How did you fare with the deep freeze?

It is 7:45 am right now and my thermometer outside says 24 degrees. The greenhouse is at 36.5 with 40% humidity. When I went to bed it was at 45 degrees with 75% humidity. Everything I can see outside is toast, brugs, confederate rose, canna, acetosella. Weeds in the lawn look ok! LOL. I'm wondering how the crinum did but they are covered with burlap and I won't uncover them until it gets above freezing. Just looked at the 10 day and we in Summerville are in for a few more nights in the 20's.

X

Gosh you really got walloped. We did OK down here where temps stayed around 36. Friday and Saturday nights are supposed to be pretty miserable however.

We're getting cold front after cold front .. January weather is 2 months early. I'm one of those heretics that believe our climate is actually in a cooling trend, especially since sunspot activity is almost non-existent. I'm seriously wondering if our heartiness zone might be changing! If that's the case, then I may be able to grow peonys in a few years!

The burlap is working astonishingly well .. my crinum tops are still alive and kicking .. I take off the burlap in the day and put it on at night.

X

X, I got a low reading yesterday morning of 25, so we broke a record for this date out here in Flowertown, didn't we! My GH thermometer died.
I was just saying over on Core's thread, that this seems very cold for November. Usually we haven't had two nights in the 20s until well into January somewhere, right?
Deb

Hey X I'm with you on that. It's PC to say the earth is warming out of control but I just don't think that call can be made right now. Late 70's they said we were going into another ice age. ????

I do know weather goes in cycles some times very big cycles and I do believe sun spots do effect a lot of things. You're right that sun spot activity is very low to almost nothing last I saw. Not something I keep a close eye on. LOL.

I also had a 5 th grade teacher who said the oil companies had the formula to turn water into gas but they were keeping that a secret so they could make more money. When a 5 th grader wants to call BS you have to wonder how smart some of those teachers were?

Deb, records are being broken all over the world for winter temps and winter precipitation. It was snowing in London UK in October. First time in 70 years! This early winter we're having is really messing up my garden schedule! Thought I had time to get certain things done.

All I can say is thank goodness for electric blankets and burlap! The worst part about the first hard freeze is the smell. I hate walking out in my backyard cause all those dead leaves and plants stink!

X

That's why I don't push my zone when it comes to important plants. I play with tropicals to see if they will live through the winter but I don't baby them. My citrus trees are out there unprotected but I took a lot of time to get the hardy ones. Last year they were young so I covered them etc but this year they're flying solo.

Found something about the sunspots. http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31:vanishing-sunspots-prelude-to-global-cooling&catid=1:latest

Never got below 50 here last night and the high today is supposed to be 52. Sheeeesh
From what I can gather, the rest of the south (like Houston ) is staying nice and warm; it is just the coastal states that are freezing. The forecast is for 30 tonight; I am already sniffling from these freaky weather swings; I can't imagine what the plants are feeling.

My citrus trees are chock full of fruit but I am told it should be OK as it doesn't stay too cold for too long around here.

This weather is getting ugly early this year. Calling for 20 tonight and as low at 18 tomorrow. I can't remember seeing temps this cold in November. Sunday could be a record by 2-3 degrees. And I wanted to start putting up Christmas lights this weekend - high of 48 tomorrow (oh heck no I'm not getting on the roof).

X, I agree on the smell - that's going to be an issue in a few more days. Looks like someone pored boiling water over everything. Things did fine at 28 and above, but that night of 21 just walloped them.

Here's dreaming of spring already.

For those who still have faith in NOAA, they actually are calling for a Warmer than normal winter. They forecast we've got another 8-14 days of this cold stuff, and then it should go back to about normal until January. From Jan-Mar they are saying it should be warmer than normal.

Warmer than normal works for me! I don't know which way the planet's headed,but I'd welcome a warmer winter! (How's that for alliteration?)

LOL, it's weird - but the more I've gotten into gardening the more I've started thinking, "Maybe global warming isn't so bad." My college professors would string me up for saying that. But then again I'm not in a zone that suffers the consequences of warming 5-10F. Ask people in Alaska if GW is real - folks near the polls will always see climate change first - in either direction.

Freakish weather like this - early snow, sudden intense heat further north in the summer, fires all over the place, drought, more hurricanes, all the tornadoes - all proof the atmosphere is growing more unstable. Of course this all happens in a lot larger span of time than our lifetimes and there are plenty of natural causes (sunspots, earth tilt, proximity to the sun, etc). I still personally believe the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is extremely unnatural and thus a cause of GW and thus instability in our climate. The even larger issue is the methane leaking out of the permafrost up north. Methane is over 20 times more dangerous in the atmosphere than CO2. Think about that the next time you drive past a cattle farm.LOL - Ironically the 'end' result isn't us all boiling with 100ft ocean sea rise, but another ice age. But that's for another thread.

Theory lots of theory. I wouldn't stay awake at night thinking about it. Like I've said before what's so wrong with being able to grow a mango in Maine??? LOL.

Just let the dogs out and it is cold here. Dogs love BTW. Gets them all whipped up.

I have a crisp 38 degrees at 11:49.

32 here already at 12:00, 8-10 more degrees to go. I saw the GH drop three degrees in the last few hours, so I went out and turned the radiator up to medium power. I have two out there now. One in each individual GH. These cold snaps give me stress.

It was 32 here this morning. Brrrrr

No cows in my neighborhood but plenty of methane in the marsh; I am convinced that is one of the reasons it normally (not like this week) stays so much warmer here. Plenty of methane in my anerobic soil also. It does not drain well and the smell when I go to dig a hole in certain wet seasons is enough to knock you down.

It's about 10:30 here and the temp outside is 39! So far the lowest it's gotten in the greenhouse is 34 degrees. Gotta love those polycarbonate panels .. not even leaves smack up against it are getting frost bit.

This is the best site I've seen for the other side of the story:

http://personals.galaxyinternet.net/tunga/OSGWD.htm

I do sincerely hope this is going to be a warmer winter .. my less than a year old 2 ton heat pump keeps clicking on to axillary heat. I'm scared to see what my electric bill for this months going to be.

26 when I got up this morning round 7.
Almost noon and only 37. Grrr. or, I guess, Brrrr!

Record on my thermometers says it was 19.3 outside last night and that it got to 38 in the GH's. One more night to go; and then hopefully we'll see some (marginally) warmer weather.

That was a record last night apparently. Previously was 21°F (2000). We should set another record tonight, last one was 20°F (1976)

This message was edited Nov 22, 2008 11:55 AM