Tale of two weather contrasts: Truckee, CA versus New Orleans, LA

While eating breakfast this morning, I pulled up the Weather Channel and was surprised to learn that snow depth at Truckee, California (near Lake Tahoe) is about 9 feet.  Truckee has received ~6 feet of snow in the past week, and is expecting at least 2 feet more through the weekend.  Ski resorts around Lake Tahoe,  where the snow is much deeper, normally close in early May.  With snowfall records occurring this year, they may stay open well into June, and the locals are ecstatic.

By stark contrast, New Orleans is expected to reach 83 F today, which would be near the record high for this date (85 F).  The sugarcane crop in Louisiana appears to be nearly a month further along than usual in early spring growth.  Our spring garden is looking great as well.  We won't be benefiting from it this year, since it will belong to someone else after we close on our house early next month.  But we're enjoying lettuce, radishes, and onions from it already.

Freezing on the Bayou

Finally, we are getting relief from the freezing weather down here in southern Louisiana. I have lived in this area for just over 10 years, and this is without question the coldest week I have encountered since moving here. In the last eight days, we have been significantly below freezing at night, as cold as 22 degrees (F) early Sunday morning (January 10). I was amazed at the number of schools that have shut down around this area because of the cold temperatures. I suppose this has as much to do with bursting frozen pipes as anything else.

All of the sugarcane froze above ground, so at work, we finally have an opportunity to really take advantage of a sugarcane freeze test that we install annually. On Thursday, Jan 7, we cut stalks out of every plot in a fully replicated test that has all of the important varieties that our industry either currently relies on or will shortly be planting in their fields. For the next several weeks, until there is no further change in deterioration, we will be repeatedly re-sampling this test. The expectation is that the freeze this year will have been extreme enough (hopefully, not too extreme) to show which varieties are the most freeze tolerant and the least freeze tolerant. Those that are the most freeze tolerant will obviously tend to be left in the field the longest during future harvest seasons. Thankfully, much of the cane has already been harvested this season, and many of the mills have already shut down. What is interesting is that even though the cane stalks may freeze and thus be subject to rapid deterioration, especially the more sensitive varieties, not very much deterioration will occur until the cane in the field is significantly above normal refrigeration temperatures, so I think our farmers, for the most part, dodged the bullet this year, at least as far as harvesting goes. There is some question as to whether the below-ground temperatures got cold enough in places as far north as Bunkie and New Roads to severely affect stubble crops, as they did in 1989.

Our garden, and many of our more temperature sensitive plants around our home got whacked pretty hard. We probably lost some of our weaker citrus trees. A guava tree we planted next to the road last year looks pretty miserable as well. I have heard that in Florida, where several cold temperature records were set, iguanas are falling out of trees, and the pythons have become an easy catch for those trying to reduce their numbers. Since I don't care for either one, this is welcome news.

Hurricane season begins tomorrow

Living in southern Louisiana has its positives and its negatives. Chief among its negatives are the unpleasant high-humidity summers and having to contend with another hurricane season which officially starts tomorrow. Remember Gustav last year? It went right through Houma. Not only did it leave the community in a mess, it wasn't too kind to scientists conducting field-oriented research either. Several experiments at our Research Unit had to be postponed for another year. During graduate school days in Minnesota, the main temperature effect we talked about was the wind chill factor or wind chill index during the winter time. If it was cold outside, the wind made it feel like it was a whole lot colder.

In southern Louisiana, the main temperature effect we talk about in the summer is the heat index. So if it is hot, and then you add humidity with the heat, the body responds as though it is a lot hotter than what the thermometer would indicate. As shown in the graph, it feels like 100 F or more during the hottest part of the day through the months of June, July, and August even though the temperature rarely reaches 95 F. Foremost in the local news is the urgent need for greater hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects. At the Houma Today website, one of the featured videos in the VIDEOS section entitled "America's Wetland," has some footage describing a rally that is being held at the downtown marina in Houma today to raise awareness about the serious loss of wetland along Louisiana's coastline. One of the comments was that "Some people call Houma ground zero. We call it zero ground, because this is THE place where the most land is being lost."

