Not so cheery, cherry trees

With little more than a month until the kickoff of the 2010 Cherry Blossom Festival in the District, damage from record breaking snowfall this winter is causing concern. National Park Service spokesman Bill Line told WTOP that the recent storms have caused "the worst damage to the cherry trees that he has seen in nine years."

Although there are reports that branches as thick as six inches have snapped and others are still pinned down by remaining snow cover, the festival is slated to kick off March 27th as planned.

(thnx Neeks)

SNO.M.G

Here we go again... more snow...

Sunny Sunday

There was a time when a warm day in November seemed like a gift to gardeners - the perfect temperature to spend a few hours cleaning up the yard before winter sets in. These days it seems a bit more bittersweet because there is this looming sense that the 68 degree high set for today, albeit quite a few degrees short of the record of 79, comes with a price of dangerous weather patterns somewhere else. Like the "hot April day" Maryland encountered earlier this year.

Anywho, while on the topic of climate change, I've been meaning to share a factoid from J.S. Foer's new book (that I'm about halfway through and looking forward to discussing):

"Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change."

Just saying, folks.

Winter Forecast

The habits of insects, birds and plants have been foretelling winter weather to farmers for years. Some may consider it folklore, but bees nests built high off the ground, a foggy August, an abundance of spiders sneaking into the house, and the early turning of the trees have long been clues of a harsh winter to come. Because I have captured and released at least a dozen spiders in the past month, recently noticed a bees nest at the absolute highest point of our home, and the Farmers' Almanac is predicting a extraordinarily snowy winter - I think I'm going to go ahead and pull out the winter coats.

For the Atlantic Corridor, the Almanac says: "Despite a mild November, this winter will be colder and snowier than normal, with near or above-normal precipitation. The coldest temperatures will occur in mid-December, early January, and early February. The snowiest periods will be in early and mid-December, early January, early and late February, and early March."

Read more about the winter forecast and the 2008-2009 Farmers' Almanac predictions here and here.

(thnx Niko)