Friday, June 19, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mud season has been extended.
From North Dakota to Long Island, rain after rain after rain has dampened spirits and swamped roads. Picnics and kids’ baseball games have been washed out, rescheduled and rained out again. Big-time sports, too.
In Farmingdale, N.Y., Tiger Woods’ defense of the U.S. Open championship was delayed Thursday as rain pelted an already soaked course and postponed most of the first round until Friday. “Where’s my canoe,” England’s Ian Poulter wrote on his Twitter feed.
In Bismarck, N.D., heavy rain swamped streets, stressed storm sewers and stalled vehicles. Roads were shut down, and the roof of a bowling alley collapsed under the weight of water.
Rainfall has totaled 5.32 inches so far this month in New York’s Central Park, more than double the normal 2.17 inches for the period.
“This has been a very rainy spring,” observed Victoria Cahn, 27, dodging puddles on a lunch run from her office on the University of Pennsylvania campus. “Usually in June we have the air conditioning on half the time at least.”
The lifelong Philadelphia resident said, “I’m a volunteer sailor on the (1883 tall ship) Gazela ... and we’ve been trying to find dry time to work outside on the weekends, and it just hasn’t been there — we always find ourselves interrupted by a thunderstorm or two.”
The City of Brotherly Love has sloshed through 3.40 inches of rain so far this month, far above the 1.81 normal reading.
Other people said they are baffled by the frequent downpours this month as well. Folks in the Northeast and upper Midwest are used to “mud season,” a period when winter’s frozen ground has thawed and has yet to be dried out by sunny days.
But not into late June.
“This is not typical June weather,” said Sacha Kelly, of Hartford, a 29-year-old teacher.