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lydamorehouse
Image: bloodroot blooming in the backyard.
One of the parts of volunteering for CoCoRaHS is that, once a week, they want you to do a very unscientific climate report.
The thing that bugs me about it is that even though they have very nice descriptions for what criteria I'm supposed to use to determine conditions like "dry" and "wet," I'm still supposed to somehow understand what is "normal." Like, what is normal even in 2025? What is normal now compared to the normal of my youth? I suspect that it kind of doesn't matter for their records. What they seem to actually want more than anything is a record over time. I wish, for instance, that I had better notes about when things started to bloom in my garden in past because it FEELS to me (very scientific, this feeling!) that the bloodroot is up later than in prevous years and I wish that I could confirm this in my little weekly updates.
Alas.
I suppose I could haunt my old posts here. But, I guess, the good news is that I should have a fairly accurate picture going forward.
Anyway, just a little science-y whine for today.
Well!
Date: 2025-04-24 04:55 pm (UTC)Re: Well!
Date: 2025-04-24 05:00 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2025-04-24 05:50 pm (UTC)<3 My bluebells are blooming.
>> I'm still supposed to somehow understand what is "normal." Like, what is normal even in 2025?<<
It depends on whether they mean "normal" as "functioning in a stable, healthy manner" or as in "predictably average" and then, if average, whether that's mean, median, or mode. Plus as you mentioned, the amount of time over which datapoints are to be taken for averaging.
I can remember when, in central Illinois, it started snowing in late November or early December and we saw the ground again in March. That was Zone 5b. We are now Zone 6a on the cusp of 6b. I stopped watching for bulbs to sprout as a sign of spring when it was happening in February or January. Now some of them poke through the ground in fall and just hold there until February.
Many things bloom earlier, but it's not consistent. Some are months early, some weeks, others have barely shifted or not at all. And that throws off the whole system because now other species cannot rely on those events. The results are cascading through the ecosystem like an avalanche.
This year I've had blackbirds in my yard for about a month. Usually they don't show up until May, when their weed perches are growing in and their food is developing. Now they're hugging my yard because it has shelter, birdfeeders, and more insects. We typically have grackles and the occasional brownheaded cowbird, but now we have flocks of all three plus redwings. They should be at the drainage ditch half a mile away. I love hosting them, but this is in no way "normal."