Getting to the mid 40s again today, and I'm watching a pair of peregrine falcons building their nest high in a city's parkway tree. They're tearing small branches/twigs from my back yard trees and carrying them to the front. Beautiful birds.

I'm not familiar with peregrine falcons, I searched. They are a pretty bird.

Here is one link: https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/peregrine-falcon

Above we were talking about our fruit trees, it just happened that my buddy Mark stopped by yesterday. Mark and his family owned a 25 acre apple orchard, 30 miles north of here. I asked if his trees were starting to bud, he told me that dozed off the trees and switched over to growing corn.

I'll tell you exactly what Mark told me, I made notes right after he left, so I'd have it right. Mark said on a good year, they could harvest 10,000 bushel of apples per season. For 2 years in a row, his harvest dropped to 600 bushel.

For the exact reason we talked about above: Early warm weather and a late freeze. Mark said 20* F. is the magic number.

Yeap with this warm weather the local green houses are selling early
plants already!! A good frost will make it that they will be able
to sell more again.I grew up on a farm and my father would not plant
before May 5th. But are winters have changed around here since the early 70tys.

Above I told you about our total precipitation for the year so far. Over 5 inches.

After a few days of warm and windy weather, we are dry now. Dry on top, the streams and rivers are still flowing good.

Here's a link I found on the National news this am.

https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/mid-atlantic-fire-outbreak

Yesterday we had some really strong and gusty winds. Here in Hardy Co. WV, there were over a dozen wildfires. Nearly all of them caused by a downed powerline. Fire departments from far and wide are on the job now.

It was warm yesterday, and windy as all get out. At daylight this morning I had 27* and dead calm, so that helped. I've got 44* now, with a light breeze.

Here is another link about the local fires. Schools here were closed today and are again tomorrow. I've got 35* here in the valley and calm winds now.

https://wvmetronews.com/2024/03/21/three-major-fires-continue-to-burn-in-hardy-county/

No fires here YET. But 'Tis the season. Actually we are supposed to get rain tonight an that will help.

-18 c. this morning with a good wind. I went dog sledding but there is only a skiff of snow in spots.

I'll give you an update on the local fires.

Yesterday morning I had 45* F and calm winds. Sometime yesterday they did call out the National Guard. I was told they had 3 helicopters doing water drops on the fire burning south of town. That fire is on the Hardy/Pendleton Co. line. The mailman told me about the 3 choppers, the county line is his last box on his mail run.

He said they were dropping 500 gallons per trip. If you remember some of the pictures of Bill, Big Donnie and I fishing in a flood control dam, that's where they got the water. Shook's Run Dam, short flight to the blaze.

Also had at least 1 chopper working the fire east of town. Maybe the same aircraft ?

It did start raining last night, looking at radar, it was to start around midnight. About 3am we had a nice steady rain, light sprinkle now. The sky is so smokey and foggy now, I can't see the mountains.

I've had about 1/2 inch so far, not sure if that'll be enough to snuff out the fire? At least it'll slow them down. The sky is getting brighter and the rain is to move out later today.

We're supposed to get down in the 20's tonight. So that should help too.

(Above I had the temperatures wrong. It was 24* Thursday morning, 45 Friday, I've got 47* now. Calling for a low of 25* tonight.)

I'll post a couple more links.

https://wvmetronews.com/2024/03/23/overn...omac-highlands/

https://www.wvnews.com/garrettrepublican...71352c3bdd.html

https://www.whsv.com/2024/03/23/theyre-heroes-small-town-comes-together-save-homes-wildfire/

Temperature is 35* F now. Pretty much a full moon, scattered clouds. Seems the smoke has cleared out for now.

I had 23* at daylight, calm winds. The sky is a little bit hazy but otherwise it's a sunny Sunday.

Our rainfall totals ranged from 1/2 inch to almost an inch.

Hardy County 911 put out a statement yesterday, thanking everyone for the support and donations to the fire departments. Fire units were here from Maryland, PA and Virginia. Plus fire units from from around West Virginia.

911 also said that State and Federal fire units were turning over the fires to our local fire departments. There were a bunch of Forest Service trucks on the road last evening.

A Forest Service "HotShot" vehicle went by too.

Here's a link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/fire/people/hotshots

Skim down to the physical fitness requirements, to become a HOTSHOT member.

Yesterday I checked on a few of my friends, found out that Lee and his wife Lorie's house was surrounded by fire the other day. A fire crew got there and snuffed it out, not before it had burnt to within 50 yards of their house. That's too close!

Our next chance of rain is Wednesday, we'll be dry as a bone again.