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Florida Freeze Watch: Jan-Feb 2021


Matthew92

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No frost on truck or yard.  Open field across street some frost. Citrus Park, North Dale area

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Tampa, Florida

Zone - 10a

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34.3F with significant frost in my neighborhood. I watered the dark mulch around my landscape the last couple mornings so hopefully that helped a bit.

The problems, if any, may take awhile to manifest in some cases. Others may jump out at me rather obviously this morning.

Edited by Hombre de Palmas
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38-42F depending on the Wunderground station in my neighborhood. Patchy frost on roofs and open area of grass! No damage to early indicators like bananas. Thankfully we had a couple days to dry out everything out before the near freezing temps arrived.

 

 img_5882-2.jpg

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Heavy frost. Photos don’t do it justice. The pond steam was insane. Definitely the worst frost I’ve seen since 2010. 

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Wow! I went outside around 1:20am for the Falcon 9 launch and was startled by how dead still and clear it was. It's not often that we don't have a breeze rattling the palms and insects chirping. Reminded me of growing up in Wisconsin, the stillness after snow. My two young boys loved seeing the frost on the grass, mind-blown. Hopefully we rebound quickly. 

13 minutes ago, Jimbean said:

I'm a few miles west of where you are at and I saw a pretty good amount of frost:

 

IMG_20210204_074713.jpg

IMG_20210204_074722.jpg

 

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37.0 was my low south of Orlando.  Looked like heavy frost based on what I saw already melting. Coco was already starting to get ratty after this cold winter. Lets see this in a week or 2 after other damage appears. Fingers crossed. 

20210204_085533.jpg

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Instant death for my Cannas and elephant ears. They already turned gray brown. 
 

also noticing severe frost burn on my neighbors new royal palm. Probably the way the fronds were tied up, allowed frost to settle on that top frond. I am hoping that served to protect the heart.

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At my house in west Altamonte Springs/Granada we had heavy frost and it got to 35F. But when I got to Leu Gardens, no frost and it got to 39F here. It was 39F the night before at Leu Gardens but windy.

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Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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38F in my backyard lastnight, no frost. Hoping the best for everyone and your palms!

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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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I have a little bit of a break, I will also note the swing in local temperatures in any given area.  Mine for example are as following taken from weather underground stations:

37.6F, 34F, 35.6F, 41.7F, 32F, 31.8F, and 37F

That's a 10F swing within about two mile radius. 

Edited by Jimbean
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Brevard County, Fl

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26 deg and 29 deg last two nights here. Now looking to get a moderating trend with rain. Freeze threat for all parts of FL Feb 8-9th looks to have disappeared. Models showing possible big cold afterwards, but I'm taking it with a grain of salt. 

One thing I will say is the temperatures seem to be moderating more quickly even after these freezing mornings- possibly due to the higher sun. Here's how quickly things have moderated so far today. 

temps.thumb.JPG.f036f57cc0835a34bd3c7c5e9ec4fd25.JPG

My citrus were just beginning to put out some new growth from the previous warm spell. If this next warmer stretch causes things to leaf out/flower and we do end up getting a solid or hard freeze, the damage to vegetation will be very bad.

That's one thing I've finally figured out with the destruction of the citrus industry in Central FL in the '80's. I had been confused because the ultimate lows experienced with those freezes were what I've experienced up here in the Panhandle and my trees had only moderate to very little damage (in the 17-22 degree range). After further research what I've learned is since Central FL gets much more warm temps between cold outbreaks that when some of those big freezes occur it shocks the vegetation as it is more vulnerable when in active growth. One stark example is in the second of the 1894-1895 freezes which was in February. There had been a warm spell before and the citrus were growing back. The cold froze the sap and caused many of the trunks to literally split apart with what some described as sounding like gunshots overnight.

Edited by Matthew92
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Things went better than expected here. Low's this morning:

Westchase - 36.1f

St. Pete - ~36f

Nokomis - ~39f

I wasn't awake to see if there was any frost here. A quick survey of nearby bananas, papayas, adonidias, etc revealed zero damage so we got lucky. 

