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Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome
Weather Data - new info May 21
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Summary by Tom Priddy meterologist in the UK College of Agriculture  Listen
to Tom Priddy's Summary (wav
file)
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KYWKCR01 annual01.txt |
| Kentucky
Monthly Temperature Departure
Interpretation by Tom Priddy Listen
to Tom Priddy (wav
file) |
Kentucky
Monthly Rainfall Departure
Interpretation by Tom Priddy Listen
to Tom Priddy (wav
file) |
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| Kentucky Weekly Temperature Departure | Kentucky Weekly Rainfall Departure |
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| 2001 MRLS
Degree Days
Interpretation by Tom Priddy; Listen(wav
file);
Definition of Degree Day; Listen(wav
file) |
2001 March-April MRLS Degree Days |
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Tom Priddy interprets "Kentucky Monthly Temperature
Departures April 2000 - April 2001"
(audio)(wav
file)
Over the past six months, temperatures in Kentucky have been all over the place. Everybody remembers that November and December were extremely cold... possibly the coldest November and December we've experience in the last 107 years. And certainly different from the previous three winters. As we moved into January we experience more normal temperatures, but as we went into February the temperatures shot up and we experience temperatures averaging five degrees above normal, but temperatures flip-flopped when we got into March and we were nearly 5.4 degrees below normal. By the time we got into April, we had this tremendous explosion of heat and heat units increasing biological activity across the state and we were 3.5 degrees above normal for April... for the whole time period we have been just slightly below normal.
Tom Priddy interprets "Kentucky Monthly Rainfall
Departures April 2000 - April 2001"
(audio)(wav
file)
Looking back over the last eight months in Kentucky ... the rainfall departures out of those eight months we have had only two months (December of 2000 and Febraury of 2001) where we had above normal rainfall. The other six months have been below normal rainfall for all of Kentucky. We came out of the drought season last fall really thinking we were in good shape and we made it through the winter with two months of above normal rainfall and were lulled into thinking that we don't have to worry anymore. But that in fact was not the case because by the time we hit April we had our tenth driest April and our fourth driest March and April since 1941 so we moved through that time period on a downward spiral.
Tom Priddy interprets "MRLS Degree Days Base
50 for 2001"
(audio)(wav
file)
"Probably the best way to look at how an explosive a growing season
we had starting at the first week in March is to look at growing degree
days, and we've coined "Growing Degree Days Base 50 MRLS." The first week
in March we were considerably below normal on accumulating those heat units
because March was a very cool month. But by the time we got into
the second day of April we had this explosion of temperatures such that
we increased... the red line shows that we increased in one week 200 MRLS
degree days in a one week period. And the next week even though we
had some frost in the second week of April we continue to go above normal
in an explosive manner such that by the end of April we'd accumulated a
tremendous amount of heat units.
top
(audio)(wav
file)
A degree day is really a dimensionless number that we use to relate
growth of corn for example or growth of insects. We use it also for
heating degree days and cooling degree days. Basically what we do
is take the day's maxi-min temperature, divide that by two, come up with
the average temperature and subtract some base from it. For the purposes
of this study, the MRLS degree days, we used base 50. That may be
changed at some point in time. For alfalfa weevils for example we
use a base of 48. So we accumulate those daily differences over time
and we can compare that to not only last year or last week, but we can
also compare it to normal. And what this is showing is the explosive
nature of the increase of heat units that occurred starting that first
week in April this year. That implies that we had this explosion
of biological activity in the state of Kentucky."
Summary by Tom Priddy:
(audio)(wav
file)
In summary, this start of the growing season was a certainly a rare event. We had this huge temperature increase as we moved through April where we had an extremely cool March, but there was an explosive type of heat units accumulation. This was superimposed over the stress of a major drought experienced in 1999. At the same time we had major frost freeze that caused damage across the state on the 17 and 18th of April and again on the 25th with a renewal of the explosive types of temperature degree day accumulations even after that and that is way this was a very rare year.
Over
the 3 years, 1980, 1981 and 2001, there were below normal temperatures
in March and above normal temperatures during April. In each year, the
warm temperatures started during the end of March (1981) or 1st week in
April (1980 and 2001). Also, frost/freeze conditions occurred on various
dates in April for each year. During 1980, frost occurred on April 5th
and 16th...for 1981 frost occurred on April 21st and during 2001, frost/freeze
occurred on April 17th and 18th. The temperatures for April 1981 and 2001
were the 3rd and 4th warmest Aprils in the past 107 years. April 1980 was
the 23rd coldest April in the past 107 years.
LEXINGTON_WSO_AIRPORT Station ID: 154746
Conditions are :
Minimum Temperature (degrees F) less than or equal to 32 deg F
| Year
1980 1980 1981 2001 2001 |
Month
4 4 4 4 4 |
Day
5 16 21 17 18 |
Precip
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.00 |
TMax
58 56 62 42 54 |
TMin
32 32 31 28 28 |
