Anyone Got Any Hunches About Winter Being Over In South Texas And The Gulf Coast?

[palmsOrl]

I could see a coating of snow happening on the beach of South Florida as an event with a 200-500 year return frequency.  Especially in areas like Jupiter/Palm Beach and even moreso Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Pine Island, Captiva and Fort Myers.

Further, I would bet (and this is strictly conjecture on my part) that Miami Beach has had snow accumulate on it at least once in the past millennium.  Miami Beach had flurries in 1977 and the North coast of Cuba reported light snow during some event in the 1800s.

-Michael

[JJPalmer]

I started a ‘2021 Freeze Damage’ thread in the Freeze and Damage Data forum if you have any pictures.  Will be good to document what dies, survives, and the extent of damage. 

[anewway]

Saw -1 this morning in The Colony TX (north of Dallas).   I have things wrapped up as best as possible, and have heat tape in the sabel, hoping for the best.   Pic is from Sat, got 4-5 inches of snow with more supposed to be on the way tonight and tomorrow.  

The snow Sunday was really powdery, so it didn't really stick in the trees much, the stuff expected tonight and tomorrow are going to be very wet and heavy, and ending with up to a 1/2 inch of ice.     Hoping I have to crown protected enough to not get to much ice in it.

[Silas_Sancona]

Great article related to the set up for this event:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/02/16/setup-arctic-outbreak-niziol/

[JohnAndSancho]

On 1/26/2021 at 10:46 PM, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

Hi Everyone,

Anyone out there got any hunches or data showing that winter is over for South Texas and the Gulf Coast.  Let me know.    Thanks.

John

You jinxed us. 

 

Love, Texas. 

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

On 2/15/2021 at 12:26 AM, RedRabbit said:

Good luck @Mr. Coconut Palm!

Thanks, but it looks like I lost everything except a Silver Queen and Zone 8B palms like Chinese Fan, Med Fan, etc.

John

[Palmaceae]

5 minutes ago, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

Thanks, but it looks like I lost everything except a Silver Queen and Zone 8B palms like Chinese Fan, Med Fan, etc.

John

Sorry to hear that John.

[RedRabbit]

13 minutes ago, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

Thanks, but it looks like I lost everything except a Silver Queen and Zone 8B palms like Chinese Fan, Med Fan, etc.

John

I’m sorry John. You were up against something like 17f and no power to provide artificial heating so it wasn’t a fair battle. 
 

What are your plans now? Are you going to try coconuts again in TX? If not, perhaps you’d do well in S Florida or Hawaii. In any case @Mr. Coconut Palm needs some coconut palms!

Edited February 17, 2021 by RedRabbit

[NorCalKing]

13 minutes ago, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

Thanks, but it looks like I lost everything except a Silver Queen and Zone 8B palms like Chinese Fan, Med Fan, etc.

John

Wow. So sorry to hear. I'm still dumbfounded that SE Tx could see such devastation. Once in a lifetime bloodbath!

[GottmitAlex]

28 minutes ago, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

Thanks, but it looks like I lost everything except a Silver Queen and Zone 8B palms like Chinese Fan, Med Fan, etc.

John

John, what happened was unimaginable and for many, unprecedented. Sorry to  read about the devastation. 

Hang in there.

Prayers go out for everyone.

Alex

 

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

On 2/15/2021 at 3:14 PM, RedRabbit said:

The high temp on SPI was 31.8f today. As of 4:10pm it’s back below 30f.

 

Some of Brownsville has broken above freezing. I’m surprised to see Brownsville has fared better than SPI. I think every zone 10 palm in Texas will succumb to this freeze, but if something manages to survive it will be in a sheltered spot in Brownsville. 

31.8F for a high in South Padre on Monday?  Wow!  I think that is even colder than here in Flour Bluff, about 140 miles north of there.  As, I recall, we got all the way up to 33F or 34F on Monday!!!

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

On 2/16/2021 at 11:58 AM, JJPalmer said:

I started a ‘2021 Freeze Damage’ thread in the Freeze and Damage Data forum if you have any pictures.  Will be good to document what dies, survives, and the extent of damage. 

Good idea.  Thanks, Jared.  I will try to post some pics of the HORRIBLE CARNAGE over the next week.

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

17 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

You jinxed us. 

 

Love, Texas. 

Yes, I did!!!  SORRY!!!  I HAVE CERTAINLY LEARNED MY LESSON!!!

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

28 minutes ago, Palmaceae said:

Sorry to hear that John.

Thanks, Randy.

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

22 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

I’m sorry John. You were up against something like 17f and no power to provide artificial heating so it wasn’t a fair battle. 
 

What are your plans now? Are you going to try coconuts again in TX? If not, perhaps you’d do well in S Florida or Hawaii. In any case @Mr. Coconut Palm needs some coconut palms!

