What is your current yard temperature?

[UK_Palms]

10 hours ago, Hortulanus said:

I'm confused are you located in Compton or in Guildford? Or both?

I’m in Compton, which is a tiny village about 2 miles southwest of Guildford, which is my nearest ‘big’ town. Technically I am part of the Guildford borough/district too, but I am outside of the actual town, which is a 10-15 minute drive away. There is no UHI for me here out in the sticks, whereas Guildford runs about 1C warmer. That is still nothing compared to London’s monstrous UHI though, which often adds 5C on cold winter nights. The outer southwest suburbs of London are about a 25-30 minute drive away for me.

Edited December 9, 2022 by UK_Palms

[UK_Palms]

2 hours ago, cbmnz said:

What is keeping central London so mild in this setup? The USA has some megacites that show a clear heat island effect but not to that extent.  I also don't get how if only reaching 3-4C at warmest time of the day it's not dropping to -10C or so during the long nights in Dec at that latitude.  Down here in mid winter can easily drop to -3C overnight purely from radiation cooling after being 11-12C the preceding afternoon and the night will be 1hr or more shorter.

There are a number of factors. Obviously the urban heat island in general adds about 4-5C of protection on the coldest of nights. In extreme cases it can add about 6C of protection in central London. The only cities in the USA that can rival London for size and UHI are NYC and Los Angeles. They all have about 20 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area, although London is probably about 25 million if we count all the foreigners/migrants that aren’t included in the census. So millions of houses emitting heat into surrounding area.

Eastern and central London also benefits form being closer to the coast than say west London and my inland area. The river Thames probably adds some protection too and moderates temps with all that sewage and bath water being pumped into it. The layout of the city must also inhibit cold air from flowing in from the valleys or pooling in areas, unlike in my area again. I am located in a bit of a frost hollow here in western Surrey. I think London is kind of sheltered a bit due to the geography of the area, which inhibits cold air getting in.

My minimum was actually only -6C / 21F in the end last night as cloud cover did roll in around 2am. By sunrise I was back up to -0.5C / 31F surprisingly, although that cloud cover is now suppressing daytime warmup, unlike yesterday. London City airport by the Thames went down to -1C / 30F again, but that station is kind of out in the open near the runway. It appears at street level in that area, in protected back yards, it didn’t go below +1C / 34F for some folk. Despite the fact that we are having a polar vortex event and severe freeze. That means 6-7C / 13F of protection at street level in the mildest parts of London, compared to where I am in a tiny village outside of the city.

[petiole10]

A drought since 2021 is now ending with very heavy rainfall from the Atlantic. The easing of the drought and quite warm temperatures are the obvious benefit of this. However it is one extreme to the other with the rainfall - which now doesn't know when to stop.  There were thunderstorms and torrential downpours on Wednesday night into Thursday with parts of the Lisbon region flooded with people evacuated .

The coming week shows huge rainfall totals and further flooding being a result of this.

That is what happens when cold air spills into more northern parts of Europe and the jet stream is pushed south to track towards the Mediterranean. Grateful though to see max temps up to 17C by day, with mild nights. This afternoon has a welcome break from the rain which should last through tomorrow. Until the next deluge on Sunday.

Hopefully the eventual return of high pressure is a sub tropical mild regime from the nearby Azores that deflects the cold air lurking to the north and east even further away. This would also aid with avoiding fungal issues for the palms and other exotics.  Ironic this, after the searing desiccating dry heat up to 45C back in mid summer

Edited December 9, 2022 by petiole10

[UK_Palms]

Crap daytime recovery again after a -6C low, with cloud cover suppressing any warm up today. But of course the skies are now clearing just as the sun is setting, allowing yet another harsh radiation frost tonight. Literally everything is against us during this polar vortex. Parts of London just scraping 5C / 43F where the sun has broken through during late afternoon. Only 2.9C / 38F here however! 🤮

The 850 hPa isotherms are now at a staggering -10C. This breaks the previous record for the date by 3C. The previous record isotherm for 9th December was -7C during the 2010 freeze. The lowest isotherm during the whole of last winter was -4C. I think we have to go back to the 1700’s to find a 3 day period as cold as this during early December, in terms of nighttime lows in southern England at least. Just shocking. Tonight is going to the the 3rd consecutive date record for minimum temperature, so this is a severe freeze. No sign of this ending soon either. The arctic airflow is entrenched. This is basically my ‘palmageddon’ event happening.

