Looks like BC is going to get a cold front.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:52 pm

Ya, who would've thought it possible, especially on the Coast?
The wind chills were devastating everywhere.

Let's hope that's it for another 87 years...
Barb

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:14 am

24 straight days of cold ... absolutely unheard of here. Well they weather guys PROMISE that will end tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it after all we've been through. The past 10 days have been at or just under freezing at night and daytime temps not much better. Snow off and on with the latest falling yesterday afternoon and early evening (another 3" of heavy wet slushy snow).
Now we have January to look forward to, traditionally our coldest month.

Cheers, Barrie.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:37 pm

Barrie,
Heavy rain in store for the Coast?

Vernon had another 6-8 inches snow overnight.
We're running out of places to dump the snow

Roads are brutal, even the highways.
Barb

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:24 am

My wife visited her daughter in Alberta during the Christmas holidays. The city there is / was considering aquiring a machine that would collect and melt the snow, discharge it into the strom drains.

"A strong onshore flow of moist sub-tropical air will follow the warm front bringing heavy rain to the west coast of Vancouver Island as well as Howe Sound the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver tonight through Wednesday. Amounts of up to 120 mm are possible along the southwest side of Vancouver Island and the Fraser Valley. Amounts of 50 to 75 mm are expected for Greater Vancouver and Howe Sound. The rain should ease late Wednesday as the flow of moist air slumps south into Washington state."

Looks like we'll be spared the worst of it here on the SE coast of the island.

Cheers, Barrie.

Paul Ont · Post by **Paul Ont** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:25 am

Hey guys,
Guess it's our turn now! Looks like we'll hit 0f (-18C) here next monday... Or at least that's what they're calling for now. My place in Sydenham has hit -19C and will apparently drop to -24C on Monday night...

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:20 pm

Paul, hopefully you'll have enough snow on the ground to protect your succulents/yuccas.

Barrie, I'm ready to trade with you.

Barb

Okanagan desert-palms · Tue Jan 06, 2009 5:58 pm

Well here comes the Pineapple express. The next couple of days are 10 c or 50 f. It is going to be one hell of a mess.

John

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:17 am

Yes John. Southwestern portions of Vancouver Island where hit very hard and Sooke Rd is washed out, isolating the community from the rest of the island.
All this system has given us here along the corridor from Parksville to Chemainus is light rain at worst. I was outside all afternoon yesterday and was fine. Same story here today but no rain at all.

Cheers, Barrie.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:54 am

Jeez, snow is moving

Baby avalanches at my place (horizontal "rips" at bottom third of picture):

And good luck to all the folks suffering from flooding.

...an earthquake in Costa Rica, yet another in California, lots of shakin' all year in Alaska.
Oh man!
Barb

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 10:47 am

I hope there's no risk of an avalanche directed at your property?
Again, no rain here. A small amount yesterday in the early afternoon which lasted about an hour maybe.
Big floods in the Fraser Valley and low flood plain areas. Chehalis WA was hit hard and many evacuated.

Cheers, Barrie.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:51 am

Fortunately, nights are still a bit below zero C, so the big melt (and the baby avalanches) have ended for the time being.
I think my place will be OK, as there is less snow up "our mountain" than around the house.

About 20 years ago our area had a really fast snowmelt and the neighbour's house got hit with a mudslide from above.
The mud nailed the back of the house, and came through the top plate into the basement. What a mess.

I really feel for the folks in BC and Washington affected by the floods.

Heard a great idea yesterday...to thaw frozen eavestroughs and downspouts, throw road salt onto the roof.
Two cautions: wear safety glasses, and direct SALTY downspout water away from foundation plants.

Barb

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:58 pm

lucky1 wrote:Heard a great idea yesterday...to thaw frozen eavestroughs and downspouts, throw road salt onto the roof.
Two cautions: wear safety glasses, and direct SALTY downspout water away from foundation plants.

Humm ... I don't have that problem here Barb. What I did do yesterday was shovel (by hand) 10,000 lbs of snow off the back portion of my deck. No word of a lie, as I was able to calculate the area I cleared of 8 inches wet heavy snow. 45' x 17', the portion of deck that is on the NW side and gets little melting effects. There are a couple of structural issues I have to deal with as a result of the extra weight. Spring won't come a day too soon

.

Glad to here you're out of the danger zone.

Cheers, Barrie.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:05 pm

Thanks Barrie

shovel (by hand) 10,000 lbs of snow off the back portion of my deck.

