Strong Freeze For North Florida

[tank]

They're calling a low of 21F for Thursday Morning here in Gainesville.  Its still a long way off but considering it should get to around 81F today with a low around 60F tonight it appears we are in for a dramatic change.

Big bummer.

[Jimbean]

Yeah, it is not looking good for us either.  

Here is the forecast for the following cities for Jan 2:

West Palm Beach  35

Rockledge  31

Fort Pierce  31

Miami  39

Titusville  29

Daytona Beach  28

Orlando  26

[_Keith]

What we get in Louisiana flows to you a day or so later.  The projected low for Wednesday, Jan 2 was just lowered to 27 here.

[galveston1602]

Wow!  I guess this must be some sort of east coast thing as were not showing anything less than 40, around here at least for the time being.....

heres to hoping yall stay warm and they dont suddenly drop our fcst to 30ish

[cfkingfish]

Looks like many parts of interior Florida will be hit. This is what I came up with from NOAA:

Tampa - 36F

Sarasota - 37F

Venice - 37F

Fort Myers - 37F

Naples - 39F

West Palm - 39F

Miami - 44F

If you go inland, the temps drop about 1F every mile or two.

And the warmest place on the mainland (non barrier island) was St. Pete, at 45F right near Albert Whitted.

[_Keith]

(galveston1602 @ Dec. 28 2007,13:13)

QUOTE

Wow!  I guess this must be some sort of east coast thing as were not showing anything less than 40, around here at least for the time being.....

heres to hoping yall stay warm and they dont suddenly drop our fcst to 30ish

You were just moved down to 37, but still heavenly warm compared to what we are going to face 10 degrees cooler.

[tank]

(Jimbean @ Dec. 28 2007,11:58)

QUOTE

Yeah, it is not looking good for us either.  

Here is the forecast for the following cities for Jan 2:

West Palm Beach  35

Rockledge  31

Fort Pierce  31

Miami  39

Titusville  29

Daytona Beach  28

Orlando  26

Hopefully NOAA is being overly cautious.  Although the models appear to be on a downward (temp) trend.  Their forecast for the freeze has been dropping since last night.

[gsn]

(Jimbean @ Dec. 28 2007,11:58)

QUOTE

Yeah, it is not looking good for us either.  

Here is the forecast for the following cities for Jan 2:

West Palm Beach  35

Rockledge  31

Fort Pierce  31

Miami  39

Titusville  29

Daytona Beach  28

Orlando  26

Jimbeam,

Where did you get those forecasts?

NOAA /NWS has me (Titusville) forecast

Tuesday night      49

Wednesday night 35

Weather.com

Tuesday night        48

Wednesday night  32

[Jimbean]

I suppose I should have posted the source.  I forgot that different sites have different forecasts.

I got those from Accuweather.

[FRITO]

I look at the extended forcast astodaywas warm and balmy High 70's and wanted to see how long this will last.....

unfortunately only thenext 2 days then it drops off.

wednesday we are focasted with a low of 19 degrees (NOAA) as of now.....

hopefully this is about 10 degrees colder than it will be.

[gsn]

(Jimbean @ Dec. 28 2007,15:32)

QUOTE

I got those from Accuweather.

Jimbeam,

No problem, if it was a true sceince they would ALL have the same forecast lows! ???

I should have know it was the DOOM and GLOOM Accuweather, a la BASTARDI!

Mind you, I am not saying it isn't going to get that low,but they always seem to be the lowest when it comes to low cold forecasts! Can you say HYPE!

[metalfan]

I just looked at the local forecast for here. Wow, it was 81 yesterday, I was riding around in the convertible...supposed to be 82 today! We were partying out by the pool last night.

But New Years Day the front comes, high of only 65 with a frost at 32 that night, then Jan 2 BAM high only 47 with a low of about 26!

One of those "one nighters". I'm glad I waited to start real winter clean up, I will be able to do it all in one fell swoop next week.

[BS Man about Palms]

(metalfan @ Dec. 29 2007,08:15)

QUOTE

I just looked at the local forecast for here. Wow, it was 81 yesterday, I was riding around in the convertible...supposed to be 82 today! We were partying out by the pool last night.

But New Years Day the front comes, high of only 65 with a frost at 32 that night, then Jan 2 BAM high only 47 with a low of about 26!

One of those "one nighters". I'm glad I waited to start real winter clean up, I will be able to do it all in one fell swoop next week.

What is winter clean up? Is it removing all the dead fronds?  

