Miami Beach Microclimate

[bubba]

Back to Micro-climate. Feb 8, 2016 was our cold day. PBIA reported a high of 67F and a low of 44F. The low temperatures on the same day on the PB barrier island ranged from 48F to 51F.High temperatures averaged 68F. Miami Beach reported a high of 65F with a low of 51F on Feb.8,2016. Ocean waters at Lake Worth were recorded at 73F. Virginia Key waters at 69F on the same date.

It is funny when you think about it. This creates headlines in our newspaper. If LA checks in at 68F/51F during the winter, do they have headlines?

[Walt]

On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2015‎ ‎8‎:‎01‎:‎18‎, bubba said:

I appreciate the well articulated points. I also believe at the end of the day latitude is the  most important variable (See Breadfruit tree). However, I do believe that microclimates exist  as a result of distance from the warmth of the Gulfstream.

 My research  shows the furthest Eastern point in Florida is actually located at the extreme Northern point  of the Palm Beach Inlet.  From my own observations, this is born out by the locations  of the numerous large  commercial transport boats that wait in line to unload or load at the Port of Palm Beach. They  locate the edge of the stream and moor in that position until  they are summoned. Fortunately, they no longer are allowed to  clean their engines, which resulted in tremendous amounts of tar on the beach. This was a real problem and one of the Town's Mayors  finally called a halt  to this behavior by imposing extremely high fines  on the perpetrator's responsible.

 

My point  regarding this observation is that these commercial transport boats are normally approximately 2 miles  from shore. Accordingly, this is my gauge for the Gulfstream location. 

I know the Gulfstream location fluctuates.  However I found the following estimate of the location of the Gulfstream on May 24, 2006 at various spots:

            Port Canaveral-28 miles

             Sebastian Inlet - 24 miles 

              Fort Pierce Inlet-  16 miles 

               Lake Worth Pier-  4 miles 

               Port Everglades - 9 miles

               Fowey Rocks-  7 miles 

                Ocean Reef -  15 miles 

  The Lake Worth Pier is the closest position  measured to the most eastern point in the state of Florida and it is substantially  West of the Palm Beach Inlet.  Unfortunately  weather records for temperature do not exist for this location (Eastern Palm Beach barrier island) but the temperatures that  were posted are generally not applicable. Specifically, Juno Beach is  substantially north and at this point, the Gulfstream is moving further out.  At Jupiter Island,large amounts of tropical palms and foliage are planted but are substantially stunted compared to identical palms and foliage in  this area.    

 Temperatures reported at  Palm Beach International Airport are reported  from a northern and  completely unblocked cold hole.  This constitutes the weather reports for approximately the last 20 years. Before that time, the temperatures  were taken at an area located near the Fairgrounds  and responsible for low temperatures that one would expect  in the western outlying areas.

 Once again, it is not my intention to claim that  latitude does not constitute the overwhelming and most important factor.  However, the first  substantial group of coconut palms arrived in Palm Beach  as a result of the sinking of the Providencia, which had 20,000 coconuts on board that washed ashore in 1879.  Beyond that, anomalies exist such as the 50 foot Areca catechu at ANSG,  which appears to be the largest in Florida.  The specimen at Fairchild is approximately 22 feet tall according to their website. 

 One other additional phenomena not mentioned is the effect of Lake Okeechobee on those NW fronts  that have been discussed. I am  personally aware of microclimates that exist near the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Pahokee that I have heard described by a very long time resident, who now has passed. He was an outstanding farmer, who took meticulous notes on weather and with particularity cold weather. His house was located on Bascom Point Road and backed up on Lake Okeechobee. He swore he had never recorded a temperature below freezing and this was after the infamous 1989 freeze.  Interestingly, in both 2010 and 2012, after a severe freeze had killed all corn in the state down to Homestead,  his farm was the only known source of Florida sweet corn those two years in January.  I do believe that the location of Lake Okeechobee does have an effect that provides an additional shield  to the Arctic cold fronts that hit Florida but do not reach South Florida with the same severity.

As far as interior Florida is concerned, and at least for my area (after 18 years of empirical observation and measurement, and consultation of local weather stations and friends with personal weather stations) elevation (Lake Wales Ridge) and bodies of water (large lakes) are far more important than latitude. Now, I'm only talking for my area, not the east coast or west coast of Florida.

