Humid, Wet Summer In Vermont Caused Garden Woes, And Mosquito, Lake Dangers

Despite frequent applications of Neem oil and copper fungicide, 
the hot, humid summer encourage pests which took an
unusual toll on this rose mallow plant in St. Albans, Vermont.

Funguses, pests and other ills are diminishing backyard gardens.  Algae blooms have occasionally made parts of Lake Champlain unsafe.  Mosquito-borne dangers like West Nile disease loom. 

Blame all this on one of Vermont's hottest, wettest and definitely the most humid summer on record. Our northern ecosystem isn't used to this weirdly tropical weather. 

By at least one measure, Vermont had its most humid summer on record. At least since the 1940x, anyway. According to meteorologists at WPTZ-TV:

"Burlington has....recorded its most humid summer on record (through Aug. 19, going back to 1948.  There have been over 220 hours (almost 10 full days) of oppressive humidity so far this summer. 'Oppressive' refers to dew points of 70 degrees or higher."

The previous record was 200 hours in 1994.

All this has had its effects. I told you the other day that the type of summer we had will probably contribute to extra bouts of fog this autumn. 

But there are worse issues going around than fog. 

Water in Lake Champlain reached record high temperature of around 80 degrees in early to mid August. Meanwhile, this summer's floods discharged mud, pollution, phosphorus and other yucks into Lake Champlain, hindering water quality goals, as VTDigger points out. 

These flood discharges, working in concert with warm lake water temperatures, contribute to cyanobacteria, a blue-green algae that looks like thick pea soup or a paint spill, according to at least one lake biologist.

While much of this algae is relatively harmless, if incredibly yucky, some of it can turn toxic, making people ill who swim in it. It's also known to kill dogs who venture into it.  Satellite images revealed a large outbreak of this algae across the northern end of Lake Champlain in early August. 

Mosquitoes have had a field day this summer, what with all the rain we've had, and the humidity, and the heat. Illnesses such as West Nile and eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE have been detected in Vermont mosquitoes this summer.

This type of thing happens almost every summer, but this year's weather has made the problem all the more likely. 

West Nile has been detected in at least one mosquito pool up in Alburgh, and EEE has been found in mosquitoes in northwestern Vermont. 

Home gardeners like me have seen issues in shrubs and in both perennial and vegetable gardens. Fungus, powdery mildew and an influx of insects have dimmed the glory of many gardens, or have at least frustrated gardeners.

Finally, the hot, wet summer could have an effect on this fall's foliage season.  It's too soon to tell, but sometimes, the fungi that frustrate gardens can infiltrate leaves in our forests. While these fungi ultimately don't hurt the trees, they can make leaves turn a dull brown and fall off prematurely. Which is a bummer if you're hoping for a brilliant foliage season.  

Delightful, Tranquil Weather Continues Here In Vermont, No So Much Elsewhere

Unique photo of a hail storm aftermath in
Nebraska Saturday. In the foreground, little or
no hail fell, in the background,
you suddenly hit an area where a LOT of
hail fell. Photo via Twitter by 
@tractorjockey

 The weather here in Vermont is uneventful, but beautiful!  As mentioned yesterday, this will be a lovely week of spring weather in the Green Mountain State.

Since there's not much to talk about here, we'll look at some of the somewhat less happy moments going on in other parts of the nation. 

SEVERE WEATHER

We're into the month of May, so we're at the peak of severe weather season for the United States.

So of course, there's some to report. Luckily we're not having any kind of super outbreak of tornadoes, but there's plenty of rough moments to go around. There were 13 preliminary reports of tornadoes in the Midwest Saturday and five more on Sunday. 

The big story was big hail. Hail up to the size of baseballs pummeled some parts of Iowa, causing damage to siding, windows and cars. Video out of Grinnell, Iowa from Live Storms Media shows hail up to the size of baseballs driven by winds of up to 80 mph.  As you can imagine, the side of any house or building facing the direction of the incoming hail was trashed. 

Another video shows an Iowa rangeland fire apparently started by lightning under dramatic storm clouds. The video goes on to show firefighters responding to the scene, only to be pelted by large hail and intense winds.  A pretty wild video worth the watch! 

Although more severe weather is in the forecast this week in the middle of the nation, this still doesn't look like it will be an enormous outbreak, at least by historical standards. 

WESTERN FLOOD RISK

After an incredibly snowy winter in the high elevations of the West, there's still a lot of snow in them thar hills.  We have seen damage in Utah and California from snow melt floods already, and it will probably get worse. 

A couple of houses in Utah have already been swept away by a mudslide, and numerous buildings have been flooded. 

Little Bear Creek is already beginning to flood in Utah
because of snow melt. You can see a lot of snow still
left in the mountains in the background. 

Utah officials said they're only a third of the way through the spring thaw in the mountains, so there's a lot of water left to come down. 

Very warm temperatures are in the forecast for the western U.S., including the mountains of Utah and eastern California in the coming days. That will surely send lots of water downhill into populated valleys. 

In Morgan County, Utah, officials are basically guaranteeing a reservoir will overflow, causing a flood crisis in nearby communities. 

In California, Lake Tulare is back.  It used to be one of the largest freshwater lakes in the United States, but it was drained to make room for agriculture. 

Now, it has re-appeared because of all the rain and snow melt California has seen.  It has already submerged about 100 square miles of crop land. 

But the bulk of the snow is yet to melt from the mountains. This will create a crisis in the coming days and weeks as Lake Tulare butts up against levees, and potentially busts through them. 

This is a long term problem, too. Once the snow melt ends, it will take forever for Lake Tulare to drain again. The last time this, happened, in 1973, it was two years before the lake was gone and agriculture could resume. 

I guess this is a good reason not to drain lakes to build farms or anything else. 

In any event, you will be hearing a lot about flooding in the western U.S. in the coming days.