I'll have to figure out tomorrow what to do about the plants. It might be raining all day tomorrow, so that won't be much fun, with a high about 46°. Ick!
Freeze is coming....what night...don't know yet!
And here I was feeling bad because our LOW was going to be 46!
I'm thinking with the rain and several days in the 40s, the plants will have gotten themselves in real good shape. I'm only planning on doing anything with some of the ones in smaller containers.
43.7° right now and raining....haven't gotten up the nerve to go outside and do anything yet!
My neighbor works for the LCRA and sends me updates of the Central TX weather from their forecaster. l woudn't have posted it all, but it seems that it will affect more than the Austin area.....including the Hill Country and down to the Coast. Hope it helps someone....
Looks like fall is gone, and winter will soon arrive...like Thursday! I'm off to put heaters in temp. ghs....
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 11:12 AM
Subject: Update on this Week's Wet and Cold Weather
The following is an update on today's expected wet weather and look ahead at weather conditions for the rest of the week. Today's forecast data indicates some significant changes that could bring snow flurries to a large part of the region late this week. At the same time, the temperature looks to be quite cold, with the possibility of a freeze all the way to the coast.
This morning, a large area of low pressure in the upper atmosphere was located over northeastern Mexico, just west of the Big Bend region. The low pressure system is pulling moisture north from the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the development of widespread rain showers across West Texas and the western Hill Country. As of 11:00 am, several LCRA gauges across the western Hill Country had already recorded around one-half inch of rain. This area of rain will slowly spread east across the rest of the region this afternoon and tonight. Rain amounts are still forecast to average around 1 to 1.5 inches at most locations by Wednesday morning. The low pressure system is forecast to track from roughly San Angelo to near Shreveport tonight into Wednesday morning. Along and near the path of the upper low, temperatures in the middle and upper atmosphere will be favorable for the rain to change over to snow. Therefore, I do expect the rain to become mixed with some snow flurries over much of the Hill Country beginning around midnight tonight, continuing into Wednesday morning. Surface temperatures should stay above freezing so there will be little to no accumulation. Atmospheric temperatures look to be too warm to support snow flurries across the Central Texas and coast region. Here, it will just be a cold rain. Lows Wednesday morning will include the mid and upper 30s across the Hill Country, the upper 30s to near 40 degrees across Central Texas and the lower 40s towards the coast.
The rain should taper off from west to east Wednesday morning as the upper low exits to the northeast. The sky will become partly cloudy in the afternoon. Wednesday's temperature will climb into the low and middle 50s. It will be clear and cold Wednesday night. Lows Thursday morning will be near 28-32 degrees across the Hill Country, near 30-32 degrees across Central Texas and the mid to upper 30s towards the coast. Thursday's weather will be sunny and cool as additional cold, Canadian air spreads south into Texas. High temperatures will range from the mid and upper 40s across the north to the middle 50s towards the coast.
Clouds will increase and the sky will become mostly cloudy Thursday night as a weak area of moisture spreads north from the Pacific. Today's forecast data indicates a weak wave of low pressure diving south out of Canada will sweep across Texas Thursday night into Friday. This feature was not seen on yesterday morning's forecast data. Very cold air will be in place across our region Thursday night into Friday. Lows Friday morning will be in the low and middle 30s at most locations. Today's data indicates that as the wave of low pressure tracks across Texas late Thursday night into Friday, light precipitation will begin to develop. The precipitation may start off as rain or sleet but there are strong indications the precipitation will change over to mainly snow flurries as the temperature in the lower atmosphere falls close to or below freezing. Interestingly, this threat for snow flurries will extend all the way to the middle Texas coast as well. Keep in mind, with only limited moisture available, the precipitation will be light. Friday's temperature will warm to the upper 30s to around 40 degrees so the precipitation may change over to mainly light rain by the afternoon. All of the precipitation is forecast to end from west to east late Friday afternoon into Friday evening. Note, there is still much uncertainty in how much snow will fall and where it will fall. But I did want to alert all interests to this possibility. As of now, the accumulation of snow is expected to be low. If the snow develops as forecast, it will be a fairly rare event, but not totally unexpected in this El Nino winter weather pattern.
The sky will clear Friday night, with conditions becoming favorable for a freeze across the entire region. In fact, we could see a hard freeze across the Hill Country and over parts of Central Texas. Lows Saturday morning will include the mid and upper 20s across the Hill Country, the upper 20s to 30 degrees across Central Texas and near 30-32 degrees towards the coast. Saturday's weather will be sunny with a high in the low 50s. It won't be quite a cold Saturday night as a few clouds return. Lows Sunday morning will be mostly in the mid and upper 30s. Long-range forecasts call for milder temperatures and a mostly cloudy sky by early next week.
