We hit 8F this morning.

[buffy]

Poop. Let's see how some of this material really stands up. 

[PalmatierMeg]

Ow! Major bummer. You should post that temp in the weather subforum.

[Funkthulhu]

It's been ridiculous already this winter.  We keep getting wave after wave of arctic air; we had a low of -14F without windchill on Monday and Tuesday we had schools closed due to cold.  I have never had any fantasy that I could keep any of my palm outside in Nebraska, especially this year, but I see these polar freight-trains plowing south and I hurt for you guys in the near south.  Looks like 2018 is going to be a replanting/rebuilding year.

[mdsonofthesouth]

Welcome to zone 7! Sorry to hear about that, we haven't gone bellow 8a since like 2012 but have seen true z7a temps this year. Hope your plants are OK! I reckon if my chamaerops humilis can take 15F 2-3 months after being planted yours should be OK with one night. 

 

I'm guessing alot of folk's will have their zones changed after this winter. While it may not have set record lows it has set set record long cold stretches. the 17/18 winter will surely be one for the books....in a bad way. 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Dropped to 13.1 at the house, 11.8 at the big farm and im sure it was single digits at the nursery.  The dfw heat island help a lot but cold sinks and areas west and north were all 7-9f this morning. Brutal stuff. 

[Ben OK]

11 hours ago, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

Dropped to 13.1 at the house, 11.8 at the big farm and im sure it was single digits at the nursery.  The dfw heat island help a lot but cold sinks and areas west and north were all 7-9f this morning. Brutal stuff. 

Sorry to hear that you all got so cold down there. We bottomed out on the 16th at around 4F to 5F here. It's annoying to me but I know this is your livelihood. So more for your sake than my comfort, I hope we warm up quick and stay that way.

[Anthony_B]

Wow, this last cold snap had a weird trough.  I saw Dallas and Houston were getting hammered.  What's weird is I haven't fallen out of the low-to-mid 20's through this most recent cold snap, whereas that awful one 2 weeks ago I had 5 straight nights between 9-13, which is totally unheard of around here.  That snap didn't seem to hit Texas as hard as it hit us on the southeast coast.

 

The good news is the 15-day forecast is looking pretty clear, which takes us into February, and spring starts Feb 15th down in these parts.  Mid 60's for the next couple days, can't wait!  It's possible we will get a few unusually cold nights, but I'm optimistic the worst of it is over!

[CroToni]

Oh my that sucks,Europe's weather has been great didn't go below 29 so far.

I hope that when Feb comes things get better for all of you.

[Jamesasb]

wow those temps are brutal. at least whatever does survive has a decent summerto look forward to

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Lows at the nursery were in fact 8.5-10.5 depending on location as we have 5 outdoor sensors in various places.  All of the Armata will defoliate as will the butia.  The butia Catarensis are already starting to look pretty bad after a 74F degree day today. Butia Odorata look much better. All of the Washingtonia Filifera will defoliate as well.  The big Jubaea looks really bad and it looks like the first time I have seen even a hint of burn on a Butia/Jubaea hybrid.  Another 70 degree day tomorrow will make the burn come out even more.  

Meanwhile 5 miles down the road at my house everything looks just fine except my Bambusa multiplex which is fried. 13F didn't even hurt the Jubaea which defoliated it last year at the same temperature.  Goes to show just how sensitive palms are when they are actively growing during a freeze compared to having a period of cold to allow them to go dormant.

[Swolte]

How are you JxB Hybrids, Texas?

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

So far zero burn on all but one which was right by the 8.5f thermometer and had a hit of bronzing on two fronds.  Time will tell.

[buffy]

Damage is starting to show. Like a damn disaster film.

[MikeTex]

Hello all.  I'm new here.  I moved to College Station, TX a few years ago from way up north and was excited to try growing some palms. These past two winters have been rather depressing:  College Station is full of W. Robustas and most of them have been fully defoliated the last 2 years.  This year all the C. Revoluta have defoliated too.  Can anybody tell me if this happens on a regular basis in these parts?  ( By the way, I currently have have a euro fan palm, c. revolutas, windmill, w. Robusta, and a mule palm.  With the two cold spells this winter, the euro and windmill show no damage,  mule only has minor leaf burn, and the W Robusta and Cycads are fully defoliated.)

Thanks for any input!