I have a buddy (retired supervisory engineer from an instrument calibration lab in Miami, who lived in Ft. Lauderdale since the early '60s and moved to Lake June Pointe (on Lake Placid in the Winter, a 3,504 acre lake, on the outskirts of the town of Lake Placid) about 11 years ago. He and I have compared winter low nighttime temperature for the past 10 years. Generally, on radiational cooling nights he runs up to 14 degrees warmer than at my place. During the coldest night in December of 2010 (when we had that horrible 11-day cold spell), his low temperature was warmer than Homestead. On that coldest day I recorded 20.8 degrees while my buddy recorded 32 degrees (his all-time low in the 11 years he's lived there). In February of 2006 I had a radiational cooling night where my low was 27 degrees, my buddy recorded 41 degrees! I also had placed a Halsey-Taylor lo-hi thermometer on a vacant lakeside lot the entire winter of 2005-06, and I also recorded 41 degrees that same day.

And as far as elevation (one thing the coasts don't have), my wife left our house one morning and her car thermometer read 31 degrees. She drove up the long hill to US 27 (which runs on the Lake Wales Ridge) and when she ascended the top her thermometer read 39 degrees. It's always warmer on radiational cooling nights on top of the hill due to air inversion.

But to back up your late friend's claim that it didn't freeze in Pahokee, check the graphics below that I took off my computer back on the morning of December 4, 2010 (at the start of that protracted cold spell). Note the lake effect (thermal influence of the relatively warm lake water) S.E. of the lake. I've driven around the lake on Rt. 441 and there's no doubt of the lake effect (from the flora I see growing there).

 

[Walt]

Below is another graphic for the University of Florida's Florida Automated Weather Network (FAWN) weather station at Homestead, Florida. The graphic shows the air temperature difference between 60 centimeters and 10 meters above the ground. This was on December 8, 2010 at 9:30 P.M., and the air temperature difference was 10 degrees! It was 38 degrees at 60 cm and 48 degrees at 10 meters due to air stratification.

I know back during the December 2010 cold spell, the town of Lake Placid (at elevation) actually fared slightly better than lakeside locations. The reason, I surmise, is that after 11 straight days of cold the lake waters cooled significantly, therefore giving less thermal effect.  But up in town it still got the advantage of the air inversion thermal effect. I know none of the coconut palms up in town were killed (but were hurt), but some of the coconut palms here and there around the lakes were.

 

[Walt]

All this talk about the Gulf Stream reminds me of my thinking back when I was in the navy stationed in Charleston, South Carolina. The time was February 1, 1969, and my ship was leaving Charleston for Springboard '69 (training off Puerto Rico). We casted off at 8 a.m. The weather (estimated by me) was in the high 30s, and it was overcast and just plain nasty. We steamed out directly east from Charleston, and I'd say after an hour or so it warmed up at least 15 degrees. I believe this was because we were getting close to the Gulf Stream. We steamed along that day, probably turning south. The next morning I came out on the weather deck to head to the chow hall and it was really nice, kind of warm and humid. I looked out at the very blue water and could see flying fish. Just where we were latitude wise I don't know, but I guess were were somewhere off the coast of Florida.

The reason I bring this up is that I've been checking Atlantic surface water temperature off the east coast, and once off the coast 20-30 miles the sea water temperature is well into the 70s, even up around 35 degrees or more latitude. I know the North Carolina Outer Banks are rated zone 9a. I oft times see nighttime lows in the Outer Banks warmer than Charleston, S.C. (not all the time, but often). I just wonder how much farther east into the Atlantic (if there was an island) the zone would be 10 or higher?

Below is a link for the Diamond Shoals Buoy off the Outer Banks. Note that it is at 35.006 north latitude, and the surface water temperature is averaging 73-74 degrees.

Notice in the second linked graphic (showing the Gulf Stream current) how relatively close it comes to the Outer Banks. I would venture to say that if the Outer Banks had extended farther out, say another 10 miles to the east (and assuming the Gulf Stream was 10 miles closer) the eastern most Outer Banks would be zone 10.

http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/buoy/41025.html?MR=1

http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/newNCOM/NCOM_GulfStream_currents.shtml

 

 

[Yunder Wækraus]

13 hours ago, Walt said:

As far as interior Florida is concerned, and at least for my area (after 18 years of empirical observation and measurement, and consultation of local weather stations and friends with personal weather stations) elevation (Lake Wales Ridge) and bodies of water (large lakes) are far more important than latitude. Now, I'm only talking for my area, not the east coast or west coast of Florida.

