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@kinzyjr and @malibu31 my Alfies had a bit of burn from the previous multiple frosts and cold fronts down to around 27.5 to 29.1F. I recorded 5x 30F (or below) frosts before this morning. With a low of 22.6F and ~12 hours below freezing it'll be a big test on a lot of palms and cycads. At the moment the Alfies look ok, but generally spotting and burn takes a while to really show. The one that's at bigger risk is the Elaeis Guineensis "Whole Leaf" mutant, which was planted next to a walkway. That formed a perfect little channel for the wind to blow through. It was already about 75% burnt, and this morning looks like there's nothing green at all. Hopefully it'll be like a Royal and get defoliated and grow right back! According to reports, this was the lowest temp ever recorded in Sanford for February, beating 25F on 2/18/1958. It was not the coldest ever for Sanford. This was recorded at 19F on 12/25/1989, and probably even lower at 17-18F on 12/29/1894 with an unknown cold snap followup on 2/7/1895. Edit: I found an extremeweatherwatch chart with the lowest all time on record: Darwin shrugged.

Thank you @Josue Diaz for hitting me up with great palms

I feel sorry for you guys over there in Florida. Us people in Texas are used to these artic outbreaks since they're more common here. But as you know it only takes one cold event to cause havoc. These type of freezes are a reminder that cities and businesses should plant more cold hardy palms to avoid costly removal later on . Lessons were learned ( for the most part) after a historic freeze in 2021 here in Texas. Good luck everyone.

@Looking Glass I too have emergency bedroom sleeping precautions! It got down to 57.6 degrees in there last night, even with a little 750W space heater. BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! My yard bottomed out at 22.6F with moderate winds. There's some big oaks still at the neighbors on the W and NW sides, so that cuts down on wind speed a lot. However, that means the front yard and back yard measure basically identical. In still nights the backyard is always a few degrees colder. No hint of frost! It's currently up to 25-26F with the sun starting to hit a few plants. This was a few minutes ago. It's not quite in focus because I was shivering! Edit: The local airport station is only 0.4 degrees different than me:

The spadix is starting to pop out of the spathe on one of 3 it is currently pushing.

Unless the Royal is really small, they seem to be pretty tough. There are a bunch around the Sanford area that survived many years of frosts in the upper 20s and at least one ~25F and all survived. The only thing that finally killed a big batch of them was a chainsaw during construction of a new business complex... I've seen some completely defoliated and grow right back literally a couple of weeks later. It is already sub-40 here with not too high winds but occasional huge gusts. I went around today and took about 210 photos of the yard and all the plants. Most things I did not attempt to cover, being either too big to try, or already known to be really tough, or already burnt to a crisp from previous 27-30F frosts this winter. I did put boxes over 2 small Coryphas, my grown-from-seed Arenga Westerhoutii, a couple of small Arenga Hookeriana, and a couple of Philodendron "Evansii". I moved my small nursery area into the garage on top of a single folding table. I just remembered that I was going to cover a small Attalea Butyracea and Phalerata though...time to get out there before having dinner! Darwin's gonna sort it all out, right @kinzyjr?

So I know that you were not happy with me and my comments before but this is exactly what I was trying to convey. I was not trying to hurt your feelings or be unsupportive of your ventures. I was simply advising you of the harsh reality of nature. Nature does not care what mankind has described a region to be or that a general trend of warm temperatures is a sign of some sort of absolute minimum temperature. This type of thing happens and will continue to happen. I have (as well as many others) seen this occur several times in my lifetime and have come to the realization that Florida is not immune to intense arctic cold fronts, especially at the worst possible time. Planting tropical palm trees in Florida is always a risk as is any zone pushing. If you want to grow coconuts and similar palms, that’s great but they will never be viable long term in North Florida. And as you can see, even Central Florida is not a sure thing. At this point, there are people in South Florida who are worried because they have super tropical stuff like Areca Vestiaria and Cyrtostachys Renda in the ground. So they have been zone pushing too and it had been working out due to the moderate winters. But it had risk all along just like growing Coconuts and Adonidia in Jacksonville. Wrap your plants, add lights, move what you can indoors and hope for the best. But if your plants die, you will always be able to replace them. It just depends on whether you want to continue spending money on temporary plants.

A very tight temperature range this morning - 23.5F-24F. The lowest hourly at the airport was 24.8F. Being further west helped in this one. It's not looking good for survival on a lot of stuff due to the low temperature.

Round 2 Tonight, Round 3 tomorrow night. More of a radiational event now with widespread frost. Should clean up anything that made it through last night. I ordered a chain saw today and know what I will be doing for the better part of 2026. After that, a zone 8 yard for me! Historic event and will change the face of Central and areas of South Florida for many years to come. I am happy for those on the forum that will escape the worst of this catastrophe and I feel the pain of those who did not.

