August 1st
The 213th Day of the Year
Take Stock in August,
Count your Days.
Measure the Harvest,
The Hours of Sunlight.
Celtus
Sunrise/set: 5:33/7:49
Day’s Length: 14 hours 16 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64
Average Temperature: 75
Record High: 96 – 1935
Record Low: 52 – 1895
Weather
Today is usually in the 80s, with a 15 percent chance of an afternoon in the 70s, and 20 percent for 90s. The sun shines on at least 85 percent of the days, and the chance of rain is 25 percent. Cool lows in the 50s occur one or two nights in a decade.
The Weather in the Week Ahead
The Dog Days ordinarily continue this week of the year, the daily possibility of highs in the 80s and 90s remaining near July levels. However, August 3rd, 4th, and 5th are the last days of the summer on which there is a 40 percent chance of highs in the 90s, and chances of highs in the 80s are steady at around 50 percent. Cool days do occur 15 to 25 percent of the years, and afternoons only in the 60s are occasionally recorded between August 2nd and 11th. Morning lows are typically in the 60s, although one fourth of the nights carry temperatures in the middle 50s.
The August Outlook
Six thunderstorms usually occur in August. They are most likely to occur on the hot afternoons between the 1st and the 11th. Total average precipitation is near three inches in the Yellow Springs area, a little less than in July. The days with the most precipitation are August 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th, 18th, 19th, 21st, and 28th. The driest days in my weather history: August 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 22nd.
Nights grow about an hour and ten minutes longer by the end of the month along the 40th Parallel. The first week loses two minutes every day; by the last week, the loss is up to three minutes every 24 hours. Even though the length of the day shortens, the percentage of possible sunshine per day increases to near 80 percent, the highest of the Ohio year.
The eighth month typically brings ten completely sunny days and up to two weeks of partly cloudy weather. The brightest August days, those with better than an 80 percent chance of sun, are the 1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 25th, and 26th. Totally cloudy days are rare; the 18th, the 23rd and the 28th are the only days on which the chances of overcast conditions reach 50 percent.
Normal average temperatures decline from the mid 70s to the lower 70s all across the region. Highs fall from their peak of 85 at the rate of about one degree every week, reaching 81 by the first of September. Average lows drop from 64 to 60.
The August days most likely to bring milder temperatures (highs below 80 degrees) occur in the second half of the month: the 20th, 23rd, 24th, 29th, and 30th. The hottest days, those most likely to bring 90s or above, generally come at the beginning of the month. Adding to the warmth, August’s wind speed is the lowest of the year, and humidity is the highest, an average of about 80 percent after sundown. Chances of oppressive heat gradually fall from 35 percent between the 1st and the 4th down to 15 percent by the end of the month.
Estimated Pollen Count
On a scale of 0 – 700 grains per cubic meter: Most of the pollen in the air this month comes from ragweed.
August 1: 35 August 5: 40
August 10: 50 August 15: 85
August 20: 160 August 25: 200
August 30: 300
Estimated Mold Count
On a scale of 0 – 7,000 grains per cubic meter:
August 1: 4000 August 5: 4800
August 10: 6000 August 15: 4000
August 20: 4800 August 25: 5100
August 30: 5500
Summercount
Between the last week of May through the first week of September, the fourteen major cool fronts of summer cross the United States. As these high-pressure systems approach, temperatures and humidity typically rise. After the passage of the fronts, slightly cooler weather occurs, suitable for outdoor work and recreation, followed by up to a week of heat and humid conditions. August fronts often reach the Mississippi around the following dates; they come through about two days earlier in the West, a day or two later in the East.
August 4: The weather in advance of this minor front is some of the hottest of the summer. Highs in the cool 70s and lows in the 50s are rare in most of the nation between August 1st and 3rd. Rain very often accompanies the August 4th front (the day of the front’s arrival brings showers more often than any day since the first week of July), but after the system moves east, the likelihood for highs in the 90s begins a steady decline, and the possibility for a high only in the 60s appears on the horizon of possibility. Rainfall remains light and clouds infrequent through the 9th, which is usually one of the sunniest and driest days of the summer.
August 10: The August 10th cool front can bring frost to the higher elevations in the West. Its strength also frequently causes violent weather throughout the Great Plains and the South. This second August front also contributes to the erosion of chances of highs in the 90s. The likelihood of rain increases sharply for two to three days because of this weather system, and within the next seven days along the 40th Parallel, lows reach into the 40s fifteen times more often than they do during the first week of August.
