Looks like we are not going to get rain for a while. Nothing but sunny blue skies. Unfortunately the grass doesn't like to much of a good thing. How does your lawn look?
OT- When was the last time it rained in NJ?
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When I lived in Jersey my Lawn Philosophy was thusly. I would look out of my front window and see the nicely watered green lawns across the street. I neglected my lawn badly so that is what the neighbors had to look at.Great trade off.
We really need the rain in central NJ. I think south Jersey has had some recently but very dry here in Piscataway with some leaves coming off the trees and grass/shrubs stressed. In the last few weeks it seems like every time there has been a chance for rain or showers it's missed us. I have an irrigation system but the lawn has dropped off quite a bit in the last few weeks. I remember a drought about 10 or 15 years ago when we had water restrictions and I lost several trees and shrubs. Hope it does come to that.
Played golf at Seaview on Thursday and Twisted Dunes yesterday. Rained both days down there. Torrential yesterday afternoon everything is nice and green there.
Yesterday in LBI, nice job weathermen, took the day off after hearing how nice it was going to be.
To answer your thread title question, it rained quite heavily in t-storms in far southern NJ yesterday with 1-2" of rain in many spots.
http://www.njweather.org/data/sub/1/day
If you're asking when was the last time we had decent rainfall in the NB area, it was on June 8th, when 0.81" fell, although 0.04" fell on 6/16. June has been fairly dry in NB, with 2.7" of rain so far this month vs. a monthly average of 4.4". Looks to be a dry week ahead, except for some possible storms on Tuesday, associated with a frontal system moving through.
http://www.njweather.org/data/daily/1101
http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/new-brunswick/new-jersey/united-states/usnj0348
My lawn looks awesome, by the way, since we get a lot of shade. I do nothing for the lawn, other than having a guy do spring/fall applications of whatever he puts down (fertilizer and pesticides, I presume). If it gets really dry, it gets really dry.
Some rain was forecast for most of SJ, including LBI, although only 0.01" was recorded in Harvey Cedars...
Not as of Thursday morning, site I went to said mostly sunny for Ship Bottom for Friday, then it must have changed and gotten progressively worse, by that time it was too late to change my plans.
I made it rain last night at the strip club in Middlesex county.
Seems like an awful waste of water to go along with a ridiculous amount of maintenance. I went the native drought resistant plants and mulch route, like most people out here. It freed up so much time to do fun stuff.
Yea Dave, I agree if you don't enjoy it then you shouldn't do it. My lawn is kind of a hobby with me so I see it as "fun" and interesting. It doesn't get in the way of other hobbies or interests for me. Having said that, I don't begrudge anyone who sees it as a chore and chooses not to spend a lot of time on it.
My friends were down there for their anniversary from Monday to Wednesday. Said the weather was crazy in Cape May.
No rain up here in Mahwah. One thing I am glad we did when we built the house. Kept the well that was with the old house and hooked it to everything outside- hoses and sprinkler system(16 zones) and hooked the interior to town water. I have had to run my sprinklers every day as opposed to 3 times a week. I have 90 % sun. Lawn and landscape looks great.
Sprinkler systems are great ... until they break. This is the third straight year I had problems with 1 or more zones. This year it's three zones, or about half the lawn. PIA POS.
I don't have a choice, but I'd never dick around with a Sprinkler system somewhere that gets a lot of rain.
That's great, well for irrigation and town water for inside--best of both worlds. Most turf specialists recommend an inch of water per week through rain or irrigation (deep but infrequent) and when you hit a dry spell like this it takes a lot of water through an irrigation system to get that inch. I have to admit I don't always go for it but would if I had a well.
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Sorry to hear about that..... I have had my system for about 15 years and just had to replace a sprinkler head now and then... What exactly goes wrong, if you don't mind me asking?
I live in Basking Ridge and the rain you mentioned that fell on June 8th in NB never made it to us. We have had nothing so far in June and very little in the couple of months prior to that. It is bone dry here.
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Usually the solenoid or the one of the control valves needs replacement. Seems like I might have to rip the whole box out and replace because it's always the same box with the issues.
It's usually only a hundred bucks or so for the guy to fix, but just an annoying way to start the season. When it's running smoothly, though, I m with you: a great convenience.
Sprinkler guy couldn't make it out for a couple weeks, so my grass is basically straw. Less mowing this year : )
Well, it's always possible that the storms were so localized that you didn't receive any of the 1.1" (edit: I originally said 1.6", but I erroneously included one storm from the end of May) recorded in Basking Ridge this June or the 0.5" that fell there on 6/8 (can't imagine the recording station is that far from you in a fairly small town), but my guess is your memory is probably a little fuzzy on this. Hell, I have no clue how much falls at my house in a particular month until I look at my spreadsheet.
http://www.njweather.org/data/daily/285
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Red Bank here. My Accu Rite weather station says 4.1" for May and 0.00" so far for June. Been running the sprinkler system every night and our lawn is still showing stress.
For what it's worth, most turf pros will say "infrequent but deep" watering is best to promote good root establishment. So instead of every day, they'd suggest watering less frequently but longer. It depends on water pressure, sprinkler heads, throughput, etc but generally, for example, one watering a week of 60-90 minutes instead of multiple waterings is preferable. The best way to measure your output of a sprinkler or irrigation system is to put a flat can or container (cat food can or tuna fish can will do) and see how much collects in a given period of time. Then determine how much it takes to get the recommended inch per week.
Western Passaic County has received next to nothing, especially in June. Haven't really watered the lawn, it shows, but I do sprinkle the veggies and hanging plants. So far so good.
Not trying to bust balls, but the stations at Holmdel and Oceanport, each just a few miles from Red Bank, both show about 1.1-1.2" of rainfall in June. Any chance your weather station isn't functioning properly in some way? Although, the Oceanport station reports 4.2" for May, which is really close to what you have. Since almost all of the precip for June in the area was from two mesoscale convective events, iirc, which can have a lot of variability across even a few miles, it's theoretically possible your zero for June is correct, although the station being off would be a bit more likely (have read a bit about problems with the rain gauges with some of these stations).
How close are you to Charlotteburg? Shows 1.8" for June, which is way below normal, but not bone dry.
http://www.njweather.org/data/daily/471
And here is my problem for the lawn but positive for flooding. My neighborhood used to be a sand quarry. So it is get for digging my foundation, pool and any planting a as well as keeping me safe from flooding, it is a bitch to keep watering. We can do 50 mins a day on each zone and bone dry in and hour or two.
just got done watering the tomato plants and the rest of the garden. My brussel sprout plants need lots of water or else they wilt.
Probably about 8 miles, it's a little area off RT 23 by the reservoir also named the same. West Milford is 80 square miles so the conditions really vary. 2 miles away might get a downpour and we get nothing. Seems to be in a non-rain cycle at the moment and maybe a traceable shower. We have wells so that part is OK, but we have had restrictions a few times. I like to fish and most of the local rivers are low.
I can tell when it's bad because the Wanaque Reservoir looks like Planet of the Apes.
May was deary cool and wet and everyone was crying
Now summer is here which is typically humid , not so much so far, but lacking in rain as a rule and we are talking drought. It all runs in cycles and is controlled by the jet stream. I am off to the blueberry festival to buy a summer's worth of those little round devils.
Now summer is here which is typically humid , not so much so far, but lacking in rain as a rule and we are talking drought. It all runs in cycles and is controlled by the jet stream. I am off to the blueberry festival to buy a summer's worth of those little round devils.
