Florida Winter 2022-2023

[Estlander]

2 hours ago, Matthew92 said:

Got colder at the beaches here than what might have been expected given there wasn’t much wind. I think it’s just the potency of this arctic air mass and how entrenched it is in comparison to our less deep and more transient cold snaps of the last 4 winters. I will be very interested to see how this event (when it’s all said and done) affects all the zone 9 & 10 palm/plants there at the coast. 

 

Surprised to see 25 & 26 in your screenshot for for the Destin area. Do you happen to have a zoom-in map?
Turned out to be a low of 27F/-2.8C for me. 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Estlander

[kinzyjr]

31 minutes ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

NWS mentioned this. They even used phrase 'kept temps from crashing' which makes me wonder how low temps could have gone. 

I can say with near certainty that the Lakeland airport would have matched the 1989 freeze with a low of 21F.  The dewpoint was pegged at 21F before the station stopped reporting at 11:50 PM last night.  The dew point is currently in the mid-teens.

The airport recorded 28F at 6:50AM this morning, so my location did hold a few extra degrees during day 2 due to elevation.  The heat island here was very much muted as well, with most stations there in the 29F-30F range.

31 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

30.0f this morning on the primary thermometer and 29.7f yesterday. At this point, I expect minimal damage when I get back in a couple weeks (assuming I come back?).

Ended up with 30F again this morning.  It went below freezing here at ~4AM.  There might be some damage from that here from cold spotting on Veitchia, Carpentaria, Adonidia and Cocos.  I did keep a few strap leafed coconuts completely uncovered, so they'll be the canaries in the coal mine.  The Fiji Dwarf now has a good test for foliage hardiness as I only wrapped the growing point.

LOL at "assuming I come back" - yeah, it's kind of hard to justify coming back from some places.

7 minutes ago, D. Morrowii said:

I just went to get more propane for my makeshift greenhouse heater and had sleet and a few flakes. Merritt Island

Snow and sleet are against the law in Merritt Island.

[pj_orlando_z9b]

1 hour ago, D. Morrowii said:

I just went to get more propane for my makeshift greenhouse heater and had sleet and a few flakes. Merritt Island

Who is open today that sells propane? Thats cool you saw some flakes on Christmas. 

[Jimbean]

1PM in Miami and it's still in the 40's

[redant]

My place is usually colder than a lot of Jupiter,  I'm far from most heat islands with Johanthan Dickenson state park just northwest of me. Yet yesterday when I woke it was 46 via 3 thermometers attached to the A/C units and the 1 on the pool unit, all in agreement. Today Christmas they showed 45. I'll consider this a Christmas gift.

Edited December 25, 2022 by redant

[Jimbean]

34 minutes ago, redant said:

My place is usually colder than a lot of Jupiter,  I'm far from most heat islands with Johanthan Dickenson state park just northwest of me. Yet yesterday when I woke it was 46 via 3 thermometers attached to the A/C units and the 1 on the pool unit, all in agreement. Today Christmas they showed 45. I'll consider this a Christmas gift.

That coconut palm you gave me will hopefully pull through but it's not going to like the 34.5 and the 32.5 lows I just had. 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Jimbean

[D. Morrowii]

2 hours ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

Who is open today that sells propane? Thats cool you saw some flakes on Christmas. 

Walgreens is where I went but I think some gas stations are open that also carry the swap tanks. 

[TampaPalms]

30° two nights in a row here in North Tampa. Some leaves of the areca palms look bronzed. Foxtail looks great at this point. Queens of course bulletproof. Ti plants look great as well with no bronzing. The wind was up both nights and cloud cover as well. Tonight should be between 34 to 36° hopefully no frost. My shaded hibiscus looks unscathed but the one in the open looks curled, probably fried.

[kinzyjr]

2 hours ago, Jimbean said:

1PM in Miami and it's still in the 40's

The commentators for the Dolphins vs. Packers game talked about it in comparison with the game in 1989 mentioned by @Palmarum.  Places second to that game for low game time temperature on Christmas for Miami. 

Your Jamaican Tall from @redant should be fine with some leaf damage.  Look for little streaks that are an off-color dark green and you'll know where to expect damage when it warms up going toward New Year's.

[pj_orlando_z9b]

Looking back on forecasts, ICON was almost spot on for my area of Orlando. Just missed high by 3 degrees today.  This forecast model was from 12/23. Euro was close too and GFS way off (as always).