[Guest Keith in Zone 9]

I hate it when this happens.  Here in Jacksonville, we are headed for a solid Zone 9 night.  That means protecting some marginal stuff (Arcontophoenix & Bismarkia), as well as moving the potted zone 10 stuff inside the garage.  It seems that most years there are only one or two nights that fall into the zone 9 category.  Since I enjoy the beauty of some of the zone 10 palms, that means it creates a lot of work. Oh well!  Only about 8 weeks for these potential zone 9 nights left (probably).

[BS Man about Palms]

We neddy Bobby in New York to post here for some of the newbies so they can see what real work means!!!!!  

[metalfan]

BS, winter clean up means that most of the stuff that does dormant will do that this weekend. Hedychiums, costus, alpinia gingers, all the salvias, Ti plants, alocasias, clerodendrons, brugmansias....if it really hits the 20's (and I have since seen a local forecast calling for a low as low as 18 in some parts of the Gainesville area Tuesday night into Wednesday) everything will turn to mush and have to be cut down and hauled to the compost piles.

Its okay though, all that stuff has bloomed already and could use a rest. I actually kind of COUNT on all the brugmansias freezing to the ground every year, they get huge over one season here (10+ feet tall with spreads of 8-10 feet) and its nice when they get knocked back so they can start over in March. The gingers freezing to the ground every winter is probably the only thing that keeps them from becoming invasive. If it didn't happen, I'd have to remove masses of rhizomes every year to keep them under control. I don't do any palm maintenance, the palms in my yard are hardy.

[BS Man about Palms]

I guess that means, yuck and good....

[Alicehunter2000]

Crossing my fingers that it will not be quite as cold as predicted. Calling for upper 20's and low 30's around P.C..

Time to check out my new electric heater for my little mini-greenhouse.

[Alicehunter2000]

Blankets on stand-by for the rest of the yard.

[kylecawazafla]

I hope the front will break up somewhat before it hits Gainesville! I can't wait to get back there and see how the palms handled the cold! Hopefully there won't be any real cold (except for you Regina, since it seems necessary with your yard maintenance!  

[fastfeat]

NOAA forecast for Loxahatchee on Wed night is 33! Ouch!!

Austin's supposed to be 22 tomorrow, but I've gotten used to the 20s here, though they still suck...

[tank]

NOAA update has my morning temps at:

Wednesday - 26

Thursday - 19

Friday - 29

Weather.com is much more optomistic:

Wednesday - 30

Thursday - 27

Friday - 37

Not comfortable with the way NOAA has been lowering their forecast as the front gets closer.

Here is the updated NOAA Discussion for Wednesday night/Thursday Morning:

WEDNESDAY...CONDITIONS WILL REMAIN VERY COLD AND BRISK AS MAX

TEMPS WILL BARELY REACH THE MID TO UPPER 40S ACRS THE REGION AND

LAKE WIND ADVISORIES WILL LIKELY CONTINUE WITH NWLY WINDS AROUND

20 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 30 MPH. WIND CHILLS WILL REBOUND ABOVE

CRITERIA LEVELS BUT WILL REMAIN IN THE 30S ALL DAY.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT...HARD FREEZE IS EXPECTED ACRS THE ENTIRE FORECAST

AREA AWAY FROM THE COAST WITH MIN TEMPS IN THE UPPER TEENS TO THE

LOWER TO MID 20S WITH NEAR 30 DEGREES ALONG THE COAST. WIND CHILL

VALUES WILL CONTINUE TO BE VERY COLD IN THE TEENS THROUGH THE

NIGHT WITH 15 TO 20 MPH WINDS OUT OF THE NORTHWEST CONTINUING.

[NBTX11]

(fastfeat @ Dec. 31 2007,07:12)

QUOTE

NOAA forecast for Loxahatchee on Wed night is 33! Ouch!!

Austin's supposed to be 22 tomorrow, but I've gotten used to the 20s here, though they still suck...

Have you gotten used to the up and down roller coaster in Austin yet.  80F today and lows in 20s in 2 days, then back up to 70-80 by next weekend.

[Dave-Vero]

We were 83 today, expecting something near freezing Thursday morning . . . typical Florida.

I'll have a bunch of guests in the living room Wednesday night.

[tank]

NOAA just downgraded to 17F for Thursday morning.

Now they've gotten my attention!

[SunnyFl]

(Dave-Vero @ Dec. 31 2007,23:00)

QUOTE

We were 83 today, expecting something near freezing Thursday morning . . . typical Florida.

I'll have a bunch of guests in the living room Wednesday night.

