Monday - August 03, 2020

Weather Or Not, Here We Go Again

It is an absolutely perfect summer day here.

There’s hardly a cloud in the sky, the sun is shining gently, it’s 81°ree; with a gentle breeze blowing. And for once it’s not a sauna here; the humidity is a comfortable 60%. A lovely day.

Tropical Storm Isaias, currently coming up the east coast and right now off the coast of southern Georgia, is expected to soon intensify to hurricane level, make landfall somewhere near Myrtle Beach SC, and then track inland in a beeline right for us, bringing light rain this evening and continuing and increasing for at least a day as the winds rise, possibly dumping 6” or more of rain on us with winds in the 60 - 70mph range. Gee, thanks.

The weather wienies are saying that those of us out here in the Delaware River basin in the western part of NJ are going to get hammered worse than the shore areas, which won’t fare too well either.

Sometimes you just can’t catch a break.

Isaias is forecast to briefly regain hurricane status before making landfall Monday night or early Tuesday on the upper South Carolina coast or in southeast North Carolina.

It’s important to note that impacts will be similar no matter whether Isaias is a strong tropical storm or a Category 1 hurricane at landfall.

From there, the storm will sweep quickly northeastward near parts of the Northeast Seaboard to as far north as New England Tuesday into early Wednesday.

!! ~~~~~ !! ~~~~~ !!

Hey, maybe some severe weather will knock back these darn leafhopper bugs, those spotted lantern flies from China. They’ve been all over us this summer, and they show the most amazing ability to just up and die. The little black ones are everywhere, dead. The ones that grew a bit more and became red ( the “fourth instar nymphs” ) are also dying by the numbers, and at this point the adult version of the insect, which looks like a creepy kind of moth, is just starting to emerge. Let’s hope they die off in their millions as well. But not on my patio. We’re getting tired of having to sweep off piles of dead bugs twice a day. Eeeww.

Native to China, India, Japan and Vietnam, the spotted lanternfly does not attack fruit or foliage. Rather, it uses its piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on the woody parts of plants — such as tree trunks or branches and grape vines — where it excretes a substance known as honeydew and inflicts wounds that weep with sap. The honeydew and sap can attract other insects and provide a medium for growth of fungi, such as sooty mold, which covers leaf surfaces and can stunt growth. Plants with heavy infestations may not survive.

Said Tom Baker, distinguished professor of entomology and chemical ecology, who has 40 years of experience in entomology research, “The spotted lanternfly is the weirdest, most pernicious insect I’ve ever seen.”

Pernicious. Good word. Harmful but subtle. Except not so subtle at all. Our whole outside area, every plant and hard surface, is spotted with the honeydew and the sap weeps. Rain does wash it away, but in a couple days it’s all back again. So far the bugs haven’t tried to get in the house. So far. But they’re excellent jumpers, easily leaping 8 feet at a hop. And they don’t seem to get caught in any of the spider webs out there. At least they don’t sting or bite, or reek like those damn Chinese stinkbugs we had a couple years ago. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2020 at 09:58 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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