As in, a week and more of 30 C weather--far too hot.

Whew, that's hot for April, in particular! Glad it became more seasonable shortly after. But, wow, roses in April? Another anomaly!

Aahhh, autumn, wagga ... my favourite season! Enjoy!

Speaking of which, we are having a glorious weather week here with highs around 18-20C with no bugs or humidity. The clear blue sky begs one to enjoy time outside before the heat sets in. The high on Friday may reach 90F/32C. I'm not ready for that.

Yay for no bugs! Boo for 90F! Ugh. Never ready for that.

Today is our warmest day this week, hitting near the mid-20sC/77F, but that is dropping off quickly tomorrow as a couple of cold fronts come by. Frost could be on the ground this weekend with nighttime temps dipping to near freezing; and daytime temps only getting to 8C/46F or so. Beautiful walking weather ... if it wasn't for all the rain we might be receiving (not a bad thing).

Today we have perfect rumbley thunderstorms moving through the area, with showers in between.

Love those!

This week the huge field behind us was planted. We suspect corn this year (it's been soy the past two years). And then liquid manure *ahem* was sprayed this morning. Needless to say, our windows were kept closed for that time.

One of my favourite springtime sights is walking north out of our village and seeing the placid cows out on the rolling green grassy hills, so (seemingly) content. Love the pastoral views here!

We have had day after day after day of gorgeous weather. I've been outside so much I noticed the other night that my neck has tanned a bit. This is coming from someone who doesn't tan much at all

Over the weekend we're going to have a cold front come through and it will drop our highs from the upper 70Fs to the low 60Fs. But it's going to heat right back up again by the following weekend. Lots of chances for storms.

I just saw the weather forecast for Sunday: it's stating the good possibility of wet snow or flurries(!), maybe mixed with some rain. The low at night both Saturday and Sundays nights will be bang-on freezing. Cool! (Literally. ) This is precisely why the gardening powers-that-be strongly encourage no planting of veggies or annuals before our long weekend (the closest wknd to the 24th of May).

We have much the same here my good Hobbit. The Mrs. just planted some flowers, and has had to cover them for tonight because of the temps dropping to the upper 20sF, to lower30s tonight.
Sure, and tonight I was hoping to get a fire going in the pit. But the wind was gusting as well, soooooo.
Having another outing next weekend with some of the guys I rendezvous with, and someone has already predicted rain. Yep. We were planning on practicing our fire starting skills. Nothing like a challenge.

Meanwhile it has still not got cold here, in the southern hemisphere. Our Autumn has extended its lovely coloured leaves right through until now, the weather keeps up as warm in my area, and the El Nino means we are not getting rain, which farmers need (and I am still watering my garden which is unusual for late May).
Winter will come and we will all shiver with surprise.

That sounds lovely, Auntie (except for the lack of rain for the farmers). In good years autumn can linger here as well, and since I love that time of year that makes me happy.

Meanwhile, what a difference a week makes! Last Friday we were baking under record heat; now we have frost and freeze advisories. Recent highs have barely broken the 50F/10C mark, well below average, and the only things preventing a frost here last night were clouds and wind.

Tonight is much more likely to be frosty, as the clouds have cleared off and the wind has dropped. It's already down to 42F/5C at 10 pm local time. At least it will put a chill on those early season mosquitoes.

Meanwhile it has still not got cold here, in the southern hemisphere. Our Autumn has extended its lovely coloured leaves right through until now, the weather keeps up as warm in my area, and the El Nino means we are not getting rain, which farmers need (and I am still watering my garden which is unusual for late May).
Winter will come and we will all shiver with surprise.

Technically it is still mid-May. The first of the month was hubby's and my 45th anniversary (Sapphire) and now it is the 15th of the month. But you are right. It has been something like 21 days running that has had above average temperatures. Beautiful weather which has left us in short sleeves and lighter clothing, and unusually warm. Much warmer than I remember my wedding day, where I wore a 3/4 sleeve wedding dress. Even when we did get a little bit of rain last Monday, it was the sort of rain that felt like it was desperately squeezed out, more like a bottom of the barrel drop by drop drizzle.

According to what I've heard it has been snowing in Scotland yesterday. That seems rather odd, even for Scotland, a fairly cold sort of place even in what they laughingly call summer. I'm not surprised at the varying temperatures you are all getting. It would be nice to know if that dreadful Canadian bushfire has finished yet, and how they all are.

I wouldn't worry about being surprised by winter. Going out of doors in late evening or in the small hours of the morning is to be greeted with a sharp chill and even light frost on the ground. Once nightfall comes down here, the warm temperatures drop, we are already planning stews and beef curries for dinner, and it is time to break out the cardigans and pullovers as well as bringing out heaters etc. The nights are getting longer and the days of lovely sunshine end all too soon. But I do hope we get some rain at some stage.

It would be nice to know if that dreadful Canadian bushfire has finished yet, and how they all are.

It's still burning in the forest, but has moved away from the town of Fort McMurray. Apparently, it only (only!) burned 10 percent of the houses and buildings, instead of the 50 percent that they feared. The almost 90,000 evacuees are still just that, and will be for some time, it seems.

There are still quite a few fires burning, mainly in the north, though none of them have yet matched Fort Mac in scale. And now there's the dissection of the probable causes: an extra early spring in a projected drought year, too much fire suppression in past years, and the increasing encroachment of buildings into the forest.

Amazingly, no one has died, so far as I know. You can't be too surprised if houses burn when people keep putting them in heavily treed areas. Mind you, they don't have much choice if they want to build in Northern Alberta at all.

You can't be too surprised if houses burn when people keep putting them in heavily treed areas. Mind you, they don't have much choice if they want to build in Northern Alberta at all.

