Just North of KC

August 2010 Weather Stats

HouseOfStauss — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:43:03 +0000

In a nutshell it was still damn hot, humid and rainy.

But, more specifically it was the second hottest August since we’ve lived here. The average temp was 79, only August of 2007 was hotter with an average temp of 81.3. That puts this August as the third hottest month since we’ve lived here barely beating out last month for 3rd place by .4 degrees. The hottest day of the month was August 13th with a high of 100.4, however August 8th was the muggiest as we had a high heat index of 121.2 at 4:49 pm. On August 2 we had a high dew point of 82.7. Folks, that is muggy.

We had 5.61” of rain in August. That is now 4 months in a row with more than 5” of rain and 5 months with 4” or more. This was just the 3rd rainiest August since we’ve been here. We received 8.66” in August of 06 and a whopping 9.56” last August. This was just the 12th rainiest month since we’ve moved here 54 months ago.

Webcam pic of the month is from the storm of Aug. 20th. A summary of that storm can be found here and here.

Go here to see what the view from that window currently looks like.

Clinton County Sheriff’s report

HouseOfStauss — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:48:22 +0000

New for the week ending 8/22.

Just a few highlights of the full report that can be found here.

“Report of an older woman walking down a gravel road reporting party was concerned she may be hurt; Woman walking was doing her morning exercises before it gets to hot.”

“A very strange individual has been reported doing "naughty" things to the trash cans at the rest area. Now is has made himself at home in the back of a semi trailer that doesn’t belong to him.”

“Intoxicated brothers have gotten into a fight and one brother has attacked the other”

“Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued for Clinton County”

“Plattsburg Fire is paged for a report of a structure fire; Investigation determines that it is not a fire at all it is a tree that has fallen onto someones house”

‘”Concerned mother calls in to report that her younger child was bitten by a dog sometime during the weekend”

This and much much more can be viewed at LathropMoOnline.

International Space Station flyovers this week

HouseOfStauss — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:57:57 +0000

These are the brightest. There are several more flyovers this week so go to SpaceWeather to view the other times (change the zip if you’re not in 64492) or go to Heavens Above, register and enter your latitude and longitude. These are definitely worth looking up for.

Date Start Time Dir End Time Alt.

8/23 ISS 04:44:20 am E 04:46:49am 54° -3.5 (very bright)

8/24 ISS 09:35:57 pm WSW 09:38:26pm 89° -4.0 (very bright)

8/26 ISS 08:55:25 pm WSW 08:57:54pm 74° -3.9 (very bright)

August 20 Storm

HouseOfStauss — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:07:33 +0000

On Friday August 20th a rather violent storm rolled through the ‘hood.

Here is a radar image of the storm just before it hit our neighborhood which is approximately at X.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning #0279 was issued by the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill at 1:38 pm that stated:

 AT 135 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN
  EXCESS OF 60 MPH.  THESE STORMS WERE LOCATED ALONG A LINE EXTENDING
  FROM 7 MILES NORTHEAST OF AGENCY TO GOWER TO CAMDEN POINT TO
  TRACY...AND MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH. THIS LINE OF STORMS HAS HAD A
  HISTORY OF PRODUCING 60 MPH WINDS.

The anemometer from my weather station recorded a gust of 49mph however it lies somewhat in the wind shadow of the house behind us so gusts were probably closer to 70mph.

Luckily we were spared from much damage. Our patio table was blown over and broken during last Friday’s storm so this weeks storm damage was limited to plants and some siding for us. I lost at least 3 pepper plants ( 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper and 1 pablano), half of the asparagus was blown over as well as some marigolds. The grapes were blown around and shifted on their supports but they don’t look damaged. Almost all of our Canna Lilies were blown over and our large banana plant was broke in half. We also had some siding that had popped loose from the side of the house but did not blow away. A ladder and a few whacks from my fist were able to beat the siding back into place. We had right at 3” of rain in the 5 waves of storms that passed through.

Here’s a photo. The banana plant just below and to the left of the window used to be above the roof, all of the canna’s used to be about 5 feet tall completely covering the concrete and the basement window.

Here is a webcam capture of the banana plant and the rain.

All in all really nothing major from the storm here. Unfortunately, some in our neighborhood weren’t as lucky as there were several privacy fence sections blown out or damaged, flashing blown off a couple houses and some siding damage that was worse than ours. Also, several large chunks of corn in the nearby fields was blown over at ground level. Oh yeah, I almost forgot that a pontoon boat was flipped over at the Park and Sell in Trimble, MO. Here’s a couple pics of the pontoon.