I'll pass along more details about Friday's potential winter weather over the next couple of days.
Bob
Right now, NWS says 28° for a low for Friday night. We'll see!
I just looked out the back window, and see pots I've still not put away....and a huge potted foxtail palm that's leaning against the fence because I can't figure how to cover it. It's still raining, but not like earlier today. Anything forecasted below 35 is going to take out my big hibiscus that are in ground. I've just run out of incentive... and room to do anymore today. Looks like Wed will be the last chance.....do or die....
I'm in the same boat, bubbles. My tropicals and cacti are still languishing in their pots in the backyard. Guess it's high time I recruited the hubby and started marching my babies into the garage...!
Even an old bedsheet thrown over a plant will help a little, so I've found. Home Depot (and probably Lowe's too) now sell "Plankets" in varying sizes - these are basically bags made of green heavy frostcloth that fit over plants with a drawstring at the bottom to keep them secure. Not sure how well these work, but they look well made.
I have lots of the white frost cloth (row cloth)......works great unless the wind is blowing hard. I had to resort to writing our address on the pieces out front. Old neighbors knew where to return it, new ones did not. I would anchor it down, but once the wind gets under it....it's gone. We live on a hill. Those bags sound like something I might have to try! I can whip up a few on the sewing machine. Thanks for idea....might work on the palm.
I have lots of old sheets that seems to work for the bedding plants. At least they'll dry out. Blankets take a long time to dry, and get really heavy, if it rains...but I use everything when I hear 'freeze comin'......
Here's the site I use. It's really accurate and is updated as the weather changes. I used the zip code for Kerrville since it's close to you and I didn't know the ZIP for Medina off the top of my head. You can put your own ZIP in and get more accurate info.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Kerrville&state=TX&site=EWX&textField1=30.0419&textField2=-99.1361
Great weather page Thanks
We have been chilly all day, in the 50's and rain. Yesterday and today so far about 7 inches of rain have fallen. The forecast this evening said mid 40's Friday night, warming up to near 70 on Saturday. I have to harvest for farmer's market on Friday and I'm going to freeze!
I already use that site...bookmarked to my location. It's great! Some weather sites only work for cities and we don't even live in a town, so I go by latitude & longitude, not zip. Current forecast: low tonight...37°/next night...34°/next night...34°/then Saturday a.m....27°. Winter is starting...don't care what the official first day of winter is supposed to be!
It's official: our first freeze is coming tonight. I hauled the cacti in last night in the pouring rain (and good thing too - we had flurries this morning around Dallas) but the plumerias and other sensitive potted plants are coming in tonight for sure!
*sigh* Is it April yet?
Well is was 30º outside when I woke up this morning. Then there was the snow....
Great garden Stephanie!!!! We had snow to.
Weather teams seems to think that later in the week we have good chance of some snow mix.
We use clothes pins to secure our freeze cloth. Works well, and is easy to remove on the "good" days.
I got a bunch of those little metal spring clamps/clips at Home Depot for securing frost cloth. They work great and really stay put.
Texas Tam, don't bother buying the Plankets. They are much more expensive than regular frost cloth, but not as effective. I fell for the hype last year and bought 4. The plants I was trying to protect froze anyway. I have some heavyfrost cloth I'm going to try. I'll have to go look for the clips or the clothes pins or bricks.
First freeze here....30.4° last night...brrr! Worse coming, of course.
It's 30º this morning. Booooo!
When is it time to start tomato seeds??? LOL
I'm off to HD to buy more pipe insulation. Got their e-mail ad last night for today. Pipe is $.99, can always use it to cover another brug trunk. Also going to look at foam insulation board that someone's using to line bottom part of ghs.
Anyone know if it's better to cut Easter lily vine back before the freeze, or wait till damage already done? Mine has grown 30 ft into the oak tree. Problem is...it's in a pot and has rooted thru the hole in pot. Hate to lose it.....
Here's a great weather page, too.
http://www.wunderground.com/
I love the fact that I can go back and see what the temps have been like in previous years - by the day, week, month, etc. I also like the fact that I can see the temps and wind speed in my corner of Houston, because the temps around the Houston area will vary every day. Some places get colder than others. Some get hotter than others - even though they're all part of the Houston area.
The forecast for my area calls for falling temps starting this afternoon at 4pm and continuing for 39 hours straight. It will hit 32º at 6am Fri and then rising to 33º for only a couple hours. From then on it will be freezing until Sat am at between 7 and 8am or about 24 hours finally bottoming out at 24º with a wind chill of 18º. This should just about wipe out the 2009 garden. And it is said our climate is warming....hard to believe.
