I just checked our burn ban map, all but two Arkansas counties are under a burn ban, one in the south and one in the southeast as of 7-5 allowed burning.

I actually have been wondering when everyone was going to get with it and start implementing burn bans! It seems like they're a little late this year. Of course, many people do not appreciate the burn bans, but they sure do help reduce the overall number of fires.

I simply cannot believe how much of the entire USA is burning up---all those western wildfires and all the record high temperatures being set in various places daily.

I am starting to think that while 2011 was an epic hot, dry year for Oklahoma, Texas, and parts of many nearby states, maybe 2012 is actually going to be much worse for a large portion of the country. Let's face it, here in the central plains states we are used to some heat and drought issues most years, but this year drought and heat stretch all the way north to the Canadian border. That's really something incredible.

Another county implemented a ban today, so I've linked the map.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Burn Ban Map for OK

Looks as though the storms dissipated on the Arkansas border before it could reach inward.

Larry, did you get any rain?

Joplin got hit but even that one is growing smaller before moving on.

bon

Bon, I got rain. The rain gauge said 1.2" by the end of the day. I would guess by looking at the garden and lawn that we got about half of that. There was a strong wind from the northeast and the way my house sits and the location of the rain gauge and a tree north of the gauge that the air around the gauge was more heavily saturated droplets due to the splatter of rain hitting the roof. At any rate I was glad to get every drop no matter what the amount. My garden has some wind damage, but that happens every year.

We were to get more rain tonight and it has just started at 12:10 AM, and it may stop as quickly as it started.

Larry

I'm glad you got some rain! It's cloudy this morning! Maybe we'll get some t-storms today... a little bit. Only 72 right now with the doors and windows wide open. Tad muggy, though.

I tossed the kids outside to burn off some energy before it gets hot and headed that way myself.

I was looking at the anomalies in mid June, relative to the record 2000-2011. The hottest anomalies are about 12 degree hotter than typical, and covers quite a vast area! You see why and how heat wave fueled wildfires in the Rockies.

-Chandra

Burn Ban now covers 20 counties.

Here it comes. I was in NC by the beginning of Sep last year. When did the heatwave begin breaking up last year?

Bon, At our house it began breaking up around September 4th or 5th last year. We didn't get much rain in September, but we finally stopped staying at 100 degrees or higher day after day. We still had 5 or 6 days at or over 100 degrees that month, but they were scattered in amongst some nice, cool days. By contrast, we were over 100 degrees every day in July and all but two days in August. September's weather probably was still a little warmer than average, but in contrast to the summer months, it felt cool. The real rain relief arrived in October. After August ended, our wildfires really dropped off here at the southern end of the state.

Right now, September and October seem light years away.

Dawn

Well, that's not too bad. I think, generally, we're a tad cooler and wetter in central OK compared to you. I know you reached over 100 far sooner than we did and all the rains hit us where it left you bone dry.

We've flipped our hours to beat the heat in hopes to manage financially better through August.

We cannot bind books in this weather. The bindery is not temp controlled. In the winter we can bundle up and heat glue sufficiently to work into book covers but dry heat is devastating. The glue dries too quickly as we're working with it. This is the year for the house of Reps to have their books bound and the specifications are archival type work. Gov't takes forever to pay but there's not much other work these days for hard cover books. Still, we can't do it in this heat. We must resort back to the "old ways" of doing things under the cover of darkness amongst dim lighting. In years past we only endured this a few days out of the months during summer when we held deadlines. Last year and this year are just horrible.

