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I bet the good people of SPI would like Google to do another street view: the last one was done in April 2011 and it sure looks like a bomb went off. Here's what's left of the coconuts:
One of these used to be a coconut? Hard to tell.
Kind of hard to justify years of work just to see it end up like this.
Used to be that way in FL when we had real winters in the 1980's. When they look melted they are done. The tree on the left was a coconut and the other was a coco plumosa. They can take low 20's fine but get burned.
I've read somewhere that the Himalaya mountains, w/ just their elevation alone, help in creating India's monsoon season. The mountains block the cold airmasses from clearing the Indian subcontinent, leaving full sun for uninterrupted heating to begin as the sun moves northward through spring.
If that's the case, then it's possible that the cold fronts contribute not only to the devastation afflicted on coconuts in SPI, but also the aridity if that climate (along w/ many others in Texas) during much of summer - the continuous cold fronts could severely delay the spring heating needed to generate a proper monsoon system. SPI is not a very far distance from the rainy tropics in Tampico - I could easily see SPI having 40+ inches of rain if that rain belt extended northward with a stronger monsoon.
the continuous cold fronts could severely delay the spring heating needed to generate a proper monsoon system.
No. If anything, deep South Texas warms up dramatically by late February. March-May are warmer than Tampa or Orlando and are on par with Ft. Myers or Naples (or even a hair warmer). There's only a handful of records of a March freeze in all recorded history of Brownsville and none of them have occurred in the last 30 years.
No. If anything, deep South Texas warms up dramatically by late February. March-May are warmer than Tampa or Orlando and are on par with Ft. Myers or Naples (or even a hair warmer). There's only a handful of records of a March freeze in all recorded history of Brownsville and none of them have occurred in the last 30 years.
I should have specified - in that part of the post, I was referring more to cold fronts and weather systems across North America in general, rather than just Texas. Deep South Texas heats up well on the averages as you mention - but spring time still brings continuous frontal systems across northern Texas, the Midwest and Great Plains. That could delay heating along the bulk of the continental landmass needed to expand North America's Monsoon.
It could also mean that pure solar-radiation is needed for the heat. Meaning that it all has to come from warming of the sun as the solar maximum moves north from the equator (rather than just warm-air advection ahead of a storm system).
This is a further proof that extremes are overrated when it comes to describe environments and therefore classify climates of a given place. That's why I think my system based on annual averages treshold is way more solid than the flawed Koppen and its overuse of extremes tresholds. The movie is always more important than the single photo...
Any kind of west wind keeps the temps up blowing off of warm gulf temps. Coconuts are now growing in Pasco county 30+ more miles to the north than they were in 1980.
This is a further proof that extremes are overrated when it comes to describe environments and therefore classify climates of a given place.
I agree in a sense when looking at a short-term, as well as for small-scale operations (i.e. family farming, home gardens, etc). But, extremes may still have their place when looking at the longer-term, as well as when applying the concepts to commercialized or ecological-environmental scales.
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That's why I think my system based on annual averages treshold is way more solid than the flawed Koppen and its overuse of extremes tresholds. The movie is always more important than the single photo...
Koppen doesn't use extremes though? A lot of it seems based on climate genetics stemming from the circulation of airmasses. Trewartha puts a bit more emphasis on biomes.
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