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To simplify record keeping, the National Weather Service defines the winter season as December, January, and February. Take a look at the stats from these three months in the NWS Winter Climate Report. This is preliminary data. The final report will be released on Sunday. - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan
Lots of great events are going on at Saguaro East and West on Saturday to celebrate this milestone birthday. Admission is free! Get out and celebrate this national treasure that spotlights our unique southern Arizona ecology. - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan
9 AM Footprings on the Landscape
10 AM Formal 75th Anniversary presentations
12:15 PM Homesteading Adventures in the Desert
1:15 PM The CCC and its impact on Saguaro National Park
2:15 PM Masters of Microscopes, 75 years to Decode the Desert
3 PM Mountain Lions and Boblcast in the Tucson Mountains
4 PM They're Mining in Our National Park?
9 AM Tea with Homer and Viola
10 AM 1933 to Today, Saguaro National Park
10 AM Meet the Saguaro
10 AM Children's Corner, Arts and Crafts
10:30 Signs of Life
11 AM Little House on the Desert Hike
12 PM 75 Years at Saguaro National Park, An Illustrated History
1 PM History fo the Rincon Mountains
1:30 PM The Giant Saguaro, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
2 PM The Changing Cactus Forest
3 PM Saguaro Nation Park, the Next 75 Years
On March 1st, 1933 President Herbert Hoover signed a proclamation creating Saguaro National Monument. It became a National Park in 1994. There are 91,440 of pristine desert in the two districts east and west. The eastern portion is at the base of the Rincon Mountains. The western portion is in the Tucson Mountains. At 10 AM at the Red Hills Vistors Center in Saguaro National Park West there will be an offical celebration. Scheduled to speak at this event area Dorothy Bush Koch (the President's sister), Tricia Reilly Koch, Congressman Raul Grijalva, Kristin Almquist (Director of the Governor's Southern Arizona Office), and Lindi Harvey (Deputy Director of the National Park Service). The Tucson Girls Chorus will also perform.
Red Hills Visitor Center, Saguaro West 520.733.5158
Rincon Mountain Vistor Center, Saguaro East 520.733.5153
Chuck promised to show you some springtime flowers and here they are! These photos are actually still images from digital video shot by KOLD Videographer Andrew Brown near Wade and Silverbell on the west side of town.
These particular flowers are called California poppies. Their scientific name is Eschascholzia californica. They can be found from Washington state down to the Arizona/Mexico border and right into Sonora and Baja California. The California poppy is the state flower of California.
The plants are drought tolerant and grow well in disturbed areas. This is why you often see them growing along roadsides or in areas of recent wildfires. Native Americans used the leaves for medicine and the pollen as body paint. 
The seeds were used in cooking. Although poppies are the source of opium, this poppy doesn't produce that strong drug. A different kind of poppy is used to produce the illegal substance. The seeds of some poppies are actually still eaten by many people in central and Eastern Europe. They are eaten with pasta or boiled with milk and baked into pastry.
The flower is a symbol of sleep and death. Sleep is for the opium extracted, which is a sedative. And death for the blood red color of other species of poppy. 
A red version of the poppy came to symbolize the dead of World War I. A battlefield, where numerous deaths occurred, was covered in red poppies just weeks after the battle ended.
I hope you enjoyed all the poppy trivia! Keep those Viewer Views coming. We love to see what you are doing out and about each day. - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan
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| Past weather data for the past six leap days (February 29th) for selected areas across southeast Arizona. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Nevada last week destroyed historic buildings. In England on Wednesday, a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit at about 1 AM 125 miles north of London. There were no reports of major injuries or damage, although some chimneys did collapse and knick-knacks rattled off shelves. Both these earthquakes were unusually strong for the areas they occurred in. Overall though, earthquakes are quite common across the planet as our rigid crustal plates that carry the continents are floating on a thick liquid layer of magma. To keep at eye on earthquake action across the world, check out United States Geological Society's Earthquake Hazard Program website. They list all the earthquakes across the world, their magnitudes, and there are even maps so you can find the exact location of the quake.
The Diamondbacks, Rockies, and White Sox are back in town! I love this time of year...sitting outdoors, drinking a refreshing beverage, watching the All-American game. But many of us go out to the games and forget a few essentials. At times, I get a lot of criticism from some people when I remind people to take the sunscreen and a bottle of water with them, but the fact is we all forget to throw these items in the car. I saw it time and time again at Match Play and the Rodeo last week. People would leave their home in the early morning hours when it's nice and cool. Sunscreen was the last thing on their mind. I have been guilty of forgetting it as well. So try to keep a bottle of good sunscreen, 30 or higher, in the car. Even with sunscreen this powerful you can get a nice tan without burning your skin. - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opens today! It doesn't look like much from the surface but this $8 million vault built into the permafrost of the Arctic could save us from starving! The significance of this seed bank is conveyed in it's nickname, the "Doomsday Vault". Basically scientists will gather seeds from all over the world to conserve their existence in the face or natural disasters and crop loss due to equipment, funding shortages, and war. 
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located on a series of islands almost 700 miles south of the North Pole, east of northern Greenland and north of Norway, which is the country the islands belong too. The seed bank was located in the Arctic so the seeds could be frozen and preserved without having to build big cooling units. That can of course be expensive, but since Mother Nature is doing most of the cooling at this seed vault, the estimated cost for upkeep is only $125,000 per year!
The Global Crop Diversity Trust is a driving force behind the new seed bank. We do have a seed bank right here in southern Arizona. For a quarter of a century, Native Seeds/SEARCH has worked to preserve the crops of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. They have a really cool store with lots of interesting items and gift ideas and you can even buy seeds for native crops that you cannot even buy in stores!
Have a good day! - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan
According to the experts at Tohono Chul, this year's bloom may
Be the best in a decade! That's because we had a few cold rain events.
Those types of events really convey "hey, open up and bloom!" to the
Wildflower seeds. The rainfall is really needed in late fall in order to get
The bloom on-time. Since our rainy events didn't happen until December, the
Peak of the bloom may wait until early April, instead of being in mid-March (the
Average.)
Tohono Chul will have their annual plant sale on March 14th. There, you'll be able to find
Wildflowers to plant in your own yard! Check this one out… they say it's quite hardy,
Lasting through the heat of the summer. It's called Salvia arizonica, or "Blue Velvet."
Happy Bloom!
Chuck George
Since we have had good rainstorms every week or so in southern Arizona for the past few months, expect this wildflower season to be fabulous! The photo at left was sent in by Kathy Burdick. These are the flowers blooming at Picacho Peak. Over the next few weeks more and more flowers will add color to the desert. Check out the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Wildflower Forecast and Report for the latest details. Send us your Viewer Views! We love to get them. - First Alert Meteorologist Erin Jordan
