Ramblings

Bloviating: to you, from me. Chide me if you will. algot@runeman.org

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Sun, 05 Jul 2009

Weather

July 5 - Sunny, 82 degrees
July 6 - Sunny, 81 degrees

That's the forecast as of this morning. It follows a great day for the 4th. Puffy clouds raced east during the parade in town. The temperature was moderate. I did take an umbrella along, but the original forecast for the morning was a 30% chance of showers.

We've had rain and cloud cover most of the time since the beginning of June. We only had about one third of the potential sun. That's at or near a record for this time of year. People have been complaining. (Well, what else is new?) We have been thinking about all the camps that started last week. The rainy day plans all used up the first few days. Of course, the weather has been better elsewhere. New England has been underneath a jet stream loop which a weather report said is usually circling over the Pacific Northwest instead of here.

New England is a meteorologic heaven. By that, I mean a place where forecasts are a challenge. I once read a book about forecasting. The author had moved from the west coast to New England so he could avoid having the "sunny, 85 - sunny, 84 - sunny, 86" string of forecasts. The standard weather saying here is "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." It may have been the same book which explained that the confluence of the Atlantic Gulf Stream with the water north of Cape Cod is partially to "blame" for the weather patterns here in the northeast. All the warm air that rises off the Gulf Stream encounters the colder water trapped above the hook of the Cape and all sorts of mixed up weather results.

Our lawn is very green, and today is scheduled for a cut. The common once-a-week practice has not been possible this year. The best plan seems to be mowing more often, if possible, and taking any chance you get. Fortunately retirement gives me the flexibility to get the lawn mower out of the garage any day of the week. As my friend John Young said, "When you retire, every day is a Saturday." Thanks, John.

Happy Fourth of July, America.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grope4mac/3639242024/ by Andy Brooks on the "About A Million to One" Flikr photostream. Thanks for using the Creative Commons Attribution license.

Yes, I was asleep by the time the fireworks went off.