February 2019

Winter Storm Quiana damage to Jersey Woods

February was a stormy month throughout much of the United States. Eight storms big and bad enough to be named occurred during the shortest month of the year. The storms followed in such rapid succession in some parts of the country that it was impossible to know when one left off and the next began. In Central Ohio, we experienced seven of the storms, a couple with only a glancing blow. However, we could separate one storm from the other because in between storms, our daytime temperatures soared 11-29 degrees above the historical averages. Of the month's 28 days, eleven recorded these huge departures from "normal". The storm days brought us day-time temperatures that were normal for those dates, or just slightly below. Without those storms, we might have been picking tulips and daffodils for bouquets by month's end. Twenty-four nights' temperatures were above normal, nine of those by 7-27 degrees. 

"Boots...again?!!!"

The storms brought us lots of rain and snow. Last year February was the wettest on record, and this February entered the record books as one of the top five wettest. The historic February snow average is 6.2" and the historic rain average is 2.2". Snowfall for February 2019 was 3.7" above average; rainfall was 2.56" above average. Wellies and muck-boots were required outdoor footwear for us and the dogs most of the month.

The storms also brought very high winds. Toward month's end, Quiana hit with 18 hours of sustained winds of 25-35 mph, and gusts of up to 62 mph. I stood on the porch and listened to the awesome sound of the winds in the trees, and heard a tree fall. It was one of many lost in the Jersey Woods this month.

If you're like me, you remember when winter storms were just big weather events that dropped huge amounts of snow and or ice, and maybe caused temperatures to plummet drastically, but which remained nameless. I remember being surprised when I first heard a big winter storm called by name.  The Weather Channel (not the National Weather Service, as in the case of hurricanes) began the practice in 2012, about the time it was dawning on meteorologists that something wild was happening weather-wise in every season, and the abnormal was becoming the new normal. Severe weather is a hallmark of climate change, and winter storms have been worsening, both in terms of snow and ice accumulations, wind strength, and amount of people and property affected. The Weather Channel names an impending winter storm, blizzard, or ice storm which the NWS forecasts is likely to impact a population of at least 2 million, or cover an area of at least 400,000 square kilometers. Or both. There's an interesting article posted at Mental Floss about the controversy over TWC's criteria for naming winter storms http://mentalfloss.com/article/74744/why-it-controversial-name-winter-storms

February is the month we observe two Bean Hill signs of spring. The first sign is the return of the Red-winged Blackbird males, the earliest of the migratory birds  to appear at our feeders. The second sign is the annual meadow mow-down, which has to be done for the health of the meadow grasses and flowers, and, more importantly, before little critters, like bunnies, start nesting. It should be noted that the first dozen years or so that we lived here, these signs occurred around mid-March. The fact that they now occur in February is another small sign of how the climate on these 5 1/2 acres has changed over two decades.