Weather understanding for attention paid

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, weather, climate, nature

My favorite weather book nearly fifty years ago was Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather by Eric Sloane. When I saw The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs by Peter Wohlleben, an author I've read before (The Inner Life of Animals, and The Hidden Life of Trees is on the agenda), I figured it might bring "naked eye" weather observation a bit more up to date. Eric Sloane is a hard act to follow, but Peter Wohlleben does a creditable job.

The author is a forest warden in Germany (the book was translated to English by Ruth A. Kemp). In such a trade, one must make the most of observations. Instruments are useful but don't replace our own senses. We come equipped with senses that can dig out a lot of information about, not just what the weather is now, but what it is likely to do soon.

He writes that the weather forecast on the radio or TV is pretty general, and to get the most out of our garden spaces, we need to know their microclimates. In the section on observing and measuring temperatures, for example, he points out that two plots sited just a few yards/meters from one another can have average temperatures in any season that differ by as much as ten degrees (that's °F, because the translator converted lots of units also). Of course, shade or its lack can have a big effect, but so can reflectors (nearby shrubs or walls) and screening plants that lift the wind.

He recommends getting to know the local plants, in addition to those you are trying to grow (flowers, vegetables, shrubs, whatever), many of which respond to temperature, brightness, humidity, etc. He tells of Linnaeus's "flower clock", with twelve segments containing plants with flowers that opened at each hour. It was insanely troublesome to keep maintained, because most plants bloom for a few weeks at most, so the gardeners had to rip out plants and set new ones every 2-4 weeks. That didn't last long!

There's a very useful chapter, "How to water properly", that describes what the layers in the soil beneath our garden or yard are likely to be, and why we need to water more deeply and less frequently, compared to the daily schedule many of us keep, particularly if we have a sprinkler system installed (much less common in Europe than America).

Here and there in the book climate change/global warming is mentioned. When he does get to discussing that matter, his approach is different from anything you'd read by an American author. No shrillness, no finger pointing. The current warming going on is a fact, so how will we cope with it, and how will we help plants and animals cope. Of course, most animals are mobile. Plants are not, but some can spread towards a better place surprisingly fast, by having seeds that travel or are carried by animals. For context, he discusses how living things adapted to a warming episode a few thousand years ago (more than two degrees warmer than now), to a similar but shorter one during the Middle Ages, and the "Little Ice Age" just 200-300 years ago.

So at this point, he is discussing more than just what the weather is, but how things react to it. "Invasive" plants and animals are non-native organisms that wind up in a place they did not originate, and do well there. About 1% of them do so well they suppress the thriving of other organisms, or destroy them. I think of Kudzu, the Japanese wild vine that is covering trees everywhere in the southern half of the eastern U.S. (from Texas west, it's too dry); or the Spotted Lantern Fly, a rather lovely insect that came from Asia recently, probably by accident, but is beginning to do great damage in the northeastern U.S.; and then there is the Starling, a European bird that I call a "weed bird", because in many parts of the U.S. most of the "blackbirds" you see, flying in large, coordinated swarms in season, will be starlings.

The closing sections are an invitation to experience the weather with all our senses, to get to know it, to remember what follows what, so we can know what to expect from what is happening right now, and what just happened earlier. Humans have the best general vision system of any mammal or bird. It's there for a reason. By comparison, we don't hear or detect smells nearly as well as other mammals, but those senses are still very useful. We can actually hear how strong the breeze is, when it is still high in the trees where we don't feel it.

It's a good book to use to help you get acquainted with weather and weather signs where you live, wherever you live. By the way, I got curious about the author's surname. "Wohlleben" means "healthy living", a fitting name for a nature warden!

P.S. I finished this book three days ago, but the review sat nearly finished while I tended to other pressing matters. I shifted the publication date/time.