Strange Weather

[jazz]

that idiot phillips was calling for warmer than normal nov/dec . why doesn't someone question those quacks after the fact ?

Not sure where you are case but he was right about our area. we have had a very mild Nov Dec and into January now.

But thats just weather to me. Its not indicative of any long term pattern. In a planet with a 4B yr history, even a million yrs can be classified as a weather event.

[Blaithin]

are you in canada ? winter started here last week of october , same as last three
try and do your own research

A weather pressure system blocking arctic air from descending from the Arctic isn’t really a reflection of anything beyond it’s a pressure system blocking something, so don’t assume I’m saying it’s a sign of impending doom but...

Winter starting in October really has next to nothing to do with pests surviving the winter. One could tell you to do your own research as well. Many pests - insects, fungus, disease - require lengthy cold spells to keep them in check. Just look at Rusty’s. At a consistent -10 grain temp they can live for weeks and weeks. If you don’t get a prolonged cold they don’t suffer serious mortality. Even if it dips to -30, if you have a bin of Rusty’s they don’t care until it’s been -30 for a few days. To kill them fast you have to really expose them to the cold temperature which is why guys core bins or turn on the air. Pine Beetles are another example that haven’t been experiencing the required length of cold weather to really dent their numbers, so they’re spreading. A handful of shockingly cold days is not enough to eliminate pests evolved for the cold.

We as humans, out and about outside, can feel like cold is cold and it’s been cold forever. But when it comes to pests dug in to survive the winter, cold isn’t cold, they need cold for looonnngg or they need extreme cold. And this year, it has not been cold here. The odd overnight low with a windchill that makes it feel like -28 is not going to have been enough considering most days aren’t even below -12.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

And further to Blaithin's comment, the ambient temp is completely irrelevant to the temp inside a bin. I freeze all my canola in mid winter, when I pull it out in July, or even August, it can still be -20. It takes months to move the core of a 19' bin. Smaller bins without fans with grain I moved back at 20 above, is still in the high teens now at the end of December.

[Sheepwheat]

Cbc had an article about climate change in PEI. Some random guy on there stated that they used to have -30C when he was a kid, and now they don’t.

So I took liberty to check PEI climate data. Turns out the record low ever for PEI was minus 27C.

[Chief]

Let me float a big hypothetical here. If our climate changes to something similar to Texas, Oklahoma or Kansas, Canadian agriculture will cease to exist right?

SARCASM!!!

[Blaithin]

And further to Blaithin's comment, the ambient temp is completely irrelevant to the temp inside a bin. I freeze all my canola in mid winter, when I pull it out in July, or even August, it can still be -20. It takes months to move the core of a 19' bin. Smaller bins without fans with grain I moved back at 20 above, is still in the high teens now at the end of December.

Yes, ambient temperature, grain temperature and bug life is a good example of a pests ability to withstand cold and why they burrow into things. Just because it’s -30 outside definitely doesn’t mean it’s that cold where the pests are.

https://www.saskatchewan.ca/business/agriculture-natural-resources-and-industry/agribusiness-farmers-and-ranchers/crops-and-irrigation/insects/insects-and-mould-in-stored-grain

That incredibly long URL has a good table for what temperature the grain has to be at, and for how long, to kill Rusty’s. Now I can say, because moisture testers tell grain temperature, that even grain run through an auger into a truck and hauled down a road at -25 rarely, if ever, tests much below -10. It’s still that warm in the bins that cold weather takes a while to influence it even when moved and exposed to the air.

[Hamloc]

"Strange weather", and speculation about future pests isn't particularly scientific.
Have you sifted through the weather records?
Is this completely without precedent in your area?
If there is precedent within Modern recorded history, What were the consequences in previous events?

If your goal of this post was to convince the rest of us to take this threat as seriously as you do, Then prefacing it with the above mentioned research results would be a very good start.

My Grandfather and Grandmother were married Christmas Day 1918. In the pictures there is no snow and everyone is in shirt sleeves, a very warm beautiful day apparently. So not without precedent!

[woodland]

Ain’t got no control over the “weather” so no worrying going on here. I think for us Ma Nature is making up for the crummy weather over the last few years. Lots of winter left to get that miserable white cold stuff yet.

Enjoy it in the meantime 😎
Beautiful night here for fireworks to send off 2020🍻

[Guest]

the norm is ; climate has always been changing , always will

[seldomseen]

Always winter here! Just wish some of that warm air would move in. -18 with a good foot of snow that has been here since the beginning of Nov. and its been down to -30 a couple times and often -20. Youngest daughter born in 1997 on Dec.18 with no snow on the ground and hardly any freezing temps yet that year.

I had my wheat crop planted fairly early this spring and thanks to a cool May, June and half of July I still have minor frost damage on my wheat sample. All this with the climate warming three times faster here than anywhere else.

This warming idea just seems ridiculous to me!