Oklahoma heat wave

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:31 pm

I've been noticing the heat wave in Ok, must be breaking some records. I have also noticed that the record highs there are about the same as they are here (Shoshone ID)

Stay cool Erik.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:52 am

Thanks for the cool thoughts.
Yesterday marked five months from the "colder than the south pole" event and we celebrated by being about 130 F warmrr.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 11:39 am

How many days in a row of 100+?

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:28 pm

We had a couple of 99s last week, but Oklahoma City and the west have not. They are much hotter and drier out there than here.

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:54 pm

I spent a few summers out in Shawnee, OK when I was in college...............it's hot out there! The coldest summer day time high was 89F. I'm not use to that type of heat. 90F makes the new around here. LOL

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:21 pm

hot but not terrible here yet....96 yesterday but only 88 and cloudy here today...high 80s for rest of week until Monday and then back into 90s

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:06 am

That heat is moving north by Friday and looks to be sticking around.
I can't wait to see what the Thai giant does with over a week of near
80f low temperatures!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:20 am

We'll be looking for photos, Jim!
With days/weeks of lows about 80 F and highs above 100 F, Colocassia are looking fried on the margins. Ditto Musa basjoo. Trachycarpus palms are also unhappy.
Most other tropicals love it: Sabal and Butia are growing great, as are potted palms of all sorts. Canna are tall, as is the Siam Ruby Musa clump.
Lots of watering, and I'll do a round of fertilizer soon. --Erik

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 12:50 pm

A cold front just came through. Dropped the air from 106 F (41 C) to 93 (34 C) F real fast. Soil at 4" (10 CM) is still 102 F (39 C). So, the rain comes down in sheets but most evaporates as it nears the ground. Strong winds tattering the bananas. Anyway, we'll take all the moisture we can get.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:08 pm

All the way down to 83 F (29 C) with 0.17" measured rain. Strong winds (gusts to 50 mph). Gotta love palms--they can handle the wind

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:39 pm

Warming back up, but the weather station <1 mile from my farm went from 108 F to 79.3 F real fast. Sure felt good while it lasted! All plants are OK, but the largest potted sago was knocked over by the wind. And that guy is heavy

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:59 am

I bet the humidity felt awesome!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:08 am

We had finally got down to dewpoints in the 60s, but now they are back to the 70s.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:18 pm

Soil at 4 inches was 102 F

Jumpin' Jimminy...

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:22 pm

It is a delightful 89 F right now at 4" under, an hour after sunset and with a half inch of rain.
Planting weather! I planted W's beloved Washy today. Too big to move

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:37 pm

The high of 109 F (43 C) broke those old dust bowl records (1936), but our friend Don in Wichita boasts 111 F at his place.

Anyway, we're hoping TS "Don" makes its way up here. Very, very slight chance.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:20 pm

OMG, Erik, you'd have to pick me up off the pavement!

Haven't heard from Don in ages....he's probably planted himself in front of the swamp cooler.

Brutal temps for you folks.

At those temps, the air-conditioned bureaucrats would have us all on stage 129 of water restrictions

and we'd have to wring sweat from our t-shirts to water our plants.
That's just the way the stooooopid rules are around here with only 13" of precip in a year.

Hoping for a cooldown for you...and a good dump of rain.

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:29 pm

Don is super busy with literally hours of watering daily.
When we have time, we'll post photos. We both have some crispy plants, but a few that are loving it.
Water: no formal restrictions yet. After the dust bowl, the fed. govt. borrowed $ to build lots of reservoirs around here and they are 85% full still. Reminds me why I pay taxes.
Still, the governor asked us to pray for rain. Is TS Don the answer to our prayers?

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:55 am

governor asked us to pray for rain.

That's hilarious!

What a huge temp range you've had...from brutal winter cold to brutal summer heat.
Hope TS Don is good to you...

Photos happily viewed whenever you're able.

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:08 am

Don reminds me that he was colder than I in February and hotter than me now.

Still thinking hard about moving back to Oregon sometime. Their highs are lower than my lows every day lately. And of course they had another zone8/9 winter....

Meantime, back to watering.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:12 pm

Just think of the palms and yuccas and magnolias and cannas etc. you could grow in Oregon.
Even more with some easy protection.

Wherever you call home, we know you'll turn it into your own paradise.

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:00 pm

We're still calculating, but this may well have been the hottest July ever. July is usually our hottest month--hopefully August will be cooler. Let's see what the local TV metereologists are forecasting....

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/a ... site"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-DLY1 ... recast.jpg" height="478" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm ... te">August 2011</a></td></tr></table>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:54 pm

OMG, Erik!

Hello Oregon?!

Stay cool and hydrated.
Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:08 am

105 F by 11 am.
So, will we break the all-time record high for Tulsa of 115 F today, or not until tomorrow? Stay tuned....
Now, back to watering.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:49 am

You're 41 degrees warmer than us!

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:52 am

Naw, just 23 C warmer if our weather stickers are right.
Hiding in the house now. Quit watering at noon, after 4 hours.

