Weather stats

I don't know any gardeners who aren't fanatical about the weather. We're always going on about something. But now and then the weather is perfect: Numerous times during 2015 Mark and I stopped to say how wonderful the weather was. From start to finish it was a memorable year for all the best reasons. It looks like 2018 will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. 

Given our record-breaking "rain bomb" on August 20th, I decided to look in my garden journal to see just what kind of rain we've had this summer. I put our rain gauge out at the beginning of April so that's when my count begins. Typically the garden is best if it gets one inch (2.54 cm.) of rain per week. These are our monthly totals with some commentary.

April: 7.2"  That amount fell on one day.

May: 9.09" with 3.21" falling in one week

June: 9.54" Three big rain storms in June with 2.10" falling on a Sunday followed by 4.15" at the end of the week with hail and high winds. 

July: 3.37" but 2.07" of this was in the first few days of the month, making the rest of the July dry enough I had to water.

August: 14.39" but 10" inches of that occurred in 24 hours or slightly less. 

Rainfall is measured officially at the airport on the other side of town from our house. Their August total is 10.40" compared to a normal August amount of 4.27". 

So far this year Madison has officially had 36.03" of rain compared to a norm of 24.82". 

The total at our house is 42.16". So we got 6+ inches more than the official total so far this year, or 17" more than is typical by this time of year. Got all that?!

Though the westside of Madison where we live got the big August 20th rain, it is the east side of our city that is having flood problems due to lake levels. Some of the problem can be linked to the fact that folks who live on the lakes want artificially high water for their docks and boating, according to a recent article from the UW's Limnology Lab.  

Statewide, the bigger issue is that our governor has gutted the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources of both its power and its scientists and environmentalists. That has given the Republican-controlled state legislature the ability to remove wetland protection from 100,000 acres as well as the Foxconn construction site by Lake Michigan, according to Jim Rowan's blog, The Political Environment. 

Comments

[Peter/Outlaw]

That's a lot of rain, especially when so much of it fell at one time. It's been a hot (for us) dry summer here with a total of .88 of an inch of rain from June through August. So, you're saying that science is a real thing and not just some silly ideas that academics came up with? Shame on your governor and legislature!

[Linda Brazill]

Sadly for Wisconsin's citizens, our governor and the GOP legislature are the poster children for dark money, the Koch Brothers and ALEC.

[Nell]

Checking the regional weather radar as we left Detroit yesterday, I saw that rain covered almost the whole state of Wisconsin. Worrying for lake levels...

[Kris P]

It probably goes without stating but I can't even conceive of that much rain. Sadly, I can conceive of the failure of politicians and legislators to consider the environment, even if we've been lucky in California to have a more forward-thinking governor for the past 7+ years.

I hope your garden has a chance to dry out in September.

[Loree / danger garden]

I simply cannot imagine that much rain falling in the summer, heck that even beats our rain totals in the winter! It’s a wonder you have a garden left.

[Lisa at Greenbow]

I always think that when inches of rain come in bursts and all in one week it is like not getting rain at all. It soaks in, runs off and doesn't do a lot of good for the garden. Our rainfall has been similar only you had more big bursts than we did.
Sigh...it seems that all government is back sliding in taking care of anything but their pocketbooks.