WEATHER
effect on trees , shrubs , perennials and groundcovers . The extremes in soil temperature and moisture cause roots to die that are not quickly replaced , causing these plants to produce both initial and delayed responses . The most often seen symptom is an evergreen tree that turns off color due to dry soils the previous spring and summer , even though in the current year adequate soil moisture and moderate temperatures prevail .
WHAT CAN BE DONE ? MONITOR WEATHER TRENDS Having an idea of what types of extreme weather may be coming is a good way to help yourself anticipate and mitigate the effects of extreme weather stressors . The Climate Prediction Center ( CPC ) at the National Weather
Service ( https :// www . cpc . ncep . noaa . gov /) is a great place to start . The CPC provides graphical and numerical data such as the US Monthly Drought Outlook ( Figure 1 ), the Temperature Outlook ( Figure 2 ) and the Precipitation Outlook ( Figure 3 ) to help you get a glance of what may be ahead as 6-8-day , 8-14-day and 3-4-week outlooks . The temperature and precipitation outlooks can tell you if temperatures and rainfall may be higher or lower than normal and help you fine-tune your extreme weather / trouble management strategy . Learning more about El Nino and La Nina can also be helpful to help plan for longer periods of time . Much of the crazy weather changes of 2023 can be attributed to the shifting from multi-year occurrence of La Nina to a mild El Nino as the year progressed .
Figure 1 . Figure provided by Bradley R . Jakubowski
36 SportsField Management | November 2023 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com