I was 45/31 and 45/30

 

[ruskinPalms]

36 forested for tonight by NWS. So far they have only been off by one degree colder each night. Pretty good forecasting overall. Took a quick look at the yard when I got home this evening.  Nothing looks overtly damaged yet. By the way, WaWa was open at 5:00 am this morning in hillsborough county. Maybe they are still open if in need of propane etc. 

[pj_orlando_z9b]

Pic of sleet on car roof with coconut in Merritt Island this morning.

 

[D. Morrowii]

My low ended up being 31.8 on the 16’ tall pole in the back yard.

I protected a bunch of stuff but not everything. I sort of enclosed the patio pergola with twin wall plastic sheets, outdoor curtains and clear vinyl tarps. My container empire has outgrown the tiny garage so I had to try something else. I was also getting tired of dragging everything in before every hurricane, bad storm or cold front. 

I put a tank mounted propane heater inside with a box fan on low and the “enclosure stayed 18-20 deg above ambient. Inside are several 10b plus palms including some Seychelles regulars that would have hated this weekend.  

Temps never got below 50.7 so I consider it a success! 

[Jimbean]

I was talking with my relatives from Port St. John, Rockledge, and Cocoa Beach, and they said they got a good amount of sleet this morning.  My grandma said that it reminded her of 1983.

[JLM]

As soon as i wake up tomorrow morning and the temperatures rises above freezing, these wraps are coming off my more cold hardy stuff. Expecting 22F tonight.

My Queen in the front yard looks the worst out of any palm. All leaflets are folded, im not sure what kind of color changing has happened up to this point. Its honestly sad to see.

And by the way, not to sound any alarms, but we could see a cold end of January. Until then though, enjoy the warmth for the next few weeks.

Edited December 26, 2022 by JLM

[NickJames]

My temp just rose 5 degrees so I’m happy. LOL. 

[JLM]

 

[JLM]

Something that i love about infrared satellite is that if its cold enough, you can see the cold air on satellite. Right now across northern FL, you can see where the warm and cold spots are right now, with colder being represented by lighter grays and warmer being represented by darker grays. Of course, you can see the clouds across the Peninsula in the purples, blues, greens, and yellows. Any white surrounding those colors are clouds.



This morning, it was so cold to our north that it showed purple! 

[JLM]

Im not very appreciative of the fact that i have already reached my forecasted low of 23F for the night.

[Brian M]

Final tally for lows the last 3 nights in Jax Beach. 25.2, 25.5, 28.8.

Saturday night and last night was colder than forecasted by 2-3 degrees.

Probably a bit of error in my thermometer but WU is currently saying it's 33 for the zip code when all of the stations around me are reporting around 30. Just thought it was weird since it's not a huge area. There's not much geographical change other than if your closer to the Atlantic or Intercoastal...only maybe 2 miles between the two at the widest point.

Will have to follow up in the coming days with a damage report although everything that's supposed to be fine looks undamaged at the moment.

[Matthew92]

22 hours ago, Estlander said:

Surprised to see 25 & 26 in your screenshot for for the Destin area. Do you happen to have a zoom-in map?
Turned out to be a low of 27F/-2.8C for me. 

I didn’t zoom in more unfortunately. Maybe can go back and check out the multiple station’s history in that area.

[Matthew92]

(from this morning) Rough line (I think the boundary varied throughout the night) of where the cloud cover began which continued to spare much of the peninsula from hard freezing temps.

 

[Matthew92]

22deg at my place this morning. When I was driving over the bridge across Choctawhatchee Bay this morning I could see the cloud cover way out over the ocean to the south. If that had moved far enough north it would have prevented temperatures from crashing so much.

[Merlyn]

The minimum here was 31.1 overnight, it stayed there for about 3 hours.  It's already 40-44F, even with the overcast skies.  I didn't see any frost on any of the 3 nights, probably due to the breeze and cloud cover.  I left the boxes on the sensitive (or rare) palms all weekend and will be taking them off this morning.  Visible damage here is mostly to tropicals like bananas, heliconia, ficus auriculata, and some of the bamboozles.

