HelpfulGardener.com

Do people pay attention to weather events around the world? September was globally the warmest such on record according to NASA and NOAA. Tropical moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Norbert swept over Arizona and southern Nevada on September 7-8 bringing an all-time calendar day record rainfall of 3.30” leading to flooding. A late September heat wave brought record high temperatures to Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Manitoba, Canada. Temps of 97-98 were the warmest temperatures ever observed so late in the year in those areas. The exceptional drought in California continued as a large wildfire (the ‘King Fire’) burned 97,000 acres and destroyed 12 homes in the central Sierra Nevada.

Hurricane Odile, made a direct strike on Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico on September 15th as a CAT 3 storm with 125 mph winds. It was the strongest hurricane in modern records to strike the Baja Peninsula. Incredible rainstorms pounded southern France in mid and late Sept, including an all-time 24-hour precipitation record rainfall of 299 mm (11.77”). Of this, 184 mm (7.24”) fell in just a two-hour period on September 29th , leading to deadly flooding. Extreme flooding also occurred in the Balkans where two died in Slovenia and extensive damage occurred in Serbia and Croatia.

It was the warmest September on record for much of northern Africa, especially Algeria and Tunisia. In Asia, northern India, Pakistan, southwestern China, the Philippines, and Vietnam, were all affected by torrential monsoon rains and extreme typhoons causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars damage. A record heat wave hit parts of Mongolia and Siberia on September 2-3 with Ulan Bator, Mongolia measuring its hottest September temperature on record. Jakarta, Indonesia measured its hottest temperature on record (for any month) with a 37.0°C (98.6°F) reading on September 24th. AND THAT WAS JUST SEPTEMBER!!

See more at https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weathe ... trynum=312

yep, and severe events like you detail here, they say are to become the norm to some extent. we're in for a bumpy ride.

Ooh. I suppose as gardeners, we will need to be even more vigilant and pay even more attention to the weather and how our garden is responding. I have to say weather forecasts are not always reliable, and I sometimes have to prepare to protect plants or irrigate, etc. in spite of them rather than according to them. I guess all of these data and statistics and science are still not enough.

Sometimes, there are phenological signs that you can use as guides, but other times, even those are fooled. It's tough that our previous experiences that used to be somewhat reliable may not be enough. But I feel good about trying to observe and learn how seasonal weather and climate affects nature around me -- I feel like I'm "closer" to "nature"....

I thought my weather sense is pretty well trained after all these years in the garden, but the other day, my family were driving home from about an hour's ride away, and as we started on our way, my father looked at the sun and said, "It looks like the sun will set by the time we get home."

I looked and saw how high above the trees the sun was still, and said, "Oh, I don't think so...." -- even though my father tends to have a good feel for this kind of thing.

Well, as we were on the last stretch of the highway, about 10-15 minute to home, we were treated to a brilliant sunset. ...and by the time we drove into the driveway, the sky was at darkest of twilight after sunset with the moon shining brightly.

...I guess I still need more training to reach my father's level of perception

now that daylight savings has ended, it seems like the sun will set by the time just about anything happens...

I usually check the noaa.gov website almost every day.

We get El nino and la nina in two year cycles. This is an El nino year. The summers are usually wetter and the winters are drier. Even the fish migration changes. Kauai and the Big Island are the ones that have had the direct hits in recent years. Still if a category 3 or higher hurricane gets within a hundred miles, the storm surge, rain, and wind from the outer bands affect all of the islands.

Unlike the mainland, when power goes out here and roads get washed away it takes a lot longer to get things up and runnning again. Since Hawaii is not self sufficient in anything.

About 3 days before a storm hits, the stores start running out of everything from water, toilet paper, rice,salt, portable generators, portable cooking stoves, and fuel. And right after the storm passes, it all gets returned. The runs on toilet paper and rice is a remnant of shortages not from hurricanes but from shipping strikes.

https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i2761/sections/1_Intro.pdf

With the melting of the ice in Antarctica, and the Arctic, I have noticed that the Atlantic hurricanes are heading and hitting places farther north. Storms used to dissipate faster over colder water but are maintaining their integrity much longer.

Over the years, the water lens that supplies the drinking water on Oahu has shrunk and while our water quality is still good, some plants are having more issues with diseases that were not a problem before. Storm drains that drain into artificial channels have dwindled so now you can see the silted, dry meander most of the year instead of a channel full of water. Even the streams have become more polluted as more houses are built up next to the streams and people throw their rubbish, paint and junk into the water and animals come to raid the garbage cans at the homes pee in the water so it is not safe to even wade in some places because of Leptospirosis.

I would imagine the California drought has had similar effects on water quality. Parched land would have increased incidences of raging forest fires and burning a whole lot of trees impacts the ozone layer. Dead grasses don't hold on to soil well so there would be increased erosion, a drop in reservoir levels, and some rivers like the Colorado no longer reach the sea. Egypt used to be a rich county. The annual flood of the Nile deposited rich silt that allowed Egypt to grow surplus grain. Now, with the damming of the Nile, it no longer floods annually and farmers have to put in expensive fertilizer to get a good crop.

Since the puu o'o vent has been pretty much continuously erupting since 1983, I have also noted the increase in world wide volcanology. Not only along the ring of fire, Pinatubo, and Sakurajima,but also the volcano in Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull, with a name I can't even begin to pronounce, Mt Etna, and Monserrat. Pinatubo, and Sakurajima

We may begin to pay more attention to the natural world and the events which bring human catastrophe, Imafan26. Expanding populations put humans more and more in harm's way. Your observation that Hawaii is not self sufficient paints a disturbing picture.

With our economies tied so closely to increases in human numbers and consumption, the conversation about over population has been pushed aside. The convenience of mechanization means more tasks can be done by fewer workers. More jobs, more jobs, more jobs becomes society's mantra but fewer jobs was the course we set for ourselves with our machines. Nowhere is that easier seen than in agriculture.

Instead of being content with covering human needs, we have rushed into overconsumption in a few generations. A polluted world has only been one result, aside from what the weather does or does not.

Steve

It is true. Mechanization and improvements in crop breeding have made it possible to raise high yielding crops on less land with fewer workers. That in turn led to suburbanization of America, where farmland was converted into houses and improved transportation networks, I.e. freeways have led to suburban sprawl and spending a lot of time in traffic jams that just get worse every year.

The more ag land and wild areas are converted to homes for a burgeoning population, puts a lot of pressure on habitat for all kinds of wild life big and small. People who plant non-native plants sometimes inadvertently introduce alien species into the local environment that compete and push out native plants and animals. Not to mention other pollutants that are the price of civilization. Stripping the land of vegetation and replacing it with concrete and asphalt means more rain water gets washed away on the hard surfaces instead of being captured and retained by the soil and eventually to restore the water table that provides the water people drink. Water is life, and we are not only wasting it, we are taking it out faster than it can be replaced. Eventually, that will all catch up to us.

Fewer big trees produce less oxygen. And most people do not realize how much trees add not just to aesthetics but trees and the shadows they create can also cool the environment and provide a buffer from the dust and street noise.

Even farming has changed. Cattle, pigs, chickens, are raised on less land. Concentrating animals also concentrates the wastes which can become pollutants in themselves.

There is a big push now for organic and there are more organic farms out there. But just because they are organic does not mean that they don't use pesticides. They do, they are just limited by what they can use. They also probably have to spray more often since the pesticides don't last as long and organic crops tend to have much less disease resistance in their breeding.