Leaves are leaving
This is a picture of the Chadakoin River before all of yesterday’s formidable gusts blew away much of our fall foliage here in Jamestown. Yep, the leaves are leaving. What makes me shake my head is how low the water level has been lately as our precipitation has fallen back to near average or below after a very wet summer. We sure could have used these conditions for Spiny Softshell Turtle work the rest of the year when they were more active, nesting and basking in strong numbers. The weather shapes all of the life around us in both positive and negative ways. This is also why active...
Read MoreNew York state 24-hour precipitation record
Unbelievable! A preliminary all-time New York state 24-hour precipitation record has been broken today at Islip MacArthur Airport with 13.26 inches of rain as of 9:30AM besting the previous record of 11.6 inches at Tannersville, New York over August 27-28, 2011 (Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene). Here’s the dual-pol storm total estimated rainfall as of 8AM via NWS New York, NY. Remember again…turn around, don’t drown.
Read MoreMale Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtles
Here’s some of the boys – male Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtles (Apalone spinifera) – hanging out and basking Saturday afternoon before we were inundated with more rain. All of this constant precipitation is keeping water levels high making it harder to find them and impossible for us to do any trapping or tagging for research on the state-listed species. Our continuing observations and tracking will have to suffice.
Read MoreNortheast percent of normal precipitation May-July 2014
As more heavy rain and thunderstorms are impacting us locally today here’s the Northeast Regional Climate Center map for percent of normal precipitation in the Northeast from May 1 through July 31. Yep, this doesn’t include the inches and inches of rain falling in our region in the last few days! Suffice it to say the Great Lakes have seen enough water for now…and the rest of the month…and maybe until around Halloween…
Read MoreJune temperatures and precipitation
Having spent time in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut in different parts of June I heard a variety of classifications about the late spring and early summer temperature and precipitation conditions. The Northeast region had varied weather and even more mixed opinions on what it felt like outside during the month. To those back home in Connecticut the weather had been dry and quite cool. This was a “classic” spring, even to people in their 20s, without heat waves, incessant air quality alerts and air conditioning running nonstop. Folks in Western New York and Northwestern...
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