Viewer Tip: Water collection and re-use systems play an important role in conserving water. A properly placed rain barrel can collect rain runoff from your roof this spring and save it for use in the summer. Just remember that birds and other animals also visit your roof, so water from a rain barrel is best used on non-food plants, like your flowers and lawn.

Season: Spring

This information is provided by ATTRA – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Learn more about efficient agricultural buildings: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/agbuildings.html

Trivia Question: What phase has been more common over the last 25 years?

a) El Niño
b) La Niña

The correct answer is a. El Niño events have become more common since the mid-1970’s. Duing the 1950’s and 1960’s, La Niña events were more common.  See below for a graph of the last 60 years of El Niño (red) and La Niña (blue) event frequency.

Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

Sources: Kim, HM et al. “Impact of Shifting Patterns of Pacific Ocean Warming on North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones.” Science 325 (2009): 77-80 and Twine, TE et al. “Effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation on the Climate, Water Balance, and Streamflow of the Mississippi River Basin.” Journal of Climate 18 (2005): 4840-4861 and Meehl, GA et al. “Current and Future U.S. Weather Extremes and El Niño.” Geophysical Research Letter 34 (2007) L20704 and Easterling, David. “Observed Climate Variability and Change.” NOAA/National Climatic Data Center. Ashville, NC: 31 January 2007 http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/Easterling-Observed-Change-Jan-07.pdf and Meehl, GA et al. “Current and Future U.S. Weather Extremes and El Niño.” Geophysical Research Letter 34 (2007) L20704 and Easterling, David. “Observed Climate Variability and Change.” NOAA/National Climatic Data Center. Ashville, NC: 31 January 2007 http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/Easterling-Observed-Change-Jan-07.pdf.

Trivia Question: Since 1970, Earth’s “green” seasons have become…

a) longer  
b) shorter

The correct answer is a. Earth’s “green” season – the combined average length of both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere green seasons – is now on average 15 days longer than it was in 1970. This trend has been linked to warmer temperatures, milder winters and higher concentrations atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Seasons: Late Winter, Early Spring

Source: Peñuelas, J et al. “Phenology Feedbacks on Climate Change.” Science 324 (2009): 887-888.

Trivia Question: During El Niño years such as this year, when the eastern tropical Pacific is relatively warm, does the Great Basin region have on average…

a. fewer frost days?
b. more frost days?

The correct answer is a. All other things being equal, the Great Basin region experiences fewer frost days during El Niño years compared to La Niña years.

Seasons: Late Winter, Early Spring, Fall

(Sources: Meehl, GA et al. “Current and Future U.S. Weather Extremes and El Niño.” Geophysical Research Letter 34 (2007) L20704 and Easterling, David. “Observed Climate Variability and Change.” NOAA/National Climatic Data Center. Ashville, NC: 31 January 2007 http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/Easterling-Observed-Change-Jan-07.pdf)

Trivia Question: During El Niño years such as this year, when the eastern tropical Pacific is relatively warm, does the Pacific Northwest have on average….

a. fewer frost days?
b. more frost days?

The correct answer is a. All other things being equal, the Pacific Northwest experiences fewer frost days during El Niño years compared to La Niña years.

Seasons: Late Winter, Early Spring, Fall

Sources: Meehl, GA et al. “Current and Future U.S. Weather Extremes and El Niño.” Geophysical Research Letter 34 (2007) L20704 and Easterling, David. “Observed Climate Variability and Change.” NOAA/National Climatic Data Center. Ashville, NC: 31 January 2007 http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/Easterling-Observed-Change-Jan-07.pdf.

Trivia Question: During El Niño years such as this year, when the eastern tropical Pacific is relatively warm, does the eastern U.S. experience on average…

a. fewer frost days?
b. more frost days?

The correct answer is b. All other things being equal, the eastern U.S. experiences more frost days during El Niño years compared to La Niña years.

