It has been a very cold start to the month. To explain in more detail,
April was warmer than normal, following an interesting pattern that the
National Weather Service has described as "a six-month long trend of
alternating warm and cold months that started in October [2011]." April was
the 13th warmest April on record in over 100 years in Fairbanks. The
average temperature was more than 4 degrees F warmer than normal. Six of
the warmest Aprils have occurred since 1990 - a very interesting fact that
makes one suspect climate change is the culprit. Many of our April days saw
temperatures 10 C and warmer.
Also, I recorded 24 April as the date of bud burst for birch trees in our
yard. This is almost a week earlier than I have ever seen bud burst occur,
which is usually around 30 April.
Also, the Tanana River "broke up" last week on 23 April in Nenana, quite
early for this to occur and much earlier than last year
We have been hearing Juncos, American Robins, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and
even a few Yellow-rumped Warblers in the woods. This is earlier than last
year, too, as I remember the migrant songbirds were late returning to our
woods then. This time last year there was still a significant amount of
snow that still needed to melt (we are almost snow-free right now)
However, a cold front blew in on the last day of the month and May has
started out quite chilly - perhaps it isn't so far from what we should
normally expect since April was so warm. This morning it was -10 C at our
home thermometer - much colder than we have seen it for weeks!. At the time
I took the photos (330 pm) it was 6 C. Although the buds on birch and other
trees and shrubs had burst more than a week ago, their development has been
arrested and until it warms up I don't think we will see it green up very
quickly. We will wait and see what happens.
The sun rose today at 5:11 am and will set at 10:27 pm for a total day
length of 17 hours and 16 minutes. Solar noon was at 1:49 pm. We are loving
the daylight!