It is a mercy that there were few or no fatalities, but even so, 90,000 evacuees is still a lot of people. You've made some very good points but down here, where the weather is dry and the native eucalypt trees use fire to regenerate, we have had to work out some strategies to help homes from being burned down in bushfires. I am linking you to a site which has a lot of information about fire-proofing one's home, put on Internet for everyone's use by the NSW Rural Fire Service. From that site, I've quoted special procedures those in wooded areas below. I know Northern Alberta is not NSW, but if people are going to build in such areas they need to take some precautions. The only one I have complaints with is the metal mesh screens on windows which, though safer than wooden-framed metal mesh screens, can be hard to remove should someone need to exit a room fast.

Clean your gutters of leaves and twigs
Install metal gutter guards
Repair damaged or missing tiles on the roof
Install fine metal mesh screens on windows and doors
Fit seals around doors and windows to eliminate gaps
Enclose the areas under the house
Repair or cover gaps in external walls
Attach a fire sprinkler system to gutters
Keep lawns short and gardens well maintained
Cut back trees and shrubs overhanging buildings
Clean up fallen leaves, twigs and debris around the property
Have hoses long enough to reach around your house
If you have a pool, tank or dam, put a Static Water Supply (SWS) sign on your property entrance, so firefighters know where they can get water
Check and maintain adequate levels of home and contents insurance. Ensure it is up to date.

Johobbit, I was telling you a couple days ago about the single super cell that blew up in Western Kansas and you said you wished you could have seen the radar from it. Well, I don't have the radar, but someone made this incredible time lapse video from that storm. I can't help it, I love watching it, it's just gorgeous. I love storms...

https://vimeo.com/167624694

Speaking of storms, we had a line form right on top of us this morning. I sat around and watched the rain and listed to the thunder. After the line had moved on, I figured it'd be a good time to get out of the house and take the kids to the gym. While they were playing, I suddenly noticed a lot of lightning outside the window. By the time we went to leave, it was an absolute deluge of water pouring out of the heavens. I couldn't leave the kids inside to get our vehicle, and I hadn't brought umbrellas or jackets or anything. So off we ran through the parking lot. We got completely soaked. LOL
Potential severe storms this evening (thanks to the same stationary front that caused the above linked storm) and tomorrow evening. We've already had a lot of rain, so I suspect we'll have a fair bit of street flooding to deal with.

That time-lapse is glorious, fantasia! I love the sun setting below the storm clouds. Beautiful!

Beautiful describes most of this past weekend here as well. Saturday was a perfect night for a fire with friends: crystal clear blue skies, no bugs (until a few mosquitoes appeared after dusk), no humidity, and a sunset temperature around 75F/24C.

We also enjoyed watching the bright full moon rise over the trees, big and yellow, with Mars nearby.

We've since settled into a rainy pattern that may well extend into the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

We have had storm after storm after storm. I drove around this afternoon and noticed a lot of our wheat is drowning. And what isn't drowning is now being choked out by weeds.
The good news is that the only flooding we've had so far has been minor street flooding as the rain is spaced far enough apart so it can drain away before the next round. But after today we're expecting more storms, and more rain, and everything is saturated so it could get exciting in a hurry.

I'm starting to wonder if we're getting a little glimpse of what monsoon season is like in India. We have been so humid, we've officially reached tropical status (dewpoint over 72°) with inches of rain every day for the last several days. We're now watching closely for flooding. We should get a break tomorrow, but the severe storms are returning on Saturday and will last through... ??? I dunno, they're predicted through Thursday of next week and that's when NOAA stops posting. Feeling more than a little bit of cabin fever.

Meanwhile, we could actually use the rain here. . . We haven't had any in well over a week, which means me going out and watering everything by hand twice a day.

It's starting to get very summery-warm here. Highs in the mid-eighties with increasing humidity. I'm hoping for some rip-roaring thunderstorms soon.

Then again. . . good weather for the holiday weekend would probably be preferred (although my idea of "good weather" tends to be drastically skewed from other people's ideas)

Today is technically the start of Winter, and yes it is cloudy and we have had a little rain, but it has so far been so hot and dry, even in autumn, that we didn't get anything like normal autumn conditions until about a week ago. Retailers have put on sales of winter clothing to get rid of stock because it has been too warm to generate winter clothing sales up till the present.

I'm starting to wonder if we're getting a little glimpse of what monsoon season is like in India. We have been so humid, we've officially reached tropical status (dewpoint over 72°) with inches of rain every day for the last several days. We're now watching closely for flooding.

I guess that may be possible, but I'd have to know if there is a similar phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific and, in particular, the Western Atlantic, to how the monsoon alternates between India and Pakistan in the Northern Hemisphere and Northern Australia in the Southern Hemisphere. As far as I know, the weather in India is largely dictated by the Indian Ocean, the Himalayas and big rivers like the Ganges, the Indus and the Irrawaddy, as well as the Western Pacific, plus the cyclical cross-Equator monsoon phenomenon.

According to a fact sheet supplied by yesterday's hard copy Daily Telegraph, in the Southern Hemisphere, the Northern Aboriginal season, Gunnumeleng (Mid-October to late December), marks the buildup of monsoonal conditions, whilst the following Gudjewd season (late December to March) is when the monsoon arrives, bringing thunderstorms, heavy rain and flooding. Sometimes these monsoonal conditions are dragged down as far as Sydney by passing air pressure systems arching over the continent.

It may well be possible for you to have unseasonably monsoon-like wet weather in spring, even normally, given that Kansas is a more southerly state of USA, influenced by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and closer to the Gulf of Mexico, and so-called Tornado Alley.