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Drought

Hey Adrien!

Hey Adrien!

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What's that I hear? Is it rain? It still rains in Connecticut?

The streams have dried up and the lawns of southwestern Connecticut have turned a shade of ochre due to our current drought: we haven't had measurable rain since June 27th. Combining this along with our incoming week-long heat wave has bummed me out, both in the short team of hating the heat/humidity (we don't have HVAC in our 1890s house), but also worried for our planet.

How has the recent drought affected your area?
 
8893 said:
Have you guys checked out the Mitsubishi ductless mini-splits? They're not cheap, but they work great and are far preferable to window units imo.
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Do you have ductless? How many splits? I just can’t get a solid quote on it without having someone here to spend time. Not ready for that.
 
uconnfan68 said:
Do you have ductless? How many splits? I just can’t get a solid quote on it without having someone here to spend time. Not ready for that.
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I have one unit; only needed it in the downstairs addition, which has a cathedral ceiling. Got a quote from the company we were getting it from (same people who service our furnace and deliver our oil). They gave an estimate for what they thought the electrician might cost, and they were way under on that, to the tune of around $1,500 iirc. I was told that was because of the distance to our electrical box, which meant they had to pay more for better quality wiring, and more of it.
 
Rain? North of Dallas, our last rain was 47 days ago and none is forecasted in the next 14 days. It’s a lovely 105°, 108° tomorrow and next 14 days all at or above 100.
Lovely time of the year
 
Please shut off your ac’s, walk or ride your bikes instead of driving your cars, don’t shower or brush your teeth this week. Together we can save the planet. You’re welcome
 
You know things are bad when you hear a gurgling noise from the far end of the inground pool. Lift the skimmer cover and you see the pool water is just making it into the chamber, this causing potential cavitation.

Had to crank up the garden hose to get 3" of water added. Thankfully we're tapped into a quality water table.
 
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RichCTBB said:
I’ve given up on my lawn for the summer….had a beautiful lawn up until about 2 weeks ago when it started started to get yellow and crispy. Decided to put 0 effort in until September. Didn’t even set up the 4 hose sprinkler timer. I’m in the early to mid stages of a DIY full gutbathroom remodel anyway so that’s the priority.
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You dont need to monitor the sprinkler you can just turn it on then off.
 
Hey Adrien! said:
Same here. My in-laws are in Fountain Hills.

I experienced my first monsoon rain in the Phoenix area last summer when we were out to dinner at a golf course in Scottsdale. The restaurant was elevated and had a sweeping vista across the valley, so the color (almost olive green) and the lightning was one of the most exciting weather experiences of my life.

Of course, nothing compares to the monsoon rains I saw when I spent almost a month in the Philippines about ten years ago. We were driving from Quezon City to Batangas when the heavy rains basically turned the lightly maintained road into a stream. Seeing all the people near their shanty shacks as the rains damage their homes was one of the more acutely traumatic experiences in my life.
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We had a really strong monsoon rain here in Phoenix last evening... Lots of lightning thunder, wind and rain... Flooding and power outages.... It is a double-edged sword in that while it cools down the temp, it also raises the humidity, so it is probably worse than just having the dry heat...I was in Desert Mtn for the weekend and we had a great show while looking down on the Valley!
 
RichCTBB said:
I’ve given up on my lawn for the summer….had a beautiful lawn up until about 2 weeks ago when it started started to get yellow and crispy. Decided to put 0 effort in until September. Didn’t even set up the 4 hose sprinkler timer. I’m in the early to mid stages of a DIY full gutbathroom remodel anyway so that’s the priority.
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Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
Like others have said, my lawn was doing fantastic until probably July 4th. Right now it’s very crispy
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I'm exact opposite. June, July, August is when grass grows the most. It's like a jungle. I went 8 days without cutting my grass and cut it tonight after dinner. Hadn't rained all weekend.

Three times I had to stop my lawnmower to clean out all the grass mulch which had built up underneath. I was practically choking out the engine. Grass was like a fine puree and sopping wet but I needed a putty knife to glscrape it all off.

I have a Toro with Briggs and Stratton front drive push and changed out blade this spring. It cuts and mulches just fine. It's the grass which is so thick and holds so much water which makes it a bear.

I miss having young teens at home to cut my grass.

I will probably cut grass again Friday or Saturday.
 