The sad part of this mess is that this could be one of those years where this is the only freeze we have this Winter.
Give me hot and dry any day! (smile)
Jerry, who lived in the year of extreme high temps and record low temps.
We haven't had a frost since 2004 and tonight it is predicted to be, depending on the weather station, 32-34 degrees. It is raining right now, 46 degrees with strong winds from the north. I hope they are all wrong!
I have 12,000 sq ft of vegetable gardens with tomatoes almost ripe, squash, peppers, cucumbers and beans that are all tender to frost. I kept meaning to order remay this summer and just didn't get around to it. There is no way I can cover everything that will get damaged if it frosts. None of the stores here carry frost blankets or anything resembling them.
Ohhh, Calalily! I will be praying that it stays above freezing there!
Thank you Marylyn. We are getting ready to cover the small cukes, squash and tomatoes in the third section. We have overhead irrigation (plus ground bubblers, but they won't help much). I can run two sections at a time, the water comes from the resaca(like a lake) and is still pretty warm. We plan to have them come on at 3 am when the temps are predicted to fall the lowest. The ground is already soaked from the rain and the whole garden is raised beds so they will drain. We sell at two farmer's markets, this is our extra money crop!
They were supposed to begin picking our grapefruits this coming week, but it is too muddy. The fruit is very good this year. These are big trees, 15 years old so they can take a frost.
We also have one acre of new citrus, I don't know what to do for them. We haven't installed the freeze protection thingies, they're little sprayers on a 24 inch tube, but we just didn't get to it.
I wish I'd saved all those clay pots I gave away a few years ago, they sure would come in handy now.
Ooh, I'm ready for fresh grapefruit! Hope everything else works out...
I checked out this thread b/c I was hoping y'all knew what to do. I've lived here for years and I still don't know what to do to protect the plants. They seem to freeze no matter what. It hasn't gotten below freezing yet, but it's been snowing and raining all day. I was hoping for just snow and thinking that might protect the plants, but then it rained after it snowed. I didn't want to cover the plants and then have them weighed down by the water and snow. Is it better to leave the ones that have snow on them alone or should I cover them when it stops raining? I never know what to do.
Here's the snow from 1:30 this afternoon before it rained and ruined everything!
I've got big plastic tarps up. My tomatoes are against the house, in large pots, with the tarp covering them, and then I have a lot of other containers against a wooden fence with plastic tarp hooked onto the fence in a sort of impromptu lean-to. Is that going to help, do you think? I could bring in *some* of my plants, but not all... I'm most fond of the tomatoes but they are tall and heavy and not sure I could get them in the house even if I wanted to.
Anything else I can do for them, in place??
Thanks.
Lise
I'm about to go out and cover my roses and bromeliads. The rest of the garden is pretty much on its own. It should be ok.
Lise, do you have any Christmas lights you can use out there? That's supposed to give a little warmth in an enclosed area.
This message was edited Dec 4, 2009 5:37 PM
Thanks for the idea, LindaTX8 -- and how creative! It'll have to be for the next time. I'm not in a position to follow your suggestion this time, because we haven't yet gotten out our lights. Grrrr, and since asking my question, hubby's already been crabby over helping me with the tarps and is convinced that we shouldn't have to run around with tarps (farmers don't do this!) and if we lose things, it'll be because I obviously don't know what I'm doing in the garden (growing the wrong stuff, wrong time, wrong place -- something). He's probably correct to some extent -- I am a newbie, for sure -- but his attitude is really not helping right now. Let 'em freeze or fend for themselves at this point. Anyway, I'm working a mid tonight and have to go get a nap in. I'll just try dreaming of some warmer weather, I guess! LOL
I just gave up. I tried to cover one big potted succulent with a huge bedspread and it wasn't big enough, and then I was cold and uncertain and irritated! Oh well.
Elphaba ~ savor the moment ~ your 5:12pm photo is lovely. A sight not commonly seen in your neck of the woods.
I'm wondering if I should go ahead and pick my lemons and tangerines and oranges. It may go down to 25 degrees tonight. The trees are fairly small but I don't know if just a sheet will help.
It's 26.6° here so far....can't wait until the warm-up gets here!
It is hovering between 30 and 31 right now. The frost is hit and miss. Sprinklers are running full blast, but when we have to alternate between zones, some of the leaves get ice on them. It's going to be a long night. I covered what I could, but the tomatoes are in 34 ft rows and are at least 4ft tall.
Oh Calalily, I really feel for you, this cold is terrible, 27 degrees here this morning.
One bright thing today....the Frostweed plants have done their thing. I need to go back out with my camera and take some pictures.
If you folks have them, and it came a hard freeze last night go look at the base of the plant for the white ice looking show.