Thanks for all the screenshots @Jimbean! It looks like the east coast got it a little worse this time around. 

Edited by RedRabbit
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Westchase | 9b 10a  ◆  Nokomis | 10a  ◆  St. Petersburg | 10a 10b 

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2 minutes ago, NickJames said:

Does this look dead? I could almost cry. Look how burned it is. 

2E204467-C0A4-4115-988A-2352335219C9.jpeg

Royal? Every royal looked like that around me after the 2018 freeze and all recovered rather quickly. 

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Down to 35 here south of Orlando. Pretty significant frost on the North side of my building - frost blankets protecting my pembana + a banana pup was actually almost crunchy when I took them off. No serious damage visible on the teddy bear that was far too large to cover - really holding out for hope that the microclimate saved it from any foliage damage.    

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Former South Florida resident living in the Greater Orlando Area, zone 9b.

Constantly wishing I could still grow zone 10 palms worry-free, but also trying to appease my strange fixation with Washingtonias. 

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17 minutes ago, NickJames said:

 

2E204467-C0A4-4115-988A-2352335219C9.jpeg

Oof - I'm so sorry to see this! Just as @pj_orlando_z9b mentioned, I've heard these recover very quickly once it warms up, so I've got my fingers crossed for you. 

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Former South Florida resident living in the Greater Orlando Area, zone 9b.

Constantly wishing I could still grow zone 10 palms worry-free, but also trying to appease my strange fixation with Washingtonias. 

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26 minutes ago, chad2468emr said:

Oof - I'm so sorry to see this! Just as @pj_orlando_z9b mentioned, I've heard these recover very quickly once it warms up, so I've got my fingers crossed for you. 

Thanks! It’s the big one I planted for my neighbor’s landscaping project 

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29 minutes ago, NickJames said:

Should I go ahead and cut that tie on it so it can absorb more sunlight?

I would. It has been dry (thankfully) but monitor for fungus developing. Some people even proactively put some hydrogen peroxide or treat with copper fungicide in the bud. 

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7 hours ago, NickJames said:

29. Officially the coldest low I’ve ever had at this home. 

I guess now I wait to see what was damaged. 

FDD357BA-9870-4D40-B04C-117CD51B9C3D.jpeg

Hopefully your new royal will have minor cosmetic damage at most.

Edit: I didn't see your most recent post.  Looks untouched.

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2 hours ago, chad2468emr said:

Oof - I'm so sorry to see this! Just as @pj_orlando_z9b mentioned, I've heard these recover very quickly once it warms up, so I've got my fingers crossed for you. 

No worries, that one will recover.

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So the frond that faced the sky is totally torched - but it took the brunt to save the other fronds! I’m so ecstatic.

My cocos - which I heat with propane heater - also looks ok. 

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I am very much an environmentalist at heart, however, there is something satisfying about being able to defy nature, I.e. running a propane heater to keep a Cocos spotless on a frosty night.

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While I cannot rule out issues developing down the road, right now I cannot identify any apparent damage from the two nights of mid-30F temperatures and two mornings of frost, with the second night being fairly significant.

Reminds me that I straddle the Tropics, but the North Woods is barely a 3 day drive away.

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41 minutes ago, TampaPalms said:

Valentine's Day possibly

 

 

1612483811.jpg

Not what you would think of for a Valentine's Day gift lol

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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11 hours ago, NickJames said:

Heavy frost. Photos don’t do it justice. The pond steam was insane. Definitely the worst frost I’ve seen since 2010. 

