Freeze warning for CA

[enigma99]

So it is interesting how just a couple days ago the models showed California being protected from the arctic air and now there is a strengthening of a high over the Atlantic, protecting the east coast. 

If this model holds, it is going to get bad. Probably upper 20s for some areas. Forecast lows are still 32-34 for most areas for central/northern ca but I wanted to put a warning out there just in case. I am going to start now with prep work to make sure all my stuff gets protected. 

Maybe it will push east or there will be some cloud cover to limit damage. Good news is January is coming soon when this crap starts pushing eastward.

 

[enigma99]

Well, 12Z SUN is now completely different. Models are all over the place. We'll have to wait and see what actually happens

[Hammer]

The current SoCal forecast looks really nice for now.  Meaning over night lows are uper 40s and low 50s.

[Ben in Norcal]

Lows coming down to low-30s for me next weekend...not good, hope it doesn't get worse.

[SHEP]

Keep us posted, we are thinking of taking off in 8 days time for a ride down Hwy 1 on bikes, plants @San Marcos, steaks at Jocko's, see Perry @ SLO & get palms.  I would need to get everything covered before we go. 

I will get a post off  with my new methods this year for my taller palms, particularly the Parajubea T. Micro..., which Patric said would need protection for a couple of years.  Clearing up tomorrow, so we are gonna get out my Stihl power trimmer to thin our redwoods, I noticed some of my palms are stretching too high from too much shade.  They are great for my R. Baueri, but I think they are gonna be problematic when they get too big and drop fronds like at Darold's. Cecile

[enigma99]

My current forecast is 33,30,31,33. Going to be cold and bananas are probably toast. I think we won't know how much the H off the pacific coast will suck in until we get closer to Friday. 

Hate December!

[enigma99]

Current forecast is 30,28. It hasn't been below 29 degrees since 2013 so not looking forward to it. Oh well. 

I think that this one is just getting me, weird how these events hit various parts of California.

Edited December 14, 2016 by enigma99

[Chris Chance]

Looks like my area is calling for 34. Typically that's for the other side of town which tends to get a bit colder. Hopefully the temperature stays higher than that.

[enigma99]

Moreno Valley is down to 33. Perhaps what is worse is the arctic door is going to be open for days to come so going to be chilly nights. Not a fun time of the year. January can't come soon enough!

[NorCalKing]

We are looking at 32f Saturday morning as well. Hopefully it doesn't go any lower.

[Chris Chance]

Whenever the cold nights come there's always the possibility of getting even colder. Hopefully it really doesn't get colder and as long as I stay above freezing I'm not too worried. Last year I actually saw lower temperatures. To me the worse part is getting frost after the rain, Just make the perfect conditions for fungus to form in palm growth points.

[GottmitAlex]

Calling for snow in the SOCAL mountain ranges for tomorrow.  If anyone happens to pass by the Corona Coconut palm on Saturday morning or evening, please take a picture of it. 

It's gonna be really cold by then. I wonder if they do a tad bit more than just the Christmas lights wrap-around over it for days with expected drops in weather.

They're calling for 32F Saturday  and 30F Sunday mornings.

 

 

[enigma99]

Today has been some serious WIND. Found a couple bananas that got knocked over this morning. I am glad that it barely missed my small D. Baronii and D. Albofarinosa! They would have been goners for sure

 

Edited December 15, 2016 by enigma99

[NorCalKing]

Huh, I'm surprised. Down here in Livermore the strongest gusts' we've got (so far) today is only in the 10-15MPH range. And only .004" of rain.

[enigma99]

Yeah, I don't know... I have .5" of rain so far and the gusts have settled down now. Part of the problem is the ground is so saturated.

 

Edited December 15, 2016 by enigma99

[NorCalKing]

Yeah, that certainly doesn't help. Livermore is borderline desert at the best of times. I'd rather some rain btw!

Good luck with your bananas.

[GottmitAlex]

11 minutes ago, enigma99 said:

Yeah, I don't know... I have .5" of rain so far and the gusts have settled down now. Part of the problem is the ground is so saturated.

 

Sorry to hear (and see) about your bananas, Enigma99.

Looking at the forecast for Rocklin for the next 7 days, you're going to have continuous daily lows in the upper 20's and lower 30's.

