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Houston freeze damage


Ed in Houston

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On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2018‎ ‎7‎:‎03‎:‎24‎, mthteh1916 said:

What was the elevation where that snow happened in Saudi Arabia? Jerusalem Israel got snow in 2016, but the record low there is 25F.

It's interesting that the highest mountain, Jabal Sawda is in southern Saudi Arabia [almost 10,000']. 

Edited by happ

Los Angeles/Pasadena

34° 10' N   118° 18' W

Elevation: 910'/278m

January Average Hi/Lo: 69F/50F

July Average Hi/Lo: 88F/66F

Average Rainfall: 19"/48cm

USDA 11/Sunset 23

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?MTW

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Im not worried terribly with what I cannot change. I do wish I lived in sunny Florida, but until then might as well make lemonade! Im gowing 3 different kinds of palms, 2 different subtropical yuccas and thats just the start! The weather cant be changed, so might as well make the best of it until I can move. Never doubted that we got the short end of the stick when it comes to arctic incursions in North America, maybe we might catch a break when the weather cycles change....who knows.

  • Upvote 1

LOWS 16/17 12F, 17/18 3F, 18/19 7F, 19/20 20F

Palms growing in my garden: Trachycarpus Fortunei, Chamaerops Humilis, Chamaerops Humilis var. Cerifera, Rhapidophyllum Hystrix, Sabal Palmetto 

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@mthteh1916, there is one small east-west mountain range in the South Plains area north of Houston, the Ozark-Ouachitas. They are less than 3,000ft tall, but they actually provide some blocking of cold air:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7H9wDhmcM

Joe Bastardi calls it an "Ozark Shadow:"
https://twitter.com/BigJoeBastardi/status/947888949774749696

The problem is that they aren't lengthy, so cold can easily bypass the range depending on the angle. But a 3,000ft height may have been just enough for solid protection, but only if all cold snaps come with shallow cold.

Edited by AnTonY
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I wish the Appalachian mountains did something to hinder northwestern patterns/arctic blasts from coming into our area. We have a highest point of 3360ft and still it does little to nothing for us. 

LOWS 16/17 12F, 17/18 3F, 18/19 7F, 19/20 20F

Palms growing in my garden: Trachycarpus Fortunei, Chamaerops Humilis, Chamaerops Humilis var. Cerifera, Rhapidophyllum Hystrix, Sabal Palmetto 

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  • 2 months later...

Here in College Station we had 90+% leaf burn on Robusta and C Revoluta.  True filifera are few and far between around here, but they look a little bit better.  No damage on any windmills/euro fan palms.  Someone down the street wrapped their queen palm trunk and that seems to have survived.  My mule palm also seems to have come thru very nicely.

Interestingly I was in San Antonio the other day, and there seems to be almost no damage there.  Seems that the Houston/Galveston area got hit worse this January.

 

Cheers,

Mike

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Whoever said the Houston pygmy dates were toast...a lot of them are pushing green! Queen palms will continue to be a common sight as well (there are many survivors even out west here in Katy). Will try to get some pics later this week. 

  • Upvote 2

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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@MikeTex, I guess it depends on where you're at in those two areas, as well as what specimens you were seeing. Houston/Galveston had long duration freezing conditions in January, but San Antonio actually has an ice day logged this year (so freezing conditions persisted beyond a 24hr period).

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/28/2018, 2:47:41, mthteh1916 said:

I would assume Queens are not really hardy for your area and are probably dead or will die soon. Too much variability in winter. I'm sure a lot of citrus is dead as well there. 24 hours of freezing is no go zone for sweet oranges.

 

We had a 30 year freeze here in central Louisiana (zone 9a) at 13/14 degrees F. New Orleans got the same temps as Houston. From 13 degrees F the only citrus to die were limes. Even mature Meyers lemons survived with moderate die back. Most oranges just died down some but resprouted, and grapefruits had only minor to moderate dieback. All dates have come back with vigor (well except for the Pygmys), and Washingtonia palms are all now putting out growth. Every philodendron, Bird of paradise, and foxtail fern in my area has returned as well. Even some tropical hibiscus bushes are raising from the ground with buds. My rubber ficus resprouted along with my mother’s rubber ficus. In Nola I’ve seen queen palms and Bismarck palms pushing out new growth and some majesty and pygmy dates with new fronds.

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I’m kind of suprised at how decently more tropical plants took this winter in Austin. Sure, most of the w. robusta and c. revoluta burned, but I haven’t seen all that many that are dead outright. While most of the palms in my neighborhood are hardier (washies, sabals, butia, chamerops, trachycarpus), they came out from this winter suprisingly well — I think around me, the ultimate low was 17 or 18 and we had two stretches of more than 24 hours below freezing. My neighbor’s livistona burned pretty badly, but it doesn’t look dead (it’s hard to see because of other stuff in front of it). Even my little date palm seedling in the ground that’s been mowed over and entirely neglected lived. My musella didn’t even die all the way back to the ground — around 6-8” of the bigger pseudostems made it.

The philodendrons in my neighborhood are coming back — even one that’s in a pot. Most of the rest of the stuff people plant around me is pretty impossible to kill, even in a cold winter — bananas, pride of barbados, pomegranates, figs, podocarps,  asparagus (foxtail) fern, plus all the natives that everyone loves to plant. The loquats lost their fruit, but that’s to be expected in such a cold winter.

Even the silk floss tree at Zilker Botanical Gardens made it through the winter — it lost a good portion of its trunk, but it’s still alive.

Edited by bananaman
  • Upvote 1

-bananaman

All images I post are shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License

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  • 3 months later...

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