The Loss of Spring Is Disastrous
Early heat can be disastrous for people, animals, and plants. This article was originally published by High Country News . Around the middle of April, spring in the still chilly and wet Pacific Northwest seemed a long way off. Just two weeks later, though, Spokane hit a daily record of 84 degrees Fahrenheit; a month of historic heat ensued. During a heat wave that started around May 12, Portlands metro area beat records for consecutive May days over 80 degrees (nine) and 90 degrees (four). Coastal communities set records in the 90s too. Later in the month, Washington and eastern Oregon toppled even more records. Smoke drifted down from Canadian wildfires. Vegetable gardens wilted. It hardly rained. May, to Northwesterners, bore all the hallmarks of summer. Spring is notoriously fickle, but this year, the seasons transition happened faster than it almost always does, says Nick Bond, Washingtons state climatologist. It was a little bit of a whipsaw around here. Such instabilityparticularly during the shoulder seasonsis expected to rise because of climate change. Spring temperatures in the Northwest havent been warming as quickly as those in other seasons, but according to Bond, theyre catching up. After the strange start to 2023, he says, the community, including climate scientists, now appreciates, a little bit more than before, that spring matters. Without it, water supplies, ecosystems, agriculture, and more get out of whack. We got a little bit more complete and nuanced view of how all this works, Bond says. Heres what we learned from this years skipped spring: Fire and drought risk grew. In April, the Northwests snowpack looked about average. Then it did a disappearing act, Bonds office reported on June 8. Starting in early May, snow melted at record rates. Waterways flooded. That has big implications for the whole region, says Dan McEvoy, a climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center whose research includes spring heat waves : One place that will show up is in earlier fire danger. By mid-June, hundreds of acres had burned in Oregon and Washington. Another worry is drought. The National Weather Service reported that the area considered to be in drought grew in May. Much of western Washington and northwestern Oregon is expected to follow later this year. That hinges on summer temperatures, McEvoy says, but all signs point to a hot, dry summer too . Read: Nowhere should expect a cool summer Our bodies also arent ready for such early heat. In a normal seasonal cycle, by the time temperatures peak in the summer, peoples bodiesand behaviorhave had months to acclimate. Health risks rise only when the temperature is higher than the local normal. This means that in the Northwest, in May, heat in the low 90s can be dangerous, even if it wouldnt be in August. The mid-May heat wave resulted in at least 160 heat-related emergency-room visits in Oregon and Washington over four days , a rate more than 30 times higher than normal. The heat caught many people off guardeven Adelle Monteblanco, a public-health professor and extreme-heat researcher at Pacific University. Excited to test her new thermal camera, she went for a walk. I had my hat and my water bottle, and my badge of toughness, because I had lived in the South for six years, so 90 degrees aint that bad, she says. I lasted 10 minutes. I had to turn around. It was so hot that it was making it really tough to breathe. Animals struggle too. Birds and insects are just getting started in spring. Theyre emerging from winter dormancy, migrating, nestingall of which makes them especially vulnerable to sudden temperature swings and overall shifts. When heat hits during the nesting seasonMarch through early Julyyoung birds are often immobile or cant fly long distances. They can literally bake, says Joe Liebezeit, the interim statewide conservation director at Portland Audubon. He couldnt say whether that happened this Mayhis organizations rescue center was closed because of winter-storm damage, and he says that the smallest, most vulnerable species often go unnoticed. But the record-breaking heat wave in June 2020 caused what his colleagues called a hawkpocalypse of well over 100 dehydrated and injured young hawks brought there and to other centers . As early heat waves become more common, he expects that more birds will suffer. Research suggests that birds bodies and behaviors are already changing to keep up with climate change: Some species are physically shrinking , others are nesting earlier , and some are migrating sooner . But for many, those adaptations arent coming fast enough, Liebezeit says. Research indicates that bugs are even less able to adapt to extreme heat if it hits during the wrong part of their life cycle, they can go sterile or die. This May, the timing wasnt so bad, says Scott Hoffman Black, the executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The cool April meant that most pollinators hadnt emerged yet. But then, man, they came out in droves, he says. Now hes worried about what this summer might bring. Early heat and drought may mean bugs have fewer resources later in the year, which means less food for some bird species too. Farmers, however, may benefit from early warmingor some crops might, at least, and some farmers, if theyre able to take advantage of the lengthening season, says Mark Pavek, a potato agronomist at Washington State University. Some Northwest potato growers are adapting to warmer springs by getting potatoes in the ground sooner, he says, but that isnt always easyor cheap. About 60 percent of our seed potatoes come from Montana, and theres a couple of passes on the highway between here and there, Pavek says. If its too cold, they cant transport the potatoes unless its in a semi that has insulation and heaters. That adds expense. So can having more workers, earlier in the year, to plant. Read: Wheat cant catch a break right now This May, in regions such as the Columbia Basin where potatoes had already started to emerge, they really just took off growing fast, Pavek says. However, he adds, early growth also means farmers must water and fertilize their plants sooner. And overall warming trends are causing some pests to thrive, adding even more complications and costs. And big, early-season investments can be risky: Extreme heat later in the year can damage the potatoes. Even the pros and experts are sometimes not sure what to be doing, Pavek saysas conditions get harder to predict and react to, sometimes its just the luck of the draw.