Last hurrah for a season

With the heavy rains we had last week, large sections of Houma were flooded, enough so that we made national news...at least on the Weather Channel. We hadn't had this much rain since Hurricane Gustav. Of course, our problems were small compared to what is happening on the Red River of the North, between MN & ND, where major flooding is occurring. And it just seems bizarre that Lori and James were delayed in returning to their home in Loveland, CO after visiting Julie, Matt, and our grandchildren in Indiana, because of blizzard conditions in Colorado.

With the heavy rains, the canal behind our house, which remains dry most of the year, became swollen, and the perimeter of the lake in our neighborhood more than doubled. The larger permanent canal that goes back a mile to the swamp from our lake became fully navigable. Most of the year, it is so clogged with aquatic weeds, that it is almost impossible to kayak on it. So, being literally able to launch my kayak from the back of our house, I couldn't resist the temptation to do one last hurrah, before I hung the kayak up for a season. I went all the way back to the swamp from our house, which I have never done before. It was a bit of a rush to do this, not knowing what to expect along the way. At one point, something made a very large splash next to the kayak, obviously something I approached by surprise. It could have been a large nutria, a large fish, or an alligator. Whatever it was, it raised my adrenaline level, even though I didn't actually have a chance to see what it was. Once I reached the swamp, I could have navigated my way to the Intercoastal Canal and beyond to the Gulf. More likely, I could have gotten very lost. I returned home and hung up the kayak in the garage for a season. As shown in the picture that Judy took during the day, neighborhood kids took advantage of the flooding as well, since school was cancelled.

Winter has arrived!

As of midnight last night, winter has officially arrived. Julie reported temperatures of -2 F (-22 wind chill) in northern Indiana. I saw that it got down to -20 F in infamously cold International Falls, Minnesota. We were in the low to mid-30's in southern Lousiana (mid-20's at the top of the sugar belt in Bunkie, LA). The sugarcane farmers were working feverishly (maybe a poor adverb choice in this instance) to get their crop in as quickly as possible. The cane canopy has already gone from green to straw color in much of the sugar belt as a result of earlier cold spells, so the protective green canopy blanket has already been removed. Stalk deterioration is limited as long as the crop remains cool following a freeze; temperatures into the 70's become the farmer's worst case scenerio. I believe the industry will be in pretty good shape in getting its crop in on a timely basis, thanks to dry weather during most of the harvest season.

Someone locally shared a nice video following the recent snowstorm in New Orleans that I thought was appropriate as Christmas approaches. It is fittingly set to Louis Armstrong music. Here it is. Enjoy.

White Christmas time in south Louisiana

As expected, the news this evening was all about the snowfall in south Louisiana earlier today. I have lots of witnesses at work that can testify that it actually did snow for a few minutes in Houma this morning. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked out my office window, and saw the big snowflakes coming down. New Orleans actually got about an inch of snow. Just north of Lake Pontchartrain, Hammond got about six inches. South Louisiana has only had seven or eight snowstorms in the past 60 years, so this is a rare event. This snowstorm is apparently the earliest ever. Winter doesn't even officially begin this year until early morning Dec. 22. Here are some pictures (The Advocate, Baton Rouge) and here is a video (WDSU, New Orleans). I anticipate getting some pictures of snow-covered sugarcane being harvested, and will post those when I get them.

Harvesting sugarcane in a snowstorm

It may seem hard to believe, but some Louisiana farmers may be harvesting sugarcane in a snow storm, and will certainly be harvesting the crop with snow on it this morning. The harvesting must go on regardless of weather. This graphic, taken from a radar image displayed on the Intellicast website at 6:30 this morning, shows Lafayette (LFT) in the center of that burrrr blue color. Lafayette is the hub of Cajun country, and more or less the hub of sugarcane cultivation in Louisiana. Sugarcane harvest season in Louisiana normally goes from late September through Christmas. This year, the farmers got off to a late start because of two hurricanes, so they still have a fair amount of cane left to harvest. However, it is not unusual to be harvesting sugarcane in Louisiana after a mild freeze toward the end of the harvest season. It is much more unusual to be harvesting cane with snow on it. The last time it snowed as far south as Houma (HUM) was on Christmas day in 2004. The last time it snowed in Baton Rouge (BTR) was...hmm...it's snowing there as I'm writing this... As pics come in, I may add one or two to this posting date.

