05 September 2012

Weather... well, weird

Okay, the weird weather just continues, unrelenting. Since July we have had practically no rain. The current severe dry spell has come along after nearly continuous rains through April, May, June, and July. For all of August, we got 2 mm of precip. That's hardly a trace — less than a tenth of an inch.

 Sunset, Tuesday 04 Sept. 2012, at Saint-Aignan

I have to admit that the dry weather has been great for our tomato crop. A lot of the first tomatoes were misshapen, blemished, or even diseased. But the later ones have been beautiful. We now have enough already picked to make another big batch of sauce for the winter. And the tomato plants are still loaded down with fruit. The beans have nearly quit producing, but the squash plants look fantastic.


Rhubarb, collard greens, Swiss chard, and basil in the garden in September —
weeds are not a problem given the dry conditions.

Anyway, when will the weather become "normal" again? A few days of sun (not weeks but days) and then a few days of rain (not weeks or months, but days) would be a nice pattern, and would be normal for this climate. But what is normal any more? September has been bone dry so far.

I got the other rosemary bush pruned back.

Weather reports say we are supposed to have temperatures climbing into the mid-80s F over the next four or five days (that's between 28 and 30 ºC). And no moisture. Luckily, Walt is really diligent when it comes to watering the garden. The grass in the back yard is completely parched, but we've never watered that. It will come back next spring, if we are lucky.

5 comments:

  1. We are back on Level 3 water restrictions, after having received twice our average rainfall for April-June! That's how hot and dry it's been.

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  2. You put F temperature first and then what I know, Celsius, later. Do you still think in Fahrenheit?

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  3. omg, I hope its not saving up to rain during our 3 weeks in france.....2 weeks from today we'll be in paris for a few days then down near Apt in rental house, then back in paris for 10 days in montmontre apt

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  4. Andrew, no, but I think most of my readers are American and still do Fahrenheit. We keep our records in Celsius and of course the French weather reports do too.

    Melinda, it has been extremely rainy in Nice and Corsica for the past week. Not sure about Apt and the Vaucluse. Paris has been dry, like the Loire Valley. Bonne chance.

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