Thursday, August 14, 2014

Very Lush!

My personal weed patch (a.k.a. lawn) is looking unusually lush for mid August with just a few patches of brown to be found.  


It's a real pity that invasive annual grasses have taken over the landscape in the foothills or it might be a bit greener around town.  

Here's an interesting plot for you from the National Weather Service that shows the departure from average precipitation over the past 14 days.  Northeast Nevada has had a "climatological deluge" with 600+% of average precipitation.  What I find interesting is that northern Utah and the northern Wasatch Front have also been fairly wet, with anywhere from about 110–600+% of average, but if this analysis is to be believed, portions of the Sevier Desert to our south have been remarkably dry.  Although such spatial variability is not unusual during the monsoon, in this case it could reflect a lack of radar coverage and gauge data in the area, so perhaps someone out there could dig into what gauges are available and let me know if they really have gotten the shaft during this wet period.  


The computer models suggest that the fun and games are almost over.  Enjoy the relatively high humidity and any showers that we get today.  

2 comments:

  1. The US Forest Service maintains or used to maintain a Desert Range Research station on Utah 21, in Pine Valley, west of Millard and the Wah Wah Mtns. I would think that they would have a guage.

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  2. From Wunderground.
    MTVWU1 - 39.350 & -113.385 at 5135'
    1 Aug .06" (For 27 Jul to 31 Jul total of 1.66")
    13 Aug .13"

    MTULU1 - 39.240 & -113.460 at 4583'
    4 Aug .02" ((.27" fell on 29 Jul)
    7 Aug .01"

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