Wecome To The Arctic

Arctic air, that is. This temporary incursion of arctic air presents a tremendous opportunity to experience living in a place that has really cold winters. But only for a week or so! Perfect!

We had 5 inches of snow Sunday (which may be a local record), a cold inversion Monday, and beautifully clear sunny weather today. High temp today 23, low 9, minimum wind chill 0 (zero). Tomorrow, snow moves back in, along with another big storm this weekend as the arctic air starts to moderate. This is interesting weather, and I like interesting weather.

Fortunately, arctic blasts here rarely last longer than a week. They usually end on a very messy precipitation event, but they usually end in a timely fashon.

And this one had a perfect setup, at least for garden plants: There were (and still are) several inches of snow on the ground before the really cold temperatures set in, giving plants and the soil a comfy insulating blanket.

Here's a zoomed in and very fuzzy view of Mt Adams from the deck this evening. I gotta trim those branches (except that they belong to a neighbor a block away):


I'll have another post shortly regarding my thoughts on the Hood River Weather site's new addition: the live chat window.

Poll? What Poll?

Sometime yesterday morning the weekly poll on the Hood River Weather site disappeared. Just up and vanished. And it was getting interesting, with Jeff Merkley slightly ahead of Gordon Smith in the Oregon senatorial race, which pretty much reflects the results of other polls.

To create the weekly poll, I've been using a paid poll hosting service. It's pretty inexpensive, and up until now has been quite reliable. Hopefully this is just a short term problem. If the hosting service doesn't re-surface in the next few days, I'll start using a free service (PollDaddy), which is a lot more versatile anyway. It allows multiple choices, comments, and conditional branching, all of which makes for a better polling experience. I haven't switched yet because I still have some months left on the paid service, but this might force the issue earlier.

10/12/08 12:50 Update: Nevermind. The poll is back, 30 minutes after I posted the above rant. Now I just have to come up with a new poll topic...

Busy garden day today... planting garlic, mowing the lawn, harvesting and roasting peppers and pumpkin seeds:

First Frost

This morning's low of 30 degrees at our weather station and 29 degrees at AGRIMET marked the first official below freezing temperature at the Hood River city elevation this Fall. It's a little earlier than average (Oct 20); once again global warming has failed miserably in extending the growing season here. Maybe next year.

It looks like I was able to temporarily save our very abundant pepper crop last night by covering it with Reemay fabric (from Good News Gardening), which can protect down to 30 degrees. The peppers do appear slightly stunned this morning but not melted, unlike the cucumber and squash plants which were unprotected. The tomatoes were barely nipped, since they are more protected by being up against the south side of the house.

One more cold night tonight, and then temperatures should moderate. The forecasts indicate no rain at least through next weekend.

Mt Adams has a bright shiny new coat of snow, as seen from our house:

Never Mind

I guess I spoke too soon in the previous post. With the Feds apparently about to step in and cushion the collapse of giant AIG insurance company with taxpayer dollars, all is now good with the stock market. There will probably be a big jump in stocks tomorrow.

So here's the current investing plan: When the Feds appear to be stepping in and helping support otherwise bankrupt companies, the stock market will soar. When the Feds appear to be holding back from such taxpayer support, the stock market will plummet.

This would be really exciting, if it weren't so damn depressing and potentially catastrophic.

There seems to be a fire somewhere up valley from here (here being May and Rand Street); the evening sun is turning orange from the smoke. Haven't seen anything on the news about it yet; hopefully no homes are in danger.

9/17 update: It's apprently the Gnarl Ridge fire on the east flank of Mt Hood, which was started by lightening in early August and has re-emerged.

Harvested some pumpkins this past weekend (mellowed by the currently orange sunlight):

How Great Is This?

I've held off on posting about how great the weather is lately, since more often than not, whenever I mention how great the weather is lately, it takes a sudden turn for the worse. It's a knack of mine.

But I can't stand it anymore. The weather the past 2 weeks has been absolutely incredibly great. There, I've said it. Let the weather chips fall where they will.