In the mid-60s I remember CT having a major drought, so much so, that the Bridgeport Hydraulic Co's reservoirs (Aspetuck and Hemlock) along Rte 58 north of the Merritt Pkwy into Easton were extremely low for probably 2 years. Everything was bone dry and orchards had minimal harvests. Everyone was very concerned. But then the rains eventually came in like '67, and the reservoirs became full again. The bottom line is that droughts come and go, and are cyclical.
 
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Hey Adrien! said:
Curses can be good too. We got over two inches in Norwalk.
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So, when the new drought map comes out tomorrow (and I will put it up here), you most likely won't see any appreciable change in the map color because they close out the books on Tuesday morning. Next week's map on the 27th will show the improvements from the rain.
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
All of a sudden I woke up to a much nicer yard in South Windsor
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Mine looked less brown this morning. But the afternoon heat seems to have undone that already.
 
Any effects of Monday’s rain will be erased by today. One of the joys in my exciting life is mowing a lush, green, lawn with a coors light in the cup holder and admiring the striping. Sigh.
 
RichCTBB said:
Any effects of Monday’s rain will be erased by today. One of the joys in my exciting life is mowing a lush, green, lawn with a coors light in the cup holder and admiring the striping. Sigh.
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I thought you were going to share something about your neighbor for a second
 
New map is out for the week. Northeast with a bit of a push overall. Mass got worse most other parts slightly better. Keep in mind they closed out the books for reporting Tuesday morning at 8:00 EDT. So, if you had rain Tuesday morning it probably isn't accounted for in this map.

| U.S. Drought Monitor

droughtmonitor.unl.edu droughtmonitor.unl.edu
 
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youse should read the garden thread. we all knew aboot the drought months and months ago. we knew why and and we knew where, and now, here we are.

now, aboot this freshwater thing. on planet earth, freshwater goes like this:
+/-, aboot a quarter of it located in
lake baikal,
amazon basin,
the area from the Great Lakes to New England.
that makes aboot 75% of all of it.
period. twas ever thus.

u see the desert southwest mentioned there? i don't.
1000 year drought there? imagine that.
and oh, aboot this desalinization thing.. u know how that works? first, u take a pantload, epic amount of electricity .......
 
Chin Diesel said:
New map is out for the week. Northeast with a bit of a push overall. Mass got worse most other parts slightly better. Keep in mind they closed out the books for reporting Tuesday morning at 8:00 EDT. So, if you had rain Tuesday morning it probably isn't accounted for in this map.

| U.S. Drought Monitor

droughtmonitor.unl.edu droughtmonitor.unl.edu
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Thanks for sharing.

We got over two inches on Monday, so despite the heat wave, everything is looking pretty decent in Norwalk now, however we did just miss out on the storms both yesterday and Thursday.

Looks like more soaking rain Monday into Tuesday, which would be awesome.

For the heat, major props to our house and the attic fan. I just closed up all the windows and it's only 77 on our bottom floor and 79 upstairs with it likely topping out to 83 downstairs and 85 upstairs by the time we open up all the windows. Totally manageable considering the sustained heat we are getting.
 
Rain was predicted on Monday, hit parts of Mass and completely missed me. Under a Severe Thunderstorm watch for 8 hours and not a drop.

Flash forward to today, and I have tickets for Elton John at Gillette Stadium. Naturally it is going to rain a little a massive thunderstorm looks like it will hit almost exactly as the show is about to start. Glad I have Club Seats, so have shelter, but still...what crappy luck is this in a summer without rain?
 
Today looking like yet another day that was predicted as a washout but will be dry. Getting bad
 
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My lawn has officially transitioned from the crunchy barren wasteland of mid summer to the grabgrass jungle of late summer
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
My lawn has officially transitioned from the crunchy barren wasteland of mid summer to the grabgrass jungle of late summer
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Yup. It’s like mowing cabbage. The town replaced the curbs in our neighborhood last year and backfilled with sand and crabgrass seed.
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
My lawn has officially transitioned from the crunchy barren wasteland of mid summer to the grabgrass jungle of late summer
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I don’t even have enough water to support crabgrass.
 
Let’s go!

00375E9A-FD6E-4992-8F8E-521A0B084FAC.jpeg


Can’t wait for morning coffee tomorrow with the sound of rain.
 
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