JUNE 2008 WEATHER & PHENOLOGY IN REVIEW

From the North Shore of Little Rock Lake.

Jim Hovda, Rice MN  56367-0265   New Address - jhovda.rice@jetup.net

N  45  44  .862       W  094  09  .603

WEATHER LAST JUNE:    Warmer, and a lot dryer.  The average low temp was 55.95 degrees compared to 51.97 degrees  (F) this year.   The big difference was the 12 days with low readings of 60+ degrees compared to only one this year.  The average high was 80.17 degrees compared to only 76.38 degrees (F) this year.    Last year only 1.18" of rain fell compared to 5.70" this year.    Eleven days with rain compared to seventeen this year.  The most rain fell on the 1st and the 7th when .19" fell.   It was a dry month.  We ended the month 10.20" for the year compared to 15.60" this year.   Another year with no runoff into the local creeks.    On a side note for last June, Little Rock Lake really STUNK!!!!!!!!    It received the full attention of the MPCA.

WEATHER:    Our all spring cool weather has everything about two weeks behind schedule.  That includes fishing...  On the cool side of our temps, lot's of 40's and 50's for lows.   The coldest day occurred on the 17th when the digital thermometer dipped to 46.7 degrees (F).  Incidentally, I recorded seven days with readings in the 40's.  The first month in sometime that there was no snow or ice in the birdbath.  The warmest days were on the 21st & 26th with readings of 86.5 degrees (F).

       The really welcome rains for the first half of the month totaled 4.94".  The most rain in one day fell on the 6th when 2.40" of rain hit the ground.    Only four days of rain in the second half for a total rainfall for the month at 5.70".   There were seventeen days with rain.   For the first time in several years we received runoff from the watershed.  Zuleger creek was at the top of its bank.  I think we sort of started to flush the lake out.

WEATHER RECORDS:    The local coldest reading was in 1993 when a reading of 32 degrees (F) was recorded while the greater MN low temp was a 15 degrees (F) (-9 C) in Bigfork in 1964.   On the warm side of things, the local weather folks took a reading of 102 degrees in 1931 while the good citizens of Canby, MN suffered with a reading of 110 degrees (F) the same year.  

       Other records:   The latest recorded snow fell in/on Mizpah on the 4th.  (Where the heck is Mizpah???)    On the MN road map it is located about thirty miles NE of Blackduck on U.S.  71.  The most tornadoes in one day occurred on the 16th of June 1992 when 27 were recorded.  The most tornadoes in one month (38) occurred in 2001.   The weather records folks tell me that the most damage from tornadoes (2 F 5's) occurred on June 13th 1968 in Tracy and on June 16th, 1992 in Chandler.  The highest wind gust occurred in Atwater on the 11th, 2001 when a wind speed of 119 mph (191.5 km/h) was recorded.  For lots of interesting information on weather you can go to Google and type in "Weather Records."  We sure had quite a few records, some not so good in the month of June...

PHENOLOGY:    Some general observations - very few butterflies.  Only a couple of Monarchs (on the 3rd), a White Admiral and a lone Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on the 17th.   These and others were at our flowers in much larger numbers only a year or so ago.   The plants are slow, not as many flowers.  Milkweed has yet to bloom and no Tiger Swallowtail or Monarch caterpillars either.   Only a year or so ago I recorded twelve - fifteen Black Swallowtail caterpillars on parsley and several of the butterflies.   None this year.   Their host plant parsley is not very big yet and not many plants.  Is it the cool weather?

       Birds - Wrens, the first one appeared on the 1st but they have been in really short supply along with the tree swallows and Wood Ducks.   Numbers are up on Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Mourning Doves, Orioles, House finches to name most of them.   For the first time in a couple of years I observed a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at the suet.  Not seen for several years the Red-headed Woodpecker made an appearance at least twice mid-month.    Fred Segler and Roger Athman observed a pair of them at Mayhew Lake.   Jim Gilbert (famed naturalist) was most pleased to see these birds that have been on the decline for some years.   Are they increasing their numbers?   The most interesting and unusual sighting was that of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher spotted by Steve and Becky Bogie.  This is a bird usually found only as far north as Missouri.  If you have a bird book, look this one up.   Its tail is longer than its body. 

       Because of all the welcome rain, the MOSQUITOES & GNATS are in good supply.   They are welcome to the twenty or so   Purple Martins that are filling my two houses.  (I had to purchase a third house so their young will have a home to go to.)    My one lone Brown Bat is using one of my two bat houses.  I am in hopes that more will follow.  At least this year we have plenty of insects.    

       An irritation, the eight squirrels that have been attacking my bird feeders.  At $20.00 a bag for sunflower seeds, they are not welcome.  Of interest, as I have made the feeders an unwelcome place for them, they have been feasting on maple tree seeds.   I was not aware that this was a stable for them.   The war with these critters will be ongoing forever.  They are very persistent critters when it comes to trying to get the birdseed.

NATURE NOTE:    A bee has 5,000 nostrils.  It can smell an apple tree that's two miles away.

LITTLE ROCK LAKE NOTES:    Has been really clear for most of the month.  With lots of rain, the level has been up.   It has dropped about eight inches since mid-month.   We can still use more rain and another foot of water in the lake.   Today (01 July) the green algae is back along with a not so pleasant odor.  Not as bad as last year tho.