Spring Time!

[MarkBC]

Of course, I am here occupying a house, so I can't be too critical, I guess.
Hey, let's annex Big Bend to New Mexico!

Well, you could try the "lifeboat/carrying-capacity" argument to justify keeping out more people. Like:
Q: "Who's to say there are too many people in Las Vegas, NV or Las Angeles, CA? You moved there, why can't we move there?"
A: "Because there isn't enough water for more people".

In Oregon we have some decent land-use laws that help a bit, though there are definitely complainers about those laws.
Damn! Here comes that politics again!

BTW: If you're gonna grab BBNP, might as well snag Guadalupe Mts. NP, too...

 

[highz]

Well, since I am guilty of hijacking this thread, let me bring it back to springtime. Here, springtime means bouts of wind and dust, and the start of fire season. Today was crazy windy, so I headed out to look for illegal campfires (we're under fire restrictions now) and to verify a rumor that only one fire lookout in the area was being staffed.

I didn't see any evidence of campfires in my area - that was good - just saw some dusty and windblown unhappy campers.

Then I headed to Sacramento lookout.


And the rumors were true. Another victim of funding cuts.


We had a 20 percent chance of rain/snow tonight, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Dang. We've already had one 10,000 acre-plus fire that burned five houses near here and we've got 3 months until monsoon season typically starts. I'm gonna be a nervous wreck.I bet they close the forest right after the spring turkey hunt. I hope so.

 

[ski3pin]

spring update...........the blueberries are just starting to show buds. The peaches are toast......ah well, it is a bit high for them.

 

[MarkBC]

spring update...........the blueberries are just starting to show buds. The peaches are toast......ah well, it is a bit high for them.

Ski - At what elevation do you live?

 

[ski3pin]

Mark, 4100 feet. Got a few aspen in the front yard and peaches in the back, a dogwood and big leaf maple down in the shade. We love fruit, we try to grow our own. The peach trees are good looking trees at least.

 

[MarkBC]

Mark, 4100 feet. Got a few aspen in the front yard and peaches in the back, a dogwood and big leaf maple down in the shade. We love fruit, we try to grow our own. The peach trees are good looking trees at least.

Yeah, does sound marginal for peaches (not that I know anything about fruit trees -- I don't), but I suppose it does work out some years -- fruit-bearing I mean...?

On the east side of Steens Mt in SE Oregon, up Indian Creek, at probably 4500+ feet there used to be a mine/homestead occupied by a couple of old guys who had a small grove (orchard?) of fruit trees (as well as vegetables). When I first went there I was amazed -- shocked, really -- to see fruit trees growing in an area where junipers are the only native tree -- and not many of those. It's an area that can get down to 0° in the winter, 100° in the summer, and is dry all year. But they kept it watered with black-plastic pipe snaking from the creek -- quite an elaborate system, and maybe the little valley had its own micro-climate...? Their home was a quonset hut sunk into the hillside -- mostly underground! By the time I saw the place, everything was still there but they were gone; one had died, the other then moved to Burns...BLM would soon-after demolish/bury the structures 'cause it was only occupied under the guise of being a mining claim, which they abandoned. I think the trees are still there, but for some reason I haven't been up there in many years -- it's only a few-minute drive off the main Alvord Desert road. Maybe on my next trip.

 

[ski3pin]

snowing here now and sticking.........................spring time!

 

[Phird05]

Mark, 4100 feet. Got a few aspen in the front yard and peaches in the back, a dogwood and big leaf maple down in the shade. We love fruit, we try to grow our own. The peach trees are good looking trees at least.


Pallisade, Colorado is at 4,727 ft. elevation. Paonia, Colorado is at 5,900 ft. The Peaches are incredible! They also have pears, apples etc. After a big snow year here at 9,000 feet it's amazing that we have such incredible fruits and vegetables only 60 miles away. I only wish I had one of those peaches right now after reading this topic! They are after all, my favorite fruit!