Seasons: Late Winter, Early Spring, Fall

Sources: Meehl, GA et al. “Current and Future U.S. Weather Extremes and El Niño.” Geophysical Research Letter 34 (2007) L20704 and Easterling, David. “Observed Climate Variability and Change.” NOAA/National Climatic Data Center. Ashville, NC: 31 January 2007 http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/Easterling-Observed-Change-Jan-07.pdf.

Trivia Question: During El Niño years such as this year, when the eastern tropical Pacific is relatively warm, does the southern U.S. have on average…

a. fewer frost days?
b. more frost days?

The correct answer is b. All other things being equal, the southern U.S. experiences more frost days during El Niño years compared to La Niña years.

Seasons: Late Winter, Early Spring, Fall

Sources: Meehl, GA et al. “Current and Future U.S. Weather Extremes and El Niño.” Geophysical Research Letter 34 (2007) L20704 and Easterling, David. “Observed Climate Variability and Change.” NOAA/National Climatic Data Center. Ashville, NC: 31 January 2007 http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/Easterling-Observed-Change-Jan-07.pdf.

Viewer Tip: Save money and reduce waste by drinking tap water. You’ll help keep more bottles from heading to landfills, which collect millions of plastic bottles every year.  Find information about the quality of your municipal water system from the U.S. EPA at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html.

Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

This information is provided by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Learn more: www.greatlakes.org.

(Sources: Alliance for the Great Lakes “This is My Water” campaign, http://www.thisismywater.com; “State of the Great Lakes 2009,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada; Worldwatch Institute, “State of the World 2007.”)

Viewer Tip: New England Wild Flower Society recommends leaving standing dead trees, called snags, in your yard to create a habitat for owls, bats, flying squirrels and insects. As long as the snag is clear of all buildings and fences, it will provide important habitat and a great addition to the web of life in your yard. Resident owls will keep the rodent population down. Bats will keep the insect population in check. Woodpeckers, nesting chickadees and flying squirrels will add to your wildlife watching pleasures.  It’s a win-win situation!

Seasons: Winter, Spring

This information is provided by the New England Wild Flower Society. Learn more: www.newenglandwild.org.

Viewer Tip: Grasshopper outbreaks are determined by a complex interaction of several factors, of which weather is the most important. Warm and dry spring conditions encourage nymphal growth. An early spring followed by cloudy, damp weather encourages diseases that sicken and kill grasshoppers. Although grasshoppers are difficult to control, their effects can be minimized by preventive management. Turning or tilling your soil in the spring can eliminate food sources for the newly hatched nymphs. 

Season: Spring

This information is provided by  ATTRA – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.  Learn more in Grasshopper Management: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/grasshopper.html.

• Just one acre of forest puts out about four tons of oxygen – enough for four people for an entire year.
• Adding trees around your home can increase its value by up to 15 percent.
• One young, healthy tree has the same cooling effect as ten room-sized air conditioners running 20 hours per day!

Viewer Tip: This a great time to add a tree to your yard. Enter your zip code at http://www.arborday.org/treeinfo/zonelookup.cfm to learn which hardiness zone you live in and identify trees that will grow well in your climate.

Don’t have a yard? Volunteer to help plant trees in your community or take a walk and learn how to identify common trees in the Western U.S. Visit http://www.arborday.org/trees/whattree/fullonline.cfm for tree identification guides.

Season: Spring

(Source: Arbor Day Foundation. “Benefits of Trees.” http://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm)

• Just one acre of forest puts out about four tons of oxygen – enough for four people for an entire year.
• Adding trees around your home can increase its value by up to 15 percent.
• One young, healthy tree has the same cooling effect as ten room-sized air conditioners running 20 hours per day!

Viewer Tip: This a great time to add a tree to your yard. Enter your zip code at http://www.arborday.org/treeinfo/zonelookup.cfm to learn which hardiness zone you live in and identify trees that will grow well in your climate.

Don’t have a yard? Volunteer to help plant trees in your community or take a walk and learn how to identify common trees in the Western U.S. Visit http://www.arborday.org/trees/whattree/fullonline.cfm for tree identification guides.