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Foxpalms]

7 hours ago, cbmnz said:

What is keeping central London so mild in this setup? The USA has some megacites that show a clear heat island effect but not to that extent.  I also don't get how if only reaching 3-4C at warmest time of the day it's not dropping to -10C or so during the long nights in Dec at that latitude.  Down here in mid winter can easily drop to -3C overnight purely from radiation cooling after being 11-12C the preceding afternoon and the night will be 1hr or more shorter.

Inland with no urban heat island it does but too around -5c. London isn't too far from the coast so it benefits from that, we also have the river Thames going through the city. But what is the most important thing is the urban heat island. The reason I think the urban heat island is most important thing keeping us warm here is even costal towns are getting colder temperatures. London has a large urban heat island but one thing also to consider is unlike many of the us cities, London is very dense. Land is much more expensive here than in most cities, except maybe Manhattan, so houses are built very dense. Essentially London creates its own weather, the same is true in the summer London is often sometimes even 1-2c higher in temperature than surrounding areas during the day, except inland areas in the summer but even then the inland parts of London such as Heathrow usually be warmer in the day than outside of London. The biggest difference though is at night, when you can drive from outside the urban heat island to central London and the temperature can rise 5-6c possibly more. It also helps the warmest part of London is right in the middle so it benefits from the city and all the outskirts. 

[Foxpalms]

@UK_Palms What I've also seen from this event is London's urban heat island seems to be more effective than living next to the sea, even will a small urban heat island. I think this could be due to the sea surrounding the UK in the winter not being particularly warm compared to other countries so it has less of an effect on warming the surrounding temperature. But since London has multiple things keeping it warm it seems to be more effective, this event is also making me question how cold it has gotten in the past such as 2010 and wether it got as cold as some suggest in central London, since there weren't many private weather stations get get data from and most people would have just relied on the forecast temperature of met office stations which we now know aren't particularly accurate to street level in central London. To the north and to the south there are hills surrounding London which probably helps block cold air.  Whilst too the west and east there aren't, so nothing is helping to block the sea air from the east this is also probably the reason west London is significantly warmer than east London during the day in the summer.

[Arecaceus]

10 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

I’m in Compton, which is a tiny village about 2 miles southwest of Guildford, which is my nearest ‘big’ town. Technically I am part of the Guildford borough/district too, but I am outside of the actual town, which is a 10-15 minute drive away. There is no UHI for me here out in the sticks, whereas Guildford runs about 1C warmer. That is still nothing compared to London’s monstrous UHI though, which often adds 5C on cold winter nights. The outer southwest suburbs of London are about a 25-30 minute drive away for me.

Ah alright, I thought that's Compton, Plymouth. And oh yeah it's crazy I always observe the weather all over Europe and the difference between central and East London and everything further West was crazy, especially yesterday. I experience those effects in my area too but not as crazy as this! I always have huge differences in temperature between my garden and the official weather station of my city. But just going outside of the "Cologne bay" it get's crazy. A couple of days ago the official weather station in my city measured a low of not even -1°C while just a 20-30 Min drive futher northeast it went down to almost -7°C! And in my garden in the south of the city I didn't even have had any frost. Not even the ground was frozen in the early morning.

[Arecaceus]

5 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Crap daytime recovery again after a -6C low, with cloud cover suppressing any warm up today. But of course the skies are now clearing just as the sun is setting, allowing yet another harsh radiation frost tonight. Literally everything is against us during this polar vortex. Parts of London just scraping 5C / 43F where the sun has broken through during late afternoon. Only 2.9C / 38F here however! 🤮

Sorry to hear that mate. For me the forecast just changed for the better this night but it's still very cold and it's not supposed to go over 0°C (Probably 1°C or 2°C in my garden) tomorrow. I don't want to complain too much but I really don't like days without any heat up. 😅 I've got so many small plants I planted this year. Fleece has been applied already on a couple of them. Just to be sure.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Hortulanus

[Phil Petersen]

Hopefully no hail later 😅

[Tyrone]

7 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Crap daytime recovery again after a -6C low, with cloud cover suppressing any warm up today. But of course the skies are now clearing just as the sun is setting, allowing yet another harsh radiation frost tonight. Literally everything is against us during this polar vortex. Parts of London just scraping 5C / 43F where the sun has broken through during late afternoon. Only 2.9C / 38F here however! 🤮

