Polar Vortex Jan 2025 - Are you preparing your palms?

[ZPalms]

These temperatures flying up and down got me tired, protecting back and forth! 😭

[JeskiM]

Here's a comparison from 18Z to 01Z (most recent).  You can see how the column of air below 3 KM is moistening up (the dewpoint and temperature lines are closer together) and that the temperature through that layer is cooling. Also, the cloud layer at 3 km has dramatically thickened ... it's now from ~1.5 km to ~3.5 km AGL. (~ 1.75 km thick). As the storm strengthens and lift (vertical velocities) increases the cloud layer will deepen up towards the Dendritic growth layer between 16,721 and 19,361 feet AGL.  The  snow formation will start up above in earnest.

The sounding profile at my house is very similar to this one and I just started seeing snow pellets bouncing around on the ground.  Those are able to make it through the dry layer much easier than snowflakes so I think it will be a bit longer before any snow starts at my house. An ASOS weather station a few miles north of my house is recording snow, but I am pretty certain it's not snow flakes and is also snow pellets.

-Matt

 

 

[MarcusH]

Here we go . San Antonio Texas

[Chester B]

Small light flakes here. No accumulation and no wet patio. 

[PaPalmTrees]

Currently -5 it hasn’t been this cold in 6 or 7 years😬😳

[ahosey01]

Wrapped my baby coconut like Randy on Christmas.

[ChrisA]

11 minutes ago, PaPalmTrees said:

Currently -5 it hasn’t been this cold in 6 or 7 years😬😳

Bodie, how much colder is it supposed to get there?  That’s frigid!

[PaPalmTrees]

5 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

Bodie, how much colder is it supposed to get there?  That’s frigid!

Man I have no idea it was only supposed to get down to 5° but that was clearly wrong 😑 

[PaPalmTrees]

Tomorrow morning i’ll update you guys how cold it got here

[ChrisA]

Yikes!!  Hopefully the temp is done dropping.

 

I wonder where the Louisiana folks are?!  Y’all are gonna get a nasty storm and cold spell.  Wonder how you’re preparing? I’m nervous for the Queen palms there as 6” of snow and 20F sounds dangerous.

[LakeEriePalms]

Glad I mulched as much as I did. 7F right now but 30F under all that mulch. 0F expected tonight 

[PaPalmTrees]

2 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

Yikes!!  Hopefully the temp is done dropping.

 

I wonder where the Louisiana folks are?!  Y’all are gonna get a nasty storm and cold spell.  Wonder how you’re preparing? I’m nervous for the Queen palms there as 6” of snow and 20F sounds dangerous.

It’s crazy they’re getting that much snow where I live in Pennsylvania 6 inches is a lot for us

[ChrisA]

3 minutes ago, PaPalmTrees said:

Tomorrow morning i’ll update you guys how cold it got here

Please do, I’m curious! I’m at 31F with sleet off and on! Looks like the precip here won’t last long as we seem to be on the western edge.

[LakeEriePalms]

Garage is 36F so the windmill, sabal and needle are getting a bit chilly but will be fine 

[PaPalmTrees]

It’s freaking -7 My mom Said she has never remember it being -7 here I was hoping we would stay in a zone 7 winter well I guess not

[kinzyjr]

24 minutes ago, PaPalmTrees said:

It’s crazy they’re getting that much snow where I live in Pennsylvania 6 inches is a lot for us

It's still fresh in my memory getting 2 feet of snow at the top of the mountains and seeing the amount drop precipitously as I drove on US-30 in the direction of your area.

[PaPalmTrees]

The temperature went down 1°😅😬

[Chester B]

The snow is coming down now but I can hear it so it’s harder more like small ice pellets.  The wind has picked up to noticeably, but nothing on the ground yet. 

[Xenon]

Drove through I-10/I-12 in Louisiana this afternoon and some of the Washies from Lake Charles to Baton Rouge are already a funny slightly orange color. I think Beaumont to Baton Rouge are going to get nailed by the snow, 6 inches (more?). Temps possible low teens or upper single digits according to some forecasts 

[_nevi]

1 hour ago, Chester B said:

The snow is coming down now but I can hear it so it’s harder more like small ice pellets.  The wind has picked up to noticeably, but nothing on the ground yet. 

Seems like graupel.

[_nevi]

33 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Drove through I-10/I-12 in Louisiana this afternoon and some of the Washies from Lake Charles to Baton Rouge are already a funny slightly orange color. I think Beaumont to Baton Rouge are going to get nailed by the snow, 6 inches (more?). Temps possible low teens or upper single digits according to some forecasts 

There's some evidence that models generated dewpoints much lower than was actually observed IRL. Hopefully that can remain the case to prevent such temps in those areas.

[Las Palmas Norte]

Cold up here in Canada too. 36°F at 22:20 hrs. clear skies Probably hit the frost point by sunrise tomorrow morning.

