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Phenology Report, March 7th 2023

KAXE | By John Latimer,
Heidi Holtan, Charlie Mitchell
Published March 11, 2023 at 10:54 PM CST
Two images are shown side-by-side. On the left is a treed hillside next to a road. The snow is partially melted off of the side of the hill. There is an annotation saying "South-facing slope" with an arrow pointing to the bare patch. The image is captioned "Aspect: The angle of a slope in relationship to the sun". The right-hand image shows a small tree trunk standing in deep snow. The snow has melted around the trunk of the tree. There are annotations showing "dark bark" and "White snow". It is captioned "Albedo: A surface's propensity to absorb heat energy from the sun."
Sarah Mitchell
/
KAXE
A comparison of aspect and albedo

It's a great week to learn about aspect and albedo, two governing forces in the early spring snow-melt! John also covers some of his observations of the week, including pussywillows and migrating waterfowl.
Tags
Science and Nature Spring PhenologyPhenologyPhenology ReportMorning ShowKAXE Morning ShowTuesday Morning ShowPhenology Report
John Latimer
As a mail carrier in rural Grand Rapids, Minn., for 35 years, John Latimer put his own stamp on a career that delivered more than letters. Indeed, while driving the hundred-mile round-trip daily route, he passed the time by observing and recording seasonal changes in nature, learning everything he could about the area’s weather, plants and animals, and becoming the go-to guy who could answer customers’ questions about what they were seeing in the environment.
See stories by John Latimer
Heidi Holtan
Heidi Holtan is Director of Content and Public Affairs. She manages producers/hosts and is the host of the KAXE Morning Show, including a variety of local content like Phenology, What's for Breakfast, Area Voices, The Sports Page and much more, alongside Morning Edition from NPR.
See stories by Heidi Holtan
Charlie Mitchell
Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.


With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)
See stories by Charlie Mitchell