Russ Steele
We got our first freeze up on Banner Lava Cap this morning, the bird bath was covered in ice. We usually do not drain the sprinkler system and prepare for winter until the middle of November. It came close to freezing on Friday so I went out and drained our outside water system. Ellen and I went to the Loma Rica Ranch Harvest Festival yesterday, and it looked to me that the bean and tomato plants had been recently frozen, maybe on Friday when it came real close to our first freeze. It is warmer on the ridge than in the lower spots like the ranch.
George Rebane sent me the picture above, the earliest measurable snowfall in Boise since recordkeeping began in 1898. Previous record was October 12th in 1969. Checking the Snowtel network, some of the Idaho passes got 16 inches of snow in this early storm. Growing up I spent many years in Cobalt Idaho, when it snowed any time. The Fourth of July morning in 1950 we woke up to five inches of snow on the ground.
With the PDO shifting back its cool phase, I think we are going back to the weather we had in the 1940s 50s, 60s, and early 1970s. The PDO shifted to a warm phase in 1976 and remained warm through 1998. This year we saw snow and freeze records set in South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. Stay Tuned, it is going to be an interesting and challenging winter.
