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  • From: Jay Cutts <orders@cuttsreviews.com>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [nafex] strange weather pattern
  • Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 18:38:59 -0600

Does anyone have any insights into the following strange weather phenomenon?

Recently (I wasn't actually here when it happened) we had some cold weather that was not exactly a freeze and yet did serious localized damage. Some plants with very tender leaves (peppers, locust, grape, mulberry, persimmon) had damage but it was sporadic. One plant might loose all its leaves and yet a plant just a few feet a way would have no damage or just damage to a few leaf tips. I can understand that there might be currents of colder air that might do localized damage but you would think that such a mild touch of cold, though it could damage tender leaves, couldn't cause the kind of damage that a deep freeze would and yet nearly all of my wild plum fruits were destroyed and they were already at least a quarter inch in diameter. I believe most of my bush cherry fruits were lost, though the Montmorency and chokecherries didn't seem to suffer.

How can a touch of cold that is so light that it leaves many plants untouched do such serious damage to fruits that are already fairly large? The killer is that my thermometer says the low was 51!! (It has been acting up a bit so maybe it didn't record the real low. The sensor is on the ground in a sheltered spot. Could it really have been 51 on the ground in one spot and cold enough to kill fruits just feet away?

This pattern has happened a number of years before. It is distinct from a true frost. With a real frost all the leaves would have been lost on all the tender trees. With this pattern many plants escape with no damage at all or just nipping of the tips of some leaves.

Please help if you have any idea of what is going on. This pattern is frustrating because it can happen even when the weather is fairly mild and the weather report calls for lows that are above freezing.

Regards,

Jay

Jay Cutts
Director, Cutts Graduate Reviews
Lead Author, Barron's MCAT Prep Book
Lead Author, Barron's LSAT Prep Book (2013)
(505)-281-0684
10 am to 10 pm Mt Time, 7 days





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