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HOT!

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We have been hot. Most days have been high 90’s. We’ve hit 100 already, and today was 102 in the back yard. It’s now 10pm and 88 degrees outside. It does make walking my dog strange. He gets walked late, like 8:30pm, after the sun has gone down. Any earlier and its just too hot.

But the real question is how much hotter it is going to get later this summer.

So far my garden is still growing. But I have all the beds set up with drip watering. The drip heads are placed right at the base of the plant and it seems to be working well. Its keeping the water just where it needs to be. And that’s helping them to stay alive. But I don’t have much growing.

My cucumber is growing well, its big and lush. And I’ve already begun picking the cucumbers. I’ve also noticed my shishinto pepper plants have peppers on it. I have a bell pepper plant that is growing well, though I haven’t seen any fruit on it yet.

No rain

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They have been warning of rain. And warning of rain. And mentioning rain.

And no rain yet.

Not only has there been no rain, the chances of rain keep diminishing. Put another way, don’t hold your breath waiting for rain to show up.

On the other hand, it looks like this weekend we just might make triple digits, I guess that’s something to look forward to. Or at least it’s notable, maybe. But as it stands, we have warm/hot weather, some breezes, some humidity. Right now, its 6pm and my back yard shows 88 degrees with 60% humidity. So I guess all I can say is same ole, same ole.

Welcome to Texas.

Rain

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Last night we got rain again. It started late, around 11pm. We had a fairly heavy downpour. We actually got about one inch of rain in the first hour, then the rain slowed down. We also got a lot of wind. The wind was what alerted me to the change in weather. By morning time we had received 1.9″ of rain here at the house.

The rain made for some very interesting weather. We had a fairly warm day yesterday. But once the rain began the temperatures dropped to 60 degrees. It did warm up during today, but this evening we are back down to 60 degrees. It does made for some pleasant evening weather, I will admit. I was even able to walk my dog late in the day and found it cool. My dog liked it.

But now we have no more rain in the forecast until next week. We shall see what we get. But it was nice getting rain last night. We definitely need it.

RAIN!

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They’ve been saying we had rain coming in. And today was not the best of weather. It was overcast, humid, hot, not very comfortable. Even my dog didn’t want to walk.

But low and behold, at around 10:30pm it began to rain. We dropped from a high of 95 earlier today, down to a current 63 and began to rain, lightning, thunder, and hail over here.

As of right now we have 0.64 inches of rain. Looking at the radar I don’t think we’ll get much more tonight, but maybe just a little bit. But tomorrow our high should be just under 80, someplace in the high 70’s. And Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we are expected to get more thunderstorms.

Hopefully we do. We need the rain.

And the heat goes on

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Well, I’m not sure if its good news or bad news. We will not hit the triple digits. That’s sort of good. But we will not be dipping out of the 90’s over the next 10 days. The nights are not what I would call terribly cool, but they do dip down just below 70 or stay in the low 70’s. At least one nice thing is no rain to speak of over here. But that’s not the say it can’t get humid. My dear wonderful dog has not been sleeping thru the night well, so I’m often up early (think 3am) to let him out. It is actually still pretty warm, high 70’s, but humid at that time of the night.

My plants are not happy. My lettuce is bolted as is any arugula left. And my peas are not happy.

In defiance of this heat, I have added a bit more watering heads to the drip water system. We’ll see if it helps the plants. But it looks like it will be a long hot summer, or spring, whichever this is.

Clouds 05/14/22

I will say we did have these interesting clouds yesterday. We don’t see these often.

You call this spring!

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It is Saturday, May 7, 4:45 pm and already 95 degrees outside. At least the humidity is down to 41% but it is definitely hot outside. And tomorrow is due to be just a couple of degrees hotter.

And the coming week is forecast to be just as hot. We seemed to have transitioned into hot spring, cool summer (is that a good description?) time of year. The 10 day forecast doesn’t drop below of 93 degrees. So hot seems to be here.

Welcome to why growing things in central Texas is so difficult.

My lettuce bolted as has my arugula. Its hardly a surprise that they’ve bolted, with this weather. But it is what it is.

This is spring!

