What is your current yard temperature?

[Ryland]

On 12/17/2022 at 7:38 PM, Hortulanus said:

I protected a few plants but not all of them. I planted many new plants this year and I focused my protection mostly on them, because most of them are still so small and young. Today I already noticed that "straw smell" so some things are already severly damaged or even dead. One of my Washingtonias which is completely unprotected already has severe leaf damage. Even with this cold temperatures you alrady see that the fronds are burnt. Weirdly it looks like the upcoming spear opened a bit. Idk why, maybe just an effect of the frost.

I do hope your Washingtonia survives, but that is not a good sign.  Something similar happened to mine last week (can you believe, caused by temperatures only -5.5ºC/22ºF), the previously rock solid spear has collapsed and opened out like a concertina.  There is the 'straw' smell and the spear has gone all yellow-brown, the other leaves are still green so far.  I am pretty sure it is a goner.  I'm a little bit surprised because these are not Washingtonia-killing temperatures (eventually we had -6.4ºC/20ºF but I gave it some protection), however I think it was too much time below freezing and no thaw.  So my conclusion is that in the UK, Washingtonia robusta is a 9b palm.  There are some specimens over near Liverpool that saw similar temperatures so I'll have to visit them sometime to see how they did.  Best of luck to you with yours though, I hope you are keeping it dry now for the rest of winter to see if it comes back.

@RyManUtah those were some unpleasant temperatures you had on Saturday - pretty similar to the coldest we had here last week.  As I understand though it's not unusual to have this a few times per year in St George, and the palms it is known for tolerate it?  A drier climate helps no doubt.

It's currently 10.8ºC/51ºF here and feels like a summer's day after the last two weeks of freezing conditions - such a relief.

[Foxpalms]

51 minutes ago, Ryland said:

I do hope your Washingtonia survives, but that is not a good sign.  Something similar happened to mine last week (can you believe, caused by temperatures only -5.5ºC/22ºF), the previously rock solid spear has collapsed and opened out like a concertina.  There is the 'straw' smell and the spear has gone all yellow-brown, the other leaves are still green so far.  I am pretty sure it is a goner.  I'm a little bit surprised because these are not Washingtonia-killing temperatures (eventually we had -6.4ºC/20ºF but I gave it some protection), however I think it was too much time below freezing and no thaw.  So my conclusion is that in the UK, Washingtonia robusta is a 9b palm.  There are some specimens over near Liverpool that saw similar temperatures so I'll have to visit them sometime to see how they did.  Best of luck to you with yours though, I hope you are keeping it dry now for the rest of winter to see if it comes back.

@RyManUtah those were some unpleasant temperatures you had on Saturday - pretty similar to the coldest we had here last week.  As I understand though it's not unusual to have this a few times per year in St George, and the palms it is known for tolerate it?  A drier climate helps no doubt.

It's currently 10.8ºC/51ºF here and feels like a summer's day after the last two weeks of freezing conditions - such a relief.

I think they will be fine in the 9a parts especially if they are big. When I was driving through the outskirts coming back last night, I saw multiple Washingtonia that have probably seen -6c in the last week and they were fine. Only some slight damage to the leaves. I think it could also be that it was more humid and wet in Manchester than the colder parts of London. The filifera or hybrid looking Washingtonia in the outskirts looked undamaged. That being said the south east especially East Anglia and London are much drier areas than the rest of the UK so it makes sense. All my dessert plants, cacti, aloes ect all did very well including aloe Vera and things like that. How many inches of rain has Manchester had this year? I know London Heathrow has had 17 inches so far and here its slightly less than that. Hopefully the weather is a bit warmer than the forecast there it look quite a bit cooler than here.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Foxpalms

[bubba]

69°F at 7:45 AM EST
 

https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/fl/west-palm-beach

[bubba]

Can someone in the Phoenix area explain why Sky Harbor Airport reports 41 degrees Fahrenheit as the low temperature while numerous surrounding stations are 5 to 10°F lower in temperature?