Tropical Storm Edouard

Tropical Storm Edouard came up rather suddenly in the Gulf of Mexico. It is taking aim at Galveston, Texas, but will definately affect the coastal areas of Louisiana. Terrebonne Parish, where we live, is as vulnerable as any coastal parish, and those living further down the bayou than we do, will be impacted, not so much from the wind, as from the storm surge and heavy rains. We are on the bad side of the storm, but it is not intense enough to do the kind of damage that Katrina and Rita did. Those in extreme SW Louisiana near the Texas border could possibly experience hurricane force winds, considerable storm surge, and torrential rains as they did with Rita, but not likely as damaging.

Speaking of bad storms at inconvenient times, it appears that the Beijing Olympic events, only days away, may experience lightning, thunder and rain on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony and possibly typhoons disrupting events in other host cities, according to weather forecasters.

Dog Days of Summer in Southern Louisiana

I have always thought that the hottest and coldest days of the year follow the longest and shortest days by about one month. That would mean that this week would be the hottest...and it hasn't disappointed...it was hot and miserable. The last couple of days, I have been with the group where I work that visually evaluates commercial sugarcane variety candidates this time of year, grading, taking stalk counts, looking for disease and insect damage, and noting other characteristics. We usually join up with our peers from the Louisiana State University AgCenter at the later stages of testing, because our varieties are put in the same tests and evaluated together.

Frankly, I have a difficult time staying outdoors for very long this time of year. I will lose more than a gallon of water in the time it takes for me to mow our lawn (less than 1 hr). I can walk outdoors in the early morning when the humidity is 100% and do absolutely nothing. In 15-20 minutes, I'm soaking wet. I thought I knew what humidity was, having lived in Hawaii, but after moving here, I got re-educated. You can track our weather at our farm here at the Houma location.

Our spring-summer garden has finished producing, so I tilled it up this past weekend. It was a better than average year. We had 18 tomato plants and each produced about a 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes much of which Judy preserved as V-8 style tomato juice. Other successes from the garden were bush beans, cantaloupes, corn, cow peas, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and watermelons. Outside the garden area, we had a terrific harvest of blackberries and grapes. Judy preserved the grapes as bottled grape juice. Failures and near failures included broccoli, peas, and potatoes, all of which were simply planted the wrong time of year for southern Louisiana.

In the evening, it gets a little more comfortable. A good time to kick back and enjoy some Louisiana music such as found at the LouisianaTravel website. Click on "Listen" then "Listen now" and find your favorite flavor of local music.

Natural disasters in May

The month of May has been a pretty wild month as far natural disasters are concerned. Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar (Burma), killing upward of 100,000 people, and leaving over between 2-3 million people homeless, seeking shelter and food. With Myanmar's junta government refusing to allow aid to be brought in, particularly from the U.S., it is estimated that only 25% of the people desperately needing food and medicine have actually received any thus far, based on what I have read. No wonder U.N. representatives described the refusal of Myanmar's ruling body to allow aid, a criminal act.

The 7.9 (USGS) earthquake that impacted China's Sichuan Province on May 12 has claimed at least 60,000+ lives with another 26,000+ still missing.

Our daughter, Lori, was affected by the spate of tornados that touched down in areas north of Denver. Apparently, there were 7 or 8 tornados that touched down in Weld county, which is where she works (in Greeley). Bank employees had to go to the basement of the bank where she works at one point for about 20 minutes. There was one fatality in Greeley. Windsor, where most of the damage happened, is only 20 miles from Lori's and James' home in Loveland. The main tornado was about a mile wide, probably an F3 on the tornado strength scale. Lori alerted us to this video. An additional video I found shows the Mayor of Windsor speaking about the damage. Tornados also occurred within the past day or so in Kansas and Oklahoma.

We have had our own nasty weather this week with flooding occurring in the Thibodaux/Houma area. This is prelude to a week of preparation for Hurricane Season, which officially begins on June 1.