Polar Vortex 2022...... who's ready?

[bgifford]

-6F with and 22F Windchill right now. I heard a loud crunching noise around 2Am and thought it were the Boxes for my Washys flying away. But luckily it was just a snow plow scraping the road. 
Looks like things are holding up. Temps are steady in my protection boxes in the mid 40s. 
Hopefully everyone else’s Palms are surviving this too. Tuesday is the first day forcast to be above freezing here. 
not looking forward to the next Gas and Electric Bill. 
 

[Allen]

My temp gauge turned negative.  Protection holding.  Ch2 is outdoor.  Ch3 is mule palm, rest are large Trachy.  Coldest in over 20 years and another 24 hours with a high of 11F palm killing weather 
 

[RJ]

5 minutes ago, Allen said:

My temp gauge turned negative.  Protection holding.  Ch2 is outdoor.  Ch3 is mule palm, rest are large Trachy.  Coldest in over 20 years and another 24 hours with a high of 11F palm killing weather 
 

 

 

Wow. Looks like you got some snow too. Have the winds subsided yet? That’s pipe freezing weather too. I don’t know about up there but many house around here are built on vented crawl spaces with water pipes in them. The wind doesn’t help as it drives the warm air out ..

[EJPalm05]

For me it's strangely warm but it will drop from 50 to around 10 degrees at 3:00PM today!

[Banana Belt]

We were lucky this arctic blast event.  Warm but very very wet weather forecast well into next year.

[RJ]

9:00 AM 

Atlanta 16

columbia 34 

The cold is coming 🥶

[teddytn]

Says we hit -4f at my house

[GoatLockerGuns]

17F (-8.3C) at my place this morning.

 

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, teddytn said:

Says we hit -4f at my house

Yikes that is -20C! 😬

[Swolte]

10 hours ago, Jtee said:

I’m not gonna protect my robusta, it will probably fry or die with my low temps. Should I just cut the fronds off and take care of the trunk? Could that hurt it anymore than it’s already gonna hurt? 

I have done this to 6 different palms during Uri (3F here) and they all recovered very well after a year. I wrapped them in fleece blankets (see example below)

For the 2022 Polar vortex, I did it to a Robusta and large JxSxB but with less Fleece as temps are not as bad as 2021 here! 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Swolte

[Jtee]

currently 27degrees in Enterprise Alabama 

Just wrapped my robusta

I ended up cutting the middle spear also to be even with the top of the trunk, even though it dosent show it in the pics. 
 

the Sylvester is wrapped in a frost cloth and bed sheet, hopefully that’s enough. 
 

what I’ve learned is protecting palms suck and robusta fronds are hard to tie up. They don’t bend so easily. I had much less problems with the Sylvester. 

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Jtee

[Jtee]

Sabal riverside under the green tote

sabal Lisa under the styrofoam cooler

both will be experiencing their first winter in ground

 

Sabal uresana wrapped in frost cloth and under pink play house, the wind last night threw it about 40 feet. 

[Allen]

2 minutes ago, Jtee said:

Sabal riverside under the green tote

sabal Lisa under the styrofoam cooler

both will be experiencing their first winter in ground

Sabal uresana wrapped in frost cloth and under pink play house, the wind last night threw it about 40 feet. 

 

This gave me a chuckle.  But you gotta do what you gotta do...

[Chester B]

We’ve been  stuck at 21F for over 24 hours, it just didn’t warm up at all yesterday. Ice and freezing rain but at least the wind has died for me this morning which is a good sign. We’re waiting on southerly winds to move up and push this cold back where it belongs. This is the worst stretch of weather I’ve had. I don’t protect my palms as it’s not needed here aside from a couple tender ones that need s little help a couple nights per year. As a result my methods are pretty rudimentary. The one good thing was it was dry cold which is very unusual for here. However it has started raining so it’s going to freeze on contact. Models are still all in disagreement as to when the warmup begins but all confirm we should be warm Christmas Day. 

[Trustandi]

We had 2 days below freezing with 18/19F as our lowest temp. It is currently 30F and in a  couple of hour more of freezing rain and we will be in the thawing temperature. I am done with this Narnia madness. 

[Pee Dee Palms]

Welp, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this... I saw somewhere that we were expecting 16 here in Myrtle Beach. Hopefully this heat bulb and anti-frost cover will help my Queen survive. I still have to wrap up my other Queen now... Ugh, I'm moving to the Caribbean...

Edited December 23, 2022 by General Sylvester D. Palm

[Chester B]

36 minutes ago, Trustandi said:

We had 2 days below freezing with 18/19F as our lowest temp. It is currently 30F and in a  couple of hour more of freezing rain and we will be in the thawing temperature. I am done with this Narnia madness. 

Looks like you had the same protection methods as me.  At least you don't get the wind like we do down here.  I find that with normal winter weather it's generally much warmer here, but when we have one of these arctic incursions we get much colder.  All do to the Columbia river gorge giving that cold air an avenue to infiltrate my area.  It's even warmer up on Mt Hood, this morning it was 32F there compared to 21F at my place.

