Over three days from Tuesday through Thursday we got about four and three-quarters of an inch of rain. It was a lot of rain, but fortunately it didn’t fall in a huge downpour. We had some fairly steady rain, but it didn’t wash away everything I had done to get grass seeded in the front yard. Earlier rain had done that already.
The rain came in what the weather guys called a rain train. There were bands of rain that usually move perpendicular to the length of the band, but in this case moved along the direction of the length, if you get what I mean. Here’s a radar image of some of it.
All that rain marched up from the bottom left of the image to the upper right over a period of hours.
So, Saturday, after two days of no rain, I went out to look for sprouting grass. I found a little in one small part of the yard, but nothing in the largest part of the yard. Not a single sprout in most of the yard. It’s possible that some may show up in other areas, but it’s also possible there will be none. I’ll keep watering (actually, sprinkling) and hope for the best. I’ll also hope for some more rain.
That’s a lot of rain! My brother in Virginia has been getting soaked as well. He is bummed out about his cantaloupes because they need hot sunshine to sweeten them up. He’s still hoping. I hope your grass starts to grow.
Although Kali and I moved to Colorado in mid-June, I’m keeping in touch with friends and colleagues in the northern Piedmont. They’re getting drenched up there, too. Just before I retired, the basement in our office started to get wet with even the slightest rain; we had fans and dehumidifiers going constantly and I was glad to turn this problem over to my successor. Turns out that a perforated pipe mean to infiltrate water into the ground from the gutters on the building was doing just that–in spades! My successor connected the downspouts to a solid pipe and directed the rainwater away from the building and–voila!–problem solved. That perforated pipe had been there for years but had never caused problems.
Here in Colorado, we have mostly sapphire skies, lots of sun, and very low humidity–just heavenly.
Robin — We got that rain, and it helped get some of my grass seed to germinate. Unfortunately, it hasn’t rained much since. The grass is poking its little head up and looking around, but it won’t get much further than that if we don’t get more rain.
Scott — I had been checking your blog for a while, so I saw your first recent reboot post. I commented but the comments haven’t shown up yet. I was envying your Colorado weather and comparing it to ours, where I have to change my shirt after walking the dogs. Unfortunately, the humidity doesn’t always translate into rain.