Tornado alley has been shifting east the last few years, but yesterday two little Kansas towns took a direct hit. Fortunately as of this morning there are no injuries or fatalities. 

More severe weather in our area has been forecasted for today, and then we get a break for a bit.

I see your area is under the gun again today, @fantasia. Stay safe!

Our weather is 35F cooler than it was just a few days ago; last Thursday we had several small tornadoes west of here and an EF2 just east of here, in western Wisconsin. Doppler radar indicated a tornado was trying to form over downtown Minneapolis but didn't develop, fortunately. We just had lots of wind and some rain.

Thousands of acres of forest land are burning in several fires in the northeast part of Minnesota, with little containment due to winds and dry weather. Hopefully rain and cooler temperatures this week will help (it's cabin country and a number of families have lost their homes).

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Are you still short of water, down Victoria way? We've had the drenching rain in Sydney, last weekend, or so it would seem.  

Very much so!  We're still very dry where I am.  There is a lake near Donald in Vic named Lake Grassy which I drive past regularly on my way to Donald and the lake which has been nice and full for several years, it has dramatically gone down over the last year and a bit.  I've been observing it go further and further down - the last three months roughly it's been completely dry.  I have also heard talks of that we're apparently in a "once in a generation" drought (South Australia and Tasmania are also included in that as I understand it.)

It would be lovely to have some of the rain that you're having in NSW - not flooding rain though.  When rain breaks droughts here it usually does tend to be flooding rain - the area I live in was badly flooded in 2010 and 2011 floods and we copped some big floods in November 2022 also.  I did just notice in the seven-day forecast on the BOM app though that we may be getting a bit of rain at the end of the week and over the weekend.  Hopefully it comes to pass.

@pete  I have also heard talks of that we're apparently in a "once in a generation" drought (South Australia and Tasmania are also included in that as I understand it.)

I heard this morning that NSW's Riverina area is also included in this drought scenario. Ever since 2022, we've been having flooding in northern coastal NSW, and the current rain bomb that is drenching Sydney. There has been over a week where the cloudiness has only produced threatening rainclouds that didn't do anything, much, west of St Marys in West Sydney. The storminess was north of us, mostly, as if we were on some sort of dividing line. But now it is bucketing down, especially in the city. Newcastle & the Hunter Valley have already been having floods. 

I hope this rain crosses the mountains & leaves us alone. That way the runoff might go down these inland rivers and help the rural countryside with the current drought. I feel for the people working in Sydney when yesterday, powerlines fell on a train near Strathfield, which just about wrecked our heavy rail network.  

@waggawerewolf27 yes, I saw about the live power lines falling on the train yesterday - must have been frustrating and even scary for those affected by it, I imagine.

I was listening on the national Christian radio station (Vision Christian Radio) this morning and a resident of Taree was describing what they are currently experiencing, to the Rise & Shine (breakfast show) hosts.  Apparently the flooding is worse than the 1929 floods?  I see they're even describing the deluge as a "one-in-500-year event!  My thoughts and prayers are going out to all the people and communities affect by this flooding at the moment.

Yes, that incident with the fallen powerlines, was rather scary, not only for my middle daughter who was trying to come home on Tuesday afternoon from her Meadowbank job to Penrith. A train commute which normally takes her to 6.30 pm at latest, took her to 8.00 pm, instead. And also, stressful for the rest of us, uncertain whether or not to drop everything to come to the rescue if necessary. The main delay was shifting the damaged train, once the powerlines were fixed at Strathfield, but it took all night from Tuesday to Wednesday morning to get the train network anywhere near manageable.

Fortunately, yesterday wasn't so bad, and today was almost normal again, apart from the drenching we now are getting. The rain has been torrential here, having flooded Taree, the worst floods there since 1955, some 70 years ago. There is more to come tomorrow. I've seen on my newsfeed that a cold front from Antarctica is going to make life just as miserable for Tasmania, Victoria, and South Australia, according to BOM, but it likely will bring some rain.  

I have not posted here for about a month, but have been keeping up with everyone's weather comments. Always interesting (and sometimes unnerving—tornadoes, wild fires, droughts!!) to read.

We have, overall, had a cooler May, which has been wonderful for almost daily walks and great for being out of doors and gardening. A quite balanced combination of sun and rain (although the latter did tip the scales) has produced a great start to gardening season.

We even contended with frost a few times in May, so used tarps to cover tender plants. I wish those frosty temperatures would be able to be with us all summer! I find them utterly invigorating.

As June approaches, the daytime temperature will range anywhere from mid-teens Celsius (59F) to early 20s (early 70sF). Today and tomorrow are a mixture of sun and cloud, but steady rain arrives again on Wednesday. After two+ weeks of garden planting—both floral and veggies—I am finally done (potatoes went in today). And since it has rained every few days, that timing has been beneficial for those new little seeds and plants.

The nighttime temp will often still be in the higher single digits Celsius, sometimes creeping in the pre-teen double-digits. Thankfully there is no sign of any heat and humidity for the next week or so. Let's hope that holds!  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Fortunately, yesterday wasn't so bad, and today was almost normal again, apart from the drenching we now are getting. The rain has been torrential here, having flooded Taree, the worst floods there since 1955, some 70 years ago.