Bet you need a massage now...
I'd be in a body cast if I tried to shovel all that snow.

Hopefully your GH is intact after all that heavy snow.

Spring won't come a day too soon

Jeez, I'm going to kiss the ground...as soon as I can find it

Barb

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:14 pm

Greenhouse is intact and plenty of green grass but the heaps of snow will last quite some time.
Another upside to the snow keeping the beer cold, there's always a good cardio workout when shoveling.
I'm way more active than my dad (RIP) was at the same age I am. Moving to Mexico might seem nice but I'd bet I'd get lazy there. (Maybe)

Cheers, Barrie.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:15 am

Good that the GH wasn't damaged from heavy snow.

Today our friends are leaving for Arizona...

Anybody see the HGTV gardening show Friday "around the world in 80 gardens"?
They featured Australia and New Zealand...oooh, those tree ferns and palms sure looked good.
It was great just looking at an area with 365-days to grow things...

I'd get lazy there, too, Barrie.
Barb

PALMETTOMAN · Post by **PALMETTOMAN** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:08 pm

Great show Barb...it looks super swell in HD!

PalmettomanZ6-Ajax, On

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:43 pm

Looked darn good in Low D

For me, the trick is to kinda ignore the narrator (not a botanist, just a "muser/babbler").
I may turn the sound off to truly enjoy next Friday's show.

Barb

PALMETTOMAN · Post by **PALMETTOMAN** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:00 pm

Ha ha.....Muser?...haven't heard that one in a while Barb??

Yeah the host looked pretty overwhelmed, you might be right....silence is golden.

Were looking at nitetime lows here tonite at -16C...the wind is just blazin..all my in ground palms are going to get a little warmth tonite..i will try and keep the palm enclosures around 0C....tomorrow nitetime lows are -20C...yikes!!

PalmettomanZ6-Ajax, On

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:24 pm

Winter is made worse by high winds.
Hopefully your fence minimizes the wind around your plant enclosures.

Brrrrr....Yikes indeed.
Here's to no power outages.

Barb

PALMETTOMAN · Post by **PALMETTOMAN** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:20 pm

Barb....You are a kean observer...yes..that fence helps block out those north westerlies..and those are set to push the windchill's to -30C overnight...last night I bottomed out at -19C in my yard...the coldest night of the winter...so far!

By contrast, sweet jasmine is now blooming in my garage greenhouse at about +15C...

I guess your all enjoying those above 0C temps...

PalmettomanZ6-Ajax, On

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:15 am

An 11 degree improvement in your yard...excellent.
Thank goodness for that microclimate.

Oooooh, jasmine! A heady scent...it would be nice to bring it into the house to enjoy that.
My jasmine inadvertently got left in the cold building this fall.
It's almost dead

Mild temps have produced thick valley fog.
Can't see 10 feet out the windows.
Vernon and Kelowna airports are at a standstill.
But skiers on Silver Star and Big White mountains are already sporting tans, as they're above all the soup.

Hopefully this mild weather will head east into Ontario soon.
Barb

PALMETTOMAN · Post by **PALMETTOMAN** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:07 am

Well Barb, at least there's a break coming from the cold...(I still wouldn't want to be in Esteven)...

I bottomed out at -21C during this snap and that was cold so I couldn't imagine -43C or so...

Good idea about bringing in the jasmine...I'll try that this aft.

PalmettomanZ6-Ajax, On

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:02 pm

Glad there's a break coming for you.

Read on another site that on January 16th, it was -50 F (yes Fahrenheit) in MAINE, -36F in ILLINOIS.

B.C. is cooling off again (*poop*)

BTW, did you see 80 Gardens last night?
It's good I didn't have a bowlfull of tomatoes nearby...my TV would be covered in it this morning.
That guy is such a babbling turkey...walked past how many palms without so much as a glance.
The show's supposed to be about gardens and instead he talks about civilizations, showing desert, bone-dry scenes.

He tried, to no avail, to get that woman in India to admit her garden was actually a British garden.

Next time I will turn down the audio.
Must keep watching all the episodes, though, just in case the cameraman trips, and they actually pan up at a palm tree.

Barb

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:50 pm

lucky1 wrote:Hopefully this mild weather will head east into Ontario soon.
Barb

I disagree ... where will that leave us?

Cheers, Barrie.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 6:45 pm

Have a look at the mega-low that's in the Pacific waiting to follow BC's huge high pressure ridge (once it moves).

GULP!

http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/op ... loopw.html

PalmsNorth.com

Looks like BC is going to get a cold front.

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