Oklahoma Colder than the South Pole This Morning

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:14 am

The headline to this Accuweather news story says it all:
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/s ... -south.asp

The photo below shows my laptop screen as I woke up. It is from the Gov't weather station for farmers. I ran out in pajamas (seriously) and read +8 F on the palm hut thermometer. All other palms are wrapped up, eight with some electric heat.

So, given that I have about 30 palms outdoors, protected for zone 7, and got zone 5 lows (with about two weeks at or below freezing), will I have >0 palms outdoors? Poll!

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K ... site"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_r-Mv ... 20comp.JPG" height="336" width="448" /></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>

Cameron_z6a_N.S. · Post by **Cameron_z6a_N.S.** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:42 am

After viewing Jim's successes, I have a feeling that some will pull through for you!

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:31 pm

Those are some brutal temperatures! So how are the palms?

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:38 pm

Tim,
I still don't know. It feels warm, but only in comparison.
I plan to unwrap them this weekend to see what if anything is left.
All us palm growers in OK are going through the stages of grief. E.g., denial (it wasn't really that cold--al the weather stations are wrong!) and anger (palms really, really won't grow here!).
As for acceptance, I am starting to plan a really cool desert garden--cacti and yucca. Palms in pots.

--Erik

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:06 pm

keep us posted!

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:06 am

TerdalFarm wrote: (palms really, really won't grow here!).

As for acceptance, I am starting to plan a really cool desert garden--cacti and yucca. Palms in pots.
--Erik

The thought of all the cool desert stuff a person could grow in your climate.

Paul Ont · Post by **Paul Ont** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:17 am

DesertZone wrote:
TerdalFarm wrote: (palms really, really won't grow here!).

As for acceptance, I am starting to plan a really cool desert garden--cacti and yucca. Palms in pots.
--Erik
The thought of all the cool desert stuff a person could grow in your climate.

Agree. If I didn't have all this humidity, cold weather, and rain, I could actually grow Agaves!

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:53 am

Erik

Do you have any idea what temps your palms experienced?

If they were covered in snow(enclosures)I doubt they saw less than 20(F)

The question then would be-did it get to hot with the lights/heat on?

Usually the heat will find a way to escape but with those temps it may
have just stayed sealed enough.

Hard to believe the core of that air slipped past us and got you-
we didn't even get that cold 2 years ago(-18F)-AMAZING!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:23 am

Jim,
afraid not. I broke several thermometers last year and did not bother replacing them. So, the only actual temp. I have is the +8 oF in the heated palm hut I saw when I ran out in the PJs. That was with a 1500 W ceramic heater with fan going all out plus a 250 w heat lamp. I had several potted palms in there, so root temps may have gotten much colder than I planned on.
As you pointed out, every single palm was covered, and the smaller ones buried in snow. The soil stayed at +1 C at 5" per the nearby mesonet website. However, as I uncover palms I am finding--even today when it is warm--frozen water bottles on the ground, under cover, in heated shelters. So, it was cold. But obviously not -20 F where palm tissue was. A local palm grower who is better than I am at placing min/max thermometers by his palms says the worst he recorded was +1 F by the trunk of his. I like to hope that is true for me as well. --Erik

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:50 am

+1 F? OMG.

all the cool desert stuff a person could grow in your climate

Agree...Sure would look good too as a pool-surround.
Bonus = easy care.

Potted palms (big heavy containers) placed here and there throughout desert/gravel beds and on hardscape areas would look stunning.
Indoors in winter, brightening interior living spaces.

Sounds like a good solution to me.
Barb

PS--and once you do all that, you'll never again have winter temps that low. Murphy's Law.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 2:10 pm

You would be better off sinking the pots in the ground.

I don't think someones temp in their shelter says anything
about what yours would be unless we are talking about a cover
with the same amount of snow over it/ same inside space.

I checked the soil temps inside my enclosures today-

37(F) next to the palms trunk was a common number
also about a foot away from the cactus shelters edge and
40(F) in the center of the bed next to the biggest Yucca.

Soil temp where snow recently cleared was...surprisingly 32(F)

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:01 pm

Not that Erik's post needs any verification...

100 Degrees In One Week?
Here in Minnesota we experienced a 60-80 degree temperature swing from the previous week to this past week. But Yahoo News reports on one Oklahoma town boasting a 100 degree swing:

"Residents in the Northern Oklahoma town of Nowata experienced a nearly 110-degree shift in the weather this week after a cold front brought temperatures down to a record-setting -31 degrees. Today, it's a balmy 72 degrees in Nowata. Yesterday, it reached 79 degrees. "Isn't it crazy? I love it," Nowata resident Julie Koupe told local channel News on 6. On Feb. 10, it was slightly colder in the region than it was on the South Pole, notes Tulsa World writer Cary Aspinall. More than 3,000 Nowata homes lost power and residents spent the next few days digging their cars and homes out of the snow. There was so much snow in Tulsa last week that city officials began debating provisional plans to truck it out of town. On Thursday, the 79 degree weather tied for the warmest Feb. 17 since 1907."

From here: http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=10695.0

So, it's no longer Global Warming, or Global Cooling, or Climate Change...
maybe just GLOBAL MUDDLE.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:59 pm

Here is the warm-up data from Mesonet, which I usually use as it is rural and for farmers:

Here are the triple-digit temperature differences between the lows of February
10 and the highs of today, February 17 (at least as of 4pm):

Site TMAX TMIN SWING
Nowata 79 -31 110
Medford 82 -27 109
Blackwell 81 -27 108
Marshall 81 -25 106
Cherokee 81 -24 105
Red Rock 81 -23 104
Breckinridge 80 -23 103
Oilton 81 -21 102
Pawnee 82 -20 102
Pryor 74 -28 102
Burbank 80 -21 101
Vinita 77 -24 101
Stillwater 81 -19 100
Camargo 84 -16 100
Seilling 82 -18 100
Bixby 78 -22 100

So, yes, Bixby is on that 100 list.

It was warm again today. I was sweating while tramping through McCurtain counting ogling countless Sabal minor. More on another post....

PalmsNorth.com

Oklahoma Colder than the South Pole This Morning

Will Erik have living palms outdoors in a week?

Oklahoma Colder than the South Pole This Morning

actual trunk tissue temps unkown