 

The 850 hPa isotherms are now at a staggering -10C. This breaks the previous record for the date by 3C. The previous record isotherm for 9th December was -7C during the 2010 freeze. The lowest isotherm during the whole of last winter was -4C. I think we have to go back to the 1700’s to find a 3 day period as cold as this during early December, in terms of nighttime lows in southern England at least. Just shocking. Tonight is going to the the 3rd consecutive date record for minimum temperature, so this is a severe freeze. No sign of this ending soon either. The arctic airflow is entrenched. This is basically my ‘palmageddon’ event happening.

I don’t envy your situation one bit. Protect everything you can. Put gas heaters in the garden etc etc.

Was just looking on windy.com and I hope their predictions aren’t true in a few days for your area. Also by the 19th they’re predicting freezing temps as low as northern Florida. This is a big freeze. 

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, Tyrone said:

I don’t envy your situation one bit. Protect everything you can. Put gas heaters in the garden etc etc.

Was just looking on windy.com and I hope their predictions aren’t true in a few days for your area. Also by the 19th they’re predicting freezing temps as low as northern Florida. This is a big freeze. 

These are all-time record lows for early winter and the dates in question in my neck of the woods, going back 300 years. I am f*cked again here tonight. The Atlantic influence is totally cut off, rather unusually, allowing a relentless arctic flow with ridiculously cold isotherms thanks to the polar vortex. I cannot escape it.

Combined with crystal clear skies again tonight and zero wind, I am already at -6C / 21F at 1am. Going for a low of -8C / 17F tonight. This is a 'palmageddon' type event for me here now. For context, this would be the equivalent of 5 feet of snow and -10F temps in New York City. So it really is a catastrophic freeze. 

 

Farnborough is technically my nearest Met station, although it usually runs 1C colder than where I am. This forecast is sickening. I am going to lose half of my palms/exotics collection once this event is over. This is the worst freeze since 2010, although even that event happened later in the month compared to this. It's disgustingly early, given that I hadn't even experienced a single frost up until 3 days ago. And now BAM! A catastrophic polar vortex and 'palmageddon'. I don't even see a way out of it looking at the forecast ffs.

 

Look at how mild the Isles of Scilly are where the huge Rhopalostylis population is located, just off the Cornish coast. It's like no 'freeze' is even happening over there. In fact they have no freezing temps at all and pretty decent daytime temps, relevant to what I am experiencing. It's like a totally different climate there. Complete frost protection.

The Scilly Isles are pretty much subtropical nowadays, given that they are also being affected by this same polar vortex too. That's like 10C / 20F of protection with no UHI as well, despite the Scilly Isles being at 50N latitude. Crazy. Nowhere in the entire world is more protected relevant to latitude than the Scilly Isles. The Rhopies will probably still be actively growing there!

 

I may try to protect stuff further tomorrow, now that it is the weekend and I will have time to assess stuff during daylight hours. Although it almost seems futile at this point. The Phoenix and Washingtonia palms are likely going to be toast by the time winter is done. I am praying the protection on my bananas is sufficient, but it probably isn't. The Syagrus Romanzoffiana are going to need a miracle to pull through this event. I didn't event have to protect them last winter! 😭

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by UK_Palms

[kinzyjr]

8 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

Combined with crystal clear skies again tonight and zero wind, I am already at -6C / 21F at 1am. Going for a low of -8C / 17F tonight.

That's certainly cold, but hopefully some stuff surprises you and skates through. 

[UK_Palms]

27 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

That's certainly cold, but hopefully some stuff surprises you and skates through. 

It's more the duration that I am accounting for. I am suffering brutal radiation frost after radiation frost under the clear skies, which will continue for another 7-10 days probably. Daytime warmup is barely above freezing now under this ludicrous isotherm. There is only so long that the CIDP and Washingtonia will be able to survive that at this northern latitude.

My Washingtonia Filifera and Phoenix Theophrasti aren't protected at all, so it will be interesting to see how they fare out here in the sticks. I'm 35 miles inland from the coast in a tiny village with no UHI whatsoever. This is a proper dry, polar cold though, with no precipitation. Perhaps the Filifera will pull through. The Queens however... 

