Out of the west the wind comes over,

over the yellow goldenrod,

over the drying rattle-box pod,

comes heady with corn and apple smell now. – August Derleth

The Moon in September

The moon is full on Sept. 7

The moon enters its final quarter on Sept. 14

The Plum Pie Moon is new on Sept. 21

The moon enters its second quarter on Sept. 29

Autumn Equinox is Sept. 22

The Major Planets of September

Look for Jupiter high in Gemini before dawn. Saturn comes up in the middle of the night and remains in the sky throughout the day. Red Mars in Virgo and giant Venus in Leo will be the Evening Stars.

The Weather in the Week Ahead

The likelihood of rain remains at 35 percent through Sept. 3rd, then diminishes to 25 percent on the 4th and 5th, finally dropping to10 percent on the 6th – the lowest of the entire month. The effects of the first September cold wave usually appear by the 2nd, which is the first day since June 4th that 90s become unlikely. Then on the 3rd, there is a 55 percent chance of highs only in the 70s, and the chances of frost suddenly become one in a hundred.

The long period during which there is at least a 10 percent chance of highs below 70 degrees begins on Sept. 4th. Warmer conditions typically return on the 5th and 6th, but the second high-pressure system of the month, which arrives between the 5th and 11th, pushes lows into the 30s one year in 20.

Sept. 6th is the first day of the season on which there is about a 5 percent chance of light frost on the gardens of the Lower Midwest. Chances increase at the rate of about 1 percent per day through the 15th of the month. Between the 15th and the 20th, chances grow at the rate of 2 percent per day. Between the 20th and 30th, they grow at the rate of 5 percent per day.

The day’s length shortens by 14 minutes this week, dropping below 13 hours for the first time since the first week of April, and down 120 minutes since solstice. 

The Outlook for September

Throughout the month, normal highs drop eight degrees, falling to the lower 70s across the Lower Midwest. Average lows decline from the upper 50s to the upper 40s.

September’s average precipitation usually drops below 3 inches (2.70 in the Dayton area average) for the first time since February. The days most likely to be dry are the 6th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 19th, 25th, 26th and 28th, each having a 20 percent chance or less for rain (the 6th and the 28th have less than a 10 percent chance).

When-Then Phenology

When asters bloom in the waysides and bur marigolds flower in the swamps, then farmers start cutting corn for silage.

When zigzag goldenrod blossoms in the woods, then the rose of Sharon shrub drops most of its flowers and the great decline of summer wildflowers begins in the fields.

When fallen leaves start to accumulate in the backwaters and farm ponds, then the grapes should be getting ripe, and over half of the tomatoes and potatoes should be ready for harvest.

Natural Calendar

In the last week of Late Summer, the final tier of wildflowers starts to open. White and violet asters, orange beggarticks, burr marigolds, tall goldenrod, zigzag goldenrod and Japanese knotweed bloom, blending with the brightest of the purple ironweed, yellow sundrops, blue chicory, golden touch-me-nots, showy coneflowers and great blue lobelia. In gardens, September hostas, virgin’s bower and late heliopsis keep their color.

On the farm, pickle season is usually over, and peaches can be done for the year. Grapes are about to come in, and elderberries are deep purple and sweet for picking. Nearly half of the tobacco has been cut, half the commercial tomatoes have been picked, about a fourth of the potatoes dug.

Hickory nutting season opens as sweet-corn time winds down. Burrs from tick trefoil stick to pants legs and stockings. Lizard’s tail drops its leaves into the creeks and sloughs. Beside the deer paths of the forests, the undergrowth is tattered and cluttered with the remnants of the year.

Firefly larvae flicker in the grass, the adult fireflies gone. Red-headed woodpeckers, red-winged blackbirds, house wrens, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, Eastern bluebirds and black ducks migrate. Sometimes great swarms of dragonflies migrate through the Lower Midwest.

Reader Story

A Seismological Alert

By Clarence Dinnen, Jamestown, Ohio

This story has been passed down to me by my mother. It is about her father, my grandfather. I have no recollection of my grandparents as they died before or shortly after I was born. I was born in 1931 BC (before cholesterol).

My grandfather was an outdoorsman. He loved to hunt and fish. One of his favorite meals that he prepared was roast possum with sweet potatoes. My grandmother would not eat it.

He owned a farm in southern Ohio that had a small coal mine on it. It provided coal for his winter heat. One day, he was working in the mine and his coonhound came to the entrance and began barking and howling. The dog persisted and would not stop.

Grandfather thought the dog had a raccoon treed and came out of the mine to investigate. The dog stopped barking, jumped on him, and greeted him.

Grandfather took out his pocket watch and saw it was almost time for dinner. He and the dog went to the house. He ate his noon meal and rested for a while.

When he returned to the mine, the whole hillside had caved in. The mine was buried, along with his tools. The dog sensed what was going to happen and saved my grandpa. He never forgot what a great dog he had.