Parched on the edge of a record
Denver plants that are supposed to be brown, scraggly and dead this time of year are instead green, flourishing and alive. From dandelions and pansies to trees and lawns, plants are popping up, budding and thriving, clearly feeling confused about when they’re supposed to go dormant this season — if at all.
A 65-day dry spell has had plants and people behaving as if it’s October, not midDecember. Unless a storm moving in late Wednesday and into Thursday delivers precipitation — and forecasters say there’s a better-than-even chance — Denver could be on its way to breaking its 69-day record of no moisture. Should the city stay dry through Monday, the streak will have reached 70 days.
It has been so dry that city of Denver parks workers this week dusted off their tools to aerate grass at Civic Center and turned sprinklers back on for a few days to help the lawn weather the dry spell. Experts recommend giving residential trees and shrubs a deep watering, too.
“You can see the grass is still kind of green,” said Scott Gilmore, deputy executive director for Denver Parks and Recreation. “That’s not because we’ve been watering it in the last week. It’s because of the weather pattern we’ve been experiencing. The grass is still thinking it’s almost fall.”
It’s unusual for the city to irrigate in December, Gilmore said.
“We’re just trying to re-create some of the more natural weather patterns,” he said. “We’re trying to give them the mois-
ture that they normally would’ve gotten in the winter.”
Residents, too, are noticing the warm, dry weather. Some joggers are wearing shorts — and going shirtless — and others are spending more time on golf courses than on the slopes.
Denver resident Sarah Gardner enjoys the warm days for the most part, but she’s looking forward to winter’s return. She has turned to biking the Front Range because the ski terrain has been bleak. “The concerned Colorado citizen is not OK,” Gardner said. “I like to ski, I would like some powder days. I haven’t been encouraged to go up there and dust off my powder skis. This isn’t normal. It should be snowing.”
Austin Wilkes, a Georgia transplant living in Denver the past six years, said he’s fine with the current weather.
“I’ll do this all year,” he said.
But many locals recognize that this has been a different kind of December.
“I saw some people watering their grass in our neighborhood,” said Gardner, an environmental consultant. “I was like, ‘Uh, it’s not summer.’ ”
Gilmore and Erin Bird, the communications manager for Denver Botanic Gardens, encouraged residents to water their lawns, trees and shrubs.
But, they cautioned, do not turn sprinklers and irrigation systems back on. Lawns should be watered using a hose or a sprinkler attachment. It’s important to pay closer attention to the trees, especially the newly planted.
Hydration is especially important for young trees that are 1 to 2 years old and haven’t established a hardy root system yet. Gilmore said young trees should be deep-root watered in the early afternoon at least once or twice a month during a normal season. Twice a month is ideal during a dry spell.
“If it’s winter and above freezing … and we haven’t had snow in a couple of weeks, then it’s wise to give everything a little water,” Bird said. “Just a little boost when it’s normally getting precipitation from snowmelt.”
The last time Denver saw measurable moisture was Oct. 9, when 2.8 inches of snow fell at Denver International Airport. Since then, it has been dry and unusually warm. The first 12 days of December have been very warm in Denver, which has averaged 40.9 degrees — 10.3 degrees above normal for the month.
Russell Danielson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Boulder, said snow and cold aren’t too far off. He said Denver could see 1 to 2 inches of snow overnight into Thursday.
Even if the dry spell continues for a few more days, Danielson said it’s too soon to fret about a drought.
“I would say it’s a month out before we start worrying about it too much,” he said. “We’re expected to get a weather pattern in place toward the end of December, so we should be fine.”
Major temperature swings are the kiss of death for plants. So far this year, at least five trees at Civic Center park have died from warm weather followed by a cold snap, Gilmore said.
Gilmore said Denver parks workers first blew out the sprinklers in October and then turned them back on last week. They plan to blow them out again Friday after watering the grass for a week.
“Hopefully, we don’t have to start it back up,” he said.