Floridian scare #3

[SubTropicRay]

Bill,

Pritchardia can be hardy but not P. pacifica.  Larry might need a palm sock large enough to engulf a car before long.

Ray

[FRITO]

this morning was the coldnest night this winter. a Low of 23.4 recorded on my meter.

I feel fortunate though, no palms look damaged in my yard. a few tropicals got some burn, but i covered nothing. my large pygmy date in a pot shows no damage.

my small one in ground has minor bronzing on old fronds

as for the rest of town:

"A record low temperature of 18 degrees was set this morning at the

Tallahassee Regional Airport at 729 am EST. This breaks the previous

record of 21 set back in 1943. "

I live about 2-3 miles from the airport.  I guess im demoted to 9a this winter now.

[Eric in Orlando]

36F just north of downtown Orlando.

[Alan_Tampa]

at 0400 my cars all had ice on them in generous amounts, some crunchy grass as well.   No dew or ice on plants other than aforementioned grass, which needed mowed anyway.  Have not been home since 0400, will take a gander when I make it back yonder.

mind powers seemed to have worked in a 100 mile radius or so, you each owe me a dollar.

Air temp seemed to be a touch above death cold.  Conductive and exposed surfaces seemed to really want a little ice on them and many got it.  "Real" objects seemed a little out of reach for winter's death dealers.

("real" means things one might cry about if iced to death)

Alan

[www.dadluvsu.com]

date - 2/17/2007appox. 1500 hours

HAH!  Just for a little braggin's sake...I don't know what I was worrying about...    I spent the "couple" minutes it took to cover my shadehouse yesterday... I even burned about a quart of propane up until about midnight to heat things up a bit!  Apparently my efforts were not in vain...  Last I looked at about 10pm last night it was 68º in the greenhouse...  It's 106ºF in there currently and about 88% humidity.  :cool:  Outside temps are 63ºF and 31% humidity.   Yay for being able to cover things!  So after all this bragging, I'm left with this awful empty feeling...  What am I gonna do when these things get big?!!?!  

[BobbyinNY]

So after all this bragging, I'm left with this awful empty feeling...  What am I gonna do when these things get big?!!?!  

In Delray I'm sure you don't have much to worry about......

[www.dadluvsu.com]

How did you make out through last night Babby, no power outages I hope?

[Jimbean]

This is what it looked like at 6:00 AM

[SubTropicRay]

William,

I am facing the same problem within a couple of years.

Ray

[ruskinPalms]

Well, I have to rescind my earlier statement that there was no frost on the grass. There was a very little bit of the white stuff on the st. augustine in the front of the house right at sunrise, none in the back as that I could find. None on the palms or other plants that I could detect either. I did indeed get some damage from this though. Some of this is definitely from this event although some of the more general yellowing and spotting is from several sucky nights in the forty's. I was in 32F land from 5:30am to 7:30 am this morning with an ultimate low of 32.4 at around 6:30am. Pics are worth a thousand words!

My cocos have taken a beating this winter but there is definite damage from this event. These were covered with a sheet - maybe a bad idea, more on that later.

[ruskinPalms]

Looking more centrally:

Wider angle of one:

[ruskinPalms]

Mango covered with sheet then a garbage sack mild burn on the newest leaves on top:

[ruskinPalms]

Maybe a little burning, yellowing of a little foxtail triple:

[ruskinPalms]

Taller foxtails seem untouched at this time:

[ruskinPalms]

By the way the foxtails were uncovered

Royal that laughed at this:

[ruskinPalms]

King palm laughed too and decided to keep opening its new frond:

[ruskinPalms]

King and royal were uncovered

[ruskinPalms]

Various bottles uncovered near to the house.

[ruskinPalms]

Banana looks ratty but seemed to not freeze:

[ruskinPalms]

Papayas look happy enough and got two more ripe fruits off them yesterday:

[ruskinPalms]

papayas and bananas uncovered

[ruskinPalms]

Peak into the neighbor's yard - obviously uncovered...

Adonidias:

Fried banana, baby coconut and little bottle - freezing temps here obviously:

[ruskinPalms]

V. arecina near the house uncovered - ones on south side are more yellow and crapier looking ???

South:

North:

[ruskinPalms]

Wide shout of the house - notice the absolute lack of canopy. This is what lets me get so damn cold. If I had a few live oaks around or other canopy trees I doubt my yard would have went below 35 or 36 this morning. Need canopy fast! Royal Poincianna anyone?

[ruskinPalms]

Gratuitous Bizzie shot just for the hell of it.    The only hardy palms in my landscape besides the big queen in the front.

[ruskinPalms]

So anyway, I am not sure if covering with sheets turned out to be a good idea as the my palms seemed to get burned worse than my neighbor's which were uncovered.

[ruskinPalms]

Actually, I just took a closer peak at the display of my weather station on weather underground and it looks like I hit 32.2F as my ultimate low...

[BS Man about Palms]

(Ray, Tampa @ Feb. 17 2007,10:18)

QUOTE

Bill,

Pritchardia can be hardy but not P. pacifica.  Larry might need a palm sock large enough to engulf a car before long.

Ray

Ray- joined the thread late..didn't note it was a Pacifica.

Hey we were in the mid- 70's today!  

Bill-

Nice King, It looks like a Maxima with that red leaf I suspect!

BS

[spockvr6]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Feb. 17 2007,10:46)

QUOTE

Oh yes, based on what I saw of our last freeze event, I think you'll be suprised how much cold Pritchardias can take!

