Stormy

The models are shifting the best rainfall to my north for this weekend so I'm not expecting much at all. CR looks to have better chances. I'm already watering plants which is almost unheard of this time of the year. I hope it's not a bone dry May and June like in 1992! Then in July that year was the wettest month of my records followed by a very wet fall and the flood year of 1993!

If you think Iowa has bad growing conditions you haven't lived in the plains yet! There, temperature extremes are yet worse and they have been extremely dry for awhile now. In south central KS they had recent cold low temps as cold or colder than here despite a further south latitude, and they also have had many much warmer days so they're further ahead. And in central Nebraska where my sister recently moved to they are finding out it's not as great as they expected. The recent high winds with blowing sand and dust likely somehow destroyed their recently planted crops! Doubt that's ever happened here except maybe during the dust bowl era of the '30s, which was even worse in the plains. And last year their crops also did poorly probably because of trying to farm organically and being new to the area? Total crop failures are unusual in Iowa except on bottom land along rivers from flooding. The good thing is they can replant as it's still early in the season. The crop that was damaged was hay with a cover crop of oats though it's plenty late for decent oat yields if that's what was planted.(Once oats is harvested the hay will take over.)

April was really boring, but I'm hoping that changes soon.

It's sunny about every day here.

I just thought they trees look freshly green like new growth, but that could be color enhancement or the sun shining though the trees. We also have evergreens which haven't budded yet.

Budweiser up next? Fox News is being Budweisered as well.

It's pretty nice in my part of the Midwest though. Lots of sunshine with chilly nights. Shirtsleeve wx currently @ 68⁰. Lovely outside!

Do I see trees greening up with snow on the ground or are those some evergreens trees like spruce or something?

I know, it just sucks! Now basically no rainfall expected in the next 7 days at least, and mostly cool. Oh well, at least it's not really dry yet.

It was down to 28⁰ here this morning. Didn't see any damages other then some things hanging their heads a bit and those should soon perk up again. Fruit trees appeared ok. One year I saw it in the upper teens or low 20⁰s and blooming trees were mostly okay, which was astounding! I still haven't figured out that one. It could've been something to do with humidity or wind, but think if there are several days of chilly temp's before a freeze, vegetation can maybe somewhat acclimate or prepare for it? I've found that 26⁰ to 28⁰ is about the limit around here.

After I posted this the temperature fell to 32⁰.

Yes the Rockies definitely squeeze out the moisture from systems moving across them. Low pressure systems usually redevelop or restrengthen just east of the Rockies in the plains somewhere, and it depends on how soon Gulf moisture can get wrapped in or catch up with lows in how much rain will fall, and there are other things in play as well. This year it's seems storms are a little slow in developing or we're in the dry slot region at times even this far east. Most of the moisture east of the Rockies comes from the Gulf, especially in the warm season. You probably knew most of this, but you asked.

We dodged another bullet overnight as clouds prevented it from getting really cold. It only dropped to 34⁰. Yesterday morning it went to 31⁰ which probably wasn't cold enough to damage fruit trees etc. We have one more cold night coming, and it could be the coldest with clear skies likely. People with orchards aren't resting easy these days. Many apple trees haven't bloomed yet so that helps, but still could freeze if cold enough.

I wouldn't be surprised next week's rain all ends up south of my area. BTW, the low of 30⁰ from the last cold spell didn't appear to damage anything here. I'm just hoping it doesn't get colder than that from the next freezes, but good chance it could.

Last night's rainfall kind of underperformed once again right here with much heavier amounts just a few miles to the west. Had lots of lightning and only brief downpours. The first round dropped just over a half inch then this morning another round of weakening stratiform rain gave another 0.18" for a total of 0.70". Thankful we got that much, and it rained from about every direction, watering plants on every side of the house.

Another one of my sister's family moved out to central Nebraska (just nw. of Grand Island) about a year ago. They can make it rain whenever they want to with irrigation for all of their crops there! Their water level is so shallow there that they don't want basements! I understand they can irrigate for free except for the cost of pumping. I still would rather have plentiful natural rainfall!

Yeah the Davis stations say that for rain rates at 0.30" or above, or at least mine does. Is it calm there or don't you have an anemometer? Mine rarely shows calm as it turns in the slightest breeze. Actually, I see the wind direction was really variable there recently and it probably happened to be calm when you took the photo.

While I was mowing some grass this evening the wind (was calmish and very mild) suddenly picked up from the east again and it felt chilly in seconds, it seemed like, as the front sagged back south. I'm not liking how many of the CAMs are again showing the heaviest rain staying just to my nw.

Around midnight I heard a little thunder with only a trace of rainfall here since that time. Hopefully this system overperforms and we'll get some heavy rain producing thunderstorms later tonight. It's actually quite dry as field tile lines are not even running much. A warm front moved through this forenoon with temp surging into the low 70⁰s after 11:00 a.m.

One night last week they had some good storms in South Central Kansas where my sister lives. She said they had 1.50" of rain after 60 farmers had gathered to pray for rain as they were desperately dry! The wheat crop there probably is toast, and heard some were tilling it under! And farmers were waiting to plant corn till it rains. My sister's family are not farmers, but they still thought the dryness is depressing. It appears they may get some rainfall out there again next week, hopefully.

My favorite as well!

I got only 0.47" total rainfall. Had snow showers at times today.

Kind of got screwed here this evening rainfall wise. A heavy storm with occasional c/g lightning dropped probably nearly 1" of rain just east of here. Got a respectable quarter inch so far even here in the dryer hole, with rain continuing for now.

Quite the rotating, tornado warned, hail producing supercell headed for St Louis area looks like! I saw on Twitter were they had 3" diameter hail somewhere in Missouri probably from that same storm!

Rainfall still could be decent and next week's system looks great as of now. Yeah the cold is going to suck. So long as it doesn't get colder than 30⁰ or so it should be okay here, but I planted some early hardier (except for beans) garden things a few days ago,so hopefully it doesn't last to long! I started a lot of plant cuttings indoors this year so I'm glad I held off on planting any of those outside.