Since shortly before Ida paid a visit to the Eastern Shore, we have not recovered. The ground was saturated with the 6 to 9 inches of rain that fell and we’ve had another 6 or so since. For the most part, the farm land has managed to break even. The ground was soft but generally there was little standing water.

Last night and this morning brought another 3 inches and it appears to have been more than the soil or driveway could take …

Oh yeah. One more thing …. it went from 42 degrees yesterday to 62 this morning ! I think they call this El Niño

Last night’s low was 48 F at the Accomack County airport. That’s notable since just a week ago, the low’s were close to 60 F. A quick look through the almanac records show that we have not see a temp in the 40’s since April 24th.

The more important characteristic to Eastern Shore weather is humidity. Throughout the summer, average daily humidity starts at 100% before dawn and stays there until about 9am or 10am. It then slowly drops to something between 55% on a good day to 75% on a more typical day. By sunset, the humidity is well on its way to 100% again.

Contrast the Eastern Shore The North East or the Desert West. There are lots of obvious difference. So, why do people live in places where the humidity is 100% or where the temperature regularly is over 100 F ? I lived in Singapore for a time and everyone I talked to who didn’t live there, always asked, “how can you stand it ? – it’s hot and humid all the time.” I remember it took me about three weeks before I didn’t notice the weather and was very comfortable dressing in long pants as a regular measure. I could go for walks out of doors and not look like I walked through a rain shower.

It’s all relative.

Would I prefer to live in Hawaii ? Well, it turns out, the weather on the Eastern Shore is very close to Hawaii but if you asked people who had never been to either, they’d likely guess differently.

If you could build a biosphere, what weather would you create ?

The news these days always includes a story about the weather. I guess that only stands to reason. It’s universally a safe topic – or at least I use to think so.

This year the North East United States is complaining of cool temperatures and biblical rain. The Pacific North West is wilting under 100+ day after day. Here on the Eastern Shore its been a story of woe with a cool wet spring delaying crops followed but hazy hot and humid mid-summer drought.

Things changed a bit over the last 10 days with spots of heavy rain. "Spots" being a pivotal word as locals have reported over an inch of rain on one field and scant moisture just a mile or two away from the same storm.For the "row crops" – what the tomato farmers call corn, wheat, and soybeans – the rain is much needed but may have been too little too late for some fields. On the other side of the news, the tomato farmers are cursing the rain as it brought enough moisture to foster various pests and disease. It also hit just as the early harvest was taking place and caused tomatoes to burst as they swelled from the abundance of H2O. As far as tomato farmers are concerned, they’d be pleased as punch if it didn’t rain a drop from May through October.

So, two weeks ago the row croppers were ringing their hands and the tomato companies were bringing in a bumper crop. Today it’s the tomato harvest rotting in some fields and soybeans and corn starting to fill out. Two weeks from now is anybody’s guess. Surely the weathermen have no clue !

What do geeks do when it rains out � same thing they do every day, tinker on the computer. I�ve been trying to decide if I will get television (the signal not the appliance) when I finally move into the farmhouse. There are some things I miss, like a couple cooking shows, some DIY stuff, and shows like Scientific America, NOVA � and there there is the pleasant mind rotting guilty pleasure  Doctor Who, CSI, or Grey�s Anatomy. I can get enough of what I am looking for on-line, from renting past seasons of shows, and the download of the nightly news. I also look for decent movie rentals. So, the Network Media Tank (NMT) or Popcorn Hour (PCH) or what ever you care to call it, gets a few hours exercise each week. I also am finding I want a �one-click� to the weather and the current news headlines.

So today  being the fourth day of rain, I decided to write some HTML, generate some icons, and whip up some PHP. the results are a �not too attractive� home page for my media play along with a headlines and stories feeder hooked up to the Associated Press.

I did manage some decent �hover� effects for the icons. I also had to contend with the very limited style sheet capabilities of the PCH (aka non-existent). Add to that the 12 foot seating distance away from my measly 20� monitor and everything had to be BIG.

The weather page is provided by Brett Charney. I don�t have much control over the look-n-feel. I just give it the nearest airport. The news is handled in two steps � there is a PHP application to display the �Top News� feed from the Associated Press. Then there is a second page to display the story.

As I wrote previously, the nightly news is downloaded the I added a link direct from the media player home page to the latest download.

The weather, AP News, WBUR Radio (streaming), and the NBC Nightly News (podcast) all have icons at the bottom of the home screen along with �search�. I also hooked each up to a button on the remote so they are all �one-click� away.

Sometimes the weather forecast changes with little notice. Fortunately, Campbell Field Airport has some very sophisticated weather reporting tools � you can clearly see that today was cool, dry, and sunny and the winds were light and variable.