36A1F9FC-F700-44AF-B553-92D9F21BC24C.jpeg

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Hi nick, you’ve captured in photo what I’ve tried to explain many a time on this forum. Being near a retention pond in central Florida on a cold radiational cooling night is incredibly destructive. The retention ponds do not have enough water volume to keep the temps out of the frost/frozen dew danger zone, yet they pump out copious amounts of water vapor that happily freezes to everything.  I lived on a retention pond in Ruskin and it pretty much caused damage to tropicals every winter I lived there through creating an environment ripe for frost/frozen dew on radiational cooling nights. You do have the advantage of having a more southern exposure to your backyard which will help. The moral of the story is that retention ponds do not create a significant microclimate advantage and may even be detrimental. You need to live on one of the big natural lakes in central Florida, or really near to a large saltwater body of water to get any real microclimate benefit. Otherwise, a dry yard with southern exposure for the win in my humble opinion. 

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Parrish, FL

Zone 9B

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Not that it really matters, but I was hoping to stay in the 50s tonight. Already being sub-50 is rather disappointing. 

4C338B50-5AD2-46B4-8EF8-A98BC1831A1E.jpeg

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5 minutes ago, JJPalmer said:

Not that it really matters, but I was hoping to stay in the 50s tonight. Already being sub-50 is rather disappointing. 

4C338B50-5AD2-46B4-8EF8-A98BC1831A1E.jpeg

This event is rather strange, im sitting at 61F at this hour. But then again, cold front is coming in, warm air getting pulled north.

Edited by JLM
  • Upvote 1

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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37 minutes ago, ruskinPalms said:

Hi nick, you’ve captured in photo what I’ve tried to explain many a time on this forum. Being near a retention pond in central Florida on a cold radiational cooling night is incredibly destructive. The retention ponds do not have enough water volume to keep the temps out of the frost/frozen dew danger zone, yet they pump out copious amounts of water vapor that happily freezes to everything.  I lived on a retention pond in Ruskin and it pretty much caused damage to tropicals every winter I lived there through creating an environment ripe for frost/frozen dew on radiational cooling nights. You do have the advantage of having a more southern exposure to your backyard which will help. The moral of the story is that retention ponds do not create a significant microclimate advantage and may even be detrimental. You need to live on one of the big natural lakes in central Florida, or really near to a large saltwater body of water to get any real microclimate benefit. Otherwise, a dry yard with southern exposure for the win in my humble opinion. 

Absolutely - and the photos didn’t capture it perfectly. That slope across the pond - where the water vapor was blowing over - was total ice. 
 

Needless to say the palms I stealth planted over there were basically disintegrated.  

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@NickJames Keep your chin up, man.  If something passes on, cheer yourself up with a replacement.  :) Don't know if this will be the last rodeo for the winter or one of a few more to come, but 29F hasn't been enough to kill a lot of stuff.  That Royal should make it.

@Jimbean Nice work on all of those screen captures!

Had a range of 35F-39F here at my location.  There was plenty of frost on the roof tops and cars here.  Looked like there might have been some in grass.  There was certainly a lot of frost in Bartow.  Here are the stats from a few weather stations here:

image.png.999d347bbb6cfe1fa47a61f051ac7ac3.png

For those that are into snow events:

IMG_6997.thumb.jpg.e96768e8f815ce8f4689e1ce48545236.jpg

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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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2 hours ago, JLM said:

Not what you would think of for a Valentine's Day gift lol

No! :yay: once again, always aims S and E

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I am not sure how cold it got  at my house. I dont have a weather station or a thermometer. It was somewhere between 32 and 35 based in the area weather station. We did not have any frost either at the house. There was dew on the windshield of the cars.  That was a good sign. 

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Tonight is the last chilly night for the current cold spell: low 40s inland, ~50F near the coast (that's me)

Local weather says the coming week will be 50s-60s to 70s. The winter window is s-l-o-w-l-y closing.

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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1 hour ago, DavidLee said:

Correction. I am not sure how cold it got  at my house. Thursday morning. I dont have a weather station or a thermometer. It was somewhere between 32 to 35 based the local weather station. We did not have any frost either at the house. There was dew on the windshield of the cars.  That was a good sign. 

 

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