This early heat wave – if it was this much warmer than normal during the summer, that’s surely what it would be called – has resulted in early flowering of almost everything, including some plants that shouldn’t even be flowering until late April. As well, most trees have started leafing out and the hardwood portions of the local forests have started turning green.
The following video from our yard captures just a small part of this strange season in Arkansas. For this video, I didn’t add any music, just natural back ground sounds from our yard.
If I were to post a photo a day – or even 5 a day – it would take quite a while just to share those that I have selected for posting.
By putting together a video, I can share a large number at once – and create a video library that we can view on a TV screen. The original of the video below is higher definition than what I uploaded to YouTube.
The photos, in the sequence that they appear:
Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2009
Menor’s cabin and store, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, September 20, 2007
Canton Lake, Oklahoma, August 29, 2009
Canyonlands national Park, September 23, 2007
Pronghorn, Custer State Park, South Dakota, August 22, 2007
Wild burro, Custer State Park, South Dakota, August 22, 2007
Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, March, 2011
Devil’s Tower National Monument, August 27, 2007
Devil’s Tower National Monument, August 28, 2007
Texas Interstate HighwayI40, eastbound rest west of Alenreed
Devil’s Tower National Monument, August, 2007
Cottonwood Tree, Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, July 8, 2010
Clouds, Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, July 8, 2010
Lewistown, Montana, August 30, 2007
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, September 14, 2009
Nuthatch
Ouray, Colorado, September 2010
Rest are at Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge and Kansas Highway 52
Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 2009
Rocky Mountain National park, somewhere trail to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, & Emerald Lake, 2009
Pea Ridge National military Park, Northwest Arkansas, July 15, 2011
Abyss Pool, West Thumb, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, September 12, 2007
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, September 24, 2007
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Visitor Center, Colorado, 2009
Garvan Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 13, 2010
Entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner, Montana, September 13, 2007
Late yesterday afternoon, while I was at work in the simulator, Karen texted that our over 20 year old air conditioner (heat pump) had stopped working.
We ended up spending the night in the motorhome as the house was warmer than we like for sleeping. I didn’t get off until almost 10 P.M. and Karen had the motorhome all set up when I got home, except for connecting the water. The plumbing was still “winterized” with no water in any of the supply lines and I wanted to be home when the lines were filled.
With the current weather, it’s not a good time to be without cooling
The country is in the grips of a pretty widespread heat wave. The orange on the map is a heat advisory, which is what we are in – “dangerous heat stress conditions…” during the afternoon and early evening hours. The purple area is a excessive heat warning. “A prolong period of dangerously hot temperatures will occur. The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will create a dangerous situation in which heat illnesses are likely.”
To the east, Tropical Storm Bret is expected to stay out to sea and will provide no relief of any kind for the heat.
Fortunately, the service tech from the heating and air company showed up about 9 A.M. The problem was a fan motor and they had a replacement on the truck. Replacing it and checking the refrigerant pressure took less than a half hour. Now the house is cool and the air conditioner is cycling on and off periodically.
Did a little bit of experimenting today with time lapse photography. This short video was shot off our front deck this afternoon. It actually consists of 500 photos. The camera was on a tripod and programmed to take one photo every 5 seconds. In Windows Live Movie Maker, I set the duration for each photo to .05 seconds. The audio is from YouTube audio swap, which has a wide variety of audio that has been made available to apply to uploaded videos.
The weather today was atrocious. I know that I said I’d much rather have the heat and humidity than the storms we were getting a couple of months ago, but this is more than I asked for. Today was 101.9° on our porch. Down in town it was 105° – we’re always cooler up here in the warmer months.
If I wasn’t working this contracts we’d be heading to cooler climate – Colorado, Wyoming, somewhere cooler than here.
We had a bout with severe weather two years ago today. Debris from trees is flying horizontal in this picture. Shortly after this picture was taken, the large tree across the road went down.
This year, after the threat of severe weather continuous for long periods in April and May, it has turned hot and muggy – about normal for this time of year.
This early heat wave – if it was this much warmer than normal during the summer, that’s surely what it would be called – has resulted in early flowering of almost everything, including some plants that shouldn’t even be flowering until late April. As well, most trees have started leafing out and the hardwood portions of the local forests have started turning green.
Fortunately, the service tech from the heating and air company showed up about 9 A.M. The problem was a fan motor and they had a replacement on the truck. Replacing it and checking the refrigerant pressure took less than a half hour. Now the house is cool and the air conditioner is cycling on and off periodically.
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