Autumn leaves begin to accelerate in color
evening and setting in the morning, it passes overhead after midnight.
The Sun: The Sun’s position is the same now as in early April, and the rate of the night’s expansion increases from Deep Summer’s two minutes per day to three minutes. In another week, the day’s length will drop below 13 hours.
The Planets: You may glimpse Venus in the far west just after sunset, followed by Jupiter, both planets close to the horizon.
The Stars: Winter’s Orion is fully emerged from the east by midnight. At that time, the Big Dipper is low along the north horizon. To the west, Hercules is setting behind the Corona Borealis. Pegasus and the Great Square are overhead in the Milky Way. Cygnus, the Northern Cross, follows summer’s Vega south.
The Shooting Stars: No major meteor showers occur this week.
Weather Trends: September 30 and October 1 are the warmest days (historically speaking) at this time of the year, each bringing a 45 percent chance of highs in the 80s - but that is the last time this year that chances will rise so high. Most of the days this week will be in the 60s or 70s, with the latter predominating. On October 4, however, a 10 percent chance of highs only in the 40s occurs for the first time since May 25. Precipitation is lightest on the 28th ( just a 15 percent chance of showers on that date); the rest of the days this week rain comes 30 percent of the time. Light frost strikes 10 to 20 percent of all the nights, with October 3 most likely to bring a damaging freeze in the 20s (a 5 percent chance of that).
The Natural Calendar: Throughout the week, there is an acceleration in the coloring of the leaves. Goldenrod is in full bloom, and the soybean fields and milkweed are almost all turned. In the yellowing tree line, patches of deep red from sumac and Virginia creeper. The rare August Judas maple becomes morecommon. There are patches of gold on the lindens and ginkgoes, tulip trees, white mulberries and Osage. Sometimes catalpas, black walnuts, some box elders have lost all their leaves.
Fish, Insects, Livestock and Birds: Japanese beetles can still be mating, but they are usually down to a fraction of their summer numbers. Chiggers have finally disappeared from the garden if the weather has been cold, but mosquitoes continue to breed. Fish and game are likely to become more active with the Moon overhead in the early morning this week, especially as the cold fronts of September 29 and October 2 approach.
In the Field and Garden: The harvest of pears, cabbage and cauliflower is ordinarily underway by the last week of early fall. Halloween crops have come to town, and 80 percent of the corn is normally mature. Just about all the dry onions have been dug, and fall apples are nearly half picked. Potatoes are 75 percent in the bag, and the grape harvest is in full swing. Soybeans are mature on half of the area’s farms. Twenty percent of that crop and 10 percent of the corn have been cut. A fourth of the winter wheat has usually been planted.
Perennials, shrubs and fruit trees may be fertilized throughout October to encourage growth and improved flowering next spring and summer. As the Moon wanes, put in scillas, snowdrops, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses for the March and April garden. Marketing Notes: Navaratri (or Navadurgara) is celebrated on October 9-18. This Hindu feast honors the goddess Durga. An uptic in demand for male lambs and kids may accompany the approach of this feast.
The Almanack Horoscope: The waning Moon will provide some relief from the “full Moon madness” that occurred in some people under the September 24 full Moon. And if you ordinarily feel invigorated by cooler weather and the turning leaves, this week should improve your spirits considerably. However, the approach of October often brings an end to the “autumn surge” of energy, and seasonal affective disorders start to increase in those who are especially affected by the passage of summer.
Journal
The landscape is collapsing through sunny days toward Middle Fall. In the metroparks, a few bellflowers still bloom (they must have been broken off in the summer, grew back, blossomed now). Clearweed, zigzag goldenrod and pink smartweed are still strong. Chicory is still blue along the highways, climbing bindweed still blue in the alleys. A few jumpseeds are still jumping.
Only the cutover areas have wingstem, heal all, burdock, velvetleaf, jimsonweed, black-eyed Susans flowering. Most tall field goldenrod is dying from the ground up. Milkweed and thimbleplants are bursting. The New England asters, stonecrop and Jerusalem artichokes are seeding. Ironweed and horseweed heads puff up. Queen Anne’s lace grows tight and dark. Touch-menots have all faded, pods still popping.
Robins cluck migration signals in the honeysuckles. Crows caw before sunrise. Starlings flock around the soybean fields. Long flocks of grackles pass overhead. Terns and meadowlarks, yellow-rumped warblers and purple martins migrate through the region. The last cicadas sing through the warmer afternoons. Green frogs croak when showers threaten. Katydids call when the evenings are mild. Crickets sing one-note songs even in the cold. Poor Will’s Almanack and Horoscope for 2019 is now available; order on Amazon. com.