Floridians beware

[spockvr6]

(ruskinPalms @ Jan. 29 2007,19:20)

QUOTE

By the way, there is a tool on the FAWN website to predict your low. They have it set for sunset at 6:00 pm tonight so if you have dewpoint and temp data for around that time then you can get probably the best forcast for your immediate area for the ultimate low. I think that formula was made for nights like tonight - windless and clear.

17:58

Temp: 52.2 F

Dewpoint: 27.3 F

Predicted Low: 32F

Edit: here is the website -

http://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/scripts/brunt.asp

At 6PM in the Jungle---

46.8F with a dewpoint of 25.5F

Predicted low----27F!

[ruskinPalms]

Larry, I would be very surprised if it gets that low for you. I think your proximity to the gulf will come into play later in the form of a big increase in humidity. 32 is actually forcast by the NWS for me now, so this seems like it will happen for me  

[Trópico]

I'm ready. Potted stuff filling the dining room. Several blankets on stuff outside.

Riding out with protection (due to go in the ground this year): H. verschaffeltii, L. decora

Riding out with no protection: B. nobilis, S. palmetto, Ph. roebellenii.

Intentionally riding out in the coldest possible spot: P. pungens.

Good luck, and may the propane be with you!

[spockvr6]

(ruskinPalms @ Jan. 29 2007,19:37)

QUOTE

Larry, I would be very surprised if it gets that low for you. I think your proximity to the gulf will come into play later in the form of a big increase in humidity. 32 is actually forcast by the NWS for me now, so this seems like it will happen for me  

NWS still says 34F, Weather.com 37F, Accuweather.com 40F, and weatherunderground.com 29F!

My feelings are that it wont drop to 27F (famous last words....) but that 30-32F might not be too far off.

Thankfully, over the past half hour, the temps have stabilized and come up a few tenths.  The dewpoint has also risen slightly.  But, the air is still dead calm.  I was hoping for a bit more breeze.  

Maybe those clouds might roll in later tonight?  

I hope it doesnt get too bad as I did absolutely bare bones protection.  What Bill did looks more extensive than mine as I didnt even bother to bring in potted palms.  I dont have too many of them, but decided to leave them out and see what happens.   As such I am leaving out potted Coconuts (golden and green Malayan), a bunch of potted Veitichia joannis and arecina, some potted Archontophoenix and a few other things that are way hardy so no worries there).

The only palms I 100% palm socked are the twin Bottles out front (since they are pathetically easy to do and I would be a complete moron to not at least do those).  

My two most tender in ground palms----

The Areca catechu got a trunk wrap but the foliage and growth point is exposed.  

The Prichardia pacifica got a trunk wrap and light covering of the semi-bundled foliage with 2 layers of frost cloth.  

I have mini-Christmas lights under these two palms.  But, that heat wont do much up top.

I also trunk wrapped a couple of my larger trunked Spindles out front as well as the Adonidias and the FoxyLady.  But, the foliage is exposed on these as well as they are a bit too tall.  As I mentioned earlier, I am sick as a dog, so it took too much effort to do what I did already!    So, the other 99% of the palms will ride it out!

[ruskinPalms]

What I covered in the little landscape beds were Cocos, adonidia and Dyspsis lutescens.  Probably blasphemous to say here, but I think I am most worried about my little Mango tree. It took that pathetic thing the entire spring, summer and abnormally warm winter to get established - I don't want to start over on that one. Things I wish I could protect include my huge papayas loaded with fruit, a clump of super dwarf bananas on steroids, my larger double foxtail and my royal. All are too big unless Bobby from NY loans me his palmscraper for the night  

[Jimbean]

I am in the process of starting a whole sale seedling nursery and I am still in the cleaning up phase of the project.  I put all of my zone 10 plants up against an industrial building and covered them with sabal and banana leaves.  I figured the bananas were going to defoliate anyway.  The temperature is expected to get down anywhere from 41F to 31F ???

