Drought Continues for Coastal Connecticut

The latest U.S Drought Monitor map came out yesterday and coastal Connecticut is still in a D-1 Moderate Drought. The coastal areas have been in this drought for a couple months now. Even with the occasional rainy day, we have not been able to make up for the rainfall deficit. On top of having a rainfall deficit, this summer has had unusually low dew points. When you have dry heat, it sucks the moisture right out of the ground and plants. I've had to be vigilant when it comes to watering my vegetable garden this year. At least I have had to worry about any molds or mildews on the vegetable plants this year! 

Hopefully as we move into fall, we will move away from a weather pattern of scattered thunderstorms and move into one that favors more substantial all day rains. 

Icy Long Island Sound 1/25/13

After a week of below freezing temps here along the CT shoreline, I braved the cold on Friday morning to venture down the beach and take some photos.  The reason why I wanted to get down to the beach was because the water was getting so cold, ice was forming in spots.  Now as most of you probably know, it's very hard for salt water to freeze, and Long Island Sound is salt water.  Although not too unusual it was fun to see the ice along the shoreline.  I took tons of pictures and even made a slideshow for the local weather site WxEdge.com, which I'm a contributor to.  The only part that wasn't fun was the near frostbite i received on my fingers!! It took about 20 mins to get my hands back to normal after only being outside for 15-20 mins at the most!

Here's my slideshow for WxEdge:  

Icy Shores of...Long Island Sound 

and here are two photos I took with my phone and filtered via Instagram: 

Foggy December Day 12/10/12

It's almost mid December and here in CT a warm front straddles the coastline. Temperatures range from the upper 40's to mid 50's this morning with a chance of hitting 60 degrees this afternoon. Although the temps make for a more comfortable day with no overcoat, it sure is a buzz kill when it comes to the Christmas Spirit!

With most warm fall days comes the fog and today is no different! As moisture streams northward it hits the cooler air causing it to condense at ground level and creating what we see as fog. Along the CT coast and CT valleys, this fog can be very dense. Below are some photos I took with my iPhone of fog at the beach. As you can see the first picture is of a flag pole at Anchor Beach, the rock it sits on is only 20-25 feet away from the street, over the water, yet it's hard to see! The second picture actually shows concrete steps that were removed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy with fog in the background! And finally the last picture is of Woodmont beach in the fog!

CT Mandatory Evacuations

This is a screen grab of WFSB a Hartford, CT news station of coastal towns with mandatory evacuations. As you can see its almost all the towns! These evacuations are for people right on the water!

Hurricane Gloria 27th Anniversary

Thursday September 27, 2012 was the 27th anniversary of Hurricane Gloria making landfall in Long Island and Connecticut.  The storm is the last Hurricane to make landfall in Connecticut.  Although Tropical Storm Irene came pretty close last year (2011). In the  link below I made a slide show for a local weather site comparing the photos I took during Tropical storm Irene to those that my dad took (I wasn't alive in 1985 when Hurricane Gloria hit!).  Both set of pictures were awfully similar even though Gloria was much stronger than Tropical Storm Irene.  What made them so similar in destruction was simple...timing!  Hurricane Gloria hit during low tide and moved through within hours, where as Irene hit right at astronomical high tide, bringing with it an impressive storm surge! 

Check out the link:   Side by Side Photo Comparison: Hurricane Gloria vs. Tropical Storm Irene

Coastal Flooding 1/12/12

We had some coastal flooding  during high tide yesterday 1/12/12 along Long Island Sound, here's a photo i took with my phone driving through some of the flooding, however it got even deeper a half an hour later, closing the road.