I have a buddy (retired supervisory engineer from an instrument calibration lab in Miami, who lived in Ft. Lauderdale since the early '60s and moved to Lake June Pointe (on Lake Placid in the Winter, a 3,504 acre lake, on the outskirts of the town of Lake Placid) about 11 years ago. He and I have compared winter low nighttime temperature for the past 10 years. Generally, on radiational cooling nights he runs up to 14 degrees warmer than at my place. During the coldest night in December of 2010 (when we had that horrible 11-day cold spell), his low temperature was warmer than Homestead. On that coldest day I recorded 20.8 degrees while my buddy recorded 32 degrees (his all-time low in the 11 years he's lived there). In February of 2006 I had a radiational cooling night where my low was 27 degrees, my buddy recorded 41 degrees! I also had placed a Halsey-Taylor lo-hi thermometer on a vacant lakeside lot the entire winter of 2005-06, and I also recorded 41 degrees that same day.

And as far as elevation (one thing the coasts don't have), my wife left our house one morning and her car thermometer read 31 degrees. She drove up the long hill to US 27 (which runs on the Lake Wales Ridge) and when she ascended the top her thermometer read 39 degrees. It's always warmer on radiational cooling nights on top of the hill due to air inversion.

But to back up your late friend's claim that it didn't freeze in Pahokee, check the graphics below that I took off my computer back on the morning of December 4, 2010 (at the start of that protracted cold spell). Note the lake effect (thermal influence of the relatively warm lake water) S.E. of the lake. I've driven around the lake on Rt. 441 and there's no doubt of the lake effect (from the flora I see growing there).

 

In the upper map of the peninsula, can you tell whether the barrier island is a darker shade of green than Palm Bay? I can't get a zoomed image. Also, I find the lower map's image of Pahokee as more moderate than even Clewiston and Belle Glade very interesting. It really shows that the worst cold fronts generally move Southeast, and thus latitude is less of a predictor of absolute lows than is the raw distance between the origination of cold air and its final destination and whether that cold air traveled over water or land before arriving.

[Eric in Orlando]

On 1/4/2016, 11:50:07, bubba said:

Interesting observations. Curly Tailed lizards (Leiocephalus carinatus) are a staple in PB and in fact were introduced in  Western Palm Beach County (Glades) in the 1940s from the  Bahamas to control insect pests in the 1940s common to sugarcane.  They have spread South to  Broward and Monroe County. Strangely, Dade  County has had another subspecies  since the mid-1930s. They have spread north to Martin County in 1994  but have not been observed in St. Lucie or Indian River County. They  have been observed in Brevard County in 2002. In Collier County, they are limited to Chokoloskee.  They appear prehistoric but are courageous and hold their ground. 

 Another oddity  I uncovered in this research has to do with the strange paradigm of the Australian Melaleuca tree  and the lake Okeechobee Pond Apple tree (Annoma glabra).  In the late 1800s, the South of Lake Okeechobee was  covered by a 150,000 acre Pond Apple forest. The Pond Apple forest was  virtually removed completely by farmers who discovered black gold ( Yunder can you say muck). Farms took  over the mystical Pond Apple forests  that were so thick  that they barely allowed sunshine according to  Lawrence Will. In 1912, the Pond Apple was introduced to Australia as a graph for other Annomas. This  did not prove to be the best move and they are now a very problematic invasive pest for the wetlands of tropical Queensland up to Darwin.

 At nearly the same time, the  Australian Melaleuca tree was introduced to South Florida initially as a sought after ornamental. In the early 1940's the U.S. Corp. of Army Engineers introduced the Melaleuca to the Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee and then proceeded with an aggressive plan to scatter millions of Melaleuca seeds by airplane throughout the Everglades with the aim of drying the swamp. Needless to say, this ill advised adventure gifted South Florida with an unending supply of noxious paper trees without any apparent positive result.

Next the Iguanas...

