April… the month of the swelling buds, the springing grass, the first nests, the first plantings, the first flowers…. The door of the seasons first stands ajar this month, and gives us a peep beyond. The month in which to begin the world, in which to begin your house, in which to begin your courtship, in which to enter upon any new enterprise. – John Burroughs

In the Sky

 A total eclipse of the Sun will occur on April 8, visible in its entirety in a broad band from Texas through the Northeast. In much of Ohio, the eclipse will begin a few minutes before 3 p.m. (EDT), will reach its zenith at about 4:15 p.m. and end about 5:30 p.m. Check your local media for more details.

On April 10, the sun reaches a declination of 7 degrees 53 minutes, about 65 percent of its way to summer solstice.

If you get up before dawn, you will see the sky the way it will look after dark in early August. Hercules, which is just rising this week in the evening, has moved to near the center of the sky. The summer triangle, which includes bright Vega, Altair, and Deneb, are just a little behind Hercules, that is to his east. The rich star-dense band of the Milky Way passes through the triangle, separating it from autumn’s Pegasus, the Great Square, rising on the eastern horizon.

The April Moon

April 8: The Tadpole Moon is new.

April 15: The moon enters its 

second quarter.

April 23: The moon is full.

Weather Trends

A major weather system arriving on the 6th usually dominates the first quarter of April in the Lower Midwest, increasing the chance of precipitation. Lunar perigee on the 7th and new moon on the 8th will greatly increase the likelihood of cool conditions. Snow is most likely to fall on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. There is a 20 percent chance of a high in the 80s this week, and there is more than a 50 percent chance of an afternoon in the 60s or 70s. Still, the first quarter of the fourth month is its coldest quarter, and with New Moon on the 5th, daily chances of frost remain steady at an average of 40 percent throughout the period.

The S.A.D. Stress Index

April brings the day’s length and the chances of mild weather into single digits on the S.A.D. Stress Index scale. Only the cloud column holds out at March levels, but that is not enough to keep the Index from dipping into the gentle 20s. By this point in the year, S.A.D. readings are not high enough to contribute to seasonal affective disorder unless a person is extremely sensitive to sunlight deprivation.

Key for Interpreting the S.A.D. Index: 

Totals of:

75 to 65: S.A.D. Alert: 

Severe Stress 

64 to 50: Severe to

 moderate stress

49 to 35: Moderate stress

34 to 25: Light to moderate stress

24 and below: Only people with extreme sensitivity to S.A.D. experience seasonal affective disorder below an Index reading of 24.

 

Day    Clouds    Weather    Day Totals

April l5:  14           8              9          31

April 30: 12            7              7          26

 

The Natural Calendar

The yellow blossoms of forsythia bushes always announce the arrival of Middle Spring. This is the time that the remaining daffodils and grape hyacinths flower in the garden.

Pollen appears on pussy willow catkins. Frogs and toads mate. Grubworms come to the surface of the lawn when the temperatures rise past 70 degrees.

 Farmers plant field corn and oats, and gardeners put in sweet corn and lettuce and spinach and potatoes. Toads and green frogs sing. Ducklings and goslings hatch. Creeping phlox and wisteria come into flower. Flowering pears and plums and apples and cherries bloom and set their fruit.

The day now starts increasing at the rate of two minutes every 24 hours.

Clover blooming in the fields tells you that tick and flea seasons have begun. The juniper webworm emerges, and eastern tent caterpillars may begin to weave on flowering fruit trees. And in a mild Middle Spring, the grass is usually long enough for cutting by this date.

April Frostwatch

From April 1 to June 1, up to dozen frosts occur at lower elevations along the 40th Parallel during a typical year. Of course, in some years, frosts end with March.  Normally, however, the approximate chances of frost follow a regular and steadily declining trajectory through the end of May.

April 10:     80 percent

April 15:     70 percent

April 20:     50 percent

April 25:     40 percent

April 30:     30 percent

The Allergy Index

Estimated April Pollen Count

(On a scale of 0-700 grains per cubic meter)

Major pollen source: box elders, maples, pussy willows, flowering crabs and cherries.

April 10: 50

April 15: 100

April 25: 200

April 30: 400

Estimated April Mold Count

(On a scale of 0-7,000 grains per cubic meter)

April 5: 1,600

April 10: 1,700    April 15: 1,800

April 20: 1,900

April 25: 2,000

April 30: 2,100

Countdown to Summer

• One week until lilacs bloom in your dooryards

• Two weeks until all the honeysuckles flower

• Three weeks to morel season

• Four weeks to the first rhubarb pie

• Five weeks to the great warbler migration through the Lower Midwest

• Six weeks to the first strawberry pie 

• Seven weeks until the first orange daylilies blossom

• Eight weeks until roses flower

• Nine weeks until the first mulberries are sweet for picking and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind

• 10 weeks until wild black raspberries sweeten

In the Field and Garden

The next two weeks are favored for completing the seeding of garden crops. Early sweet corn and peas should be put in as soon as possible.

Only seven weeks before the most tender plants can be placed outdoors. Three more weeks of relatively mosquito-free gardening remain.

Grass is usually long enough to cut by today across the nation’s midsection. Strawberries flower when grass is long, and young groundhogs come out to feed on the greens.

Dig in new strawberry, raspberry and blackberry plants. Set out head lettuce. Check roses for disease and insects as new leaves emerge. Mounds begin to show on your lawn as moles wake up and hunt grubs and worms.

Cabbage butterflies are laying eggs on the new sets of cabbage, kale, collards, and Brussels sprouts. Carpenter bees appear around the house and barn, looking for nesting sites.

Mosquitoes bite you in the garden. Tent caterpillars begin to hatch on wild cherry trees Mulberry, locust, tree of heaven, viburnum, and ginkgo send out their first leaves.

Almanack Classics

Elmer, “That Damn Dog”

By Pete Jones, Lynn, Ind.

Elmer was my dog. I picked him from 10 puppies that our family dog, Tessie, had. (She died of distemper soon after she gave birth to the puppies).

I picked Elmer after whistling at the puppies; his ears popped up right away. I was 15 years old. We lived on a 40-acre farm and had brown Swiss cows.

I taught Elmer to climb a ladder He could chase the old barn cat up to the hay mow and then climb up the ladder and be ready for combat with that old cat.

If my mother wanted a chicken for Sunday dinner, she would point out the chicken she wanted and Elmer would stand on the chicken’s feet. Mother would grasp the chicken, twist it and wring its neck.

When it came time to ring the pigs, Elmer would grasp a back leg and hold the big until my Dad would ring it.

We had an old gravel pit on our farm; it was in the north pasture field. You could point in that direction and Elmer would slip down there and catch a groundhog out of its hole. The fight was on. He never lost a fight with a groundhog.

My dad never called Elmer by name. He just called him “that damn dog.” One day, he said, “Well, that damn dog isn’t to be found when you need him. I’ve got all my cows out in the green corn, and he is nowhere to be found; they will all flounder.”

Then I heard a big noise; there was Elmer driving all six cows right through the fence where they had escaped.

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