May I suggest that Frank Cabot, with gardens in the Hudson River Valley and near the St. Lawrence Seaway east of Quebec, may have some interesting statistics on snow cover. Shirley Meneice Boyce Tankersley wrote: >We've had a NWS weather collecting station at the Chicago Botanic Garden since the early 80's. Winter snow cover is a hit or miss event in this area. It does get very much below freezing without snow cover during an 'average' Chicago winter. > >Boyce Tankersley >btankers@chicagobotanic.org >USDA zone 5 on the west side of Lake Michigan > >-----Original Message----- >From: hornig@usadatanet.net [mailto:hornig@usadatanet.net] >Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 12:47 PM >To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >Subject: RE: snow cover; was: Re: [pbs] pushing envelopes > > >Three years ago I set up an experiment to measure the effect of snow cover, >but unfortunately winter that year was a total non-event, and so I >discovered nothing. But what I did was this (with the help of a >meteorologist friend): I dug a pit in undisturbed soil and inserted >temperature probes at three depths (don't recall exactly, but probably 12", >6", and 2"), and perched a fourth just above the soil. The pit was then >filled and watered heavily to settle the soil. A pole holding a yardstick >(for measuring snow depth), a hi-lo thermometer (for air temps), and >connectors for the probes was erected at the same site. The idea was to go >out each morning and measure soil temps at all 4 depths, the high and low >temps for the last 24 hours, and the snow depth. This would all have >worked beautifully, except that nothing of meteorological interest happened >from November through January (when I gave up taking readings) or at any >point thereafter. The idea was good, however, and I hope to try again this >winter (the last two have been quite interesting winters). > >Jim is right to suspect that soil temps tend to stay pretty balmy under a >lot of snow. After our 5' snowfall this winter, when I dug pits in front >of the greenhouses so I could open the doors (this meant I literally dug a >pit, hopped down into it, and continued digging until the door could be >freed), the soil underneath was not frozen. I've long suspected that it >rarely freezes more than 2-3" down. Hence the experiment, which really >should be repeated. > >Ellen >Seneca Hill Perennials >Oswego NY USA >Zone 5 > >Original Message: >----------------- >From: Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net >Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 13:23:15 -0400 >To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >Subject: snow cover; was: Re: [pbs] pushing envelopes > > >At 07:06 PM 6/26/2004 -0400, Ellen Hornig wrote: > > > >>We have excellent snow cover, and this is no doubt part of the >> >> >explanation. > >I envy Ellen's snow cover. Here, several hundred miles south of Ellen, >where the winters are ostensibly milder, many of the plants she mentions >are not reliable in the open garden. Eucomis, Galtonia, Crocosmia, many >Kniphofia and others simply don't survive bad winters. Snow cover here is >brief and erratic. > >Years ago I had a conversation with a Canadian agriculturist who assured me >that cold as the air might be, down under the snow cover the temperature >was close to 32 degrees F. It's hard to believe, but Ellen's success in an >area with snow cover seems to support this view. > >Jim McKenney >jimmckenney@starpower.net >Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where we don't have reliable >snow cover, but we sure do have lots of mulch. > > > > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > >-------------------------------------------------------------------- >mail2web - Check your email from the web at >http://mail2web.com/ . > > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > > >