New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
First Snow in Epsom NH.
Thursday 11/21/2024
![snow in leaves](/images/2024/first-snow-600.jpg)
October broke records for dryness. November, must we close to a record as well. Boy do our rivers and brooks show we are going into winter with a deficit of water on and likely in the ground. Yes, our hunting woods are bone dry and noisy to hunt in. And the talk of fires on the landscape has us all being more careful with our thoughts of fire. Even our wetlands are looking pretty parched.
And what a fall it has been. Certainly not what you can call a typical fall. No snow really so far. And not an inch of skim ice to be found on any nearby ponds. So, where is winter? Must have been some near record warmth this fall as well. Things sure seem different to me. And they have been different some two decades now based on my memory and a scan of a few diary pages would confirm my memory no doubt. I have been retired from the Fish and Game Department for seventeen years now and I was seeing and writing about the changes I was witnessing before I even retied from there. So, for over two decades I have been talking and writing about what I am seeing. A very much warming New Hampshire. How can anyone doubt it now? Beats me. But the forecast for doing anything to abate the changes won't come easy the next few years based on our elections. Disheartening really. Moose gone. Droughts, like the one we are in and have been for nearly a decade now, will stress our environment even more. I feel so bad for my granddaughters. And theirs. Such greed.
But on a better note, it's been a nice fall to be outdoors to enjoy so much that New Hampshire has to offer. I was picking vine ripened tomatoes from my garden well into October. Frost came the first week of September when I moved into town some forty-five years ago now. Big juicy tomatoes.
There are acorns aplenty in some places I have been this fall, but here at home, where the row of giant red and white oaks across the road from my house have not dropped a single acorn. And my row of crabapple trees has been barren for the second year in a row, while I can see trees laden with apples in my travels through the state.
It started raining pretty steady late morning here at home with a few interruptions through the day into the afternoon. Really the steadiest rain we've had in a while. As I step out tonight with the dog the rain continues to slake the Earth's dry throat.
Lately it has been a couple of these late-night dog let outs that had me feeling changes in the weather. One was over a week ago. Just as I stepped outside, probably close to midnight for the last let-out, my wind chime dinged a change was underway just as a cold blast of air enveloped me. Yes, I love to be there to sense the sudden change in weather. Sure enough, a cold front hit me with its first blast. And we had the three coldest nights of the fall so far to follow. And some skim ice. Then some days later, the same set up a late-night let-out and again a blast from the north, that rattled the wind chime once again. But this time the blast that came from True North, like the night a few nights before, but this north blush came as very warm soft kiss on my cheek like a mother gives to her newborn. How can that be I wondered. Thankfully retired weatherman Tim Kelly from Boston had the mysterious answer that perplexed me as to how a north blow could be so warm. It was actually warm air brought around a big low with this air originating south of Bermuda and carried half circle to me bringing another sort of heat wave.
Get outside. Be Wild. Live Life on the Wild Side of NH.