Yesterday we had our first ground frost of autumn, one that is sure to end the growing season for this year. I took these pictures in the rose garden at the hospital just as the sun was rising. We have enjoyed the roses here since June. I found a chart with the average frost dates for many Canadian communities. Our average first fall frost is on September 29th so this frost is one month overdue.Global warming??
One cannot say that is true just because one year is warmer than average. Last fall was exceptionally wet and cool and we had frost in the middle of September. But there is no doubt that this summer has been hot and dry for much of eastern North America. I did some birding this weekend around one of the many kettle lakes in our area, lakes filled with water from retreating glaciers of the Ice Age. Global warming has been going on for a long time. Our large ecological footprints may be accelerating a natural phenomena.
Who knows for sure??
In August 2007, a Canadian blogger, Steve McIntyre, "turned up an error in the math NASA used to determine historic temperatures, forcing the agency to own up to an embarrassing mistake." (read the full article here)
The article discusses the top ten hottest years on record and I quote,
"Four of the top 10 are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900."
Doomsday prophets are popular with the press and politicians can use the fear generated by the media to gain power. I am not arguing for or against global warming, but objective observations and analytical thinking about what is presented to us by the media is essential on any topic.
I have read your blog on global warming and it is true seasons are changing down here in Austrlia.
ReplyDeleteOur country has always been dry but each year we are getting less rain. If they stopped putting things in space I think it would slow it down
Our bedding plants were fine on Sunday but dead n Monday. It was good to have for this long, however.
ReplyDeleteAs for climate change, to me there's not much disputing of it. I just don't know how much of it is attributable to anthropogenic causes although 50% seems to be a good guess. I think it's agreed that we are definitely contributing but that there are other factors too.
Interesting photos!
ReplyDeleteAs I write this, it is unseasonably cold here in Florida. And remember how everyone freaked out over Y2K, which of course was pretty far off the mark (a different scenario, of course, but also much ado about nothing)... So you just never know...
Last winter I read Farley Mowat's book "The Farfarers". Most interesting. In and around the time of the Vikings, the weather went through a warming time ... so that farming was done on Greenland and Iceland ... followed by a cool down. Makes one wonder about the hype of our current global warming. There is no doubt about it that we humans are shooting ourselves in the foot, destroying the balance of nature, and as a result will probably end up destroying ourselves. If the threat of global warming gets peoples attention and gives them a wake up call. Good. But I worry that people are too far removed from the earth (living in concrete jungles) ... no longer sensitive to the ebb and flo of the natural order ... so not wanting to recognize God and His order ... so not willing to take on the responsibility He has placed on us to be tenders of the earth ...
ReplyDeleteOkay I ramble! Ta, ta ...
Our first, hard frost came early this year unfortunately. The summer was wetter than is usual, which was a good thing for the garden. Climate change is a fascinating study - it's too bad that we tend to get emotional reactions to it. I'm glad that there are scientists who are hard at work on the issue and not afraid to take unpopular stands.
ReplyDeleteI has always felt Global Warming is a misnomer coined by the media. Climate Change is more actuate. Yes, over all global temperatures may be rising, however this affects various climates in a variety of ways.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how much of the climate change hype or not but I think that everyone could benefit from being kinder to the earth and making ecofriendly simple changes. :)
We had a little frost but nothing too hard. I still have flowers blooming in my garden.
ReplyDeleteAs for global warming, I feel it is very real. Please drop over to my blog and read Tuesdays post.
Enjoyed my visit, as always. Take care.
Blessings,
Mary
Sad to see such beauty wasted by the cold.
ReplyDeleteI found the roses to look beautiful in a surreal way.
ReplyDeleteAfter record-high heat in October, suddenly within two days we had a patchy frost and it's good-bye to annuals. Very odd weather year.
ReplyDeleteWillau- thanks for stopping by
ReplyDeleteAC- I am surprised you had such a late frost north of here too. I agree, there is no one cause for climate change, but we undoubtedly are changing our environment.
Peggy- You are right about the Y2K hype. It was so exaggerated and a lot of money was made on our fears. (then the market crashed!)Hope you warm up in Florida before my next door neighbours leave for there in November!
CS- Thanks for your interesting comment. People in cities can be far removed from the cycles of nature and that is sad. We are earth's caretakers and need to take the job seriously.
Kate- The west did get cold early. I am always interested in the temperature extremes you experience in your area at all times of year.
Jaspenelle- You make a good point. Climate change is a much better phrase than global warming. Some areas have been exceptionally wet and cool.
Mary for ON- Yes the frost was not too hard. The plants next to our house are still OK. I did read your post on the bee colony collapse. Interesting. But I wondered why honey was so inexpensive this year at our market. Did it affect our area?
Laura- I guess winter has to intervene somewhere. There were still many blooms in the rose garden.
Jean- I thought they were beautiful too. I was looking for some way to take a picture of the frost, and liked the roses best.
Mary- Wow! I had no idea you were that cold in the Carolinas. That is quite a change within a month.
Ruth, You did it. You got the pictures I tried to get the morning of our first frost. My rose pixes were disappointing it. These are lovely.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your sense of global warming.
Cathy- thanks...I took a number of pictures and the ones on macro setting with flash turned out the best. The ones with natural light did not highlight the frost.
ReplyDelete