Crickets, cicadas and katydids become more insistent in the heat today
days, lows reach into the 40s fifteen times more often than they do during the first week of August. Full moon on the 15th makes 40s much more likely around that date.
The natural calendar
August 9: Crickets, cicadas and katydids become more insistent in the heat. Grackle activity increases while cardinal song becomes fainter. The early morning robins are silent. Long flocks of blackbirds and grackles pursue the harvest. Murmurations (flocks) of starlings often swoop and dive across the sky.
August 10: It is the time that catalpas start to wear thin, and showers of black walnut leaves foretell autumn. Saplings are browning under the high canopy. Patches of scarlet have appeared in the sumac and poison ivy. Ash and cottonwood can be yellowing.
August 11: This time of year brings the peak of weight-loss season; your chances of losing pounds are the best of the whole year between now and September. Perhaps related to visions of weight loss, some studies have shown that most miraculous appearances occur between late June and Early Fall – just the time that people are shedding the most weight!
August 12: Perseid meteors reach their best on the nights of August 12 and 13, but the bright gibbous moon may keep some of these shooting stars from view. No matter what, plan to watch for the meteors after midnight high in the northeast portion of the sky.
August 13: When spiders start build more webs in the woodlot, then yellow jacket season begins in the windfall apples and plums, and morning fogs increase in the lowlands.
August 14: Wild cherries ripen, and hickory nuts and black walnuts drop into the undergrowth. The second-last wave of late-summer wildflowers, clearweed, virgin’s bower, white boneset, field thistle and Japanese knotweed, come into bloom. Milkweed bugs die, all their flowers turned to pods.
August 15: Today’s Full moon is likely strengthen the mid-August weather system that sometimes brings the chance of a frost to portions of the North as well as snow at upper elevations in the Rocky Mountains.
In the field and garden
Heat and moisture stress may contribute to much lower production of cool-weather forage. Rotation of pastures or allowing the grazing of hayfields can help.
The harvest of winter wheat and oats is typically complete throughout the nation. In the northern states, the spring wheat is coming in, and the great cabbage and cauliflower harvests have usually begun.
As breeding time approaches for goats and sheep, remember that aromatic plants such as thyme, mint and clover are said to be conducive to fertility in mammals.
The pulse of the earth - high pressure systems
Major high pressure systems cross the United States an average of once every five to six days, and 60 to 65 systems pass through the Ohio Valley in a year. Fronts move more quickly in the colder months; October through March can bring up to eight waves of high pressure every 30 days. The warmer months between April and September are more likely to have six or fewer fronts; June, July and August sometimes only produce two or three significant systems.
This regular pulse that characterizes the planet’s atmosphere was first recorded in detail by 16th century almanackers. It still forms the basis for annual predictions in today’s commercial almanacs, and can be used by anyone who keeps a weather journal to gauge the likelihood for rain or sun, heat or cold on any given day.
Within the rhythm of the earth’s breath across the countryside, there are seasonal shifts that occur at certain predictable intervals. The fifth front of the year, for example, is often followed by pleasant weather, the January thaw. The last high pressure bank of January is also relatively mild, bringing a warm-up near Groundhog Day. Early Spring, when pussy willows start pushing out and snowdrops bloom, arrives after the eleventh cold front of the year near February 15.
Every season turns on a specific weather milestone which develops at a specific time and is predictable within a couple of days. Changes in plants, animals and even people keep pace with those events and can be measured by them. The weather year unfolds then as a dynamic metronome, a resource of cadence and balance. Listen to Poor Will’s radio almanack on podcast any time at www.wyso.org.