Climate

Minnesota, land of ten thousand lakes & weather changes ever hour.
State motto - "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes & it will change."

Last night at 11PM it was -3 degrees. This morning at 8AM it was 10 degrees with a 15 MPH south wind. At 11AM wind was up to about 30 MPH, temp was 28 degrees. At 2PM, temperature was 40 degrees & wind from west. Now, 6PM it is 16 degrees & dropping and roaring wind from the NW. No snow this winter. We could have 3 feet by now. Summertime we can easily see 105 degrees. Of course then the wind won't blow!
Average low right now should be 4 degrees & average high should be 20 degrees.
Bernie

Some folks have all the luck. Not you or me. The folks in Ca. and Fl. LOL It has really been winter time here today. The high around 36 and the low this morning around 23. BRRRRRRR When will summer be here???

LOL Bernie: the motto in Columbus (capital) is, "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute" Ours changes as much (and as quick as yours). There never has been a "typical" season as long as the state has been in existence. Thursday it was almost 50, by 8 am Saturday it was 15. North wind about 25 mph. Brrrr

Note to my friends up north (you KNOW who you are): the current weather system came "from the Dakotas"

I saw wingnut's comment on NY State in the previous "paper pots" thread -- and you are right. There is a lot to it besides the NYC everyone thinks of. I live only 35 min. from the Bronx, but in an area that is full of wildlife and beauty. I will post some pictures this spring to show you what I am talking about.

Hey, we have plenty of wildlife in the Bronx. Some of it even happens at Yankee Stadium ;~)

I live in the Bronx. Nearly every night, taking my unwinding walk, I see racoons, skunks, the occassional possum. The Hudson River is full of fish.

A few years ago, a coyote somehow wandered into the southern reaches of Van Cortland Park, here in the Bronx. He was immediately shot by one of our better armed citizens. There's a life~sized memorial statue of Wylie at the corner of Van Cortlandt Park South and Broadway (yes, THAT Broadway).

Adam.

With all the lines of communications these days, most people have got over the notion that Alaska is frozen and dark for 12 months of the year. As I mentioned on the last thread, the climate on one end of this big state is far different from the other.

For instance, way up north, by Prudhoe Bay, lets say, the summers will get warm and dry... 70 or 80 degrees. In the winter, there will be little snow, but the temps will get down to 30 below. When you get down to the Interior, as we call it... lets say, Fairbanks, the winter temps aren't much warmer than the northerly areas, but it is more humid in the summers and the temps can reach the 90's.

When you get into the Southcentral area, Anchorage has summer temps in the 70's or up to 80. There winter temps drop down to zero sometimes, but hover around freezing. Here in Seward, we are on the coast, so it's often overcast, both winter and summer. Summer temps are usually in the 50-70 degree range, with an occasional sweltering day of 80 degrees. When we reach that level of discomfort, we all run around in shorts, our white legs blinding the tourists. Our winters do a lot of freezing and thawing, with our heaviest snowfalls generally in the early spring. Our temps seldom get down to zero, but can hit the lower teens on occasion.

Then there is the Aleutian Chain. These are islands, so they have the same overcast, rainy type weather we do, only more of it. The summer temps aren't much different than ours, but the winters are considerably milder. Of course, Southeastern Alaska is close to the weather in most of the Pacific Northwest with balmy summers and mild, wet winters.

In Seward, most of the beautiful flowers I see in your pictures from the milder climes will not grow here. Our summers are too short, with only 3 months of fairly good weather, and the cool soil and mild temps slow growth. True, there are summer days that it seems the sun just dims to twilight before rising again, but that isn't always an advantage to growing plants. In the winter it is difficult to keep the houseplants alive, since our daylight hours dwindle down to 4 or 5 hours..just the reverse of winter.

Tomatoes are a greenhouse item, zucchini marginal, but all the brassicas love it here. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, mustards, kale, collards... all happy campers. I can also grow leeks celery, and Swiss Chard, and lettuce is an all summer crop... it never bolts. For flowers, we can grow campanulas, lychnis, primula, columbine, bleeding heart, poppies... most of the plants that die back in warmer climes during the heat of summer. Here they stay green. Well, I've written alot, but its a big state!

Yes Adam is right -- there is a good deal of wildlife in the Bronx, even apart from Yankee Stadium. The area near the Hudson River is quite beautiful -- and the view of the river to the other side(the "Palisades") is outstanding - especially in Autumn. (I used to live there and had a unobstructed terrace view). Wish I had a picture for you -- Adam (KICK)get that dig. cam.

This message was edited Monday, Jan 13th 8:32 AM

Weezing ~~~

Your descriptions of Alaskan climate are really interesting and vivid. A very nice thorough picture. Thanks for that. Terrific picture by the way (as are others of your garden that I've seen in other threads). It sounds like you have a very nice lifestyle.

Years ago, I made a three hour visit by helicopter to Prudhoe Bay. It was..., hmm..., rather chilly. And amazing!

Alyssum ~~~

We're evaluating digital cameras now. It's important, since I am a technology moron (I have a certificate from Microsoft), that the instruction manual be in actual English. We loaded Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator onto this PC yesterday. So, the games are about to begin.

Adam.

Weeze, great description of the weather conditions in your state.....and the photo of your house is lovely.
In our region we get lots of grey overcast and rain. We rarely see the sun in the winter, it gets very depressing.

Having lived in southeast Alaska for 4 winters I can attest to the rain, gloom and short days of winter there. We did have snow and cold clear nights now and then and could see the Northern Lights putting on their beautiful display. Summer was beautiful some years, and just a warmer rerun of winter's rains and windstorms other years. My feeble attempts at gardening were limited to a plastic greenhouse and a few tomato plants. I did have a lot of houseplants and grow lights. Weeze, I salute you, I know your gardening efforts are quite challenging compared to the rest of us.

HEY,I thought we had that saying clinched for our weather!

This morning when I left for work it was 13,its now a balmy 26 with lake effect squalls on and off all day and night,
One minute the sun will be shinning ....the next there will be a white out.There was a whiteout this afternoon,caused a few pileups......You'll be driving along on dry roads and go through a wall....snow so thick you cant see,2-4 inches an hour

What fun,

montaque,which is about 30 miles north of here got 5 feet of snow this weekend,on top of the 7 foot they already had...LOL

Okay, nobody laugh while I talk about the weather in CA (the usual joke being "what weather? It's always sunny and warm there!"). That's true in Southern CA -- my first visit there in winter was a shock. Coming from cold, grey, dreary Chicago IL to warm, sunny, green Southern CA was a weird Christmas indeed. I woke up Dec 25th to find roses blooming outside my window, made me feel I had missplaced the holiday somehow!

Now I live in Northern CA, 400 miles north of Los Angeles, specifically the San Francisco Bay Area, where the tourists arrive in shorts and we all laugh at them because that cold wind comes up at 4p through the Golden Gate, and the temperature drops enough that one realizes why the natives all own Polarfleece jackets -- for summer AND winter wear.

Our gardening challenges are the very hot, dry summers and wet, cold winters. On the coast, ocean winds keep things pretty temperate -- you can grow bougainvillea in San Francisco but your tulips will just rot, roses succumb to black spot and mildew, and you'll never see a salvia bloom. The further one gets from the coastal areas, the more the "day vs night" temps fluctuate with the setting sun. It's the hot Central Valley areas, with their long summer seasons, where grows the oranges, melons, and heirloom tomatoes that coastal gardeners can only dream about.

I live right on the edge between the two; close enough to the coast that we get the furthest edge of summer fogs, keeping us reasonably cool, but far enough away from the Pacific (about 25 miles) to enjoy a decent growing season with sunshine 6-8 hours a day in the summer. I can grow roses and some citrus, for instance, but the heirloom tomatoes just mildew. Bougainvillea loses a few branches to the few frosts we get, but always recovers.

When I lived in the Midwest, spring was a rainy cold April and a balmy May. In California, spring starts in mid-January when the magnolias bloom, followed by the flowering trees (plum, cherry, crabapple etc) in late February and the tulips in mid-March. By April summer begins, and everybody starts watering their plants in June, getting them through the arid summer until the rainy season starts in November again.

The first time my niece came to CA, she arrived in August. When we took her for a drive through the hills, she was shocked by how dry and brown everything looked. The evergreens were holding up, but all the hillsides were just straw-colored. She kept saying, "Where's all the green? I thought California was all green, but it's all dead!"