Lets see how this rigged kind of protection does

[ZoneTenNut]

(spockvr6 @ Jan. 29 2007,20:08)

QUOTE

NWS still says 34F, Weather.com 37F, Accuweather.com 40F, and weatherunderground.com 29F!

Thankfully, over the past half hour, the temps have stabilized and come up a few tenths.  The dewpoint has also risen slightly.  But, the air is still dead calm.  I was hoping for a bit more breeze.  

Maybe those clouds might roll in later tonight?  

NWS now has me at 40F, Weather.com 45F, and weatherunderground.com 45F. We'll see.

I too had a slight tick up in the temps. About and hour ago, it was down to 50.1, then it bumped up to 50.4, so maybe the downward plunge is slowing a bit. But it is much calmer as winds have really died down.

It sounds like you actually did quite a bit of preparation Larry. Tough when you're not feeling well.

[Jimbean]

btw, does anyone have anything in a cold microclimate?  My nursery is in one!  If it were to get 34F (write it down, because that is what I think for most of Brevard), it will get something like 32F to 29F there

[SoLando]

46.9 here at 8:44PM. All the stations have me set for 32-34. So, I guess we'll just have to play the waiting game. :/

On CF News 13, they've been talking about all the cloud cover that should be coming into play now. They said that the currently forcasted lows are a bit on the low side as of now.

[ruskinPalms]

Most nights I tend to be  a degree or 2 colder than forcast and I have a bloody pond in my backyard!

[Alan_Tampa]

Bill, unless your papaya leaves are drooping black snot in the morning, do not worry.

Also, mangos can take a while to settle in,but unless you have it out in the lowest most exposed part of your yard, relax.

Here is fruit tree I grow, if you do not know what it is, look it up, jakfruit.  I have a couple of mangos as well but this is more of a stretch than mango so I am trying to "relax you".

Alan

[spockvr6]

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 29 2007,20:28)

QUOTE

It sounds like you actually did quite a bit of preparation Larry. Tough when you're not feeling well.

Thanks for the kudos Zone 10 but I probably spent less than half an hour  

The lions share of palms/plants are completely unprotected.

It is really rather foolish of me to not even cover the various Croton rows (I probably have 75 or so plants), specially when one considers I have over thirty 5' x 25' frost cloth pieces and over thirty 5' x 5' frost cloth bags for such an occasion.  And, I strung rope light (hundreds id feet....I have four 150 ft spools) along all these Croton rows for Christmas decoration around Thanksgiving, so that it would double as a nice heat source.  Yet, I still opted out of frost clothing them!    What a lazy SOB I am tonight.

LOL.

But, to be honest, part of me wants to see what will happen     And, as you noted, I really feel terrible and the thought of me being outside in the lower 40's F right now is not appealing.

[ruskinPalms]

Larry, at first I wanted to see what would happen, and I will on the majority of my palms, but I thought it would be silly not to try cover the easy little things while I can to get them throught this minor freeze. I doubt anything would die tonight uncovered, but now I am just trying to keep things looking nice as spring is right around the corner. If I can get through this winter with minimal to no damage, then I expect explosive growth through this next growing season. And the bigger and more established these plants get, then the more cold they will take in future years that are not so kind. (yes, this year is still kind even if I get down to 29F tonight!)

[ruskinPalms]

Alan, I have seen a mature avocados in my neighborhood, but no big mangos yet. Mango is definitely marginal for my area. Of note, the farms across from me did not seem to cover the crops tonight. I have no Idea what they are growing but probably vegetables of some kind. Lots of tomatoes and other salad veggies around Ruskin. I hope they make it as they all were looking real nice so far this winter.

[tropical1]

42.2 here and now dewpoint has risen to 39F. Good news is more clouds rolling in. Sky is mostly cloudy now. Larry, you have cloudy skies in tarpon? Hopefully there are a slew of them out there in the Gulf.

[cfkingfish]

2206 here and around 45.8F in the cold part of my backyard. The only thing riding with protection is my potted Nypa and a P. woodfordiana which I found in a pot in my front yard.

