# Early Fall?



## begreen (Jul 24, 2016)

This year we have several plants that are about 2-3 weeks ahead of normal times. Several maples, viburnum and barbary plants are already changing color. And we have ripe pumpkins already. Usually this would start happening in mid-August. Is it happening elsewhere too?


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## jharkin (Jul 25, 2016)

Not here for sure...  We have had weeks on end of absolutely no rain and consistent 90+ temperatures.  Longest heat wave I can remember and we are on the edge of advancing from moderate drought to severe drought (D2) stage.

The only color changes I see are my lawn turning to brown & crunchy


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## Ashful (Jul 25, 2016)

Filthy stinking hot and dry, here.  Just had our second rain for the whole month last night, a quick thunderstorm.  Heat indexes well over 100F forecast for half this week, just like the last two weeks.

I'd welcome an early fall, but there's no sign of it, near Philadelphia.


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## mass_burner (Jul 25, 2016)

Draught is getting bad. Even the last two thunder storms passing through missed us.


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## sportbikerider78 (Jul 25, 2016)

People are having lots of issues with shallow masonry style wells going dry.  Never heard of one till I moved here.  Back it time a bit.  

It has been really warm.  Much warmer than usual.


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## Jags (Jul 25, 2016)

Nope.  Plenty of heat, more than enough rain, everything green and you can hear the corn growing at night.  At this pace the farmers are gonna see record crops.


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## begreen (Jul 25, 2016)

It looks like we are the cool pocket in the continental states. I'm wondering if the plants are confused due to a run of hot weather in May followed by a couple weeks of cool and grey weather. Trees are dry here too. Locust leaves are turning yellow. This too normally happens in mid-August. We've had a little rain, but only .25" here and there, no good soakers.


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## Seasoned Oak (Jul 25, 2016)

Even with the occasional thunderstorm its just as hot afterward and that much more humid. Usually a summer thunderstorm drops the temp 10 to 15 deg. Although its hot here,i can see its much worse in most of the rest of the country ,as im still keeping a 3000 SF thinly insulated house under 77 deg with 1 and sometimes 2 ,5000 BTU bedroom AC going ,so it cant be that bad here in the central  mountains .


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## Seasoned Oak (Jul 25, 2016)

Dont know how they can forecast 3 months ahead but they have, and its all Sizzling hot !
http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/07/25/entire-usa-heat-wave-warm-forecast/87528944/
So where are the hurricanes?


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## Ash (Jul 25, 2016)

Pretty normal summer here in MN. Hot as hell last week but more normal temps now. We've been getting good amounts of rain and the garden is doing fantastic, wife is canning about 20 quarts of green beans that we just picked.


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## 7acres (Jul 26, 2016)

This has been in the 90th percentile for hot Summers here. Just the thought of an early Fall cheered me up a bit.


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## mass_burner (Jul 27, 2016)

mass_burner said:


> Draught is getting bad. Even the last two thunder storms passing through missed us.


I'm walking across the lawn today and was shocked to hear crunching under my feet! The grass is literally drying up.


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## Seasoned Oak (Jul 27, 2016)

Heavy Rain here for almost an hour monday. Farmers were gettin desperate but i think it helped a lot.


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## jharkin (Jul 29, 2016)

Its bad here... really bad.  This weeks update on the USA drought monitor has my town upgraded from D1 moderate drought to D2 severe drought status. The town water department just robo called every resident and announced the the prior odd/even water ban is now upgraded to a total water ban - no outdoor use at all, except for hand watering vegetables after 5pm.

We where supposed to get a desperately needed all day soaker today but as usual it petered out and we only got a quarter inch of rain. Which is the first rain we have had other than a 5 minute thunderstorm bust in at least 3 weeks.  Half the lawn is brown and even the trees are looking stressed now.


ugh.


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## Mr.K (Jul 29, 2016)

Heat finally broke here on Long Island today......upper 70's here instead of upper 90's like the last 2 weeks.  Plenty of rain last night and this morning too....


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## begreen (Jul 29, 2016)

Good to hear that you are getting some relief. My sister-in-law loves the heat and even she was complaining.


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## mass_burner (Jul 29, 2016)

jharkin said:


> Its bad here... really bad.  This weeks update on the USA drought monitor has my town upgraded from D1 moderate drought to D2 severe drought status. The town water department just robo called every resident and announced the the prior odd/even water ban is now upgraded to a total water ban - no outdoor use at all, except for hand watering vegetables after 5pm.
> 
> We where supposed to get a desperately needed all day soaker today but as usual it petered out and we only got a quarter inch of rain. Which is the first rain we have had other than a 5 minute thunderstorm bust in at least 3 weeks.  Half the lawn is brown and even the trees are looking stressed now.
> 
> ...


Today's big storm jogged south, it only rained for about 3 hours off and on, sprinkle mainly. Did cool down the air, feels great. Supposed to rain on Monday, we'll see.


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## begreen (Jul 29, 2016)

We'll probably see some rain before late August, I hope.


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## Ashful (Jul 30, 2016)

Mowed and trimmed this AM for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Sunny areas still crunchy, but shady areas still growing.  Currently 86F with 92F heat index, due to 72F dew point.  Hoping for lower humidity ahead, but at least it's cool enough to mow, for a change.


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## Highbeam (Jul 31, 2016)

begreen said:


> This year we have several plants that are about 2-3 weeks ahead of normal times. Several maples, viburnum and barbary plants are already changing color. And we have ripe pumpkins already. Usually this would start happening in mid-August. Is it happening elsewhere too?
> 
> View attachment 182352
> View attachment 182353



I'm not far from you bg and my pumpkins are still flowering. Peeking in I see the largest are young baby head sized. These plants are volunteers plus we planted on memorial day. Everything looks normal. We get 50-80 pumpkins a year. 

The fruit trees are heavy heavy with plums, pears, and apples. It's been a good year for them. Not a dry year.


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## begreen (Jul 31, 2016)

Local weather is very regional. The foothills get more upslope rain.  I visited friend up in Concrete where they have had rain at regular intervals all summer. Their lawns are lush green and crops pretty normal. Where we are is a micro-climate and get 50% of Seattle's rainfall on average.

The trees are showing signs of multiple drought years. The lawn grass is crunchy brown. Stress is showing in the trees. Our neighbor's cherry tree is dying and several trees like locusts are starting to shed their leaves. Our redwood is over half-brown needles. We has normal rainfall in June, but April, May and July were far behind. I was at our annual fruit club picnic yesterday and for the first time in July people showed up with freshly picked apples and apple cider. I made plum wine on Saturday. Definitely an early crop year and dry summer for us locally so far.




This is our redwood, note the dry lawn in background. I plan on going to an agric. conference in Pullayup tomorrow. Will ask how their season has been so far.


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## greg13 (Jul 31, 2016)

I would doubt the tree is dying, most trees will drop their leaves to deal with drought stress.


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## begreen (Jul 31, 2016)

The redwood should be ok. It's not deciduous, but has shed before during a particularly dry period.


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## blacktail (Aug 15, 2016)

For the second summer in a row, I'll be putting a sprinkler out in the front and back yard. Not for the grass, but for the trees. I have some large big leaf maples and a cedar out front and a bunch of cedars behind my house.


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## Highbeam (Aug 15, 2016)

I'm thinking about watering the plum tree. It looks a little dry and the fruit is almost ready to pick. Would prefer wet fruit.


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## mass_burner (Aug 15, 2016)

We're under a water ban. No outside watering, only vegetable/fruit plants on odd or even days after 5pm.


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