Edited December 10, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Foxpalms]

43 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

It's more the duration that I am accounting for. I am suffering brutal radiation frost after radiation frost under the clear skies, which will continue for another 7-10 days probably. Daytime warmup is barely above freezing now under this ludicrous isotherm. There is only so long that the CIDP and Washingtonia will be able to survive that at this northern latitude.

My Washingtonia Filifera and Phoenix Theophrasti aren't protected at all, so it will be interesting to see how they fare out here in the sticks. I'm 35 miles inland from the coast in a tiny village with no UHI whatsoever. This is a proper dry, polar cold though, with no precipitation. Perhaps the Filifera will pull through. The Queens however... 

I will be amazed if the queen palms survive especially considering their size. Saying that some did survive the Texas freeze with colder temperatures than that. Do you have incandescent Christmas lights or an electric heater? As it might be worth trying to use those given how cold the forecast is for you.

[UK_Palms]

39 minutes ago, Foxpalms said:

I will be amazed if the queen palms survive especially considering their size. Saying that some did survive the Texas freeze with colder temperatures than that. Do you have incandescent Christmas lights or an electric heater? As it might be worth trying to use those given how cold the forecast is for you.

I can't be bothered to rig up Christmas lights or muck around with heaters outdoors. Too much effort and probably little reward. I have already gone out of my way to protect most of my collection. I wrapped the Queens with fleece and if that isn't enough, well then I shouldn't bother growing them here. All the more reason to relocate to the south coast.

I have just remembered that I didn't even mulch the crown of my Dicksonia Antarctica fern. I did throw a sheet of tarpaulin over it though, which I also did with the smaller Chamadorea, CIDP and Robusta's, which are planted in the ground. I doubt that will offer much protection however. The current temp is down to -6.5C / 20F now at 2:30am.

Come to think of it, while typing this, I have just remembered I have smaller Chamadorea Radicalis's in pots out back from seeds that Doomsdave sent me. They would have been subjected to this freeze with no protection. I better go and grab them, assuming they are even still alive. They would have took some brutal freezes the past few nights ffs. Agghhhhh. How hardy are small Chamadorea Radicalis's...? They are in a shaded position too so would have had no daytime warmup really the past 2 days, after back to back nights of -6C. 

Update - I have just salvaged the smaller Chamadorea's from out back in the dark but the pots are frozen solid like blocks of ice. Here is the biggest one. The other ones are in even smaller pots that are like solid blocks of ice now. They would have saw 3 consecutive nights of -6C pretty much and barely any daytime warmup. I hope they pull through.

Edited December 10, 2022 by UK_Palms

[sandgroper]

11.00am, 24c. Very mild temperatures for this time of year but I'll take it while I can get it.

[Foxpalms]

52 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

I can't be bothered to rig up Christmas lights or muck around with heaters outdoors. Too much effort and probably little reward. I have already gone out of my way to protect most of my collection. I wrapped the Queens with fleece and if that isn't enough, well then I shouldn't bother growing them here. All the more reason to relocate to the south coast.

I have just remembered that I didn't even mulch the crown of my Dicksonia Antarctica fern. I did throw a sheet of tarpaulin over it though, which I also did with the smaller Chamadorea, CIDP and Robusta's, which are planted in the ground. I doubt that will offer much protection however. The current temp is down to -6.5C / 20F now at 2:30am.

Come to think of it, while typing this, I have just remembered I have smaller Chamadorea Radicalis's in pots out back from seeds that Doomsdave sent me. They would have been subjected to this freeze with no protection. I better go and grab them, assuming they are even still alive. They would have took some brutal freezes the past few nights ffs. Agghhhhh. How hardy are small Chamadorea Radicalis's...? They are in a shaded position too so would have had no daytime warmup really the past 2 days, after back to back nights of -6C. 

Update - I have just salvaged the smaller Chamadorea's from out back in the dark but the pots are frozen solid like blocks of ice. Here is the biggest one. The other ones are in even smaller pots that are like solid blocks of ice now. They would have saw 3 consecutive nights of -6C pretty much and barely any daytime warmup. I hope they pull through.

