Ice On Putting Greens: Big Deal Or No Deal?

Jan 13, 2017

By Kevin Frank

Sporadic ice formation on putting green

Freeze-thaw cycles throughout this winter are creating short-term ice sheets on putting greens.

Winter weather continues to take us on a wild rollercoaster ride in 2017 as we alternate from snow and cold to rain, and temperatures that feel more like spring than winter. Along the way, golf course superintendents continue to be faced with difficult decisions on whether or not to remove ice from putting greens.

Following the devastating winterkill event on putting greens that occurred throughout the north following the 2013-2014 winter, it’s understandable that all efforts be made to minimize the risk of winterkill from ice cover. However, the winter we’re currently experiencing in Michigan is much different than the winter of 2013-2014 that resulted in thick ice sheets remaining in place for up to 80 days in some locations. That winter produced ice on putting greens the first week of January and it didn’t melt until March, which resulted in death from anoxia (suffocation). Remember, estimates of days of ice cover causing death for annual bluegrass range from 45-90 days. Read the Michigan State University Extension article, “What lies beneath: Ice?” for more about the effects of the 2013-2014 winter on putting greens.

What we’re experiencing, at least at this point, is short duration ice cover. It’s likely that after the rain and freezing rain that swept across most of Lower Michigan overnight on Jan. 11-12, 2017, and the subsequent temperature drop, that ice has or will form on some areas of putting greens. However, temperatures are forecast to be back into the mid- to upper 40s by early next week, and once again look to be accompanied by rain. The rollercoaster will continue.

So although anyone that suffered through past winterkill from ice cover considers any ice a big deal, at this time, I really don’t feel these short-term icing events are a big deal. Of course, that’s easy for me to say.

Source: msu.edu

Video: Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

A new peer reviewed study looks at the generally unrecognized risk of heat waves surpassing the threshold for enzyme damage in wheat.

Most studies that look at crop failure in the main food growing regions (breadbaskets of the planet) look at temperatures and droughts in the historical records to assess present day risk. Since the climate system has changed, these historical based risk analysis studies underestimate the present-day risks.

What this new research study does is generate an ensemble of plausible scenarios for the present climate in terms of temperatures and precipitation, and looks at how many of these plausible scenarios exceed the enzyme-breaking temperature of 32.8 C for wheat, and exceed the high stress yield reducing temperature of 27.8 C for wheat. Also, the study considers the possibility of a compounded failure with heat waves in both regions simultaneously, this greatly reducing global wheat supply and causing severe shortages.

Results show that the likelihood (risk) of wheat crop failure with a one-in-hundred likelihood in 1981 has in today’s climate become increased by 16x in the USA winter wheat crop (to one-in-six) and by 6x in northeast China (to one-in-sixteen).

The risks determined in this new paper are much greater than that obtained in previous work that determines risk by analyzing historical climate patterns.

Clearly, since the climate system is rapidly changing, we cannot assume stationarity and calculate risk probabilities like we did traditionally before.

We are essentially on a new planet, with a new climate regime, and have to understand that everything is different now.