Let’s throw in some nautical measurements for good measure. Marine forecasts from NOAA use nautical miles per hour with wind speed measurements, kt. An Example of the forecast for the waters off Freeport, TX nearby shown below

TodayS wind 10 to 15 kt becoming S 5 to 10 kt in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 kt. Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 3pm. Seas around 4 ft.
TonightNNE wind around 15 kt, with gusts as high as 20 kt. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Seas 3 to 4 ft.
FridayNNE wind 15 to 20 kt, with gusts as high as 25 kt. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Seas around 3 ft.
Friday NightNNE wind 20 to 25 kt, with gusts as high as 30 kt. A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8pm. Seas 3 to 5 ft.
SaturdayNE wind 20 to 25 kt, with gusts as high as 30 kt. Partly sunny. Seas 6 to 8 ft.
Saturday NightNNE wind around 20 kt. Mostly cloudy. Seas 4 to 5 ft.
SundayENE wind 10 to 20 kt. Mostly sunny. Seas 3 to 4 ft.
Sunday NightE wind 5 to 10 kt. Partly cloudy. Seas 2 to 3 ft.
Columbus DayESE wind 5 to 10 kt. Sunny. Seas 1 to 2 ft.

A knot is ~15% more than a mph. One nautical mile is ~6,076 feet. 6,076 feet is ~1.85 kilometers. A statute mile is 5,280 feet or ~1.61 kilometers.

Also a knot is really a knot in a rope at regular intervals used to measure speed on sailing ships.
They would toss a board the shape of a triangle off the back of a ship with a line attached to tell the speed by using an hour glass.
When the time was up they would pull the line back in and count the knots.
The distance between the knots was a nautical mile.
This was called a common log.
Until the 1700s they didn't have a sextant so they determined where they were on earth by determining where they were in latitude but determined how far east or west by determining how far they went with the common log.
The did this with the use of the astrolabe and other devices before then.

It took intelligent educated people on board these ships to do this.
You couldn't become an officer on board without navigation skills.
Of which only the upper or educated class could become most of the time.

I need to get a life for not having to look this stuff up.

We got less than an inch of rain from what the weather says.

Being able to use a compass saved my bacon more than once. GPS is wonderful, but not necessarily reliable. When a you are in a 21’ small craft 20 something miles out in the Gulf Of Mexico in a blinding thunderstorm and the GPS goes out, being able to understand headings and how to follow them on a compass is a lifesaver.

Intense storms here since about or a little before 9 am. Lightning just hit about 1,500 feet away based on the flash to sound delay. It was a powerful, window rattling strike. We might have not gotten more than 10 or 15 mm of rain yesterday, well under predicted amounts, but today I bet it is already 50 mm or rain and climbing, well over the forecast. Should be the end of the heavy stuff for at least a week.

This happened in Austin this morning in front of the airport.
The person flipped this vehicle and died in the process.
It took me 3 hours to get from Bastrop to 973 before I even got to the wreck on the other end.
I turned around and went home.
This happened right in the middle of the storm that came through.
Now look at this vehicle and see what it is.
Totally dangerous to drive and easy to flip.
The people driving these vehicles drive like a bat out of hell and they are normally young.
I had several pass me up this morning going probably 80 miles an hour in the middle of that downpour with the speed limit of 65.
I was going 50 as were other people.
They dodge in and out of traffic like they are in a road race.

Too bad the person died but they probably did it to themselves.
I've probably seen this vehicle a few times on the highway myself.
Seems crazy but you start to recognize other vehicles on the road.
And I bet they weren't wearing a seatbelt.

This will probably be the last day in the 80s for a while, as the next few days are forecast to drop - first, down to the seventies, then down to the high 60s, then the low 60s by Sunday, and possibly getting down to the high 40s some of those nights. Saturday, rain probable, though nothing heavy likely - just spread out.

We ended up with between 229 mm to 254 mm of rain from Tuesday through Thursday. Long term goodness. Short term, a few puddles to deal with.