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KAZPHOEN339

[Foxpalms]

2 hours ago, bubba said:

Can someone in the Phoenix area explain why Sky Harbor Airport reports 41 degrees Fahrenheit as the low temperature while numerous surrounding stations are 5 to 10°F lower in temperature?

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KAZPHOEN339

I know the houses in the us aren't always made of masonry like they are here, whilst the airports will have lots of concrete, masonry and tarmac. The houses are also quite spaced out. This could mean the airport is slightly higher in temperature whilst here the opposite is true due to how dense London is. But 10f warmer would suggest that the weather station is probably quite high up above the ground and likely against some type of concrete wall that stays warm. 

[Silas_Sancona]

51-57F around town at 10:48AM ..on the way to a decent start, to a decent week..






Meanwhile...



😂🤣    .....💀

[Ryland]

11 hours ago, Foxpalms said:

How many inches of rain has Manchester had this year? I know London Heathrow has had 17 inches so far and here its slightly less than that. Hopefully the weather is a bit warmer than the forecast there it look quite a bit cooler than here.

33.1 inches so far at a nearby suburban weather station, which is almost bang on average.  September through November were as usual a fair bit wetter than the other months, the rest of the year before that was all pretty same-ish.  We didn't really have the drought in the summer that occurred in the south.

Yes, my forecast is cooler than London but it's very typical December weather there.  Highs a bit under 10ºC/50ºF and lows well above freezing.  Having normal temps again is very welcome after the extended cold recently.

It's dropped back to 11ºC currently from a high of 12.9 so still very much above average for now, then we'll settle into more average weather by Wednesday.  It's a little wet but only light drizzle.

[Arecaceus]

13 hours ago, Ryland said:

I do hope your Washingtonia survives, but that is not a good sign.  Something similar happened to mine last week (can you believe, caused by temperatures only -5.5ºC/22ºF), the previously rock solid spear has collapsed and opened out like a concertina.  There is the 'straw' smell and the spear has gone all yellow-brown, the other leaves are still green so far.  I am pretty sure it is a goner.  I'm a little bit surprised because these are not Washingtonia-killing temperatures (eventually we had -6.4ºC/20ºF but I gave it some protection), however I think it was too much time below freezing and no thaw.  So my conclusion is that in the UK, Washingtonia robusta is a 9b palm.  There are some specimens over near Liverpool that saw similar temperatures so I'll have to visit them sometime to see how they did.  Best of luck to you with yours though, I hope you are keeping it dry now for the rest of winter to see if it comes back.

@RyManUtah those were some unpleasant temperatures you had on Saturday - pretty similar to the coldest we had here last week.  As I understand though it's not unusual to have this a few times per year in St George, and the palms it is known for tolerate it?  A drier climate helps no doubt.

It's currently 10.8ºC/51ºF here and feels like a summer's day after the last two weeks of freezing conditions - such a relief.

The one that's affected is a filibusta. I'm hoping I can save it. It completely defoliated before in February 2021 we had a cold spell that was even worse. But yes the main concern this whole time were the constant freeze not the lowest temperatures. And oh yeah that smell... I associate it with water melons. I will probably keep it dry but first i let some time pass with the warmer weather to see how bad it is actually going to look, especially the centre spear. My filifera that is way smaller looks unharmed but we will see as the time passes. Good luck with all of your plants as well and let's hope that this was the only beast of Frost for this winter.

[Xenon]

46F and drizzle after raining all day.

Random parking lot tropicals about to be frozen back to the ground again....

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, Hortulanus said:

The one that's affected is a filibusta. I'm hoping I can save it. It completely defoliated before in February 2021 we had a cold spell that was even worse. But yes the main concern this whole time were the constant freeze not the lowest temperatures. And oh yeah that smell... I associate it with water melons. I will probably keep it dry but first i let some time pass with the warmer weather to see how bad it is actually going to look, especially the centre spear. My filifera that is way smaller looks unharmed but we will see as the time passes. Good luck with all of your plants as well and let's hope that this was the only beast of Frost for this winter.