Knnn · Post by **Knnn** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:01 am

Keep cool Erik, we broke a 1936 record of 113F the other day.
I've about given up on keeping the GH going in this heat.............

Steve

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:06 am

How do you keep the GH cool?

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:33 am

Naw,

The diff was 41 Fahrenheit degrees when I posted.

Oh Steve, 113F.
Unbelievably brutal!
You probably throw a shade tarp over the GH roof, with fans blowing heat out?

Barb

Knnn · Post by **Knnn** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:03 pm

How do you keep the GH cool?

Exhaust fans, circulation fans, and misters.
The misters work fairly well, usually get about a 10F drop from ambient. the downside is these are only good for intermittent use.
After 3-4 weeks of continuous use, the mineral build of the foliage is getting quite heavy. Then the constant dampness and high temps is growing every color of fungus you could imagine

So everything is getting sprayed down during the day, then extra airflow during the night to try and dry things out.......................

Barb, All of the polycarbonate installed is about 50% shade to begin with. Just bright sunshine here without a cloud in the sky...........

Steve

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:00 pm

polycarbonate installed is about 50% shade

That was a good plan, Steve.
The polycarbonate I have is clear...not a good choice I suspect even for winter.

The exhaust fans and circulation fans are so beneficial.
Can you just imagine the fungus growth if you didn't have air circulating?

Take care...hear's hoping for a good dump of rain and a cloudy week coming up for you folks!

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:46 pm

The all-time heat record for Tulsa is 115 F in 1936. We already broke our all-time record high lows, both Monday, which only lasted until yesterday when that was broke. But would we get to 115, despite the higher dewpoints than during the dustbowl?

Not quite. The Tulsa airport stopped at 112 F when it started raining.

Here, we got very close: 114.9 this afternoon before the showers got down here:

Time Air Heat index Dewpoint
15:59 114.9 °F 120.4 °F 63.9 °F 29.63in Calm 1.0mph 20% 0.00in
16:04 114.9 °F 120.4 °F 63.9 °F 29.63in Calm 1.0mph 20% 0.00in
16:09 114.8 °F 120.2 °F 63.8 °F 29.63in Calm 0.0mph 20% 0.00in
16:10 114.8 °F 121.4 °F 65.2 °F 29.63in Calm 0.0mph 21% 0.00in
(the dewpoint was going up and air temp down as the "cold front" came near).

--Erik, remembering fondly the weather 6 months ago, when we could sit outside

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/d ... site"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-abIx ... AG0538.jpg" height="383" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm ... ">February 2011</a></td></tr></table>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:47 am

OMG, Erik, can't even imagine what 115 F would be like.

So TS Don obviously missed you guys last week.

Strange...you had a brutal winter and now a brutal summer.

When rain hits hot parched ground, smells to me like burnt hair (knuckles singed on the BBQ).
Did your rain just evaporate?
or did you get enough to actually soak into the ground?

Love the photo

For another cool down...Here's one for you from mid-Dec 2008:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/3108740282/" title="DSC02051 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/310 ... ef362b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC02051"></a>

Take it easy!
Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:02 am

Those 60F dewpoints look nice-not with those temps though.

We briefly saw 60F dewpoints the other day-unfortunately it
was accompanied by a 106F temperature.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:14 am

Dewpoint 71 F right now, which is holding down the temps. The forecast was for a high of 112 F but there is no way that will happen.
I have the mister system going all day (but not at night) which I think helps the tropical plants. Hopefully evaporation off the pool in the middle of the tropical garden helps them as well. I didn't water plants this morning as we are on voluntary water restrictions.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:42 pm

A whole lot of people are affected by the drought...12% of the U.S.
http://geology.com/news/2011/july-sets- ... ogy.com%29

Looks like the rain moved south to Chile in July:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43982706/ns/weather/

Almost like what happened with our regular winter cold shifting south to Oklahoma?...

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 3:00 pm

Sorry you didn't make it to 112F Erik,I know that would be a lot of fun!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 3:04 pm

Who would've thought 103 F would seem mild?
I didn't water plants today -- with temps this cool, no need, right?

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:36 am

TerdalFarm wrote:Who would've thought 103 F would seem mild?
I didn't water plants today -- with temps this cool, no need, right?

Yea....

and if you wait a few more days,you will never need to water them again!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:52 pm

My new watering rule is to only water on days that we set an all-time record high.
For example, as I write this it is 112 F (44.5 C) outside at 2:30 pm. That breaks a daily record from 1964, but not the all-time record high so I get to stay inside. In the morning, we will set an all-time record high low set way back a couple of days ago, so I will water tomorrow.

I think I've mentioned on another thread that I want to get more into Yucca and xerophillics and less into Colocassia, Musa and the like. Well, this recent heat is sure nudging me that way

Palms, BTW, are generally doing just fine in the heat.

PalmsNorth.com

Oklahoma heat wave

Oklahoma heat wave

storm!

August

Dodged an all-time record high by a hair

New watering rule

Who is online