Weather early 2009

[Paul T]

Mark,

Such an alien thought to not have to water.  Here, nothing would survive in our gardens without artificial watering!!!!  Except plants suited to summer drought of course.   It really is amazing to think about not having to water.  Such a luxury!

[Ragged Robin]

First real Spring rain that has come our way and the smell of the earth is wonderful...that's the difference between watering and rain  

[Anthony Darby]

Last week the company who run our school and the head teacher came up to science to check the efficiency of the dark tinted heat reducing film they had put on one of the south facing windows. Using an IR detector from the physics dept. the temperature radiating into the room was recorded at 56^oC! An untinted south facing window recorded 32^oC and a similar but north facing window 20⁰C. Funny how the people who dreamt up this film don't actually know that if you put a dark tint onto a window it absorbs and transmits heat very efficiently, in during the day and out during the night!

[Maggi Young]

Last week the company who run our school and the head teacher came up to science to check the efficiency of the dark tinted heat reducing film they had put on one of the south facing windows. Using an IR detector from the physics dept. the temperature radiating into the room was recorded at 56^oC! An untinted south facing window recorded 32^oC and a similar but north facing window 20⁰C. Funny how the people who dreamt up this film don't actually know that if you put a dark tint onto a window it absorbs and transmits heat very efficiently, in during the day and out during the night!

Funny how a lot of people getting paid to do a job are completely useless, though, Anthony ..... these are no different! Hmm.... should I copy this to the Moan, Moan area?   

[cohan]

So don't you actually hand water things?  Or is the concept alien enough in your climate that you rarely do it?  Oh to not have to spend so much time watering!!!!! 

so paul, if you arent getting (much) rain, where does your water come from--i mean in the bigger picture? relict aquifers? rivers from rainier areas?

my primary/only gardening for years has been inside the house, so of course handwatering, and dealing with runoff is always a pain... so i hope to have outdoor gardens that require very little watering! no problem in a year like last, where there was so much rain over summer that i only occasionally had to water some plants i had sitting out in 2 and 4 inch pots!!
overall, i'm hoping to water only transplants, anything temporarily in pots, MAYBE  some veggies..rock gardens i expect to cope on their own once established...lol
'normally'  mid-late summer is dryish here, though the last couple of years have been wet, and some climate change models predict wetter summers in the western part of the province (thats where i am, and it has been even wetter farther west)..

[maggiepie]

Looking out my window 2 minutes ago.

[WimB]

Helen, maybe this picture will cheer you up a bit, that's what's coming for you in a couple of weeks too:

This is a view from my window yesterday evening:

[maggiepie]

Thanks Wim, it does cheer me up, your prunus is beautiful.

[cohan]

helen, yesterday i thought your forecast looked much more miserable than ours, now i'm not so sure:
yesterday was 13C, warmer in sheltered sunny spots-i sunburned sitting outside at a family gathering;
today high of 6C, snowing currently, with forecast for 5cm today, 5-10cm tonight, and 5 tomorrow morning... goody! it was getting so dry--NOT! we've had a lot of melting, but by no means all the snow was gone yet, and ditches full of running water, fields with lakes.... oh well, sunny after tomorrow and 16 by the end of the week....

[maggiepie]

Cohan, when I looked at the Calgary weather a few days ago it was all sun and great temps, unfortunately, the forecasts change by the hour.
It hasn't stopped snowing here since Saturday night, it does look like it has almost finished now.
Good news is it is 'supposed' to be nice here for the next week, but I take that with a grain of salt.
It's currently +4 here at the moment, but no sun since Saturday.

[cohan]

Cohan, when I looked at the Calgary weather a few days ago it was all sun and great temps, unfortunately, the forecasts change by the hour.
It hasn't stopped snowing here since Saturday night, it does look like it has almost finished now.
Good news is it is 'supposed' to be nice here for the next week, but I take that with a grain of salt.
It's currently +4 here at the moment, but no sun since Saturday.

in the end it turned out much better than it sounded--we got a couple cm at most yest early afternoon, and most of that melted during the day a little skiff in the evening and a couple more cm this morning..the heavier amounts seemed to be going much farther north, edmonton area etc...now the sun is  halfway out, and most/all of the new snow should be gone soon..
being halfway btwn edmonton and calgary(couple hours to either), we sometimes have weather similar to one or the other, and often quite different from either, esp re:precipitation..i actually cant get  a weather report that exactly reflects where i live, since i am not in a town or city--i usually check the weather for rocky mountain house, which is the town where i work--but since they are around 30km nearer the mntns, they often get significantly more precip than we do...

[Ragged Robin]

Storm brewing up valley, soon we'll be in the clouds - rain is welcome in the garden and the wild flowers will be refreshed

[David Nicholson]

I put the shade paint on the greenhouse today folks so expect St Swithen to do his worst.

[Ragged Robin]

Cloudy with sunny spells and the rain has encouraged the rock plants to revive and all winter coughs and colds are forgotten but the Tussilago farfara is there just in case....and the butterflies love them

[mark smyth]

The thermometer today swung between 20 and 21c for much of the afternoon. I could like in these temperatures every day provided it rained every night for an hour or two!