Morning Edition host Jeremy Siegel asked GBH meteorologist and resident horticulturalist what Bostonians need to know this week, from the weather in Boston this weekend to tips for conserving water in the garden. Here are five of his best tips.
It’s going to be another hot weekend.
Wednesday will be in the 80s or low 90s, but this weekend Bostonians can expect highs in the 90s every day through at least Sunday. It’s been hotter than usual, Epstein said, so a high in the 80s may feel like a respite. And the weather should feel familiar to anyone who has spent time in the South.
“If you look at the past three weeks and you average everything out, it's a very typical Atlanta, Georgia,” Epstein said.
Look out for record-breaking weather.
The hottest-ever Aug. 4 recorded in Boston came in 1928, when the high was 96 degrees. We may break that tomorrow, Epstein said. And as the climate warms, overnight temperatures do not drop as much as they used to, meaning Boston may also near a record for the hottest overnight low. The current record, 76 degrees, was set back in 1930.
Massachusetts is still in a drought.
If you see trees losing their leaves mid-summer or plants looking droopy and forlorn, it’s probably because they haven’t been getting enough rain.
“Since April, which I consider the beginning of the growing season, it's been the second driest season on record” since 1872, Epstein said. “That's significant.”
Epstein noted that there’s still plenty of water in the Quabbin Reservoir.
“We're not going to run out of water around here, and it will rain again,” Epstein said. “This isn't that kind of a drought.”
Not all droughts are tied to climate change — but higher temperatures don’t help.
As the climate warms, current models show New England getting more rain, Epstein said.
“We actually have had less drought over the past several decades than we had in the previous one,” he said. “If you look at the trend, temperatures are clearly up, driven mostly by human induced CO2 [emissions.] But in terms of drought, we have not seen an increase in the amount of drought.”
But when temperatures are hotter, plants and crops can dry out more.
“The trend is more hot weather, and when it's hotter, we do tend to dry out faster,” he said.
Off the grid? Consider using gray water for your plants.
At my little cottage we're on well water so I figured why push it and I'm using the dishwater water to water the plants. pic.twitter.com/QOMBIhiTvS
— Dave Epstein (@growingwisdom) August 3, 2022
Epstein said he’s been staying at a cottage with a well, so he’s been saving his dirty dishwater to hydrate his plants.
“Check your local regulations,” he said. But dishwater, so long as it doesn’t contain meat scraps, is probably fine to use in your garden. Regular dish soap probably won’t hurt your plants or lawn in that quantity.
“If you have a well and your well tends to grow dry in these long periods [without rain], you probably don't want to be watering your lawn and you probably want to think about, ‘do I need to conserve water in that way?’” Epstein said.
