Let's review. Here at La Renaudière, outside Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, we've so far had 14 days in June on which the high temperature stayed below 70ºF (21ºC). We've also had three inches of rain — and while more than half of that fell in one afternoon (on June 10), we've had rain on nine other days since June 1.
June 2016 skies
So far, the temperature has risen above 75ºF only four times in June, and the high temperature for the month has been about 78º (25.5ºC) — on just one day. Low temperatures have stayed in the 50s in ºF, with only four mornings when the temperature didn't drop below 60ºF (15.5ºC).
Grass seeds
The weather has been so wet that on Monday, our 86-year-old neighbor spent a couple of hours on his riding mower cutting his grass — in the rain! It wasn't raining hard, but the tall grass was really wet. The neighbor was desperate to get it under control again. He has about an acre of grass to deal with.
June showers bring June flowers
This weather has been reminding me what it was like to live in chilly, foggy, windy San Francisco in summertime. You'd turn on the morning show on television and see reports about heat waves and thunderstorms and dry spells all around the country. You'd look outdoors and see wind-driven fog and mist, with a temperature in the mid-50s F. We didn't have or need air-conditioning there. In fact, the heat would come on about 350 mornings a year.
Today's high is supposed to be close to 85ºF — that's about 30ºC.
With all the moisture in the ground, the whole place is going to be a steam bath. Accuweather says it will actually feel like 35ºC — that's 95ºF — when you factor in the humidity.
I'll take it. I can't wait. I'll be able to wear just shorts, a tee shirt, and sandals for the first time in a quite a while.
It will be hard to sleep tonight, I"m sure — no air-conditioning. Tant pis !
Maybe the garden, including my little kale plants, will finally experience a growth spurt. Yesterday was an almost completely sunless day. The plants won't know how to act with they finally do see old Sol again
Meanwhile, Walt says he's going to have to mow our half-acre of grass today. Wish him luck. We don't have a riding mower.
We've had a rotten spring in Paris, and the predictions for this first week of summer are not too bright. I'm still hoping for beautiful blue skies, lots of sunshine and nice weather to warm up my old bones. One can dream, innit?
ReplyDeleteYou should be glad that you didn't end up coming down here in June. You would have frozen your... ears off.
DeleteYes, my thanks go to the FSM that we weren't able to make it then. Probably, the views from the top of the Pantheon wouldn't have been really great either.
DeleteIt's been hot a few days in the south, and I am busy closing shutters as soon as the sun strikes. Had to sleep with a fan on. It isn't all that hot, but the switch was rather sudden, so we haven't yet adapted. Still, it's hot enough that now I have to water the tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteThat shot of the clouds is beautiful.
Yes, here the change in the weather is very sudden. The ground is so wet, though, that we don't really need to water. My current refrain: "I've looked at clouds from both sides now..."
DeleteYou could be living in Arizona where temps are hovering around 115F during the day and 'plummeting' to just below 90F at night. And not so much as a chance of any rain.
ReplyDeleteI'd opt for your conditions any day....and thank my lucky stars I don't live west of
the Rockies. Here in Texas it's hot but nothing serious.
I would never have chosen to live in Arizona or Texas, for the reasons you give. North Carolina, where I grew up, is way too hot for me now. People who read my blog, whether British who think the weather in France is somehow perfect, or Americans who don't know what to expect in France, need to understand how cool and variable the weather here is, in reality. A warm, dry summer is not a given in the Loire Valley, although there are extremes.
DeleteThank you for making me hope that moving to Florida * Jacksonville* was not a huge mistake in the weather dept.
ReplyDeleteIt has been dry and sunny and the highs are only in the low 70s ..
I have the a/c on in the afternoon, I sleep under light blankets at night .. the cats help with the nighttime bed warmth.
Soon enough you will have sunshine and dry days one after another until you are bored and wish for a chilly wet day to stay in and read :)
The hot summers and AC are the price you pay for the mild winters in N. Florida, I guess. Enjoy!
DeleteTrue, but it can be boring too :) I like to daydream about going back to Buenos Aires where the summer nights are not bad at all ..
ReplyDeleteI thought te weather in the SF Bay Area was really boring. The forecast was the same almost every day, especially in summer.
DeleteYour post proves that when we are at a "certain age" weather becomes quite interesting to us. The variety of weather is interesting from year to year and season to season. Here in the heart of Dixie summer is pretty good so far but we could use some rain lol.
ReplyDeleteHere's an article saying this has been the wettest spring in northern France since the 1870s.
DeleteThey were saying, on the sports network, that it has been so soggy in the North that the football pitch in Lille was closed on Monday after a game on Sunday . Will see how the match goes today since the players were slipping on Sunday - the pitch was pretty damaged afterwards.
DeleteMowing grass that is wet is no easy task, even with a riding mower. I wish you could give us your excess rain here in LA. The news says millions of trees have died here due to the drought. The cities aren't allowed to water medians, so most have returned to bare dirt, with a few trees or shrubs that are clinging to life.
ReplyDeleteTemp. as high as 30.9C here today. That's really hot for us.
ReplyDelete