Hi Dave,

Same here - a lot of plants to bring in, but we don't have room for all of them.  Plants in pots are more vulnerable than established ones in the ground, so even if our local forecast holds (low of 34), the potted ones will be better off indoors.

The trend keeps getting lower, but I notice that our forecast low for the 2nd is the same this morning as it was last night.  NOAA is still saying 34F.

Don't know how we're going to haul our potted C. Azul into the house - that thing is heavy!

[fastfeat]

(syersj @ Dec. 31 2007,22:12)

QUOTE

(fastfeat @ Dec. 31 2007,07:12)

QUOTE

NOAA forecast for Loxahatchee on Wed night is 33! Ouch!!

Austin's supposed to be 22 tomorrow, but I've gotten used to the 20s here, though they still suck...

Have you gotten used to the up and down roller coaster in Austin yet.  80F today and lows in 20s in 2 days, then back up to 70-80 by next weekend.

Jim--

Yeah, just haven't gotten used to the $5+ cigarettes and having to go outside in the cold at the bars to smoke 'em...

Hoping the tropical plants I moved to Ft Pierce (FL) before coming out to TX will still be alive after this coming week, but it doesn't look good. Looks like I'll be starting over from scratch when I get back to FL

[BS Man about Palms]

(SunnyFl @ Jan. 01 2008,05:01)

QUOTE

(Dave-Vero @ Dec. 31 2007,23:00)

QUOTE

We were 83 today, expecting something near freezing Thursday morning . . . typical Florida.

I'll have a bunch of guests in the living room Wednesday night.

Hi Dave,

Same here - a lot of plants to bring in, but we don't have room for all of them.  Plants in pots are more vulnerable than established ones in the ground, so even if our local forecast holds (low of 34), the potted ones will be better off indoors.

The trend keeps getting lower, but I notice that our forecast low for the 2nd is the same this morning as it was last night.  NOAA is still saying 34F.

Don't know how we're going to haul our potted C. Azul into the house - that thing is heavy!

Sunny-  

Good to hear from you!

Sad it takes it being so cold to bring you back...  ???

Take care of that Azul!

Bill

[Logolight]

Jacksonville forecast was downgraded to 20F for Wednesday night which means about 18F at my house.

[SunnyFl]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Jan. 01 2008,12:06)

QUOTE

Sunny-  

Good to hear from you!

Sad it takes it being so cold to bring you back...  ???

Take care of that Azul!

Bill

Thanks, BS Man,

Yes I was gone for awhile - "life happens" - but at least (so far) we're still in St. Pete.  Do your folks still winter here?

I sure will be taking care of the little Azul.  I'm glad I kept it potted up - it's in my guest room where it can stay warm.

You should have seen the Azul they had at the fall sale.  It was a biggie - and pricey.  But what a looker!

[tank]

Last nights low Weather.com reported for Gainesville was 32F.  It got down to 28F in my yard last night.  Both of these were higher than most of the forecasts.

Tonight they are still forecasting betwee 21F and 17F with a potential wind chill of 10F for tonight.

Here is NOAAs current discussion.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSONVILLE FL

1000 AM EST WED JAN 2 2008

...COLDEST TEMPERATURES SINCE JANUARY 2003...

.SHORT TERM...TEMPS WERE A BIT ABOVE FCST THIS MORNING. HOWEVER...

CONTINUED COLD AIR ADVECTION SHOULD KEEP FCST HIGH TEMPS ON TRACK.

WILL UPDATE ZONES AND HWO SHORTLY TO REMOVE OLD HEADLINES...

OTHERWISE LITTLE CHANGE EXPECTED.

[metalfan]

26F at 0430

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

34F at 0445, 2 hours to go till sunrise where it ought to drop a bit further.

[metalfan]

Well, I woke back up at 0700, looked out my back window and noted that my brugmansia, hedychium and clerodendrons are all crispy critters, so I just got back in bed for about 30 minutes. When I got out and looked, it was 22F.

That's certainly better than the 18F that was forecast. I guess this week (it will be almost 80 again later on, go figure) will be a week of cleanup and composting! I've usually already DONE this, in December. I thought maybe this year we were actually going to squeak by without a hard freeze, no cigar I guess!

At least its SUNNY!!!!

[tikitiki]

The 33 I recorded in my yard  was alot better than the 26 NOAA was forcasting. Now I'm on my way to San Diego so I will not know the extent of damage until next week.

Tom

[tank]

22F is much better than 18F.  All of the stuff I did not protect should have coasted through anything above 20F.

Gina, hopefully this little snap, along with the drought will at the very least temper the mosquitoe population this summer.

Tom,

33F is 100% better than 26F.