Posted by: @stargazer

The sky is a sort of milky color by day, with an orange sun; by night the Moon is dimmed and most of the stars are washed out. ....

The sun is setting about 25 minutes earlier than it did at the June solstice, and we've lost even more daylight in the morning. ....

 

But at night the crickets are singing more loudly and constantly, a sign I recognize as heralding the change to fall.

Yes! The past few days, the morning lighting, in particular, has been very strange with the wildfire smoke. It quite reminded us of partial eclipse lighting. Eerie in some ways.

Here, too, we are really noticing the change in daytime length, heralding the shorter days/ longer nights to come!  

And the crickets, are they loud! What a pretty sound. We often have a few that somehow make their way into our basement (which we try to catch to release outside) ... what a pretty 'noise'.

Well, we are currently having our typical July weather now in August. We are in the midst of a long hot, humid, dry spell of approx. two - three weeks duration. The only thing to do is to grin and bear it. And pace oneself, drinking lots of water and eating the abundant of fresh fruit and berries available so readily at this time of year. 

Our harvest has begun in our own veggie gardens, with abundant beans (mainly green, but some yellow too), cherry tomatoes, and garlic (just harvested yesterday). In July, 'though hot, we had rain periodically, which made the gardens lush and flourishing. Now, we are reaping (literally) the benefits of this. However, these two weeks in August now, we are needing to manually water the many gardens, as nothing significant will be falling from the sky anytime soon. 

Come, September/Autumn, come!    

We finally had our first 100F+ days last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Today is back down into the low 80Fs thanks to a cool front that came through, so I'm very much enjoying this summer. I wish the rest of the world could as well. 

Posted by: @fantasia

so I'm very much enjoying this summer. I wish the rest of the world could as well. 

Not in the southern hemisphere, please! I'm not there now, but I was there in February (visiting my family in Australia), and I can assure you we've already had our summer there and don't need another one, thank you all the same.  

@fantasia our summer has been surprisingly mild down here as well. We've hit 100 a handful of times, but it's not sustained over weeks at a time. We're down to about 8 weeks down here before the days are too short to maintain the heat for longer than a couple of hours.

Posted by: @fantasia

I'm very much enjoying this summer.

Glad to hear it! That was my sentiment all last summer, 2024: cooler, frequent rainfall, not blazing sun every single day. But it is the opposite this year. I think I may have said earlier that even people who love the heat are finding this extensive hot, very dry heat wave way too much.   And there is little relief at nights. A hot, sticky, muggy weather pattern has settled in.

We have had rain since I cannot remember when (mid-late July sometime), and none of significance in the next couple of weeks, at least. This is extremely unusual for us in August. Certainly more like our typical July weather.  

Tomorrow the heat warning should lift for Thursday and Friday (hot, but no humidity), then a warning will be back in effect for the weekend. The heat affects me so very much that I cannot even attend an extended family gathering this weekend.  

The farmers' fields really, really need rain, as do people's gardens, but the former is of necessity, while the latter, 'though disappointing, is not crucial. 

There are wild fires in Ontario further south than they have been in years, about 2 & 1/2 hours NE of us in the beautiful Kawartha Lakes area.

EDIT later today: the sky grew dark this afternoon, with warnings of potentially severe thunderstorms rolling through. Alas, just to the west of us got it, then the system veered north of us, then east again. It totally missed our village, even though I heard some lovely rumblings of thunder around. So, still no rain.  

@jo We have had rain since I cannot remember when (mid-late July sometime), and none of significance in the next couple of weeks, at least. This is extremely unusual for us in August. Certainly more like our typical July weather.

Whereas even last week was rainy and this week appears to be worse, when last weekend was the soggiest August weekend for three decades, and now flood warnings from summer are already enforced again. I hope down Pete's way they are getting enough of this wet weather. I'm wondering when it will dry up at the moment.  

Wow, @waggawerewolf27, that is some rain! I hope Pete's area is receiving some needed rain, too.

As for precipitation in our area, we had an entire day of rain on Tuesday and overnight. It was so beautiful and made everything lush again. But it was nice and gentle, so there was no run-off, as it all gradually soaked into the thirsty earth.

Our perennials and vegetable gardens have been fine through these weeks of dry spell, as we have faithfully watered from our deep well, but of course we let the grass go dry, as there is no point in putting a sprinkler on for something that won't die, but will simply go dormant until the needed rain arrives. 

For the next week now, there is a possibility of showers many of the days. Our ugly heat spells look to be behind us now, hurrah! Autumn is around the corner.  

And with the rain, the temperature has cooled down to seasonal, which, while still not my favourite (mid 20sC / 77F), at least it is not in the mid-upper 30sC, ugh. Also, there is much lower humidity in the air. That was quite miserable. (Hmmm, I can't pin down the 'whew' emoji now, so just imagine it. )

Some nights early next week may get down to single digits Celsius. *happy dance* That is getting to my kind of weather; feeling very fresh and invigorating ... great for brisk walking in the pre-dawn/sunrise hour!  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

I hope down Pete's way they are getting enough of this wet weather. I'm wondering when it will dry up at the moment.  

