Southern California

[MattyB]

Yeah, that 30F-32F mark seems to be the magic number for a lot of plants.  If you can squeek by above that then you should be fine.  Even if it's a bit lower than that a sheet covering a plant will eek you by with little to no damage.  I had real good luck with just throwing a sheet over some plants last year.

[happ]

53F overnight with a whopping 1.48 inches of rainfall.  Was so surprised since I could not hear it raining last night even with the bedroom window open a little bit [love to hear the sound of rainfall at night  

The current storm is moving eastward into Arizona/New Mexico with cut-off energy circulating over the coastal waters of SoCal with clouds/light showers/humidity.  Another much weaker system should move into SoCal tomorrow w/ possible rainfall.  But the real concern is the cold air behind the front.  NWS keeps minimums in the 40's metro areas & 30's inland w/ above freezing temps including Oceanside/Temecula well into next week

[MattyB]

1.48" dang, that's a lot for overnight.

[freakypalmguy]

(happ @ Dec. 19 2007,17:42)

QUOTE

w/ above freezing temps including Oceanside/Temecula well into next week

Ahhhhhhh...... that's encouraging news happ, thank you  

[BS Man about Palms]

Oceanside got a reported .61 inches, looks about right in the "trashcan guage".  I'm mostly exstatic that I've recently put a very good sized Psuedophoenix eckmanii in a 7 gal pot and put it on my south facing deck, and it's growing!!!!  (knock on my wooden head here)  

(I should note here, Ithink its the sun on the black pot and the radiant heat from the wall that is making this guy happy,  sun ready helps too!!)

[elHoagie]

I'm in Hawaii right now, but laHoagie reported 34mm of rain last night at my place...

[MattyB]

34mm?  What is that like a foot...I don't know....come on Jack this is the SoCal thread you can use inches...

53F for a low last night.  We still have cloud cover this morning.  I thought it was gonna be clear and cold.  This is great though staying in the 50's.

Bill, on several occasions I've noticed plants that I've dug up performing better in black pots getting heated up by the sun than their counter parts that got put directly into the ground.  This leads me to believe that if you have to dig up something in the colder months then put it in a black pot and let it bake in the sun until spring.

[osideterry]

41F. Nice to be above 40 2 days in a row. It was 53F by 8am.

I'm going to boldly predict that this will be an average/moderate winter. Average lows (no arctic blast), and 9-12" of total rainfall. Some might think predicting "average" a safe and boring move, but average is something we only get about 1 year in 5.

[Kim]

I envy the rain count in the LA area, it wasn't much here yesterday.  (Haven't installed the rain guage yet.)  Overnight low was 56F, cloudy.

Terry, I hope your 'bold' prediction is correct!

[happ]

Yes the rainfall from yesterday’s storm over LA County was gratefully received in the bone-dry earth.  In-fact just like the last storm all the rain soaked into the soil without puddles  

Remember the last big storm dumped several inches of rain over San Diego County [esp northern areas like Oceanside] since the system moved up from Baja.  Yesterday's storm moved down the coast from the north [normally northern storms don't provide much rainfall for SoCal but the storm stalled coming around Pt. Conception and sat over the Basin for several hours.

Our big rains in SoCal have a tropical connection [Pineapple Express] that unloads abundant moisture.  Let's hope we get a few of those storms this winter  

Lo: 52F

[Shon]

52 last night. Weather.com has me warming up this fri night to 34,up from 31 which it showed on monday. Let's hope it keeps going up.

[paulgila]

more rain would be good.i heard on the radio that we are only slightly below our "normal" rainfall so far.

[amazondk]

(MattyB @ Dec. 20 2007,12:45)

QUOTE

34mm?  What is that like a foot...I don't know....come on Jack this is the SoCal thread you can use inches...

53F for a low last night.  We still have cloud cover this morning.  I thought it was gonna be clear and cold.  This is great though staying in the 50's.

Bill, on several occasions I've noticed plants that I've dug up performing better in black pots getting heated up by the sun than their counter parts that got put directly into the ground.  This leads me to believe that if you have to dig up something in the colder months then put it in a black pot and let it bake in the sun until spring.