After visiting NC mountains from September through November last year I truly hold successful Oklahoma gardeners in high esteem. I think one must be tirelessly dedicated to succeed and that's exactly what I see amongst these forum members. The transformation of the countryside from burnt, brown and the various shades of green captured our hearts. The further we drove eastward the greener and more lush it became. NC's mountaintop weather was puny. I remember a storm came through causing about 35mph wind. I went and sat out on the porch to enjoy it. My friends thought I was crazy without realizing how Oklahoma weather is so erratic and that windy afternoon was a cake walk and highly enjoyable to me. We call it fresh air. They call it a storm. LOL They appreciated our fortitude and foresight to batten down the hatches when windy spells would come through. Typically, they endure it only to complain about the clutter outdoors afterwards. They would watch while we prepared. Then, in November it began to snow. Ice formed on the mountain-side, of course, and they began prepping for becoming snowed in and their thoughts and talk were of how horrible the ice and snow are in the mountains. We obliged with preparations and they seemed confused regarding our knowledge to do so. When the snow fell and the ice formed my husband and I laughed at the 1" snowfall and lack of black ice, put on our hiking boots and went right outside to work and play while the locals huddled indoors around the fireplace WE BUILT for them. The inclement weather there is for such a short period of time they never bothered with a fireplace! (They weren't too bright, really.) We needed to keep the little ones warm, of course. And all the trees ... heaven. Since we occupy our winters in Oklahoma burning old wood I grew to love the abundance of fuel in the varieties of trees on the mountainside. When we took off to the local mountainside store for milk and orange juice atop the icy roads they begged us not to brave it. The ice was patchy, at best. Temperatures never dropped below 20 degrees F and the roads only frozen where sunlight was not permitted geographically or from dense forest. A cake walk, yet again, though the temps last winter in NC were somehow exceptionally cold on the mountain tops. (pfft)

I never had a chance to dig in that dirt. I sure would have like to. IT was BLACK atop rocky ledges and those folks never bothered with a garden in years! I envisioned building an erosion-proof garden and enjoying that rich luscious soil filled with all types of life forms including and over abundance of red wigglers. All one need to do is step off the porch, pick up a rock and there they were. When things got difficult gardening they gave up easily. I think their last attempt resulted in some type of fusarium wilt and they were completely perplexed speaking of it as if it were an anomaly - even some suggesting it was a supernatural curse. Absolutely amazing how peoples take great things for granted. Yet, our perspectives are limited to our surroundings, I suppose. How would they know any different having been atop the mountain for more than 20 years?

From Bill and my perspective it was heaven and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there even working very hard. Mountain living is very hard. Of everything, I miss the fresh mountain water the most - especially showering in it. I thought I had circulation problems causing the bottom of my feet to be very dry. In fact, it was dehydration or a lack of pure water (not sure which, maybe both). My perspective was limited to my environment. Showering in fresh mountain water cured my feet of all dry skin in only a week's time!! Absolutely amazing.

The very thing I learned about myself while staying in NC is that I am a cowgirl and I never really thought of myself that way. It's in our blood and our attitudes as subtle but as pervasive as is native Oklahoma grasses. We're built tough and we keep at it. Really.

bon

The number of counties with burn bans is up to 23 now---all since June 29th. It sure is going up fast as everyone dries out.

Bon, I try to imagine how tough the early settlers had to be in order to survive here. I feel like such a wimp by comparison.

I understand the need to work at night when it is cooler. I cannot imagine trying to work with glue to do archival-quality work in this heat.

I often do a lot of my canning in the evening hours rather than during daylight, often staying up in the kitchen until 1 or 2 a.m. and I am not a night owl. I'm an early bird who pops out of bed at 6 or 7 a.m. every day, and would rather not stay up half the night working on food preservation, but this heat demands it. Even though the house is air-conditioned, I hate the way the hot kitchen heats up the rest of the house during an already hot day when the AC is running too much as it is.

I'd do the outside work at night if we didn't have so much wildlife that's active at night. Instead, I try to do the garden work very early or very late in the day when I am able. Even then, I am encountering too many deer and raccoons lurking in the yard too much in the evening and early morning hours. At least I'm not running into skunks a lot like I did last year.

Dawn

I am a night owl and hate to get up early, but it seems that the temp doesn't drop much in the evening until it is dark. About the only relief is that the sun goes down, but even without the sunshine the temp is still high.

I just lose the desire to plant anything else when it is this hot and have to force myself to take care of what I have. It seems to get hotter every year.

There were plenty of days in the last month where we were still near 90 at 8 or 9 p.m. and still in the 80s at midnight. Also, some mornings it was between 75 and 77 when we woke up. That's too hot for it to be at sunrise. Whatever happened to the June weather we used to have when the lows were still in the 60s or lower? When we had high temps in the 80s, or if rain fell, maybe in the 70s? I can handle the hot days a lot better when the nights still are cooling down but that hasn't happened as much this year as some years in the past. This week's weather is a wonderful break in the hot nights. It still hit 97 here today, but that's better than 100-degrees-plus.

I think that 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last 12 years. That disturbs me, and it is a trend I hope doesn't continue. I really do think it is hotter every year. Just look at all the record heat temperatures being set all over the country. I used to think that hot dry weather just plagued the western and southern states, but this year it is almost everywhere. (Of the contiguous US states, only Washington state is having near-normal weather this year.)

