Southwest/California drought
I shouldn’t complain about the overabundance of water in the Chautauqua-Allegheny region as I am well aware we are in far better shape than our friends in the Southwest, California especially. These United States Drought Monitor maps tell the ongoing disturbing story. Our weather patterns continue to be too stagnant in all seasons, a likely side effect from how we are altering our global climate.
Read MoreHeavy rain at RTPI
What’s that you say? More rain headed our way? It was earlier today with thunderstorms concentrating heavy rain directly over RTPI as this radar grab depicts and this photo displays. Fortunately it will indeed soon go away.
Read MoreHummingbird Clearwing Moth in action
Last week I was fortunate to see this Hummingbird Clearwing Moth zipping around the gardens here at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. It flew from flower to flower trying to get in to each as far as possible to feed. As you may be able to see in the photos the clouds were coming and going but at least it was remaining sunny and dry for much of the day. The recent weather – being cooler and far wetter than average – is likely taking a toll on some Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and Odonata (damselflies and dragonflies) species. At the very least it is...
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…
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