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Summer Banter & General Discussion/Observations

CapturedNature

By CapturedNature,
in New England

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moneypitmike

moneypitmike

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, kdxken said:

Awesome!!! This crap azz weather may have done the trick.

 

http://turnto10.com/news/local/uri-research-associate-expects-gypsy-moth-caterpillar-outbreak-soon-coming-to-an-end

I destroyed a couple of the 'nest' things about a month or so ago.  I saw one one on an apple tree the other day.  Other than that, nada.

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tamarack

tamarack

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Typhoon Tip said:

So I got a question for the mountain denizens...   

Is your green-up/leaf out more annually dictated by that year's climate, or does the vegetation seem to trigger around the same dates regardless?

I'm curious because it seems odd that we are on top of the June sun times of the year and the green-up in that image is like...half what it should be.  We are heading for winter in less than three weeks - 'course, it could just be that one image.  

Anyway it's not just all that.  There's definitely something very strange going on with the pattern this year, and I'm wondering if it's taken a toll on timing matters.  

Not a mountain man, just on a flat within the foothills, but without specific records I'd guess we're about a week behind average on leaf out.  Maples are full-leaf but still lighter green, oaks about 3/4, white ash about halfway. The cool May slowed things down, but its lack of sun may have been a bigger factor - 18 cloudy days ties with 4 other months for the most cloudy days here.  (June 2009 "wins", as it's the only 18-cloudies in a month with fewer than 31 days.)  My earliest leaf-out, 2010, was 2.5-3 weeks earlier than this year, early enough that the freezes on 5/11-13 caused major damage to the new growth.

Edit:  One thinks of May as the first "real" spring month, but maybe not for NNE.  It's my 3rd cloudiest month, trailing only Nov-Dec which contend for #1.  (Least cloudy is Sept, next least: March.)

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Typhoon Tip

Typhoon Tip

Posted
Posted
53 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Not a mountain man, just on a flat within the foothills, but without specific records I'd guess we're about a week behind average on leaf out.  Maples are full-leaf but still lighter green, oaks about 3/4, white ash about halfway. The cool May slowed things down, but its lack of sun may have been a bigger factor - 18 cloudy days ties with 4 other months for the most cloudy days here.  (June 2009 "wins", as it's the only 18-cloudies in a month with fewer than 31 days.)  My earliest leaf-out, 2010, was 2.5-3 weeks earlier than this year, early enough that the freezes on 5/11-13 caused major damage to the new growth.

Edit:  One thinks of May as the first "real" spring month, but maybe not for NNE.  It's my 3rd cloudiest month, trailing only Nov-Dec which contend for #1.  (Least cloudy is Sept, next least: March.)

I hadn't considered the insolation/dimming as a plausible factor in that - sort of intuitively one would think that would matter, but the formal literature/science argues that most of the necessary radiation wave lengths is in the diffused-daylight range of the spectrum. That would "seem" to argue against needing direct unabated sun.  Would we infer clouds wouldn't matter? 

Not so fast.. While it does seem like a safe educated guess that direct unimpeded sun would be more effective in the function of chloroplasts/photosynthesis, there are specific requirements in the total electromagnetic spectrum of sun light that would interfere with the fast assumptions. Photosynthesis also requires 'just the right' amount of UV area of the spectrum, too, which is the other lesser, but very important/needed percentage wave-length of the total em spectrum.  I think I read somewhere that it's a trigger for chlorophyll production, less used after that point; where by then, too much, death... too little, chlorophyll production is halted and the green tissues of flora pales/turns white- yellows..etc.

I am not honestly sure without googling and what not how effective cloud albido is in the UV area of the spectrum but I'm inclined to say that it is probably some effect. That's just a guess among conjecturing internet electrons... It would appear logical that if clouds are effective at interfering with UV delivery to the surface, then cloud preponderance may take a toll on the speed/proficiency of green-up.  If one ever gets around to reading what goes into that entire area of plant life/biological function (at more sophisticated levels) it truly would blow your mind - THAT is the real miracle of evolution...right there.  And it f'n absolutely had to happen first on this planet before the invention of anything and everything really - beyond remarkable. 

But plant life aside, that's true - it seems like even down here we've had more cloud than usual. I don't think that, in itself, is unusual if considering/adding the predominating flow characteristics as causal - probably would be cloudier given to that.   It may be a way of backing into the assumption that we've been in this unrelenting abusive attack on spring and warm weather with this base-line pattern - ha ha.

 

 

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powderfreak

powderfreak

Posted
Posted

Been raining steadily all day at the mountain...48F.  

Just steady upslope small droplet sheet rains coming in on NW flow.  

Might even be dry in town but I haven't been down there since 7am.  This is like October Climo.  40s at the base and upper 30s up high.  

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powderfreak

powderfreak

Posted
Posted

We wish it was about 5C colder right now with  a favorable orographic set up over the mountains.  A private party rented Stowe's treetop ropes course today so have been working with them and I love how many have said "we watched The Weather Channel and even this morning it said there was only a 40% chance of scattered showers."  When in fact it hasn't stopped raining since 6am and has been a drenching sheet rain.  

In the winter it's good news when 40% POPs turn into 6-8" of snow but this time of year not so much.  

Every so often it flares up with yellow pixels over Mansfield on the county line and RT 108 intersect.  My wife said the sun has tried to break through in town while it mists with the downslope flow while it rains steadily a couple miles up the road.

Hopefully we don't see this again until October.

IMG_6062.GIF.d73ec747f469e1cf7c4ee9d6ad963946.GIF

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