Edit: there seemed to be a bit more urban heat island effect last night.  Everywhere outside of Orlando hit freezing or slightly below, and all of Orlando stayed in the mid 30s.  It was probably worth ~5F overnight:

[pj_orlando_z9b]

38F was my low. Thank you clouds. Now it's 46. I hate you clouds. Lol

 

[Estlander]

So far for me 20.5F, 27F and 28F for last night's low. That 20.5F hurts, but what can you do when you have a giant ice box like Crestview sitting on top of you. Overall, the coastal microclimates here in NW FL still did better than most 9A areas on the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, which saw between 16-19F as their ultimate lows. Even Galveston TX (9B) which is similarly protected by water like Destin/Gulf Breeze/Panama City Beach, dropped to 19-20F.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Estlander

[bubba]

The line that Mathew drew corresponds to where continental Florida becomes peninsula Florida. This is where the Ocean and Gulf of Mexico begin to materialize in Florida’s climate. The difference in temperature in a few short miles can be rather astounding.

[JLM]

It was VERY close to dropping into the teens here lastnight, but it looks like it got down to 20F-21F here.

The end of this event is tonight, with a low of 33F expected. After tonight, temperatures rise quickly. Ill be able to move all potted plants outside tomorrow, and that will officially conclude this event here besides dealing with the aftermath.

[PalmatierMeg]

1 hour ago, bubba said:

The line that Mathew drew corresponds to where continental Florida becomes peninsula Florida. This is where the Ocean and Gulf of Mexico begin to materialize in Florida’s climate. The difference in temperature in a few short miles can be rather astounding.

Thanks for that info, Bubba

[JLM]

These next few weeks will be hard. Pygmy dates and majesties spear pulled, 99% sure they are dead.

Bottle palm for some reason hasnt spear pulled yet, the spear is still green. Aint no way in hell its still trying after multiple nights of low 20's/upper teens. The damage is probably just slow to show.

Front yard Queen might end up spear pulling. Im going to start daily copper fungicide treatments tomorrow on both of my Queens. 

My backyard Queen looks surprisingly well, most fronds are still nice and green and the spear area looks good. One thing that worries me is that the lights that were around the growth point had a busted bulb, so they probably were not on. Hoping that the plastic and sheets did enough by themselves.

The Bismarckia, Mule, and Washy all did well with no damage visible. All were covered, only the bizzy and mule got heat.

[redant]

23 hours ago, Jimbean said:

That coconut palm you gave me will hopefully pull through but it's not going to like the 34.5 and the 32.5 lows I just had. 

The mother palm's been through much worse with ZERO damage in the past, went through 09/10 without any long term damage, no other coconut palm that made it through did this. Most of the talls I gave away where to zone pushers, I do wonder how they are all fairing. My mother tall is now about 27 years old, seen lots of bad stuff and always rocks through.

Edited December 26, 2022 by redant

[Xenon]

2 hours ago, Estlander said:

So far for me 20.5F, 27F and 28F for last night's low. That 20.5F hurts, but what can you do when you have a giant ice box like Crestview sitting on top of you. Overall, the coastal microclimates here in NW FL still did better than most 9A areas on the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, which saw between 16-19F as their ultimate lows. Even Galveston TX (9B) which is similarly protected by water like Destin/Gulf Breeze/Panama City Beach, dropped to 19-20F.

Yes, 28F/21F/27F in Galveston which is statistically zone 10 for the past 30 years. You guys saw a much milder version of the Siberian air mass that plunged into Texas. Lucky! 

[kinzyjr]

Ended up with a low of 35F here while the airport got 37F.  The three day lows were 30/30/35 here and 30/28/37 at the airport.  It was clear most of the night, with fewer scattered clouds.

Just came back through the neighborhood and saw banana leaves damaged, plumeria leaves damaged, and some minor damage on the local coconuts out at the ends of the fronds.  A few of the foxtails had some yellowing out at the ends of the leaves at the shopping center.  The final amount of damage won't be known until it warms up though.

[chinandega81]

Yet another, cloudy, raw, rainy and breezy-ish day in Miami. 3 days in a row, and barely cracking 50 until now-and only by a few degrees (yesterday hit 50 officially at MIA, but most Wunderground stations were in the upper 40s for highs). Now I know what it feels like to live in South Texas with these overriding events, with minimal day time recovery. It is nice, on one hand, that lows didn't bottom out even colder due to the moisture and cloud cover, but the minimal day time recovery has been miserable and the long duration of this event has certainly taken it's toll on many plants. I have never seen burnt banana leaves in my yard here before as I am noticing today, despite the ultimate low here around 42. There were were almost 48 hours in a row in the 40s here. I suspect many other plants will show damage over the coming weeks, and even more so when we get our more typical cold fronts there are sharper and quicker.

