We had a brief thunderstorm and 0.1 inches of rain.

Yesterday we had a few minutes of sheets of rain, mini rivers pouring out of the roof valleys, and the rain gauge, which had been empty, showed nearly 0.2 inches! I know they say much of that runs off, but I have many areas where the runoff travels to other plants that need rain, too.

We had about 0.4 inches of rain overnight with maybe more to come this afternoon.

Claire

We had about 0.2 overnight and are expecting 2 inches today and another 1 inch tomorrow. Finally, but I hope it’s slow and steady and doesn’t all just run off.

I am glad to hear that many areas seem to be getting measurable rain, and it sounds like the worst of the drought is breaking in many areas, though I expect wells will still be low. We seem to be getting just enough to keep the plants damp and the humidity high.

What a crazy summer. You all are drowned. We're all melting. We started off freezing. Now we're braising. My goal: Be as flexible as my garden has been. It's just water off an Echinacea's back as far as its concerned.

ran into another gardener yesterday at Salisbury NH's Old Home Day. We both cursed chipmunks. Rain held off for the parade but was a gentle drizzle later in the day. Probably the wettest August on record. No desire to do any garden work.

According to iweathernet.com we got 0.3 yesterday. Not what I was hoping for. Every website that tracks weather says something different.

Saypoint - exactly. That's why I bought the rain gauge. Cheap, easy and accurate for our yard.

Yes, I bought one yesterday. I left my old one behind when we moved.

Your garden looks very happy, Jane - and clean too! All of the dust and pollen has been washed away.

0.44 inches of rain here yesterday, and 0.01 so far today. It's very foggy although I don't hear the fog horn. We're experiencing isolated raindrops now (or maybe the fog is condensing). The deck is wet but I'm still sitting out here under the overhang and umbrella with my coffee and laptop.

The mosquitos are flying, or maybe swimming, and I just applied yet another layer of repellent.

Claire

Jane, I think you chose a good time to put in your garden. It’s been so humid, I can’t imagine that the leaves are losing a lot of moisture.

Like Claire, I am finding myself chased by mosquitoes during the day, not usual by this time of year.

We have had another 1 1/4” of rain between yesterday early afternoon and early this morning, and it is still raining on and off now.

NHBabs - I got lucky. For roughly 5 consecutive years, perhaps 2008-2013, we were quite dry in the summer as storms seemingly split in two when a storm reached the CT River and passed us by. In 2008 when the pines came down and we put in the 90' long border of rhodys, I had the soaker hoses going most of the summer. Haven't had to turn on the new soaker hoses in the 3 new raised beds at all this summer. Just plain lucky. And, it's a joy to see bright green new growth on the conifers.

Jane

Jane, your photos are great. Love the stone work in your earlier post.

My rain gauge says we had 5 inches yesterday! Finally!

5 inches, Saypoint! That's wonderful (so long as it doesn't happen every day).!

We had 0.8 inches overnight, This was low probability but just enough likelihood that I had the windows closed just in case. I love seeing the deck wet in the morning and the houseplants out there with their leaves looking clean and damp.

I weeded some gravel paths yesterday and the crabgrass, etc. pulled out wonderfully easily.

Claire

That is an amazing amount of rain, Saypoint! Hope the small amount you got a couple of days ago allowed it to soak in well.

We have only had about 0.3 inches since Saturday morning, but we honestly don’t need it at this point. Like Claire, I spent a few hours weeding yesterday since it wasn’t raining and I was home. I have now weeded most of two good sized beds and part of the drive edge, most of which hasn’t been weeded since early summer. It’s just been either too hot or too wet to want to spend time outdoors, and while yesterday was humid, it wasn’t scorching hot or actually raining. Yippee! Things don’t feel quite so out of control if I look in the right direction.

I know, I looked at the rain gauge and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a nice, steady rain all day, with occasional bursts of harder rain. My plants are all very happy. All of the online weather trackers say something different, as usual.