Hope fer the best ---I covered what I could and hauled some many plantz in the greenhouse ---and got several heaters cooking ---- left alot out in the yard as they were too much to b ring in I got a liquid filled heater by my Jubaeopsis and Triangle --- to big to cover --- salute

This is how we garden in South Texas. lol

I did have one encouraging thought...generally my house is 2 to 5F colder than the airport. But that's only on still nights. On previous windy cold fronts my house was pretty close to the airport, i.e. within 1 or 2 degrees. So I was assuming 25 at the airport = 20-23F here. But with the wind maybe that really means I'll end up near 25. Almost everything here already survived that with frost, so hopefully it'll all survive 25ish with wind! I suppose I'll find out in a few hours...

That 100 on there looks good right about now lol.

What’s the lowest low anyone has ever pushed a tribear?

My students and I have been landscaping our school for 40 years and we have a long-tested collection of Sabal palms. I thought that people in zone 8* would be interested in what can be grown long term. The coldest temps these palms have experienced is low teens. I will add more pics if people are interested. The list: S. causiarum, S. minor, S. tamaulipensis, S. rosei, S. x texensis, S. uresana (green and silver), S. pumos, S. bermudana, S. mexicana, S. etonia, S. palmetto Lisa. (4 years old). Added last summer: S. blackburniana, S. miamiensis. In our area, S. palmetto reseeds like crazy. S. minor is native and common in low lying areas. Rhapidophyllum and Serenoa are native about 1 hour south of town. Pictures in order top to bottom: S. causiarum, S. uresana (silver), S. tamaulipensis, S. Lisa, S. Riverside, S. palmetto

Mine had some leaf tip damage initially, but it will be a while until we know the full extent of the damage. There's stuff that looks fine now that will melt as soon as it warms up. We'll be posting the results of survival/damage/death here: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/92659-2026-florida-palmageddon-observations-and-damage-photo-thread/

Well this has been terrible timing for me. I have a lot of kentiopsis olivformis, chambeyronia macrocarpas, dypsis pembanas, buccaneer palm and a coconut. Here in Winter Garden, usually my microclimate is 3 degrees warmer than the surrounding area. Hit 26 and still only reading 28. Of course, I've been out of town for a week and coming back tomorrow, so nothing has been covered. I was able to get a buddy to come over and wrap some Christmas lights on the coconut and buccaneer, but I'm bracing for some devastation....

Looks like you guys have it pretty well covered, but I’ll add mine from the sites reporting to the NWS. Apologies in advance for the compression.

Same here. Local media reporting 25f for downtown but that can't be right since I live on the NE side and it only got down to around 28f and this side is the coldest, usually. Probably 29/30 downtown.

20.7 is my extreme low. The duration was the worst part. I think 16 hours below freezing is a good guess for here. It’s still 25 at 8:12am.

It hit 24 here in St. Augustine. Looks like it was in the 20s as far south as Palm Beach County. I’m praying that everything damaged recovers.

The three biggest losers in relative terms: 1.) Florida Keys 2.) Brevard county 3.) Palm Beach county The biggest winners (if you can call it that) in relative terms: 1.) The entire west coast within about ten miles from the gulf, from Citrus county southward 2.) North eastern Florida didn't get hit all that bad in relative terms, many locations on par or not much colder than with Orlando 3.) The panhandle, again, in relative terms.

25.4F low for my location. Worse than 2010. Hopefully everything pulls through.

Hyophorbe indica green and red forms planted as a double showing off a nice contrast of colour.

Best of luck to you. There's a Fiji Dwarf in Harlingen, Texas that I have defoliated and wrapped with a canvas painter's tarp each of the last 4 years hitting 27°F each year. So far so good. Here's pics from last winter.

Hey all - I'm in New Smyrna Beach on the barrier island and have a lot of nice specimens in my yard so naturally am freaking out a bit, as many here are too. I soaked my grounds over 2 days time leading up to the event hoping that along with the coastal location might help mitigate damage. I put some C9 Christmas lights up around 3 of my palms...2 Ptychosperma elegans and 1 Archontophoenix cunninghamiana. And heating pads around the trunk of my Satakentia liukiuensis . I also brought as much potted material inside my home as possible.....palms, bromeliads, orchids, crotons, & misc. So there was still a lot outside and exposed. I have numerous Archontophoenix palms on the property, 2 Royals, a Dypsis cabadae, large Areca lutescens that was here when I bought the place 30 years ago, 3 large Coconuts planted back in 2017 from 30 gal pots, various Cycads including 2 very nice Queen Sagos, some Dypsis pembana - 2 still in pots and 1 planted, a nice Veitchia joannis, a very nice double trunk Dictyosperma album plus some in pots, a nice trio of very mature Foxtails that I planted back in '06, a nice Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, and some other odds and ends including many that are considered cold hardy so I wont mention those. I just came in from a walkabout on my property and am see damage on a few including the Coconuts, Satakentia, Royals, but the Archontophonix are actually looking stout at this time. Some off color but nothing like the others that are showing damage. I realize we won't know the extent of damage yet for a week or so but wanted to share what I'm seeing in my location. Cheers! My Satakentia: One of my 3 Coconuts. They are all the same size: My Veitchia joannis: My Bottle: My 3 Foxtails: My 2 Royals: My double trunk Dictyosperma album"

