The heat is on 🥵🌡️🌶️
The summer solstice (this year on June 20) may mark the official beginning of summer, but around here, it starts much earlier. Realistically, our “warm season” lasts from mid-May to the end of September, give or take a week or two.
Except for a few short-lived spikes into 100°F territory, it’s been a benign summer so far. But that’s about to change. In a massive way. In anticipation of a heat dome starting Monday, July 1, the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for Tuesday through Saturday, including Independence Day. According to the forecast, “[h]ighs of 105 to 115 will be possible through much of the valley and foothills during the week.” That may not seem newsworthy in, say, Las Vegas or Phoenix, but for the Sacramento Valley, extended periods over 100°F, let alone 105°F, isn’t all that common.
Here’s the forecast for Davis:
Whenever I feel a little depressed about the weather, I look to places that are even worse off. Like Death Valley:
These temperatures may seem crazy, but they’re not even close to the all-time high for Death Valley. The highest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134°F on July 10, 1913. That is still the world record. The day-time highs forecast for Death Valley are stupefying, but the night-time lows are just as bad. At least here in Davis, we benefit from the Delta Breeze, which brings overnight temperatures down to agreeable levels.
Actually, I don't even have to go as far as Death Valley. Redding, about 150 miles north of here at the northern end of the Central Valley, is scary enough:
To prepare for this impending heatwave, I gave my plants (potted and in the ground) a good soaking this past weekend. Irrigating well in advance of high heat gives plants time to take up the water and derive maximum benefit from it. Plants that are under heat stress might shut down and not take up much, if any, water, causing them to cook when stuck in hot, moist soil.
I also covered some areas in the garden to prevent sunburn. I don’t want my plants to be disfigured, even if the damage is just temporary.
Chances are my plants would be fine without being covered, but it’s easy enough to do – and it makes me feel better.
If you live in an area routinely subject to high heat, how do you protect your plants, if at all?
Hi, Gerhardt-
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoy your blog, even though I left CA a few years ago. I'm trying to push the boundaries here in Zone 7 but that always has meant protecting my plants from winter cold, not summer heat. But now that you point it out we do see high temps and bright sunshine in the summertime. I think I may adopt your shade screen strategy. (Still have to deal with the humidity though), Thanks for the tip.
Shade screens are one thing, but nothing can lessen the humidity :-(
DeleteUgh! We're not expecting temperatures anywhere near than high, although Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist who posts information pertinent to California at weatherwest dot com, left open the possibility of an impact to the coastal areas during what he described as the "first peak" of the pending heat event. I was really torn on the issue of watering in advance based on the outside possibility of a heat blip versus the probability that we won't be hit hard. I can't forget the time we hit 113F! However, with 3 weather services saying we should remain in the upper 70s, I'm keeping to my regular watering schedule and hoping for the best. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt was 82 degrees (!) at 6 am today, July 2nd. So much for cooling off at night!
DeleteI hope you'll be spared the misery.
Well, all I can say is that you are beyond lucky to have the "Delta Breeze" in Davis. My poor plants have to struggle through temps even higher than Davis during the day and no breeze at night to cool it down below 90º plus so no breathing for them. I have some plants covered with 50% shade cloth since the beginning of June, but even that is not enough to prevent scarring on some of them. I see from the map of the Delta Breeze it covers Concord too. We almost moved to Concord 40 plus years ago. Boy, I sure wish we did at the time of year here in Phoenix!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I'm bothered by the heat, I take a deep breath and think of y'all in Phoenix. Your heat is in a different league.
DeleteWe are really scorching this week too. I think 1 or 2 degrees below yours. I put up shade cloth this past weekend, and umbrellas. I really like the window screen idea. This one is going to last a while. :(
ReplyDeleteWindow screen is a little heavier so it tends to stay put better than (flimsy) shade cloth.
DeleteI would say this will be our worst heatwave in years. I'm going to be hating life when I pay the PGE bill-looks like I'm going to have to use the AC for a full week. I used some shade cloth too-covered my Fuchsias and Dahlias this morning. It's nice to have a breeze, but we are under a red flag warning so wildfires are waiting in the wings. It was nice to have a couple years off of all this crapola-hoping this will be the worst of it for 2024.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope this will be the worst heat wave of the year. But we have a long ways to go, not only in terms of heat, but also fires.
DeleteThat last image says it all. :^( Take care outdoors. That kind of heat is dangerous.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I found that image on Facebook. It's so appropriate!
DeleteAfter cooking a few plants located underneath some carefully tented black shade cloth, I am beginning to think a lighter color would be beneficial. I wonder how burlap would work, with the added benefit of maybe soaking it in water before tenting it over the plants to provide evaporative cooling? I did the prewatering, minimal cover for this heat wave in Oregon, but some plants still either got disfigured or outright killed. Even after watering deeply, the soil in the upper 6 inches becomes powder dry within a single hot afternoon, cooking shallow-rooted plants. Several more days of this on the way.
ReplyDeleteCommercial shade cloth is always almost black. Isn't that odd? Like you, I'd think a lighter color would be better. But maybe it doesn't matter since the fabric itself doesn't retain heat.
DeleteA friend of mine used burlap to cover his plants. I'll ask him how they fared.