Tag: weather

Summer is over

A jade plant I started from a cutting two years ago. In the winter, it lives under grow lights, but in the summer, it enjoys the fresh air and the rays of the sun. Tomorrow, it will have to come back indoors along with the Echevarria, Sansevieria, Tradescantia, and the epiphytic Zygocactus, Hatiora, and Rhipsalidopsis cactus.

We’ve had exceptionally warm weather for the last week, and even before that, the temperatures were just plain nice. But Sunday is the last day of temperatures in the 70s and 80’s. Yesterday it was 90 degrees in the shade. Tomorrow it will cool down to the 60s, and there is a chance of frost for three nights in a row.

After Monday, I will probably have to cut them down and store the tubers for the winter. The same is true for the tuberous begonias and the gladiolus. And all the houseplants I set out for their summer vacation will need to be brought back in.

A stalled high-pressure system is bringing the warm weather. Winds are from the south and gusting to 30 mph. The warm weather, while enjoyable and welcome so late in the year, is bringing problems to the already dry forests and fields. Even the wetlands are dry. Very dry.

Power is restored

Some things to always have on hand around here. Plus a generator, water, and plenty of easy-to-prepare meals.

Our township was without electricity for almost 24 hours. Not a record here. One of the longest was three days in December 2022. That event occurred during a massive winter storm called the Blue Blizzard. It buried huge swathes of the state and our neighboring states with two feet or more of snow mixed with freezing rain. I am working on a post about that, discussing the ecological consequences resulting from massive forest destruction brought by the storm.

The recent power outage was attributed to a rodent, but no explanation was given as to how it did that. Did it get inside a transformer? Short out exposed wires by falling on them? Whatever it did caused a fire in the substation, destroying transformers.

There have been problems with that substation all summer. In the last two weeks, before this blackout, there had been three other power surges followed by short power interruptions. Power surges and brief interruptions have been happening all summer. I haven’t heard why any of those happened. They weren’t big enough to get anyone’s attention, I guess.

So for now we have electricity.

My computer came back to life, too. Why? I don’t know. But it did. It seems to have suffered no ill effects, and all files look good. I’ll get it checked anyway. In the meantime, I can get back to writing and editing new posts and reading yours comfortably on a large screen.