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Noticeable Change in the Weather Lately

Last year, it didn’t really warm up here in northwest Montana until July 5. Short summers and cold springs have been the trend here for at least a decade. This year is a little different. We are having more average weather, which means that the warmth has reached us.

Two weeks ago, it was rainy and cool, though the highs did get slightly above 60 F/15.5 C. Then it started warming up. This past week, our temperatures have been in the low 80 F/24 C range. Today is supposed to be very close to 90 F/32 C. I have no doubt that this means that we will be well over 90 here at home and it may even be that hot by the time we get home from church.

As a consequence, I’ve found myself scrambling to get things done in the past week, primarily in the mornings before it gets too hot. I’m the groundskeeper at church, so that has meant getting flowers planted, putting down shredded bark mulch, watering, and weed eating. That last has been a trick since both our weedeater and mower broke down late last year. I had to buy a new weedeater. I also bought a new mower, but it isn’t due to arrive until early next week.

Then one of the church secretaries asked to borrow the weedeater. Mind you, I’d only begun to get the weeds under control at the church and hadn’t even started on my own yard and garden. She had a need, though, and I believe that God puts people with needs in our paths so that we might help them. I loaned her the weedeater.

I got it back late Friday, so yesterday, I spent a couple of hours weed eating at the church. Most of that time, I was drenched in sweat, but it needed to be done. By then, the weeds were over three feet tall, so it took a while to finish the work.

I love it when it finally warms up, but when the weather change is so rapid, I find myself scrambling to keep up and to get things done early in the day before it gets too hot.

  • Question of

    Do you ever find yourself rushing to get things done before it gets too hot, when good weather finally arrives?

    • Yes, quite often
    • Once in a while
    • Rarely or never
  • Question of

    If certain yardwork needs to get done, do you continue to work when the day gets hot?

    • Yes
    • No
    • Sometimes

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What do you think?

17 Points

Written by Rex Trulove

15 Comments

  1. It seems like a sudden spike in ambient temperature. I try to limit outdoor activities when it is too hot. For indoor activities, it does not matter when we do it.

    1
    • I try to limit what I’m doing outside when it is hot, too, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Some of the things that need to be done will get out of hand if I don’t finish doing them.

    • I’m the same way. I try to do everything early in the day, but that doesn’t always work out. I do end up covered with sweat and must remember to hydrate myself, but I dislike stopping before tasks are finished.

      1
      • My dad used to say the lawn isn’t going to mow itself!

        I agree though, leaving tasks unfinished frustrates me. Sometimes you have to, and that might be worse!

        1
        • If I do have to work in the heat, I make a conscious effort to pace myself and rest/cool down in the shade often. There are times when even that is hard to do. When I water the flower beds at church and it isn’t early, all 150 feet of the main flower beds are in the direct sunlight. There is no shade unless I actually stop and go around the side of the building, which I sometimes do. Otherwise, I’ll go to my car, open the door all the way, and sit. It is still hot, but at least I’m out of the direct sunlight for a few minutes.

          1
          • That sounds like hot work! Our backyard has a lot of shade, but if I am trimming the yard, i have to head to the front where shade is spotty.

            1
  2. Around here in Florida, the weather takes control in the summer and you just have to work around the tropical heat. Of course, no one wants to spend all summer in A/C so the best place is the beach. And the heat always seems never to let up until about September. In Latvia, the weather was so unpredictable that you could not decide what to do until you knew exactly what the weather was going to be like. We would set up the inflatable pool at the beginning of June and might not get to use it until August if it was a rotten, wet, and cool summer. Now I do like that summer is summer but at times I do feel like a wilting flower.

    1
  3. The weather never asks our opinion, that is we who must adapt to it. Unfortunately. I sometimes think how would be great if after getting up we could just push a button and get the weather we want. LOL

    1
    • It might get boring, though. I might not like working in the heat of the day, especially since I don’t have the AC hooked up yet, but I must say that it sure beats 40 below temps.

    • That is wise. Unfortunately, I will be doing some work in the heat of the day today because it can’t be avoided. I have to water and have some plants to get into the ground.

    • I’d argue that global warming has nothing at all to do with it. As I mentioned, our temperatures and other weather have been very close to average this year. For most of the last 10 years, our winters have been longer, snowier, colder, and the summers have been shorter. That makes this year seem much warmer, but it really isn’t. It is just average.