By Alkali Springs Correspondent
Here it is already the middle of September and how about starting things off with some weather predictions? Old timers to the north of us are saying that this fall is going to be short lived. Already in terms of birds banding up and leaving along with fall leaves changing colors and things of that ilk, we are three weeks ahead of schedule. Not only that, but they are predicting a major snow storm for this whole region to happen sometime in September. They say to look for a 5- to 6-inch dump during the end of this month. All that is sort of good news. Now for the bad. They say that December is going to be cold, very cold. Look for below zero temperatures to last a good couple of weeks of December and then watch out in January.
Now how do old timers north of us know all this, you might ask. It is all by studying signs that birds, animals and insects leave from one year to another. Will these predictions come true? We guess that time will tell. The only thing we can say is that more and more, this is becoming a land of extremes, so we should get used to extreme weather. And as for those birds, they were unusually active and banding together way back in August. Very peculiar, we thought. And way before Labor Day, geese were flying overhead on their way to more pleasant climes.
How dry is it? It is so dry that at least once in early September Beaver Creek went completely dry at the flume just above Beaver Creek Reservoir. That does not happen often, but it happened three or four times in the last two months. Time for rain or that five or six inches of snow and quickly. Not that it will help much long term. That will be helped by lots and lots of snow over a couple of winters and lots and lots of summer rains for a couple of years, too.
Another sign of extreme dryness can be seen in the yard of our little camp on Beaver Creek. It is located in the middle of an aspen thicket and not only has the grass stopped growing, in fact, it stopped growing around the first of August. But the yard is full of aspen shoots all over the place. Our guess is that the aspen trees are so stressed that they are sending out many shoots to take their places in case they die. Sort of like some of the fir trees. Their tops are so full of cones this year that they are weighing down branches. Same theory. Severely stressed trees who might die are sending replacements as quickly as possible.
Believe us when we tell you that it will be a column of glad tidings and absolute glee when we report on the first blizzard of this strange year!
Comments or questions? E-mail lucke@hi-line.net .