 

[Barko1]

Super freeze this winter killed all the peaches (for this year) in Northern NM

 

[MarkBC]

As I look out my back slider right now we're having a little graupel falling here in Bend -- I don't think it's hail...but whatever it is it's melting. 42°
Current ground appearance in my backyard visible here.

 

[ski3pin]

Mark, thanks for the reminder we can do some spying around your place. I don't think its all elevation that drives our peach problem. It has more to do with warm spells mid winter and peaches being fairly early blooming. Last year, in response to the weather, they bloomed mid February and started leafing out. Too early....cold and snow. Actually the leaves were killed off three times with freezes, I was surprised they recovered so many times. This year the cold and storms kept them at bay and they started to bloom the 1st of April. I thought this just might be the year for peaches, then 19 degrees.........................

 

[ski3pin]

Oh Phird05, we ate so many Palisade peaches last summer on our trip out to Colorado, loved them! Yeah, we want fresh fruit too. Local strawberries in the lower elevations are behind due to all the rain. We're ready!

 

[highz]

My home is at 7500 ft, (but further south). There are apple & cherry orchards in the area. I planted two plum trees last year that were doing fine until the elk broke down the fence around them. And Ski, you are spot on about the bloom timing - that's the key here, too. As soon as I come up with a better fence design, I'll put in plums (again) and apples. The strawberries are coming back, even though they got munched too.

 

[MarkBC]

Mark, thanks for the reminder we can do some spying around your place.
Yep, that's what it's there for I got nothin' to hide...outside, anyway.

There was a herd of deer all over the view early this morning. I turn the cam off at night, so it may be off first-thing in the a.m. if I sleep in.

I don't think its all elevation that drives our peach problem. It has more to do with warm spells mid winter and peaches being fairly early blooming....then 19 degrees
Spring in Bend is typically very on-again/off-again...it's been more-off than normal this year. I think most people here don't even try to grow stuff that isn't as hardy as broccoli and the like. Our last day of frost -- long-term average -- is in mid-June! (I don't mean that the average low is below freezing until then, just that you can usually expect at least one more freezing night well into June.)
I guess some people start plants in cold frames and greenhouses, etc. then move them outside...
I'm just lazy and buy produce.

My home is at 7500 ft, (but further south).
I think the lower latitude is a big factor -- why the tree line is much higher down where you live than up where I am. Or is that also due to the amount of higher-angle sunlight, aside from temperature?

 

[highz]

I think the lower latitude is a big factor -- why the tree line is much higher down where you live than up where I am. Or is that also due to the amount of higher-angle sunlight, aside from temperature?

Just so, Mark. The estimate I have heard is that a a change in altitude of 1000 feet is equivalent to moving north 200 miles. At 7500 feet here I am in the transition zone from P-J and Gambel oak to Ponderosa pine. I'll know spring is in full swing when the oaks start to leaf. Should be in a couple of weeks. The chokecherries and elders are already showing some green.

 

[MarkBC]

Just so, Mark. The estimate I have heard is that a a change in altitude of 1000 feet is equivalent to moving north 200 miles. At 7500 feet I am in the transition zone from P-J and Gambel oak to Ponderosa pine....

So: It looks like southern NM is ~ 800 miles further south than central OR, so that translates to the equivalent of 4000 feet.
Bend's elevation is ~3500+ feet, so that's about 4000 lower than you...so -- all things being equal -- we should have similar climate.
And it turns out, Bend, like you, is in the transition between juniper and Ponderosas (no pinion or oaks): mostly Pondos on the wetter/higher west and south sides of town and mostly junipers on the lower/drier east and north sides of town. Interesting that it kinda works out.

It's not surprising that the climate/habitats aren't exactly the same even with the latitude/elevation equivalence. East and south as you are you must get significant effect -- warm moisture -- from the Gulf of Mexico, while Oregon not only is insulated from that, we're slightly insulated from the Pacific, by the Cascades.

I luv this stuff -- I'm such a weather (and geography) nerd!

