Frost in the Finger Lakes

More climate weirdness, this time in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York. After record warmth caused rapid growth, frost may have severely damaged their crops. 

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Arctic blast

With the cold weather, we've finally been able to drive and walk without sinking in the vineyard again. Alex has been installing cross wires, the last stage before we can train the remaining vines. But today it was so cold we couldn't work there. We are experiencing weather we have never seen before. Temperatures plunging well below 0C for more than a week, fog lifting from the ocean and freezing, drifting as ice fog before it settles as black ice on the roads and paths and vegetation. Driving conditions are treacherous. 

It is beastly cold but thankfully, there's little wind. And it's supposed to last all week. We haven't had really cold weather like this in years. Wednesday, it's supposed to drop to -8C (~17F). I hope the vines can take it. At least some of the pests may be destroyed.

But apparently, Ireland is no stranger to abysmally cold weather. There have been cold snaps recorded since early Christian times. 

Winter has arrived

Met Eireann has delivered a frosty National Outlook for the coming week. Today was brilliantly sunny, but the cold has begun to descend upon us. Tonight will be our first significant frost, and it will continue to get colder through the week. I even picked out the word #sniachta in the Irish language forecast today. The skies have been clear enough to see the moon and the ISS passing near it. Wednesday will be the Cold Moon. 

This is a jet not the ISS which appears as a moving star.

I cannot believe it's already well into December -- time seems to be accelerating. November turned out to be similar to the prior two years, with average rainfall and mild temperatures.

Alex had been installing the crosswires so we could finally train the vines properly on the trellises, but it got too wet to drive on the land or to even walk it. Here is the forecast for the coming week:

Overview: Very cold with widespread frost and icy stretches on roads. Plenty of dry weather is expected but there will be wintry showers at times, particularly in the north and northwest.

• Tuesday night: Very cold with widespread frost, as temperatures drop to between -3 and +2 degrees. It will be generally dry and clear and there will be a light northerly wind.
• Wednesday: Cold with temperatures only reaching 2 to 5 degrees, in a light north to northwest wind. It will be dry and sunny in most places, but there will be scattered showers in northern and western coastal areas. The showers will turn increasingly wintry later in the day, with snow likely on high ground.
• Wednesday night: Bitterly cold with temperatures falling below zero degrees countrywide and as low as -3 or -4 degrees in some places. There will be a widespread sharp to severe frost and ice on untreated surfaces. Showers will fall as sleet or snow in some areas.
• Thursday: Very cold with temperatures remaining in low single figures. A mix of sunny spells and well-scattered showers of sleet, snow and hail. 
• Thursday night: Another bitterly cold night with widespread sharp to severe frost and icy stretches. Minimum temperatures of -4 to -2 degrees in a light north to northwest wind. Most areas will be dry and clear but there will be wintry showers at times near the coast.
• Friday: Staying very cold with temperatures remaining in low single figures. Mostly dry with sunny spells, but wintry showers will persist near coasts, especially in the north.
• Further outlook: Little change expected for the weekend; staying very cold with some wintry showers and widespread frost by night.

 

Everyone is dormant.

Third heatwave hits California

Miguel Ramos, of Salem, Oregon, reaches up to pull the leaf canopy over pinot noir grapes on Thursday, July 8, 2021, to shade the fruit from the sun, at Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner, Ore. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

People started to prepare for the third record-breaking heatwave of the season throughout the West coast. Workers in several West Coast wineries are trimming less of the leaf canopy to keep the grapes shaded and prevent sunburn.

Temperatures have soared into the triple digits in California, Arizona and Nevada. Hundreds of deaths have been recorded as attributable to the heat. OSHA adopted a heatwave standard to protect outdoor workers from heat-related illness. Oregon and Washington were among the first states to adopt the new OSHA emergency rule for employees working in extreme heat.

Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, TS Elsa, which had been the first hurricane of the season, fizzled as it brought heavy rains and flooding to the US East Coast. Compared to last year, it has been a most unusually quiet season in the Atlantic. It's almost like waiting for the fuse to reach the powder keg. 

Scientists say human-induced climate change is definitely what is causing the West Coasts' disastrous heat and drought. Meanwhile, scientists also believe that anthropomorphic climate change was also at fault of the 'catastrophic' French frost that decimated one-third of the crop in Burgundy, Champagne and the Loire valley. The frost also affected our growing region and everything is about a month late  this year. 

For us, it's been an unusually cold and dry early summer, so the grapes still have not flowered. But everything started growing exponentially last week and the grass definitely benefited from its first trim in a while. Alex is getting used to the new Kubota UTV which purrs along quietly at slow speed. The mower machine is separately petrol-powered and very annoyingly loud. I hope the one we ordered is more environmentally friendly. But now that we have this UTV, Alex has mowed the vineyard, the field, and even deployed the lobster pots using the UTV to deliver them to our boat, Moytura. And the benefits are already evident. 😎

Late Frost in Texas

The vineyards in Texas have suffered this year. The state, which normally doesn't need to heat homes with the oil it produces, had prolonged severe cold this year and now the latest frost recorded ever. North Texas and High Plains regions hit low temperatures on the night of April 20-21. By the third week in April in “normal” years, vineyards are well on their way to producing a large percentage of the grapes grown in Texas. Some vines would be blooming, others beginning to set clusters, and the threat of frost would be in the distant past. 

The 'winter freeze' which lasted from February 9-17 already did some damage in parts of the Lone Star state. The cold temperatures were the equivalent of a Spring frost for the Gulf Coast region as vines had started to set buds there and in the Rio Grande River valley had already had bud break. To the east and south, some vines were closer to bud break and, therefore, had more potential for cold temperature damage. According to the National Weather Service, the average date of the last freeze in the Dallas area is March 12. 

Pruning time again

 

We've had a hard frost the last few days and beautiful sunny weather so it was time to start pruning the vines. I cleared the grass and staked two rows of three-year-old vines while pruning them. It was the first major pruning for these vines. A row of chardonnay is not doing terribly well. I think some of the vines are in a dip or flat area of the field and they may be drowning. The white Solaris vines are looking good for the most part and are approaching the point where the height of the main trunk has reached the top of the stick. There has been some wind damage to loose vines being whipped by wind and breaking. I corrected most of that. 

We've applied for farm status and an agricultural grant for farm equipment. Alex will be buying more metal poles and stringing wires in the 3-year-old area over winter. If the grant comes through, we'll be buying an ATV-like vehicle with mower attachment and trailer to mow and carry supplies and harvest. 

We couldn't get a shed without planning permission so we've delayed that. We're thinking about erecting a small greenhouse to house the equipment. That would be helpful as we've run out of room elsewhere. 

Winter has arrived

It snowed on Croagh Patrick and Nephin so the higher elevations were white a couple of days ago. Then it rained - a lot. Then came the cold. Two nights of heavy frost, the first with heavy fog. But two days of freezing overnight temps are good for the vineyard. All the leaves are down. I was shocked to see some grapes still edible and some flower buds still trying to open. 

It's been a strange autumn. Lots of stuff blooming when it shouldn't. Lots of wind. Lots of rain. Dramatic.

Alex has written his grant submission and submitted it to Teagasc for review. They are favourably disposed and made a few good suggestions. We are planning to add a shed for equipment storage and for wine production. Next will be an application for winemaking approval.