After a long, long spate of beautiful weather we now have a drought. The sunny days and clear cool nights I find so appealing have not produced any rain. It’s another case of too much of a good thing.
Pittsburgh’s precipitation is 0.22″ below normal for August, but 1.62″ above normal for the calendar year.
The statistics are deceiving. The rain we’ve had has not fallen gently over the course of several hours. Instead it arrives in huge, brief, torrential downpours that run off rapidly without soaking into the soil.
Of course this is hard on the crops, but I feel bad for the forest too. Some of the trees have started to turn yellow already – notably the ash trees. Others are dying, especially elms that are already under the stress of Dutch elm disease.
Unlike ourselves, everything outdoors is completely at the mercy of the weather – even beautiful weather.
I hope it rains soon!
Just a moment ago I had a cardinal at my feeder and this time it is a female with no head feathers. I have not seen the male since I last emailed you. Thought you might be interested. I took some pictures but my camera is a point and shoot and the zoom was not enough to get a good picture. I will try to edit it so I can send it to you.
It was sad to come home from a shore vacation to find such need for rain in Pittsburgh. A good neighbor watered plants as much as possible, but nothing could be done about lawn grass and a few plants here and there. Even two new trees were on the edge. Hope everyone keeps bird baths filled with fresh water.