 

 

Ironic that the Paperbark Melaleuca that is invasive in Florida has overtaken the native Pond-Apple habitat but in Australia where the Paperbark Melaleuca is native the Pond-Apple has become invasive and crowds out the Melaleuca. They have swapped continents!

 

 

 

[Walt]

1 hour ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

In the upper map of the peninsula, can you tell whether the barrier island is a darker shade of green than Palm Bay? I can't get a zoomed image. Also, I find the lower map's image of Pahokee as more moderate than even Clewiston and Belle Glade very interesting. It really shows that the worst cold fronts generally move Southeast, and thus latitude is less of a predictor of absolute lows than is the raw distance between the origination of cold air and its final destination and whether that cold air traveled over water or land before arriving.

Due to the poor resolution and overall size of the graphic, I can't tell. But bookmark the below link and check their graphic each night, and especially on radiational cooling nights (little or no wind and clear sky):

http://www.winknews.com/weather/

Out here in Highlands County we have many lakes. From my observation the S.E. shores of lakes are the warmest because the coldest fronts always blow from N.W.  (across the lakes) to the S.E. So the colder air is tempered some has it blows across the lake and picks up some rising heat from the water. But on radiational cooling nights (which are probably 95% of the coldest nights) there's not much difference which side (360 degrees around) of the lake you are on. 

About one mile from me is Lake Clay. On the S.E. end there is a home owner on 13 acres. He has old royal palms, huge Ficus benghalensis trees and other exotic trees planted there. His wife let me walk the property about 12 years ago (on New Years Day 2004). She told me her husband's father planted everything back in the 1950s. So they've stood the test of time and clearly benefited from the lake effect.

 

[Yunder Wækraus]

22 hours ago, Walt said:

Due to the poor resolution and overall size of the graphic, I can't tell. But bookmark the below link and check their graphic each night, and especially on radiational cooling nights (little or no wind and clear sky):

http://www.winknews.com/weather/

Out here in Highlands County we have many lakes. From my observation the S.E. shores of lakes are the warmest because the coldest fronts always blow from N.W.  (across the lakes) to the S.E. So the colder air is tempered some has it blows across the lake and picks up some rising heat from the water. But on radiational cooling nights (which are probably 95% of the coldest nights) there's not much difference which side (360 degrees around) of the lake you are on. 

About one mile from me is Lake Clay. On the S.E. end there is a home owner on 13 acres. He has old royal palms, huge Ficus benghalensis trees and other exotic trees planted there. His wife let me walk the property about 12 years ago (on New Years Day 2004). She told me her husband's father planted everything back in the 1950s. So they've stood the test of time and clearly benefited from the lake effect.

 

I have a cousin who works in the orange industry who lives in Lake Placid. I'll have to ask him whether he's noticed warmer microclimates along the edges of some lakes in the area.

[Walt]

50 minutes ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

I have a cousin who works in the orange industry who lives in Lake Placid. I'll have to ask him whether he's noticed warmer microclimates along the edges of some lakes in the area.

The citrus industry will flat tell you that lakeside locations of groves and groves on high ground always (without exception) run warmer and with less frost than low-ground areas not in proximity to lakes. Bev Cavender, a now deceased citrus grove owner (here in Lake Placid) told me that 15 or more years ago. But I know it for a fact as I've done my own measurement testing.

Just last night my wife was coming home from work at 10:30 p.m. She was on US 27 (high ground in Lake Placid) and turned east on Lagrow Ave. to come to our property. As she started to descend the hill (Lagrow Ave is basically a hill) her car thermometer read 49 degrees. When she got to the bottom of the hill (about 3/4 mile long) the car thermometer read 41 degrees!

Last night my low here was 35 degrees, but up in town at the Lake Placid Elementary School (which has a WeatherSTEM station) the low was only 43 degrees (8 degrees warmer). Once again proving the benefit of high ground and the air inversion effect.

Lake Placid Elementary School weather station (part of Weather Underground network): http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KFLLAKEP12

Another WU reporting station down in Venus reported 32 degrees last night.

 

[Yunder Wækraus]

3 hours ago, Walt said:

The citrus industry will flat tell you that lakeside locations of groves and groves on high ground always (without exception) run warmer and with less frost than low-ground areas not in proximity to lakes. Bev Cavender, a now deceased citrus grove owner (here in Lake Placid) told me that 15 or more years ago. But I know it for a fact as I've done my own measurement testing.