[Pee Dee Palms]

20 minutes ago, Chester B said:

 

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by General Sylvester D. Palm

[subsonicdrone]

i thought i had posted this video to the forum at some point but i guess i had not

saw another palmtalk member in the comments section

this guy is north of me and keeps many plants outside through winter

a little late to be posting but maybe something could still be done

another method would be a wood frame with poly covering both sides of the wood to make an air space.. and the c9 christmas lights for a heat source

if you cant get a thermo cube on short notice leave the lights on and monitor the temp as it warms up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=650yBmEGSG4

on another forum someone also posted a method where you drive stakes in the ground and wrap with chicken wire and stuff with hay

if it is really cold its best to have a heat source

good luck whatever you do

[teddytn]

2 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Yikes that is -20C! 😬

Yup, just gonna switch to growing Japanese maples this spring 🤦🏼‍♂️

[ChrisA]

A warning for those of you not hit by the cold front yet, it outperformed the forecasts in Texas by a good margin.  Be prepared for it to get 5-10F colder than your forecast. 

Noontime temperatures from around the southern half of Texas right now are:

• 25F  Austin
• 27F  San Antonio
• 24F  Kerrville
• 29F  Del Rio
• 27F  Houston (Bush Airport)
• 28F  Sugarland
• 26F  Pearland
• 29F  Galveston
• 25F  Beeville
• 26F  Corpus Christi
• 25F  Port Aransas
• 27F  Kingsville
• 29F  Brownsville
• 32F  McAllen

 

[Sabal King]

Just now, ChrisA said:

A warning for those of you not hit by the cold front yet, it outperformed the forecasts in Texas by a good margin.  Be prepared for it to get 5-10F colder than your forecast. 

Noontime temperatures from around the southern half of Texas right now are:

• 25F  Austin
• 27F  San Antonio
• 24F  Kerrville
• 29F  Del Rio
• 27F  Houston (Bush Airport)
• 28F  Sugarland
• 26F  Pearland
• 29F  Galveston
• 25F  Beeville
• 26F  Corpus Christi
• 25F  Port Aransas
• 27F  Kingsville
• 29F  Brownsville
• 32F  McAllen

 

That's interesting as up here in DFW it performed exactly as predicted.. the forecasted low was 9-11 depending on where you were, and for me in NTX I had an ultimate low this morning of 10.9F and climbing now finally..  One more cold night, but tomorrow is much better, and it continues to get better.. this wasn't as bad as I was fearing actually..

[smatofu]

35 minutes ago, tlow said:

That's interesting as up here in DFW it performed exactly as predicted.. the forecasted low was 9-11 depending on where you were, and for me in NTX I had an ultimate low this morning of 10.9F and climbing now finally..  One more cold night, but tomorrow is much better, and it continues to get better.. this wasn't as bad as I was fearing actually..

Yes, DFW could have been worse. My low temp was 9F.

 

However, for the palms still recovering from the freeze 2021, it could be a knockout punch. 

[Chester B]

52 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

A warning for those of you not hit by the cold front yet, it outperformed the forecasts in Texas by a good margin.  Be prepared for it to get 5-10F colder than your forecast. 

Noontime temperatures from around the southern half of Texas right now are:

• 25F  Austin
• 27F  San Antonio
• 24F  Kerrville
• 29F  Del Rio
• 27F  Houston (Bush Airport)
• 28F  Sugarland
• 26F  Pearland
• 29F  Galveston
• 25F  Beeville
• 26F  Corpus Christi
• 25F  Port Aransas
• 27F  Kingsville
• 29F  Brownsville
• 32F  McAllen

 

Same here - colder than expected.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

Was expecting low of 21° but got down to 17° at 7am this morning. Starting to think I didn't give enough protection =( It's also only suppose to get up to 33° today smh 

Has anyone tried using old sleeping bags for palm protection. As long as it doesn't rain seems like the perfect way to keep the cold off ? 

T J 

[UK_Palms]

3 minutes ago, tlow said:

That's interesting as up here in DFW it performed exactly as predicted.. the forecasted low was 9-11 depending on where you were, and for me in NTX I had an ultimate low this morning of 10.9F and climbing now finally..  One more cold night, but tomorrow is much better, and it continues to get better.. this wasn't as bad as I was fearing actually..

Wasn't as bad as you were fearing!? It's -5C / 23F at midday in Dallas after a low of -12C / 10F. Even Houston has got colder than my rural, inland location during the bad freeze I had.

The only positive I can see, is that it is going to be a pretty short lived event, at least compared to Feb 2021. That will certainly mitigate the extent of damage.

[boaterboat]

Came home from a delayed flight out of Colorado last night and protected what I could. My Livistona Chinensis are showing foliar damage.  The pindos, mule, med fans, and dwarf palmettos all look fine so far. 
 We shall see. 

