Weather Eye: In glory of a warm fall, watch Nature for signs of winter

Delightful weather continues. Oh, aren’t we blessed? I mean, does it really get any better in fall than this?

Today will be another fine day with highs in the 75-80 degree range much like Saturday. Thursday and Friday mornings were, downright chilly with lows hovering near 40 degrees and reports of a few upper-30s out near Moulton Falls.

But it is that time of the year. The pumpkins are lying in the fields, vines withered away awaiting that first frost-on-the-pumpkin verification. Won’t be long, I’m sure.

I’ve had more reports of trees with a heavy harvest — apples and now horse chestnuts. I already mentioned the maples, firs and holly loaded with seed pods. So what else is nature up to?

Weather observer Ellen Smart, overlooking the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, sent me this email observation on a chilly Friday morning: “I drank my early cup of tea this morning on my terrace overlooking the Refuge, realizing I’d have been a lot warmer with wooly socks and hat along with winterish bathrobe watching as the world turned and the sun eventually reached the Oregon hills. Brrrr. Today there were thousands of geese flying in. Thousands. Are we in for an early cold winter?” Can you picture that setting? Oh, by the way, she adds that she is still harvesting tomatoes there.

Tom Dixon, weather observer in Amboy, read my column Thursday and sent an email about my sighting of spider webs: “I observed an interesting spider web this morning here in Amboy that originated in a tree approximately 10 feet off the ground and stretched across our driveway approximately 20 feet. The web reached our cherry tree at a height of approximately six feet. My question is, how did this little guy do this? I did not see any vertical webs/supports to aid his construction, so how did he make this span without contacting the ground?”

Nature never ceases to amaze me. So much going on around us, and unless we stop and concentrate, we miss all the action. Yep, Nature is getting ready for the upcoming winter. Despite some expert predictions of a mild winter, looking at nature, I will definitely call for a chilly one. Watch out for those webs!

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com.

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