They are pretty hardy. I've heard of them taking lower temperatures though not in pots. I just checked on mine which is completely undamaged unsurprisingly. My chamedorea klotzschiana, plumosa, elegans, cataractarum,  pochutlensis, microspadix, costaricana, schiedeana, metallica, seifrizii and oblongata also all look fine at the moment. Currently -1c/30f

Edited December 10, 2022 by Foxpalms

[GottmitAlex]

10:00pm PST Dec 9, 2022 

9C. I'm outside and I can't use my hands outside after my Aug 2nd accident (shattered my wrists from falling off a 12ft story) with this weather. 

The cold just hits my wrists (where my plates are.)  Going inside. I usually can sustain -anything. 

Guess I gotta move south.

😆

[sandgroper]

8 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

 

Guess I gotta move south.

😆

Can't get much further south than Oz Alex and palms grow well. 

There's a beer in the fridge for you mate, no pressure.

[UK_Palms]

Still -7C / 19F at 9am. My coldest temperature on record for 10th December here and the coldest temperature I have ever recorded at 9am in my climatology dataset. I am never getting above freezing now today looking at that, even if we get all-day sun.

Send help. Please.

[UK_Palms]

Daytime recovery went into complete overdrive with 11C / 20F+ of solar heating here between 9am - 2pm. That is significant given that I am at 51N and the solar minimum (winter solstice) is just 11 days away now. That is almost like a New Mexico style recovery there. Most stuff had thawed out in the sun by 2pm.

However the temperature is already dropping like a lead balloon again at sunset due to the clear skies. Yet another very harsh radiation frost will follow once again. I’m expecting at least -7C / 19F tonight here. The date record for my location is currently -5.9C / 21F in 1962. That record will be gone by midnight, for sure.

It doesn't help we get 15 hours of total darkness this close to solstice at 51N. A cold arctic airmass combined with clear skies is just a recipe for disaster.

Edited December 10, 2022 by UK_Palms

[Foxpalms]

It got up to 6c today not 3c like the forecast was suggesting due to clear skies all day so not too bad. Bournemouth airport somehow had over 14.8c of solar heating today. With different forecasts suggesting different things it's unclear how cold it will be tonight. All suggest clear skies but some show clouds coming in it at around 4-5am. 

[Silas_Sancona]

A mild 62-66F around Chandler and the East Valley today... One more nice day ahead for tomorrow before things get ...Complicated...


Storm now slamming California should provide "something" in the way of rainfall as it moves through late tomorrow night / Monday morning. How much rain / snow falls? is up in the air. Storm totals have been all over the place the last 24-36 hours and we, at least here in the valley, could see as little as  .10 - .30",  or upwards as .50 - .75".  Rainfall totals were near an inch for this side of town earlier in the week.

Temps dive, at least for the first half of the week..  possibly moderating late week / next weekend -though i'm placing no confidence in ~any~  forecasts beyond 3 or 4 days...




Of note  ***Kiddo scribble below the suggested lows for next week are my "idea" of the temp. range i'd anticipate seeing across neighborhood WX stations on those days, if it does get that cold, based upon what i've seen in past years.***  I'm curious to see if a hunch shows me some insight into how cold mornings do their thing here.



Things could get  ..weird..  after that.



Been watching the GFS swing wildly between cold / not that chilly,  Soaking wet and a few passing "eh" storms since Thursday and looking forward as we head toward X Mass?  All i can say is:   Anything   is possible..

Some model runs, inc. today's 18z are going nuts w/ the idea of tapping copious amounts of subtropical moisture from the E. Central Pacific and duping it over S. Cal and AZ, while other runs don't tap the same hose and keep the majority of activity that might occur over the next 6-10 days more centered over the Great Basin as it heads east. 

Here's the current 18Z and suggested rainfall totals from that potential scenario..  This is just one of a few super wet ( by AZ / S.E. CA. Deserts standards ) model runs over the past 2 days.. Other runs have been much drier / suggesting more typical rainfall totals if any.  The "suggested" total of 5-7"  up in the mountains east/ N.E. of here, is predominantly rain..  We see that, there will be flooding out there.





I can't remember the last time i'd seen the GFS generate this kind of set up here..  Repeated, undercutting storms ( Storms which drop down the CA coast, or just off shore of the coast ...then swing east over S. Cal. or Baja ) ..While drawing up plumes of warm subtropical moisture are VERY un- La Nina like to say the least..  You'd expect this during El Nino.  Anyway..  This would be storm #3 to pass through the region under the " undercutting / tapping subtropical moisture scenario, if this set up were to pan out as suggested by this model run.


