Snow - Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX

[LF-TX]

As many already know, the seemingly impossible just occurred in S. Texas for the 3rd time in recorded history. Snow fell throughout the morning today in and around the Brownsville area, with a 1/4 in accumulation according to the NWS. Even the least expected South Padre Island saw flurries! Surely was neat to have a slight throwback to the ‘04 Christmas snow; and what a shock to us natives who thought it would be a loooooong way until the Valley saw this much white again! Sadly, the party seems to be over, as the sun has emerged over our area and temperatures have raised to the 40s. By Sunday it seems like temperatures will be closer to normal with highs in the 60s/70s and lows gradually increasing from 30s tonight to 50s/60s by later next week. Dec. 9, 2017 - a day to remember! 

Frankly, most of our tropical plants didn’t have the convinience of coming indoors and spending the night under blankets with a heater at their side. As of today, I’ve personally noticed that many of our area’s cuban royal palms, royal poincianas, papayas, guavas, bananas, ficus, etc. have handled the cold weather fairly well with minimal damage. A certain coconut palm that I see everyday has shown a substantial amount of yellowing of its fronds, but it’s emerging set of fronts still seem to be hanging on ok. Hopefully it will be able to handle another night of 30s and several more 40s. Perhaps the anticipated highs of 60s/70s for the coming days will soothe the suffering of the LRGV’s coconut palms and rid the ground of the frigid wetness. Good fortune to everyone’s tropicals who are hanging on during this winter blast!

Feel free to share any photos/info/data of snow or tropical plant damage/survival! 

Brownsville TX  // Valley Proud 

[Reeverse]

What a shock to get the white stuff. This was a weird dip in the Jet Stream. Hopefully everything will recover. 

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Roberto,

I just saw your post.  Sorry I didn't respond back in Dec.  Anyway, I had 3.5 in. up here on my Coconut Palms and other tropicals, and one area further in town had 7 in.!  It didn't really seem to hurt my Coconuts and other tropicals that much, though the weight of the snow did cause some of the older leaves on my big Green Malayan Dwarf to sag down somewhat. The temps only dropped to 31.9F during the snow storm, and by late morning, most of it was starting to melt off!  It is the subsequent freezes though, that really hurt my Coconut Palms and other tropicals!

John