September has always been my favorite weather month in Hood River (closely followed by the other 11 months). Typically warm days, cool nights, and the wind tends to die down in the transition from summer to fall.

Tomorrow marks the full Harvest Moon. Get out there and harvest, or at least celebrate the bounty from those that do plant and harvest. One excellent way to do that is to support locally grown food.

Heat Wave

Today is the first day of a 3 to 4 day heat wave in Hood River. Typically, the west wind dies down, gentle easterly breezes come and go, daytime temps soar, and nightly temps drop to a comfortable 60-70 degrees.

Today's high of 100 didn't break a record, but tomorrow's record high of 101 and Saturday's record of 100 are within reach. If this doesn't kick this year's late-ripening tomatoes, peppers, and corn into high gear, nothing will.

Now, Not So Cold

In this record breaking cold Spring, temperatures reaching into the 70's feel like a heat wave. Very nice. The extremely epic winds on the river have blessed the wind sports enthusiasts to the point of exhaustion. Those of us not participating in windsurfing or kiteboarding are desperately trying to hang on to anything to prevent being blown away.

Vegetable gardens, having experienced a slow start, are now kicking into gear big time. Our lettuce and garlic are coming along nicely:


Currently harvesting lettuce, green onions, radishes, snow peas, sugar snap peas, cilantro, and celery. Summer squash in a week or two...

Record Rain

Yesterday's rainfall of 0.41 inches surpassed the old record of 0.36 inches set in 1936.

I haven't crunched the numbers yet for May, but I'm pretty sure it was cooler than average. June is also starting off cool and wet. Lawns, gardens, and slugs are loving this. I'm glad something is.

But there's a bright side to this otherwise really depressing weather. There is so much snow still in the mountains (especially in the low to mid elevations) that a cool Spring is exactly what we need. Cool temps, slower snow melt, less flooding. In the Big Picture, this is a good thing.

Warm After All

I just came in from planting veges, weeding, and mowing the lawn. Seeing as how I'm dripping wet with sweat, yesterday's post about it not being warm this weekend is another example of my strategy of "reverse psychology". For the most part, whenever I make a forecast, you can expect the opposite to happen.

Upper 70's outside, and much more humid than I expected, making for a very pleasant afternoon.

Looking somewhat further out into the sky, the Phoenix Mars Lander will hopefully make a soft landing near the polar region of Mars tomorrow. Success is not at all guaranteed; past Mars exploration missions have failed about 50% of the time. The ones that have succeeded have returned incredibly awesome images and lots of scientific data, which will make future long term colonization of Mars possible. If you are interested, you can follow the progress of the mission on NASA's various media feeds.

There's A Pattern Here

And the pattern is: a very cold Spring, with a warm weekend two weeks ago, snow last weekend, and a warm weekend currently. Not that great of a pattern, but at least the few warm spells have been on weekends.

It hasn't been a good Spring for vegetable gardens. I planted radishes and peas March 1st, and they are at least 3 weeks behind normal growth. The cucumber seeds planted April 12 have yet to emerge, and at this point most likely won't. I probably should have put Walls-O-Water or something similiar over them.

May 1st marks the usual time to plant tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, basil, and other warmth-loving veges at our Hood River city location (500 ft elevation). I may hold off a week or so this year, as cold wet weather is forecast to return tomorrow thru next week.

Here's how part of the vege garden looks currently. From front to back: garlic, lettuce, snow peas, last year's overwintered celery, onion starts, overwintered cilantro, perennial artichoke bed, new celery starts, and sugar snap peas. Not shown is the newly planted asparagus bed, which is a long-term investment, taking a couple of years before it can be harvested to any extent.


Speaking of vegetables (and locally grown stuff), Gorge Grown Food Network has an interesting survey on their web site, part of their ongoing efforts to bring together local food growers and local food consumers.

Record High Temperature Today?

