Finally, it broke. I hope.

[yonder]

After the hottest summer I remember in the 42 years of living here, we are looking forward to several much cooler days in the 80's. In the 77 days from June 1st to Monday we have experienced:

16 days with a below average high temperature. Those 16 days averaged 2.7 degrees below normal.

43 days with an above average high temperature. Those 43 days averaged 8.1 degrees above normal.

69 days above 90 degrees and 18 days above 100.

And if it weren't for all the wildfire smoke, many of those days would've been hotter yet. Yes, many folks have had a hot, miserable summer. With our high and dry desert climate we don't experience as much discomfort, with respect to humidity, as other people. However, in my book this summer has been especially relentless and damn, am I ever looking forward to the next several days - even more so if this smoke blows out of here.

[2naSalit]

1. I'm right there with you on the other side of the divide...

The heat wave has broken, it's about +50F here right now and raining, all day. I am thrilled to be able to shut off the AC and ceiling fan for a few days. I can actually wear denim pants for once and a warm shirt. I get some bouts of stout wind from time to time but it brought this cool, wet weather and boy am I thankful.

[yonder]

4. Rain? What's that? Actually, we did get some a couple of weeks ago. A couple of tenths, I think.

Yep, giving the AC a break and donning my 501's, I may have to get up in the trees for a hike.

This is so frigging pleasant.

[2naSalit]

6. I definitely see a hike in my future...

Have to dodge the rain. We have rain predicted until Tuesday next week! I am thrilled, I think I'll hunt down my poncho.

[padfun]

2. That pretty much sums up Sacramento.

Are you in the Central Valley?

[yonder]

5. SW Idaho.

[2naSalit]

7. I hate to tell you but all the rain...

Is in SE Idaho and chunnelling right up here.

[yonder]

10. 3 hours or so there, and the same back. Could be worth a trip.

Our daughter was in Driggs a couple of weeks ago for a bike race. She said it rained like the dickens the night before.

[2naSalit]

11. There have been several rainstorms pass through...

But the smoke never left and the heat was right back at it shortly after. Yesterday it was so smokey I couldn't see past the first two blocks down the street, and in the 90s.

There were gravel bars in every intersection going down the hill after a couple of the downpours, though. The Yellowstone River was muddy for over a week from rains up in the park. Probably look like that again by tonight.

[MontanaMama]

3. I hate wishing summer away but

I’m done with the relentless heat we’ve had in western MT. It has been brutal. Today it has rained all day and even some of the smoke has cleared out and for that, I am grateful. We also had the hottest summer on record.

[2naSalit]

8. Yup.

I'm used to summer being just about done by August 1, or at least the first sleet would have blown through by then, a little more summer and then gone by Halloween. Not anymore. Only a few of the plants we planted actually grew beyond the first three weeks after we planted them. All my nasturtiums are stunted and not blooming, same with most other flowers and veggies. The only thing I can harvest are the onions I planted too early. For some reason, those, most of them, are growing large enough to use for food. Anything that was growing was eaten by grasshoppers. A very depressing year.

[yonder]

9. That's what's been killing me - how relentless it's been with very few breaks.

[panader0]

12. I've been here also 42 years, and the heat and the dry spell were never like this year.

I'm in SE Az, where the average rainfall was about 17 to 18 inches a year. It's enough to make things
green, the mountains creeks run, etc.
This year was so dry that the mesquite started to die and the dirt became a powdery dust. I began
looking for property in other states. I was worried about my well and the water table.
THEN--the skies opened and the monsoon rains came every day.
Up north, in Tucson, this has been the second greatest total rain monsoon since they kept records.
Here everything changed in a short while. The trees jumped to life, the amaranth is chest high
everywhere. My paths and walkways on my property had to be weed whacked just to see them.
There are morning glory vines with blue and red flowers on all the mesquites. Thank goodness.

[Kali]

13. It's been amazing, hasn't it?

60 + years of daily rain records. This feels like it is a tropical jungle out the back door. But actually it is just a little above average. Not that it EVER hits average around here.

[panader0]

14. Have you kept track of the totals at your place?

I can't find any weather sites that show rainfall amounts for my area.

[Kali]

15. Yeah, my Grandmother started doing it in the 50s

Go to rainlog.org click on the map, shows tons of local readings. I think weatherunderground does similar. I'm at the vet's waiting on a dog. Will give you some better links and explain more later

[padfun]

16. SE AZ? Cochise County?

I graduated from Buena High School back in 73. My favorite town is Bisbee.

[panader0]

19. Yeah, I live about ten miles south of Sierra Vista, off Moson Road.

All of my kids graduated from Buena. About 1990, the old school was torn down and a big brand
new Buena High was built on the Charleston Road about two miles from the former one. As a
bricklayer, I worked on that job for about eight months. It's quite nice. The old site is now a car lot.
Bisbee continues to be very cool, although more expensive than the old days. The saying around here
was 'Tombstone, the town too tough to die, Bisbee, the town too high to care'.

[padfun]

20. Nice Area

I first moved there in 1965 and SV was not a part of Fort Huachuca. The population was about 6500 or so. The junior high opened in 1966 and I was the first class of 7th graders. I plan on going back in the next year or two just to gather in some memories. I still have some cousins living there. One of them, Steve Denman, died of cancer recently. May he RIP.

The last time I was there, I saw that there was a car lot on the old campus. The town has sure grown, especially the South and SE area's going toward Miracle valley. And that was back in 2005. There are some nice nature places around there. Behind Miller Peak almost at the Mexican border going toward Parker Lake, and just the general area. Those canyons didn't have many people living in them back then. It is a nice corner of the universe to hide and get away from the insanity of the world.

[panader0]

21. PM me before you visit and we'll meet up.

[padfun]

22. Will do

[yonder]

23. I had no idea your area got that much precipitation.

I figured it would be drier than our area which gets about 12 inches a year.

[Skittles]

17. worse than Texas

there has been very few 100 degree days this summer

[yonder]

24. I know I piss and moan about our temperatures but we don't have to deal with humidity much.

The few times I've visited the "sauna south" in the summer, Whiner was my middle name.

[Skittles]

26. yes the humidity is a killer

I could not live without A/C, for sure....and it certainly sucked having no electricity for three days during single degree weather.

[Elessar Zappa]

18. Our summer has been pretty average

here in southwest New Mexico. Hot days in the low to mid 90s in June and cooler days with periodic rain in July and August.

[yonder]

25. My eyes have been opened a bit. I always thought the southwest was either dry or humid

but always hot. Gotta say I envy that July and August rain which is exactly the time when we get little to none.