Matt,

300 mm is a foot.

dk

[BS Man about Palms]

(pohonkelapa @ Dec. 20 2007,15:04)

QUOTE

more rain would be good.i heard on the radio that we are only slightly below our "normal" rainfall so far.

Well, the worker guy type people moved around 3 windows today, so I am not quite as weatherproof in the house as I was recently.    This shall ensure continued rainfall until I am able to get more stucco around the windows.

Glad I can help everybody out.   ???

[Kim]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Dec. 20 2007,17:37)

QUOTE

(pohonkelapa @ Dec. 20 2007,15:04)

QUOTE

more rain would be good.i heard on the radio that we are only slightly below our "normal" rainfall so far.

Well, the worker guy type people moved around 3 windows today, so I am not quite as weatherproof in the house as I was recently.    This shall ensure continued rainfall until I am able to get more stucco around the windows.

Glad I can help everybody out.   ???

Thank you so much for that, Bill!  Got a good drenching between 9:30 and 10:00 last night.  Keep up the good work!

Low this morning 44.4 under mostly clear, starry skies.

[BS Man about Palms]

43F and damp out here. Afraid to go look at "water incursion".........

[osideterry]

39F, and I got a rogue shower early in the morning.

Tomorrow mornings forecast is 32F, with 22mph winds from the ENE, translating into 19F windchill temp.

How alarming should that be regarding palms?

[freakypalmguy]

35F. Tonight is forcast to 28F

[MattyB]

45.3F exactly on both sensors.  .16" of rain and it occured in about an hour then stopped.

[happ]

49F here due to quite strong winds overnight [watched the temperature jump up & down all night  

There is another cold airmass over California but wind should be a major factor in mixing the night temperatures.

freakypalmguy

NWS-SD 7-day for Temucula 12-21-07 200h

TEMECULA  

Today:  SUNNY  60

Saturday:  SUNNY  35/66

Sunday:  SUNNY  35/67

Monday:  SUNNY   39/66

Tuesday: SUNNY   39/64

Wednesday: PTCLDY  36/60

Thursday:  SUNNY  39/61        

Are you in a low basin/canyon?

Looks like December will remain cooler than normal w/ the remote possiblity of showers.  Not the best weather for palms  

[PalmGuyWC]

The temp. in Walnut Creek fell to 31F this morning before daylight, and it was at or below freezing for about 6 hours. There was the whitest frost of the season, but there was a lot of moisture left from the rain two days ago. It never really warmed up today, so I expect tonight will be even colder. I'm throwing a sheet over my Parajubaea T V T tonight. It was pretty badly burned by 23F last winter, and now it looks so nice. It was covered with frost this morning, but looks fine.

Dick

[Jim in Los Altos]

Last night's low here was 40F. Today's high was only 55F. Forecast for tonight is between 32F and 38F depending on the weather forecast source.

One interesting note: I have two 20 gallon bottle palms. One is in my living room for the winter and the other one has been outside on a south facing wall. Since Dec. 5 the spear on the one inside grew 0.5" while the one outside in the cool to chilly weather has put on a full inch of growth in the same period.

[happ]

Jim

Soil temps likely cool down slower then the air, right?  ???

[Jim in Los Altos]

(happ @ Dec. 21 2007,18:04)

QUOTE

Jim

Soil temps likely cool down slower then the air, right?  ???

My soil temps have remained fairly constant over the last month with soil temps in the mid 50s except 60s in the warmest part of my yard. The potted bottle palm's soil cools rapidly at night but warms nicely during the day if there's plenty of sun.

[Palmhut1]

Vista is 35 clear......and cold.  

[osideterry]

It hit 29.7 and is at 29.9 now. A nearby birdbath's water is frozen a good 1/8" thick.

I pulled everything movable into the garage at midnight because it was 34. Definitely got frost on the lawn. Nothing real tender in the ground thanks to last year's freeze.

[Cycadcenter]

Can anyone beat 25.8 last night.

The coldest December night that I can remember!!

SO MUCH FOR GLOBAL WARMING.

