A Warm Growing Season

[digitS']

Growing Degree Days, NOAA (the -9999 means that there is no data)

Nearest Weather Service station (Spokane) on the "selected cities" list was warmer than normal.

Yeah, but our "competition" (North Dakota ), had a warm growing season, also. The competition exists only in my own mind ... Spokane was just about in the middle of the North Dakota cities for growing degree days.

Very comparable to San Francisco California ... You want to know one reason I pay attention to this list, look at Eureka California, where I first began gardening on my own ... Imagine hoping to have ripe tomatoes in that cool climate !

How was the warmth in your neck of the woods??

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, even though it rained yesterday pretty much all day, today it is beautiful and sunny. My husband and I walked to our favorite tiny cafe on the marina for breakfast. We should have ridden our bikes there but the walk was nice. On the way there I saw some beautiful tomatoes growing on the side of a front yard. They weren't completely ripened but they sure looked nice. This morning I picked 2 zucchinis from my moldy plants. They are still producing 2 at a time so I'm letting the plants be.

Loving our warm weather. It does look like our season is a little bit longer this year.

Mary

 

[Smart Red]

Not a criticism on you, digitS'. You just give the information for us to check and I thank you for that.

Still, it is hard to believe that only one community, ELY, NV had a cooler than normal growing season (and that barely) on the whole list. Perhaps at least a few of those without data were cooler?

Okay, I'm probably closer to the "conspiracy theorists" when it comes to global warming. I haven't seen it. All I've seen is 68 years of different growing seasons that are combined to make that mysterious "NORMAL" season. I remember being threatened with the coming of a new ICE AGE in the 70s and can't for the life of me see how temperatures that were decreasing during the 50s and 60s (according to the warnings I remember) could have elevated themselves to become part of the threat of global warming we have now.

Temperatures are one thing. I remember a summer when the grands didn't get swimming more than twice because Grandma insisted it had to be at least 80 degrees for me to sit with them on the beach. I remember when I was a child and my family played football outside without their coats after our New Year's dinner. I also remember having only 5 days of teaching one January because of the cold and snowy, drifting roads. Every day the definition of NORMAL must change as new information is added to the old, but the old isn't nearly old enough predict the coming decade with any real accuracy.

Climate is another. Man hasn't been keeping records nearly long enough to understand how climate changes over thousands or tens of thousands of years. Still our VP, Gore -- who has made million$ warning of impending global warming -- assured us that the Eastern Coastline would be well under water by now and our members in Pennsylvania would be enjoying ocean front property. Must be that Obama's campaign promise to hold back the rising oceans was one promise successfully kept(?) Or more likely, the Earth's weather is something Man has yet to understand.

 

[aftermidnight]

Well, is it just what came around comes around again? 'They' say that we are heading towards a Mediterranean type climate here on Vancouver Island, time will tell.
My dad told stories about the harbor (salt chuck) freezing over here when he was young, they actually drove horse drawn wagons on it over to the two nearby islands.
When I was young I can remember warm sunny winter days where one didn't even wear a sweater. I can also remember winters where it seemed to snow with freezing temps. right through November into March.
When we got up in the morning we glued our ears to the radio each morning to see if the schools were closed. Needless to say mitts, snowsuits and gumboots were ready to jump into, sleds propped up just outside the back door. The city used to block off hospital hill road for sleigh riding.
In around the mid 60's we had many winter days when we had snow and ice and temps below 0ºF. Our last two winters were very mild, no snow and the temps might have dipped to 32º for a few days but that was it.
Last summer was the hottest I can remember in all my years, we broke the record for heat in recorded history here, records have been kept for over 100 years. We were eating vine ripened tomatoes from our own garden July 1st. this year we were into September before we had our first ripe tomato.

Things I have noticed tho... is the wind, we are having wind storms like nothing we've ever had before and they have been causing a lot of damage and we don't seem to have 4 distinct seasons anymore, more often than not winter runs smack into summer skipping spring altogether. Frost used to end around the end of March, now it's well into April or even May and has been for quite a few years.
September this year has been wet but I don't think that's unusual, it's just that the last few years it has been quite warm and dry, people forget the rule of the thumb around here for years was if you want to put in a new lawn do it in April or September.

Most of what I think of as a normal year we don't harvest ripe tomatoes from the garden until August unless they have been given some extra protection, lately we've been spoiled. When we are very lucky some of our summers drift into a fabulous Indian summer, sunny warm days with just a hint of freshness in the air, not this year but maybe next? The skies just keep opening up and downpour after downpour, at least it's good for our forests, and the fish can actually get up river to spawn this year.

All in all we never know what kind of year we'll have here, Global Warming, Climate Change? I do know we are going to have to start treating this earth of ours much better than we have been. I know it's just a bit in the bucket but if we all do what we can, grow as organically as possible, recycle what we can and stop being so wasteful, stop buying these throw away items, I have to admit I've been guilty of this but I'm trying to clean up my act, every little bit helps.
Annette

 

[Smart Red]

Global cooling, global warming, global norming, or global surprise, it is always reasonable and appropriate to do what we can to care for Mother Earth. As it stands now, the Earth is our home and who wants to have a dump for a home?

 

[digitS']

I would forego the more colorful sunsets if we could have cleaner air. The sunset is the only good thing I can think of, generated from air pollution.

Going out with fewer resources and less accessible resources left for future generations isn't much of a legacy. Maybe there will be something like the Roman bridges they can admire about our time on Earth. I hope so.

I hope for a warmer growing season ... should I admit that? I don't want any 108°f in June again but what passes for "normal" around here in June isn't very easy on the plant and animal communities! Tolerable changes, in my olde age, that's what I'm hoping for. I know. Just the passage of time will someday be intolerable ...

I don't recall the standards the WS employs for growing degree days. It's a fairly new accounting and I think it's a useful one. I'm not sure why there are so many gaps on the list, signified by those -9999's. Daily averages should not be that difficult to determine from a few decades of records. It doesn't go back far and isn't really meant to show climate change.

As a comparison, from one part of the country to another, I think it's interesting. I always look at that place where I began gardening but also Colorado, where I have thought that I might want live. (You missed Grand Junction, @Smart Red .) Realizing how closely we compare to North Dakota was disheartening but, I've turned it into an imagined competition .

There is more to growing weather than temperatures measured over the season but for a guy who started growing within view of the northern Pacific Ocean, I appreciate a little warmth ..! It's one of the biggest problems here - that Pacific Ocean. Spring sunshine just doesn't amount to enough surface warmth to build up some nice high pressure to keep the coastal clouds on the other side of the Cascades! Obviously, we need higher mountains than 14,000 feet to keep the June Gloom at bay .

Steve