Seasonal confusion

So, the calendar says that today was March 16th.  NOAA tells me that the climatological average for this date should give us a daily high temperature of 34 degrees.  The mercury topped out today at 71 officially, that broke the previous record of 62 by 9 degrees, and was 37 degrees above the normal temperature, more than double what it should be.

To put that into perspective, imagine if this had been July 16th instead.  Our average high temperature would be 82.  Imagine a day like today, 37 degrees above average and it would have been 119 degrees!  Or, if it had been double the average like today, it would have been 164 degrees, otherwise known as complete global annihilation....

Regardless of how you look at it, something is messed up.  There is no such thing as "normal" for today's planet.  Although everyone around here loves an early spring, this is a bit much.  From keeping in contact with some other Superintendent buddies of mine from around the north central US, I think we are all rather concerned about what this summer could potentially bring based on the winter we had and the spring we are off to so far.  A few months of "normal" would be great come June, July, and August...

Driving Range open on March 16th, and weather nice enough
apparently for shorts and short sleeves.

Andy and I took advantage of the nice weather today also, by finally
getting out of the shop and putting the finishing touches on
the concrete retaining wall by our new cartpath by 16 tee.

What else could you ask for in mid-March?

One last thing, I have received quite a few questions about the green color on the greens and tees out on the course.  If anyone remembers, when we sprayed our snowmold fungicides last winter, there was a green pigment that went down also.  This product known as Civitas contains a very long lasting green harmonizing pigment that stays on the plant until it starts to grow again in the spring and gets mowed off. 

Amazingly, there is some university based evidence showing that turf painted green during the winter months tends to grow and green up faster in the spring, speeds recovery time, and in general leads to healthier, denser turf.  Surprisingly, from what I have been able to gather so far, no one knows scientifically why this is, but a lot of trained "researcher" eyes have been noticing a difference.  I guess we'll see for ourselves here soon....

Putting green and 1 tee looking quite green from the pigment we
applied last fall, especially compared to the incredibly brown
and dormant rough right now.