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Monday, July 4, 2011

We're Back! Just in time for hail...

The past two weeks have been busy. Dan's finger has recovered, and we've almost finished the western bed (complete with experiments in bio-swales and herb spirals). Alas, we've also been pelted by hail.

Thursday was a rough day for horticulturists and arboristas (new word) of all sorts. Massive storm clouds, appearing literally out of the blue, pelted the city with 2 -inch (and even baseball sized) hail. The whole affair made for an interesting bike-ride home. (Thankfully that was with the wind rather than against it). The storm was not, however friendly to plants city wide. Our corn, squash and beans seemed to take the heaviest damage, while the strawberries, being low to the ground, escaped relatively unscathed. We're doing our best to nurse the plants back to life, though we're not sure how much success we'll have. (Many thanks to Dan for his diligent horticultural triage). If your own plants were hit by hail, there are some tips here.

Unfortunately Chicago's Garfield Park Conservatory did not escape the hail. Hail shattered a great deal of glass in the greenhouses. Click on the link to find out how you can help.

A random thought: If warmer weather increases the amount of water that evaporates from a given area over a given time period, and warmer air can hold more water, does global warming speed up hydrological cycles? If so, would it also increase the variance and/or magnitude of severe weather events (A skewed distribution more episodes of relatively greater magnitude, perhaps? And let's not even talk about auto-correlations at the moment!) All of which is to say: As the world warms, will we see more events like Thursday's in the future?

In lighter news, check this out: lightning struck the Sears Tower! Put on your best Tesla hat and Mustache and check out this out.