It has been pouring with rain here all day long and currently 11C / 52F at 11pm. I checked on my Washies in the dark when I got home from work tonight. To be honest, they don’t look too bad, despite all those freezing nights and many days that barely got above freezing too.

Here’s the 50:50 hybrid. Some bronzing on the fronds but the spear is solid and pretty green still. The Filifera genetics must have helped it. My smaller Robusta however is much more burnt with a slightly dodgy spear. Likely nothing terminal though.

My Filifera, which is probably actually a Filifera dominant hybrid, looks fine as well. This had no protection whatsoever and was just left to fend for itself. It took the full brunt of that -8C night and I think two -7C nights as well. About 50-60 hours below freezing at one point. About 10 frosts in the space of 11 nights during the event. Many days where it only warmed up to like 2C. The spear is solid and green still. This one looked a bit beat up and ragged before the freeze even hit as it is still settling in. It doesn’t appear to have any damage from the freeze itself really. I expected it to look a lot worse.

My smallish Phoenix Canariensis is showing no damage pretty much still, although that could change in coming days/weeks/months. Solid green spear again. I could almost swear it has pushed some growth since I checked it yesterday morning! 🤣 So far it is proving one of the hardiest things in my yard by the looks of things. I think absolute hardiness varies quite a bit between individual specimens however, similar to some Robusta’s and Filifera’s.

 

Tomorrow morning before work I will get a photo of that smaller Robusta and check the spear. It may need the hydrogen peroxide treatment on it. I will also get a photo of the Brahea Armata as well, which had no protection whatsoever either. I will also unwrap the two Queens as well to see how they fared. I'm not even going to bother unwrapping the bananas. Surprisingly my Phormiums and Cordylines have sustained a fair bit of cosmetic damage, whereas the CIDP does not appear to have, at least it isn't showing yet anyway. The same with Phoenix Theophrasti which had zero protection. Interesting.

Edited December 19, 2022 by UK_Palms

[kinzyjr]

@UK_Palms Happy that one is in the rear view mirror for you!

[JohnAndSancho]

According to the interwebs we got about 3" of rain today. It felt like a lot more than that, because every time I stepped outside the rain got stupid heavy. 

[UK_Palms]

58 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

@UK_Palms Happy that one is in the rear view mirror for you!

Me too! It's actually very mild here right now. A balmy 13.4C / 56F at 3am. A few places topped 16C / 60F on Monday. Quite the reversal from what we were having a few days ago. It's very wet now though too. From 1st December - 18th December (17 days), I had only recorded 1mm of rainfall. There was no precipitation during the freeze here. It was just cold and dry. However today alone I have picked up 14mm / 0.6 inches. It's probably mild enough to get spears moving again on many things soon, which can only be a good thing.

[sandgroper]

34c heading for 36c.

[Tyrone]

Was up around Kojonup in the wheatbelt the last couple of days and 33, 34C and dry up there. Was around 23C down in Albany with much higher humidity. 

[Arecaceus]

18 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

It has been pouring with rain here all day long and currently 11C / 52F at 11pm. I checked on my Washies in the dark when I got home from work tonight. To be honest, they don’t look too bad, despite all those freezing nights and many days that barely got above freezing too.

Here’s the 50:50 hybrid. Some bronzing on the fronds but the spear is solid and pretty green still. The Filifera genetics must have helped it. My smaller Robusta however is much more burnt with a slightly dodgy spear. Likely nothing terminal though.

