An entire blog devoted to the weather and nature - wow. I must have been lucky today! I asked last week if spring ever comes to the Allgäu, and of course the answer is yes. But how are the signs similar and how are they different? In SC in the upstate where I was raised, there were two signs of spring - one was the deep purple of a small flowering tree and the other was the blooming Forsythia, usually in late March to early April. In Houston, where it was never winter and spring only lasted two weeks, it was the swarming of the ants, love bugs and tulips that came up in early February. In Summerville, it was memorable with all of the wisteria. Flowertown would come alive under its appropriate nickname, and azaleas would rule the day. This is all in early to mid March. But even here in late March, there are signs that spring will come.
Today, and much of this week, will be pleasantly warm, by the standards of the area. The sun is out, the sky is blue, and temps are to climb to 50 degrees or so. Now this doesn't necessarily sound warm to you, perhaps, but to the people here who have been living in mid 30s or less since November, it really is quite warm. Along with the sunshine, which is ever more present with each day (remember, we are gaining about 22 minutes on average per week), it is set to be a banner first half of the week. And with these brief warm ups in March, spring is beginning to show its first signs.
I believe I have already mentioned the little crocuses coming up in the park along with some snowdrops, but I have also seen robins and other little birds, whose names I can't find, come out in force. The trees are all beginning to show little nobs that will someday soon sprout forth the leaves of spring. Some bushes and vines low to the ground definitely are on the edge of blooming, and as the snow melts away, the green, green pastures are revealed. Interestingly enough, the pastures never seem to turn a winter brown, rather they seem to stay green year-round. Lastly, we are seeing a return of the fly. Here, because of the dairy farming, flies abound. Like in South Carolina, spring seems to come in fits and bursts. I think, though, the bursts are shorter lived and the signs more subtle. (We are expecting snow and a return to 30s for highs as of Thursday and for the next ten days after that.) Only the plants and some animals seem to be mildly different, but overall, it seems very similar.
I had wanted to be a little more scientific in the explanation of plants and animals that are common in the region in spring, but after 2 hours of searching, I must admit, that on this blog, I will have to give up. I simply can't find the information. I did find, however, a very interesting paper from the Federal Ministry for the Environment in Germany that talks about the climate changes that have been recorded and that are predicted for this very specialized part of the world. We are at the base of the foothills to the Alps - a mountain area that is quite small in terms of world climate but that is vastly affected by the changes being seen around the world. This area is considered complex terrain. It goes from a low of 400 meters to a high of nearly 3000 meters. There are mountaintop glaciers with only exposed rock, down to mountain meadows, to forest lands to lowland river valleys and bogs. Many of the different types of climate are represented here with the exception of tropical and desert regions. And in many areas, there is also permafrost that is no longer so "perma"nent.
The most notables change for this region, though, is not overall precipitation, which on average is not expected to change much, but rather the time of year and intensity of precipitation along with the form of the precipitation. Already, warmer winters have amounted to more rainfall than snowfall. In addition, the rainy time of year has now shifted so that most of the rainfall falls in the autumn and winter. Summers are dryer and warmer, but not significantly warmer; however, extreme weather events are becoming more common. It is not uncommon now to have heat waves that would have been tempered by rain in the past. It is also not uncommon to have winters without snow or extreme cold spells followed by significant warm spells. We were told that within the last couple of years, there was one winter that only saw around 2 inches of snow and the temperature never really got below freezing. In nearby Oberstdorf, in January of 2007, the annual ski jump competition had to be cancelled due to lack of snow. In the summer of 2003, one of the hottest heat waves on record occurred. It was in conjunction with a severe drought over the area. The increased sun and lack of rainfall over a 10 month period that started in February marked the lowest levels of discharge the Danube had seen since 1840 by that autumn. Ironically, the year prior was marked with torrential flooding and the winter leading up to the drought had been damp and cool.
Regions that are more susceptible to these extreme fluctuations pay the highest price for climate change. Alpine regions like the Alps and extreme northern/southern and polar regions change the quickest, leaving the plants and animals (including the humans) with no choice but to adapt, move, or die out. Many specialized plants and animals die out in these areas due to the rapidity of the change. Edelweiss, the beloved and rarely seen alpine meadow flower, may be one of the hardest hit, according to the World Wildlife Fund. This and other similarly fragile plants in the area simply will run out of ground. Many plant species that don't die out due to the rate of change will move to higher ground as the climate warms; but in this case, this flower and many others like it, are already at the top, so as the glaciers melt and overall patterns become warmer, these flowers will simply die out. Animals that depend on these types of specialized vegetation will likewise have to adapt or become extinct. We plan to hike a lot once the weather gets warmer, and if we get into shape well enough, we may get to hike some of these higher alpine regions. I hope, before we go, that we get to see one of these rare plants in the wild. It may not be long before it remains only in the words of a familiar song.
The word for today is spring: der Frühling (froo ling and trumpet those lips! Springtime is das Frühjahr and literally means early year.)
The question of the day is "Do the Germans celebrate St. Patrick's Day?" I know I will be in my green (or orange), regardless.
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