[spockvr6]

(tropical1 @ Jan. 29 2007,22:05)

QUOTE

42.2 here and now dewpoint has risen to 39F. Good news is more clouds rolling in. Sky is mostly cloudy now. Larry, you have cloudy skies in tarpon? Hopefully there are a slew of them out there in the Gulf.

Tropical1-

I havent been outside to look...but suppose I should.

Temps have been rising very very slowly here to 43.2F at 1013PM.  But, my dewpoint is only 30.6F.

Ill go outside now and see if there are clouds...and how that frost that started to form on the car roof is doing

[spockvr6]

Yes.....looks like some clouds are rolling through now.

And...the frost that formed on the car roof a little while ago has melted.

Lets hope this keeps up!

[spockvr6]

C'mon....you can do it Mr. Cirrus!

Latest still image here from screen capture----

Video here---

http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes_co....est.mov

[tropical1]

indeed, never been so happy to see clouds. Just checked satellite pic and there are a bunch out there. Subtropical jet must be kicking in.

Nice sat image!

[spockvr6]

(tropical1 @ Jan. 29 2007,22:23)

QUOTE

indeed, never been so happy to see clouds. Just checked satellite pic and there are a bunch out there. Subtropical jet must be kicking in.

Looking at the NWS hourly forecast for 34689.......my yard is currently running about 4F warmer than forecast at this hour.

If this holds up, it will be a wonderful night.

[SunnyFl]

When I was coming home around 7:30, the Wx-radio said Tampa was 46, Downtown St. Pete was 49 and St. Pete/CLW airport was 48.  My car thermom showed 49 on our street.

Now - it's 43      And I don't see how they can realistically forecast 38 for our low - when it's already 43.

Anyway, there is barely room to walk in my living room, bedroom or foyer for all the palms, crotons n' tropicals in here.  My husband brought them all in, and a few other tropicals.  Bless him, there were a LOT of them.  And he put up a big canvas tent-thing over the front garden.

I hate these cold snaps

[ruskinPalms]

44.6F here right now at 10:30ish PM. Funny how it is 45 all the way down to homestead FL at the same time according to the FAWN stations. This cold air can penetrate all the way down the state on into the royal palm's native range. Guys in cali, I bet your royals, if sourced from FL, will come back from their defoliation. They are native to some areas that do see cold weather.

[ruskinPalms]

unbelievably enough, I seem to have a 2-3 mph wind from the NNE at times which may be mixing things up. I did see cirrus clouds during my evening jog tonight, but I did not want to jinx anything

[ZoneTenNut]

(SunnyFl @ Jan. 29 2007,22:31)

QUOTE

Anyway, there is barely room to walk in my living room, bedroom or foyer for all the palms, crotons n' tropicals in here.  My husband brought them all in, and a few other tropicals.  Bless him, there were a LOT of them.  And he put up a big canvas tent-thing over the front garden.

   

Sunny,

We must all be nuts. Can't imagine what our neighbors must think! I just got to laugh when I read all these posts about our efforts to preserve our prized possessions. I know for a fact, my neighbors, and family for that matter, think I'm certified.  

Best of luck tonight and lets hope tomorrow morning brings good reports for all.

[BS Man about Palms]

(spockvr6 @ Jan. 29 2007,18:42)

QUOTE

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 29 2007,20:28)

QUOTE

It sounds like you actually did quite a bit of preparation Larry. Tough when you're not feeling well.

Thanks for the kudos Zone 10 but I probably spent less than half an hour  

The lions share of palms/plants are completely unprotected.

It is really rather foolish of me to not even cover the various Croton rows (I probably have 75 or so plants), specially when one considers I have over thirty 5' x 25' frost cloth pieces and over thirty 5' x 5' frost cloth bags for such an occasion.  And, I strung rope light (hundreds id feet....I have four 150 ft spools) along all these Croton rows for Christmas decoration around Thanksgiving, so that it would double as a nice heat source.  Yet, I still opted out of frost clothing them!    What a lazy SOB I am tonight.

LOL.