As a matter of fact, yes, we are getting certainly very relieving rain lately.  Whilst its not enough to significantly alleviate prolonged drought conditions, its certainly been enough to get the grass growing again and been good for farmers around the area where I live.  I'm sure I'm seeing more fields of canola this year than I did at about this time last year.  And it appears according to the forecast for the next seven days we're in for a wet week next week.

Apparently a little further south (Ballarat and more of the south west of Victoria) they may be facing more drought conditions than what I'm seeing around my area.  I would note that I am no expert though - this is just based on what I'm observing in the countryside as I'm driving around lately.

Hopefully you're all safe and out of danger with from potential flooding @waggawerewolf27?

So glad to hear you have had some rain relief, @Pete! Is this week as wet as the forecasters anticipated?

We are having glorious Autumn-like days all this week . Loving the temperatures, especially at night. This morning on my walk was 6C / 42.8F; yesterday was 7.5C / 45.5F. This is the walking weather I adore (and then down to -5 or -10 Celsius, depending on the wind). We have months ahead of cooler, crisp, then snowy, weather, and I can hardly wait.  

We are beginning to have rain again, thankfully, with more coming tomorrow. The past two days have been a mixture of sun and cloud, but when it matters, around 5:45 - 6:45 a.m. when I walk, the sky has been stunningly clear. Will post in the Astronomy thread regarding the beauty I have seen on high during this time. 

The early-turning trees around our village are showing their first colour. My heart beats faster anticipating the beauty in store throughout Autumn. ♥

Temperatures are rising a bit for next week, when school starts here in Ontario, bringing the air to seasonal again. (This week they have been nicely below seasonal.) Yet there are reaching nothing compared with the awful heat we had in July and the first part of August this year. And the nights are keeping comfortably cool next week, anywhere from 12 down to 8C. Lovely!

Like Jo, I'm looking forward to the cool, crisp days of autumn. The season just has so much that I like...longer nights for stargazing, crisp clear blue skies, cooler temperatures, and (hopefully) some backyard campfires.

We've lost about 2 hours of daylight since the solstice, and the pace is quickening. Crickets sound loudly at night, signaling the end of summer around here.

Normally we can still have some heat, humidity, and storms, but the past week or so, leading into the long Labor Day weekend, has consistently been pleasant (highs around 75F/24C, low humidity (by summer standards), few mosquitoes, no rain, and often-clear skies. This also happens to be the annual run of the Minnesota State Fair, and commentors have mentioned it's been a while since there has been such a good stretch of weather for that event.

Posted by: @jo

So glad to hear you have had some rain relief, @Pete! Is this week as wet as the forecasters anticipated?

Yes, this week has been very wet - it has been wonderful!  Just looking in to how much it has helped farmers in the region, apparently the rain ever since June has been a significant relief for farmers.  Apparently the long-term forecast is for more rain over September-October as well.  We're very thankful for this rain, that's for sure!  Regarding this week - yesterday (Friday) and earlier in the week (Tuesday) in particular were very wet, but there was also rain on the other days. 

Very good to hear of all the precipitation where you are, Pete! Here, we are still dry, with infrequent scattered rainfall, but we are so far behind what we need (especially the farmers, yes!) that it will take awhile to catch up. Our next chance of rain is this Thursday, when the forecast is consistent showers much of the day. We sure hope that comes to fruition! 

The past week has been full of lovely Autumn weather, below seasonal for this time of year ... we are absolutely not complaining! The next couple of days temps warm up a bit, to mid 20sC / 77F, with even a bit of humidity on Wednesday (blech), but all that is changing on Thursday, following, with temperatures dropping nicely to the upper teens Celsius, and quite a bit of cloud. We will not miss the glaring sun that has been so dominant much of this past summer in our area.

I have been wanting to post the following for awhile, but kept on forgetting. I have been a member of The Cloud Appreciation Society since 2011, and get quite a kick out of their manifesto, which fits perfectly how I feel about wondrous clouds versus blue skies.    

It goes like this:

@jo Love the Cloud Appreciation Society manifesto!

Meanwhile in the UK, we're finally starting to get some rain — not enough yet, but a bit — in time for autumn, after a very dry and hot summer. Well, hot by British standards. That is, by Aussie standards, it was quite warm. But as I think I've mentioned before, my mum recently (texting from winter in Australia) claimed it was "15°C and freezing!" So there we go.  

Spring is officially here, weather notwithstanding!  More early bloomers are coming out, to join a dozen daffodils. I'm going to enjoy this spring as much as I can, knowing that in early November I'll be swopping it for late autumn in England. 

Meanwhile in Sydney, the weather has been glorious. Still crisp of a morning & apparently, it is still snowing "down South", so a slightly late ending to the skiing season. It can be a bit biting of an early morning, like a diamond hard cutting edge of cold. But it is already heating up by lunchtime. It is nice not to have to worry about how long to keep the washing on the line.