August 17: This is the weather system that brings the chance of a killing frost to portions of the North; snow occurs at upper elevations in the Rocky Mountains.
August 24: This high erodes summer a little more, often bringing an end to the Dog Days. At average elevations along the 40th Parallel, odds for an afternoon in the 90s are now only half of what they were two weeks ago, and the likelihood of mild highs only in the 70s is twice as great as it was at the end of July. As this cool front moves away, the period between August 25 and August 27 usually brings a return of warmer temperatures in the 80s or 90s.
August 29: Rain precedes this front two years in three, and when the August 29 high-pressure system arrives, the likelihood for chilly highs only the 60s or 70s becomes almost autumnal. August 30 is typically the coldest day of the month, and it brings a 50 percent chance of a high just in the 70s along the 40th Parallel, the first time chances of that have been so good since the end of June. Nights in the 40s or 50s continue to occur half the time, and the morning of the 29th brings the slight possibility (a five percent chance) of light frost to the lower Midwest for first time since the beginning of early summer.
Key to the Nation’s Weather
The typical August temperature at average elevations along the 40th Parallel, the average of the high of 83 and the low of 63, is 73 degrees. Using the following chart based on weather statistics from around the country, one can calculate approximate temperatures in other locations close to the cities listed.
For example, with the base of 73 you can estimate normal temperatures in Minneapolis by subtracting 3 degrees from the base average. Or add 5 degrees to find out the likely conditions in Atlanta during the month.
Fairbanks AK -18
Seattle, WA -9
Cheyenne WY -7
Portland, ME -6
Minneapolis MN -3
AVERAGE ALONG THE 40TH PARALLEL: 73
Washington D.C. +2
St. Louis MO +5
Atlanta GA +5
Little Rock AR +7
New Orleans LA +9
Miami FL +9
A Floating Sequence
For the Blooming of Wildflowers and Perennials
The following list is based on my personal observations in southwestern Ohio over a period of 30 years. The dates are approximate, but I have tried to show a relatively true sequence of first blossoming times during an average year. Although the dates on all flower calendars are somewhat arbitrary (and may vary by up to 30 days between the Canadian border and the South in Late Summer), a “floating calendar” can be used throughout the country by adjusting (floating) the sequence to fit the climate and the particular year.
July 16: Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii)
July 17: Tick Trefoil (Desmodium canadense)
July 18: Velvet Leaf (Abutilon theophrasti)
` Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)
July 19: Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculate)
Early Goldenrod (Solidago)
July 20: Resurrection Lily (Lycoris squamigera)
July 21: Burdock (Arctium lappa)
July 22: Ironweed (Vernonia gigantean)
Monkey Flower (Mimulus guttatus)
Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)
July 23: Stonecrop Autumn Joy Sedum (Sedum telephium)
Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
July 23: Turk’s Cap Lily (Lilium superbium)
Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium)
July 24: Field Thistle (Cirisium arvense)
Common Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia)
July 25: Tall Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata)
Narrow-Leaved Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)
July 27: Biennial Gaura (Gaura biennis)
July 28: White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
July 29: Clearweed (Pilea pumila)
July 30: Jumpseed (Persicaria virginiana)
July 31: Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
Pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri)
August 1: Mad-Dog Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)
Giant Yellow Hyssop (Agastache nepetoides)
August 2: Prickly Mallow (Sida spinosa)
Great Ragweed (Ambrosia trifida)
August 3: Milk Purslane (Euphorbia maculate)
August 4: Willow Herb (Epilobium angustifolium)
August 5: Japanese Knotweed (Fallopian japonica)
August 7: Love Vine (Cassytha filiformis)
August 8: False Boneset (Brickellia eupatoriodes)
August 9: Bur Cucumber (Cucumis anguria)
August 10: Three-Seeded Mercury (Acalypha rhomboidea)
August 11: Water Horehound (Lycopus americanus)
August 12: Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima)
August 14: Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
August 16: Rose Pink (Glandularia canadensis)
August 23: Hog Peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)
August 24: Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)
August 29: Beggarticks (Bidens pilosa or frondosa)
August 30: Bur Marigold (Bidens tripartite)
August 31: Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides)
September 1: New England Aster (Symphyotrichum
novae-angliae)
September 8: Zigzag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis)
September 9: Small White Aster (Symphyotrichum
ericoides)
Heart-Leafed Aster (Symphyotrichum
cordifolium)
September 10: Panicled Aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum)
August Phenology
When honeysuckle berries ripen and hickory nuts and black walnuts drop into the undergrowth, then gardeners dig their potatoes.
