Uh-Oh…Major Christmas Snow?

Good morning,

Gooseberry Falls in Winter

We are looking at and watching a major snowstorm that is aimed at Minnesota for Christmas Eve through the day after Christmas. It appears now to be packing a foot or more of snow over those three days. Much can change between now and then, but it’s not a bad idea to start thinking about it now.

Quercus, Inc. provides our snow clients with a bevy of information about future and past snow events. Here is our latest Wrap Up email following Sunday’s snow. You can find more information at Quercus, Inc.’s Snow & Ice Management Journal.

A small event is working its way through the area tonight leaving an inch or so of snow between midnight and noon tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Brad

Updated Winter Outlook

Good Monday morning to all! I hope you had a great weekend – or at least a great Sunday in Minnesota.

We drove to Iowa over the weekend to help my family with harvest but the wettest, coldest (by 4 degrees!) early October in recorded history didn’t allow for any combining to happen.

A couple of months ago I wrote about a couple of winter weather predictions. The National Weather Service has updated its winter outlook with a few tasty tidbits. They are still predicting a warmer winter. El Nino averages 3 degrees warmer than other years. However the precipitation is tough to predict from an El Nino with swings from 17″ in 1984-85 to 84″ in 1991-92. They have solidified their equal chances for above or below average precipitation this winter.

Our fall cleanups are also running far behind schedule this year due to the impressively wet fall. The leaves are finally falling, but yesterday and today have been the first days we have gotten out to work on cleanups and it looks like the rest of the week will be a bust as well.

Have a great week!

Brad

Frost/Freeze Tonight

And it begins…

Snowy Bridge at Memorial Park in Shakopee, MN

National Weather Service is calling for freezing weather across much of Minnesota tonight with lows in the low 30s in the Twin Cities. However, they have added the nice little fact of accumulation up to 1″ in spots for Friday night/Saturday! I can’t imagine it will stay on any hard surfaces but we are at that time of year when crazier things have happened.

With all the rain we have gotten, plants should be in decent shape but be sure to water your evergreens well before the ground freezes solid. Evergreens (pines, spruce, yews, rhododendrons, etc.) use water all winter long and need a good supply of groundwater going to come out still green and not all brown and crispy.

Don’t forget to brave the cold for Shakopee Chamber along with Shakopee Park and Rec’s annual Pumpkins in the Park on Saturday at Memorial Park starting at 4:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

Have a great night!

Brad

Landscaping for Water Quality

Good morning!

Today I am giving a presentation titled “Designing and Maintaining Your Landscape to Protect our Lakes and Rivers” for Ryan Companies at their Brown Bag seminars. They use these seminars on different topics to promote Work/Life Balance and I am happy to help out.

I hope to post the presentation on here in the near future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are the slideshow notes.

Brown Bag Seminar

Also, visit our knowledge base for more resources on landscape for water quality.

Have a great day!

Brad

Hearts and Hammers This Saturday!

Hi all,

Hearts and Hammers has come up quickly! Here is a little video of this year’s home and also a sheet with directions and details. Have a great week!

Click picture to download detail and directions sheet.

Brad

Winter Weather Prediction #2 – Farmer’s Almanac Calls it ‘Bitterly Cold & Dry’

Today was a big day for weather news. MPR reported that we were 1.6 degrees below normal for the meteorological summer, multiple locations hit record lows with freezing cold (27 in Embarrass) and – are you ready? – the Farmer’s Almanac released its winter predictions. It ain’t pretty for

Minnesota.

I love their word choices: “numbingly cold temperatures” and “this winter will see more days of shivery conditions.” In short, the Farmer’s Almanac is calling for most of Minnesota to be bitterly cold east of a line from Fargo to Windom to Des Moines with Very Cold and Snow to the west. Southern plains are to be colder and wetter while the east and west coast range are generally warmer and wet with California/Nevada mild and dry. Don’t forget, the Farmers’ Almanac proclaimed they were ‘On the Money’ with last year’s prediction.

I get a kick out of these predictions but put absolutely no stock in them whatsoever. It is interesting that the Farmers Almanac is about opposite of NOAA, who is expecting warmer than average temperatures and average precipitation.

Have a great day!

Brad

Oh – and here is the link to buy the Farmers’ Almanac if you were left craving more.

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