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Which Weather Phenomenon Do You Fear Most: Frosts/Freezes or Tropical Cyclones' Aftermath?


BamaPalmer

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It looks as though nature (or Divine Providence) is sparing the Miami-Lauderdale, FL area "Is-Aye-Ee-Ahs"  That is a nice way to begin August!  I guess that this is a temporary "reprieve" though as the next 60-70 days are a virtual shooting gallery in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico!

I wish all our palm-loving, palm nurturing & growing members the very best of wishes (and freedom from bad storms) during this stressful season ahead.

It kind of makes up a portion of my mind that asks itself: "what do I most fear as a threat to keeping my palmy landscape intact?"  Is in tropical cyclone season, or is it winter with it's potentially fatal, or at least damaging freeze/frost events?  I tend to lean towards fearing winter's cold more, because it seems more likely to get a bad cold spell than a hurricane.  What do you all think?  Which type of weather peril brings more shivers down your spine: cold waves or really bad storms?  

Regards, Andy.

 

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@BamaPalmer As far as palms go, cold weather wipes more of them out here than anything other weather event.

Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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Probably so.  Hurricanes do require more expensive home repairs and total landscape clean-ups on the other hand!  Both are very demoralizing and depressing events, I know!  Andy

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Technically.. the average winter mean for winter months where I live is 8a, but I fear severe winter freezes.   The palms most likely will survive but I hate having palms in recovery.   My climate has the tendency to throw a zone 6 winter every once in a bit which makes me just want to move to a warmer climate and give up.

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For palms, freezes.  For humans, hurricanes.

 

5 year high 42.2C/108F (07/06/2018)--5 year low 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)--Lowest recent/current winter: 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)

 

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13 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

For palms, freezes.  For humans, hurricanes.

 

This

Meg

Palms of Victory I shall wear

Cape Coral (It's Just Paradise)
Florida
Zone 10A on the Isabelle Canal
Elevation: 15 feet

I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade.

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...Drought... 

One makes a choice to live and cultivate their palm collection where Hurricanes can occur..  or where cold winter temperatures can cause annual damage -or worse..  Plenty of places around where neither are much of / not a factor.. except maybe once or twice every 15-25+ years.. As things get warmer, those uncommon damaging frosts/freeze events will likely become even less frequent.. say threatening a garden once /twice over the course of 45-75 years, ( or longer ).. Hurricanes may not however.. There may be fewer, but they could get a bit stronger..

Extreme drought can occur just about anywhere.. Take away regular rainfall, have to cut water use significantly for an extended period of time.. Only the toughest will survive.. Many others may not.  At least people can move easily..

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I would usually say that winter freezes are my biggest fear, however... I have lost more palms this spring/summer to the drought than I have ever lost to the

1 minute ago, Silas_Sancona said:

...Drought... 

One makes a choice to live and cultivate their palm collection where Hurricanes can occur..  or where cold winter temperatures can cause annual damage -or worse..  Plenty of places around where neither are much of / not a factor.. except maybe once or twice every 15-25+ years.. As things get warmer, those uncommon damaging frosts/freeze events will likely become even less frequent.. say threatening a garden once /twice over the course of 45-75 years, ( or longer ).. Hurricanes may not however.. There may be fewer, but they could get a bit stronger..

Extreme drought can occur just about anywhere.. Take away regular rainfall, have to cut water use significantly for an extended period of time.. Only the toughest will survive.. Many others may not.  At least people can move easily..

I second this.

I would normally say that winter cold is the thing that I fear the most up here at 51N. But with just 2.5 inches of rain in the past 5-6 months, I have now lost more palms to drought this year than I have ever lost to the winter cold. Mostly seedlings that have not been watered sufficiently - Phoenix, Queens, Chamadorea, Trachycarpus etc. But I have nearly lost my larger Phoenix Theophrasti this year due to the lack of moisture in the soil and my failure to irrigate it sufficiently. Theophrasti is one that really needs to have it's 'feet' sitting in water during the summer months. Especially during hot, dry weather. My clay soil is just too dry for it during the warmer months. 

In total I have lost about 10 palms to drought this year alone, whereas I have only lost about 3-4 palms to winter cold over the years. My low last winter was only 26F out here in the country, so it looks like the cold will be less of an issue moving forward, with the drought issue being my main threat in the years to come as we become progressively drier and hotter. 

Dry-summer Oceanic climate (9a)

Average annual precipitation - 18.7 inches : Average annual sunshine hours - 1725

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Freezes for sure. 

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Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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I’m in zone 7 so little freezes are nothing, I typically start paying attention when temperatures get near 20°F, and anything near 10°F is an emergency lol.

Hurricanes, however, aren’t anything to play with, and I love weather but I know better. And lightning to me is even scarier as it just occurs instantly, anywhere.

Two tropical cyclone hits here so far this hurricane season, Isaias was a significant event, Fay wasn’t. Something tells me we aren’t done either.

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All of your understanding comments were cherished by me, because they came from everyone's hearts!  The were coloured by your personal insights of how you all FELT after weather events caused many past major interruptions (including the palms' demise) which are our realities when you love palms as much as we do!  You all eloquently displayed the devoting and dedication to your love of palms that your tender words here, have expressed.  We all press on; we deal with our losses like silent warriors and begin right after the ugly point where nature just gave us a: "good swift kick in the head."

