After a nice warm weekend with golfers afoot on Saturday it rained Sunday but it was warmish at least. A predicted dusting for Tuesday turned into snow all day and about 3 inches. Hard to tell since it was blowing 30+ mph all day. Overnight temps in the teens and snow cover reminds us it is still winter.
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| Bill O'Brien Jr diagnosing a leak. |
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| Potential subnivean tunnel? |
I often get asked "is the snow good for the course?" As with most things in life there is rarely a straight forward answer, but in short, yes. It acts as an insulating layer protecting from the extreme cold and wind. I discussed in an earlier post about how Twitter is filled with talk of people having to water their courses this winter because it is so dry. This tweet from Jared Kalina at Ballyneal in Colorado cracked me up:
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| from Twitter |
We are fortunate that we generally do not have to worry about drying out in the winter. We get a lot of rain and some snow but stay moist enough. I discussed the perils of rain on frozen ground and the damage ice can cause earlier this winter. How does snow act as an insulator? This winter I learned a bit about the interface between snow and earth. I follow this blog from Naturalist Mary Holland from Vermont. The title is Naturally Curious.
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| blog post |
From the interweb: The subnivean zone is the area between the subsurface of the ground and the bottom of the snow pack. [under the snow pack] the snow that lands on the ground sublimates; that is, changes from a solid into a gas without going through the melting stage. Sublimation is prompted by heat radiating from the earth. Warm, moist water vapor rising into the bottom layer of snow cools, condenses, and refreezes into tightly packed, rounded ice crystals. [at 8 inches of snow the subnivean zone remains within a degree or two of 32 F regardless of the temperature and weather conditions in the outside world. For the full site click
HERE
This zone is mostly described for the critters that live within it and the predators that feed on them. But it explains why snow is a great thing for turf. 32 degrees at all times. Perfect climate control. It would keep us from building feet of frost, and/or drying out. I remember one year getting almost 3 feet of snow on unfrozen ground. It lasted for almost two months and we had barely turned off color so when it melted we rolled right into spring. On a walk yesterday I stumbled upon some marks in the snow and it prompted this post.
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| intersecting paths? |
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| Beach art |
We lost another early house from the founding of the association. Possibly an original from 1964? It stayed in the family at least. Should be interesting to see what is put up in its place.
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| out with the old..... |
Next week I will be off to a conference in San Antonio. I was asked to be involved in a couple of talks again this year. One is a new light-hearted game show style talk titled The Great Debate. there are a handful of us that will debate some turf topics with another Superintendent acting as the MC/moderator. The other is a technology session happening on the trade show floor. I am sure there will be lots of activity on Twitter about it and I will more then likely be tweeting about other stuff happening at the show so follow along if you do not want to wait for a recap when I get back.
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| Technology!! |
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| Talk at the Golf Industry Show |
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