Good move on the mini-greenhaus for your Coconut. Did you install heat lamp(s) inside? If so, what kind?  And currently what temps are you registering by the coconut? 

Good luck with the storm.

 

[enigma99]

1 hour ago, GottmitAlex said:

Sorry to hear (and see) about your bananas, Enigma99.

Looking at the forecast for Rocklin for the next 7 days, you're going to have continuous daily lows in the upper 20's and lower 30's.

Good move on the mini-greenhaus for your Coconut. Did you install heat lamp(s) inside? If so, what kind?  And currently what temps are you registering by the coconut? 

Good luck with the storm.

 

I keep a heater running 24/7 in there. It is around 70 right now in there and it will be probably low 40s during this freeze. I could spend more than 200 watts of heating but I think it should be warm enough hopefully!

oh and I am using a lasko myheat. It was only $20 and works great 

Edited December 15, 2016 by enigma99

[enigma99]

NOAA's pinpoint map has me listed at 32, 30, 33. Weather.com a bit colder... Either way I am going to prepare for the worst, too many atmospheric variables so I'm going to cover as much as I can, set up some heaters around etc to limit the damage if it does drop below 31.

[NorCalKing]

3 hours ago, enigma99 said:

NOAA's pinpoint map has me listed at 32, 30, 33. Weather.com a bit colder... Either way I am going to prepare for the worst, too many atmospheric variables so I'm going to cover as much as I can, set up some heaters around etc to limit the damage if it does drop below 31.

Hmm what is NOAA pinpoint? I tried looking but didn't find any results.

[enigma99]

15 minutes ago, NorCalKing said:

Hmm what is NOAA pinpoint? I tried looking but didn't find any results.

noaa.gov, enter a city or zip and you'll get a forecast with a clickable map. You can click around to your exact location 

[enigma99]

Well night 1 is over.

NOAA forecasted low 32, 31.5F actually read at my house. Weather.com said 29 and they were way off. 

Tonight NOAA says 31F, weather.com 28. 

[Ben in Norcal]

Showing 31s across the board for tonight...think I may just roll with it.

[NorCalKing]

Well, as usual, I came in a little cooler. My backyard bottomed out just about 29f. Thankfully this cold front is supposed to be short lived. Guess I should put a frost blanket on my small potted Meyer Lemon tonight.

[enigma99]

My maxima is about the only thing showing a little damage. It is a small tree about 5ft overall with zero overhead protection. Thought these could take more cold than 31 or so. Maybe it was the frost that got it. Oh well should come out strong in the Spring 

Edited December 17, 2016 by enigma99

[Ben in Norcal]

16 minutes ago, enigma99 said:

My maxima is about the only thing showing a little damage. It is a small tree about 5ft overall with zero overhead protection. Thought these could take more cold than 31 or so. Maybe it was the frost that got it. Oh well should come out strong in the Spring 

I've never had them show damage down to 29.  Maybe because it was just planted?

[enigma99]

Just now, Ben in Norcal said:

I've never had them show damage down to 29.  Maybe because it was just planted?

I planted this one a few months ago. I will take a couple pictures later

[sbpalms]

Hit the mid to high thirties last night. Ugh.

[Jubaea]

Bottomed out around 30 under canopy last night with frost on the ground in open areas and on some palms.  Looks like there is frost damage on A alexandrae, Kentia, Bismarckia, Parajubaea cocoides that are all out in the open.  It would not surprise me if those saw high 20's.

[Ben in Norcal]

Got down around freezing at about 2 a.m. it looks like, but then air started mixing with some 3-5 mile an hour breezes and stayed around 38/39 most of the night.  

Gotta love elevation!

[GottmitAlex]

We had a low of 5.7C/42.26F at dawn. 

[NorCalKing]

Oh, it hit 27.3 in open areas of the yard here. No breezes to stir in or moderate. I'll post some pics of my archy in a few weeks when things expose themselves. On another note...Thank god I covered the giant bird of paradise. Those are super frost sensitive. Unlike their cousins the orange bird of paradise.

[enigma99]

Open areas 29F, canopy low 30s. Still have some areas of green bananas but the biggest surprise is the FROST. Wow. It was extremely heavy and ended up doing more damage than what 29/30 should do. 