Season: Spring

(Source: Arbor Day Foundation. “Benefits of Trees.” http://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm)

Viewer Tip: You can protect your home from wildfire by reducing the amount of flammable material between your home and a natural area. An easy way to do this is to think of your property in zones:

• Zone 1 is closest to your home and extends at least 30 feet out. This zone should be well-irrigated and planted with native plants that are well-adjusted to your climate.
• Zone 2 extends at least 20 feet from Zone 1. This zone should also be well-irrigated and can include low-growing plants and shrubs, and carefully-placed trees. Reduce risk of fire by placing trees at least ten feet apart and trimming away dead branches and branches close to the ground.
• Zone 3 is the furthest from your home and extends at least 50 feet from Zone 2. Think of this as a “slightly modified natural area.” Thin out dense areas of trees and remove dead or dying trees and shrubs.

Learn more about each zone and find additional tips for protecting your home property in “Is Your Home Protected from Wildfire Disaster?” available from the Firewise Program: www.firewise.org/resources/homeowner.htm.

Season: Winter, Spring

(Source: National Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Protection Program. “Fire Hazard Assessment in the Wildland/Urban Interface.” http://www.firewise.org/resources/nfpa/index.html; Firewise. “Is Your Home Protected from Wildfire Disaster?” http://www.firewise.org/resources/homeowner.htm)

Lane Patterson manages the South Pole greenhouse. Photo by Dan Satterfield

At the bottom of the Earth, atop a land mass covered with a two mile-thick slab of ice, sits the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station where 40 to 60 people live and work during each long, dark, bitter-cold winter. On the first floor of the station, near the end of hallway is a small greenhouse. Since 2005, this remotely-operated chamber has provided countless fresh vegetables, light and humidity to over 200 winter-over staff and scientists who have spent Southern Hemisphere winters at the coldest, darkest place on Earth. The growth chamber will feed crew members again this winter.

Lane Patterson manages the South Pole greenhouse from his office at the University of Arizona, with help from a team of horticulturalists and engineers. “Through a computer and camera, I’m able to access the chamber and assist with questions that the operator might have,” he said. The chamber grows edible plants in a soil-less hydroponics system of nutrient-rich water; cantaloupe, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, chives fresh herbs, leafy green vegetables like kale and lettuce, sunflowers, nasturtiums and other edibles thrive here throughout the year. Patterson can control the conditions inside the chamber, including temperature, light and even the hydroponic solution in which the plants grow. He communicates remotely with an assistant who maintains the greenhouse in-person at the Pole, and visits once every year or so to check on it.

The chamber provides other benefits besides nutritious vegetables. “It provides us with bright light in the dark winter. It provides us with high humidity in the dry environment. It provides us with a green environment — something that we miss for the eight months of being isolated as a researcher or someone who supports a researcher here at the South Pole.”

Staff also enjoy going into the chamber to read, relax or hang out with others. Some even reserve the room for dinner dates (there is a small table and couch in the foyer to the chamber). A humid environment, even if in a small chamber, is a welcome relief for chapped lips and dry skin. Relative humidity at the South Pole is in the single digits; in the chamber, it’s 60 percent. In addition, each staff member is allowed only two showers per week, each two minutes long. The Station’s water supply is low and conservation is important: using water requires ice to be melted. But, the benefit of using water for plant growth outweigh the use of energy to melt it.

“The growth chamber is really a big ‘growbot’ — it’s a robot that grow things,” said Patterson. It requires about 140 liters of water, sequesters about one kilogram of carbon dioxide and uses about 281 kilowatt hours of energy (equivalent to eight gallons of gasoline) per day. In turn, it produces about half a kilogram of oxygen and six kilograms of biomass (raw plant matter) each day.

