Spring weather 2012

[ronm]

Seems like they're sweating profusely in Aboyne.

[mark smyth]

From the met office web site this morning

March temperature record broken again in Scotland.

Scotland has broken its March maximum temperature record again, with a temperature of 23.6C seen at Aboyne at 15:40 on Tuesday afternoon. This beats the previous record of 23.2C at Cromdale in Moray on Monday afternoon. Northern Ireland fell just short of beating its March maximum temperature record though. Giants Causeway reached 21.4C, just shy of the existing record of 21.7C at Armagh in 1965. Please note that these temperatures could be revised as further observations are received. Issued at 0208 on Wed 28 Mar 2012.

[mark smyth]

My thermometer shows 28c just now

[Hoy]

From the met office web site this morning

March temperature record broken again in Scotland.

Scotland has broken its March maximum temperature record again, with a temperature of 23.6C seen at Aboyne at 15:40 on Tuesday afternoon. This beats the previous record of 23.2C at Cromdale in Moray on Monday afternoon. Northern Ireland fell just short of beating its March maximum temperature record though. Giants Causeway reached 21.4C, just shy of the existing record of 21.7C at Armagh in 1965. Please note that these temperatures could be revised as further observations are received. Issued at 0208 on Wed 28 Mar 2012.

March maximum record is broken many places in Norway too. The warmest temperature yesterday was 23.1C and all the Southeastern parts have had record breaking temps. Some examples:
http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.8051551
Yesterday it was more than 42 degrees difference between the warmest and coldest parts of Norway!


http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.8053184

Here at the west coast the temps are high for the season but more moderate although the monthly average is 4 degrees above normal for March.

[johnw]

My thermometer shows 28c just now

Mark - Did that weather come from our direction or another?

I trust what we have here now will not head your way.

Apparently the freeze Monday night took out all the Magnolias from Toronto / Boston south to Philadelphia.  Ours are still in bud but last week's heat wave made them swell a fair bit. Hopefully they are okay, we pray the cool weather hangs on 3 more weeks.

An abbreviated snowdrop season.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

I trust what we have here now will not head your way.

Apparently the freeze Monday night took out all the Magnolias from Toronto / Boston south to Philadelphia.  Ours are still in bud but last week's heat wave made them swell a fair bit. Hopefully they are okay, we pray the cool weather hangs on 3 more weeks.

An abbreviated snowdrop season.

johnw

Eeek! That does not sound good at all.  There must be a lot of very unhappy growers.....

[TheOnionMan]

Yup, all of the Magnolia soulangeana trees, which are widely planted in New England, were in peak flower (more than a month early) in the Boston area, the day after the deep freeze (22 F by morning, with up to 50 mph gusts, -5.5 C) turned all flowers brown.  The trees themselves will be fine, just the open flowers and swollen buds blasted.  It hit Magnolia 'Forrest Pink' in my yard, just starting to open up its huge pink flowers.  Here's a before and after, less than 24 hrs apart.

Fortunately other Magnolias in my garden; such as M. salicifolia, M. sieboldii Korean Form, several others, and my beloved 'Golden Gift', are still in bud, the wooly bud sheathes should have protected the flowers yet to come.

As John mentioned, we had two weeks of unusually mild weather, one whole week that reached 79-83 F each day (depending on location, proximity to the ocean vs. towns more inland), 26-28 C, breaking a number of records.

[johnw]

Mark - Sorry to hear of your disaster in a few weeks the mags will be off and away to the races.  That Forrest Pink is really a great improvement on x soulangeana don't you think.  I think I have seen too many standard saucers planted near PJMs and forsythias and the saucer is the loser.  Admittedly there is a momentum when the old saucers are magnificent.

The stellatas and xloebneris round town look as if they could pop with very little encouragment.  They're really not safe here on the coast until the last week of April.  If they freeze that will be a first.  That two day heat wave a week ago would have been notable in July here.

Do post a shot of Golden Gift.

johnw

[TheOnionMan]

Oh, forgot about the stellata types, they were also mostly in full flower, but the white flowers are more frost-resistant so flowers only show a modicum of browning, most trees still looking presentable, but the soulangeanas are useless with frost.  I will say however, there is hardly a Magnolia that can be so laden with large blooms, and when in full flower, they can be quite an awesome sight.  My estimate is that 3 out of every 5 years the "cup and saucer" magnolias get whacked, particularly in lower elevations and valleys where frost settles.  I have much better success with good flowers on Forrest Pink, because it typically flowers a bit later than saucers, and I'm at about 500' elevation so escape frosts that hit valleys (well, in most years).

Didn't have to worry about buds and flowers blasting on my pink M. stellata, there are none this year; the tree was cut back to about 1/3rd its size after the surprize pre-Halloween snowstorm of October 2011 when we got 14" of snow while trees were still in full leaf, causing tremendous tree damage.

I had posted photos of 'Golden Gift' on SRGC back in April 2010:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5263.msg149900#msg149900

[johnw]

I remember those photos Mark and want to see how many more flowers you have this year. Seems it must be one of the best yellows.

johnw

[TheOnionMan]

I remember those photos Mark and want to see how many more flowers you have this year. Seems it must be one of the best yellows.

johnw

I will certainly take photos this year as well, and post someplace on the SRGC forum 

[ronm]

Oh good. Just heard that we may be having snow again on Tuesday!

[mark smyth]

Johnw our heat came up from the Med.

I dont know the name of the Arctic winds but its the same ones that brought the big freeze in 2010 that brough the heat wave earlier this week.

In the big freeze they dipped southward to take in the UK, Ireland and many other countries, allowing Arctic air to cover us

This week the winds changed and went north forcing normal weather patterns north. This allowed high pressure to come up from the south and stay in place.

simples - I think.

[David Nicholson]

It will come as a surprise, to those of you who have read my comments on Devon weather over the years, to hear me say that we could do with a drop of rain

[mark smyth]

You're not the only one who needs rain and badly. Bulbs and other plants in pots are suffering badly.