When robins make their clucking migration calls, then farmers make corrective lime and fertilizer applications for August and September seeding.
When green acorns fall to the sweet rocket growing back for next year’s flowers, then black walnut trees have lost about a third of their leaves and hummingbirds, wood ducks, Baltimore orioles and purple martins start to disappear south.
When the violet Joe Pye weed flowers become gray like the thistledown, then peaches, processing tomatoes and peppers are almost all picked along the 40th Parallel, and the fruit of the bittersweet ripens orange.
When watermelons are ripe and firefly season comes to a close, then farmers and gardeners cut the last of the oats and put in fall peas.
When spiders start to increase their building of webs in the woodlot, then yellow jacket season begins in the windfall apples and plums, and morning fogs increase in the lowlands.
When the first field corn is mature, then gardeners divide and transplant the lily-of-the-valley.
When cardinals stop singing before dawn, the soybean leaves are yellowing in the fields and farmers start to cut corn for silage.
When velvetleaf goes to seed in Midwestern fields, then frost time approaches for pastures in the Rocky Mountains.
When long flocks of blackbirds move across the sky, then it’s time for plums to be the sweetest of the year.
After last of the elderberries are picked, then second-brood corn borers, second-generation bean leaf beetles, and rootworm beetles work the fields.
When the first wild grape is sweet enough to eat, then farmers prepare the soil for the planting of winter grains.
When all the summer apples have been picked, then the first puffball mushroom of the year swells in cool, damp nights, and the wood thrush moves south across the Ohio River.
When there is more than one Judas maple tree in the woodlot, then hickory nutting season gets underway.
When red leaves appear on the Virginia creeper in Kentucky, then snow threatens gardens in central Canada.
When the last of the garden phlox die back, then ragweed time winds down and the year’s final tier of wildflowers is budding: beggarticks, bur marigolds, asters, zigzag goldenrod.
When dogbane pods turn reddish brown in the fields, then wood nettle has gone to seed under the high canopy.
When elm trees start to turn, then mallards are flying south. Whip-poor-wills, cedar waxwings and catbirds follow.
When greenbrier berries are black, then prickly mallow blooms along the fencerows and almost all the oats crop is cut.
When arrowhead blooms in the waterways, then pale Asian lady beetles have begun their late-summer migration.
The Natural Calendar
The first week of August brings White Snakeroot, Boneset, Clearweed and Jumpseed Seasons. Ragweed Season spreads along the 40th Parallel, and the pollen count begins its slow climb from an average of 30 grains per cubic meter at the end of July to about 300 by the end of August. Blackberry Season and Grape Season have moved up to the Midwest from Kentucky as Black Walnut Leafdrop Season gathers momentum all across the nation. Stonecrop Season starts in the gardens of the Middle Atlantic region as Meadowlark Migration Season and Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Flocking Season get underway throughout the country
Daybook
1982: Blackberries are ripe at South Glen. Clearweed is blooming in the woods. Common hops in flower in the north bushes. Great ragweed heading up. Horseweed identified, has probably been blooming a week or so.
1987: Sparrows chattering in the north bushes this morning, crows on the south end of the village, starlings in the west tree lot. No summer cardinal, no dove, no blue jay song.
1988: At 3:30 a.m., katydids suddenly went silent. They’d been singing since I woke up at 2:00. Crickets still loud.
1989: Japanese knotweed budding in the yard. To Wisconsin: Chicory opened in the sun at 6:45 a.m., at the beginning of my trip, closed 2:20 p.m., Central Daylight Time, near Rockford, Illinois. Patches of brown parsnips all along the highway. Mullein and milkweed still full bloom. Much teasel brown, complete. Queen Anne’s lace everywhere, black eyed Susans, trumpet vine, too. Most crown vetch, so strong in June through mid July, gone now. Some late moth mullein. Tall ragweed in bloom near Indianapolis, ironweed flowering there, and sundrops, birdsfoot trefoil. Wild lettuce throughout. Near Wisconsin, a few June parsnips still in bloom, trefoil common here, white sweet clover, too.
1990: First blue dayflower opened today. Balloon flower still full.