Edited December 23, 2022 by boaterboat

[amh]

Currently 28F after a low of around 13F, I figured it would have get to 12F or 11F, so it wasn't as cold as expected. I'm hoping for some wind or clouds tonight.

On the bright side, my experimental Cereus repandus appears to have survived unprotected.

[Foxpalms]

It looks very cold in Texas, even South Padre Island at 26N had the same low as here 28f at 51N during our once every 10-20 year freeze event last week, and it's much colder during the day there. It still below freezing. I wonder if the coconuts will make it.

[DAVEinMB]

Luckily we aren't forecasted to see any precipitation over the next week so this is the method I decided to use. Should keep the growth point fairly happy

Coldest temps for me are forecasted for the very early morning hours then luckily tomorrow's high is above freezing

Edited December 23, 2022 by DAVEinMB

[DTS]

hey at least you guys dont have my temperatures 😂 

[Dartolution]

@Jtee Looks like you guys got a little warmer than us. Low last night was 13F from a day almost at 60. It hasn't gotten out of the teens here today with a high so far of about 19F. 

I ran outside for less than 2 minutes just to make sure the heat cables were on. They are. 

I see foliar discoloration to basically everything out there at varying degrees except the BxJxS which I completely left untouched. shocking... 

Sago is also left out there with just a bedsheet over it. 

Sitting at 17F now. This will be a serious test for the Sabal blackburniana - also unprotected. 

[MrTropical]

1 hour ago, DTS1 said:

hey at least you guys dont have my temperatures 😂 

Not far off from the current temperature here in my part of Western North Carolina. 😂

Stay warm my friend. Keep your palms warm too.

12-23-2022

[DTS]

14 minutes ago, MrTropical said:

Not far off from the current temperature here in my part of Western North Carolina. 😂

Stay warm my friend. Keep your palms warm too.

12-23-2022

i cant wait to see 56 degrees on the first day of january lol

[NBTX11]

Looks like it got down to about 16 last night and made it to above freezing today with sunshine.  This freeze is nowhere near as bad as Feb 21 for us.  I covered my small Filifera's with buckets but I'm not overly concerned about them.  Low should be around 20 tonight.  Overall, really cold, but not as bad as the all time worst freezes by any means.

[RJ]

Sitting at 25 here currently. My lowest low  the past two years was right around 23. Sitting around the fire watching Christmas oldies with the kids. Gotta make the best of it 👍

[UK_Palms]

24 minutes ago, NBTX11 said:

Looks like it got down to about 16 last night and made it to above freezing today with sunshine.  This freeze is nowhere near as bad as Feb 21 for us.  I covered my small Filifera's with buckets but I'm not overly concerned about them.  Low should be around 20 tonight.  Overall, really cold, but not as bad as the all time worst freezes by any means.

I had my worst freeze since 2010 last week and left my Filifera totally unprotected. The ultimate low for me was 17F, so similar to your low. My Filifera looks fine to be honest. They are hard as nails. How is your bigger front yard Filifera looking these days?

[Allen]

8 hours ago, Chester B said:

We’ve been  stuck at 21F for over 24 hours, it just didn’t warm up at all yesterday. Ice and freezing rain but at least the wind has died for me this morning which is a good sign. We’re waiting on southerly winds to move up and push this cold back where it belongs. This is the worst stretch of weather I’ve had. I don’t protect my palms as it’s not needed here aside from a couple tender ones that need s little help a couple nights per year. As a result my methods are pretty rudimentary. The one good thing was it was dry cold which is very unusual for here. However it has started raining so it’s going to freeze on contact. Models are still all in disagreement as to when the warmup begins but all confirm we should be warm Christmas Day. 

Just had a relative freeze up the water maybe at the meter.  What did we have a lot of - Christmas lights!  Threw a couple bundles in there and wadded frost cloth over and put lid on.  Hoping it will unfreeze in a hour or 2.  Don't have a propane torch

[NBTX11]

1 hour ago, UK_Palms said:

I had my worst freeze since 2010 last week and left my Filifera totally unprotected. The ultimate low for me was 17F, so similar to your low. My Filifera looks fine to be honest. They are hard as nails. How is your bigger front yard Filifera looking these days?

It looks great.  It came through the Feb 2021 freeze fairly easily.  I'm not even expecting it to burn from this year's freeze.  I was slightly worried about my smaller Filifera, so I covered them with buckets. 

What people don't understand about South Texas is, we have had zero freezes up until yesterday, and next week it will back up to 75-77 degrees, around 25C, which is probably mid July weather in London.  And that's not abnormal, it's that warm or warmer every December and January for stretches.  

[PalmTreeDude]

I was just outside a few hours ago, I wrapped up my young Trachycarpus fortunei with a heating cable and some burlap and threw some leaves on some of my other palms. It was really cold and windy. We are supposed to get down to 6°F early tomorrow morning here near Richmond, Virginia.