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Post by stepper on Jul 21, 2019 12:15:08 GMT -6
I saw a weather report that said your area of the country had a storm that knocked out the power to a number of folks so I thought I'd check in, but based on the timing of your most recent post I take it you were pretty much unaffected by the storm, or at least the worst of it was elsewhere in the state.
As you might imagine, it's been on the hot side here but the heat dome hasn't settled here so we haven't actually hit 100 degrees yet. Heat index is another thing, but actual temperature has only been in the upper 90s. July has been a dry month - that's not uncommon but we need the rain again. The high creating the current pattern is supposed to shift west of us. If it does, they expect the clockwise rotation to move a "cold" front our direction. It won't actually be cold of course, but the front could set off some rain storms on Tuesday and we're hoping for that.
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Post by moonglum on Jul 21, 2019 13:30:58 GMT -6
Hope you get some rain soon Stepper. We've had a couple of nights and one day, when it rained heavily. But on the whole the days have been hot and the nights very humid. The ceiling fan in the bedroom has been working overtime.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 22, 2019 23:40:27 GMT -6
I lost my lights 7/13 at around 11:00pm. They came back on 7/14 at 9:28am. My lights flickered a couple of times last night, but stayed on.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 23, 2019 5:18:18 GMT -6
Yeah, there were half a million houses left without power from Saturday's storms, but the bulk of them were on the other side of the state, in the Detroit Metro area. About 100,000 lost power on this side during Friday's storms. Our power flickered off and on most late, late Saturday, but we never lost it for more than a few minutes at a time.
The storms were crazy. I slept on the couch both Friday and Saturday nights - Friday, because the glued-together maple was swaying crazily outside our 2nd floor bedroom window about 2am; I could not convince Hubs to come down to the main level with me (Hhmphf! he mumbled). Saturday, to keep the dog calm, because all the thunder and lightning makes her extremely nervous - from upstairs, I could hear her nails clicking on the hardwood floor downstairs as she paced continually.
Saturday's storm started late afternoon, about an hour before we close. We watched the most amazing clouds roll overhead very quickly, and my boss radioed me saying I should leave for home immediately; the radar showed the storm moving in off the lake, and the brunt of it was supposed to hit south of the nursery, where I live. By the time gathered my stuff, got to the car, and drove out, I saw that my co-workers had also been told to leave; the store was already closed and the lights were off. I drove home through most of the storm, but by the time I got home, it was only raining. An hour later, the sky was clear, and we left for LX's, another hour south, and didn't encounter any rain at all. The temperature had dropped twenty degrees, from the very humid 90s to the most heavenly 70s, and it's been pleasantly cool since - it's 57 degrees this morning!
Sadly, though no major storm damage occurred around here, there was a tragedy at the beach. A 13 year old boy drowned on Friday when he and his father were pulled away from shore by the waves, and became exhausted trying to get back to shore; boaters were able to rescue the father, but the boy went under, and despite emergency crews' search efforts, he washed ashore dead. Saturday, there were two separate rescue efforts, this time thankfully, both were successful. Both people rescued were issued $500 fines each. Why? Because they ignored the red flags flying and all the signs clearly posted that red flags mean to absolutely stay out of the water, I will never understand why those warnings are ignored.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 23, 2019 10:02:07 GMT -6
The rain brought Fall-like weather here for a few days, well nights. A few more cooling fronts moving in every couple of weeks would be nice, but wishful thinking won’t make it happen.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 25, 2019 4:58:20 GMT -6
This week the weather here has been very fall-like - nights in the 50s, and days in the 70s. I'm loving it!
What a difference a week makes. We invited a speaker to the nursery to give a program to the public last night. We held it in a lovely garden setting, the weather was perfect, and we had a great turnout. It would have been very different if we had had the same program last week - it would have been miserable in the oppressive humidity.
The humidity is supposed to creep back in this weekend, though the forecasted temperatures are predicted to stay in the 80s. Hopefully, it won't feel as gross as last week!
I read this morning that Europe is experiencing that same type of heatwave we had over here last week.