1996: When I came back from Minnesota a week ago, the red phlox had just opened in Yellow Springs– putting their flowering date around the 26th of July. Now the whites and reds are in full bloom. Day lilies continue to be open at different locations about town, and in the yard, too. Hosta leaves continue to disintegrate. It is the peak of all the coneflowers, and ironweed has finally budded. All the crops – from fruits to vegetables – in the whole country are weeks behind schedule because of the cool summer. My garden tomatoes are still not ripe. No cardinals heard in the morning. The chatter of sparrows, singsong of robins missing. One blue jay heard this morning at about 6:20. One yellow jacket seen, the first I’ve noticed.
1998: The first white and yellow arrowhead flowers are open in the pond, have been blooming no more than a day or two.
1999: First ironweed flowers seen this morning. Flax continues to bloom. Spiderwort has died back over the past two weeks, now completely gone. Heliopsis rusting, showy coneflowers peaking and turning toward autumn. Only a few fireflies at night; the drought never let them really come out. But this morning at 5:00, the Late Summer crickets were singing, along with a chorus of robins and cardinals. Cutting back the garden this afternoon, I flushed a giant Cecropia moth from its place in the weeds. It lumbered out into the sun, then settled into the east end of the undergrowth.
2001: Last flowers on the last spike of the purple loosestrife. Several large cottonwoods completely yellow along the freeway.
2002: No birds at 4:25 a.m. Then cardinals were singing by 4:50. Jays joined at 5:00, then doves, then and crows within just a few more minutes.
2003: Burdock just opening in the South Glen. Scattered walnut leaves yellow and fallen, stuck to the touch-me-nots and wood nettle. Spider webs common across the paths. Resurrection lilies blooming along Dayton Street. Three tiger swallowtails and one monarch seen in the garden. Jeanie reports seeing several monarchs flying across the road this afternoon.
2006: Grackles call in the alley this morning at about 8:00 a.m. A couple of robins, five or six starlings seen there too, but only the grackles were vocal. Yesterday starlings noticed on the high wires, not a big flock, but maybe a couple of dozen. Another monarch and tiger swallowtail today. The hummingbird has finally found the feeder Jeanie put out earlier in July.
2007: Golden pollen fully emerged on the tall ragweed in the alley. Monarchs, tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails, fritillaries visit the garden. One giant swallowtail with its telltale yellow stripe came to the circle garden at noon. Robins and cardinals at about 5:00 this morning. A squirrel started whining about 7:00.
2008: Gillette, Wyoming to Cody, Wyoming through the Big Horn Mountains over Powder River Pass. The land became drier and more barren, and the wildflower growth thinned out. The yellow sweet clover gradually disappeared, as did the roadside sunflowers and the purple bush clover. In the mountains, some new bright blue flowers seen, a large, fat thistle-like plant, something like the massive, white Florida thistles.
As we drove toward Buffalo, a pronghorn antelope ran in front of the camper. Sagebrush and a yellow blooming tumble-weed-like plant increased as we approached Cody. In the central valley between Worlund and Cody, large fields of sugar beets. Intense heat for the past several days; today was probably close to 100 degrees. Now at 6:45, the RV is beginning to cool off a little.
2009: Cardinals at 4:53 a.m. They call for about an hour. Blue jays loud at 6:00. Anna Belle hydrangea flowers have lost most of their white. All around the yard, Asiatic dayflowers are opening.
2010: Cardinals at 4:55 a.m. Crows at 5:20. A very small robin found in the weed pile in the middle of the yard, its presence explaining yesterday’s peeping all day by the mother robin. At 6:30 this evening, seven tiger swallowtails in the butterfly bush.
2011: Two more tiger swallowtails and several pearl crescents in the garden today. Cardinals for about an hour between five and six this morning, and a thunderous chorus of katydids and crickets as I sat outside between 7:45 and 8:30 p.m.
2012: Light robin and cardinal chorus at 5:00 this morning, crows calling, too. Tiger swallowtails and fritillaries at the butterfly bush off and on throughout the day. In the yard, Shasta daisies, Queen Anne’s lace, and phlox are getting worn, most of the purple coneflowers gone, only a couple of buds remaining, zinnias, aging heliopsis and knockout roses, and showy coneflowers keeping up the garden color. Ironweed seen in bloom as we drove to Beavercreek (but only budding in the shade of the yard). At Bryan Park this evening, field thistles in flower, a large planting of what appears to be whorled coreopsis (where the cosmos field was last year) in late bloom, the last yellow petals on agrimony.
