Nippy in Florida

[iamjv]

This is an ugly picture for all of our Florida friends..... hope your palms make it through ok. Jv

[cfkingfish]

Made it through with 36F and no frost, it is 39F now at 845 EST. I saw a lot of stations dip below 32 all over central and even parts of South FL.

[Jeff Searle]

I had 39 degrees at my house this morning. This was at 6:30 am. My house is only 5 minutes away from the nursery. Now it's time to warm up!!!!

Jeff

[spockvr6]

35.0F at my house at 743AM this morning. No frost as the air was just too dry and there was a light breeze.

[gsn]

Bottomed out at 28.6F here at my house in Titusville.

Tonight is supposed to be worse?

[pdleft]

My low here in Loxahatchee was 31.3 degrees in the open and about 34 in the shadehouse. I guess that is it for my big cyrtostachys that couldn't be moved. There was even ice on my windshield this A.M. It is now 46.9 at 9.21 AM. But even if the sensitive stuff survived last night, the forcast for tonight is even worse. My babies are sitting on the hot tub. I can't wait to see my FPL bill for this month.

[Okie]

It's 9:30 am and it's currently 36 F

[tikitiki]

I hit 34f with no frost. So far so good. temp still sitting a little low for me. tonight will be the test

Edited January 21, 2009 by tikitiki

[tikitiki]

Weather underground had windermere ( my area ) at 30f. My thermo said 34f. Could Loxahatchee and Titusville possibly been colder then Orlando?

[Ed in Houston]

This is an ugly picture for all of our Florida friends..... hope your palms make it through ok.

Jv

********

I had 36 in SE Houston, but of coarse the main thrust of this cold push hit farther east into Florida.

Ed in Houston

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I guess that is it for my big cyrtostachys

If it isn't already a meltdown and dead lookin' already I wouldn't count it dead... I purchased a 1g in 2005 when I first got into palms... I have left it exposed every winter since then and it has not died. I just potted up into a 7g this past autumn and it's looking good. I don't think they are as cold sensative as rumored, then again... maybe I've just gotten lucky!

[waykoolplantz]

Was 39 here too...about 10 miles due east of Jeff Searle's.

Last year this poor Areca looked like this...and it happens every year below 45 degrees

It has finally recovered...and yesterday morning it was pulled out of the ground...put in a pot...and spent last nite in the garage

Ryan recommended we put a couple of C Renda's in the ground at the edge of the pond....lets see how well they do

[edric]

41 here at 6:25, but then again, if you draw a line due north from Oak hill, I'm a mile east of Daytona Beach, the Hyophorbe Verchafelttii, and the Adonidia, unscathed, photos this am, Ed

[gsn]

Ed,

I don't get it your 40 miles north of me, farther inland and you were 12 degrees warmer than me at 6:30?

Are you on the east or west side of the Hailfax River?

Okie,

Who is on the south tip of Merrit Island, surrounded on both sides by water, Banana,and the Indian River,and has a great micro climate is reporting 36F at 9:30 AM?

Edited January 21, 2009 by gsn

[edric]

Ed,

I don't get it your 40 miles north of me, farther inland and you were 12 degrees warmer than me at 6:30?

Are you on the east or west side of the Hailfax River?

Okie,

Who is on the south tip of Merrit Island, surrounded on both sides by water, Banana,and the Indian River,and has a great micro climate is reporting 36F at 9:30 AM?

Im east of just about everyone except the government property, plus I didn't mention that I live on the southwest side of a boomerang shaped sand ridge, Ed

[PalmatierMeg]

Our incredibly accurate thermometer taped to a queen palm in the back yard read 36F beside the Isabelle Cancal at 8:15, 1 hour after sunrise. Weatherunderground says Cape Coral got down to 34F overnight.

Weather.com says Thurs morn will bottom out at 32F. Last night's weather forecast says it will be 31F. Not good, not good at all.

At 10:45 it is 45F and windy. I had to don my parka.

[edric]

Hawaiian Woodrose didn't fair so good though, Ed

[FRITO]

23.2 on my meter in the front yard. Bsmarkia only draped in a bed sheet for protection. we will see how it fares. queens all around the yard unprotected. it was more of a dry cold and not rainy like last year that devasted hardy palms with budrot and spear pull.

fish pond frozen over about 1/4 of an inch. below 32 for 13 hours.

[palmislandRandy]

I live way west in South Palm Beach County and bottomed out at 42 @ 6:00 am. Could Hollywood, Fla be colder than West Boca Raton, even if Boca is 25 miles north? No dog walking this morning... out in the yard you go!

[pg6922]

SW Cape Coral,FL 37.4 degrees F at 7:26 am

Moved the bentickia, carpoxylon and verschaffeltia spendida into the garage and will cover a few others just to be safe. Hopefully this is it for the cold this year.

[Eric in Orlando]

32F here at Leu Gardens in the open, just north of downtown. A thermometer back in the woods showed 36F

[Paul The Palm Doctor!]

Made it through with 36F and no frost, it is 39F now at 845 EST. I saw a lot of stations dip below 32 all over central and even parts of South FL.

Tonight will be 3-5 degrees cooler with no clouds, nor wind. Warm up arrives FRI.

Paul

[www.dadluvsu.com]

A thermometer back in the woods showed 36F

Is that thermometer in the palm collection under that huge canopy? I'm amazed at the temp difference in a relatively small area...

[happ]

Tonight's radiational cooling could be bad Good luck

[tikitiki]

What is the lowest it has seen?

