It took a little while for the changes this fall on the Crystal Coast to register with me.  For the first time in several years, my wife and I took a break and went to visit some friends in Canada.  We, or at least I, got to feel morning temperatures as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit.  I pretty sure my wife observed the cold temperatures from the warmth of a comfortable farmhouse.

We managed to slide down the East coast just after Hurricane Sandy left North Carolina.  Now that I have had some time to check out my favorite spots including the Point over on Emerald Isle and the White Oak River both by kayak and skiff, I am pretty certain this fall is not working out like the previous three falls.  read more »

For those who are not familiar with North Carolina's Crystal Coast, we have saved the best time of the year for you to come and visit with us.

We often have what I call don't-pinch-me weather well into November.  Here as we get ready to start the last week of September, daytime highs are just a few degrees one way or the other from eighty degrees Fahrenheit.

Our evening temperatures are still in the mid-sixties. At our house we have been riding the temperature curve by keeping our heat pumps turned off and our windows open.
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We usually pay more attention to the weather when it doesn't meet our needs.  I always complain more about the weather in August.  It is not usually a month that wins a lot of favor with those who like to go on long walks.

Often August is too hot, and humidity is a close partner with the heat.  When you add in a tropical storm like Isaac that took up residence on the east coast for a few weeks,  it is easy to start rooting for September to show up.

However, it you are a long term resident of the South, you know well that September can have its moments when it comes to heat and humidity.  Unfortunately the first week of September 2012 was one of those hot, humid weeks that make us wish for the first of the season Canadian cold front.

The humidity was no surprise since we got well over three inches of rain during the first week in September 2012.  Three inches of rain is usually welcome, but August had already given us eleven inches of rain.
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With all the places that could use the rain, it is tough to watch all the precipitation go to waste here in Eastern North Carolina where we are having a hard time putting together a streak of dry days.

A little over twelve months ago, I wrote a post with the title "Strange Stuff Falling Out of the Sky." The summer of 2011 brought us so little rain that we had a hard time remembering what it looked or sounded like.

In July of 2012, I wrote a post about weather never being normal.  At the time we still had a home in Roanoke, Virginia.   The mountain area of Southwest Virginia was once again in the midst of very dry times. It always amazes me how you can be dry one summer and wet the next.
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While I have been away from the Crystal Coast for much of the month of August, I have been getting regular readings from my rain gauge.

It is pretty easy to say that August of 2012 has been very different from August of 2011.  On August 9 last year I wrote about how little rain we had seen all summer.  A little less than a week later I wrote about strange stuff falling out of the sky.

Somehow in a summer that saw barely three inches of rain, we got a storm with six tenths of an inch of rain.

Unfortunately I don't have an exact rain total for August 2012.  I do know that it is somewhere north of ten inches of rain.  That comes on top of close to fifteen inches of rain in May, June, and July.  We have gotten over two feet of rain this summer.  read more »

Weather is a funny thing, you never know what it is going to do, and here on the Southern Outer Banks, the weather is even more localized than it is in many places.

The nice breeze that we get off the water at our house in Bluewater Cove often has no impact just a few houses up the street.  Other areas of the subdivision get winds from different directions.  We are sheltered from some of those breezes.

We were at our church, Cape Carteret Presbyterian, on July 22, and after the service we talked with some friends who live in Emerald Isle just four or five miles away as a seagull flies.  They commented about how dry it was at their house on Emerald Isle until the rains which came the previous Saturday.  read more »

Kayaking on a warm summer morning reminds me a little of cross country skiing on a cold winter morning.

In both cases your mind is telling you that by doing nothing you'll be more comfortable.  If you just stay inside and enjoy either the cool or the warmth, life will be good. Unfortunately I have never created a memory worth saving by sitting around inside.

The reality is that if you have done either cross country skiing or kayaking very much, you know that you will have lots of fun once you get started.  I've been cross country skiing when the temperature was below zero and had a great time.

I've also been kayaking when the temperature on shore was pretty nasty, and found that things were actually quite pleasant out on the water.  I've gotten calls from my wife wondering why I am still out on the water when it is so hot and miserable.

The truth is that if the water temperature is in the mid to low eighties and the air temperature is around ninety, you'll likely be more comfortable on the water especially if there is a nice breeze.
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