"Severe" weather

Ellen Gallagher commented:

:  Uhm, one needs to have some sense of proportion in describing 'severe
weather'

Yes, indeed.  Although there are undoubtedly some extreme conditions for which
everyone would grant that label.  I can cite a couple of examples, and I'm sure
that some of our northern members can give others.

1.	If the temperature is so high and the humidity is so low that TB flowers
dry to the texture of tissue paper before they can fully open -- I call it
severe weather.

2.	If the wind is so strong that it breaks some stalks and when other stalks
don't bend or break it pops the rhizomes themselves out of the ground by
breaking their roots -- I call it severe weather.

Other conditions are relative -- some to the iris, others to the irisarian.  I
certainly would not call a 20 degree F. night  "severe" if it happens in January
when the iris are winter-dormant.  If it happens in late March or early April,
though, when early varieties are blooming and later ones are forming buds --
that's another story.   Weather that wipes out a good portion of my bloom
definitely qualifies as "severe"!   

Some years ago, I enjoyed a mid-summer visit to Minnesota.  I considered it a
gorgeous day, a delightful change of pace compared to New Mexico temperatures of
over 110 coupled with relative humidity less than 10%.   Then I noticed my hosts
seeking the shade at every opportunity and learned that by their standards it
was NOT a gorgeous day, but rather that they considered the heat unusually
"severe" !

Something tells me I don't want to visit the north country in the winter . . . .

Sharon McAllister (72272.1745@compuserve.com)
"Officially" in USDA Zone 8, but with a micro-climate of colder winters & hotter
summers.
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