ENTS: We finally got some rain in Minneapolis Friday and Saturday--3.5 inches. Its the first time we had an inch or more of rain at one time for 14 months. Its probably too late for some sugar maple trees I was looking at this morning with crowns that are 80% dead. A row of freeman maples in a median strip turned completely brown last week, but they may not be dead, we'll see if they put on a new flush of leaves in a few weeks. Austrian pines have some off-color greenish-brown foliage, spruces have shed a few branches. Locusts, American basswoods, elms, and red oaks have some dead branches, but generally it looks like most will survive. Bur oak is the one species that was not much affected by the long dry spell.
The rain was accompanied by the return of tropical humidity and three tornadoes that went through the western and northern suburbs last night. The tornadoes seemed to be rather weak, although we don't have official EF classification from the weather service yet. The rear flank downdraft just south and west of the tornadoes apparently had 50-100 mph straightline winds that may have caused as much damage as the tornadoes themselves. The winds might have hit Wood-Rill, an old-growth maple-basswood-red oak forest in the western suburbs that we use for research and class field trips. Lee --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
