After a wet morning, the rain is now exiting southern Maine.  Our break in the wet weather will be brief and I am reminded of the saying “be careful what you wish for”.  The saying is stuck in my head as I think back to the first week of May after 4 weeks of little rain.  Since that time we have had well above average amounts of rain and more is on the way, definitely too much of a good thing.

I’ll be updating the details of the rain on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

A wet June isn’t fun.  This is the month that summer is supposed to begin.   So far this June many areas have had over 3 inches of rain and the month isn’t half over yet. One of the farms I drive past in the morning has several of its rows sitting in water.  You might not remember, but last June was also wet with Portland seeing over 7 inches of rain.
 
The cause of this round of rainy weather is the same thing that prevented the rain in early spring, the jet stream.  The jet stream controls the movement of air masses and the weather associated with them.  Since mid-May the jet stream has been very active near New England.    Remember, April was not only dry here, there was very little tornado activity elsewhere.  With the jet stream becoming more active last month, the frequency of severe weather increased as did our rain events.
 
Below is a loop that shows the winds at around 30,000 feet for the next 10 days.   If you look at the flow you can see that the dips continually move through New England.   This means we will continue to have days that rain, some it heavy, are an issue.  
 
Our next round of rain arrives tomorrow and continues Thursday night.  In simplistic terms, we have another nor’easter that will give us heavy rain.  The rain will be quite heavy Thursday night and another 1 to 2 inches could fall.  On Friday the rain ends early in the morning and skies can brighten in the afternoon.   Temperatures remain cool only in the 60s tomorrow and upper 50s and lower 60s Friday, this is far below what we would expect in mid-June.
 
An area of dry weather will arrive for the weekend and with the strong sunshine temperatures return to more typical readings.  On Saturday highs will reach the lower 70s and could nudge 80F on Sunday.  I am not expecting any chance of rain and there will be mostly clear skies both days.  Low amounts of humidity in the air mean that the nights will be comfortable for sleeping as well. 
 
Although the weekend weather looks great, this doesn’t mean the pattern has changed.  During next week I expect several more chances of rain, some it heavy and humidity levels are going to increase.  This means more opportunities for possible flooding and not many chances for things to dry out.
 
Patterns like this will break, but how much longer we have to go through it is a bit of a mystery.  I do have access to the European model and what is called the monthly control.  This model gives a daily forecast for the next 30 days.  What I see it showing into early July is a continued wet and cooler than normal pattern.  This doesn’t mean 30 days of rain, but any heat we get doesn’t look like it will last very long.
 

Gardening this week With all the rain this month your soil might be water logged. Raised beds are a great way to grow flowers, vegetables, even trees and shrubs when you have limited space or need to create a new growing area. In the following video watch how we create a raised bed for a suburban homeowner. You could do the same thing anywhere by just changing the scale to fit your needs.

I’ll be updating the details of the rain on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

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