Pussy Willows at Kotzebue during winter

Observation by Jimmy Evak

We usually don't have pussy willows sprouting until May or June and it is only March 1! I also send this type of observation a year or two ago, so it may be the new norm.

Comments by Rick Thoman:

For Kotzebue this was the coldest winter (Dec-Feb) since 1998-99, with an average temperature of -6.3ºF (note though this is only 0.1ºF lower than winter 2019-20). All three months were colder than normal, Dec: 1.9ºF below normal, Jan: 10.8ºF below normal, Feb: 8.2ºF below normal. February started off very cold. The average temperature Feb 1-20 of -18.8ºF was 21.ºF below normal and the coldest first 20 days of Feb since 1990 (seventh coldest overall). The last week of February saw a dramatic change in the weather pattern. The average temperature Feb 21-28 of 23.2ºF was 20.0ºF above normal and the third warmest last week of February on record (only 2015 and 2019 milder).

From the Archive: Comments by Katie Spellman from the Jimmy's 2019 post:

Some species of willows are very sensitive to spring temperatures. Here where I grew up in Interior Alaska, Salix alaxensis (feltleaf willow) is the very first flowering plant to pop its buds when the temperatures warm up, even when snow still remains on the ground! In some international warming chamber experiments on tundra willows across the Arctic, the warmer spring temperatures made some species of willow flower earlier, but not all (Jones et al. 2003). I checked out what I could find on reports of Salix flowering in Alaska. I found other reports of flowering of Salix alexensis in May 30 – June 10 in Atkasook (Williams and Batzli 1982), and May through June on the UAF campus (West and Salo 1979). At Toolik Field Station on the North Slope, they have monitored Salix pulchra for 12 years, and the earliest they have recorded it flowering was May 22 (in 2016 and 2017). March is early for most parts of Alaska! I also learned that the fuzz on the catkins (those soft white hairs) can actually trap heat, and keep the bud warmer than the air temperature when the sun is not hitting it (Krog 1955)! This is good news, because early flowering puts plants at a greater risk of frost damage. The pussy willow fuzz adds protection from that risk. The bad news is, if the buds have popped open and ptarmigan haven’t come through yet, they lose out on some of the nutrition of the buds (mostly lipids) which are spent by the willow plant developing the catkin. Timing is everything!

Comments from LEO Editors:

The last time Jimmy Evak posted about early willow blooms was March 27, 2019 (see related posts). This year the blooms are reported at the beginning of March, following average temperatures in February of - 6.7 degrees F. Temperatures did increase significantly starting around February 19th and reaching just below freezing on the 24th (see Rick Thoman's comments above). This observation indeed joins an established trend of willows greeting us early! See "Related Posts" for other stories. For more information on the willow species in Alaska, see the the Alaska Division of Agriculture and USDA Soil Conservation Service publication, Willow Varieties for Alaska. Mike Brubaker / Chyna Williams