[ChristianStAug]

Full report will be forthcoming (after some warm-up) but our lows near the Lighthouse on Anastasia Island were 28.2 (+1 from airport) , 27.5 (+2.5 to from airport) and 34.9 (+4 from airport).

This morning's local temperature differential between barrier islands and inland zones was a lot more similar to previous events from the 2018 freeze onwards in my locale.  The first two nights the island was only good for a couple degrees of warmth. This morning it was more like 4-7 degrees.  In a typical radiational event we are about 3-4 degrees warmer than the official readings at the St. Augustine airport, however, the airport is not the coldest location within the surrounding area.  From Wunderground data, I am fairly certain our neighborhood is the warmest microclimate in coastal St.  Johns county. I am not sure of any stations that reported warmer than my own.

There was very little to no frost on any of these nights.

Edited December 26, 2022 by ChristianStAug

[D. Morrowii]

Final tally over the 3 nights here was 34.5/31.8/40.8. 
 

What are the stages of freeze damage? Seems like wilting or bronzing is almost immediate but what comes next? Do palms that look unaffected during or right after a cold event end up dead later?

[JLM]

4 hours ago, Estlander said:

So far for me 20.5F, 27F and 28F for last night's low. That 20.5F hurts, but what can you do when you have a giant ice box like Crestview sitting on top of you. Overall, the coastal microclimates here in NW FL still did better than most 9A areas on the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, which saw between 16-19F as their ultimate lows. Even Galveston TX (9B) which is similarly protected by water like Destin/Gulf Breeze/Panama City Beach, dropped to 19-20F.

1 hour ago, Xenon said:

Yes, 28F/21F/27F in Galveston which is statistically zone 10 for the past 30 years. You guys saw a much milder version of the Siberian air mass that plunged into Texas. Lucky! 

Don't tell me that the whole TX vs NW FL argument is going to start again. We definitely don't need that. Everywhere in the south got cold, maybe Texas got colder than we did, we just lucked out. It could have just as easily been us that was colder, it wouldn't have taken much for that to have happened. In the end, it doesn't matter who's warmer or colder since I'm pretty sure we are all zone pushing something that we know we shouldn't be, but that's what makes zone pushing fun lol

Lets all just enjoy the warmer temperatures that's coming up 🙂

[Jimbean]

15 minutes ago, D. Morrowii said:

Final tally over the 3 nights here was 34.5/31.8/40.8. 
 

What are the stages of freeze damage? Seems like wilting or bronzing is almost immediate but what comes next? Do palms that look unaffected during or right after a cold event end up dead later?

I think that's only about the second time I've seen Merritt Island get below freezing since 1989

[Xenon]

4 minutes ago, JLM said:

Don't tell me that the whole TX vs NW FL argument is going to start again. We definitely don't need that. Everywhere in the south got cold, maybe Texas got colder than we did, we just lucked out. It could have just as easily been us that was colder, it wouldn't have taken much for that to have happened. In the end, it doesn't matter who's warmer or colder since I'm pretty sure we are all zone pushing something that we know we shouldn't be, but that's what makes zone pushing fun lol

Lets all just enjoy the warmer temperatures that's coming up 🙂

Just factual, the front moderated as it exited the southward plunge into Texas in a northeast trajectory. 

[kinzyjr]

8 minutes ago, D. Morrowii said:

What are the stages of freeze damage? Seems like wilting or bronzing is almost immediate but what comes next? Do palms that look unaffected during or right after a cold event end up dead later?

Disclaimer: Below is from anecdotal observations only.

What are the stages of freeze damage? Grief, Denial, Bargaining.... whoops, wrong stages.  It's a little different for everything.  Coconuts tend to progressively add damage as the temperature goes up, where some species show damage almost immediately.  On coconuts, you'll probably see some dark green areas where latent damage will show up later.  Adonidia, Veitchia, and Carpentaria tend to get cold spotting and then the damage spreads outward.  Wodyetia tends to get nutrient deficiency and bronzing first, then frond death as the plant tries to harvest the nutrients to recover.

Seems like wilting or bronzing is almost immediate but what comes next? The parts that are bronzed and/or limp turn brown and, most likely, the plant in question will try to replace damaged parts of the crown by harvesting nutrients to recover and push out new growth when it warms up.

Do palms that look unaffected during or right after a cold event end up dead later? Yes, that can happen more frequently than you would imagine.  It's especially bad after a really "wet" moderate to long duration freeze - like this one.  Usually, this is the result of undetected bud damage/death, fungal infection, pest attack due to weakness, or some combination of the three.