 

[Fusca]

5 hours ago, MikeTex said:

Hello all.  I'm new here.  I moved to College Station, TX a few years ago from way up north and was excited to try growing some palms. These past two winters have been rather depressing:  College Station is full of W. Robustas and most of them have been fully defoliated the last 2 years.  This year all the C. Revoluta have defoliated too.  Can anybody tell me if this happens on a regular basis in these parts?  ( By the way, I currently have have a euro fan palm, c. revolutas, windmill, w. Robusta, and a mule palm.  With the two cold spells this winter, the euro and windmill show no damage,  mule only has minor leaf burn, and the W Robusta and Cycads are fully defoliated.)

Thanks for any input!

 

Hi Mike

Welcome to Palmtalk and to Texas!  But why did you bring such nasty cold weather with you from up north?  LOL  I'm new to San Antonio, but the past 7 years I've either been in the NW Houston area or further south including one year in Brenham.  Last winter saw some pretty low temps which occurred while I was in Corpus Christi and of course this year, but before this year I had not personally seen any temps below 25º F.  These cold snaps occur but not often and when they do it's not usually this bad.  Some winters barely see freezing temps, but obviously sometimes the bad cold makes it's way down here.  I remember seeing 15º a couple of times in Tyler (east Texas) and once in Austin in my 18 years in Texas, but Longview isn't much different climate than Tyler and never saw single digit temps like Buffy just experienced.  What was your ultimate low in College Station?

Jon

[MikeTex]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

Hi Mike

Welcome to Palmtalk and to Texas!  But why did you bring such nasty cold weather with you from up north?  LOL  I'm new to San Antonio, but the past 7 years I've either been in the NW Houston area or further south including one year in Brenham.  Last winter saw some pretty low temps which occurred while I was in Corpus Christi and of course this year, but before this year I had not personally seen any temps below 25º F.  These cold snaps occur but not often and when they do it's not usually this bad.  Some winters barely see freezing temps, but obviously sometimes the bad cold makes it's way down here.  I remember seeing 15º a couple of times in Tyler (east Texas) and once in Austin in my 18 years in Texas, but Longview isn't much different climate than Tyler and never saw single digit temps like Buffy just experienced.  What was your ultimate low in College Station?

Jon

Thanks for the welcome. And you are right!  We did bring the cold with us - we drove from Niagara Falls to Texas Jan 14 - 15 and look what came with us! As for our ultimate low is CS - the low was 15F on Jan 17 and about 19.5F on Jan 18.  Someone I work with who lives in Caldwell said they hit 13F.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Cycas Revoluta only burn about once every 5-7 years in College station and once every 15 years in Houston I'd say. They get burned once every 2-3 years in Dallas/Ft. Worth. 

[Collectorpalms]

As far as College Station the last two winters were quite different, There was a unforcast low of 17 last year, when the low was to be in the lower 20s. The rest of winter there was none.

 This year was the first REAL WINTER in a long time and I have experience a low of 15 with ice and a daytime high of 23, with my sagos turning brown along with a lot of other things. For the city this was  as bad or worse than 2010 and 2011 Most Years if you live within a couple miles of Texas Ave east or west. You will stay above 20, and things are fine looking afterwards.

If you want to move up another zone... move inside BW 8 or 610 In houston, they are always 5 degrees warmer, and Galveston is 10 degrees warmer in these events

Edited February 6, 2018 by Collectorpalms

[Sandy Loam]

Wow, I can't believe the temperatures I am hearing about in this thread.  I thought we had it bad during the two big January freezes this year, but apparently not.

Buffy, how is your big, lakefront Phoenix Theophrastii (or am I confusing you with someone else near Dallas)?

[buffy]

I haven't even gone on to look.

[Cindy Adair]

I am so very sorry to read all this and wish you all an early Spring.

[Sandy Loam]

Me too.  I just saw the Dallas weather forecast and it appears to be mixed, but nothing fatal for the foreseeable future (ten day forecast). 

Over here in northeastern Florida, our lows have been acceptable recently and highs have been in the high 70s or 80s all week.  The foreseeable forecast is also in the high 70s or low 80s F until February 19, after which "winter" is largely over here anyway.  

January 2018 was unbelievable.  Let's not have that again for at least another decade, although the following news about an anticipated weather change commencing in 2050 came as a bit of a surprise:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/02/08/why-sun-is-growing-dim.html

[mdsonofthesouth]

I sure hope we dont cool...after growing up hearing about global warming and how hot itll be yet it seems to be getting colder in the winter.