Weather Affects Bicycle Commuter
I know, I can hear you thinking "duh!" from way over here, but maybe it's not the way you expect.
It was a wet summer, and one of the drier Septembers on record. That apparently stressed the pecan tree in my back yard (my wife's aunt referred to pecan trees as "self-pruning."). So a "cold front" blew through Thursday night and Friday morning (cold front: high Thursday 100F, high Friday 98F). I was grabbing my cell phone Friday when I heard a loud roar with two loud thumps. Nothing in the parking lot on the side, nothing out front, out the back -- one large limb fell and was blocking the garage door. Turn around and change into work clothes, I can't get to the bike to ride to work. Walking out the back door, here comes another limb down. It was just a little one, maybe 2" diameter and 15' long (the big one turned out to be 10-12" diameter). Just a little one, but it spooked me. I didn't want to be under another one that size if it fell, so I decided to drive the car which fortunately was at home.
Worked to clear it Friday afternoon into dusk, turned on the sprinkler to try to get some water up into that tree. Finished Saturday before an afternoon rehearsal, and my wife turned the sprinkler on that afternoon. Saturday night we got a thunderstorm, more rain than we got in September.
Today? Rode the bike to work through a steady soaking rain, fairly gentle, only 0.2" per hour.
Not a bad ride. It's still 70F or so, so no rain jacket needed for temperature control. I'd forgotten what those droplets can feel like hitting my skin, though. I need to borrow someone's heater or fan to dry my wet clothes before the ride home. Funny thing, the back of my jersey and shorts were dry!