Curling for Ice Research

Last Friday, there was a fund raiser for research on ice damage on turf. The event was put on through the Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association at the Detroit Curling Club. While we at Huron Hills and Leslie Park escaped massive turf injury, many golf courses in south east Michigan lost grass due to being under ice for up to 10 weeks last year. The Michigan Turfgrass Foundation (MTF) and Michigan State University have made it a priority to stop further issues like this in the future.

One of the ways the MTF has done this is by purchasing a Low Temperature Chamber for winterkill research. The money raised by this event will go toward more equipment and other supplies for Dr. Frank to use for this effort. (I paid for the event using my own money, no city funds were used, FWIW.)

The 32 MiGCSA members pose for a group photo.

Receiving instruction from DCC members.

Learning the finer points of sweeping the stones.

It was a lot to take in. It is not as easy as it looks.

My first try in "the hack."

The man on the right is Dr. Frank. Greg Pattinson (Superintendent at Indianwood) and I scored 7 points here against Dr. Frank and his team. There are only 8 possible points in an end, btw.

2014 Yearly Weather Summary

The highest temperature recorded at Leslie Park Golf Course during 2014 was 92.2 degrees on September 5th. The lowest temperature was just - 12.6 degrees on January 6th. There was just one day where the high temperature was above 90 degrees. On the other hand, on 67 days, the high temperature did not get above freezing. The low temperature reached below 32 degrees on 126 days for the year, or nearly 35% of the time. Twenty days had low temperatures below zero. The previous four years combined had just nine days with negative temperatures.

For the year, the golf course received 33.37 inches of rain. The most rain in a single day was 2.28 inches on June 18th. June was also the month with the most rain at 5.33 inches. There were 109 days with at least a trace of rain, while six days had over an inch in a 24 hour period.

The average wind speed for the year was 2.6 mph. The highest sustained wind speed was 44.0 mph on July 1st.

December 2014 Weather Summary

The highest temperature for the month of December was 53.2 degrees. This happened on the 14th. The lowest temperature for the month was the morning of the 31st, where we saw a chilly 14.1 degrees.  The average temp was 33.6. There were 21 days where the low temperature was below the freezing point of 32 degrees. Five days had high temperatures below 32.

December also saw 1.78 inches of rain fall. This brings the yearly total to 33.37  inches. The most daily rainfall fell on the 24th (0.95 inches.)  Four days had more than a tenth of an inch, while eight days had at least a trace of rain.

The highest sustained windspeed was 25.0 mph (Dec 3.) The average windspeed for the month was 3.2 mph.