I think we bottomed out here at 35 degrees for very briefly around sunrise. Only immediate damage was to a Sanchezia Bush in a sheltered spot. It shriveled up about 20% of its leaves. Other stuff like this will probably show later in the week. I got nervous late last night when they started calling for 32F, but we dodged that thankfully.

Since I’m not originally from anywhere around here and aside from vacationing, I’ve really only been coming to Florida in large swaths as a snowbird since 2021 winter,(until I moved here permanently last summer) I will refrain from giving my opinions on what I’m seeing as I really don’t have a good understanding of the nuance of this climate. I simply can’t tell what are the results of cold, draught, disease or hurricanes.

Yep - right now they're in baggies of sphagnum moss inside........🙂

I looked at 4 different sources for the weather last night - 27, 27, 25 & 24. I got down to 29F so that was pretty nice. If I knew it was going to be that warm I would’ve uncovered everything days ago. They really are bad with the temps here when it’s cold. Hot weather they’re fairly accurate but they seem to have a +/-5f of error when it’s near or below freezing temps.

frost is far more (heat)conductive than air, ~ 500x so for the same temp it cools the plant leaves down faster. If the leaf is not waxy(insulated) it causes the most damage by cooling even faster. The question of air temperature is impacted strongly by winds as moving air masses carry away the black body heat arising from the earth after the sun goes down. A brief cool down means the frost wont last if temps are near freezing, but the melting of frost absorbs heat while the formation releases it. For long term freezes, the rate of cool down is not as important since the plant will see the cold temps after several hours of being frosted and being under 32F. I'd rather have frost for a brief period of radiative cold than a longer frost free advective freeze. I(n 2010 I had C oliviformis and C lepto cheilos defoliated completely as small palms with heavy frost at 28F, but warming up was fairly rapid so the buds were intact, no damage and they survived to grow to adulthood. The best zone pushing(aside active heating) is by using canopy(traps black body heat down) or nearby hardscape(rocks and concrete retain daytime heat better than soil) or both. With wind, the cold is typically longer and the canopy/hardscape advantage is much smaller. So I will take the still winds of the radiative even with frost over a windy cold of a longer duration at the same temps. There are other question to ask like how small are the palms(canopy works better on larger palms), and do they have waxy leaves? I had a small waxy white bismarckia(<18" overall) that was totally frosted in 2010 at 28F, no damage. C. Pembana one was killed outright and two survived after spear pull. The survivors has some canopy/were less frosted. That was a short cold event 28F/frost in 2010, warming above freezing within 3 hrs after the low. The pembana that died was completely open to the sky and had visible frost. I had quite a few crownshafts die t6hat were in the open, small royals, foxtails, foxy ladies. My A ALexandre had one leaf extending out from under the frost cloth it was burned to a crisp but under the frost cloth was almost no damage. Brief colds are easier to push zones of course as you can grow in some canopy or cover small palms, the longer colds are going to be a problem frost or not. For my yard, I'll take the brief colds as it doenst go very much below 32F here, half a dozen times in 15 years but save for that 2010 event 30 was about the minimum. With no canopy or frostcloth a longer 6hr or more 30F cold could easily kill a small Alexandre. Larger palms take longer to cool the bud just by mass. Today I have enough canopy to protect a few extra degrees so I most derinitely want a brief radiative event, and frost is heaviest near the ground so my yard full of large palms that are going to handle frost better. My advice to less experienced here is put in the cold hardy palms first and make sure the open stand alone positions in your yard are more hardy hardy. Bunch areas of less hardy palms so they are more wind and canopy protected. Fast growing cold tolerant palms is the way to start a garden for zone pushing, hold off on the more tender ones till you have some wind/canopy protection. The front of my yard is open and has zero 10a palms, with some even hardy to 8b. In back not too far from the house(a heat source) planted in bunches are the warm 9b/10a palms. If you are going to drop 27 or lower I doubt frost matters for the less cold hardy ones, but near freezing frost can defoliate and even kill them. Frost accumulation is less with more wind, so the windy cold killer is lower temps for a longer time, that is my concern. Use frost cloth on small palms as they ar enot as cold hardy as adults. All cold tolerance data reported is almost always for the adult, do not make the mistake of not understanding this. Small palms in pots will be the most sensitive compared with the adult tolerance. After tjhis even I may push some more, seems like every 15 years we get a bad cold. Grow the tender ones them big and in clusters/canopy before the next one. Also adjust if you do not have enough cold hardy palms, get more cold hardy palms to help protect the tender ones..

