I know it has been a dry summer when a light rain draws me out of the house to embrace, arms open wide, trickling drops as they emerge from the sky. I actually did this recently. I was so elated to see this sprinkle that I even took pictures of it, like a rare sighting I needed proof of to show my friends.
I really do not like dry spells in the summer. A lack of rainy days leaves me feeling slightly off-kilter, a little irritable. And the reminders in my yard do not help. The browning grass, my wilting sunflowers and the well, a standing visual of how badly precipitation is needed!
While our property today has a drilled well, it did not when we first moved to Rindge. The dug well we once sourced water from (a structure one might associate with the eerie horror flick “The Ring”) is quite shallow. We learned fast – only a dry four months after moving in – that water is not in endless supply when it comes from a 40-foot hole in the ground. I frantically called neighbors that first August when our faucets sputtered out only air, begging “What’s happening here?” Potentially running out of water definitely adds to my dry-summer gloom.
But what I find increasingly aggravating during these dry stretches are the near-daily forecasts of afternoon thunderstorms that never seem to amount to anything! And I know plenty of folks over in Rindge share these feelings of frustration.
So, with another summer of would-be thunderstorms, I decided to seek out some answers. Why does it seem like Rindge is always getting the short end of the rainy stick? I know the whole state is in a drought, but too often I see the forecasts for thunderstorms in Rindge and nothing ever seems to come of it. Why is that? Is it our elevation? Rindge’s position in relation to Mount Monadnock? Bad luck?
“We have received many inquiries from many viewers from all over New Hampshire saying storms seem to be missing them a lot.” meteorologist Kevin Skarupa tells me in response to my weather inquiry (Yes, that Kevin Skarupa, from WMUR!) “New Hampshire is in a unique spot as far as what the radar shows us.”
Skarupa explains to me that New Hampshire actually doesn’t have a “radar” in the state, but rather uses four beams that gradually come into the state from four different surrounding areas: Albany, N.Y.; south of Boston; Portland, Maine; and Burlington, Vt. The beam, he says, can either hit the terrain and block seeing what is on the other side, or, if far enough away, “overshoot” the falling rain from the clouds as it passes overhead. As I understand what Skarupa is telling me, this makes some parts of the state really difficult in predicting rainfall as the beams are not seeing as well.
“The Monadnock Region is one of those spots, along with parts of the Upper Valley and the Great North Woods,” he says.
Skarupa also identifies terrain as a possible factor in rainfall – “Terrain can affect the normal flow that makes thunderstorms strengthen and maintain themselves, so it is valid for certain areas of thunderstorms to ‘fall apart’ when they come from a certain direction. But they come from all different directions and can play out differently because of that.”
While I still have larger questions about the drought we’re experiencing right now, I’m glad to have this new information from Skarupa to explain the trend of no-show thunderstorms to the Rindge party. Being a bit more educated here will help me to temper future expectations of forecasted showers.
Thank you, WMUR meteorologist Kevin Skarupa, for your contributions here in helping to understand rain in Rindge a bit better. Hopefully we’ll see some much-needed precipitation very soon!
Send me your Rindge stories at rindgecommcorr@yahoo.com.