The recent artic cold front has brought freezing temperatures to all of the middle of the country this week. They were projecting snow in Houston Texas. The artic cold also brought temperatures colder than -30 degrees F in many wstern mountains and valleys.
-30 degrees F is the temperature where Mountain Pine Beetles start being killed by cold weather. Five (5) days of temperatures continuously below that temperature will kill the beetles and stop the infestation that has killed millions of acres of pine trees. Colder temperatures will kill them faster.
Frazer, Colorado had an overnight low temperature of -48 degrees F. Other towns in the Northern Colorado Mountains recorded low temperatures below -39 degrees F.
The infestation of pine beetles has been blamed on global warming. The average low temperatures in the mountains in the winter has risen by many degrees, which has decreased the frequency of very cold weather at might. It is suspected that carbon in the atmosphere blocks some of the radiant cooling at night making low temperatures higher. Cloudy weather has the same effect of keeping low temperatures higher than clear skies.
Pine Beetles mostly infect older, less healthy tree. Infestations can be reduced by thinng the forests to reduce competition between trees and make the surviving trees healther. It will be interesting to see how big an effect this cold spell has on the current infestation.
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