Maybe. The previous high temperature record for February 28 was 64 degrees in 1988. Our weather station registered 67 degrees today. We'll have to wait for the data at the OSU Mid-Col Ag Station to see if it was an actual official record. In any event, it was a beautiful warm sunny February day.

In a couple of days, I'll be planting the first veges of the season: snow peas. The plants emerge quicker if I soak the seeds overnight, place them in moist paper towels until they sprout, and then plant the sprouts. The first planting of radishes will also go in about March 1. I'm salivating uncontrollably just thinking about it. Which is probably way more information than you really wanted to know.

Snow

2 inches of snow on the deck this Saturday morning. Very nice to wake up to, and on a non-work day at that. Life doesn't get a whole lot better than this.

And now it's 4 pm, 39 degrees, and the snow is pretty much gone after warming temperatures and drizzling rain do their thing.

It's been a good weather month here in the Hood. Lots of variety, none of the flooding and hurricane force winds that devastated the Oregon Coast, and only an occasional fog inversion that doesn't last more than a day or two. The low temperatures are staying moderate: 29 degrees in November, and 27 degrees so far in December. So mild that we are still able to harvest some lettuce, green onions, cilantro, and celery from the vege garden. And the seed catalogues for next season are starting to arrive...

Shine On

The full moon closest to the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest moon. There are several reasons why. The reason that is almost too obvious to mention (but I will), is that this is a peak harvest time of the year. Throughout history, farmers could continue harvesting well into the night.

Also, just as the sun rises directly east and sets directly west on the first day of Fall, so does the moonrise and moonset around this time of the year. This puts the moon pretty much directly overhead in the night sky, rather than lower in the sky, which makes the lighting a little bit brighter than usual.

It's Not a Dry Heat

12:45 pm, Sunday, 83 degrees and 48% humidity. Muggy. Certainly nowhere near as humid as other parts of the country, but unusual for here. A weak weather front is skimming the Coast and Willamette Valley, and clouds are visible to the west of Hood River, but no rain is expected here today or tomorrow. Calm earlier this morning but west wind is just now starting up. And next week... summer returns.

The garden corn (Bon Appettit Tablesweet variety) is doing great this year. The silks have emerged in the past week and have these really cool burgundy and yellow colors:

In a couple of weeks, fresh corn on the cob roasted on the grill.... yum

Hi Low

Well darn if it didn't happen again... another record "high low" temperature this morning. The low only got down to 64 degrees, which broke the old record of 61 degrees set in 1992. That's THREE "high low" records set this June. Global warming? Nah... merely "natural cycles"... stay tuned...

Anyway, most of the forecast models call for a warming trend next week, which might just bring about something that we haven't seen for a few years: a hot dry 4th of July.

The golden zucchini are kicking into high gear; time to get the neighbors and co-workers involved in sharing the harvest.

Third Time's The Charm

That is, if you consider rainfall on a weekend charming. Not a lot of rain, about .30 inches so far at our house, but if the weekend has to be cool and cloudy, at least we got some rain out of it.

And we needed some rain. We've had about 10 inches of precip since Jan 1, which is about 4 inches less than normal. Doesn't seem like a huge deficit, but I can't remember the last time I had to start watering the lawn and yard in late April rather than early June. The soil is very dry, as I learned last week when I had to dig a post hole in the lawn (for a clothes line). Bone dry all the way down to 12 inches, which is as far as I got before encountering a rock the size of.... the size of something I didn't want to explore any further.

This is the 3rd weekend in a row where the weather took a downturn while the weekday weather turns great. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend, and we shall see if the pattern holds.

Weekend Weather Effect Part 2

Although this is only the second weekend in a row with cool, cloudy, windy weather that turns sunny and warm on Monday and Tuesday, this pattern is getting old. Either it changes, or I start taking Mondays and Tuesdays off.

Wind sports on the Columbia River have been great the past week, so that's a plus.

The HR Weather Poll this week asks about the situation in Iraq. Specifically, what should our exit strategy be? I present some choices based on my own perspective; there are certainly other options but I am limited to just a few in a poll.

