(North)Western NC High Country; Appalachian Mountains; 3600 ft elevation; south facing slope.
We’ve been here for years and it’s really striking how early everything is this spring. Comparing past pictures of barely budding trees to this year’s fully leafed out forest is disconcerting.
However, the positive aspect in the moment is that our lonicera sempervirens is being joyfully visited by the hummingbirds, swallowtail butterflies (including this Eastern Black Swallowtail) and clearwing moths.
Curious if this is regional, or are others feeling like things are waking up especially early this year? I’m sure the extra strong El Niño is adding to the effect.
by backcountry_knitter
9 Comments
I think it is just the El Niño but I’ve seen it some too
Meanwhile In Ohio the weathers been so bipolar everything’s 2 weeks late!
I’m in East Tennessee, and yeah, most things are early. That’s fine, but damn is it dry! We’ve only had one storm in April and a light sprinkle. Please send water.
Yea, my flowering vines are all in bloom and it’s too early for hummingbirds here. I’m hoping there are still blooms left for them when they show up. Also we are in a severe drought.
Edit- we have just been upgraded to extreme drought.
Oh, more than two weeks, and yes it′s just about everything. The bugs too – we′ve had early-March cicadas (that′s winter!!) the last couple of years. Yes we′re shaping up to have an El Niño pattern this or next year making it extra extra, but it′s mostly all the oil and gas burning heating everything up :/ I′ve had trouble being cheerful about all the beautiful blooms – which is a really strange feeling!
Indeed this is a big part of climate change in the US where we’re getting warmer days earlier in the season along with warmer night temperatures overall while the average date of last frost isn’t really moving any earlier leading to a lot of things breaking dormancy early and potentially getting more frost damage. Around me in Illinois it’s a big concern of the peach farmer in the southern part of the state as peach blossom can really get destroyed by frost but they’re blooming on average earlier than the last frost now.
Though it’s important to say that this year’s early break isn’t solely a result of climate change but it’s simply one of the compounding factors making spring weather patterns like this more common.
Eastern Ontario here, and we’re about 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Normally we don’t plant out until the end of May but the grass is green and I’ve already started prepping beds.
I’m in Eastern NC and we’re deep into summer already and have been for at least a month it seems.
It’s 90+ degrees today
https://preview.redd.it/b088a26bklvg1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02e1d7ae4dac9014d1e09c8bdd238c39027320c2
This is penstemon grandiflorus. It is its first every blossom. I believe this typically blooms in late May.
I had blossoms on plants in December and January. My cacti had buds in January before a small gated freeze, and those cacti have already blossomed.
It is supposed to get down to 25 tonight. I have plants that will likely not appreciate this, and others that probably don’t care.