Weather radar anxiety

[Lawnct]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this posting. I have been reading this forum almost daily during the growing seasons and I have come to respect the people that post on this particular forum so I'm guessing I might find a kindred spirit here.

The Question: Do I need therapy?

The Reasoning: I do not have irrigation so I rely on Mother Nature for a good part of my lawn watering. When Mother Nature is missing in action for an extended period of time I get my 2 sprinklers out and start getting the water down. I have 12,500 sqft of lawn so it is a rather expensive proposition to get the needed water down just using the sprinklers. This year I seem to be watering a lot more than usual. I have been able to keep the lawn looking pretty good is spite of the lack of rain but my wallet is crying out in pain. So I went to a weather site that I monitor that has weather observers all over the state and there happens to be one very close to my house. Each morning the weather observer posts how much rainfall occurred in the previous 24 hours. I found that I could do a history search on the observations. So I ran some dates and here is what I got going back a few years.

5/9/20 - 7/9/20 3.94 inches rainfall
5/9/19 - 7/9/19 7.32 inches
5/9/18 - 7/9/18 7.32 inches
5/9/17 - 7/9/17 8.12 inches
5/9/16 - 7/9/16 5.42 inches
5/9/15 - 7/9/15 9.28 inches

So you can see this year has been on the dry side. I am a private pilot but I haven't flown in a very long time and as a pilot I have an interest in weather. And as a lawn enthusiast I have a love/hate affair with my weather radar app. Am I alone in sometimes being obsessive about looking at the radar app when thunderstorms are popping up and pointedly telling these cells to make a beeline for my house? Like looking at it every 5 minutes? For some reason (perhaps topographically) I would say about 50% of the thunderstorm cells that are heading right for me end up dissipating before getting here. It is soooooo discouraging when that happens. Worse is when a line is approaching and then it starts to breakup and maddeningly goes right around me, splits to either side. I know thunderstorms are relatively short in duration but man it is soooooo frustrating when we have gotten hardly any rain and then finally a line of thunderstorms is approaching and then you see the line starting to fall apart and then dissipate right west of here.

And as I write this there is a good chance of some much needed rain heading my way for Friday evening/Saturday morning that I keep looking at the weather spaghetti plots in hope against hope that the storm tracks right over my area. One time I look at it and then I notice that it is trending west and could be going right over Hudson Valley area and I get depressed, then the next model run has the track moving back east again and I get more hopeful...This up and down feeling is nuts.

Do I need help? Anybody have a couch? I just had a bunch of interior rooms painted, maybe it's the paint fumes.

[MorpheusPA]

Therapy? No.

Anti-anxiety medications? Um, can I withhold my opinion on that? :-p

I watch the radar as well. I have ten thousand square feet, but just don't irrigate due to having A Thing about throwing potable water at a lawn when so much of the world suffers shortages of it. It doesn't make sense. It's just A Thing. I have no issues watering the gardens.

But if it goes dormant (as the southwest section does every year), I don't worry about it much. It'll be back in September. And this week, we have rafts of thunderstorms coming through. No matter how bad it gets, it won't die. Drought won't be bad enough to kill it before fall rains resume.

I'm worse than you are. I have a digital rain gauge on the back deck with a record of rainfall for the last 59 minutes, the hour, the day, the week, the month, the year, and since the power was turned on (the battery was put in).

So I need way more chems than you do, I guess.

[ken-n-nancy]

First off, hang in there! I can fully relate to the situation you describe. I've been there!

Planning lawn care around weather forecasts can be hopelessly frustrating and can cause a lot of anxiety, especially since forecasts tend to be "wet" and also don't take into consideration the actual amount of rain that is received. That is a forecast will say "50% chance of rain" without considering how much rain will be received. When a forecast says "50% chance of rain" that can also mean a lot of different things.

I used to try to plan my watering based upon forecasts. For example, if rain were expected tomorrow afternoon, but the irrigation is set to water tonight, I'd turn off the irrigation system for tonight, instead relying upon the rain to provide the water. However, I generally don't do that any more, unless there is a major rain event (greater than 1 inch) of extremely high likelihood rain (like a tropical storm coming through) within the next 24 hours.