My Filifera, which is probably actually a Filifera dominant hybrid, looks fine as well. This had no protection whatsoever and was just left to fend for itself. It took the full brunt of that -8C night and I think two -7C nights as well. About 50-60 hours below freezing at one point. About 10 frosts in the space of 11 nights during the event. Many days where it only warmed up to like 2C. The spear is solid and green still. This one looked a bit beat up and ragged before the freeze even hit as it is still settling in. It doesn’t appear to have any damage from the freeze itself really. I expected it to look a lot worse.

My smallish Phoenix Canariensis is showing no damage pretty much still, although that could change in coming days/weeks/months. Solid green spear again. I could almost swear it has pushed some growth since I checked it yesterday morning! 🤣 So far it is proving one of the hardiest things in my yard by the looks of things. I think absolute hardiness varies quite a bit between individual specimens however, similar to some Robusta’s and Filifera’s.

 

Tomorrow morning before work I will get a photo of that smaller Robusta and check the spear. It may need the hydrogen peroxide treatment on it. I will also get a photo of the Brahea Armata as well, which had no protection whatsoever either. I will also unwrap the two Queens as well to see how they fared. I'm not even going to bother unwrapping the bananas. Surprisingly my Phormiums and Cordylines have sustained a fair bit of cosmetic damage, whereas the CIDP does not appear to have, at least it isn't showing yet anyway. The same with Phoenix Theophrasti which had zero protection. Interesting.

That sounds great for now. I hope there is not too much more damage showing in a couple of weeks. Too bad we're not just before spring. It's pretty interesting because you've got smiliar plants and a similar weather situation there. Here it's also raining a lot with mild temperatures. I just love to have this balmy air back. I just checked my plants again and my Washingtonia filibusta doesn't as bad anymore, now that it has warmed up, but all the fronds have at least some burning and the centre spears look completely toasted at least at the upper parts. The center itself looks quite good, but it was also protected somewhat by the palms own foliage. This year I didn't cut many leaves off. My filifera looks normal again but I'm going to wait as it's still to early to know especially with the rainy cool weeks ahead. I also noticed that the "melon/straw" smell doesn't come from the Washingtonia but from a Grevillea johnsonii, which is almost completely burnt and looks the worst of all of my plants for now. I also have small Phoenix canariensis and a Phoenx theophrastii at about the same size, but still a fair bit smaller than yours those two plants look completely fine! They were both protected with 3 covers of fleece and some dry palm leaves though. Which surprises me the much is that the theophrastii looks a bit more beat up than the canariensis but I guess that's just due to them having been tied together under the fleece protection. In general most plants looks pretty fine now that it's warmer. Besides the filibusta and the Grevillea, one Aloe, a smaller Cordyline Red Star and my young Peruvian pepper tree look like they got at least some small damages. On my Cycas revoluta only the newer upcoming leaves look like they're damaged (was also protected with one layer of fleece). But for now I will wait. You never now. I've had damages on some plants so much later... It also depends on how the winter is going to go on and what spring is going to look like. The forecast is for the upcoming days is predicting lots of rain and even warmer temperatures. Today it was around 12°C and it still is around 10°C. Good luck with your plants as well! 😁

Edited December 20, 2022 by Hortulanus

[Arecaceus]

Looks like the cold blast we just had in Western Europe is going to hit North America now, but bad! 😅

[GottmitAlex]

[UK_Palms]

17 hours ago, Hortulanus said:

Looks like the cold blast we just had in Western Europe is going to hit North America now, but bad! 😅

Currently 11C / 52F here and overcast. It looks like Houston will get as cold I got last week on Fri/Sat with lows down to -8C / 17F. The only difference being I am 35 miles inland with no UHI here at 51N. If I was in a big city near the coast, I probably would have only saw -2C / 28F at worst, maybe -1C / 30F even, similar to what the mildest parts of London experienced.

It will be interesting to see what temperatures the mildest parts of Houston actually register during this event. It obviously won’t be as bad as Feb 2021, but the colder inland parts are likely going to be close to -10C / 14F. I have just seen that Denver has lows down to -28C / -18F forecast now. That is colder than the entire UK all time record low temperature up in the Scottish highlands. 😬

[Silas_Sancona]

After a little rooftop and backyard frost, a nice rebound underway.. Looking good later, and for the next few days..



