Rains return to Florida

Rains returned to Florida on Saturday June 25, 2011, a month later than the historical start to our rainy season. Whether this is a drought-ending event or just a tease we will find out soon enough.



After the fist big rain on Saturday, June 25 there were a few puddles in the dry lake bed (above).



A day later the puddles were completely gone. This image (above) is looking back at our woods and house from about 1/4 mile out in the dry lake bed. The house is nestled back in the woods on the right side of image.



During one of the biggest downpours the rain was coming down vertically and filled the porch with water (above). Everything is still wet days later. In this one event we had about 3.25" of rain in about 45 minutes.



Storm clouds over the lake yesterday which delivered another .75" of rain. . .but still no discernible water. I don't clearly remember the end of the great drought of 1997-98 but I do know that when the water came back it came back with a fury and the lake filled in what seemed like days rather than months.



Rain and sun, simultaneously, above.



The first pond taking a pounding from some very large rain drops, above. I've been working in the woods clearing more of an opening to the lake while it rains every afternoon. Yesterday I was so drenched I had to quit at some point. A welcome change to the miserable heat and dry of the past years.



The water completely covered the road from house to house in the front at one point. Here it pours off the house in a spot where I have yet to erect a gutter. I guess it may be time, huh?

OTHER WEATHER NEWS

The tropical disturbance currently spinning up in the southern Gulf of Mexico will likely move into Mexico, a couple hundred miles south of the Texas border, completely missing us and eventually leading to a drier air pattern for the Florida peninsula late in the week. Development of this disturbance is being hindered by a large region of dry air to the west, associated with the great 2011 Texas-Mexico Drought.

We've experienced some of this phenomenon this summer where there is so little available moisture to evaporate that the lower atmosphere heats to extreme temperatures (last week's unofficial 104° F. here was an example). Under normal conditions, the sun's heat expends part of its energy evaporating water from the soil and from vegetation. This energy is stored as "latent heat" in the water evaporated, and is not available to heat the atmosphere. However, when a severe drought dries the soil and kills vegetation, there is much more heat available to go directly into heating the air, since there is little moisture to evaporate. The increased temperatures help to strengthen the high pressure system dominating the drought region, making it even more difficult for rain-bearing low pressure systems to bring drought-busting rains. This positive feedback effect is a key reason why climatologists expect more intense droughts and heat waves in a warming world.

SCORCHING, RECORD-BREAKING HEAT ACROSS TEXAS

While mainstream news this week has been about the flooding in North Dakota, the real weather story has been the incredible heat scorching the West. The hottest temperatures in recorded history charred large portions of the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma Panhandle, and southwestern Kansas on Sunday. Amarillo hit 111°, breaking its hottest day-ever record of 109° (set just two days previously, on June 24). Borger, Texas hit 113°, smashing the previous hottest day-ever record set on June 24, 2011 of 108°. Dalhart, Texas had its hottest day on record, 110°, beating the 108° on June 24, 2011. Dodge City, Kansas tied its all-time record with 110° (last seen on June 29, 1998). Dodge City has temperature records back to 1874. Yesterday saw the hottest temperatures of the month for Texas with 116.2° at Childress, Northfield, and Memphis (all in the panhandle region.) These readings are not far from the state record of 120° set at Monahas on June 28, 1994 and at Seymore on August 12, 1936.

HISTORICAL DRY AIR RECORD SET AT LAS VEGAS

Yesterday, Las Vegas, Nevada reported its driest air in recorded history, when the temperature hit 107° and the dewpoint reached -22° at 4:32pm MDT. This gave the city a dewpoint depression of 129 degrees, and a relative humidity of just 0.6%. The dew point depression is defined as the difference between the air temperature and the dew point temperature. The previous all-time record dew point depression for Las Vegas was 120 degrees set on July 2nd 2007. Not surprisingly, this record dry air is creating dangerous fire conditions, and much of the Southwest U.S. including Las Vegas is under a Red Flag Warning for critical fire conditions today.