And our summer has arrived a few days before the Summer solstice here. It's been hot and a tad humid. Thankfully, we've had some cooler days (Yesterday and the day before that were very lovely and almost chilly.) but today, it is hot. I think that there's been a hot day, rain, cooler day cycle.

1 degree Celsius...what is the precipitation like at that weather, wagga?
Puddleglum, do you think you could share how you made homemade mosquito trap? We haven't had that many, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

1C sounds nice right now. It's only about 82F/28C here now but it's really humid - almost that 'air you can wear.' Whew!

More rain is on the way...with all this heat and moisture the mosquitoes are oppressive this year, as our recent visitors to the North Star State can testify! Flying syringes, for sure!

As Aitb indicated, the June solstice comes tomorrow at 0504 GMT (just after midnight tonight here in the central US). It's the longest day of the year (or longest night Down Under).

Humidity is getting to the point where you cannot lean on a wall for fear of sticking. Even as post this a strong batch of storms are working their way across the state. I must make sure to check the sump pump tonight.
Mosquito trap directions are as follows;
-One 2 liter bottle of soda, (empty of course). Cut the top "funnel" off, and set aside.
-1 cup water to boil.
-Add 1 cup sugar, white, or brown. Boil until dissolved.
-Remove from heat.
-Add two cups cool water.
-Once water is below 90 degrees add 2 tsp active dry yeast. Do not stir.
-Pour mixture into bottem of Soda bottle.
-turn over funnel made from top of bottle, and tape around rim, making sure lid is off, and opening is un-abstructed.
-Place dark cloth around bottle, as mosquitos are attracted to dark colors.
-Place trap in dark shaded area where they frequent.
The mixture produces co2 which attracts the little critters. Change the bottle out every two weeks, or as filled.
I would have told you how well this works by now, but unfortunatly in my infinit ability to get sidetracked I recycled my only soda bottle, and must by more soda before I can make the trap.
Should someone succeed in compleating one before me please let me know of any success. If however, it proves a dismal failure, please do not bill me for the cost of materials, and cavities from drinking too much sugary drinks.

1 degree Celsius...what is the precipitation like at that weather, wagga?

Heavy frost on the front lawns but otherwise dry. There is supposed to be rain and yes, we did have a couple of overnight showers. But nothing else much so far. Most of the rain seems to be still stuck in India doling out a horrible monsoon. At this rate we will have water rationing again, you wait and see.

We found flypapers hung from the light fittings worked quite well last summer. Maybe that might help with mosquitos also.

Woke up to find a bit of a mess all around town. Trees down in many lawns, with power out. Had to dodge a tree branch that was literally hanging from a power line over the road.
No word of injuries, thankfully.
Our own home suffered no damage, with just some smaller branches that need picking up. I was going to offer the chainsaw to the neighbor, but it looks like he already has the smaller branches cleared up.
I remember flypapers from when I was a little squirt wagga. My brothers, and I usually got them caught in our hair. Mother made the most unusual face when trying to clean the glue out.

This morning's sky show kept me awake until close to 5 am, but there was no damage in the immediate vicinity. But it was certainly one of the more spectacular lightning shows I've seen in quite a while!

The rains were torrential and seemed to just keep coming (meteorologists would say the thunderstorms were training over us - continuing to form over the same areas and following the same path, like a train on its tracks). Some areas received up to 8 inches (203 mm) of rain in the past 24 hours. I watched the storm out the window, but noticed a neighbor enjoying it out on his porch.

Winds up to 47 mph (76 km/hr) were reported at MSP airport while areas north of here clocked winds of 85 mph (137 km/hr). Lots of downed trees, as Puddleglum mentioned. Some 147,000 people were without power this morning.

Much of the state is under flash flood watch for tonight, with even more heavy rain on its way tonight in a repeat of those severe storms. This pattern is expected to persist over the next week or so. Such a change from last year's drought!

The forecasted temperatures here are supposed to be in the 90's for the next 5 days before rocketing down to the low/mid 70's... great. Going to a grad party will be fun tomorrow!

Monday we got this horrible pop-up severe thunderstorm. The sky turned black with quite the impressive shelf cloud leading the way. I've never seen a sky like it. One moment I was outside trying to get a monstrous turtle off the driveway (That was fun. ) in full daylight, the next it was windy and black.

According to reports, this storm had been producing 2 inch hail and 70+mph winds too. The sirens went off for a high wind warning and we all had to hightail to the basement for awhile listening to the storm come in.

We were quite lucky and got the brunt end of the storm cell, just some rain, wind and storming however just a few miles east the 2 inch hail hit along with the winds. Lots of power outages too!

No majour storms are expected for the next few days. I'm glad about that, bad weather terrifies me. You should have seen me Monday.

Sounds similar to our weather! After that big storm Friday morning, high winds came through again Friday evening, knocking lots of trees down and cutting power to a quarter-million people.

And here in my parents' southern Minnesota town, there's water everywhere - flooding over river banks, overflowing the lakes into the streets and yards -and even into the first floor of my parents' apartment building. With all the lakes in the area flooding does happen, but it's been a long time since I've seen so much in this town. And last year was so dry...

Rain, and stormy here in the middle of winter Down Under. Yesterday we had a supermoon (an extra large-sized full moon) and an accompanying king tide so there may be coastal flooding.

It seems like everywhere there are storms at this moment.

Heavy frost on the front lawns but otherwise dry.

That sounds mighty nice now, as we sit at 40C/104F with the heat index. Honestly, we hardly even had spring: this year, it went pretty much right from winter to summer. This week is filled with hot, humid days and nights. Rain is to be predominant, beginning tonight, with no comfortable relief until the weekend. And people wonder why I enjoy autumn and winter more than summer?

That sounds like quite the storm in your area, Puddleglum and stargazer! Yours too, GentleWarrior! Stay safe, everyone.

Yes, indeed, 'gazer, this spring and summer is vastly different than the dryness in the comparable months of 2012.

Warm there now, LOTS?

We are cooler than usual today at 75F/24C-80F/27C. But by Friday and continuing on through Sunday we are supposed to be at 100F/38C+.

Summer has arrived in KS. Highs are all in the upper 90Fs and lower 100Fs this week. Pretty typical weather here and I am VERY happy that it didn't show up this year until late June instead of early May like last year.

Finally some repreave from the heat!
I was getting ready to wade deeper into the marsh, and soak up to my neck. The Mrs, gets ind of testy when I drip on the carpets coming in, but I think I wouldn't have cared.
Weather channel was talking 30% chance of rain today, and tomorrow. I hope it holds off, there's a fishing hole I have been itching to get to.
From what the calender shows it looks like mid to upper 70 for the next week.

We've had twice the normal rainfall for this time of year. Overdue though it was, we got the rain in spades on the Cumberland plain. It has been snowing down south (in the Australian Alps - not a sudden epidemic of hanging petticoats). Our local dam (the mighty Warragamba) is full to overflowing and when it did overflow on Monday there was reported flooding both upriver and down river from here. So we stayed high and dry at home as much as possible.

The heat is really here in the West now. 101F yesterday and 103F today and higher tomorrow.