August - Big storm, some rain

Aug. 25 saw a very strong, fast moving storm system blow through our area. We continue to clean up the mess left behind. Winds of 65 miles per hour and above were noted in many areas. Here at the home weather station, where we are a bit protected, we had a gust of 43 mph and a third of an inch of rain from the system. As I write this column, we just experienced another fast moving storm system. Fortunately, it appears this one wasn’t as strong or severe as the Aug. 25 event.

Our temperature range for August here at the weather station was a high of 95.9°F (nine days at or above 90°F) and a low of 53.5°F. Precipitation for the month was 0.84 inches (double the mean rainfall of 0.41 inches, while our all-time high was 1.75 inches in 1941). August mean temperature is 71.9°F and I recorded a mean this August of 73.9°F. So, we were on the warmer side of the mean by two degrees here at the home weather station.

This may be a good time to review the simple formula to determine how far away a lightning bolt is from your location. “Since light travels almost instantaneously but sound takes around one second to travel 1000 feet, counting the time between lightning flash and thunder tells you how many thousand feet the closest point of the bolt hit. If the thunder arrives in 5 seconds after seeing the lightning bolt, that would equal 5,000 feet or just under one mile away (5,280 feet).

When you turn your eyes to the evening sky during September, which is coming on quicker each evening now, here’s where to be looking for the visible planets of our solar system and at what time of night. If you are looking at the evening sky: Mercury (west), Venus (southwest), Saturn (southwest), Uranus (east), and Neptune (southeast). When you’re look at the sky around midnight: Uranus (southeast) and Neptune (south). Looking at the early morning sky: Mars (east), Jupiter (east) and Uranus (west).

We will see a full moon on Sept. 19. It’s also that time of year when we lose about two minutes of sunlight each day as the sun sets faster and faster. We still have over a month until we “fall back” our timepieces (Nov. 3).