I've got this idea to hook up a computer-connectable thermometer/weather-station (as I have at my house) to my traveling laptop and upload to my website the current temperature wherever my rig is, 24/7, as I Wander The West! Actually, this would be easy to do except that I won't have Internet-connectivity in lots of places. Still, I might try it on this upcoming trip to UT.

 

[Barko1]

East and south as you are you must get significant effect -- warm moisture -- from the Gulf of Mexico

We don't have any moisture!! Basically none since September and don't anticipate any until hopefully July, if lucky.
Occasionally we will get something from the Gulf of Mex, hurricane remnants get this way every few years, and sometime hurricane remnants from the Baja area. HighZ is 60 miles East and 3000" higher than I am and because of that he does get more precipitation. 700 miles of Texas between here and the Gulf sucks up the moisture

 

[MarkBC]

We don't have any moisture!! Basically none since September and don't anticipate any until hopefully July, if lucky.
Occasionally we will get something from the Gulf of Mex, hurricane remnants get this way every few years, and sometime hurricane remnants from the Baja area. HighZ is 60 miles East and 3000" higher than I am and because of that he does get more precipitation. 700 miles of Texas between here and the Gulf sucks up the moisture

It makes sense that you're expecting moisture in July. That's what I really meant -- summer moisture. In the far west we never expect much moisture in summer. The reason that a lot of areas east of the Rockies usually have summer thunderstorms (don't you most years?) -- including areas far from the Gulf, like Colorado -- is due to moisture from the Gulf, and further east, off the western Atlantic. The eastern Pacific (next to OR and CA) is much colder and doesn't raise up that kind of moisture, which is one reason why the Pacific West has dry summers (without daily thunderstorms).

Most of what I know is only what I've read about the climate of the deserts of America. Like, the Sonoran Desert gets precipitation both summer and winter because its more-central location allows it to receive moisture from the Pacific in the winter and the Gulf in the summer. The more-eastern Chihuahuan Desert gets most of its moisture in the summer, when moisture comes from the east, from the Gulf. This is all book-learning, of course...

, not personal experience...I've spent only a few weeks over the years anywhere other than California and Oregon.

I'd love to plan a trip to areas with violent summer thunderstorms -- to experience and photo them. I see photos all summer posted on WunderPhotos, photos of huge piles of clouds with great lightening, etc. almost all posted by people from the eastern Rockies to Florida. We have very few opportunities in the far west for that.

On the other hand -- we don't have summer humidity, either.

 

[Barko1]

I love the thunderstorms as well Your right the Sonoran desert in AZ gets more winter precip, ours is mostly from the summer monsoons and it does come from the Gulf. Here is a good link: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/narratives/NEWMEXICO.htm
From that: "Summer rains fall almost entirely during brief, but frequently intense thunderstorms. The general southeasterly circulation from the Gulf of Mexico brings moisture for these storms into the State, and strong surface heating combined with orographic lifting as the air moves over higher terrain causes air currents and condensations. July and August are the rainiest months over most of the State, with from 30 to 40 percent of the year’s total moisture falling at that time."

Overall I think Las Cruces has pretty darn good weather. The Eastern areas get hotter, windier, and colder. HighZ is in nice territory at 7500', he gets a better summer but pays for it in the winter. Couldn't pay me to live in Phoenix. Spring brings the winds and at times the dust, May and June are intense sun, July hopefully the monsoon.

 

[MarkBC]

Overall I think Las Cruces has pretty darn good weather. The Eastern areas get hotter, windier, and colder. HighZ is in nice territory at 7500', he gets a better summer but pays for it in the winter. Couldn't pay me to live in Phoenix. Spring brings the winds and at times the dust, May and June are intense sun, July hopefully the monsoon.

Is Las Cruces where you are, Barko1?

I've never been to southern, NM. I visited a friend in Taos once -- flew into Albuquerque...and I flew into El Paso, once, rented a car and drove to Big Bend, so that's the closest I've been...so not really.
I expect I'll make it down there the next couple of years. I think I may revisit southern AZ in late-winter next year (I haven't been there in >10 years -- I love Organ Pipe Cactus National Mnmt!)...so maybe I'll head east from there.

Thanks.