NHBabs, I commend you on weeding. We have a summer outdoor party this weekend and the garden beds are not looking so great. With this humidity, I've lost my get out and weed mojo. But I did buy a tall obelisk at Ocean State's clearance sale that might look really nice NEXT year with scarlet runner bean climbing up it. But that will also require I move tall garden phlox out of circle bed and replace with shorter flowers. Not sure when I'm going to do that.

We got another 2”, mostly Friday night, but continuing some into Saturday morning.

Defrost, I hope that the outdoor party didn’t get rained on. Today is supposed to be lovely, with no rain, light winds, and temperatures in the upper 70’s.

We were lucky. Bouncy obstacle course was set up Friday afternoon when weather was good. Rain all night and it was pouring for the Old Home Day parade. Kudos to the 4-H working steer group and MVHS equestrian team members as well as other participants for putting on a good show despite the downpour. But by 11am sun was trying to come out and the rest of the day was great. At night, sat around the campfire and had a fairly good view of town fireworks. Don't know how much rain we got but enough to create a shallow but long pool of water next to the bouncy house so the kids also splashed around in that. Funny to see a dad pulling off rubber boots to find there was a lot of water in the boots.

I don't know what happened to my large pots on the granite step to our small kitchen porch. The annuals petered out, maybe rotted roots? Shallow hanging baskets of begonias are beautiful. Impatience peeking out from under halo dogwood shrub were perfect. Herb garden on other side of brick walkway has sage mounding nicely. Garlic chives are just beginning to blossom and growing wherever they want.

The bouncy obstacle course sounds like a lot of fun, defrost. I'd be tempted to try it myself but I'm afraid they're not designed for adult-sized bodies and I'd just squash it.

We got a little less than an inch of rain, mostly on Friday early evening but a little more overnight. Loud thunder and lightning and heavy rain for about half an hour and then the drama moved offshore.

I finally bought a rain gauge and it pretty much agrees with the local Wunderground PWS.

The front brought in a wave of cool air and the temperatures have now warmed up to about 70 degrees from an overnight low of about 65 degrees. The cool air is very welcome except it's a warning that summer is slipping away and winter will come back. Hopefully we'll get a nice long fall shoulder season before the fleece jacket and vest emerge from the closet.

Claire

My husband said he heard report that August here in NH is wettest on record … and it's not even the end of the month yet. Torrential rains here today. I'm getting tired of it but I expect trees and shrubs need it after the summer drought.

Your torrential rains are bringing adequate rainfall for us. We'll get some good rain today, but we are so far from being too wet. All summer you all have gotten much more rain than us, but this is the first month it is something to be glad about!

I just checked our rain gauge, and it said we had 1 1/4”. It certainly felt like a lot more since I was driving to work in it, and my wipers were on high speed for the entire hour+.

Glad you are finally getting some rain.

We were supposed to have thunderstorms overnight and today and all I had were three drops in the rain gauge. Just finished hand watering 21 new shrubs.

Somehow Saypoint, such unfortunate news can’t really be liked. My sympathies; wishing you more rain soon!

The rains have picked up, an inch earlier this week, some light rain today and more clouds and thunderstorms in the forecast for next week. We’ll see.

I finally put in the drip system I’ve been wanting for my front window boxes, just in time for the snow. Actually we’ll be having some temps back up in the 80s next week, though I don’t think I’ll need to turn the water on. But I’m ready for next year. It was easy to do, once I figured it out, and now that I know how to do it, I’m thinking of adding a line next year to two more large planters and the birdbath, which aren’t close to the hose.

Saypoint, glad you are getting rain for your new shrubs. Hopefully Jane is getting some as well for her new plantings. We have gotten only about 1/4“ in the last 3 weeks, so even after all our rain between midJuly and midAugust (12.5” by my rain gauge) the soil is starting to feel dry a few inches down (I was digging potates today.). We are scheduled to get about 2” over the next couple of days, though, so I am not dragging out the hose, even in the veggie garden.

In the field next door, the farmers are working to get in the hay before the rain. It is either the fourth or fifth cutting this season, so they should be pleased with the amount of haylage they are storing up for winter.

