I’ve been thinking about how people say Utah’s winters aren’t as cold as they used to be, and there isn’t as much snow in the valley as there used to be. Well, I found some great data at a site created by Utah State University, allowing me to download min and max temperatures daily for 60 years at my local weather station (Pleasant Grove). There are other data about precipitation and snow accumulation, I think, but at this point, I just took a look at the minimum winter temperatures and the maximum summer temperatures. It’s startling. I’m shocked to see such a marked difference since 1990.
This graph shows winter low temperatures, organized by season. Click it to see a larger image.
Anyway, look what has happened since 1990; we’ve hardly dipped below zero, when previous decades saw extremes regularly go between -5° and -20°. It’s a remarkably sudden change after 1990! When people talk about global warming or climate change, they often speak of average temperatures and the changes are quite subtle, like these quotes from the EPA’s website:
- “Since the mid 1970s, the average surface temperature has warmed about 1°F.”
- “The Earth’s surface is currently warming at a rate of about 0.32ºF/decade or 3.2°F/century.”
But looking at these minimum temperatures shows a much more dramatic change. This is obviously of interest to gardeners, since the USDA garden zones we all use are keyed to the lowest minimum temperatures expected in an area. Where I live was a solid zone 5 before 1990 — zone 5 has lowest temps reaching -20°. But since then, it has almost turned into a zone 7, which would have lowest temps at 0°. But since we have dipped below zero a few times, we are really a zone 6 (lowest temps at -10°).
Here’s another chart, showing the maximum summer temperatures. These haven’t moved as much as the minimum winter temps, but they do seem to be rising since 1994. Note that in 60 years, we’ve been over 100° 12 times. But seven of those 12 years have occurred just since 1998.
This is a real concern to me. On the one hand, it’s actually nice that our winters have become milder and more livable. But if this trend continues, it may start melting the mountain snow much sooner in the spring/summer and could harm our water supplies, having a serious impact on our quality of life. Imagine if we couldn’t garden anymore, because there wasn’t enough water. Or if we had to ration water for basic needs in our homes. Without adequate water to live, we might start seeing an exodus of people from Utah, and our economy would go in the tank. And all this has been happening so fast since 1990! It’s somewhat frightening.
Last night, crazy fool that I am, I was up till 1 AM baking this apple pie. I’m so tired today! But I NEEDED PIE!!! These were the last of my Granny Smith apples, picked about a month ago. They were the smaller, less ripe ones, so I guess they had a lot of shelf life, being a little under-ripe. They’ve just been sitting on the counter in a bowl all that time.
Anyway, this may be the best apple pie I’ve made yet. It’s a modified version of a cinnamon crumb-crust pie I got from epicurious.com. By the way, I could have used more apples — this turned out a little flat, when it’s supposed to be taller. Here’s my version of the recipe:
Ingredients
Crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup frozen solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Filling
3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Original was 2 tsp, but it was too cinnamony)
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (I added this in — gives it a more classic apple pie taste)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Topping
1 cup all purpose flour (a reviewer on the epicurious site said to instead use 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/2 cup flour — I’ll have to try that sometime)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Preparation
For crust:
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter and shortening; rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Mix 3 tablespoons ice water and vinegar in small bowl to blend. Drizzle over flour mixture; stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch; turn edge under and crimp decoratively. Refrigerate while preparing filling and topping.
For filling:
Mix all ingredients in large bowl to coat apples.
For topping:
Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add chilled butter cubes; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles wet sand.
Toss filling to redistribute juices; transfer to crust, mounding in center. Pack topping over and around apples. Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 40 minutes (cover top with foil if browning too quickly). Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly at edges, about 45 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream. (Snelgrove’s Canadian Vanilla is the best match!)