Spring Weather - 2007

In Bloomington, Indiana - from March 9 - March 15 and from March 20 - March 31 - the high temperature was above 60 - with 13 days that were 70 degrees or above and 3 of those days that were 80 or above. The warm weather continued on until April 3 - when freezing lows returned. Except for the 11th (when it got up to 63) - we didn't have a day that was 60 or above until April 16th.

Officially - it got down to 24 during the cold spell - but it seemed to me that it got colder than that. I know that one day, at least, the forecast was for it to get down to 17.

What that meant for plants was that some bloomed far earlier than usual. On a lot of plants - the leaves came out and then died. Fruit trees were in bloom in March - and then it froze. Red buds have been blooming for 3 - 4 weeks - far longer then usual. Usually they bloom with the dogwood - but dogwoods just started coming into bloom last week.

What often happens in Spring is that the leaves on the trees start coming out and to look out across the landscape - the hills are a light green. This normally lasts only a few days and then the leaves come out more and the color becomes a deeper green. This year the the light green has stayed like that for a month. It seems very odd.

We don't know what will happen to the fruit trees.

I'm betting that it won't freeze again this season. I guess we'll see. (It used to be that the last freeze/frost date for around here was the 2nd week of May).