2013: A cardinal woke me up at 5:00. Crows strong at 6:00, becoming more active or vocal in town as autumn approaches. Four lilies still in bloom today. In the alley, euonymus vines are blooming. One giant swallowtail flew in front of me. Along Union Street, some taxus branches have three to four inches of new growth. All day, male tiger swallowtails were at the butterfly bushes, sometimes three at a time. One female tiger seen, one zebra swallowtail, and a fold-wing skipper. Steady clucking of starlings and grackles in the back trees throughout the afternoon. Resurrection lilies budded in front of Gerard’s and along Limestone Street. Lil’s burning bush has a red blush on its south leaves. This evening at Ellis Pond, field crickets all around us as we walked, loud chirping, whistling, buzzing crickets and katydids at 10:00 p.m. The weather was cool throughout the day, like it has been all week, an unusual spell that occurs (according to my records) only once in a decade.
2014: Last year’s once-in-a-decade cool spell: it happened again this year. I walked into their back yard at 4:55 this morning – a cardinal sang far off; when I went out the front door at 5:00, I entered full robin and cardinal song. The cardinals sang and sang, the robins stopped in about ten minutes. Crows and a blue jay bell call at 5:23. In the background all the while, the static of ground crickets.
Eleven lilies in bloom today. A Giant Swallowtail swooped down on the zinnias this morning, then was gone over the honeysuckles, and a monarch flew across the road in front of me as I was coming back from John Bryan Park.
2015: I got up early (the sky clear, full moon high in the southwest, air cool and dry), planned to listen to the very first cardinal of the day, but I misjudged the time, went out at 4:45, and the local cardinal was already in full song, an especially elaborate, uninhibited warbling. No morning robinsong since at least July 17th. Many small golden skippers playing in the sun today; I haven’ seen them for a long time. Silver-spotted skippers and male tiger swallowtails visited the zinnias and tithonia frequently through the day, and the second monarch of the summer floated by.
2016: A male tiger swallowtail noticed in the circle garden zinnias, as I was getting ready to go to the shop. Now it seems that the number of butterflies is increasing for the first time this summer. Another tiger in the afternoon zinnias.
2017: Elderberries completely ripe along Elm Street.
2018: A cool and cloudy day. One tattered Eastern black swallowtail followed me around the yard. Three lilies, among them Jeanie’s Stargazer, and the buds of the sedum I transplanted near the porch last fall are showing pink. Late in the afternoon, I looked outside, saw a monarch and a male tiger swallowtail. The katydids began to sing at 8:16 this evening, two minutes later than yesterday evening. Then as I sat listening, an adolescent skunk walked by my feet and disappeared into the potting area of the porch.
At the Covered Bridge habitat: pale violet bee balm, early ironweed, some wingstem (seemed past its prime), tall nettle and wood nettle blooming and vigorous, late burdock, woodland sunflower, black-eyed Susan, germander, tall bell flower, late swamp milkweed, gray-headed coneflower and tall coneflower,
2019: Nine day lily blossoms, four ditch lilies today. Mild and mostly cloudy, in the low 80s. Canna lilies started from seed have started to come in, rich orange, pink and red. The lily, fern and hosta beds are ragged and in need of pruning and trimming, the end of lily season a pivot time in my garden. The recent dry weather has curled much of the alley grass, and more stressed leaves are falling, augmenting the effect of age on the landscape. A monarch and several male tiger swallowtails came to the zinnias today, continuing their July pattern. Stonecrop has been opening for several days. The hummingbird continues to visit the feeder.
2020: Five day lilies, four ditch lilies and three naked lady lilies (that dovetail almost exactly with the last day lilies). After a light rain in the night, high heat and humidity returns. Violet phlox, lanky from the shade, droop into the blushing stonecrop. Two castor bean plants have bent over from the rain. Butterflies remain rare this summer. Leah confirms my notes: few butterflies of any kind. Last night’s katydids began to call at 8:15, a few fireflies still mating in the yard.
One becomes then a geographer of the micro-region, if not always a very good one, putting together, perhaps not wittingly, a mental composite of features that tell of home: a profile of hillside, the hue and texture of houses, the pitch of church steeples, the color of cattle.
David E. Sopher, “The Landscape of Home”