[BS Man about Palms]

34F lastnight/this morning.     I will add an interesting note, at about 10 pm or later I went out to pull in a couple palms.  When I walked by my indoor remote monitor, my cold spot showed 41.7F , it was fairly still out. I was only out for 3-4 mins max, but the wind kicked up while I was out there, when I came back, I glanced at the monitor again and it was at 43.2F!!!   (I was nowhere near the monitor) Yep, I like breezes at night!!  

36F right now.

[happ]

Not surprisingly, the NWS has computer problems but you can locate your location/temp here

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/mwmap.php?map=la

It is really cold in places [sorry that includes some member's gardens   NWS underestimated impact of cold air but, as always, it is entirely location

NWS-LA 12-22-07 700H

SAN DIEGO 42                  

NORTH ISLAND 45                

CAMP PENDLETON  29                  

OCEANSIDE AP 34                  

CARLSBAD 41                  

DEL MAR 45                

VALLEY CENTER  45  

N. ESCONDIDO 41            

RANCHO BERNARDO 45  

POWAY 34      

RAMONA 48  

   

HUNTINGTON BEACH 38  

FULLERTON AP   38  

L.A. AIRPORT 47  

L.A. DOWNTOWN 39            

BURBANK 36              

VAN NUYS 48

MALIBU 53  

CORONA 44  

CHINO 32  

SAN BERNARDINO 45  

MURRIETA 42  

TEMECULA 35          

Temp remained above 50F/10c until 2 hours before sunrise; minimum so far is 46F/7.7c

Hey, this has been a shitty month: cool days/cold nights so early.  Northern Hemisphere winter solstice was yesterday  

[BS Man about Palms]

(happ @ Dec. 22 2007,07:45)

QUOTE

It is really cold in places [sorry that includes some member's gardens   NWS underestimated impact of cold air but, as always, it is entirely location

NWS-LA 12-22-07 700H

     

             

VALLEY CENTER  45  

N. ESCONDIDO 41            

RANCHO BERNARDO 45  

   

RAMONA 48  

   

MALIBU 53  

MURRIETA 42  

     

Temp remained above 50F/10c until 2 hours before sunrise; minimum so far is 46F/7.7c

Some how, these numbers don't look accurate, I wonder how often they check their accuracy.

I think especially the Ramona one

[elHoagie]

Official report from laHoagie is that the low in El Sereno was above 6C (43F), and happened sometime around 3AM...

[doubravsky]

In Riverside I hit 34... much better than the 29 that was forecast...  wind held up around here until today.

[osideterry]

Ah... Wind. That would have been nice.

[Shon]

33 last night, and tonight lookin about the same.36 in the best part of my yard. My only solace is at least December almost over.

[happ]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Dec. 22 2007,10:51)

QUOTE

(happ @ Dec. 22 2007,07:45)

QUOTE

It is really cold in places [sorry that includes some member's gardens   NWS underestimated impact of cold air but, as always, it is entirely location

NWS-LA 12-22-07 700H

     

             

VALLEY CENTER  45  

N. ESCONDIDO 41            

RANCHO BERNARDO 45  

   

RAMONA 48  

   

MALIBU 53  

MURRIETA 42  

     

Temp remained above 50F/10c until 2 hours before sunrise; minimum so far is 46F/7.7c

Some how, these numbers don't look accurate, I wonder how often they check their accuracy.

I think especially the Ramona one

Bill

I was also surprised by the data coming out of Ramona until I looked closer.  Take a look at this link.  The temp jumped from 35F at 11PM to 45F after midnight when the wind started  

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowes....ner=off

[BS Man about Palms]

Thanks for the link, Happ.

[paulgila]

approx.36 or 37F under canopy last nite.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Got down to 34F up here last night. Forecast for tonight is 39F. No visible frost in my yard yet this season. High today was only 55F. Tomorrow's expected high is 60F.

[happ]

Actually turned out to be a nice day w/ low 70s in places & more to come Sunday.

NWS is forecasting widespread 40's & above freezing in usual high risk domains.    keep in mind last night's forecast was for above 32F/0c coastal/low desert yet some got stung    

Week ahead looks dry/sunny & staying chilly day/nights  

LA: 68F/20c

    46F/7.2c

[BS Man about Palms]

Love that breeze. above 40F all night here.