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SALT LAKE CITY &mdahs; This February will finish up as the warmest on record in Utah, no matter what happens the next five days. But with the return of cold, snowy weather, many trees and plants throughout the state are confused about what's going on.
"We're probably a good month and a half early," said Meridith Perkins, urban and community forestry coordinator with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. "This is the earliest that I've seen them."
Over the last couple of weeks, early blooming flowers and early budding trees have started to wake up. Weather averages would indicate Utah hasn't seen the last hard freeze or frost. So, are these plants at risk of damage or dying?
"As the spring is starting to approach, the trigger is actually the temperatures," Perkins said.
The budding plants are reacting to the warm temperatures. In the fall, when the leaves change colors and drop from the trees, they take their cues from the decreasing sunlight.
"It's getting confused and thinking it's April or May when it still really February," Perkins said, pointing to a bud on a flowering pear tree.
"That's the first indication of spring," she said. "The buds are actually swelling, as you can see in some of these; they're just getting really fat, and full."
Higher in the trees, leaves are already breaking out of the bud in the sunshine.
The whiplash weather has plenty of willows, cottonwoods, and elms budding across the state. But Perkins said healthy trees should be able to withstand the unseasonable fluctuations in temperature and precipitation.
It's really not the end game for these trees. We rarely, rarely see frost killing a tree.
–Meridith Perkins, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands
"It's really not the end game for these trees. We rarely, rarely see frost killing a tree," she said.
The buds protect the leaves until they come out, Perkins explained, but a hard freeze or frost could damage those leaves.
"We anticipate that those leaves would come out," she said. "But they'll be curly and have some wrinkles and look a little bit odd."
If a tree leafs out before a frost, Perkins said there is a chance the leaves would blacken and fall off. A healthy tree would then simply push out new leaves.
In southern Utah Monday, snow buried the early spring in Cedar City and many other communities. But Larry Hancock, co-owner of Sandia Greenhouse in Washington City, said the temperature is a bigger concern for trees and plants than the snowfall.
"It's what the temperature will do when the clouds clear and the storm goes away," he said. "How cold will it get at night?"
If there's a hard frost, fruit trees that are already blooming may need protection from the cold, if possible, Hancock said. If the temperatures fluctuate a lot over the next two months, some fruit trees will lose their fruit, or produce a thin crop.
This extended spring leads to a longer window of vulnerability.
"It could do this again and come back to haunt us one more time," Hancock said.
Native trees more adapted to our climate aren't tricked as easily by the warm weather, said Perkins. But young trees just getting established might need a little water if they're already budding and the ground is drying out.
In the long term, we shouldn't worry about our healthy trees, she said.
