Goodbye, miserable March!

After a warm, but very wet February, March came in like a lion, and left like a Tyrannosaurus Rex--with more snow forecast for the beginning of April.  The term "nor'easter" was heard way too often, and we cut more grass in February than March.

As you can see below, we had 26 "red days" in March, which indicate below average daily high temperatures.  Combine that with the many days we were closed due to snow cover, along with another month of above average precipitation, and you end up with not a whole lot of good golfing weather.

While we are used to weather anomalies leading to a few days of unusually hot or cold weather, having entire months flip flop is pretty bizarre.  A remote sensor in #9 fairway shows that soil temperatures were higher throughout most of February than in March.

Is all of this weather chaos a big deal?  Well, a good bit of weed, disease, and insect activity can be correlated to soil temperatures, and growing degree days (basically, heat accumulation).  During the first 28 days of March, our growing degree count was closer to January than February.

When we accumulate more growing degree days in February than in March it has the potential to throw some of these pest prediction models out of whack.  Fortunately, in addition to growing degree days, we use multiple other sources of information to help us know what to expect and when. 

Some are predicting that the way things will even out this year, is with a nice long, hot, dry summer.  Oh joy!