And here’s a pic of corn that’s blown over.

A full account of the storm can be found here.

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/2010-O-NEW-KEAX-SV-W-0279.html#2010-O-NEW-KEAX-SV-W-0279

Clinton County Sheriff’s report

HouseOfStauss — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:55:53 +0000

Published at Lathropmoonline.

Report for the week ending August 1.

These gems and many others can be found by clicking on the link above, you just can’t make some of this stuff up.

Man calls to report that his father is suicidal; Deputies are sent to find the man in question to get him the help he needs

Deputy is sent to check on another agencies transport van; they have stopped along side the highway due to inmates acting up

Butt dial 911 from someone at the US 36 Speedway in Osborn; there is no emergency but the dispatcher did get to hear the race

Deputies and City Officer have a man in custody for assault on a law enforcement officer- this is never a good thing, to make the Po Po mad!!

Caller wants to make a complaint that their neighbor urinates outside by his out building and they are tired of it

July weather stats.

HouseOfStauss — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:43:11 +0000

July was hot. It’s been hot since then as well. It looks like it’s going to stay hot for a long time. The End.

Ok, not really but it might as well be. I did dig up a few interesting weather facts for July.

The average temp for the month of 78.6 was the second hottest July. In ‘06 the average was 80.4 for the hottest July since we’ve lived here and last years average of a beautiful 72.9 was the nicest July average since we’ve been here. This was the third hottest month overall trailing only July 06 and 81.3 in August of 07. One other interesting little tid bit, the difference between the monthly high and monthly low was only 29.7 degrees. The narrowest range before that was 33.5 in ‘07 and the widest range was 43.2 in ‘06.

The 5.72” of rain made this the rainiest July so far. That really contrasted with the .39” for ‘07. This was also the 4 month in a row that we received more than 4” of rain and the 3rd month in a row with more than 5”. That hadn’t happened before this year.

That’s about it, and I had to dig for those stats.

Webcam pic of the month is a tie:

The flooding rain from the 20th:

And a storm coming through on the 30th:

Enjoy!

FYI – Accuweather is calling for the heatwave to break on the 17th of August.

Gotta love the Clinton County MO Sheriff’s report

HouseOfStauss — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:53:27 +0000

My favorites this week are:

7/15 02:06 A very large size snake was just captured by Casey’s in Lathrop; City Officer responds to pick it up and take it back to its owner…..NO THANK YOU!!

7/20 16:54 Man calls and reports that he has 3 skunks in his yard wants to know if we can help; Yes, we can offer advise- stay out of the way of the stinky spray

7/22 18:13 TCAD and Lathrop Fire are needed to help a patient with a rubber ball in his nose

19:09 Man calls to report that he just witnessed someone smoking while pumping gas into their car. The man confiscates the cigarette butt for DNA purposes. We explain to the man that he has to sign a complaint since our officer did not see the person do it. The man proceeds to throw a grown man tantrum and is hoping the person blows up next time.

21:27 Hit and run accident with the victim now chasing the suspect down the road

The 22nd was quite the day, it wasn’t even a weekend or a full moon.

This and many more reports concerning tractors, drunks and guns can be found at LathropMOonline

Looking up in the night time sky.

HouseOfStauss — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:51:22 +0000

For those that look up after dark, here are a few things this week worth heading out for in the beautiful Trimble, MO and Smithville Lake area.

Courtesy of SpaceWeather Mars, Venus and Saturn will be doing a little visiting together in the night sky right after sunset all week. Later this week they will be lined up like this.

From Spaceweather.com

“SUNSET PLANETS: Mars and Saturn are converging with Venus to form a skinny triangle in the sunset sky. When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look west. Venus pops out of the twilight first, followed by Saturn, then Mars. Dates of note include July 30th and 31st when Saturn and Mars are only 2^o apart. Sky maps: July 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.”

Also, the X-37B (experimental space plane/satellite/weapon) will be doing a few flyovers this week. The most notable is on:

July 27th at 8:57:07 X-37B will rise in the west until it peaks at 9:00:23 at 58 degrees elevation in the South Southwest sky and then disappears in the East SouthEast at 9:03:40.

Conspiracy Theory on the Satellite here!

No space station flyovers until the 1st of August.