Thanks, Red.  Actually, as depressed as I am, I will try a couple of more Coconut Palms here, but start to focus my efforts more on moving to Brownsville in the near future.  As bad as it was down there, it didn't get as cold as here, which is normal.   Here, we have to put up with the chance of Coconut Palm killing freezes about once every 5 to 10 years, but down there, only have to worry about it once every 20 to 30 years.  Just 125 to 150 miles south of here, REALLY makes a difference when it comes to being able to grow mature producing Coconut Palms, and I am hoping for another 30 + year run of relatively mild winters like the last run, or even slightly longer with Climate Change.  Weather like this used to be about a once every 10 year or so even in Deep South Texas, but due to Climate Change, is now only a possibility about once every 30 years or more!  So, it really would be worth it to move down there, and since I just received my State of Texas Nursery License, I REALLY DO want to fill the unfilled niche of providing Coconut Palms to people in the RGV, and get a LOT more of them growing there.  It will just take a couple of years of normal winters for people to want them again there, and that will give me time to grow my frostbitten babies I brought in (the power went out for about 60 hours at my place) up to a big enough size to plant in the ground, and then the die hard Coconut Fanatics like me, will be replanting this coming Spring anyway.

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

30 minutes ago, NorCalKing said:

Wow. So sorry to hear. I'm still dumbfounded that SE Tx could see such devastation. Once in a lifetime bloodbath!

Thanks, Ron.  Yeah, fortunately, now with Climate Change, what used to be about a once every 10 years or so event, now only occurs once in a generation!  But I feel for the Polar Bears, Penguins, and Planet itself as the affects of Climate Change really set in!

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

22 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

John, what happened was unimaginable and for many, unprecedented. Sorry to  read about the devastation. 

Hang in there.

Prayers go out for everyone.

Alex

 

Thanks, Alex.  On the plant side, yes, but on the electrical grid side, no, it was a TOTAL LACK OF PLANNING for emergenices and deregulation on behalf of industry's corrupt profit margins that has lead to the MASSIVE EXTENDED power outages here, and corresponding death of Texans now, most of which is deliberately going unreported!!!

John

[Tyrone]

23 hours ago, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

Thanks, Red.  Actually, as depressed as I am, I will try a couple of more Coconut Palms here, but start to focus my efforts more on moving to Brownsville in the near future.  As bad as it was down there, it didn't get as cold as here, which is normal.   Here, we have to put up with the chance of Coconut Palm killing freezes about once every 5 to 10 years, but down there, only have to worry about it once every 20 to 30 years.  Just 125 to 150 miles south of here, REALLY makes a difference when it comes to being able to grow mature producing Coconut Palms, and I am hoping for another 30 + year run of relatively mild winters like the last run, or even slightly longer with Climate Change.  Weather like this used to be about a once every 10 year or so even in Deep South Texas, but due to Climate Change, is now only a possibility about once every 30 years or more!  So, it really would be worth it to move down there, and since I just received my State of Texas Nursery License, I REALLY DO want to fill the unfilled niche of providing Coconut Palms to people in the RGV, and get a LOT more of them growing there.  It will just take a couple of years of normal winters for people to want them again there, and that will give me time to grow my frostbitten babies I brought in (the power went out for about 60 hours at my place) up to a big enough size to plant in the ground, and then the die hard Coconut Fanatics like me, will be replanting this coming Spring anyway.

John

I’m glad to see your optimism in the wake of this. But I think you are right. You likely will not see this type of massive cold for a good while, so as soon as things thaw out and warm up, get planting and growing everything again. It will be a race to see who is the fastest to get a Royal or a coconut to the 30ft mark again. 

[Reyes Vargas]

23 hours ago, Mr. Coconut Palm said:

I just received my State of Texas Nursery License, I REALLY DO want to fill the unfilled niche of providing Coconut Palms to people in the RGV, and get a LOT more of them growing there. 

It's awesome that your thinking of moving down to the valley and I'll be waiting patiently to buy one of your coconuts.  The palm tree killing freezes here in the valley are more in the range of once every 30-35 years.  Last time was 89 which was 32 years ago.  And the way global warming is going soon It's going to be every 40 years.  It's awesome to hear that you didn't lose your drive of still growing coconuts there.

[Xerarch]

I just hope this event is more like 1989 than 1983

[AnTonY]

@Xerarch

Why is that, just curious? 1989 wasn't as bad as 1983?

[GottmitAlex]

Here's a video montage of Corpus Christi historical ice storms

https://www.caller.com/videos/news/2018/01/17/historical-corpus-christi-ice-storms/109555712/

[Xerarch]

1 minute ago, AnTonY said:

@Xerarch

Why is that, just curious? 1989 wasn't as bad as 1983?

1983 set off a string of bad years in the 1980’s, in ‘83 everyone thought that they had had the “bad one” that wiped out all the tropicals and now we can replant everything and be happy for decades. That was not the case at all, commercial citrus growers replanted their fields in Florida only to have them devastated again. Well this time we’re double sure that we’re past the worst and we’ll have those mild decades ahead. Replant citrus again, gets nuked again. Culminating in the the worst freeze of them all, 1989. Then after ‘89 we really did decades of mild weather. The decade of the 80’s was responsible for much of the citrus industry abandoning fields and moving further south in both Florida and Texas. So hopefully this event is like ‘89, a bad event followed by a mild period, and not the start of nearly a decade of terrible freezes like ‘83. On another note, even though 1989 was the worst event, 1983 was actually the most devastating since it was preceded by mild weather and many tropicals existed and the freeze of ‘83 wiped them clean from a large portion of the country, and tropicals had been blasted so many times that by 1989 many of them were already gone/people had given up planting, but since ‘89 was worse, it still nuked a lot of things that had survived before. 

[GottmitAlex]

John, this brought me to my knees.  First for fellow humans, secondly for palms.