Yesterday was one of those fabulous April days when the word fabulous truly applies.  I gave it a perfect score in the morning and with temperatures mostly in the 60s. I hope you agree; it was a pretty awesome day.

My day was filled spending time in the yard.  During the winter, the collar that holds a threaded piece of pipe cracked.  The pipe carries water from my pond to a small stream I build years ago.  The stream helps aerate the pond and keep it relatively clear. When I turned the water on a couple of weeks ago the pipe started leaking and gallons of water per minute started spewing out onto the lawn. 

It’s probably hard to understand how much anxiety I was feeling about the stream and the pond.  It’s just a pond, it’s manmade and in the back of my mind I knew it could be fixed.  No matter how much I tell myself all the yard work of spring always gets completed, there is an underlying anxiousness about each dry day and the amount of chores I have on my list.  I love all of it, but sometimes it’s overwhelming.  The light is growing as I write and I am already starting to think about what I need to do today.

 After two weeks of running around trying to find the right 2 inch valves and controls a friend who’s an irrigation expert finally got it working around 11 AM yesterday.  The sound the water running over the rocks while I was clearing leaves was particularly soothing.

If you live in the city or don’t have much outdoor space spring isn’t the same as it is for those of us who do.  I can’t imagine only planting a window box or two as the spring chore. Friends who visit me say my yard makes them anxious, and often ask the question “how much time do you spend out here?”   The words always have a tone underlying them indicative of me being a bit obsessed with plants.  My friends know me well.

Today is a different kind of day from Saturday thanks to a wind shift overnight which ushered in cooler temperatures.  There have been a few rain showers this morning and even some snow and sleet in the mountains.   It’s raw and damp in most areas with the mild air well to our south right now.

 The highs this afternoon will have an enormous range.  If you live over extreme southern York County you may see readings similar to yesterday, while in Portland it’s 15 degrees cooler.   The boundary separating the warm and cool air will have a tough time moving north today.   We won’t see much if any sunshine today.

You can thank a cool maritime flow for the changes. The ocean is powerful and if you live within a few miles of the water you can expect cooler temperatures in summer and milder in winter.  The ocean effects are greatest in the first mile or so of the coast and then lessen as you move inland.  Of course, every day is different and some days the cool air makes it past Portland, while other it barely clears the Jetport.   Today’s air mass is much larger than a localized sea breeze and why it’s not just the coastline that is chilly.

Bigger changes come on Tuesday as a slow moving front, which will put an end to the mild stretch, moves east.  Along this front heavy rain will form and I do expect a period of heavier downpours Tuesday and Tuesday night. 

There is a flood watch posted for much of the area for the next few days.  The flood potential exists from ice jams, melting snow and the forecast of heavy rain.  If there are going to be issues on the big rivers, they will come after Tuesday’s rain.  Today and tomorrow the flood risk is there, but not as high.

Once the front passes, it’s going to turn quite cold and some inland areas could even see some wet snowflakes mixing in with the rain as it ends.  If I see any snow Tuesday night, I’m just going to start repeating the mantra, “it’s not going to accumulate, it’s not going to accumulate” until it ends.

Copy the Story Link