I am trying to alter my gardening plans for future years by using more short-season varieties to get a good harvest in spring/early summer before insane heat arrives. It also makes less and less sense to irrigate in July and August if virtually no rain falls and the weather is hot. I feel like future veggie garden success could depend on whether or not we can beat the heat. As early as the heat arrives some years, I don't know if we can do that every year. Look how hard the early heat was this year on snap peas and broccoli, to name just a couple of the crops the heat affected severely.

We need for 2013 to bring us a good, old-fashioned cool spring and mild, wet summer---not that I expect that will happen. If it follows the trend of the last decade, it just will be a rerun of 2010, 2011 or 2012. Where's the fun in that? The answer is that summer seems to be less fun every year.

I couldn't agree more on the weather perspective. I'm sensing a permanent change in our environment. "10 of the hottest years in the last 12 years" is not nice at all. Remembering last year I wonder if Oklahoma is going to turn into a partial desert.

This morning was a reminder of how it once was. I bundled the kids up in the truck early this morning with the windows down as we drove to the park. There was such a wonderful cool breeze in the air this morning. Lovely. That doesn't happen much any more like you mentioned.

I'd like to see some others experiment with Hugelkulture in this heat and drought and see their thoughts on it. I still have not watered my shallow H-culture section. Stuff is still alive in it, too. Not looking too swell but they're alive whereas the other sections that I've neglected (but watered occasionally in the past) are toast.

Bon, I did hugelkulture in Texas and in the early years here before I knew it had a name. I haven't had any problem, but I'd rather use hugelkulture for beds I plant once and leave alone than for beds that will need to be replanted like veggie beds. I just have too much wildlife to make getting near any pile of wood a good idea--it isn't just snakes, but also black widows, scorpions, wood rats and pack rats, etc.In a more urban environment, I'd likely use it more. Mostly I have used hugelkulture here to turn low spots and eroded areas into planting beds that help stop the erosion. I put the hulgelkulture piles in the areas where I want them and usually then sow four o'clock seeds there because they'll grow without water pretty much the whole summer, although last year a few died back to the ground. Those came back this year though.

I think I read somewhere that the issue goes beyond the top 10 hottest years on record having occurred in the last 12 years. I believe I read that the 20 hottest years recorded have occurred since 1980. In my mind, that is so astonishing as to be hard to believe.

Yesterday, NOAA released its State of the Climate Report on 2011. I was going to link it here, but think I'll go put it in its own thread, since weather is linked so closely to gardening and other forum members might find it interesting.

Dawn

I heard about some kind of garden cloth that you can put over flower beds to shade them from some of the heat. Any idea what this is? Any other ways to try to save flowers from becoming crispy? I was watching my really happy verbena turn into little crisps today -- seemed like just today half of the flowers died back.

Daisy,

It is called shade cloth. You can buy it in different weaves so that it shades out different percentages of light. The shade cloth I use on my greenhouse is 50%. The one I use over tomatoes or peppers in the garden is 40%, I think. I've had it for years and years and not sure if I remember exactly what it was, but I do think it is 40% or close to 40%. If you suspend shade cloth over plants, leave a couple of feet or more between the top of the plants and the shadecloth so that the plants have good air movement around them.

You can buy shade cloth online or sometimes in the garden center of stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. The ones near me usually have it both prepackaged in certain sizes or they have it on big rolls in the garden center and custom cut it for you and price it by the running foot. Most years Sam's Club sells rolls of shade cloth, but I haven't looked for it there this year and don't know if they have it right now or not. Often it sells out when the first big heat wave arrives.

You also can order it online. I'll link one company that sells it.

If your budget won't stretch far enough to buy shade cloth this year, you can use something like a white bedsheet or even cheesecloth. In this heat, anything that blocks some of the sunlight (but not all of it) is helpful.

To help your plants make it through the heat, make sure they are well-fed (a strong, healthy plant withstands stress better), well-watered and make sure the ground is mulched. Unmulched soil easily gets 20 degrees warmer than mulched soil and will just cook your plant roots. Be really cautious about spraying any chemical on your plants in extreme heat because many of them will burn the foliage and kill the plant when it is this hot.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Examples of DIfferent Shade Cloth %s/Weaves