The South Pole greenhouse is similar to another of Patterson’s projects at the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center: the lunar greenhouse. The South Pole project analyzes air revitalization in a remote environment that could help future greenhouse projects in space. “We’re looking at using plants to revitalize the air that a person breathes. We’re asking the questions: How many plants do you need? How much photosynthesis do you have to have? What are the resources that are needed to cycle the amount of oxygen a person breathes daily? … How it relates to the South Pole is that a Bioregenerative Life Support System on the moon, say, would be a place that if it used BLSS, it would be isolated, it would be a station with a small crew in a very dangerous environment. And that’s what the South Pole is,” Patterson said.

To learn more about the project and view photos, visit http://ag.arizona.edu/CEAC.

Broadcast meteorologist Dan Satterfield tours the greenhouse. Photo courtesy of Satterfield.

For Comparison: Two tons is about the same weight as two mature Hereford bulls.

Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall

Sources: McMahon, SM et al. “Evidence for a recent increase in forest growth.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (2010): 3611-3615 and “Forests are Growing Faster, Ecologist Discover; Climate Change Appears to be Driving Accelerated Growth.” Science Daily 2 February 2010. Accessed Online 28 February 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100201171641.htm>)

For Comparison: An equivalent to 2200 cubic miles of volume is about 36 million Great Pyramids of Giza, or about six million Sears Towers.

Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

Sources: Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, Thomas R. Karl, Jerry M. Melillo, and Thomas C. Peterson,(eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2009 and Meier, MF et al. “Glaciers Dominate Eustatic Sea-Level Rise in the 21st Century.” Science Express 19 July 2007 / Page 1 / 10.1126/science.1143906.

For Comparison: The Mongol Empire was at its peak 510 years ago, with its soldiers sacking cities as far west as Damascus. In Florence, Italy, the Medici family was building the banking empire that would revolutionize western finance.

Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer

Sources: Kitzberger, T et al. “Contingent Pacific-Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (2007): 543-548 and Trouet, V et al. “Fire-climate interactions in the American West since 1400 CE.” Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010): L04702.

For Comparison: It would take about 61,000 1200 megawatt nuclear power plants – about 140 times the number that exist around the world today – to generate 73 terawatts worth of power. This amount of power is almost 30 times the world’s current electrical generation capacity.

Seasons: Winter, Spring

Sources: Smedsrud, LH et al. “Heat in the Barents Sea: transport, storage, and surface fluxes.” Ocean Science 6 (2010): 219-234 and World Nuclear Association. “Nuclear Power in the World Today.” Accessed Online 28 February 2010 <http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf01.html>

Viewer Tip: CoCoRaHS is in all 50 states! Sign up to become a Volunteer Observer with CoCoRaHS in your state to help this network grow. You can volunteer to measure precipitation as an individual or as part of a community or school group. Check out www.cocorahs.org to learn more.

Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

(Sources: Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. www.cocorahs.org; “About Us,” http://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=aboutus)

Have you noticed salt left on our roads and sidewalks after a storm? A recent study shows that road salt is a major source of chloride in our waters. In some urban streams, chloride is found at levels that can harm fish and other wildlife.

In the mid-1950’s, highway spreaders applied about one million tons of salt to keep our roads ice-free. How much salt is applied now during a winter season? In 2008, more than 21 million tons of salt coated our highways – 20 times more than 50 years ago.  That’s nearly two million large truckloads of salt!

Viewer Tip: You can be “salt smart” at home by shoveling away as much snow and ice as possible before applying a salt product to your driveway or walkways. Only use as much salt as you need – adding more does not speed up melting.

Season: Winter

(Sources: USGS.  Mineral Commodity Summaries: 2008. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2008/mcs2008.pdf;
USGS. “Chloride found at levels that can harm aquatic life in urban streams of the Northern U.S. – Winter deicing a major source.” September 16, 2009: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2307;
Transportation Research Board. “Road Salt Use in the U.S.” http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr235/017-030.pdf.US EPA. “What You Should Know About Safe Winter Roads and the Environment.” http://www.epa.gov/ne/topics/water/pdfs/winterfacts.pdf)