Parts of the Southeast have a winter storm warning in effect for late Friday night and early Saturday morning. The various TV weathermen have been showing snow cover forecasts for north and central Georgia that sometimes include us and sometimes don’t.
This is what it looked like Thursday morning from our bedroom window.
I don’t know whether this is what an impending snowstorm looks like; I suspect not.
We had almost two inches of rain over the last week. It fell as a slow, soaking rain, which was what we needed. The days were foggy and dreary, which I kind of like, at least for short periods.
It was not enough. When we aren’t in drought conditions, a rain like we had would result in lots of runoff. When I walk the dogs there should be a constant background rushing sound from the many wet-weather streams draining off the mountain. After this rain, only one stream was running, and not very strongly.
I suppose that means the rain soaked in, which is good for the plants (no plants in our yard — too dry to plant them). Unfortunately, it seems that it’s too late for some of the pines on the mountain. As we walk and drive around the mountain, we see a fair number of cases where all the needles have turned brown on the pines. Here are some by our driveway.
There are several others around the yard. There are lots of others across the mountain. There is no apparent pattern, at least as far as I can tell. Most of the dead or dying pines are shortleaf, but that’s to be expected since most of the pines on the mountain are shortleaf. There are a few dead loblollies down at the bottom of the mountain, and a small stand of non-native white pines is dying, so it’s not just a shortleaf pine problem.
I don’t really know whether they are dying from drought stress or some kind of infestation, or possibly a combination of the two, or even some other cause I’m not aware of. The numbers are not huge; I estimate very roughly that it’s only around a percent of the total, maybe not even that much. But it’s enough to be noticeable.
I am also worried about the multitude of dogwoods on the mountain. Quite a few turned brown during the summer. Those have not lost their leaves as in a normal year; the dead leaves are still hanging on. It’s not my field, but I think it’s possible that the trees died before the natural process of leaf loss. I hope not. Maybe someone who knows more about it can tell me.
It will be several months before we can tell the extent of the drought effects. We ended 2016 almost a foot below average. It’s going to take a while to make up for that discrepancy.
In the meantime, I don’t expect to wake up Saturday morning to a snowy view of Rome in the distance, but I’m keeping the camera handy.
Winter storm warnings everywhere it seems. Glad to see you’ve had enough good soaking rain get into the ground there. Sure hope some of those dogwoods survived. Spring will tell us so much this year. It’s been raining like crazy here. I think we’re going to miss that “atmospheric river” headed to the central coast. I’m relieved about that. We’re already way above normal for rainfall this year, and we’ve got a week ahead that’s full of it.
Robin — Atlanta got more snow than we did. I’m ambivalent about that. I love a nice, heavy snow, but I’m ready for better weather shortly after it falls.
We’re glad of the rain, too, and we all hope the dogwoods survive. Dogwoods are one of my favorite trees.
The little dogwood I planted last fall died during the summer drought. When I moved in permanently in September, I got a replacement (since it was less than a year old). It promptly lost all its leaves. I had the guy from the nursery come look at it, which he did for free since they’d planted it less than two weeks earlier. He told me it was still alive, and that twice a week I should turn the hose on low and just soak it for 20 minutes. I did, and it made it through the fall. We’ve gotten a lot of rain in December, and a couple of inches of snow from this “storm”. The dogwood seems in good health. Funny, the maple I planted last fall never seemed affected – it came through the summer with all its leaves. And it’s only twenty feet or so away from the dogwood. Nature!
Karen — I really hope our dogwoods survive. I’m seeing more dead pines in the yard right next to what look like healthy pines. I am not sure what’s going on, but I’m pretty sure the drought has something to do with it. Even through it’s been wet here, we really haven’t had nearly enough rain to end the drought.