pragmaculture:The historical data on the metservice page for my town is legitimately one of the most
pragmaculture:The historical data on the metservice page for my town is legitimately one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen.You might say “well, the rainfall sort of evens out over the year” or, “two degrees colder in winter isn’t that serious” but unfortunately that’s simply not how it works. You can’t have less than a quarter of your average rainfall in one month, followed by three times the average. All of our systems - from agricultural to municipal - are simply not designed to be able to cope with these extremities. There was flooding. There was drought.And the temperature reaching record lows (and highs)? There are a significant number of species that will tolerate frost down to -6. Hardy citrus for example. No more. That used to be very safe! This year the temperature got down to -7 and I lost a number of established trees and shrubs that should have been fine. The cold was brutal and destructive and record-breaking. And as for getting frosts in October and November… That effectively shortens our growing season by two months. Many staple crops simply won’t have long enough to establish, grow, flower and fruit before the first frosts end the season.This past autumn we had 7mm of precipitation that should have had 63mm. That cold November Rain simple didn’t fall this year. And now we are going into an El Nino summer after two months where there has only been 30mm of rain where there should have been 123mm. Extreme is the new normal. And the possibility of it getting worse is too terrible to contemplate.I keep reading how we’re having a pretty significant El Nino - how does it effect your weather patterns? We had a warm hot drought summer, and now we’ve been walloped with a warm and extremely wet November (and likely rest of winter). I always keep wondering how El Nino and La Nina will change as the planet heats up. -- source link
#pragmaculture#el nino