December 15 - 26, 2015

The 15th was colder still, 38 at 5 pm, and dry for a moment, the parade of storms pausing, cold rain returning on the 16th. The temperature remained below 45 at dusk until the 26th, but there was an interesting spike on the 17th, 39 degrees and hard rain at 5 pm, with the temperature climbing suddenly to 52 at 9:30 that night. I ran into Jeff (team leader that evening) and Kellyn (night owl leader) down by the falls at dusk (I was testing a new thermometer Shawn had gotten). While we stood chatting in a hard rain they told me about the unusual forecast for higher temps later that night, and I walked back up to my place. I woke up at 1:30, an annoying habit of mine, and, curious about the temp spike Jeff and Kellyn had told me about, looked at the thermometer outside the kitchen window, which read 50, threw clothes on and walked down in a light rain to see if the frogs reacted to the sudden warmth. Nope, the glistening pavement was empty of movement save the bounce of rain drops. Perhaps the frogs stayed put under their forest ferns as long as it was cold, so they weren’t at forest edge ready to take advantage of the sudden warmth. These eleven days saw another 7.6 inches of rain, for a total of almost 19 inches in three weeks, with frogs venturing out only on those first three very warm nights.