We had Rainageddon, or Stormageddon, or Windageddon last Thursday. Adding -ageddon seems to be the current jargon for "large," and our storm was quite memorable. Hope to post a video later. It was very short, but rainfall was in the inches and winds were extreme for a few minutes. Lost many trees in the area, some very old. I would assume the dry summer made them susceptible.

Oh, dear, Deanna. This is another post that is difficult to like, though it sounds like you needed the rain. Isn’t it strange that we are likely not much over 100 miles distant, but your summer weather patterns have been so different. Storms this summer seem to have been far more narrow and localized than they often are, and I have noticed several moving more N-S instead of the more usual W to E which would be more likely for you to get some of the same storms we have. I look forward to the video since I do love watching a good storm, even while staying mindful of the problems they can cause.

Yes, NHBabs, it has been extremely unusual! The differences in our weather have been surprisingly stark this year. It feels as if we might as well be different quadrants of the country! Our storm Thursday was also narrow, but our stretch of coast happened to be within that narrow strip.

Speaking of narrow storms, my most memorable experience was in Birmingham, AL, in 1993. A major blizzard ran through the south that year and on up the east coast. Birmingham happened to fall under a narrow step of heavy snow, and the strip travelled so that our small area of Birmingham was under the strip for its full length. We got 18 inches of snow that storm, and had a blast, even thought the power was out for days!

I’ve watched the weather radar through much of the summer, showing storms that drenched NJ come northeast and miss us. They were going by us, moving just west of the Connecticut River at LI Sound and continuing on north. Agree, usual storms would come from W to E across from NY state.

“Usual” took a powder this summer, but the past 24 hours gave our yard 1.5” of rain. I’m grateful.

We’ve had 4 inches Sunday night and Monday.

Only a quarter of an inch Monday/Tuesday overnight but the rest of the forecast rain is suspended in the atmosphere with 99% humidity according to Wunderground. I wiped off the countertop after breakfast and it refuses to dry.

Claire

Really weird that there can be such a huge disparity in the amount of rain. I’m at the mouth of the CT river. It’s not a very big state.

A good day, friends, a good day.

This video of last Thursday's storm is only 52 seconds long. You can see in the beginning how quickly it moves across the sky, and by the end it's white out conditions.

That was amazing, Deanna. What a lot of water in the air, and the wind looked strong out of the immediate shelter of the building.

deannatoby: Very impressive video - the timing of the storm's arrival was captured perfectly and the sounds are dramatic! Watching a storm approach over the water always adds to its impact.

Claire

I'm visiting relatives just up the CT River from you, Saypoint. We've had long bouts of steady rain off and on since I arrived here Monday. More rain earlier this morning, but now a respite, more later I think, and still more tomorrow....

I really hope some of this rain has spread to my (relatively) dry pocket of the Upper Cape in my absence, but the numbers are discouraging. Whenever it rains here, I rush to check my weather page for home, & the chances there are usually 50% or lower. :--[

If possible, I would share with you barrett001. Another 1.75" since yesterday, and as of this writing, it's still coming down.

drop by drop

Jane (new trees are happy, NHBabs)

When I checked the rain gauge yesterday morning after all the rain was finished, we had gotten another 2 1/2”.

And....the rain keeps coming here. It's like spring! But, I still have some things to get in the ground, and if this fall turns out to be as mild and moist as last fall, the plants willl be very very very happy! (It is hard to dry out sails in this weather, though, and I'm learning that I have to think earlier about firewood, too.)

In central CT, we got 9.5" in September and 3" October 1- 3rd AM. Ground is saturated.

same here on CT shore. Though my front lawn somehow manages to be dried out.

I haven’t totaled our September rain, but we had about 1 1/2” yesterday.

We've had a little less than an inch in the last week - not spectacular, but welcome.

I'm enjoying deannatoby's statement that "It is hard to dry out sails in this weather, though," I'm picturing her going sailing to escape weeding.

Claire