Weather

[Steve Dwyer]

Weather changes here in the northeast has appreciably affected our lives especially available flying days. The proximity of the great lakes has always been the culprit for unsettling weather, but I recall the summer as a kid we had endless warm sunny days with an occasional thunderstorm followed by the usual rainbow. Now days more frequent precipitation almost every day and high wind and overcast seem to be the new norm along with a mix of record-breaking temperatures exceeding anything previous. Of course, there is much posted regarding the effect of these climate changes we have no control over; the unfortunate part is we have an ever-shrinking window to do what we enjoy most.

Steve

[Dave_Trible]

Weather changes here in the northeast has appreciably affected our lives especially available flying days. The proximity of the great lakes has always been the culprit for unsettling weather, but I recall the summer as a kid we had endless warm sunny days with an occasional thunderstorm followed by the usual rainbow. Now days more frequent precipitation almost every day and high wind and overcast seem to be the new norm along with a mix of record-breaking temperatures exceeding anything previous. Of course, there is much posted regarding the effect of these climate changes we have no control over; the unfortunate part is we have an ever-shrinking window to do what we enjoy most.

Steve

Also true here in the center of the country.   I remember many days in April and May that we had really nice flying weather.   Now it's quite windy and sometimes days on end of rain up until just about right now in late June or early July that it settles into maybe 60-70% decent flyable days.  For us its more like a season shift since we can still keep flying past Thanksgiving many times-even flown on Christmas Eve a couple times recently.   In the earlier days we were done in October.    One really different thing is what I call 'wind events'   The wind will blow gales non-stop for four or five days straight, then die out.    This is something I've only recalled seeing in the last five years or so here.   There was a new twist this year.   The same time frame of four or five days with dead air-treacherously dead or variable wind.  Fly at your own substantial risk.  I know a lot of this is about the jet stream.   It hovers just about overhead here but of course sways north and south and that has a huge bearing on what we will see.

Dave

[Dan McEntee]

  I think it's just a weather cycle. I have flown les this year than I have in several years mainly due to weather. In the past few years we were able to get a lot of flying in during the month of March, but this year it was all wind, rain and storms. It usually gets windy here in April so that month was pretty typical but May continued the trend. Buder Park flooded twice this spring to the point that the speed circle had a few feet of water on it. . June was hit and miss, either windy or windy and HOT !!  What we remember as kids may not be that accurate either. Weather has been constantly changing over time. The Earth may be experiencing climate change but it's not anything human kind has caused. If we get lucky and have a run of several years where nothing major occurs, people get used to that as normal, but things beyond our control can change that. I can remember winters where it never got below freezing and winters where we had big snow storms and sub zero temps. Also summers where it got to 110 and above and others where it never got much over 90. We haven't hit 100 degrees yet this summer. It's just natural weather cycles and changes. We get what we get!! We just have to be ready to go if good flying weather comes along and take advantage. If it is windy during the day, but gets very calm at sundown or dusk, I can scratch the itch a little bit by flying rubber powered stuff under the street light !!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Ty Marcucci]

Like Mark Twain said, "Every body talks about the weather , but no body does anything about it."   Here in N Alabama, it has been the rainiest year in a long time and tropical storms affect us big time  ..One of the reasons I went back to HO model railroading...

[john e. holliday]

Well as we travel around that big orb called the Sun the weather will change as it has in past centuries.  Don't believe me check the weather reports of the past centuries.

[Steve Dwyer]

The old saying here in Syracuse if you don't like the weather "wait a minute and it will change". Now we are seeing changes from a little rain to a lot of rain to a little rain to a lot of rain and a little sun..for a moment. I hope the weather "cycle" improves and we don't have to wait centuries for improvement. There's always hope!

[Motorman]

There's always rat race.

[john e. holliday]

just remembered Dad always said learn to live with it.   People complain when there is too much rain an then complain when it does dry up for a few weeks.   Some times I wish the NATS were back on the schedule when the NAVY sponsored it.