[Mazat]

11 hours ago, Allen said:

A few pics of my protection. We are now expected to get to 3F.   Also using the 500 watt halogen and the 10' (They are actually 13') pool tarps.  So I practice what I preach.  Only use that 500 watt light in a open structure.  It is in a 10'x10' area with frost cloth around.  

 

 

Good work, allen. 

[Mazat]

the temperatures here have been hovering between a minimum of -1.4°C/29.48 and a maximum of 2°C/35.6°C for the last three days.
you leave the house and when you come back it feels almost as cold. a blanket of high fog is like a bell over everything. well, at least that keeps the temperature within limits.

 

[Mazat]

6 minutes ago, Mazat said:

the temperatures here have been hovering between a minimum of -1.4°C/29.48 and a maximum of 2°C/35.6°C for the last three days.
you leave the house and when you come back it feels almost as cold. a blanket of high fog is like a bell over everything. well, at least that keeps the temperature within limits.

 

it looks like it's getting a bit warmer, especially sunshine would be a change

[Xenon]

Don't want to celebrate too early but NWS Houston has shot up tonight's forecast to 20-22F (vs teens yesterday evening). Above 25F by the coast.

[PaPalmTrees]

Well is currently -10 umm ya, and The coldest temperature It got last night -15 I was hoping we’re gonna stay in a zone 7 winter but I guess I was wrong last time it was this cold was 1994 well at least we stayed in the zone 5b winter😅

[ChrisA]

Wow!!! -15F that’s incredible!

[ahosey01]

1 hour ago, Xenon said:

Don't want to celebrate too early but NWS Houston has shot up tonight's forecast to 20-22F (vs teens yesterday evening). Above 25F by the coast.

Meanwhile they dropped ours for tonight to 29F lol....

Hit 33F this morning... no freeze so far.  Roads are soaked though so still not driving in it.

[PaPalmTrees]

36 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

Wow!!! -15F that’s incredible!

The bad thing is In our basement we have a switch to turn off the outside power But I think last night somebody bumped into it so none of the lights were on last night on my plants Hopefully they're okay I'm glad I insulated my plants with blankets and snow and pine needles. =/ 

[JeskiM]

Got my half inch. It was mostly snow pellets and small snowflakes.  The air stayed too dry here to get big snowflakes, nor was it ever intense....just light for the whole duration. Temp was at 27 the whole time.

-Matt

[Keys6505]

League City TX 

[ChrisA]

33 minutes ago, PaPalmTrees said:

The bad thing is In our basement we have a switch to turn off the outside power But I think last night somebody bumped into it so none of the lights were on last night on my plants Hopefully they're okay I'm glad I insulated my plants with blankets and snow and pine needles. =/ 

Snow is a great insulator, hopefully your plants are okay.  When I was a kid in Mass. I remember taking the temperature under the snow when it was really cold out and the temp just a little ways under the snow was around 30.  I’m not sure if that occurs all the time as it was just the one time that I checked it.

[ChrisA]

29 degrees here.

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, PaPalmTrees said:

Well is currently -10 umm ya, and The coldest temperature It got last night -15 I was hoping we’re gonna stay in a zone 7 winter but I guess I was wrong last time it was this cold was 1994 well at least we stayed in the zone 5b winter😅

-15F!? That’s -26C. 😬

Like what part of Alaska are you in?

A low of 10F / -12C and a windchill of -3F / -19.4C at Central Park. Wonder whether that CIDP in NYC will make it through this? 🤔

I see temperatures close to -40C / -40F in parts of Minnesota.

[JeskiM]

14 minutes ago, Keys6505 said:

League City TX 

This is an awesome picture.  If you colored the snow to resemble sand you'd think you were at the beach for sure .... just don't look at the thermometer while drinking a Corona !

-Matt

[JeskiM]

Here's the sounding comparison from the last 12 hours ; 01Z and 13Z, this morning for Houston area.  You can see that the air moistened up from the surface to just above the 700 mb level (3.5 km AGL). It also moistened up above that all the way to the level of the jet stream around 300 - 250 mb.

You can also see that the entire column of air is below freezing and that the dendritic growth level had lowered by a couple thousand feet.

-Matt

[jwitt]

Can we play too? 

Rio Rancho/ABQ

Alamogordo 

[PaPalmTrees]

29 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

Snow is a great insulator, hopefully your plants are okay.  When I was a kid in Mass. I remember taking the temperature under the snow when it was really cold out and the temp just a little ways under the snow was around 30.  I’m not sure if that occurs all the time as it was just the one time that I checked it.

yeah, when there's snow on the ground, the ground generally does stay around 30-32 which is good because i piled probably around 6 inches of pine needles around my plants and probably a foot or 2 of snow around them and i did cover my plants with blankets and pots.

[SailorBold]

21 minutes ago, jwitt said:

Can we play too? 

Rio Rancho/ABQ

Alamogordo 

Cmon sunshine!