River talk

Falling leaves, falling rain

By SCOTT RANDO
Posted 11/3/21

Fall arrived officially on September 22; I don’t recall anything exciting happening that day, except that the sun passed directly over the equator, thus marking the arrival of the autumnal …

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River talk

Falling leaves, falling rain

Posted

Fall arrived officially on September 22; I don’t recall anything exciting happening that day, except that the sun passed directly over the equator, thus marking the arrival of the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. In places like South America and Australia, they celebrated the start of their spring on this date (or the vernal equinox). The days are getting shorter, and the sun is lower in the sky each day until the arrival of the winter solstice. On that day, the sun will only be 25 degrees above the horizon in Narrowsburg, NY at midday.

This fall has been milder than last year; no frost in the Shohola area as of this writing, just before Halloween, and no buffleheads have arrived yet. They usually are seen on lakes in the area starting around the last week of October and stay until the lakes freeze over.

On comparing this year’s fall foliage with photographs of the same areas from last year, it looks like we are about a week behind this year, at least here. In northern Pike County, the leaves are close to their peak. Places such as Damascus, PA, appear to be past peak.

The precipitation so far this year has been above average. There have been a couple of storms that have produced minor flooding, but nothing like the floods of past years. One of these storms occurred on October 26-27 of this year and was significant enough to generate a National Weather Service flood warning on the Delaware.

At Barryville, the river crested at 18.72 feet (minor flood stage) in the early morning of October 27; this was enough to flood low-lying access areas and lap at River Road in Barryville. It looks like most trails are in good shape with minor water runoff in isolated spots; there’s still time to catch the fall colors and watch some wildlife enjoying the mild weather.

flooding, storms, fall foliage, percipitation

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