Just last night my wife was coming home from work at 10:30 p.m. She was on US 27 (high ground in Lake Placid) and turned east on Lagrow Ave. to come to our property. As she started to descend the hill (Lagrow Ave is basically a hill) her car thermometer read 49 degrees. When she got to the bottom of the hill (about 3/4 mile long) the car thermometer read 41 degrees!

Last night my low here was 35 degrees, but up in town at the Lake Placid Elementary School (which has a WeatherSTEM station) the low was only 43 degrees (8 degrees warmer). Once again proving the benefit of high ground and the air inversion effect.

Lake Placid Elementary School weather station (part of Weather Underground network): http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KFLLAKEP12

Another WU reporting station down in Venus reported 32 degrees last night.

 

If I had some spare cash, I'd snag this property and plant it with 10a test plants :-) http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Lake-Placid-FL/pmf,pf_pt/62631567_zpid/18919_rid/any_days/27.312771,-81.376103,27.307642,-81.385158_rect/16_zm/

[Walt]

1 hour ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

If I had some spare cash, I'd snag this property and plant it with 10a test plants :-) http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Lake-Placid-FL/pmf,pf_pt/62631567_zpid/18919_rid/any_days/27.312771,-81.376103,27.307642,-81.385158_rect/16_zm/

That lot is directly across the street from my elderly parent's (more elderly than myself) house in the Lake June Pointe subdivision. That subdivision is a solid zone 10b due to the lake. That lot is on relatively high ground and sloped down to the lake. The buddy I mentioned in an above post lives just up the street from that lot and on the same side of the road. The same lot on the lake side goes for three times the price, or more. So, my buddy says he lives on the poor side of the street.

My parent's lot is 1-1/4 acre and on the lake. That is the lot I placed the Halsey-Taylor thermometer on (before they built on it nine years ago) all winter long and the lowest it got down to was 41 degrees (February 14th, 2006, what I called the St. Valentine's Day massacre because it really hurt my tender palms and tropical plants). My yard saw 27 degrees and heavy frost, just several miles away.

I think there is another vacant lot of .99 acre just inside the code number controlled access gate entering the gated subdivision. There's lots of fruiting coconut palms in that subdivision. They did incur some frond damage back in December of 2010, but that's the only time they've ever been cold damaged.

 

In the Google aerial photo below, my parent's house is the one with horseshoe shaped driveway, lined with Archontophoenix alexandrae palms that I grew and planted for them -- for a nominal fee, of course. The lot in your post backs to an orange grove. In one of the ad photos you can see part of my parent's house.

https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3107853,-81.3805089,93m/data=!3m1!1e3

[Yunder Wækraus]

3 hours ago, Walt said:

That lot is directly across the street from my elderly parent's (more elderly than myself) house in the Lake June Pointe subdivision. That subdivision is a solid zone 10b due to the lake. That lot is on relatively high ground and sloped down to the lake. The buddy I mentioned in an above post lives just up the street from that lot and on the same side of the road. The same lot on the lake side goes for three times the price, or more. So, my buddy says he lives on the poor side of the street.

My parent's lot is 1-1/4 acre and on the lake. That is the lot I placed the Halsey-Taylor thermometer on (before they built on it nine years ago) all winter long and the lowest it got down to was 41 degrees (February 14th, 2006, what I called the St. Valentine's Day massacre because it really hurt my tender palms and tropical plants). My yard saw 27 degrees and heavy frost, just several miles away.

I think there is another vacant lot of .99 acre just inside the code number controlled access gate entering the gated subdivision. There's lots of fruiting coconut palms in that subdivision. They did incur some frond damage back in December of 2010, but that's the only time they've ever been cold damaged.

 

In the Google aerial photo below, my parent's house is the one with horseshoe shaped driveway, lined with Archontophoenix alexandrae palms that I grew and planted for them -- for a nominal fee, of course. The lot in your post backs to an orange grove. In one of the ad photos you can see part of my parent's house.

https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3107853,-81.3805089,93m/data=!3m1!1e3

I'm fascinated with mircroclimates like these :-) I dare say that's the cheapest land with a chance at 20+ years in zone 10a or above to be had in the entire USA!

