Freakishly Warm Christmas Eve

It was a freakishly warm Chrismas Eve. The warmest temperature we saw was 69 in our car when driving through Richmond. Indeed it was above 60 most of the day, at least in the Champlain Valley. Our house in Montpelier was only 60 for a short time. In any event it was eerie to be out in the warm and there were even convective clouds floating about that looked like they could produce a thunderstorm (though I did not hear thunder).

The odd weather must be affecting the local ecosystems, but the only plants I saw that seemed to be leafing out were a few invasives, so if they get toasted by the cold later in the winter I won't be crying. I did find a moth caterpillar. We walked through a park in South Burlington on mostly clay soils. Most was field or old-field redcedar and white pine, but there was a nice hardwood forest with a few ledges (Transition Hardwood Limestone Forest by the ledges, probably, with clayplain forest elsewhere). There were some big sugar maples and a big red oak and shagbark hickory. There are probably some nice spring ephemerals and calciphyle plants during the growing season, but despite the warmth those were hidden under the leaves...

Anyone else seen odd effects of the warmth?

Posted on December 25, 2015 03:52 AM by charlie