Artic air over Great Lakes

[Barrie]

Cold artic air over the Great Lakes region has cooled off the entire eastern seaboard. Northern Florida dodged an expected freeze last night saving produce and citrus crops. The Canadian maritime regions are getting slammed with huge amounts of snow. I guess January is staying true to it's usual ugly self

Cheers, Barrie.

[Cali-wanna-b]

I am in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. We got down to 8*F last night and are expecting near 0*F tonight. My robusta wrap is going to be put to the test!!

[Wes North Van]

We hit over 10C / 50F today. Almost made it to 52F. Vegas was about the same as here.

So far very little rain also so a good day to work outside.

Hopefully our neighbours to the east do not get hit too hard and hopefully it won't last long.

[Barrie]

A different story over here Wes. I worked at Duke Point this afternoon and we had 35 knot - 40 knot winds which cancelled a number of sailings to and from the mainland and the island. Also affected where sailings in and out of Swartz Bay while winds at Tsawwassen where storm force with heavy seas.
Temps where not impressive but 7c (45f) doesn't feel mild when winds are that vicious with a steady heavy down pour. Truly an ugly afternoon but all had abated and the rains mainly stopped by the evening. More for the next several days are forecast

Good luck with your W. robusta in Central Pennsylvania. Your wrap will have to be impressive.

Cheers, Barrie.[/i]

[Laaz]

Hit 24 F in my yard last night, 21 F recorded at the airport. Well looks like this blast is over & we will be back up in the 70's again all next week.

[Cali-wanna-b]

We only got down to 12*F last night....only LOL.

38*F under the robusta wrap. IMO, heat tape with a built in thermostat is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Starting tomorrow it looks like I will be able to air it out for a week or so. Highs in the 50's and lows in the upper 30's and 40's.

[Barrie]

Laaz ... a chilly night for you and your plants. Nice thing is it's always a short lived event where you are So far this season (fingers crossed) we've had one night at 28.8f (-2.5c) but we won't see the 70's until late March.

Cali-wanna-b ... Good to hear things are working for you. I've heard of the heat tape before but have never used it.

Cheers, Barrie.

[Alchris]

I'm glad that it is working for you. 2 30 foot heating cables are what is keeping my shelter warm.

Allen

[Laaz]

I burnt the crap out of my queen palm last night. I wrapped the trunk with a 25 strand light set & then wrapped it all up in burlap... Went out at noon today & three fronds collapsed. When I unwrapped it, they were burnt from too much heat... Ah well it'll survive, just look like crap for a whiles.

[Barrie]

I ran a string of 25 incandesent xmas bulbs in an Ensete vetricosum enclosure. 20 minutes later it was 80f and after fine tuning the required amount, all I needed was 3 lights to keep the temperature at a sufficent level. Even at that it's outgrown the enclosure and I have to come up with a larger one!

Cheers, Barrie.

[Laaz]

Yeah... From now on when we get a quick drop in temp like that, all it's getting is the burlap.

[Barrie]

Looks as if California is getting a pounding.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22503465/

Cheers, Barrie.

[PALMETTOMAN]

High pressure has cleared out here in s.ontario after 1 or 2 nights of -17C lows..

Were now almost 25 C degrees milder than we were Thursday...talk about a roller coaster ride..?


Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

[yuccaman]

It went as low as -21C and now we are having a zone 6B winter. After that,We had broke records of 15C during the January
thaw. All the snow was melted but not really the snow banks and now its cold and we have 8 cm on the ground.

Just to let you know that we are getting a shot of arctic air coming in and possibly the same as the last. A few in town thermometers were reading 20C at 4:00. Its all gone now.

[Alchris]

We are going through the same thing here right now. Up to +3C early this week, then -10C with 50MPH wind gusts, and now a forecast for -1C and calm today.

I am not complaining. We usually have temps in the -20C to -10C range. We still are in line for a Z 5b winter. So far.

Allen

[Barrie]

Environment Canada web site is showing -19c (-2f) for Sunday night in Edmonton. Around here, we're forecast to be stuck in the same weather pattern we where in for a big part of December with night temps at or just under freezing and daytime temps around the 5c to 6c range (40f to 42f).
How are your palms doing Allen?

Cheers, Barrie.

[Wes North Van]

We hit -1.2C so far in this cold snap. Not too bad. At least the days were sunny.

[Alchris]

We opened both of the shelters today so that my Grandnephew could take pictures for school.

The fronds on the 2 Livistona chinensis in the unheated shelter look like they were frozen and should eventually turn brown. I am still hopeful that the palms will regrow from their roots. I was surprised that the ground surface was not frozen. The rhododendron that was rated Zone 7 is in good health.

The plants in the heated shelter are all fine although the Washy, Trachy and Sabal seedlings need water soon. I just have to figure a way to deliver the water without shorting out the heating cables. The temps in the heated shelter have been between +1C and +15C depending on the amount of Sun that we get. Sunday will be a 24-36 hour chill before temps return to above normal. Even with the winds it should not be a problem.

I'm still

Allen