Rather, I now adapt irrigation settings based only upon what fell on our property and pretty much ignore the forecast, with the exception of major events, which only happen a few times each year. We haven't had a single one of those in New England so far this summer. (Although I hear early forecasts that there may be one coming a week from now -- however still way too far out to consider acting upon or having even the least bit of anxiety over.)

The only tool I use for irrigation decision-making is an old-fashioned rain gauge I have in the garden. My irrigation system is currently set to water overnight on every Nth day, delivering about 0.5" of water. I vary N seasonally, with N being every 3 days in the middle of summer for my sandy soil, ranging to being every 7 days in the fall, when water evaporates much more slowly.

After we receive rain, I go out and look at the rain gauge and dump out the water. If we had more than 0.5 inches of rain, I reset the irrigation system so that the next watering is N days from now. If we had less than 0.2 inches of rain, I don't mess with the irrigation controller at all -- that wasn't enough rain to water deeply. If we get something in the middle, I might change the irrigation controller to postpone the next watering by a day or two, depending upon the season, how the grass looks (has it been drought stressed recently? is there a disease problem from having been too wet?), and whether or not I feel like I need to be conserving water from the well.

In short, I basically ignore the forecast for making any irrigation decisions. I also use only actual rainfall measured in the rain gauge on our property to guide the decision making -- summer rain patterns of scattered showers, pop-up thunderstorms, etc., can be so localized that I can end up getting 0.1" of rain from an evening of thunderstorms when the official weather station at the airport 4 miles away gets 2.5" -- or vice versa. All that matters to my lawn is how much lawn it received -- not how much was received at the nearest weather station. It is also surprising how much variation in quantity of rain can take place for an hour's worth of rain. We've recently had a showery day where it rained on and off almost all day, but we only received about 0.2 inches of rain. We also sometimes get a thunderstorm deluge where we get 1.5 inches of rain in less than an hour. A couple nights ago, thunderstorms came through, with loud, violent thunder, high winds, and very brief stints of wind-driven rain. Hearing all the racket from in bed, I was sure we'd received over an inch of rain. I was surprised to check the rain gauge and find we received only about 0.2 inches of rain. Not enough to vary the irrigation cycle.

In any case, I've found that since deciding to consider only actual rain received and stop adapting decision-making based upon forecasts, I have a lot less weather-related lawn anxiety...

Hang in there!

PS: Being in the first week after seed-down in a renovation is a whole different story about avoiding anxiety of thunderstorms...

[schreibdave]

I also ignore the forecast. I set my system based on what my eyes are telling me about the lawn's needs.

[jskierko]

I promise you that if make a list for an upcoming timeframe that says "I will mow tomorrow" or "I will put down a foliar application that mustn't be watered in for x hours" the weather gods will find a way to bring rain at the least opportune time for your plans. So if you are desperate and feel you are cursed, try a little reverse psychology and see if it works

I do have irrigation and I have a rain sensor that will stop watering and can adjust irrigation based on forecast. I only have adjustments if the chance of rain is >80% since I know how often forecasts totally brick. It is rather crazy how luck comes into play... I work about 3 miles from my house. Downpour at work during the day (0.80"), rainfall at home <0.20". In summary, you will get it when you don't want it so stop worrying.

[MorpheusPA]

And as of now, all of us on the eastern seaboard have Weather Radar Anxiety as Fay blew up out of nowhere.

Forecasts range from 2 to 6 inches of rain for me tomorrow. All ceramics and breakables are either in the house or down on the ground.

[andy10917]

I promise you that if make a list for an upcoming timeframe that says "I will mow tomorrow" or "I will put down a foliar application that mustn't be watered in for x hours" the weather gods will find a way to bring rain at the least opportune time for your plans. So if you are desperate and feel you are cursed, try a little reverse psychology and see if it works

Absolutely! If I need rain, I just go to the barn and apply the most expensive stuff I can find. It will rain 20 minutes later. It happened to me maybe a week ago - I put the pre-drought Humates down on the sloped yard, and it poured.

Another alternative to bring rain is to get a restaurant reservation for outdoor dining. It will start raining 20 minutes after you are seated.

[Dargin]

I have anxiety over everything. I can hit around 170-180 BPM just standing still while hose watering and thinking about everything that's happening in the soil.