Current NWS PHX detailed forecast..




...That said, something to eyeball after the weekend..  Some hints showing up in recent model runs.. but again, just "thoughts"  ...for now at least..  We'll see how this is lining up as we get closer to the start of '23.





Regardless, if you hate cold weather, you won't like Joe Bastardi's longer-term "thoughts"..  I usually have a laugh whenever his "Doomsday" suggestions arise, but he isn't the only forecaster out there who sees this possible outcome later in Jan. / early Feb.  so, 🤷‍♂️...  More later..





 

[Ryland]

It's currently 5.5ºC (42ºF) down from a high of 7.8ºC (46ºF).  The low this morning was 5.4ºC.  Very nice to see some sensible normal temperatures again.

[GottmitAlex]

[Arecaceus]

9°C right now at 11:24 p.m.. Predicted low for this night is 8°C. After quite a few days of rain, some sun today, mixed with some rainy episodes.

[Chester B]

21F and winds 20-25mph with gusts to 40 mph. 
It’s going to warm up to 25f tonight and start with the freezing rain while maintaining the winds  

Seriously!

[JohnAndSancho]

Wow such wind chill

 

I am not enjoying this. 

[Xerarch]

On 12/11/2022 at 12:51 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

So scare, many cold, such frustrate

[Xerarch]

42 F in the back yard right now and falling fast, was mid 60's only an hour and a half/2 hrs ago.  was in the yard just finishing up protective preparations, it was beautiful, then seemingly out of nowhere (although I knew it was due any minute) the wind went from zero to blowing trash cans into the neighbors yard.  Man these systems come in fast and hard

[GottmitAlex]

[GottmitAlex]

19 minutes ago, Xerarch said:

42 F in the back yard right now and falling fast, was mid 60's only an hour and a half/2 hrs ago.  was in the yard just finishing up protective preparations, it was beautiful, then seemingly out of nowhere (although I knew it was due any minute) the wind went from zero to blowing trash cans into the neighbors yard.  Man these systems come in fast and hard

Are any of your more delicate palms protected?

[Xerarch]

25 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

Are any of your more delicate palms protected?

Yes, coconut, foxtail, royal etc are all protected.  I'm not sure it's going to be that terrible at my house, depending on the forecast, the airport is supposed to be in the mid 20's.  My location is more favorable so I'm not expecting less than upper 20's, but better safe than sorry.

[GottmitAlex]

5 minutes ago, Xerarch said:

Yes, coconut, foxtail, royal etc are all protected.  I'm not sure it's going to be that terrible at my house, depending on the forecast, the airport is supposed to be in the mid 20's.  My location is more favorable so I'm not expecting less than upper 20's, but better safe than sorry.

Awesome.  Here's hoping. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Wind chill is uh *checks notes* umm 7. 

[Xerarch]

2 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Wind chill is uh *checks notes* umm 7. 

So ouch

[JohnAndSancho]

12 minutes ago, Xerarch said:

So ouch

Wow such frostbite. Sancho's dumb ass still wanted to go on a 20 minute walk. NO. Drop the package and let's go. Umm wind chill has dropped to umm 5 

[GottmitAlex]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Wind chill is uh *checks notes* umm 7. 

OMG 

 

 

[UK_Palms]

10C / 50F at 8am here and pouring with rain. Some localised flooding in places. Mild is the theme though. Expecting a max of 14C / 57F later.

[sandgroper]

29c at 7.20pm.

[Palmaceae]

Cold in East Tennessee! Low of 6.8F this morning, now it is 10F!

 

 

[DTS]

3f

[ColdBonsai]

Currently 20 degrees in Boise. The storm and cold have started to move on from us, with 8 degrees for a max low. The mountains to the north and east helped hold back the worst of it