The Natural is the Normal

For a long time I've wanted to measure the temperature differences between the Old Forest and nearby urban areas, to see the difference the green cathedral has on temperature.

On June 8th I pulled together quite the rig to do it and within the span of a little over an hour (~3:30-4:30p.m.), I measured the temperature in the following locations:

• the Overton Square parking lot (aka, "Satan's Griddle") .


• next to the Overton Square parking lot, in the shade of a lone magnolia.


• In the Old Forest.


• At the edge of the Teton Trek clearcut, with the cut on one side and the Old Forest on the other.


• In the middle of the Overton Park Greensward.

While the temperature remained constant at 93 degrees at the Memphis International Airport, I measured the following temps, sorted hot to cool

1. Overton Square parking lot, full sun, 100 degrees.


2. Teton Trek clearcut-adjacent, full sun, 96 degrees.


3. Greensward and tree shade in Overton Square, full sun and shade, respectively, 93 degrees.


4. Old Forest, shade, 87 degrees.
   

While the official measured temps stayed constant, I measured a 13 degree difference as I traveled from parking lots and clearcuts to urban shade and sunlit greeenswards and finally to the rich shade of the Old Forest. All within a 1 mile radius of each other.


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Since the Old Forest is Memphis' natural state -- what we approach when we let up on the chainsaw and lawnmower -- the 87 isn't special, it's normal. We complain about the heat in Memphis, but a good chunk comes from the artificial climate we've created with bulldozers, which we then have to over-correct with the artificial climate of air-conditioning.

Of course, even with deep shade, we will still have humidity coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. But what we pay for in humidity, we get back in beauty, abundance, shade and lower temperatures.

That is, unless we knock our forests down and turn our world into a humid desert.