I haunt some weather radar sites. If there's a chance of anything substantial I put out the cans. Anything under a 1/4" I ignore. Anything above that I'll typically deduct it from the next scheduled watering. Despite an early dip into drought stress things have been holding up well.

[bpgreen]

I have anxiety over everything. I can hit around 170-180 BPM just standing still while hose watering and thinking about everything that's happening in the soil.

I haunt some weather radar sites. If there's a chance of anything substantial I put out the cans. Anything under a 1/4" I ignore. Anything above that I'll typically deduct it from the next scheduled watering. Despite an early dip into drought stress things have been holding up well.

I rode my bike for almost an hour today. Average speed of 16.5 mph, max of 30.3. My heart rate got to 160 at the peak of a hill, when I was going all out and not quite hitting 7 mph.

170-180 while standing still doesn't sound good.

[Dargin]

It doesn't feel good either, man. I've had my share of trips to the ER followed by IV Ativan. I wouldn't freak out if I had just finished some barbell squats, but when it comes out of nowhere...
Nowadays I just ride it out as best I can; usually takes about 20-30 minutes to run out of steam.

Sorry, Lawnct. Now back to our weather specific anxiety.

[andy10917]

Didn't need radar yesterday to know what was going on. The center of Tropical Storm Fay passed within 10 miles of here (it basically ran up the Hudson River). 3.25" of water. Different anxiety.

[MorpheusPA]

I lost half a top-heavy lilac, but no big deal. 2" of rain, some wind, spent the morning tearing that apart and cutting the rest back--and reminding myself that I feed too much.

[Lawnct]

Annnnndddddd the rainfall total from Tropical Storm Fay in my neighborhood....drumroll...... .07 inches

[ken-n-nancy]

Annnnndddddd the rainfall total from Tropical Storm Fay in my neighborhood....drumroll...... .07 inches

Yeah, here in my rain gauge in Southern NH we totaled less than 1/8" too. This is why I do watering based upon actuals received, rather than forecasts...

[northeastlawn]

Not a drop of rain in S.E. Mass since early May.

I debated skipping my last two BSF apps end of June and beginning of July, but with no real rainfall and humid 80deg weather, it was probably for the best. I also skipped on applying tenacity on the POA-A, that was probably also the right call. Ill just keep hand pulling any seed heads that dare to pop up.

So far this year has been all about a more hands off approach and trying to keep the progress the KBG made spreading this spring. If I can water just enough to get it to September in good shape so I can see some progress again when I start spoon feeding it.

[Lawnct]

Speaking of BSF, I didn't make the yearly pilgrimage to Quincy this year due to COVID. I had not checked the website in awhile since last time I checked they simply stated they were not open. Well I just checked website and looks like no individual sales of BSF at Quincy at this time for orders under 1 ton (50 - 40 pound bags). Any order under that amount they have partnered with a local retailer in Pembroke, MA.

[northeastlawn]

I saw that, Im not sure how closely they are holding that. Two guys who I told about BSF at work split a pallet two days after I told them about it. They had been feeding their 10k++ lawns with Milo at $20 a bag. What they did was bring two trucks up and buy a pallet's worth.

I can fit about 25 bags in my pick-up; they beat me to the idea. I was between picking up a few over priced bags in Pembroke or splitting a pallet with someone and meeting up in Quincy.

All I usually go through is 5-6 bags a year, most of the 25 I pick up go to friend and family. Splitting a pallet might be a work around to getting bags in Pembroke. But its late in the year and in good condense its tough suggesting to my family its worth storing 5-10 bags of BSF for next year.

[Lawnct]

What was the price of BSF at Pembroke?

[Paul]

I watered yesterday morning figuring the chance of thunderstorms wouldn't amount to anything as well as being 5 days since I watered last. I typically water every 5 days in the summer. Ended up getting 1.5 inches of rain throughout the day from thunderstorms. If I didn't water yesterday morning, we would have gotten nothing. We were suppose to get a ton of rain last Friday night into Saturday and got about 0.10 inches.

[Dargin]

I barely registered a 1/4" from the storm. : /

...I debated skipping my last two BSF apps end of June and beginning of July, but with no real rainfall and humid 80deg weather, it was probably for the best...

I wound up going the same route. I was going to do around a half app to deliver some micros in mid june, but temps as they were, I held off. I think it was the right move. Last N was 5/30.