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Post by moonglum on Jul 26, 2019 7:42:47 GMT -6
The heat has been unbearable here. It hit 38.1C yesterday. Even standing or sitting in the shade, the sweat rolls down your face and back. We had a light shower last night and we all just stood out in the rain to cool down. I got up early (4.30am) just so I could sit outside before the sun came up. We Brits are not built for hot climates, we don't have the software for it.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 28, 2019 7:52:45 GMT -6
Beautiful Sunday morning here. It's been a very busy weekend, and leaving to go down to LX's. Us girls are doing the Northern Indiana touristy thing today.
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Post by stepper on Jul 28, 2019 16:16:21 GMT -6
moonglum Alas, no rain. The ground has dried up and has cracked up to the point that I'm having to run soaker hoses in self defense. That keeps the ground which is clay from shifting too much and cracking the underground water pipes. At least, that's the idea. You have to do it often enough for it to be beneficial and I've been a little behind. I was holding off because the weather guesses kept saying there was a chance of rain in a few days. The rain never materialized around here although I did see lightening flashes in the distance one morning. August isn't know for being much better and waiting just isn't an option any more. One thing we did get was a break in the temperatures. We had one morning where we tied the record morning low, and the next day we set the new record morning low by one degree. That made going to work much more pleasant. The days were still warm - in the mid 90s every day (35C +- .1) but that's normal for our summer time temps. This our traditional hottest time of the year - the last two weeks of July and the first two of August - then we look for a slow and barely perceptible drop in over all temps. Hope you get a break over there soon if it hasn't happened yet.
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Post by moonglum on Jul 29, 2019 1:35:15 GMT -6
Friday was officially the hottest day on record here in the UK, 38.7C. During the early hours of Saturday morning, we had thunderstorms and it rained nearly all day. The early part of this week look like being back to hot, humid weather, but the weather elves reckon temps will drop by the end of the week.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 30, 2019 5:13:24 GMT -6
The weather elves...ha! Sometimes it seems they're more imps than elves, and they must have been feeling rather deviously impish yesterday when I came out of the grocery store with a cartful of food. It was pouring rain - very hard rain. None of which was predicted by the elves, of course, and of course, it being tourist season and the grocery store being very busy, my car was toward the back of the lot. Not that I minded getting rained upon, but soggy groceries aren't one of my favorite things.
As Mom would have said though - "Beggars can't be choosy", which isn't actually how the saying goes, but Mom's sayings were always a tad different (it wasn't until a few years ago that I learned "You've got another think coming" was actually "You've got another thing coming".)
It rained for about a half hour, and we really needed it. Hope you get your rain soon, Stepper, and you, your cooler temperatures, Moonglum.
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Post by moonglum on Jul 30, 2019 6:49:04 GMT -6
You prompted me to do some research and according to Websters Dictionary the phrase 'You've got another think coming', seems to have originated in the mid 19th century in British-English and is the older of the two, meaning 'You are wrong so think again'. The phrase 'You've got another thing coming', they say originated later probably in American-English. I must confess, for as long as I can remember, I've always heard 'think' used, never 'thing'.
This made me smile. (Those who use think, think those who use thing have another think coming if they think they're right in using thing—and vice versa. Here's where we might lose some of you: we don't think there is any reason for reproving the other's usage. Yes, thing is meaningless here, leaving the "think" users to wonder what exactly will be coming, but think also leaves the "thing" users who are unfamiliar with the noun (which actually dates to the early 19th century and refers to an act of thinking) wondering if the statement is grammatical.)
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 30, 2019 13:26:17 GMT -6
It rained here yesterday. I couldn’t hear it as loudly as I used to. My two skylights were removed on Saturday, and covered with metal roof panels. Then filled with insulation and a ceiling board. The house is way cooler, and no more leaking. So, happy camper. Well, there’s the sadness of losing all that beautiful sunlight that brightened the bathrooms. One bathroom has no windows, so it’s pitch dark in there during the day now. The other bathroom has a window, but still darker than it once was. Loving no rain leaks, and no outside heat seeping in and making the air above my head super hot. It would roast me if I stepped up into it to retrieve something high up. It was like going outside, but without the sun to make it worse.
I wonder if ‘thing’ came about due to not understanding another persons speech? So, a best guess was made. Kind of like when people mess up song lyrics.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 31, 2019 5:14:16 GMT -6
Nice to know Mom wasn't just making things up!