40*F for the next five nights, and high 50s during the day. expected to warm back to high 60s afterward. typical ohio. hopeful for a frost free October.

the week started with 80 degree weather, sunny, and happy.
now it is in the 40s. highs wont get out of the 50s, and there is a 37 degree low in the forecast for sunday.
currently in wash and rinse cycle. nothing but rain for the next several days. not too much i will be doing outside
unless it stops raining for a bit.
good feeling is gone


keith

Today didn't get to 80°, but it was the first day I had to turn the AC on, since the humidity was disgustingly high, and there was absolutely no wind out there, so I got soaked, harvesting those butternuts, and pulling all those vines out. It started raining around 4:30 pm, which gave me an excuse to come inside! However, it only rained enough to increase the humidity even more - it didn't even register on the meter. Yet 2 hours later it was still on the cars, the humidity is so high. Tomorrow less rain is forecast than they had originally, but there is still a front coming through - I'll see how it looks tomorrow, as to what I can get done. At least it will be cooler.

Another day of light drizzle here, with the high maybe getting to 60 F here inland. All week forecast highs are in the upper 50's and the lows are close to 50F, which is warmer than normal. We had some cooler nights last week but zero frost so far, meager amounts of precipitation too, on the order of 0.0 to 0.2 mm for drizzly days. I spent the past two days doing garlic bed prep, and it certainly wasn't wet enough to interfere with that.
I see the chance of a solid heavy rainfall for several days will be mid month, right about the time I would plant the garlic, so now I'm wondering, should I plant before the big rain or after. Hmmmm?

We got just over 100 mm/4 inches out of the last few days, folks up a bit higher received 150mm /6 inches. Maximum temperature down to 13C/55F building back up to low 20s, around 70F before more rain starting Thursday going through to Sunday, but only around 15 mm/0.6 inch forecast for the four days.

20°C dewpoint 16°C wind north at 24 kph.
High today 25°
Low tonight 13°

56° low for Columbus Day. 81° forecasted high. Light winds, plentiful sunshine. Pretty perfect.

50% chance of rain tomorrow due to storm moving across Mexico from the Pacific.
56F right now as the sun comes up.

It's amazing we haven't had frost here into October. Leaves are slowly starting to turn. There are a few late flowers, most things have gone to seed. I was chopping stuff down but I left a few standing that were still flowering. And then a butterfly came along and celebrated those single bits of oregano bloom. Red Admiral. I saw a really wee brown toad hopping out of my way. A sleepy bee. Grasshoppers still out there too. Squirrels singing the praise of some mushroom out in the woods. And the garden spiders - the big Cross spiders, man they have been really cross! Swinging back to bite you if you mess with the web. So I'm avoiding them, but it's late for to be holding back due to some critter still active in the habitat.

I had my first frost last night. Time to get busy chopping downs all of the gardens.

MissS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2023 5:22 pm I had my first frost last night. Time to get busy chopping downs all of the gardens.

Not here, yet; heck, the Emerald Tower Basil is still standing, which means it hasn't dipped below 37°F/2.8°C.

The Gotch

rain all day here
temp not budging much from the 39-40 degree mark.
squash leaves near the ground have frost damage. the leaves higher up are still ok.
we have NOT had frost yet, but it seems to get colder a few inches off the ground in spots.
pole beans are still ok. i have done seed collecting, and waiting for a few more pods
to dry up a bit more before i get them in. i'll do that just before the first heavy frost.


keith

We got 4.3" of much needed rain yesterday. Still, there were no puddles anywhere as the ground sopped it all up.

Today's e-mail had the latest El Nino/La Nina forecast. El Niño is anticipated to continue through the Northern Hemisphere spring (with an 80% chance during March-May 2024). Here are some predictive temp and rainfall maps from NOAA.

Now through December: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/ ... /page2.gif

Temp outlooks now through next year. Click on maps to enlarge:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/ ... olor/t.gif

Precip outlooks now through next year:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/ ... olor/p.gif

Even if certain parts of Texas gets rain it's bad news for some Texans.
It seems as some rich person dammed up a major tributary of the llano river on their own not even considering people down stream.
The government needs to go in and blast this thing all to hell.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/illegal ... and-lakes/

Then this jerk.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-polit ... ntroversy/