My Microclimate At the Lake. Weather service...

[897tgigvib]

My garden is about 100 feet from the northwest part of Lake Pillsbury. The weather station that the weather service gets its info from is outside of the basin at a place called Soda creek on the other side of the hill to the southwest over a mile from here. Out there right now it is 34 degrees, according to this...

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=39.43566267867563&lon=-122.97230531461537#.UlK1DnazKph

But here in the basin of Lake Pillsbury my accurate hi lo digital shows 44.7 degrees, 10 degrees warmer. In the basin right here I have a moderated microclimate. If things go like last year, my first killing frost will not be until December 3rd! But I don't know of course. That's when it was last year, and each year so far it has been later than the year before!

My first two years here it was in October, then some years in November, and last year not until December. Wonder when it'll be this year.

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Maybe I should be one of their weather spotters, but really, the weather service should put a station here in the basin of the lake.

Go ahead and click the link above, then on it, type in your local zip code. After it loads, look at the map and CLICK ON THE MAP EXACTLY AT YOUR PLACE. You can zoom in by first clicking on the plus sign and dragging the map by holding the clicker of your mouse or pad down. Click it there, then let it load. After it loads do a click for refresh if you want to do a copy paste into a message here to let everyone see your weather.

 

[digitS']

33f there now, Marshall!

Funny, I was just trying to get an idea for the next round of storms coming into North America! Looks like a dry week!

The Weather Underground has little weather stations that folks have voluntarily hooked up to it. I was noticing the other day when it was freezing most everywhere in the valley, a little community called Green Acres was 38. There's a place that was once a lake just a few hundred yards from the "city center." The lake (probably about 1000 acres) was drained by early white settlers.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Here's mine. Looks like they're using a pretty old map, my street wasn't on it and I know it's been here for more than 15 years.
My digital hi-lo said 40 this a.m. But the station they are getting data from said 28. That's a lot of difference! I'll take the warmer temp.



http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=47.934072044817746&lon=-116.72982215881348#.UlLEl2cgjMx

 

[897tgigvib]

try clicking the word satellite on the map Thistle.

 

[thistlebloom]

That worked better, I actually had my place pinpointed accurately.

 

[digitS']

NOAA is using HooDoo Mountain for your home, Thistle' .

Hey, in your historical research - how about asking around about that name? I asked the long-time post mistress and she said the oddest thing: "When we were kids we were told that The Bunco was HooDoo."

She was kind of an old lady 40 years ago (Good Grief, it has been nearly that long!), when I lived not too far away and off the "Bunco Road." It seems to me that Hoodoo and Bunco are strange enuf names that people wouldn't get them mixed up! A hoodoo is either a rock formation or an evil spell. Bunco is a swindle . . . Then there is Spirit Lake with Shadow Mountain rising beside it, just to the west of you! Imagine, growing up being surrounded by these sorts of things!!

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

It does make you wonder how place names stick. I've been working outside here at home today and listening to an audio book called "Train Dreams". It's a short fictional account of a fellow born in the 1860s who logged locally (Moyie and Bonners area, as well as Spokane ). I picked it up not realizing it had local lore in it. It's a bit dark and sad and I would have preferred listening to it on a sunnier day.

 

[digitS']

Can we assume that Lake Pillsbury was named for that little guy who giggles when you tickle his tummy? I suppose there must be a family of Pillsburys somewhere . . .

California has a remarkable history, pre-American settlement. Going back to the 16th century - the Spanish New World Empire was nearly 300 years before the 49'ers!

American white folk's history from the 1860's for this part of the world??!! Yes, there were American squatters here back when the territorial government on the Puget Sound didn't want to have anything to do with this part of the country. Idaho Territory had it forced on them in the 1860's.

There wasn't even an imagined City of Spokane before Glover got there in the 1870's. The clients at his store did include some Americans and maybe a few teamsters supplying Fort Colville, which was founded about 1860. What became Fort Sherman didn't show up until the 1870's, and Fort Wright much later than that. Noah Kellogg's donkey didn't find any silver ore until the 1880's. That donkey was just a twinkle in his grandpa's eye in the 1860's!

Steve
edited: Oh! You said the main character was "born" in the 1860's!!

 

[digitS']

I spend a fair amount of time outdoors. Fair weather is sure appreciated - I'm a fair weather gardener !

NOAA is the 1st website that I look at every day. Often, I try to double-check the precipitation forecast by looking at the radar map. Set it to "loop" so that I won't be mislead by where I'm expecting rain or snow to come from. After a few moments, I have a better idea how to prepare for several hours, outdoors!

When it comes down to dodging rain showers, I may have a little more flexibility than some folks on some days. Then it is: Let's see if I can play this right and have a more pleasant time out there in the garden , yeah! Here is where I can have a closer look at NOAA's and Environment Canada's radar map. You can just keep clicking the "-" or the "+" until you're right down in the weeds. Of course, accuracy declines too and you can never quite be sure about what that storm is gonna do in the next hour:

http://www.khq.com/category/161642/interactive-radar

That's a local TV station but they've paid for that premium service that covers all of Canada & the US. You may have a local source that doesn't start you off in my part of the country. NOAA does but their website is HUGE and all screwed up right now with the shutdown. Normally, I have trouble finding things but, right now, it's worse!

Steve
Gee, I shoulda picked a more "active weather" day to post that map! If you want to see some action - drag the map over to Cane's part of the world, I think it is - Virginia coast and south into North Carolina.