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So you think it’s spring time in central Texas. It balmy, wait this isn’t exactly balmy weather. It early May and we’re due to hit 89 degrees, with 66% humidity. And we could even get a shower or possibly a thunderstorm. This is spring time in central Texas. I wouldn’t call it balmy. It warm, more like hot, and humid already.

But just wait. This weekend it will be sunny, after showers later this week, with lovely highs in the high 90’s. And I’m talking 97-98 degree heat. I cannot make this weather up. It might be a sunny weekend and that hot, but after that it stays in the 90’s but its going to be cloudy. Let’s call it what it is, hot and humid – and we’re not in summer!

And you wonder why gardening is such an adventure here. Poor plants.

We got rain

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They promised we would get rain, and I have to say they delivered that yesterday. Here we got 1.59 inches of rain. It may not seem like much but it has made for some happy plants. There was no rain today, but it was good to get it the other day nonetheless. We still have a chance for more rain in the coming days, how much I’m not sure. Will it come, I’m not sure.

But we got some, and I have to say I have a happy garden.

The weather has been somewhat warm so those seeds I put out the other week have begun to sprout. And that’s why I am happy for the rain. I’m sure it helped convince the seed to sprout. Oh happy spring!

Its been a while

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Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Its been an interesting time. For starters, I’ve been “sick” with allergies. Like really bad allergies. Bad enough I’ve been on antibiotics and steroids, plus inhalers. Its been bad. Even some street corners look like someone poured yellow paint on them. This has been pollen time in this area of Texas. And me, I got hit bad.

But help is on the way. The weather is changing, and with it hopefully all the various pollens will settle down. Or at least hopefully it will settle down enough for people to breathe easily again.

Or at least for me to breathe easier.

As for how does that affect my garden? Well I haven’t been able to spend much time out in the yard. I did get a few things done. On one day we went out and redid the drip water system, added some new lines, added a second timer, and I was even able to get some seed in. The grapes are actually growing, and were able put out small grapes. I will need to cover them to keep the birds from them.

The blackberries are coming back, and even the roses have been blooming. The trees have gone through flowers and are getting leaves, though the apples are not getting apples this year. But I didn’t expect them to.

Where the garden is not where I hoped it would be, allergies have put me behind the curve a bit, but I think we’ll still get something. I’ve been harvesting lettuce, even some arugula, and even the peas are still producing. So all is not lost yet. But the weather is still up and down. One day was a high of 64, and the next in the 80’s so this is Austin, TX spring weather.

WOW!

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They mentioned severe storms for today. I know earlier they mentioned possible tornadoes, unusual for this area.

Well, we have had confirmed at least 4 tornadoes as this time (7pm). Taylor, Hutto, Round Rock, Elgin, even an area called Kalahari Resort have all been hit. One tornado crossed a freeway flyover, near I-35 and I-45. At this point there are areas with some damage, how much I don’t know. Some areas are without power. At one point they even said possible tornado in Wimberley, close by where I live.

It is a very unusual situation here. First of all, we don’t get many tornadoes show up in this area. But having a number of tornadoes all happening at the same time comes under the the extremely unusual situation description. From what I can tell, most of the tornadoes have not been in highly populated area, downtown Austin didn’t get hit, but outer areas of Austin are getting hit.

According to the news channel I’ve been watching, at least one doppler unit got hit, either by tornado or lightning. I’m sure more information will be coming in.

I’m sure damage reports will be coming in later today. As of right now, they have said there is damage, but they have not mentioned how much damage.

I even feel for the weather people on tv. They have been broadcasting nonstop for well over an hour.

UPDATE: 03/24/2022

How many confirmed separate tornadoes did the Austin area get? Actually I don’t have an answer for that. I wish I did. But the NWS (National Weather Service) is in the process of confirming various information about the different tornadoes that we had. What I can glean from the news includes:

Round Rock area had a confirmed tornado. It crossed over a freeway intersection (I-35 and 4), taking out a light standard, caused damage to a bank, and a resort in the area. At this time I am not sure if they have confirmed strength.

Wimberley is said to have a confirmed tornado.

Areas near Tayor and Manor had confirmed tornadoes. Areas near Elgin also had confirmed tornado activity.

At this time I’m not sure if some of these may have been one tornado that merely moved, or what. But I’m sure more information will be released in time. Suffice it to say, the greater Austin area saw its share of tornadoes this past week.