I, along with many others, thought before the war started that the whole concept of invading Iraq to help "safeguard our nation against terrorism" was a huge strategic error. It ignored the cultural and religious history of the area. Iraq was/is a nation of 3 distinct religious groups that were only held together by the power of a dictator. In the words of General Colin Powell, "if we break it, we own it". At the time, we (along with the world community) had Saddam Hussein completely contained. We had control of his airspace. Many teams of inspectors had determined that he did not have WMDs. Protecting us against terrorism could be done much more effectively through covert intelligence actions, encouraging moderate Islamic positions worldwide, and strengthening the security of our ports, borders, and infrastructure. Not to mention, way less expensively, both in terms of money and loss of human life.

But, since it was clear that this Administration had already decided upon an invasion, evidence was presented that "supported" their position. It's an age-old situation: if the boss is obviously dead set on something, the people that work for him tend to provide him with the information that supports his position. Or. you might possibly lose your job. And the proper heroic fighting words were presented to the public: "You're either with us or against us" "We'll fight the terrorists in Iraq and that will keep them too busy to come over here and fight" "Freedom is on the march" and other such simple feel-good phrases.

And we, as a nation, bought into it. Those of us who didn't were labeled unpatriotic, freedom-haters, and appeasers. I had hoped that our experiences with Vietnam had made us understand that going into preemptive and/or optional wars is not such a great idea. Diplomacy, negotiation, and coercion trump going to war far more often than not (WW1 and 2 being exceptions).

And yes, I do support our troops. Some of the best ways to support them are: 1) don't send them into optional wars, 2) get them out of ill-conceived wars sooner than later, and 3) provide them with all the material, armor, and future support (as veterans) that they need.

Enough of my opinions already. What do you think (other than I should keep my opinions to myself)?

By the way, I planted my cucumber starts too soon, as usual. They have since withered and collapsed, and will have to be replanted next week.

The Weekend Weather Effect

I've had a 4 day weekend off (Thur-Sun), and the weather has been cool, partly cloudy, and windy. And the forecast for this Monday and Tuesday (the "back to work" days)? 80 degrees, clear, and calm. Doesn't that just figure...

But it's been a great weekend for planting in the vege garden. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, corn, and pole beans are now safely tucked away in the soil. At least I hope they're safe. I live in the Hood River city limits, and frosts after May 1 are unusual at this elevation.

Brrrrrr

Not quite a record low temp this morning (29 degrees versus a record of 26 in 1972), but cold enough. And I take some responsibility for causing it, since I pushed the vegetable garden season a bit by planting artichoke, lettuce, onion, and broccoli starts last weekend. They're all pretty hardy though, and hopefully they will live long and prosper (at least long enough for me to eat them).

It's not unusual to have below freezing temperatures here in April; the historic average "last freeze date" for Hood River is April 20th. That's for the city elevation of roughly 500 feet above sea level. Higher elevations can have frost well into May or even early June.

Monday Monday

A beautiful sunny day today, the high almost made 60 degrees. No wind, and it was a bit hazy. It figures this would happen on a Monday, the past weekend was generally cool, with high fog that just barely burnt off late in the afternoon. But we still got some yard stuff done this weekend: shrub trimming, the first lawn mowing, and the first plantings in the vegetable garden (snow peas and radishes).

Looks like another nice day tomorrow and then rain returns Wednesday thru...

The web poll this week is regarding phone services; specifically, do you have a land line only, cell phone only, or both. I guess I should have included VOIP (voice over internet protocol), but if you have that, just answer "Neither", as it's hard to imagine that anyone has absolutely no phone service of any kind in this day and age. Although that does sound appealing sometimes.

We have both types of phones currently, but I've been watching our usage pattern vs pricing, and right now "land line plus 1 cell phone" is almost exactly equal to "2 cell phones and no land line". It's interesting that some developing countries are skipping land line development entirely and going straight to cellular.