Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Accurate line drying predictions

I'm going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I've been heavily relying on technology for line drying my clothes outside. And, it's not some super duper fancy rack that hangs the clothes by itself. No, it's something on the intarwebs.

If you are planning on letting the sun and the wind help dry your clothes, you're going to need some help in predicting the weather for the day and week in order to plan your laundry accordingly. Since it's nearly impossible to know what the weather is going to do from hour to hour, using some modern technology can help you know when to bring that laundry back inside. That's how I've been planning my laundry for the last few weeks.

What is it already? It's the weather.com hour-by-hour weather report. I've found it to be relatively accurate and it's super helpful to know whether or not it will get sunny and when or whether I should wait to put out my clothes. Since it also tells you what the percent chance of rain it will be, I can hedge my bets that way as well.

For example, the current hourly weather report for my area is rain, followed by sun in the late afternoon, so I know I will be keeping it inside most of the day. But, when there's a break in the weather, I'll know about that too so I can huck it out there for a few hours.

Go check it out. You can thank me later.

If you still haven't signed up for October's Hang 'Em Dry Challenge, where you pledge to air/line dry all your laundry, git on over there and do it!

11 comments:

Mary said...

After discovering weather.com and their hourly forecast a couple of years ago I have found it to be the most accurate forecast around.

Hazel said...

Oh my word. I just put the washing out and cross my fingers, though if it looks a bit grey I use the airer so I can just pick the whole thing up if it does start to rain.

dc said...

I would love it if I had to worry about rain! In the semi-arid west, line drying is a no-brainer, sometimes my first load is dry by the time I'm hanging the second load out! If it rains that's a bonus-- rainwater fresh laundry!

Olivia said...

We can't get that info that you suggested here in Canada. All weather systems here are informing me that it would be sunny by noon today. Well - it's noon, it's raining and the skies are leaden. Not a sunbeam in sight so it's up to the drying rack in the spare room again **sigh**.

Unfortunately we can never really believe anything the forecasters say here - surrounded by ocean (we're an island) - the weather can turn on a dime.

Rosa said...

Whoo! We're going to have 3 hours of sunshine in the next 3 days!

This is why my laundry line is under the porch roof.

Robj98168 said...

You know, I just do what my Early ancestors did in North Dakota. Tie a string to a nail, nailed to the outside of window.
String is wet=it is rainy
String is stiff=It is freezing
String not there= It is windy

Anonymous said...

Being a life long dryer-avoider must have left me more in touch with nature.If you keep an eye out the window you can get a pretty good idea rain is coming. Clouds and a change of wind direction are helpful indicators. Even if you miss the early warning signs you can run out to bring in a couple of loads once it actually starts raining (as long as you notice!)and you will usually only have to contend with airing slightly damp clothes on a rack inside. And if you are too late an extra rainwater rinse does no harm. Take heart it will dry eventually.

Rosa said...

But anon, what if you're at work in an office far from home all day?

It is nice to have an idea what the day will be like before you hang out the clothes - or get on a bike, for that matter.

Anonymous said...

For better or worse, we rarely have to worry about rain these days. I have a couple of really nifty hanging things that I picked up on a trip to China that lets me hang a lot of clothes from clips in a small space indoors when the weather is bad.

I do have to mention that one of the highlights of my trip to Shanghai was watching the English language channel, and seeing that the laundry index was "highly recommended."

That's the kind of culture you don't get from a guide book. :-)

Too bad we haven't embraced line drying like that here.

asrai said...

Olvia you can see futurecast radar on globaltv websites and current radar I think it goes from current to 12 hours in advance.

Anonymous said...

on the iffy days, we hang everything on hangers before putting them out on our umbrella stand. Then at the first whiff of rain, we can quickly scoop them up and bring them inside to the loonnng rod hubby installed in the garage.