In between account startups and the last-minute sales generation that accompanies the spring thaw in much of the country, lawn and landscape companies are preparing for the myriad of extreme weather conditions that are expected to hit this spring and summer.
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are say flooding is probable in portions of the Midwest and Ohio Valley through June. On the other hand, continued drought conditions are expected in the Southwest. These were highlighted as the major areas of concerns in the agency’s 2007 spring outlook.
The report explains that the upper Midwest went through snowmelt in April and warmer than normal temperatures in recent months have increased the risk of flooding due to ice jams. In addition, high soil moisture in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York state are ingredients for a flood, which was not helped by the Nor’easter that hit in mid-April and dropped record amounts of rain.
Dry conditions that have challenged the Southwest for the past few years will be back, according to the NOAA.
John Gibson, director of operations at Swingle Lawn, Tree & Landscape care in Fort Collins, near Denver, couldn’t think about a dry spell in mid-April. He was busy preparing for the uncharacteristically late blizzards forecast for the area. Even after those subsided, he wasn’t expecting much of a weather threat for his area.
It all depends on the water supply in the reservoir as a result of snow pack, and the record snowfall there this past winter left the area in good supply, he says. “We don’t expect as many water restrictions as we’ve had in the past few years.”
But because of the persistence of dry conditions the past few years, Swingle tweaked some of its services to tailor to those restrictions, including educating customers on water usage to change their all-green landscape expectations. It is likely that other companies in Colorado will be using similar tactics this year, because other parts of Colorado, especially the southwest corner, are likely to face the drought conditions predicted for the rest of the Southwest U.S., Gibson says.
The Southeast isn’t expected to escape the drought. The southern half of the Florida peninsula is experiencing abnormally dry winter weather.
In addition, parts of the Southeast will have to contend with hurricanes. Weather expert William Gray predicts there will be 17 named storms this year, five of them major hurricanes. The probability of a major storm making landfall on the U.S. coast this year is 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century, he says.
While this year’s hurricane activity is limited to educated guesses at this point, technology has become so advanced that tree care companies know 7 to 10 days in advance if they need to put together a team to clean up a targeted area. Still, parts of the preparation should start now to be ready for the late-summer storm season, says Bruce Fraedrich, Ph.D., vice president of research at Bartlett Tree Experts in Charlotte, N.C.
“The preparation begins toward summer,” Fraedrich says. “At this time of year, we keep track of a depth chart in our offices that tracks employee skill level so we’ll be ready to mobilize crews for emergency response.”