We wouldn't go through such unplanned and erratic, traumatising pain like your own palms' death and/or destruction like this over and over and over again, if this wasn't "us!"  Lesser avocations, whims, hobbies, passions are always "out there" to occupy our time, both in leisure and and while at work, but we chose germinating, rearing, nurturing palms, and living with palms because to us, they are magical,m and we would not "do it" any other way!  So when nature hurts our beautiful palms (or outright kills them) we rarely stop our active love for palms.

We might mourn a particularly devastating loss caused by nature, but we (pretty quickly) become re-inspired to "get growing" again!  The losses of even the most achingly recent "defeats" might still be stinging, but it isn't long at all before we are getting another palm order ready to send to Florida, California, Hawaii, The Seychelles, Thailand,  Australia, India, Costa Rica, or another wonderfully warm palm breeding home.  Or soon we are off visiting another palm sale hosted by an IPS member and sure as can be, we are bringing back a few beauties to bring that special tropical aura to our landscape one more time!

It might not be for a future where the variability of nature is any less certain, but it makes us damned happy inside, and isn't this the true essence of the life experience itself? 

I hope that the future's weather phenomena is bountifully kinder to you, than any in the past, that you all have ever known!  That would be the sweetest gift I could ever hope, for all of us!  Andy:greenthumb:

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For my palm, What i fear the most is 2 insects : paysandisia archon and Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. They make a lot of damage with palm...

07690.gif

elevation 328 feet

distance from mediteranean sea 1,1 mile

lowest t° 2009/2010 : 27F

lowest t° 2008/2009 : 33F

lowest t° 2007/2008 : 32F

lowest t° 2006/2007 : 35F

lowest t° 2005/2006 : 27F

lowest t° 2004/2005 : 25F

Historical lowest t° 1985 : 18F

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On 8/9/2020 at 12:47 PM, cm05 said:

I’m in zone 7 so little freezes are nothing, I typically start paying attention when temperatures get near 20°F, and anything near 10°F is an emergency lol.

Hurricanes, however, aren’t anything to play with, and I love weather but I know better. And lightning to me is even scarier as it just occurs instantly, anywhere.

Two tropical cyclone hits here so far this hurricane season, Isaias was a significant event, Fay wasn’t. Something tells me we aren’t done either.

I don’t play with lightning.

That poor Bismarckia.

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21 minutes ago, cm05 said:

I don’t play with lightning.

That poor Bismarckia.

That's scary enough... This would be the worst way to start your day... Been close enough a few times.

 

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1 hour ago, Silas_Sancona said:

That's scary enough... This would be the worst way to start your day... Been close enough a few times.

 

One time was enough for me lol. I was looking out the window when my apartment building was struck, all I could see was white and a very loud bang just like in this video.

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2 minutes ago, cm05 said:

One time was enough for me lol. I was looking out the window when my apartment building was struck, all I could see was white and a very loud bang just like in this video.

Same thing happened last year.. Was out back watching a -rather weak looking isolated shower start dropping rain right after Sunset.. Turned around and caught the sight of a pretty big bolt drop maybe half a block west of my view..  Last "close encounter" hit either the block wall, or one of the trees / Street light on the opposite side of the Alley between me and my neighbors, just as i walked into the kitchen.. Looked over everything back there afterwards but could not find any evidence of damage from the bolt anywhere..

That's nothing though compared to when i lived in Kansas and Ohio..  Had a storm spring up out of the blue late one night that literally sounded like someone was detonating large explosives just outside my window.. Weirdest lightning i have seen as well, and very little rain..  In Ohio, same basic type of late night storm forced me to sleep on my couch.. Woke me up out of a dead sleep and became so intense that the idea of remaining on a bed -with a metal frame- was not a good idea lol. 

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On 7/31/2020 at 4:26 PM, BamaPalmer said:

It looks as though nature (or Divine Providence) is sparing the Miami-Lauderdale, FL area "Is-Aye-Ee-Ahs"  That is a nice way to begin August!  I guess that this is a temporary "reprieve" though as the next 60-70 days are a virtual shooting gallery in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico!

I wish all our palm-loving, palm nurturing & growing members the very best of wishes (and freedom from bad storms) during this stressful season ahead.

It kind of makes up a portion of my mind that asks itself: "what do I most fear as a threat to keeping my palmy landscape intact?"  Is in tropical cyclone season, or is it winter with it's potentially fatal, or at least damaging freeze/frost events?  I tend to lean towards fearing winter's cold more, because it seems more likely to get a bad cold spell than a hurricane.  What do you all think?  Which type of weather peril brings more shivers down your spine: cold waves or really bad storms?  

Regards, Andy.

As terrible as all the aforementioned weather phenomena are, right now I am mostly just lamenting the unusually prolonged summer heat here in AZ.  Almost a month and a half worth of 110+ days by now!

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I know; it has been high by even AZ standards.  I hope a monsoon rain cools you all soon!  Andy.

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I would have to say that out of the two, freezing weather is feared the most. Hurricanes can be tollerated, but freezes are unstopable. While you can protect a palm from a freeze event, it may not work. Most if not all palms have some degree of wind tollerance.

Palms - 4 S. romanzoffiana, 1 W. bifurcata, 2 W. robusta, 1 R. rivularis, 1 B. odorata, 1 B. nobilis, 2 S. palmetto, 1 A. merillii, 1 P. canariensis, 1 BxJ, 1 BxJxBxS, 1 BxS, 3 P. roebelenii, 1 H. lagenicaulis, 1 H. verschaffeltii, 9 T. fortunei, 1 C. humilis, 2 C. macrocarpa, 1 L. chinensis, 1 R. excelsa

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