Green and brown grass during and after the winter (ice, nights, frost)
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Cold season grasses stay green through the winter in marine, west coast climates because those climates are wet and relatively mild during that time of year. In colder climates, they go into winter cold dormancy (and turn brown). Warm season grasses are different and will generally be brown during winter in climates where there is some frost even if these climates are otherwise considered to have mild winters. Most turf grass in the southern U.S. is a warm season variety and most of the south is considered to have a mild temperate climate so the grass is brown there in the winter.
This is a picture of grass in Inner Mongolia in Summer. It looks like an ordinary green color. Now here's a picture from September 2010; it looks like fall has arrived and the grass is turning brown. Now here's a picture of the Tumen River in December 2009 - from what I can see of the grass the coloring is similar to North American grass, i.e. brown. So based on these pictures I'd guess grass in northern China is similar to the U.S. and Canada.
Grass browns off very quickly once those nasty dry and cold (winter) and suffocating (summer) off-shore westerlies blow, especially around spring. I much prefer green grass and take no pleasure in brown grass at all.
I think also the snowpack plays a big part. From what I know, hard freezes in the Candadian and US plains can occur much before snow. Here, hard freezes most usually come after the snowpack has formed, protecting the grass from the extreme temperatures.
On the drought side, when do you start to see the changes?
During the summer drought in 2006 the grass turned completely brown, as the conditions were so different from normal. From June 28 to August 14 we (Helsinki) collected 5.0mm of rain, and the grass had big difficulties to recover even if irrigated. Also July had 400 sunshine hours, enhancing the effect.
Otherwise, it's really rare to see the grass turn brown during the summer, as it usually rains a sufficient amount to keep it green. Whatever that amount is.
We can hit -30C before we have snow cover in Saskatchewan. I don't think any grass anywhere will remain green at those temperatures. We also often have dry weather for most of August into September (great harvesting weather) so grass tends to go into dormancy then as well (unless one waters and many on the plains don't...we save money that way and we know once the fall rains start it will green up again).
We can hit -30C before we have snow cover in Saskatchewan. I don't think any grass anywhere will remain green at those temperatures. We also often have dry weather for most of August into September (great harvesting weather) so grass tends to go into dormancy then as well (unless one waters and many on the plains don't...we save money that way and we know once the fall rains start it will green up again).
This. Our grass loses its lushness in the cooler months, but it takes a series of very cold weather creates more brown grass. I took these photos of Ithaca on Jan 20 this year. Hard to see the grass, but you can see some green:
Look at the January weather. Except for Jan 2-3, most days didn't have means that far below freezing. I suspect afterwards (look how much colder it was afterwards) it would turned truly brown.
There are grasses that turn brown in winter here. Often called Summer Grass (or about a hundred other names), it is usually grown on sandy soils or where summer drought is a given. They are typically are the greenest (non watered ) lawns in summer and brownest in winter. Common in beach suburbs around here or in St Arnaud (the local high altitude town) Very invasive during summer though.
This is a picture of grass in Inner Mongolia in Summer. It looks like an ordinary green color. Now here's a picture from September 2010; it looks like fall has arrived and the grass is turning brown. Now here's a picture of the Tumen River in December 2009 - from what I can see of the grass the coloring is similar to North American grass, i.e. brown. So based on these pictures I'd guess grass in northern China is similar to the U.S. and Canada.
I think the kind of tall grass/hay visible outside of the snow cover in the winter photo also turns brown in western Europe. Here's a photo taken a couple days ago: http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2597/p1010678o.jpg
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