of 95@9:15pm and I never thought I'd say that felt cool non- sarcastically but here we are. 

[Tyrone]

5 hours ago, sandgroper said:

Very wet, windy and stormy this morning heading for a wet top of 20c. 

Spring is only a month away. 

 

[sandgroper]

1 hour ago, Tyrone said:

Spring is only a month away. 

 

Got to say mate, I like the rain and cool weather, a lot of years spent around the Gascoyne and Pilbara have turned me against the heat

[Foxpalms]

35c/95f with 60% humidity feel like of 45c/113f UV index 10 in northern Mediterranean Spain. The weather in forecast for London doesn't look bad either GFS models are showing  30s for London next week.

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Foxpalms

[UK_Palms]

On 7/31/2022 at 3:35 PM, Tyrone said:

@UK_Palms The grasses you’d be growing in the uk are cold growing species like tufted rye grass etc. These take the cooler weather but need lots of water compared to the warm weather grasses grown in Australia for example. Most of our grasses are not tufted species but grow from a runner or a stolon and can handle high heat and drought better. Once the rains return to the UK they would likely have to scatter vast amounts of lawn seed to get them growing again. 

Maximum temperature of 28.1C / 82F for me here today.

St. James Park in central London has finished the month on 0.4mm / 0.01 inches of rainfall. That means it is drier than anywhere in Arizona this month I think. And the UAE. I have finished the month on 1.1mm / 0.04 inches here. It looks like Odiham in Hampshire finished on 0mm / 0.0 inches, as did Bournemouth. So pretty bloody dry.

 

Look at the Kew Gardens glass houses! It looks more like Cairo than London. The grass is disintegrating away. As I said the other day, it's the Kew desert now.

 

Definite desertification taking place. The is Clapham common football pitches. Sand/dust is replacing the grass. You can see a dust cloud blowing in background. Proper dustbowl.

 

The grass isn't the only concern. It's already autumn here now, although not in a conventional sense. The trees are shedding their leaves due to the drought to conserve energy in roots and trunk. The current amount of leaf drop though is what you would expect in about early October in London. So 'autumn' is happening 2 months early here.

 

It's business as usual over here with the fires...

 

Fires raging right outside Heathrow airport this afternoon...

 

You can see just how bare the trees are in this Heathrow wildfire video. Grass obviously scorched to oblivion as well. Terminator 2: Judgement Day comes to mind...

 

The last chance for rain in a while will be tomorrow, however those odds don't look good with 30C / 86F highs and 23% chance of rain at best tomorrow. Any rain that does fall would be miniscule. GFS has mid-30's C returning by the weekend with no rainfall for next 2-3 weeks. This drought is going to run right through to October, since September is generally a dryish month too. That is without factoring the current drought trend as well.

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Tyrone]

13 hours ago, sandgroper said:

Got to say mate, I like the rain and cool weather, a lot of years spent around the Gascoyne and Pilbara have turned me against the heat

Unrelenting dry heat would eventually wear you out I reckon. You’d probably like the south coast then. If it gets to 28C everyone reckons it’s hot. 

Im looking forward to spring where we still get rain but it’s a tad warmer. 12,13C at night and 25C during the day with rain tends to kick the garden along nicely. That’s November December for my area.