I had 25 degrees at 7:15 am still 28 @ 9am . Worst is over. I think my Copernicia fallensis and gigas did ok unprotected. Will give them a better look tomorrow . Zero wind. Super quiet and still this morning. Birds hiding.

20 deg for me. The duration of this is brutal though. Still 24deg at 8:22am.

25.7F in Belle Isle. Probably won't get above freezing until 10:30, a 10-11 hr freeze. So frustrated. I tried my best to protect but this won't be pretty. Orlando landscapers will be getting lots of business shortly as plant enthusiasts, i guess we turn our attention to survivors and the science of temps/survivability.

Was watching a live stream of someone at Disney. Looks like they didn’t do any protection for the Satakentia palms on the backside of the new hotel building at the Polynesian Resort.

Amazing job @Jimbean and @Matthew92! A few observations from this freeze: 1.) The entire East coast froze until Delray Beach. 2.) Captiva Island appeared to be the warmest location on the peninsula, just above 40f. Marco Island may have had some low 40s too. 3.) Downtown Orlando hit 24f. 4.) The western side of Tampa Bay was spared, but east of Downtown Tampa had a hard freeze. 5.) In Pinellas County, the beachside outperformed the bay side. GSK appeared to stay just above freezing. 6.) Pahokee and other areas by Lake O came very close to freezing, which I never thought I’d see. The lake’s thermal shadow likely helped coastal South Florida with areas like SE Broward, which were downwind of the lake, were notably warmer than areas like Palm Beach that were not downwind. 7.) I was somewhat surprised to see Miami Beach made it into the upper 30s.

I was expecting 27f. Three out of my four thermometers had a low of 31f so definitely a good surprise.

Local media cold again and NWS missed the mark as well 31F Central Houston (local media: 28F, NWS: 29F) 30F Uptown 29F Katy (local media: 26F, NWS: 26F)

Hit 19.8F which will round to 20F. Could have been much worse. Queens likely defoliated regardless though. I believe this is the big one of the season. The Panhandle will continue to be at risk for freezing temperatures, and this is definitely not the last freeze, but I think it's probably the worst one. Hoping for a speedy recovery for everything that's been damaged down south this morning.

👍 It's a balmy 36 degrees in my backyard in Fort Myers this morning. You won't catch me complaining!

This bottomed out at 24°F. Station has trouble synchronizing

It is 34F near MCO at 11:30. The local news hour by hour yesterday had Orlando at freezing by 10 PM. Probably doesn't mean much in the big pucture,. The winds were brutal, felt like a tropical storm. Tore up my coconut PVC frame so no supplemental heat tonight. Still wrapped well with C9 lights and heating cable. 42F on the wireless thermometer, 8F warmer than air temp. Crown will be lost with a hard freeze.

Yep, I found that after I typed my initial post. In the list of top 10 cold events in Sanford are: December 24-26th 1989 with 19, 19 and 23F...three of the top 10 coldest in Sanford history January 21-23rd with 19, 19 and 21F...another 3 of 10 January 14th 1981 at 20F December 25-26th 1983 at 22 and 21F December 13th 1962 at 21F Today tied with January 20th, 1977 at 23F. For sure the 1980s were much, much worse for Sanford than today. I can see (just based on minimums) why 1989 is still talked about. First thing this morning the damage wasn't too obvious, most things were still green. I just went around and took another 100 or so photos, and there's stuff progressively turning chocolate brown. The Pygmy Date double in the back is about 75% brown already, but the one up front looks fine. Go figure. Even the big Alfredii outside my computer room window has gone from solid green to a sort of sickly olive. The Philodendron Selloum clump on the E side is mush. I'm leaving the boxes on things until tomorrow at lunch. It's supposed to get to 27 tonight...

We just published a new 2026 research update on lethal bronzing that explains what may actually be happening inside the palm — something that hasn’t been formally published before. Not a cure, but real progress. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18027736

Size really matters. That's a big TRi bear; hard to believe a (hopefully) short event could take it down. In 2007 we had a brutal low 20's event that lasted about 5 days. (Nightime temps). I lost lots of small stuff, but nothing established . Best of luck, I know it's stressful..

HRRR (18z) seems to show a ‘worst case’ scenario with model runs materially cooler than the NWS prediction for both tomorrow and Monday AM. As always, go with the professionals, but will be interesting to see how certain models perform. Good luck, everyone.

Lepidozamia hopei

Dallas zone 8a palms in January 2020 before 3F and 135 consecutive hours below freezing.