There will be a few bright Iridium flares this week of –5 or brighter magnitude:

July 27th at 5:56 in the morning looking up 72° to the SSW, July 27th at 11:33:52 pm looking up 14° WSW, July 28th at 11:36:53 looking up at 11° to the WSW and for you early risers on the 29th of July at 3:49 in the morning looking up at 26° to the SE.

For a more detailed look at Satellite flyovers please visit:

Satellite Fly Overs for Trimble, MO

or sign up at

Heavens Above

Better late than never

HouseOfStauss — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:55:48 +0000

Here are the weather stats from June.

This was the hottest June we’ve had since moving here in March of 06. The avg. temp for the month was 77 degrees. The next hottest June was 06 at 75.2. The highest temp was 92.6 on the 22nd and the coolest temp was 59.8 on the 6th. Neither of these were records for June. The highest June temp has been 97 on 6/23/09 and the lowest June temp was 51.7 on 6/9/07.

We had 5.84” of rain in June. All of the rain fell in the first 3 weeks of the month and we had no rain the last 9 days of the month. There have been two other times this year that we went 9 days without rain. There hasn’t been a 10 day or greater stretch without rain yet this year. The was the second wettest June that we’ve had. The wettest was June of 2007 with 7.24′” and the driest was June of 06 with 2.24′”

Webcam pic of the month.

A new post already!

HouseOfStauss — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:33:40 +0000

Ok, so it’s been a month and a half since I updated this blog. For that I apologize. It’s been a pretty busy month and a half that has kept me from posting. That’s a lame excuse but it is the only one I’m giving.

To cover the month and a half lapse we start off with a storm chase the week before Memorial Day. Here’s a few pics from the Chasecation. Nothing too exciting, there is some decent video that I don’t have time to edit that will in all honesty never be posted, but even that isn’t much better than these pics. This trip did feature just about the largest a funnel cloud can be without being a tornado, the shortest rainbow I’ve seen and the brightest rainbow I’ve seen. In a few days I’ll post some info on the places to stay and eat in the Great Plains that we discovered on this trip. (Blog to do #1)

June was pretty much about the garden. We did one quick chase on a Friday evening that I’ll post soon. (Blog to do #2) During that chase we came across this Winery that I didn’t know existed. We’ll have to go back and check it out in greater detail in the very near future. (Blog to do #3)

Back to the garden. It’s been fully planted and everything is doing pretty darn good. Potatoes and garlic seem to be the exception. The potatoes did well last year but have all but died this year?!?! I also didn’t know that garlic was supposed to be planted in the fall. So we have some pretty small garlic bulbs. I’ll get some current pics up in the near future. (Blog to do #4) I have some pics but they are now about 3 weeks old. We ate the first Roma tomato last week. By the way, I hate raw tomatoes. I love fresh salsa and pico, but I hate tomatoes by themselves. Anyway the tomato tasted good, I still won’t eat one by itself. Made the first batch of salsa strictly from the garden tonight. Cilantro was the exception as the heat has caused it to bolt so we had to use some nasty cilantro from Big-V. However, the tomatoes, onions, serrano peppers and garlic were from the garden. It also made for good sauce on the tacos. There are hundreds of tomatoes growing as well as hundreds of several varieties of peppers. The cantaloupe and watermelon are blooming. The onions are ready to be harvested and the f@#!ing crabgrass is invading.

We had our 4th annual Independence Day party on the 3rd of July. I don’t know why I picked the 3rd instead of the 4th but it is a good thing that I did. We had some rain on the 3rd but a lot on the 4th. We went through 40+ pounds of brisket, one 12lb pork tenderloin, 1/2 slab of ribs (received in a trade for some brisket and a beer), and a case of hamburgers. There was not one bite of meat left over. The party went well with no one getting hurt too bad. Next year I’ll do 4 full briskets and one pork tenderloin. FWIW, on the first party we had 3 pork tenderloins and 1 brisket.

To wind down what is becoming a long winded post I’ll give a quick synopsis of the vacation we took this week. We didn’t want to take a long or expensive vacation after having the party last weekend so we ended up going to see the Zac Brown Band in Fort Wayne, IN. Reader’s Digest version. It rained in Hannibal, MO, we found a decent winery in IL (Blog to do #5), Springfield, IL is really only for Lincoln history buffs (BTD6), Fort Wayne, IN was a pleasant surprise (BTD7), it costs $6.10 in tolls to get through Chicago to see Gary and Coco.

(BTD7) is going to be posting the Iridium flares and Space Station flyovers that we go out to watch quite often.