As said, this model run's " thoughts" aren't set in stone.. Not by a long shot,  but.. definitely something to watch..

Same storm may force the overall chilly / wet pattern over -at least- CA. and AZ to break ..or at least temporarily moderate.. after that, while starting the clock on a big cold outbreak across the plains /southeast / east later.   We'll see..


On the other hand, other runs keep the chill lurking nearby / over most of California / Great Basin.. and mild / warm-ish east / S.E.  of New Mexico w/ TX..

Current 18z run " thoughts" at 384 hours..



Last night's 00z at the same time



..Let the forecast chaos and whiplashing  begin..

[UK_Palms]

@Foxpalms Severe radiation freeze currently taking place again for 4th consecutive night now. I am currently down to -5C / 23F at 2am, so it is going to be yet another date record here for 10th/11th. Also another unwanted record too is the first time in history that I have had 4 consecutive nights below -5C / 23F during first 10 days of December.

The average temperature here is also at its lowest ever on record for the first 10 days of December in my area. The central England Temperature series (CET) is the 2nd lowest on record for first 10 days of December and even lower than 2010. The last time my area had 5 consecutive nights below -5C / 23F before 14th December was back in 1657. 😭

 

I managed to lift the tarpaulin off some of the CIDP and Washies to inspect. No damage yet but if this carries on (which it will) they are probably going to be toast. Damage likely won't show until it warms up again. We probably have another 7 days of this freeze to go before milder westerlies take over, assuming they even do and we don't just get a reinforced blast from the arctic. That would be catastrophic. I need to hope for a big daytime recovery from solar heating tomorrow, but I doubt I'll get it. I have a high of 1C / 34F forecast for me here. 😭

[Foxpalms]

@UK_PalmsThose are definitely some very cold temperatures you are experiencing. It will be interesting though what palms actually make it through after all they have gone through. It's currently 0c here at the moment. Next week looks like more days with clear skies which is unfortunate. The cunninghamiana is showing no damage and even the Alexandrae in a pot looks fine but it's worth mentioning it's slightly warmer in the part of the garden they are in. Luckily this is a dry freeze so there hasn't been much frost, it's been frost free in parts of the garden.  I can also see a huge snow cloud heading straight towards ventnor I wonder if it will snow there, unlikely. Some parts of central London still haven't gone below freezing but that might change later in the week.

[JohnAndSancho]

[Arecaceus]

On 12/10/2022 at 10:16 AM, UK_Palms said:

Still -7C / 19F at 9am. My coldest temperature on record for 10th December here and the coldest temperature I have ever recorded at 9am in my climatology dataset. I am never getting above freezing now today looking at that, even if we get all-day sun.

Send help. Please.

Right now I'm actually very glad that I've been quiet lucky upon until now with this arctic blast. But just seeing this gives me severe pain! I'm very sorry for you! -7°C at 6 in the morning would be enough to crush a zone pushers heart but this... My weather has been weird the past couple of days but I'm glad because it has been foggy and cold all day all night with tempertures between -1°C and +2°C at the official weather station (in my garden around 0°C to 4°C) and not much movement. The lack of radiation is causing also a lack of freeze apprently. In the early morning I went to my car and it was supposed to be -1°C and this all night long, but there was no frost on the wind screens the water spots on the car weren't frozen, neither the puddles on the ground were. When i went to my garden the ground wasn't frozen and as I checked the thermometers I put on the ground for the lowest tempertures measured it's been warmer than 2m above ground! So I guess the ground is still radiating some warmth...
Any other day the weather forecast predicts clear skies coming up with night time lows down to -4°C or -5°C, but then shortly before it changes back to the above mentioned conditions. Let me tell you it's a thrill! But who am I telling this?! ... I hope we get our Western winds back soon! 😅

[Foxpalms]

14 hours ago, Hortulanus said:

