Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rain, Rain: GO AWAY!

The next time I hear someone say, "But we need this rain!" I believe I may just punch him in the mouth.

We absolutely do not need any more rain. Yes, February and March were very dry (if I recall correctly, February was the driest on record for our area), but since then, we've made up for it with a vengeance. Beginning in mid-to-late April, there was a span where we had rain nearly every day, and May clocked in as the sixth wettest on record for the Washington area, with several record rainfall days at Dulles and National airports. The drought conditions of the nascent year had been erased well before the end of May.

June now finds us nearly five inches above normal levels of rain for the year, with June itself more than double the normal amount of rain. If you remove the week of relatively clear weather we had in mid-June (miraculously, given that areas around us continued to receive rain every day), that double-normal rain has happened in just over a quarter of the month.

We've had to put off several bits of yard work; the ground is just too soggy even after a few clear days. Poison ivy has gone wild with all the rain. I can't do good photography with the totally overcast skies and dim light levels. The dogs get incredibly messy going out into the muddy, squishy yard. Our dehumidifier is working overtime. Mold abounds outside; orange halves placed on the oriole feeder mildew within a day, and it's allergy central outdoors. Mosquitoes are rampant. More than once, I've had to rescue plants nearly washed away in the yard, and our mulch has been spread around by tidal-esque surges of heavy rain.

It's been raining pretty much all morning, too, after rain off and on the past few days. No chance of yard work today, and likely tomorrow's out as well even if it manages to clear up; the ground will just be too soaked and squishy underfoot.

Enough, already! Rain, rain: go away! You're not wanted anymore. At least give us some summer, since we didn't get much of a spring.

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