Spring "Freeze out"

[Powerball]

This is a weather board, and people on weather boards are generally interested in unusual/extreme weather.

For example, I want a cat 5 hurricane to form in the Caribbean this summer, because well-developed hurricanes are fascinating to me. Sure, I hope people don't die from it...but the weather will do what the weather will do. We can't control it anyway.

I think it's interesting that incredibly warm temps in March can have so many unintended consequences down the road, even with a fairly normal April/May.

People should be careful what they wish for when it comes to "nice weather". It's ironic, you know?

This debate comes up all the time on this board...it's puzzling.

Agreed.

It was a once in a lifetime event.

There's a less than 5% chance we see anything like this again in our lifetime. I would just accept it for what it was, an extreme/unusual/record breaking event. Weather's no fun to track if things are just "normal."

I'm also sure the farmers had SOMETHING to fall back on in the event of a weather event like this (otherwise they quite frankly shouldn't be in that type of business they're in), just as the ski resorts simply make their own snow if the weather pattern doesn't cooperate. It's unfortunate what happened to the fruit, but there will likely be next season.

[daddylonglegs]

I wonder how rare this is? once in 500 years? 1000? even more rare? Probably hard to figure since record keeping is pretty spotty beyond 150 or so years.

They can grow vegetables, log wood, or get government help (I think they have some sort of insurance for this sort of thing), so yeah its not the end of the world. Just sucks for both the grower and the consumer, because a lot less selection and higher prices are sure to follow.

[Geos]

I wonder how rare this is? once in 500 years? 1000? even more rare? Probably hard to figure since record keeping is pretty spotty beyond 150 or so years.

This^

This was fairly widespread event, which is probably really rare. A localized event like several counties might be a twice a century deal.

[SpartyOn]

I wonder how rare this is? once in 500 years? 1000? even more rare? Probably hard to figure since record keeping is pretty spotty beyond 150 or so years.

They can grow vegetables, log wood, or get government help (I think they have some sort of insurance for this sort of thing), so yeah its not the end of the world. Just sucks for both the grower and the consumer, because a lot less selection and higher prices are sure to follow.

They do. Its generally called crop insurance. Allot of this insurance is heavily subsidized by the federal government via the federal crop insurance act. It was designed to prevent farms from loosing everything after an act of God like the March green out. Most wont be complaining about a summer off and a break from harvest duties.

[michsnowfreak]

The wonders of weather. This will make a great trivia question years down the road. The question will be "In what year did hard spring freezes devastate the MI fruit industry arguably worse than ever before?". When thinking of an answer, most probably wouldnt guess the warmest spring on record. But thats the answer.

Spring 2012 will easily end up as the warmest Spring on record. An epic record-warm March (which was really a 2-2.5 week stretch of summer and a good 1.5 weeks of seasonable chill), a May that will almost certainly end up somewhere in the top 20 warmest....sandwiching an April with near normal temps and slightly more than the average amount of freezes, the most severe of which came at months end.

[Tropical]

Interesting observation from the "spring freeze-out". I uncovered my windmill palms on February 29th. They endured temperatures down to 9F in early March, then the historic March heatwave and of course all the April freezes. However, they are showing zero damage! They have kept on growing consistently since I uncovered them.

However, I notice our native trees took a huge hit from pattern we went through. Heck, even the gingko bilobas on my street are damaged beyond belief. Wonder if these even leaf out this summer. Check it out.

It's really something seeing all these native trees get damaged but palm trees don't miss a beat and keep growing.