"You've got another think coming" has always made a lot more sense to me (aside from sounding grammatically weird!). This is especially true the way Mom always used it - and she used it quite often, especially during our teenage years! "If you think you're going to do this (which was whatever scheme our teenage brains cooked up), you've got another think coming." "Thing" just doesn't make sense since she was disputing our "think".
Ironically, given "think" is the more British than "thing" it was the British that made me realize "thing" was a thing a few years ago - or at least a handful of Brits. Singing along to a song in the car, I just happened to glance at the digital display on the radio: Judas Priest - "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" All those years, never even paying attention to the song title, I'd been singing the wrong lyrics!
Glad you're a happy...and dry and cool camper, Joxie.
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Post by moonglum on Jul 31, 2019 13:32:17 GMT -6
Well it has finally cooled down. We've had a couple of showers here in the south-east. Unfortunately up north and to the south-west they have had horrendous rain, a months worth falling in a few hours in some cases, accompanied by flash flooding. Temps are back down to the low 20'sC here and it's much more bearable.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 2, 2019 0:14:16 GMT -6
Thanks. I'm still missing the brightly lit bathrooms. But, I'm loving the air above my head not being as hot as outside, and no rain leaking inside the house. It's only been a few days though, so I'll eventually not notice it so much anymore.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 3, 2019 5:24:37 GMT -6
Our upstairs is a lot hotter than the main level, even with central air. The house didn't even have central heat when it was built in the 1800s - it was heated with wood burning stoves - one downstairs, and one upstairs. The downstairs can be freezing with the air-conditioning on, but a lot of times, the upstairs is still on the too warm side.
The weather though this week has been fabulous! More like September than late July/early August. The nights have been cool, and though the days have been in the 80s, there hasn't been any uncomfortable humidity.
Talked to my brother yesterday - he's heading out in about a week for an extended contract working on wind turbines in Texas. Looking forward to the job, but not the weather there!
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Post by stepper on Aug 3, 2019 11:35:35 GMT -6
Ya know Joxcie, I think trading off "no rain leaking inside the house" is more than worth the trade off of brightly lit bathrooms. You've got a really handy BIL there!
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Post by stepper on Aug 3, 2019 11:42:04 GMT -6
working on wind turbines in Texas. Looking forward to the job, but not the weather there! This isn't the best time of the year for someone who isn't accustomed to excessive levels of heat to decide to get an outside job here. But, the temps will start to break soon and he'll have time to adjust. Depending on where he ends up he could experience winter temps too! Not necessarily the same winter temps you're used to but cold none the less. Something he might like - no state income taxes. There are numerous wind farms in TX - I read somewhere that TX is the largest US consumer for wind farms and their electricity. (And water - windmills for pumping water are fairly popular too.)
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 3, 2019 22:36:22 GMT -6
Is all of the duct work on every floor connected? If so, I wonder if having each floor with its own duct work, connecting to its own unit would keep each level cooler/warmer? Or if that just isn't possible, since each level is open to each other, and not closed up as separate apartments/compartments? Since heat rises, I think the upper levels will always be a losing battle ... depending on the weather/season.
Ha! I've solved the problem. Have each floor as it's own separate apartment ... in the autumn/winter, live on the upper level to stay warm --- and in the spring/summer, live on the lower level to stay cool. Yep. I'm brilliant.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 3, 2019 22:45:08 GMT -6
Ya know Joxcie, I think trading off "no rain leaking inside the house" is more than worth the trade off of brightly lit bathrooms. You've got a really handy BIL there!
Yeah, it is. But I'm still gonna be wistful about losing the sunlight every time I walk into the bathrooms. One bathroom has no window, and now it's pitch dark in there all of the time. The BIL didn't do any of the work on my skylights ... other than putting goop on them to try and prevent them from leaking. It did the trick in the past, but sadly wasn't doing the trick anymore. My cousin had someone fix the storm damage on his house after the bad storm that came through recently, and mentioned my skylights to the guy. So the guy told my cousin to give me his number and give him a call. So, no free labor.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 6, 2019 5:12:47 GMT -6
He's used to working in weather extremes, but definitely not the type of heat you guys have there - or at least not that kind of heat for extended periods of time. I hope this is a good career move for him. He's worked on wind turbines in the past, and loved the work (he installs the electrical wiring on the inside of the turbines), mostly up north when the company he was with got contracted. Last year though, they got a contract with a company out of Texas, for work somewhere around Detroit - I think it may have been in the Ann Arbor area; he and the company contractors developed a good rapport, and left it at 'if you ever need someone'... They called a few weeks ago, and after debating leaving here, he took the job with them. I'm not sure though, if they hired him as an independent contractor, or a full-time employee. I know that after the work in Texas (expected to last a few months), he's working for them in West Virginia.
