***Official 2023 Weather Thread***

My Twin Cities metro area is back on the drought map I think the map understates the impact of a third year of this. Bone dry here and it's deep dry. Yesterday I dug down maybe 10"-12" to plant a small shrub and thought I'd hit rock or something. Got out the pick and found it was hardpan dry clay. Like rock hard. Damn, no wonder everything looks somewhat stunted so far this summer. Watered like mad last night, was already seeing ferns dying in my garden.

SE Metro here, only 0.6" of rainfall over the last 30 days. As with last summer's drought, we've been watering our raised beds daily.
 
From the Ames History Museum...

Today in local history: on June 13, 1976 at around 3:35 in the afternoon the small town of Jordan, in Boone County, was nearly wiped off the map. The F5 tornado’s 200mph winds destroyed 67 homes, 375 farm buildings, the Jordan elevator, the old Jordan School (shown here), and left a 26-mile-long path of destruction. Story City also had many destroyed buildings. Estimated damage was about $20 million. No human lives were lost.

jordan-school.jpg
 
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From the Ames History Museum...

Today in local history: on June 13, 1976 at around 3:35 in the afternoon the small town of Jordan, in Boone County, was nearly wiped off the map. The F5 tornado’s 200mph winds destroyed 67 homes, 375 farm buildings, the Jordan elevator, the old Jordan School (shown here), and left a 26-mile-long path of destruction. Story City also had many destroyed buildings. Estimated damage was about $20 million. No human lives were lost.

View attachment 113713

Was golfing that day at the old Oaks Course north or Ames. We saw this big wall cloud closing fast and we thought we'd play one more hole...it's was headed to the clubhouse. Tee'd off and by the time we got to our balls we were not "playing in" but running for the clubhouse. Sirens were going off and the clubhouse had no basement. When we remarked on that the bartender gal said "I was in London during the blitz, I'm not worried.". Well, that was hella interesting but not that reassuring!

Evening news had crazy videos of a number of tornadoes from that day. Best images I think I'd ever seen at the time, think at least one of them was awarding winning. Remarkable since this was not exactly a time period where everyone was carrying a personal video camera on them.
 
Ugh, I remember that
I worked downtown and was standing by Guarantee Bank the morning it spilled over. Seeing the dumpster floating down the alley was surreal. Watching the buses cross the river carrying prisoners from the Linn County jail was even more so. I left when water started coming up the sewer drain near me.
 
One of the best things to happen here IMO.
That's a spicy take. I get where you're coming from and there have been many improvements to the city since, but it also started a decade of the city council focusing on the downtown many times to the detriment of the rest of the city.
 
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Thought I'd take a picture of the Mpls downtown skyline to show how smoky it is. Nope. Can't even see the skyline from my house.

Just shut off my outside air intake and turned my house fan off. Was sucking the smoky smell inside.
 
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From the Ames History Museum...

Today in local history: on June 13, 1976 at around 3:35 in the afternoon the small town of Jordan, in Boone County, was nearly wiped off the map. The F5 tornado’s 200mph winds destroyed 67 homes, 375 farm buildings, the Jordan elevator, the old Jordan School (shown here), and left a 26-mile-long path of destruction. Story City also had many destroyed buildings. Estimated damage was about $20 million. No human lives were lost.

View attachment 113713
On June 18, 1974, a tornado leveled much of the east side of Ankeny, killing 2 and injuring 50. It hit a few minutes after Connie McBurney, the weather person for KCCI channel 8, gave the all clear.
 
I am hoping the rain this weekend comes to fruition. I live in Ankeny and went to screw in an anchor that is about a foot long (that had a small auger tip (about 2in diameter) for a swingset anchor and had to work really hard with a long screwdriver for a twist handle just to get them to screw in. I had to apply a ton of down pressure when turning to get it to go otherwise it just spun on the hard dirt. About 6in down it was a hard pan like a rock and then finally broke through. With the heat, we really need some moisture.
 
I am hoping the rain this weekend comes to fruition. I live in Ankeny and went to screw in an anchor that is about a foot long (that had a small auger tip (about 2in diameter) for a swingset anchor and had to work really hard with a long screwdriver for a twist handle just to get them to screw in. I had to apply a ton of down pressure when turning to get it to go otherwise it just spun on the hard dirt. About 6in down it was a hard pan like a rock and then finally broke through. With the heat, we really need some moisture.

You could have just soaked the anchor areas with water. Or rent a hammer drill. On the plus side you didnt need to hit the gym that day.
 
I am hoping the rain this weekend comes to fruition. I live in Ankeny and went to screw in an anchor that is about a foot long (that had a small auger tip (about 2in diameter) for a swingset anchor and had to work really hard with a long screwdriver for a twist handle just to get them to screw in. I had to apply a ton of down pressure when turning to get it to go otherwise it just spun on the hard dirt. About 6in down it was a hard pan like a rock and then finally broke through. With the heat, we really need some moisture.
I saw somebody in my neighborhood digging fence post holes today and said I couldn't imagine how much that sucked.

Sitting on 0.75" at my house since 5/15. Hoping to get at least that much this weekend to keep the grass alive, been dormant for about 2 weeks already.
 

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