I guess that is it for my big cyrtostachys

If it isn't already a meltdown and dead lookin' already I wouldn't count it dead... I purchased a 1g in 2005 when I first got into palms... I have left it exposed every winter since then and it has not died. I just potted up into a 7g this past autumn and it's looking good. I don't think they are as cold sensative as rumored, then again... maybe I've just gotten lucky!

[tikitiki]

Ok so I see alot of people speaking of different types of freezes what are they and what is the difference? Which is the worst and why?

[gsn]

tikitiki,

An advective freeze is a windbourne freeze, sustained winds above 5-8 MPH. The winds carry the cold air south.

A radiational freeze, happens when the wind is calm. Overnight objects radiate heat away from them into the atmosphere,some faster than others.

In a rational freeze objects loose heat, and the latent heat dissipates into space.Cloud cover will help with a radiational freeze,and to a lesser extent on an advective freeze,because the clouds keep the heat from escaping into space. Frost has more potential to form on radiational nights usually. However there are to kinds of frost, white frost and black frost. Black frost which can't be seen, and usually forms on advective events, can also be a killer.

Protection methods also differ each type of event,some more effective than others depending on the event.

Someone mention a convection freeze,I have never heard of that type of event,not to say it doesn't exist,but I know nothing about that type of freeze!

Here is a link that will probably explain it way better than I just did?

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-705.html

Edited January 21, 2009 by gsn

[Eric in Orlando]

A thermometer back in the woods showed 36F

Is that thermometer in the palm collection under that huge canopy? I'm amazed at the temp difference in a relatively small area...

It was in under that tree canopy adjacent to the Palm Garden and lake.

Back in Jan. 2003 was our last freeze here. The official low for Orlando taken at OIA was 27F and we measured 27F on our weather station at the main building. We put out 15 min/max thermometers around the property which is 50 acres and they ranged from 26-34F, a majority showed 28-29F. It is amazing the range of temperatures in a small area.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

What is the lowest it has seen?

i believe 39.5f was the coldest i recorded...

[Josh]

I had 35.1 on one gauge and 30.7 on another 20 feet away! The one with 35 was in the open on a hill near the house. The 30.7 was under canopy at the bottom of the hill. My coffee arabica turned black, because it was at the bottom of the hill next to the gauge. The rest of the yard looks fine though. Tonight will probably be different.... Good thing I have switched over to mostly native plants....

[phatmiata]

The local fox news stated it was 29F in my area this morning (Dover, FL) but the weather on my iPhone showed a low of 31F around 7am (not sure what weather service it is) No wind after 1am, No frost at all, and all of my tropicals looked ok, including some temperature sensitive bananas, and alocasia.

Im shocked that you guys down in Loxahatchee, Ft. Lauderdale areas got such low temperatures!!!

I lay alot of my 7-gallon potted plams on their side on the ground, all huddled together, and covered them with moving blankets I got from the Uhaul store i got a few years back. However im going to go buy some bagged mulch after work tonight and cover their pots to keep them from freezing. The smaller 1-gallons are in the house (the wife is thrilled, not)

Lets hope this is the last of the wicked winter we will see, however Feb is usually colder though, ugh.

[rozpalm]

palmisland, according to the METAR data that I track in the winter, east FLL is generally the warmest point in SF, save the keys. Obviously there are pockets all over the place where the temps can vary as much as 5deg.

Here is my PWS. You guys can watch my pain tonight (my PWS feeds live data every 5min to Weatherunderground):

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation...1&year=2009

My attitude with my Palms and other plants is basically if it dies, it probably shouldn't have been planted in the first place. I am not going to go insane trying to keep stuff protected form the cold any more then I would from a Hurricane. Sure I'll bring in the potted stuff, but that's about it. Survival of the fittest in my garden. I guess my attitude is good for the nursery business.

I can attest personally to the fact that c.renda dies at temps below 40deg. Once the fungus comes, the plant seems to be toast. I do have one that I treated with fungicide before the cold snap, so hopefully it'll be ok. I'll tell you in a couple of weeks. I was also told (don't know how true this is) that if you submerge c.renda's lower roots in water, it weathers the cold very well. Bill, isn't your c.renda in water?

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Not any more Ron... When I stepped it up into a 7g, I did away with the water tray... I think it'll be fine. But for the record, I did go buy a bag of banrot recently.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

What is the lowest it has seen?

i believe 39.5f was the coldest i recorded...

I take that back, last night it was in the shadehouse and we bottomed out around 35F. Guess we'll see how she does this spring!

[amazon exotics]

My RENDA saw 33-34 degrees f last year. It did better than D Lutescens but put out a small frond in the spring. Its in the ground. See how it does this year.

[Davidl]

I have had C.renda take 39 degrees when they are a 3 gallon size but never below that. The little suckers will die at 40.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Yuck Rozpalm! Your PWS is already showin 42F at 2300 hours... My fingers are already splitting from the cold. I hate this.

[rozpalm]

Yuck Rozpalm! Your PWS is already showin 42F at 2300 hours... My fingers are already splitting from the cold. I hate this.

The way I look at it, I am ahead of the forecast by 2deg . I hope I can hold the spread to 7am. That would put me at 35deg by 6am.

[Jimbean]

I have a lot of zone 10 plants and it is forecast to get into the low 20's. It is already 33F at midnight.

[edric]

My state of the art digital Springfield thermometer, reads 35.6 this morning, the weather channel says it's 40, yesterday mine read 41.1 at 6:25, and the weather channel read 30, it's on the north side of the house, could it be the wind chill affecting both thermometers, Ed