More Rain

I’m 30 miles north of NYC. I’m thinking of building an arc. 15 inches of rain fell in August, so far in September another 3. More is on the way. The average for both these months would be about 4 inches. We have taken out all of the records at this point. 2011 will set records for decades to come.

Of course there is flooding everywhere. Basements, roads, ponds and streams are full. I’ve seen changes in animal behavior. Lairs and burrows are saturated with water. Woodchucks, skunks and groundhogs are out in the open. Raccoons are coming up out of the gutters to breathe, (so are the moles and field rats). Even the insects don’t know how to react. The mosquitoes, shad flies and ticks are out in force. They should all be dead now. Black rat snakes (big ones) are out in the open, they have no dry place to hide so they go up trees. The birds are hunkered down, they should be eating like mad at this time of year.

And West Texas is so dry that it is burning. A thousand homes went up in smoke in just the past week.

We have ENSO Neutral conditions in the Pacific. This means that we are not in either an El Nino or La Nina conditions. This condition is conducive for tropical storms to form in the Atlantic (absence of shearing winds). It also creates the opportunity for Home Grown storms (Hurricanes that form in the Gulf of Mexico).

Two very big storms are forming this morning.

Maria is headed due west at the moment. If it does not turn north in the next few days (ala Katia) it will become a threat to S. Florida. Nate could easily turn into a big storm that crashes into Louisiana (ala Lee). Both of these storms will likely find their way to the N East and bring more record rain.

Of course all of the water is screwing up consumption. There can be no doubt that the NE economy is suffering. Just another drag on an already weak outlook.

I wrote a short story (unpublished - too wonky) about some Russian fishermen I bumped into. I used this picture to describe the scene. It looks calm and serene.

This is what it looks like this morning.