Thanks to Jeff Franklin from AAFC Kentville, we are bringing the weekly weather update. In this publication you can see the degree days accumulation in the air, average daily air temperature and average daily soil temperature. Like last week, the temperatures have positively triggered bud burst in the earliest varieties and many others have followed the trend.
The first table shows the temperature base 5⁰ C and 10⁰ C from 2019 until 2022 accumulated from March 1 until May 23. At the end
of each section, it’s possible to see the average of the last 5 and 10 years
respectively.
|
Category |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
5 year average |
10 year average |
|
Plant development
(Base 5ºC) |
183.7 |
162.8 |
268.5 |
265.4 |
226.3 |
236.3 |
|
Insect development
(Base 10º) |
50.6 |
46.6 |
98.7 |
102.3 |
82.0 |
90.7 |
Figure 1. Degree day accumulations as of May 23, 2022. All data are taken from the Kentville weather
station, based on a start date of March 1, and calculated using the single sine
method.
The increase of temperatures in the last couple of weeks has
changed the trend and it’s possible to see a considerable increase of
accumulation, based for 5ºC and
10 ºC. Currently the season 2022
has the highest accumulation of degree days in the last years until May 24,
both for 5 and 10 degrees Celsius, and it’s quite similar to 2021. The weekly
values when compared with the average of the last 5 and 10 years, 2022 shows slightly
higher values with the 5 year average and 10 years. According to forecast and
the weather through this week, this trend will continue in our next publication.
In the following
column graph, you can see the values from 2004 until 2021 and at the end the
average of the last 5 and 10 years respectively.
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Figure 2. Degree day accumulations as of May 23, 2022
base 10⁰ C. All data are taken from the
Kentville weather station, based on a start date of March 1, and calculated
using the single sine method.
As previously mentioned, in the graph you can observe the
increase of temperature in 2022, now even higher than the average of the last 5
and 10 years. Moreover, now the accumulation is even slightly higher than 2021.
Looking at the previous years on the graph, it’s important to highlight that
2012 presented a very warm beginning.
In the following graph you can see the average daily temperature plus 10 years trend until May
23, 2022.
Figure 3. Average
daily temperature as of May 23, 2022 base 10⁰ C. All data are taken from the Kentville weather station, based
on a start date of January 1.
Jeff has some comments on this graph as follows: “We have
had longer periods of above average temperature than below average temperature
for most of the growing season which is driving the heat unit response and
phenology stages that we are seeing”.
In the following graph, you can see the soil temperature trend from 2019 until 2022.
Figure 4. Soil
temperature as May 23, 2022, from 2019 until 2022. All data are taken
from the Kentville weather station, based on a start date of January 1.
At this time Jeff commented: “We are well ahead of the
10-year mean as well as the 2021 temperature”. In terms of precipitation, he
added: “So far we have received only 26.5mm of rain in May compared to the
10-year average of 69.3mm (for the entire month of May). As a comparison, in
2021 we had 106.0mm of rain in May.”
As it was mentioned last week and reinforced this week as
well, it’s important to keep in mind that with the increase of temperatures,
the plant growth will develop faster. Along with the plant development, weeds
will also start to grow faster, therefore, it’s important to keep an eye on
which areas will require more attention in the near future.
In the following photos, you can see some varieties at
different growth stages through this past week.
Figure 3. On the left L’Acadie blanc and on the right
Frontenac at the beginning of the week.
Figure 4. On the left Riesling and on the right Pinot
noir at the beginning of the week.
Finally, the Grape Production guide by Perennia was launched
last week in the grape blog. If you haven’t seen the publication, we’d like to
invite you to check the following link
or try the hyperlink: https://www.perennia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Grape-Production-Guide-2022-MAY-web.pdf