http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3730414debbierlus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:01 PM
Original message
Does anyone else think this is the strangest summer weather they have ever seen?
I live in Western MA, and this is a WEIRD summer.
It hasn't been hot. It has been warm and often humid. But, the really weird thing is the constant threat of showers and thunderstorms. I have never seen so many thunderstorms in a summer (or lightening storms, one went on all night).
It hasn't been raining all the time, but it rains nearly every day in downpours.
The weather is just weird. The skies are beautiful, but they are like nothing I have ever seen in a summer sky. It feels like we are turning into a rain forest.
My husband says it is the ice caps.
It is so strange, and so different, it is frightening.
ColbertWatcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:03 PM
Response to Original message
1. I have noticed the change out here in SoCal (LA) too...
...dare I say it, but it seems Los Angeles is finally experiencing weather!
It's been more humid here lately than it's ever been in my long, long memory.
pdxmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:04 PM
Response to Original message
2. Oregon has been strange. Much cooler than usual, but when it's hot, it's hot. It's almost like we're either in the 70's or in the 90's.
Yesterday morning at 6 AM, the temperature was 43. Today, at 5:00 PM, it's 90.
here_is_to_hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:11 PM
Response to Reply #2
10. Seriously...
I am out on the Coast and it has not been over 60 in weeks, no Sun to speak of...
Something is afoot!
Pastiche423 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 11:21 PM
Response to Reply #10
25. Yep. It's been the coldest summer I've spent in CB
The ocean winds do not help.
Damn. Talk about a ****ing inconsiderate primitive.
What is "CB"?
To me, that might indicate "Council Bluffs, Iowa," but I don't think that's what's meant.
Purveyor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:07 PM
Response to Original message
4. Lower mid-michigan has been pretty much normal this year.
MorningGlow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
7. We've had a lot less rain here (WNY)
It's been just as hot and humid as ever, but we haven't had as many rainy days as we've had in past summers. We have had some thunderstorms, some severe, but not out of the ordinary. What we've been missing are the icky, cool, drizzly days--and I'm okay with that!
Selatius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
8. I call them "popcorn thunderstorms." They exist in very warm, wet, unstable atmosphere.
What you describe basically sounds like the weather I see around here...the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In the summer, they pop up in the afternoons pretty often because the sun heats the atmosphere causing convection currents that sometimes carries the moisture into the atmosphere, spawning those thunderstorms. In the tropics, they're the norm in places like the Amazon or the Congo.
debbierlus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:16 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. We always get some of these in the summer - this is just relentless
It is strange because the downpours are SO intense (sheets upon sheets upon sheets)...
It is happening almost daily.
No hot weather.
Sisaruus Donating Member (123 posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:25 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. northern CT downpours this weekend
I'm in northern CT on weekends - west of the CT river. I was noticing the intense downpours this past weekend - just as you described: sheets upon sheets upon sheets. With much darker daytime skies than I remember in past years.
smoogatz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:10 PM
Response to Original message
9. We had a cold late spring and early summer here in west-central WI.
Since then it's been pretty normal, after several years of hotter and drier than average. But yeah--we were just out on the Cape, and it was crazy humid out there for much of the week. I've spent numerous summers on Cape Cod, and never experienced that kind of windless humidity there.
MadMaddie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:11 PM
Response to Original message
11. Washington State...Seattle area....I say we were in Fall like 4 weeks ago.
uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-05-08 04:44 AM
Response to Reply #11
31. goodness, come on over to PT, been hot over here, garden's finally growing
the spring was very long, finally got nice over here.
You know, if I were my fellow alum Skins, I would ban the use of acronyms and abbreviations on Skins's island.
It makes the primitives look just really stupid.
rzemanfl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:12 PM
Response to Original message
12. I was born 61 years ago today near Chicago, it was 104 degrees.
There is always weird weather, but that doesn't mean that global warming is not a fact.
Canuckistanian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:18 PM
Response to Original message
14. Same weather here in Canada
I think that today was the first day in about a week that we haven't had a drop of rain.
And it been like this since the beginning of June.
I'm not complaining, I haven't needed to water my garden and it's doing great.
But this isn't normal for a July going into August (we'd normally have a few week-long "droughts" in summer).
In fact, I'd say the weather was becoming more like the prairies - hot, dry days with rainstorm every night.
aikoaiko Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:27 PM
Response to Original message
16. Actually, for SE GA its back to normal, hot and humid and afternoon showers.
Past couple of summers have been too dry.
MonteLukast Donating Member (577 posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:28 PM
Response to Original message
17. 21 days in a row 90+ degrees in Denver.
On June 12, the Highline Canal near Windermere Drive was 2 1/2 feet deep. Yesterday, it was totally dried out.
AllieB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-04-08 08:30 PM
Response to Original message
18. I agree about the thunderstorms. We had a doozy yesterday North of Boston.
It was really hot here in early June when I was out of the country-a week of heat indexes over 100. From then on it's been oddly tropical like Florida with almost daily thunderstorms or rain showers. Today was a nice exception. It was 85, sunny and DRY!
I remember as a kid having a summer where we had a lot of thunderstorms, but not like this.
The bonfire burns on and on and on, and surprisingly, the words "Bush" or "Rove" are absent.
One closes these excerpts with the carpetbagging maternal ancestress:
Raven Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-05-08 07:05 AM
Response to Original message
34. Hi Deb. I'm not far from you...in SW New Hampshire. This has been more of an Alabama summer than a New England summer. As you probably know, central NH got a tornado that stayed on the ground for an hour and a half last week and ripped through 9 towns going south to north. That is really unheard of. Couple this with the awful winter we had last year...2 major snowstorms a week in February and March...and all of them with a significant component of ice... I'd say we're warming up alright!
