Leo Routed the Lamb

Welcome Spring!

March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Didn't happen. I'm very behind in blogging, so as I write, it's mid-April and that lamb is still missing. Winter persists; over the past month and a half only thirteen days have had highs that were normal or above normal. The garden chores are way behind schedule. I spend a lot of time studying the Weather Channel and plotting when it might possibly be dry and/or temperate enough to get outside and get something--anything-- done! We managed to get 60 onion bulbs planted this month, but finding a window of opportune weather conditions for even that relatively small job wasn't easy.  Baker's Acres, my favorite nursery, opened for the season on March 24, and I bought a flat of pansies in honor of Spring's official arrival. You can see from the photo why I didn't rush home to plant them. It's very hard to garden when bundled up like Nanook of the North.

Of the many weather anomalies and historic events occurring in March 2018, the persistence of winter in Central Ohio is small potatoes. The East Coast experienced four nor'easters between March 1 and March 20, resulting in new March snowfall records being set in many places. As March began, the Arctic had just seen one of its warmest months on record, with February temperatures running36-54⁰ above average. Alaska had one of its warmest Marches on record, with temperatures running 6.9⁰ above average; Barrow, Alaska experienced the warmest March on record. Heavy rainfall fell in parts of the Hawaiian Islands; Lihue had 9.03" of rain in March which was 196% of its normal rainfall for the month. Rare March tornadoes in the Southeast caused more than $1 billion in damages and killed three people.*

Compared to the above events, Bean Hill's March was benign.

• Twenty-three of thirty-one days and nights had below normal temperatures
• Eighteen of those days had highs that were 5-19⁰ below normal and 12 of those nights had lows of 5-10⁰ below average.
• The month's historic average high is 51⁰ and this year our average high was 45.8⁰; the historic average low is 33⁰ compared to this year's 28⁰. While February's temperatures averaged 5⁰ above normal, March's averaged 5⁰ below.
• Rainfall was exactly what it should have been--3.21".
• Snowfall was below normal: 4.4" is average and we had 2.9".
• No new records highs or lows were set.

By the way, those pansies finally did get planted, and seem to be thriving (as are the daffodils) despite the less than agreeable weather. They are literally bright spots in a rather dismal start to Spring.

*These statistics come from NOAA's National Climate Report for March 2018. NOAA's site is fascinating, especially if you're a weather/climate junkie NOAA National Climate Report

Yep, It Was "Solmonath"

February is a unique month. Not only is it shorter than any other, it's the only month that can have a day added to it. February is the only month that can pass without a full moon, as happened this year. (The next time that happens will be 2037.) And February is the only month in which we rely on a rodent to predict a weather change.

Red-wing blackbird*

At Bean Hill, the first part of February was cold and snowy, and the second part was wet with rain---too much of it. It was definitely, to use the Old English word for the second month, "Solmonath" which translates to "mud month". The average February rainfall for this area is 2.2 inches. We had a whopping 5.68 inches. Even without factoring in the melt of 4.9 inches of snow, February 2018 was the wettest February on record.

The month was, after a chilly start, warmer than normal. Ten days had highs that were 10 or more degrees above normal. February 20 set a new record for the date when it hit 78⁰---thirty-six degrees above normal! The historic average high for February is 41⁰, but this February the month's average high was five and a half degrees above that.

Crocuses and emerging stonecrop

The majority of the nights (21) had a low temperature reading that was above normal. The historic average low for February is 24⁰ but this year's average was 4.3⁰ above that. One night's low temperature was fifteen degrees higher than the normal high for the same date. Eleven nights' low temperatures were 10 or more degrees higher than normal; two nights had lows that were 32⁰ above normal. A consecutive run of higher than expected night-time temperatures is more problematic than are higher than expected day-time temperatures. Cold weather is necessary for many plants to flourish in the spring. Cold nights inhibit plants from growing too much too soon, especially if warm days have encouraged growth to begin. Maple syrup production was down in 2017 because the too warm days and nights inhibited the flow of sap, which requires that cool (40's) day-time temperatures alternate with night-time freezing (20's) over a period of several weeks.

Lone crocus

Despite the month's muddiness and gloomy days--it snowed or rained for at least part of twenty-one days--February had its perks. The Red-wing blackbirds returned on February 19. The first migratory birds to return each year, they are really Spring's harbingers, and their whistles and constant chatter always make me smile, even when it's muddy.

A day later, the Killdeer arrived, and then left. This happens yearly; they're checking out nesting areas, and our 900 feet of gravel drive is very attractive. They'll be back.

A bluebird pair appeared the last day of the month.

And green shoots and colorful little crocuses are popping up in all the gardens. Spring is on its way.

Killdeer nesting in gravel**

I'd love to tell you I took the bird photos, but I didn't. Here's who did:

*By ADJ82 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65840016 

**By Audrey - originally posted to Flickr as Female Killdeer On Her Nest, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?

Welcome Winter!

...Five dawns later--Let the snows begin!

Dawn of the New Year 2018...

I've always preferred cold weather to hot weather, and I love it when snow blankets the drab winter brown. So this January's snows and cold have been welcome. They're especially welcome when I recall the freakishly much-too-warm January 2017.                                                                                              In mid-January 2018, NOAA released its assessment of 2017's world-wide temperatures (NOAA says 2017 was 2nd warmest year on record), and Vox posted an article on the cost of the damage done by aberrant weather events just in this country (Megadisasters devasted American in 2017: Storms, fires, floods, and heat caused at least $306,000,000,000 in destruction). It's not pretty, especially when you consider that as we begin a new year, we look back on the last 4 years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) and see the hottest years worldwide on record. The next hottest years are 2007, 2009, 2010, meaning that seven of the hottest years on record have been in the last ten years.

Come into the garden

As I recorded the daily weather statistics for January at Bean Hill, I noticed that every day of the month had seen a record high or a record low set since 2014. Extremes in temperatures, as well as wind speeds, precipitation (or lack of it), and monster tornadoes and hurricanes are all part of the climate change picture. The abnormal, as regards weather, is the new normal. Much as I prefer lower temperatures to higher ones, I have to admit that those record-setting cold days this month were too bitterly cold even for me, and I was grateful I didn't have to be anywhere but in a warm house.   

At Bean Hill, sixteen new records were set in January. There were eleven days of record-breaking cold, seven of them in the first week of the month. Fortunately our coldest nights were not nearly as cold as two January nights in 2014 that saw the thermometer dip to 22⁰ below zero! Five days saw record high temperatures; every day in January had an all-time high for that date recorded in either 2015, 2016, 2017 or 2018.

Despite the new records set, January was overall delightfully close to "normal". The historic average high for the month is 36⁰ and we came in at 34⁰.  The historic average low is 20⁰; our average was 16⁰. Rainfall (thanks to those "warm" days) was .42" more than the historic average of 2.53". And as the pictures illustrate, and quite unlike last year, we had snow. The historic monthly total is 10.5", and we totaled 12.4". (There's a station about 5 miles from us that records daily precipitation and snowfall amounts; I could never be that precise.) By the way, it wasn't until this year that I learned weather trackers regard rain as "precipitation" and snow as, well,...snow.  Since we had little to no snow last year, I missed that distinction.

Snowy day, showy cardinal