Altona fire, critical to jack pine survival, snuffed out
"Firefighters fully contained the Flat Rock wildland fire Tuesday night after it burned 547 acres of the jack pine forest. But thatβs a good thing, said Kristopher Alberga, a regional forester with the State Department of Environmental Conservation. βOn this pine barrens in particular, itβs really essential to have periodic fires because the fire is really what perpetuates the forest here,β he said.
"Unlike most tree species, jack pines actually require fire to open their pine cones, allowing them to propagate in the ash bed below. By next summer, new jack pines should have germinated, creating new, dense thickets across much of the area, said Mark Lesser, an assistant professor of ecology at SUNY Plattsburgh. Jack pines exist in about only 20 places worldwide, including on the Flat Rock, Alberga said. Fires such as this one have taken place there five or six times there in the last 100 years."
July 19, 2018 Morning
Good morning! Happy Thursday. With today’s forecast you will be happy unless you are planning to spend it at the beach, where it might feel a bit cool. Sunny and 63 degrees in Delmar. 🌞 Calm wind. The dew point is 51 degrees.
I was running a bit late but I took a quick shower and skipped breakfast and caught the earlier bus downtown. 🏦I have a nine o’clock meeting so I couldn’t afford to be late this morning. βI’ll get some coffee when I get into the office I guess and have an early lunch.
Today will be sunny 🌞 , with a high of 82 degrees at 4pm. Typical for today. Maximum dew point of 51 at 8am. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1904.
The sun will set at 8:28 pm with dusk around 9:01 pm, which is 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for clear skies and75 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 52 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 42 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 58 degrees at 4am. Seven degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 54 at 5am. Calm wind. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It was humid. It got down to 68 degrees. The record low of 49 occurred back in 1974.
Today is going to be a really nice day. You better get out and enjoy it because the big sign in my bedroom is flashing out that there are only 15 weeks until November. 🐸 A week from now when I go on summer vacation it will feel like summer is basically done by the time I return. But in the mean time I’m looking forward to this weekends trip and then summer vacation the following weekend. Depending on the weather and my work schedule, I hope to leave from work next Friday and head out to Brookfield the first night before heading down to the Finger Lakes via Montezuma and US 20 on Saturday – just like last year.
I am a bit concerned with the 8-14 day outlook showing cool wet weather to push in for the end of the month, but I’ll try to have a good vacation regardless of the weather. 💦 Maybe the pattern will change again back to hot and dry but I’ve been concerned that I might have a bad week for vacation ever since it was so hot and dry to start out August. Everything has to balance out to the averages after time it seems. 📉 Like last year, I think I will spend the balance of the week in the Finger Lakes although I guess I could still change my mind as the week progresses. 😎
On this day, there was the Great New York City Fire of 1845: The last great fire to affect Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed 4 firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings. 🚒Always be careful with matches, in densely packed urban areas with lots of wooden buildings.🔥
Looking ahead, there are 8 weeks until State Primary Day 🗳οΈ when the sun will be setting at 7:08 pm with dusk at 7:36 pm.β Good that the sun sets relatively late on that day because that makes it easier to get to the polls on the only election that really matters in Albany County or New York State for that matter. Casting protest votes in November is fun but it doesn’t really matter. On that day in 2017, we had rain, fog, shallow fog, patches of fog, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 79 and 50 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 73 degrees. We hit a record high of 92 back in 1948.
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