Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation, and perhaps, across the world. It is just after 3:30 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 55° under cloudy/rainy, skies. Winds of 15 mph make it feel like 50°. Today's high-temperature of 70º is forecast to be about 12º warmer than yesterday. According to my DTWS, the barometric pressure is 29.27" and rising, indicating that fair-weather is coming after the rains this morning. The NWS in GR is reporting a barometric pressure of 29.89. That is 30 miles inland and well away from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Both the NWS and I are forecasting that the high-temperatures will continue in the upper 60s and perhaps the lower 70s from now on.

The sun will rise this morning @ 6:16 a.m. and it will set later @ 9:06 p.m.

A River Flood Warning has been added to the forecast until 10:56 tonight!. The threat of flooding has increased from Minor to Moderate severity. The flood warning continues for the Grand River and the Muskegon River.

Two to four inches of rain has fallen across the bulk of West Michigan over the last 36 hours. Falling on wet soil, this has pushed many of our rivers above flood stage. Additional rainfall tonight will be mostly east of Grand Rapids. Even 6 inches of fast-moving flood water can knock you off your feet... and a depth of 2 feet will float your car. Never try to walk, swim, nor drive through such swift water. If you come upon flood waters, stop, turn around and go another way. This warning will be in effect until the river falls below its flood stage.

In addition, the River Flood Warning has caused closed roads, flooded basements, and viaducts, and has caused local officials to pump floodwaters off of flooded roads and into Coast Guard Park in nearby Ferrysburg!

In Cook County, IL, the rains have caused power outages at the Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower, in downtown Chicago, as electric transformer vaults became flooded. Flooding also occurred in the lower levels at the River City Apartments and Chicago's famous Riverwalk! Streets and viaducts were also flooded there too!

Courtesy of CBS TV Channel 2, Chicago.

 

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.

Courtesy YouTube™.

I accomplished some kitchen work yesterday in spite of my plans to the contrary. We had accumulated many Granny Smith apples during our recent forays into grocery land via the Fast Lane™ grocery service, so it was time to break out my pie-baking skills which have atrophied over many months of unuse. However, this picture of what was and is a delicious apple pie says I've still got it!

MMM Good!

Mostly, we watched as the rain fell, got the fur-children out for a short walk during a lull in the storms, and did a lot of reading and crossword solving.

I am tired of watching the mayhem that is occurring in our local weather due in part to Global Warming and other factors.

I'm also tired of watching as people stupidly congregate in this state and elsewhere as the various states relax or rescind their closings of stores, bars, restaurants, and other personal service providers. Hee at the manse, we are being diligent, but too many people, our POTUS included, are pretending to be ostriches and burying their collective heads in the sand!

Experts with a lot more education and access to the data than yours truly, are warning that these gatherings and ignorance of the need to maintain safe distances from others while also wearing face coverings, could lead to a second and larger outbreak of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. You can't fix stupid!

Today, if the weather turns out as predicted this afternoon, I plan to wear my summer uniform, get my seedlings out for some sunshine and fresh air, and do more editing on my manuscript. I was hoping that Mary was willing to try an old family recipe for vegan mushroom stroganoff. However, I think she has other plans, as my cleanup session in the kitchen indicates that she does. Who am I to complain? As long as I can stay out of the kitchen, I'm good!

If all goes well, we'll get in another episode of Outlander too. Ciao.