[Walt]

20 minutes ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

I'm fascinated with mircroclimates like these :-) I dare say that's the cheapest land with a chance at 20+ years in zone 10a or above to be had in the entire USA!

Years ago I was discussing freezes with my dog veterinarian who lived on Lake Placid water front, and he told me he had a coconut palm for 12 years before it was killed by the December of 1989 advective freeze. Since that freeze there hasn't been an advective freeze that killed coconut palms. However, the 11-day cold spell of December of 2010 did kill some coconut palms, and all coconut palms were hurt. Since the coldest night of that string of 11 days (according to my buddy who live by the lake) was 32 degrees,  I think it was the prolonged cold, rather than one night at 32 degrees (for just minutes at day break) that killed the coconut palms.

[Matthew92]

On 11/30/2015, 11:37:48, palmsOrl said:

Those exceedingly rare deep freezes that fully affect all of SE FL are definitely a consideration for anywhere on the mainland.  26F at Fairchild's would be absolutely devastating!  It would be a massive dying of epic proportion for the vast majority of the palms and other plants there.  Cold this severe must be about a twice per century event for the areas discussed.  I would say once per century, not the extreme record lows in extreme SE FL did not all occur during the same event.  But temperatures in the mid 20s for Miami, especially Coral Gables would have to be a roughly once in 100 year event.

I would like to see how many times Miami itself (not cities and suburbs like Homestead that are further inland and away from the urban heat islands) went below 30F in the twentieth century.  This would provide a good general idea of how often hard freezes affect deep SE FL.

The barrier island (Miami Beach) has never officially recorded a freeze (below 32F).  I would guess that once in 100 years or so, the barrier island as a whole could see a night of 30-31F (a very light freeze), even if such an event has not yet been recorded.  With all the added heat from urbanization in the area though, this might be expected to occur less frequently than every 100 years.  I'm just speculating here.  Bottom line, I would never worry about cold damage if I lived on the barrier island and would accept that ultra tropicals may be killed or severely damaged by temperatures in the low to mid 30s a few times a century.  Other than that, I wouldn't really consider it as a factor in my tropical gardening selections and landscaping plans.  Similar, but just a tad lower in temps than the FL Keys.

My Dad who grew up in South Miami from '57 to 75' said he remembers there being frost on the ground and having trouble staying warm inside their un-heated house. (probably sometime in the 60's)

[Walt]

Somewhat ironically, the coldest lows in Highlands County are not due to advective freezes, but radiational freezes. I think the low for the December 1989 advective freeze (officially) was 19 degrees. But the record official low for Highlands County is 13 degrees (on two occasions) , recorded at Archbold Biological Station that has a NOAA weather station. This was on January 5, 2001 (the latest tying all-time low record).

I remember the morning well, as it wiped out my young palm and tropical plant garden. I recorded 22 degrees on the south side of my house (10 feet out), but I believe it was a couple of degrees lower farther out on my property, and in a lower location, as I've checked these locations years later during freezes and they always run colder.

The below coconut palm is the first one I ever saw in Highlands County, located at a fish camp at Lake Istokpoga. The palm is about 400 feet from the water. It was fried by the radiational freeze of January 2001. Of course, being near the lake it surely didn't see the teens like at Archbold Biological Station. But it survived and is still there to this day.

Same palm in 2008:

 

 

[bubba]

Walt, The information you put forward in this Post is a monumental testament to your knowledge.  We are privileged to be recipients  of your long-term research and conclusions. 

[Walt]

3 hours ago, bubba said:

Walt, The information you put forward in this Post is a monumental testament to your knowledge.  We are privileged to be recipients  of your long-term research and conclusions. 

Your welcome, Bubba. The subject of microclimates and all factors that influence wintertime nighttime low temperatures always intrigued me ever since I got a reality lesson on the morning of January 5, 2001, when I experienced my first and worst radiational cooling morning. My property (on lower ground) was wiped out by freeze and frost. I just assumed all of Lake Placid would be the same. But I drove up into town (one the ridge), and the farther I drove up the hill the freeze/frost damage became less and less. I got up into town and I honestly saw no damage, same close in on the lakes. For instance, my big white bird of paradise (a zone 9b plant) was totally fried, yet a large traveler's palm (a zone 10a plant) up in town wasn't hurt at all. That's when I started studying the physics of the situation.