Star Date: 23 April 2018 Monday

Captain's Log

Happy Monday! :)

This past week (15-22 April) was brutally cold for many of us with the U.S. overall trending the coldest and 2nd snowiest in over 40 years and wettest in 3 years. The year-over-year 10 degree drop in temperatures for the U.S. as a whole was also pretty epic going from much above average last year to frigid this year (5-10F below average for the week). This is a huge negative for retail seasonal merchandise sales as every 1°F colder can bring a 2% decline in cold beverage sales, 3% decline in apparel sales and a 7% decline in bedding plant sales so that's 20% down for beverages, 30% for apparel and a whopping 70% for flowers. The good news is the extreme cold/snowy conditions are just about done. CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW.

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The chart above shows U.S. high temperature trends vs average with almost every day so far this Spring trending well below average. The good news is the outlook looks more promising for May (notice more red bars which means above average temps for the U.S. overall). For the U.S. as a whole, March was the coldest in 4 years and snowiest in 25 years with April even worse trending coldest and snowiest in 21 years! May looks to be the warmest in 3 years for the U.S. overall so there should be a huge pent-up demand surge in Spring sales.

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The 2-week outlook shows the cool conditions linger in the East but very hot in the Pacific Northwest. But the pattern looks to make a flip flop next week with cold and high mountain snow returning to the West while the East gets a nice taste of Spring weather! With wt360 soil moisture and soil temperature outlooks you can see when vegetation will really start to pop out. Typically once your soil temperatures go above 50F it will start to get greener.

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We hope you have a great week! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for more frequent updates.

Captain Kirk out.