Right now I'm actually very glad that I've been quiet lucky upon until now with this arctic blast. But just seeing this gives me severe pain! I'm very sorry for you! -7°C at 6 in the morning would be enough to crush a zone pushers heart but this... My weather has been weird the past couple of days but I'm glad because it has been foggy and cold all day all night with tempertures between -1°C and +2°C at the official weather station (in my garden around 0°C to 4°C) and not much movement. The lack of radiation is causing also a lack of freeze apprently. In the early morning I went to my car and it was supposed to be -1°C and this all night long, but there was no frost on the wind screens the water spots on the car weren't frozen, neither the puddles on the ground were. When i went to my garden the ground wasn't frozen and as I checked the thermometers I put on the ground for the lowest tempertures measured it's been warmer than 2m above ground! So I guess the ground is still radiating some warmth...
Any other day the weather forecast predicts clear skies coming up with night time lows down to -4°C or -5°C, but then shortly before it changes back to the above mentioned conditions. Let me tell you it's a thrill! But who am I telling this?! ... I hope we get our Western winds back soon! 😅

I see 13c next week in the forecast with a low of 10c hopefully that happens and the freeze ends.

 

[Silas_Sancona]

"In after midnight, gone by dawn" kinda rain.. A cool 49F as the clouds roll out.. 54-58F later, depending on when the next batch of clouds / light showers shows up.. 

Cool is the name of the game for the week.. though the moderation trend toward the end of the week /start of next week continues.. 



In the mean time, Some frosty mornings possible, but all n' all,  not atypical..   As marked, what mornings see frost  will depend on %'age of cloud cover overhead in the pre- dawn hours, and how far separated dew points / humidity readings are at dawn..  Blue circles are the mornings i'm thinking frost is most likely at this point  ..As always, things can change, in either direction.




Just for kicks.. some current, 10 day thoughts from south of the border:  Looks like some fine beach and hiking weather, capped off by a nice dinner outside as we head into "winter"

Cabo



Todo los Santos



La Paz



Alamos



San Carlos / Guaymas

[Arecaceus]

8 hours ago, Foxpalms said:

I see 13c next week in the forecast with a low of 10c hopefully that happens and the freeze ends.

 

Yup for me too the cold is supposed to end with this week. But right now it's clearing up and I really don't like this. When I look on the radar I already see West winds coming along. We're just on the edge to get our normal weather back.

[Foxpalms]

5 minutes ago, Hortulanus said:

Yup for me too the cold is supposed to end with this week. But right now it's clearing up and I really don't like this. When I look on the radar I already see West winds coming along. We're just on the edge to get our normal weather back.

It looks like you might get some radiational frosts like we are having. -1c forecasted here tonight and it's 1.5c at the moment, luckily because of the urban heat island the temperature drops very slowly here.

[Ryland]

It's currently 0.0ºC.  A very bitter week behind and more to come.  With no frosts all season until last week, now it's almost constantly freezing!  The last 6 nights have been below freezing except for oddly 10 December, which had a morning low of 0.3ºC followed by a high of just 1.0ºC.  The warmest of the six days got to 1.9ºC and the coldest night -2.7ºC/27ºF so far - equalling last year's winter low.  So you could characterise the week as hovering right around freezing with very little fluctuation at all.  I thought today would also be the first "ice day" since 2018 but it did reach a high of 0.1ºC so technically not 😆.

More of the same forecast until Sunday really, when it looks like it may be going back to normal.  The coldest nights are probably coming Wednesday to Friday when two consecutive nights of -5ºC/23ºF are forecast.  That would make this also the first 9a winter since 2018 (it got to about -5ºC then).

[GottmitAlex]

[Arecaceus]

1 hour ago, Foxpalms said:

It looks like you might get some radiational frosts like we are having. -1c forecasted here tonight and it's 1.5c at the moment, luckily because of the urban heat island the temperature drops very slowly here.

Yup like I posted originally we got lucky because it was misty and cloudy. Luckily I'm also benefitting from the heat island effect. Yet it's still very cold. It started to freeze as soon as the sun went down. But from then on upon until now the temperature stayed the same. I hope it's not dropping extermely low this night. -1.5°C already.

[Foxpalms]

56 minutes ago, Hortulanus said:

Yup like I posted originally we got lucky because it was misty and cloudy. Luckily I'm also benefitting from the heat island effect. Yet it's still very cold. It started to freeze as soon as the sun went down. But from then on upon until now the temperature stayed the same. I hope it's not dropping extermely low this night. -1.5°C already.