This is the coldest it has been since 2013. Oh well, it is winter after all. 

[enigma99]

2 hours ago, Ben in Norcal said:

Gotta love elevation!

Zone 10 hilltops around me were above freezing all night. Makes me wish I would have bought a house a little higher up

[WestCoastGal]

We still don't have our own weather station, but using a neighbor's readings a few blocks over, he got to a low of 27F. He was showing 31F at 1am and it didn't get above freezing until around 9am. No wind down here on valley floor either unlike Ben who got lucky. Most but not all of our frost-tender stuff got covered yesterday, unfortunately for some of it, and I do expect we'll be cutting 3 unprotected orange birds of paradise down to the ground later this spring. Really sad as it's been 3 years for them to finally grow out beautifully since the 2013 freeze. They have all been in bloom and we had lots of new flowers about to emerge. The uncovered SunPatiens are a given loss, but feel badly we didn't get all of our birds covered. Nothing to do about it now. Pretty sure we'll have damage to the Philodendron 'Hope' that was uncovered but with lights underneath. It too really looked great this past fall. Oh well.

Fortunately don't need to be concerned about our palms really. None really need protecting. We added a new Rhapis excelsa, to the yard this past year. It's a mature size so despite being a new planting assume it will be fine. We had that almost day-long drenching of rain just prior to yesterday so everything has been well watered. We also have two Chamaedorea (one microspadix and other unknown variety but fast tall grower) in pots on the porch so will be curious to see how they fare not being in the ground. 

[NorCalKing]

31 minutes ago, WestCoastGal said:

We still don't have our own weather station, but using a neighbor's readings a few blocks over, he got to a low of 27F. He was showing 31F at 1am and it didn't get above freezing until around 9am. No wind down here on valley floor either unlike Ben who got lucky. Most but not all of our frost-tender stuff got covered yesterday, unfortunately for some of it, and I do expect we'll be cutting 3 unprotected orange birds of paradise down to the ground later this spring. Really sad as it's been 3 years for them to finally grow out beautifully since the 2013 freeze. They have all been in bloom and we had lots of new flowers about to emerge. The uncovered SunPatiens are a given loss, but feel badly we didn't get all of our birds covered. Nothing to do about it now. Pretty sure we'll have damage to the Philodendron 'Hope' that was uncovered but with lights underneath. It too really looked great this past fall. Oh well.

Fortunately don't need to be concerned about our palms really. None really need protecting. We added a new Rhapis excelsa, to the yard this past year. It's a mature size so despite being a new planting assume it will be fine. We had that almost day-long drenching of rain just prior to yesterday so everything has been well watered. We also have two Chamaedorea (one microspadix and other unknown variety but fast tall grower) in pots on the porch so will be curious to see how they fare not being in the ground. 

That's interesting. I always find the orange birds to be pretty hardy. In fact last winter we hit a 25f and it sustained little, to no damage. Also my Philodendron (under some canopy) did not sustain any noticeable damage.  Guess sometimes you just get lucky.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Bottomed out at 34F here early this morning just as was forecasted for my area. Tonight will be similar then temps begin to rise through the week. 

[Hammer]

Hit  the upper 30s.  Frost everywhere on the grass, roofs and so on.  I didn't see any frost on plants this morning so time will tell if the bullet was dodged or not.

[WestCoastGal]

2 hours ago, NorCalKing said:

That's interesting. I always find the orange birds to be pretty hardy. In fact last winter we hit a 25f and it sustained little, to no damage. Also my Philodendron (under some canopy) did not sustain any noticeable damage.  Guess sometimes you just get lucky.

Yeah, a lot depends on so many factors I'm sure. Here's two small snapshots of a few birds from 2013 freeze and the ugly sight. Even the one by the stucco house that had the cover blown off in the wind didn't come off unscathed. Expected it of the outlying birds by the fence.  Haven't taken any photos yet of this years. 

 

The 25F or so temps that year didn't kill the roots so they did come back but we knew better what to expect in later years and protected them. This past year the birds grew so tall and a bit more spread out that hubby ran out of time making adjustments to our frost cloth/pvc set up from previous years to cover them all before it got dark. Too bad he didn't have another weekend day to set up. Could have used the extra time.

[NorCalKing]

Wow, that's crazy!