Your Weather 2023

[Alasgun]

Here we go.

Fall and winter intermingle this weekend

The sunshine is hanging on, bringing a bright day to southcentral, interior and even southeast Alaska on Friday. But looming into the weekend, two low pressure systems that bring a touch of winter into the state.

www.alaskasnewssource.com

 

[flowerbug]

we have a few more days of warm weather and then back to cooler nights (down into the 30s at last). that should help the colors come faster. most trees are still green here.

 

[SPedigrees]

Colors here have been sort of drab so far. I wondered if perhaps it was just my eyesight getting dimmer with age, but a reporter on the TV news last night, out in the field, confirmed my impression. The trees behind her were muted peachy colors, and she stated that the foliage was not as brilliant as past years, with more pastel colors, and even browns, in place of the usual vibrant reds and oranges. Perhaps the crazy weather and endless rain this summer is to blame.

 

[Branching Out]

My understanding is that warm days and cool nights make for spectacular fall foliage. Here in the Pacific Northwest the leaves are just starting to change colour, and they are looking good.

 

[SPedigrees]

My understanding is that warm days and cool nights make for spectacular fall foliage. Here in the Pacific Northwest the leaves are just starting to change colour, and they are looking good.

That would be true in a normal year, but this summer was anything but normal.

The explanation is apparently two-fold. First, as with many other plants, the sugar maples suffered from a lack of sunlight this year and they weren't able to produce normal amounts of either chlorophyll or melanin (I forget which they said, but the substance that causes color in leaves, both green, and later yellows, oranges, reds as that substance declines). Second, because of the relentless rain, a large number of maples were infected with a fungus named anthracnose which is preventing them from turning colour now.

Newscasters are using the word "muted" and I guess that is true enough, but I think "drab" is more to the point. They hasten to say that although muted, the colors are still pretty, in an effort not to dissuade the usual influx of fall tourists to the state. Personally I think it would be wiser to tell the truth and advise postponing leaf-peeping vacations, rather than have them come and feel let down and tell their friends that the colors weren't so great.

We should send them out your way instead, it sounds like. ;-) Have you been bothered by the forest fires, or are you in an area far away from them?

 

[Branching Out]

That would be true in a normal year, but this summer was anything but normal. We should send them out your way instead, it sounds like. ;-) Have you been bothered by the forest fires, or are you in an area far away from them?

It what was a record breaking summer of destructive wildfires, the Greater Vancouver area was hardly impacted. We had a few smoky days, but nothing like what we saw in previous years. I suppose we can thank favourable winds for sparing us this time.

 

[SPedigrees]

It what was a record breaking summer of destructive wildfires, the Greater Vancouver area was hardly impacted. We had a few smoky days, but nothing like what we saw in previous years. I suppose we can thank favourable winds for sparing us this time.

That's good to hear. Footage of those fires has been scary to see. I still can't quite wrap my head around fires in eastern Canada, the smoke from which has been hanging overhead much of the eastern seaboard here in the US this summer. Fire in the western provinces, and our western states, is nothing new given the dry climate there, but I understand they have been far more ferocious and widespread this year. I think Mother Nature is upset with us!

 

[flowerbug]

... Fire in the western provinces, and our western states, is nothing new given the dry climate there, but I understand they have been far more ferocious and widespread this year. I think Mother Nature is upset with us!

there's a mix of things going on which makes the fires more intense in recent years, a lot of standing dead timber from beetle damage, the past many years of fire suppression, higher temperatures (also meaning stronger winds) and a really long hot dry spell early in the season.

all those burned out areas now won't have as much fuel for many years as they recover. they'll grow again.

 

[flowerbug]

beautiful out there at the moment. sunny and cool and breezy and very muddy.

 

[digitS']

When it comes to more than 6 times the acres that burned in Canada than average, it becomes all of our concern.

We were all exposed to more wildfire smoke than ever in 2023

SPOKANE, Wash.-- October skies are still smoky in parts of the U.S. and Canada, adding to an unprecedented year of smoke exposure across the continent. Most of that smoke came

www.kxly.com

We had some wildfires that were very local, as noted in that news story. I did a little math and right near 1 out of every 20 acres in that county burned.

Yes, there will be plants that will grow again but my concern is that, locally, we are losing our lower elevation forest to be replaced by grass and sagebrush. And areas of grass and sagebrush burn quite readily, to be replaced by ... ?

Steve