Try Keeping A Diary Of Our Weather
Like many of you, I have discovered my body is an excellent weather forecaster. Some of you may have knees or backs that indicate a change in barometric pressure or humidity. I can predict temperatures dropping below 10 degrees. My toes become brittle.
Obviously these bodily indicators, reliable as they may seem, cannot be fully depended upon to predict weather changes that are critical to gardeners. So we have to turn to the professionals.
Another tool I’ve started using is my own weather calendar. While it doesn’t exactly predict upcoming weather, it has proven invaluable in analyzing the impact of weather on our plants. And, it’s fun.
I keep the daily high and low temperatures. Keeping temperature records not only gives me numbers to compare from one year to the next, but it often helps with the diagnosis of plant problems. Mild winter temperatures may bring some plants out of dormancy. Cold spring evenings may stunt growth or cause disease. Hot summer days can bake plants.
Keeping track of the temperatures also helps me determine - and to some extent predict - the first and last frost-free days of the season. Also, I can monitor when we had light frosts and hard frosts.
I keep the number of daylight hours - when the sun rises and when it sets. Since this statistic doesn’t change from one year to the next, I only had to keep it for one year, referring back to it whenever needed. I want to know the daylight hours because certain plants, such as June-bearing strawberries and mums, respond to the length of the days.
The amount of precipitation is also critical. Rainfall statistics we receive from weather reports don’t tell the whole story. Referring to the calendar, I can see if the moisture came all at one time, as in one inch of rain in a few hours, or if we received one inch of rain over a number of days. We know that hard, driving rains are not as beneficial to the soil as soft, continuous rains. Downpours flood and run off the soil because either the soil cannot accept that amount of water in a short period of time or the ground is too dry and hard to accept the water. Soft rains gradually moisten the soil, allowing the rains to penetrate deeply into the earth.
This year I am also recording sunny days vs. gray days (important for plant growth both inside the house and outside). We can’t always draw the conclusion that it’s sunny just because it’s not raining. And how many gray days do we really get in the winter months? Short, gray days of winter do very little for overwintering plants, houseplants and newly started seedlings.
And, I’m monitoring the winds. The directions from which the winds blow can indicate the development of unstable air masses and temperature changes. Winds can be just as detrimental to plants as temperature extremes. They can “burn” plants by evaporating their moisture during the cold days of winter and the hot days of summer. They can pull plants out of the ground, snap them in two and convert them into inverted umbrellas.
When I compared the readings of last year to this year, it was quite informative. I discovered the temperatures from last January and February were quite similar to the readings of this year. An interesting statistic: Last January was very mild, with temperatures as high as 49 degrees. In fact, 27 of the 31 days were above 38 degrees. The coldest daytime temperature only dipped down to 31 degrees. The night temperatures were just as spring-like.
The very mild temperatures of January ‘94 started dropping the first week of February. On Feb. 8, 9, 10, and 11, night temperatures plummeted to 3, 12, 8, and 8 degrees. Sound familiar?
I have thoroughly used and enjoyed my weather diary. Perhaps you, too, might find it useful and fun. Then, when people are talking about that 20 degrees below zero cold snap in ‘92, you can say: “Actually it got to 30 degrees below and it was in February 1990.”
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review