But, to be honest, part of me wants to see what will happen     And, as you noted, I really feel terrible and the thought of me being outside in the lower 40's F right now is not appealing.

Larry- Thats how I was for our first cold night. I'm not sure how many you have, but I probably have 150 potted palms or more and I only brought in the big rare stuff the 2nd night....   Then I regretted not taking the time to REALLY look at what was marginal and bring it in.

For that matter about 2 weeks out now, its getting hard to spot palms that didn't get SOME damage.

Good luck folks!

BS

[SunnyFl]

(spockvr6 @ Jan. 29 2007,22:12)

QUOTE

Ill go outside now and see if there are clouds...and how that frost that started to form on the car roof is doing

You already had frost on the car?  wow.  None here yet, if we get frost tonight, it will be a first.

And it's a good thing you didn't spend too much time out there with a bad cold.  Could make it a lot worse.  Have you tried that Airborne stuff?  It can sometimes help a lot.  Hope you feel better soon.

Hey Alan - you really have a jackfruit?  Those are supposed to be good.  I have a meiwa kumquat that's in a pot, so we brought it in.  My neighbor came out when my husband was putting up the tent and brought him some carambolas

[ruskinPalms]

I didn't check my car top tonight, I wish I had. Looks like I got down to 42.4 at around 9:30pm tonight and now I am hanging out around 44. I have been to around 39F a couple times this year, once on a very calm night. I wonder if I had frost on my palms  ???  I didn't think to look at that high a temperature.

[ruskinPalms]

Definite cirrus cloud deck out there right now. I hope it holds out for the whole night  

[Palmarum]

I hope you all further north of me are as warm as possible. It's almost 50 F right now at 11:45 pm.

Ryan

[ZoneTenNut]

45F at 5:15AM. Looks like cloud cover moved in last night and is clear now, but delayed the drop in temps. Very cold but not damaging. Still a couple hours till sunrise though.

[ZoneTenNut]

Here is this mornings temp map, as of 6:00AM

[Alan_Tampa]

0445 About 41F at my place.

Frost on car bonnet, but not on trunk. Grass was wet and no frozen anywhere that I could see from Citrus Park to Riverview.  Take that Jack Frost, you rat bastard!

I made no attempts at additional protection for anything, same as last year.

Also, just a note: the tree in my picture is a jakfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) , Bill mentioned avocado and I don't want anyone to miss the point.  That is a 10B plant by most (lightweights!) estimations and if I can grow that, mango should be a pinch.  I would have posted a pic of my Nam Doc Mai mango but camera is acting up and I could not find an old photo last night.  It is doing ducky as well.  Avocado can be very cold tolerant, depending on type so not a great zone indicator plant, but good.  

Bill, I could tell where you were on your bike ride thingy, you missed a good sized mango by like a head turn.  

Alan

[tropical1]

We made it. clouds, low temp around 40f and it is 40+ now. No frost.

[Jimbean]

The last hour or so has hovered between 40F and 42F here in Rockledge.  Wow!  Feel much better.

[Tag]

Looks like we were spared last night here in SoJax.  Woke up to 32.5 at 6:15 and the low only got down to 30.2.  We were forcast somewhere between 27 - 30.  Still a record warm year ths far for us up here (knock on wood).

[ZoneTenNut]

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 29 2007,20:28)

QUOTE

NWS now has me at 40F, Weather.com 45F, and weatherunderground.com 45F. We'll see.

6:53AM and it looks like I bottomed out at 43.9F, as temps are starting to move upward in the area. The gulf stream must be exerting its influence and winds are very light to calm.

[Trópico]

Warmer than forecasted, I estimate about 38ºF. Moderate frost (car, roof). I should have left more stuff outside.

[ruskinPalms]

36.32F at 7:13 AM. No frost on grass, ground or palms. Minimal on house roofs and car tops, was not on my car's windows. I feel like I was lucky as it could have been a lot worse without those high clouds as my yard has zero canopy. I really need to get some fast canopy. Pics are worth a 1000 words!

[ruskinPalms]

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