After a long, cool spring, summer has taken control in mid Missouri. The canopy has closed in, the tulip trees (yellow poplars) are in bloom and the mimosas are leafing out, among the last trees to do so. Flower clusters are forming on the elderberry shrubs, roses adorn the fence lines and tiny walnuts are developing in the new growth of their parent trees.
All of the summer birds have returned, including a pair of great crested flycatchers that have been moving among our shade trees this week. A morning dove is incubating her second brood of the year, the third litter of cottontails are roaming the lawns and the "peents" of common nighthawks echo across the evening sky. And, finally, the toads are trilling from their nocturnal rendezvous sites.
A south wind has carried warm, moist air up from the Gulf of Mexico, providing fuel for thunderstorms later in the day. This mild flow is forecast to continue through the week as summer solidifies its hold on the lower Midwest. Indeed, as evidenced by the movement of severe weather from the southern to the northern Plains, the jet stream is retreating toward its more northern, summer pattern. Our attention will soon shift from tornadoes to hurricanes!
