Windy days and broken trees

On Friday, May 4th, the weather station at Leslie Park recorded sustained windspeeds of 38 mph. Unfortunately, this created a problem in the orchard between #6 and #8. Two of the original pear trees from Dr Leslie's orchard were blown over. Both were hollow and predated the golf course. The expected lifespan of a pear tree is around 50 years, so this is not a surprise. 

One of the downed trees. You can see the other in the background.

You can read about our efforts to maintain the spirit of the orchard HERE. Basically, every year we try to replace around 10 of the pear trees. When the golf course was built, there was a 12 tree by 12 tree section that was left. This meant that at least 144 pear trees, plus around 25 cherry trees were a part of the golf course.

Ten years ago, there were less than 90 of these trees left. Now, through attrition of new trees and the death of the old trees, we have almost filled all of the empty spots.

A new pear tree next to the old stump.

On May 30th, the windspeeds only reached 28 mph, but that was enough to topple this old oak tree between #11 and #13. 

It was kind of big.

And also hollow.

In this picture from 2103, you can see the lean that the tree had.

Due to the tree's size, we will not be able to do anything with the trunk until the ground is frozen. Until that point, the tree will remain were it fell. Luckily, it is mostly out of the way.

March 2017 Weather Summary

The high temperature for the March was 76.9 degrees. (Mar 24th) while the low was 12.5 (4th.) Eighteen days had low temperatures below 32 degrees while 8 days never got above the freezing point. In February, by contrast, we only had 4 days that never got above 32.  The average temperature was 36.2 degrees, which was three tenths of a degree below February.

There were 10 days of rain recorded by the weather station. The monthly total was 3.48 inches. Seven days saw more than a tenth of an inch of rain and the 30th had the most rainfall with 1.29 inches.

Average windspeed was 4.3 mph. The highest recorded sustained windspeed was 41 mph, on the 8th, which was the day that saw numerous power outages around the state. It also knocked over a few trees at the golf courses as well as dislodging the power lines behind the Leslie Clubhouse, resulting in the power pole catching on fire!

April Weather Summary

April 2012 was decidedly different from last April.

April 2011 had rain. Lots of rain. While at Leslie Park, we only had 4.86 inches of rain, many places in southeast Michigan had over 6 inches. This April we had 2.04 inches. The average amount of rain for the month is 1.85 inches. We would have been below normal except for the 0.52 inches we had on April 30th. In 2011, April had 19 days of rain. This year, there were only 9. The maximum daily rain was 0.78 inches on the 15th.  4 days had over a tenth of an inch.

The maximum temperature was 77.1 degrees. It happened on the 15th. ( In March of 2012, we had three days above 80.) The mean temperature was 48.5 and the low was 26.5 (29th.) Leslie Park had six days were the low dipped below the freezing point.

The average wind speed was 4.5 mph. The highest sustained wind speed was 37 mph. Five days had max wind speeds above 30 mph.