Weather the Weather

The calendar moved to autumn almost two weeks ago, but meteorological fall began at the beginning of last month.  However, since mid-August the Dane County region has mainly seen clouds and rain.  The Weather Channel app on my I-Pad, has generally predicted rain 12 of every 14 days since mid-August.  The weather seems to be more variable with more clouds and more rain this year than I recall in the past.  We are having to weather the weather.

Mud along curb of Exchange Street from McFarland
High School Construction Project.
Apparently, the Village and Contractor feel sweeping the silt to the
curb is proper erosion control

I don't know what happened to what are supposed to be the nice days of fall with sunshine and high temps in the low 70's moving to  60's as September's shortened days take hold to October, and more night than day is upon the land, post equinox.  Before today, the last sunshine we had was two or three hours worth last week early Saturday morning. High temperatures, up until today, for the past several days have been about 10 to 15 degrees below normal. There was only just over one week in September that I can recall where we were rain free and that was from September 8 through September 17.  Interestingly, that stretch of good weather was timed with appearance of Hurricane Florence in the Mid-Atlantic region.

View of the Yahara River from the Exchange St Bridge
Notice the strong water flow, and flooding to left side

To put it in perspective, normal precipitation for September is supposed to be 3.13", but the Dane County Regional Airport received almost 5".  September ended wet and October began wet.  My home rain gauge recorded 3" of rain from Sunday night to early the morning of October 2.  As of 8:00 am Monday, there was 2" of rain.  This rain event raised Lake Mendota levels five inches.  But for a 1-1/2 hour period it rained all day on Monday, October 1, giving us the extra one inch.  Year to date precipitation is 43.54" with a normal just over 28".

Closer view of flooding of left river shore

The Weather Channel forecast for the next 14 days has rain in the forecast for thirteen of the next fourteen days.  This could be prime days to view the changing fall colors and instead the days will be cloudy, cool and rainy.  Of the next fourteen days of this long range forecast there is not one day predicted with good amount of sunshine.  Weather Underground is a little more optimistic, its ten day forecast has one day of sunshine (this Thursday) and rain four of the next ten days.  Rain was not predicted on either application Tuesday morning, but on my walk that morning there was some light rain. Today's "Wisconsin State Journal" notes rainfall tonight, and Friday through Sunday.  So, its five day forecast is rain free only for Thursday. 

Lone chair stuck in highwater

With all this rain, are we starting to become like Portland, Oregon in terms of rainfall? Although, Portland's October normal rainfall is less than that for the Madison area.  Many years ago I spent about two weeks in Portland visiting my brother and his wife.  The visit mainly was in late November, over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Two things struck me on that visit, first was that during my whole visit the only day it did not rain and the sun was out was on the day before I departed.  Second, I recall hearing on the radio sometime during my visit that the area had just set a record for most consecutive days of rainfall.  I am able to recall the forty days of Portland rain, as it reminded me of the forty days and night in the biblical account of Noah's ark.

Rain fall amounts have been so high that many properties are now are flooded, although not to biblical proportions.  Streets in Madison started to flood after the heavy rainfall of August 20.  However, watershed overload actually began on August 16 when an area from Waunakee to Watertown, which would include Sun Prairie, received 6" of rainfall overnight.  Rainfall is highly variable, I recall the airport, which is not far from Waunakee having recorded less than 2" during that storm event.  Rainfall is also variable within a few blocks.  Two neighbors have weather stations and during that event there was a variation between the two stations here in McFarland of about one inch even though their homes are 1,330 feet apart (as measured on Google Maps).

Lake Weed conveyor belt
Dane County was cutting weeds 24/7 since the August rains to obtain better water flow downstream

The variability of the weather makes it unpredictable.  Perhaps the Weather Channel app makes the forecast seem more dreary than it will actually turn out.  I think I tend to notice more when the weather is worse than predicted.  Take last Saturday for instance.  It was a cold morning for southern Wisconsin, and sun was predicted for the morning with clouds to move in during the afternoon. Yet, clouds moved in much earlier, at mid-morning-keeping temperatures down, and significantly below the forecast high in the paper that day. One thing is for sure, we do not have to be camping to see cool and wet weather.  It is just more bothersome when you are camping, particularly in a tent.  The long range forecast of wet and cold has ended our camping earlier than we had hoped.  I was hoping for a nice stretch of clear fall weather, but warm enough at night and early morning to not be freezing. 

 Author photos, morning of Oct. 3, 2018