Night not as cold as forecast

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Resisting cliches of "projectile avoidance behavior", I am relieved this morning that the weather did not pan out as forecast by the National Weather Service.  Snow fell in the afternoon and early evening, but the wind was not as high as expected -a first encouraging sign.  Skies did clear about midnight, but still fuzzy with high humidity.  Most importantly, the dew point was much higher than NWS projections -above the critical temperature of 28 degrees.  "Dew point" is the temperature at which moisture condenses out of the atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of heat, thus keeping air temperature from falling below the dew point until atmospheric H2O is exhausted.  It was not exhausted and our low temperature of 29 only lasted a moment, and was generally 32 at the lowest.

The weather service is warning of further low temperatures tonight, though not in Palisade.  I hope our friends in Hotchkiss, Paonia and Cedaredge are holding out.

At present, it looks as though we have sufficient apricot and cherry crops, though certainly less abundant than last year.  It's too soon to tell about plums.  We have been thinning peach buds and blossoms for three weeks, though that is on hold now until mid May.  Members of the Cameron Place CSA holding Weekly and Bounty Fruit Shares can still expect to receive the full complement of Rancho Durazno fruit, as would additional members committing to Fruit Shares prior to damaging events that may yet diminish the crops.  May 10 is the traditional date for declaring the frost season over -two weeks away.

Thanks for keeping our farm in your thoughts.  I hope your spring is unfolding in encouraging ways as well.

Thomas Cameron