My cousin's daughter is affected by this flooding; I'm not sure if she lives at Taree, but the river has taken over the town, from the looks of it.  Her house is on a hill, so not underwater, but access is difficult, and they were running low on food.  And the birth of her third child is very imminent!  So, exciting times for them.

Meteorological summer begins here this weekend, on June 1. This spring, we've had all sorts of weather, reminding me of the old adage, "Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes."

But today, and for the next few days, our big headline is wildfire smoke from massive fires burning in Manitoba. The sky is technically clear but is a hazy, milky color from the smoke. The sun is an orange disk, dimmed (but still unsafe to look at!), and tonight's Moon, if visible at all through the haze, will be the same. It's expected to be worse tomorrow, with air quality alerts likely throughout the Upper Midwest and the smoke aroma is likely to reach the ground.

It reminds me of conditions a few summers ago, when we had weeks of weather like this.

The smoke does tend to hold temperatures down slightly, though it is still expected to reach 90F/32C this weekend.

Posted by: @stargazer

This spring, we've had all sorts of weather, reminding me of the old adage, "Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes."

Hey, my dad — born and raised in Melbourne (Victoria, south-eastern Australia) — always says that too! The weather in that part of Australia is famously changeable. When I moved from there to Brisbane (sub-tropics) in my early 20s, the weather there was SO boring — if it was sunny, it was sunny all week, and if it was rainy, it was rainy all week. Now that I live in England, it's a bit colder than where I grew up, but the constantly changing weather makes me feel very much at home. (Even if it does sometimes confuse me as to which season we're actually in, not helped by the fact that even after over a decade in the northern hemisphere, I still sometimes find myself defaulting to thinking of June as the start of winter and December as the start of summer.) 

That said, we had an almost incredible run of sunny days all through the first part of May, and now in the last week, it's starting raining regularly again. But that's good, because we need it after all the dry weather. 

Posted by: @courtenay

Hey, my dad — born and raised in Melbourne (Victoria, south-eastern Australia) — always says that too! The weather in that part of Australia is famously changeable. When I moved from there to Brisbane (sub-tropics)....the weather there was SO boring — if it was sunny, it was sunny all week, and if it was rainy, it was rainy all week. 

Ah yes, the old four seasons in one day that Victoria is known for! I tend to think of weather in Queensland (especially from April/May to about September/October as heavenly weather.  Lovely mid-20s in the day and cool nights, although generally not as cold as the southern states!

Well, winter is beginning to very much make her presence felt here in north western Victoria.  We've had a couple of frosts.  And some good news (hopefully) - it appears that more rain is on the way in the next seven day forecast!  

Posted by: @pete

I tend to think of weather in Queensland (especially from April/May to about September/October as heavenly weather.

I assume you haven't lived in Queensland from November to March then, as I did for a few years. Hot and humid around the clock, so that almost as soon as you've dried yourself off after having a shower, you feel wet again. Food goes off so much faster, clothes need washing after being worn only once or at most twice, green mould grows in the bathroom... it's relentless. And that was merely Brisbane, let alone further north like Cairns!! What's more, back then — in the early-mid 2000s — a lot of the buses didn't have air conditioning (I didn't have a car in those days), and a lot of houses didn't either.

I could put up with it, just about, but it wasn't exactly my favourite kind of weather. After I'd been living back in Melbourne for a few years, my best friend in Brisbane invited me to come and stay with her and her boyfriend in late November. I just remember lying there on a futon in their spare bedroom at night in the stiflingly muggy air, standing fan going full blast (no ceiling fan and no air conditioning, either), still so hot that I couldn't bear to have even a sheet over me, and thinking "Yeah, nah, I don't miss this AT ALL."   (And that's not even the hottest time of year.)

@courtenay My colleagues in Brisbane were complaining that it's getting cold over there.  I asked what the temperature was and they said, "20 degrees Celsius".  I live in Vancouver where it was about 24 degrees as we approach Summer 0 which made me laugh. (I'm currently in Taipei and its almost 30 degrees at 5:00am at the moment and am about to head to Perth, WA - which is doing its typical June thing.)

Posted by: @davidd

@courtenay My colleagues in Brisbane were complaining that it's getting cold over there.  I asked what the temperature was and they said, "20 degrees Celsius".

  And meanwhile, here in the UK they think a few days of 25-27 C is "a heatwave", whereas to me, that's merely warm...   (And seriously, back in Brisbane, in "winter" I'd be wearing jeans for all of two weeks at most.)

Hope you enjoy Perth. Are you there for business, or do you have family there?  

Actually @courtenay, I lived in Queensland for about 6 years, in the Sunshine Coast, Caboolture and then Gold Coast and I completely agree with your assessment and description of the weather from November to March.  My wife and I were involved in some church plants around there about 14 to 8 years ago, we well remember during those months loading a trailer full of equipment in that time of the year and you'd be drenched with sweat!  My poor wife endured two of her three pregnancies during that climate as well - thankfully they were born during the winter.