I came back to link the Drought Monitor Map for the whole USA. Wow! Texas and Kansas both have a lot of drought.

Here is a link that might be useful: USA Drought Monitor 7-16

The 5 to 7 day precip map sure took a turn for the better this morning! Maybe Scott and everyone in the northeast will get some needed rain.

I have to say, this is one of my favorite summers so far. Not so hot, rain fairly regularly. Can we have these more often?

I did spend Saturday morning trying to tame one of my out of control flower beds. Whew. I need to work on those everyday. It's nice to be able to pull weeds and actually have them come up!

Lisa,

I haven't looked at that map, so I guess I need to go look at it!

I also hope the NE gets some good rainfall. They really need it. I think George's massive grasshopper issue will not go away until he gets a good rainy year, and we need for that rain to start falling on his place soon in order to make next year a less-grasshoppery year in his garden

This is one of my favorite summers in recent memory too. I actually like it better than 2007, which was too rainy and included flooding. It is not as nice and rainy as 2010 here in my county, but otherwise it has been pretty wonderful.

Some days the rain has missed us, but yet has fallen close enough to us that the nearby rain-cooled air has dropped our temperatures about 10 degrees in minutes, which is a welcome change in late afternoon even when the rain misses us. Then, it never really warmed up and got hot again so the rest of the evening was a lot more pleasant than most evenings here have been.

I wish we'd have these years more often. It seems like we used to! In my rapidly aging memory bank, I remember the following years as good gardening years when the heat was not completely unbearable and enough rain fell that I wasn't a slave to watering: 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010 and now 2013. So, when I look at that, it seems like we get a good year about once every three years? I'd like to have one every year, but would be very happy if we had a good year just half the time instead of one-third of the time.

I spent Saturday morning in the back garden too, trying to tame the flower portions of it and did make a lot of progress. I also worked out there this morning until it got too hot and I came inside to sit in the air-conditioned house like the wimp that I am.

Last week's rain greened up everything very nicely here, and knocked our KBDI back down to normal levels for this time of the year, but this week's heat could turn that green back to brown quickly if we don't get some more rain. We actually have to mow the yard this week because it has been growing. We mowed an acre on Sunday, another one today, and will mow another acre tomorrow. Normally Tim will mow all day and get it done more quickly, but he's been trying to work only in the coolest part of the morning.

I just hope August cooperates and stays kinda nice and kinda wet and somewhat cool like June and July have. My fall tomato plants are blooming and at least one of them (Bush Early Girl) has set fruit, which is really rare in July.

Dawn