September Rains

One massive low system after another this year

September is a four-week stretch of change. Once the first week of September has passed, frosts on those rare clear nights are no big surprise. In September, birch and aspen trees go from green to yellow. The leaves go from limb to ground - generally because they have been pummeled by driven rain. September is wet, at best, and wet and windy as the rule.


That’s not to say we don’t get some beautiful weather during the month. On those days when the sun comes out, the fall colors become almost blinding. The way I figure it, one sunny day in September is worth a hundred any other time of the year. Also by the way I figure, that is about the ratio.

September day two years ago

So far, this September has been unusually stormy. Massive low pressure systems have been rolling across the Bering Sea in continuous succession. It’s a good thing the National Weather Service assigns only young meteorologists to Alaska; old guys would never be able to outrun the angry mobs. 

Kenai doesn’t often suffer much in the way of persistent, hard rain. The norm is a slow, steady, unrelenting drizzle. This September has been different. Sure, we’ve had drizzle, but only as brief spates interrupting the heavy downpours. You know things are bad when the slugs in your garden take to wearing life jackets. Portions of our back yard have become “water features.” One wouldn't think pea gravel could hold water. If things keep up, I may be tempted to try stocking the yard with trout.

Maybe not a smile, but a grimace

Of course, with the crummy weather, colds and “the crud” are making the rounds. It seems as if half the people in the area are coming down with some kind of minor malady. It’s not just people that are affected. Our garden gnomes have some sort of trench foot, or fungus issue due the constant wet. They don’t complain, or even quit smiling, but man, that’s gotta be uncomfortable!


Oh well, September is more than half over, and October can be counted on to provide some drier, albeit colder, days. For now, the very best I can say for September’s rains is that at least there isn’t any shoveling involved. And too, things could be worse. We may have gotten two inches of rain on Sunday, but that's ten inches less than what Valdez got.