MikJournal Monday 05/28/2018...Alberto

Good Monday to you. For many, it is a day off thanks to the Memorial Day holiday. Unfortunately for some residents in the U.S., this Memorial Day weekend will be remembered for years to come.

Extensive flash flooding occurred near Baltimore, Maryland in an area that saw the same kind of flash flooding in 2016. Nearly 10" rain fell in about a 4-hour period. You can blame it on topography, poor planning for helping divert flood waters, whatever, you're still going to have problems when that much rain falls in a short period of time. I don't care how good your infrastructure for handling heavy rainfall, someone is going to be negatively impacted by such an event.

Alberto, a hybrid tropical system, is poised to bring rain and wind to the panhandle of Florida and will eventually affect our weather here in Kentucky. A consistent theme shows the models bringing whatever is left of Alberto into Kentucky. That means heavy rainfall and some windy conditions, but of some concern too is the threat for brief tornadoes. Anywhere from 1 - 3.5" can be expected, with the heaviest rainfall totals west of I-75.

In other news, Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is being monitored for ashfall by means of radar data. Using this data in combination with prevailing winds can track where locations may be affected by the irritants associated with volcanic ash, such as burning of the eyes and respiratory issues.

It appears Mount Baker and Mount Rainier at Paradise in Washington state are having a friendly competition for the season's most snowfall. Although the season ends June 30, the window for accumulating snow is narrowing. Presently, Mount Baker has received 728" while Paradise has received just over 700" since the snow season began last July 1.

Also, it looks like Louisville and Lexington will easily break their all-time records for warmest May ever.  Paducah, Frankfort, Jackson, and London looks like they will too. Bowling Green is on track to record its warmest May ever but may be impacted by the rainfall coming in this week. Still, I think they can do it.

One final thing. This time of year, the official kick-off to summer is in full swing. But, tomorrow May 29 in the year 1982, a little place in Montana called Shonkin or nearby this location, recorded 48" snowfall in a 24-hour period. Simply amazing! According to NCDC's Storm Publication, from May 28-30, as much as 5 feet of snow fell across the north slopes of the Bears Paw, Little Belt, and Snowy Mountains and the east slopes of the Sweetgrass hills. Drifts of 10-15 feet deep closed roads, downed power lines, and buried sheep and cattle.

Whatever happened during that storm system may have contributed to severe weather here with large hail in central and north-central Kentucky and ushered in a period of cool weather for the month of June. In fact, it was the 4th coolest June on record in Louisville. Although July would mark a brief return of summer, August would end up being the 9th coolest August on record.

Have a good week everyone.

MS

Rainfall For My Garden...Finally

Except for a decent shower on the 16th of this month, which amounted to 0.39", my garden has not had much to be happy about since planting on the 15th. Very warm, if not hot, and dry conditions has affected the soil down about 2". That is not good for young pepper plants.

I was already a little late with planting the garden. The weather has been most disagreeable. Earlier this month, conditions were too cool and wet. Then, reverse...hot and dry. I had to wait until there was a good chance for rain before I could get my vegetables in the ground.

As of yesterday, the 26th, my garden is completely mulched; therefore, any rainfall will stick around longer in my soil. And guess what?

Yay! It rained. Although the thundershower was weakening some this morning, parts of Jefferson County picked up over 1" of rain. Here in Valley Station, about 10 miles southwest of Louisville International, I have not registered an official amount. It's still raining as I'm writing this post, but estimates are at least 0.50" has fallen (I have a homemade rain gauge that I actually have to measure the amount, not those Acurite rain gauges which are not as accurate as you think).

My rain barrel had been very busy lately, dispensing collected rainfall from earlier this month. Now, it's full again. The garden has been well-watered.

For my modest garden, here are the vegetables and herbs I have in the ground and in a potted container....

4 Sweet Bell Pepper
2 Big Bertha bell pepper
1 Cayenne pepper
1 Habanero pepper
2 Tomato (both Parks Whopper Hybrid)
2 Zucchini plants
2 Yellow Squash plants
1 Rosemary
1 Basil

For my potted container, 1 Oregano.

MS