And what?! You don't have income tax? How's that work?
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 7, 2019 1:07:52 GMT -6
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Post by moonglum on Aug 7, 2019 11:14:51 GMT -6
The temps have been steady in the mid-20'sC this past week, but the humidity has been unbearable. We've now got weird thunderstorms. Short duration, noisy, a little rain and then they have gone again. We are trying to build a lean-to across the back of the house so we can sit out on the patio without getting wet. The irony is we can't get on with it because we keep getting wet!
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 7, 2019 11:41:44 GMT -6
The "feels like" temps are back up into the three digits. Which brings severe weather with it.
moonglum: Welcome to my neck of the woods. When the humidity is high, we get fast moving, severe weather. There can be multiple scattered/isolated storms that move in and out all day long. The up side to severe weather in the evening is that once the sun drops, the temps & humidity fall, and the severe weather is made much more docile. Have you had super strong winds, damaging hail, extreme lightning, tornadoes, etc.? That's what we get with our severe weather. Humidity is not our friend.
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Post by moonglum on Aug 8, 2019 4:41:39 GMT -6
We have not had extreme weather so far in the south/east corner of the UK Joxie. I have to admit that the storms we have had, have been in the distance and not directly overhead, which probably explains the little rain we have had so far. We had some strong winds yesterday, but not super strong. So far we've had no hail and thank god we don't get tornadoes over here.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 8, 2019 13:32:47 GMT -6
I’ve never known a tornado to hit on my road. Dad always said the river protects us, and thankfully the storms mostly come from the west. Storms coming from the east have free range over my location. We do get a number of downbursts/microbursts though, which can cause a lot of damage too, depending on just where they hit. Hopefully your extreme heat and humidity won’t stir up any tornadoes in the UK.
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Post by moonglum on Aug 9, 2019 2:42:44 GMT -6
I should have kept my mouth shut. The weather elves have predicted very strong winds and rain for later today and tomorrow. A time for lots of reflective staring out of windows methinks.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 9, 2019 5:01:36 GMT -6
Same here - the temperatures have been nice, in the 70s, but the humidity has come back off and on. Breezes off the lake have kept it bearable though. A couple of storms were predicted, but the thunder and lightning stayed off in the distance, so the result was some needed rain.
Kind of funny...but not: I checked the forecast for today. It's supposed to be "sunny and nice, with a high of 76F. Mosquito Activity: High." I've never seen "mosquito activity" mentioned in the forecast. The entire time I was reading the news and weather though, I was swatting the air in vain, trying to kill a mosquito that kept buzzing relentlessly around my head! It must have followed either me or the dog inside earlier - and it got a few bites in before I finally slapped the d@mn thing.
I hope it's dry enough that you can get it built soon, Moonglum. Both our front porch, and side porch and patio which runs the length of the house are covered, so we always have somewhere to sit outside and watch the rain. It's one of my favorite passive things to do - much better than staring out the window.
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Post by stepper on Aug 10, 2019 15:07:45 GMT -6
This isn't going to make sense to everyone, but one of the local fire departments did a public service thing today. They had one of their EMS trucks in the front by the main road passing the station, and it was locked up. Next to the truck was a large electronic thermometer. The readings were: outside - 102F (38.88C); in the closed up truck - 199F (92.77C). What's the point? Every year there's some poor parents who have to live with the knowledge that they murdered their children by leaving them in the back of their vehicle on a hot day. They do something out of habit, or neglect, but small children cannot cope with the extreme heat and it kills them. 199F! That's not a temperature that adults can tolerate, let alone a little child. And even with the news media warning people repeatedly, it happens again and again. When I got home it was time to fill the bird feeder and change the water in the bird bath. The hose had been sitting in the sun all day and when I turned it on, the water coming out of the hose was hotter than what I use when taking a shower. It took a minute of full blast to get it cool enough to fill the bird bath.
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