Tropical Storm Ernesto passed through just east of the Triangle early this morning, hugging the eastern side of I-95 as it passes into Virginia. Winds near the center are sustained at 60 MPH, but here there is much, much less wind. The weather station’s wind gauge measured a gust of 20 MPH at 3:45 AM this morning. The gust must have been higher since the gauge is too close to the house for me to trust it. I’d say the breeze is well over what I’d be comfortable sailing in but not strong enough to be worried about falling trees.
The rain so far has been a bust, too. Yesterday got half an inch. Since midnight today we’ve had half an inch. We got more rain with the preceding cold front days ago when it dropped 2.24 inches in a day.
Still, I won’t complain about the rain. I’d been watching my lawn and trees wilt from the drought we’d slipped back into. A good, solid rain spread out over 4-5 days seems to be just what we needed here.