We have clear skies tonight, it's still above freezing since London has one of the biggest urban heat islands in Europe so it takes a very long time to cool down.  -1.5 is colder than it's been all year here I hope it doesn't go below -1c this week so the Alexandrae doesn't get damaged. Where that is it's about 1.5-2c warmer. We also have lots of sunshine tomorrow so the temperatures should get up to around 5c. We had clouds all day earlier so it didn't warm up much. There was snow in London but central London didn't have much (a very light dusting) the small amount here all melted. When it snowed the temperature was around +2c but even Athens Greece has had worse snow so it's not too bad. It wasn't able to settle on the plants as it would melt and only stick last night in colder spots. One thing I'm glad we won't get are freezing winds here, the wind speeds always 0mph during a freeze.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Foxpalms

[GottmitAlex]

 Took this video this morning while it was still 8c and raining.

The brood lamps came on at 4am and went off automatically at 14:40am once it hit 9c

 

[Foxpalms]

3 hours ago, Ryland said:

It's currently 0.0ºC.  A very bitter week behind and more to come.  With no frosts all season until last week, now it's almost constantly freezing!  The last 6 nights have been below freezing except for oddly 10 December, which had a morning low of 0.3ºC followed by a high of just 1.0ºC.  The warmest of the six days got to 1.9ºC and the coldest night -2.7ºC/27ºF so far - equalling last year's winter low.  So you could characterise the week as hovering right around freezing with very little fluctuation at all.  I thought today would also be the first "ice day" since 2018 but it did reach a high of 0.1ºC so technically not 😆.

More of the same forecast until Sunday really, when it looks like it may be going back to normal.  The coldest nights are probably coming Wednesday to Friday when two consecutive nights of -5ºC/23ºF are forecast.  That would make this also the first 9a winter since 2018 (it got to about -5ºC then).

Hopefully it changes and you get cloud cover. I don't see it getting any colder than -1.5c here this week under clear skies the temperature drops very slowly at night. Today was the coldest day in the UK since 2010. My frost tender palms seem to be undamaged, even the bougainvillea in London still has all of its flowers and leaves so it clearly didn't get that cold in central London. Everyday has raised a few degrees c above freezing especially on the sunny days here. Did Manchester get any snow?

[Foxpalms]

1 hour ago, GottmitAlex said:

 Took this video this morning while it was still 8c and raining.

The brood lamps came on at 4am and went off automatically at 14:40am once it hit 9c

 

The coconuts look nice unfortunately those won't grow here, but next year the Beccariophoenix alfredii will be going in the ground. The jubaeopsis caffra is probably still too small but I haven't decided yet if I will plant that. What variety are the coconuts?

Edited December 12, 2022 by Foxpalms

[UK_Palms]

Another night. Another radiation frost. Well technically it has been below freezing all day actually with a high of just 0.1C / 32F here today. Absolutely bitter. The low last night was only -0.8C / 31F due to cloud cover, but the clear skies tonight are a whole different story. Temps are dropping like a lead balloon again. -3.5C / 25F already at 11:30pm.

 

Compton is getting smashed. It's the coldest spot in the whole area tonight. That is someone else's PWS station showing on the map, not my own, but their -3C / 27F recording corresponds with what my digital reading is showing. It'll probably go down to -5C / 23F tonight, I reckon. I dread to think how much damage the prolonged nature of this freeze will cause!? Certainly in terms of duration, this is worse than the Feb 2018 freeze.

 

Today was officially the coldest UK day in 12 years. Sums up the past week or so really. An exceptionally cold period in general for us... 

 

The warmest parts of central London are still holding out at 1C / 34F tonight, however residual heat has been zapped from the city by the prolonged nature of this freeze. The UHI is less pronounced now. The milder westerly Atlantic driven weather can't return soon enough to provide some relief. Still another 4-5 days to wait it appears. I still have multiple nights of frosts to deal with here and barely any daytime recovery too.

Edited December 13, 2022 by UK_Palms

[GottmitAlex]

24 minutes ago, Foxpalms said:

The coconuts look nice unfortunately those won't grow here, but next year the Beccariophoenix alfredii will be going in the ground. The jubaeopsis caffra is probably still too small but I haven't decided yet if I will plant that. What variety are the coconuts?

The one in the vid is a golden Pacific tall which germinated here from a supermarket deshusked variety (growing like a rocket). Also have a golden Malayan dwarf (the oldest, 6 years as a single leaf strapping from flahriduh), a green Malayan dwarf 5 years old. And a 2 year old baby which is a golden Pacific tall.  No tarp on any of them. Just the brood lamps when it hits 8c