I have been with mine so far.  I know that pacifica is not the hardiest of the genus, but mine has certainly gotten tougher with age and size.

Its still looks fine after last nights cold.  The only thing I noted was that the absolute lowest leaf (which was browning out before the cold due to age) has browned alot more since after the cold.  But, other than that, all the other leaves look no different than they did at this time last night.

But, Ill keep watching this palm and see what happens.

[spockvr6]

(Alan_Tampa @ Feb. 17 2007,14:39)

QUOTE

at 0400 my cars all had ice on them in generous amounts, some crunchy grass as well.  

Alan-

It is odd that dewpoints were so much obviously higher over there than here.  The air here was bone dry(dewpoints around 19-20F)!  I could not find a leaf in my yard this AM with any amount of moisture on it be it in solid or liquid form.

As mentioned previously, I physically measured 29F at ground level, but there was no moisture on the grass and thus no frost.   In fact, there wasnt even any frost on rooftops on my street and I am 1000% sure that surface was far below freezing.

I also measured the surface temp of the roof of my wife's car in the driveway.  With an air temp of 34F, the roof was 22F!

[SoLando]

Next Saturday's forcast - 83/65. Can't wait till it feels like FLORIDA again! I miss the humidity..my skin is SO DRY!

[spockvr6]

(spockvr6 @ Feb. 17 2007,23:37)

QUOTE

(BS @ Man about Palms,Feb. 17 2007,10:46)

QUOTE

Oh yes, based on what I saw of our last freeze event, I think you'll be suprised how much cold Pritchardias can take!

I have been with mine so far.  I know that pacifica is not the hardiest of the genus, but mine has certainly gotten tougher with age and size.

Its still looks fine after last nights cold.  The only thing I noted was that the absolute lowest leaf (which was browning out before the cold due to age) has browned alot more since after the cold.  But, other than that, all the other leaves look no different than they did at this time last night.

But, Ill keep watching this palm and see what happens.

Here are some pics of the Prichardia as of this afternoon.

Overall photo--

Closeup of newest growth which appears undamaged at the current time---

Closup of oldest leaf which clearly has cold damage---

[SubTropicRay]

More fun and excitement tonight.

[spockvr6]

(Ray, Tampa @ Feb. 18 2007,12:29)

QUOTE

More fun and excitement tonight.

For sure!

But, these winds are supposed to stay up, so hopefully well fare fine. Looks like 36-38F though.

[ZoneTenNut]

Larry,

That is a beautiful Pritchardia and looks to have weathered the cold very well. I'm thinking I need to get one of those.

We've got stiff cold dry NW winds here today. Tonight is going to be another one to really watch with wind chill advisory issued for palm beach county.

Roger

[spockvr6]

Roger-

Ive been very pleased with it, especially with regard to cold.  

There is no doubt this thing is cold sensitive, but it has made it through a couple of winters so far and has grown fantastically.  I will have to try and find of pic of its size when I bought it (but fear I dont have one as I lost about a thousand photos when my computer crashed about a year ago).

However, I will say for sure that this palm does look much much better in the heat of summer.  There are no semi-ragged ends to the medium aged leaves and the palm color is different.  It is definitely a darker and much glossier deep green in summer.

But, most palms are like this to some degree in winter anyway.    But, I suppose this one just shows it more since there is so much leaf surface (the leaves are bigger than they appear in the pics).

[ZoneTenNut]

Here's what we have to look forward to tonight and tomorrow AM.  

Wind Chill Advisory

/O.NEW.KMFL.WC.Y.0002.070219T0500Z- 070219T1400Z/ PALM BEACH EASTERN- INCLUDING THE CITY OF...WEST PALM BEACH 451 AM EST SUN FEB 18 2007

...WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 9 AM EST MONDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIAMI HAS ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 9 AM EST MONDAY.

TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO DROP TO THE MID 30S TO AROUND 40 OVER METROPOLITAN AREAS OF PALM BEACH COUNTY TONIGHT. IN ADDITION... NORTHWEST WINDS OF 10 TO 15 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS ARE EXPECTED. THESE LOW TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH THESE WIND SPEEDS...WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILL READINGS FROM AROUND 30 TO THE MID 30S FOR A FEW HOURS...ESPECIALLY THROUGH THE EARLY HOURS ON MONDAY MORNING.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. PROLONGED EXPOSURE CAN RESULT IN HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF VENTURING OUTDOORS...MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.

[spockvr6]

(ZoneTenNut @ Feb. 18 2007,12:47)

QUOTE

We've got stiff cold dry NW winds here today. Tonight is going to be another one to really watch with wind chill advisory issued for palm beach county.

Same here......gusts from the NW to 25 mph at my house.

If this keeps up all night (im pretty sure it wont), then tonight will be a literal "breeze"  

[SubTropicRay]

Larry,

I heard more radiational cooling tonight.  The annoying winds will die down to allow the annoying frost its fun.

Ray

[spockvr6]

(Ray, Tampa @ Feb. 18 2007,12:55)

QUOTE

Larry,

I heard more radiational cooling tonight.  The annoying winds will die down to allow the annoying frost its fun.

Ray

I am hoping (perahps foolishly) that being over here will allow some NW winds to remain rolling in through much of the night.  The current hourly forecast from NWS shows this (fopr whatever that is worth)!

But, my spot almost always dies down wind-wise at night no matter what the forecast says