Florida FREEZE and Tropical Plant Damage: Coldest Since 1989

[gatorcane]

gator - that's an awesome graphic. would you mind updating that image every hour or so or letting us know where you get it from.

Here is the link to this graphic and other ones (I use them alot)

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/analysis/?type=analysis

[artist]

here is the actual url for the above -
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/rtimages ... lysisT.png

[artist]

gator - that's an awesome graphic. would you mind updating that image every hour or so or letting us know where you get it from.

Here is the link to this graphic and other ones (I use them alot)

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/analysis/?type=analysis

ooops, didn't see your post before I posted mine, gator.

[artist]

I do know that our temp is lower than what that was showing though here just west of north central palm beach county. It has been 34 for the last couple of hours and getting to the lower end of 34 creeping into 33 at any time now.

[gatorcane]

Take a look at the WV image and then loop it with the link below. It appears the band of high/mid level clouds has slowed its progress down the FL peninsula tonight as an active subtropical jet is pumping in mid-level/high-level clouds from the SW. That may mean the temps across Southern FL may not fall a whole lot more than they are now.

loop:
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/gmex/loop-wv.html

[artist]

gator, I can see off to our east clouds, but here in the Acreage we have been clear for the last couple of hours. And it is cold out there!

[psyclone]

sprinklers just shut off here and the grass is frozen. brooksville and tampa have both popped a degree during last couple of hours so at least the breakneck rate of temp decline appears to have abated...for now.

[Extremeweatherguy]

1am statewide temperatures...

Tallahassee - 26F
Jacksonville - 29F
Ocala - 25F
Daytona Beach - 29F
Brooksville - 20F
Tampa - 29F
Orlando (Intl. airport) - 30F
Orlando (Exec. airport) - 31F
Melbourne - N/A
Fort Myers - 34F
West Palm Beach - 33F
Miami - 37F
Key West - 51F

[HURAKAN]

Miami's record for today is 35ºF recorded in 1970

[richtrav]

I'm down in the Harlingen-Brownsville area of deep south Texas and can only report on the damage from last night. We generally had mid-20s in rural areas and upper-20s/low-30s in more urban or protected spots. It's still early and will be weeks before we can get a better picture, but damage is already apparent in rural areas on tender plants like royal palms and poincianas. In town things look better. If the thread stays alive I'll post back in a week or two (or three) on some results. Damage on things that leaf out late, like poinciana, may not be known until late spring.

All in all this is going to be a good freeze for people to use as a benchmark for what a gardener can expect in a "typical" cold (but not exceptionally severe) winter - these types of events used to occur every few winters back 14+ years ago. If you can't bring a plant through this cold snap you probably shouldn't be growing it; if it makes it through this cold (assuming this is the worst of 2009-10) you're either in a warm area or the spot you picked for your tender plant is sufficiently warm or your protection methods were adequate as long as you can keep it up. If I've learned one thing growing plants for 25 years it's that the previous decade of winters is a lousy predictor of the upcoming ones. "They" say warming is the trend and that may well be the case, but this winter is proving that the North American continent is still quite capable of producing cold spells that (for lack of a better word) really suck

[Extremeweatherguy]

7am statewide temperatures...

Tallahassee - 24F
Jacksonville - 26F
Ocala - 21F
Daytona Beach - 28F
Brooksville - 25F
Tampa - 31F
Orlando (Intl. airport) - 29F
Orlando (Exec. airport) - 29F
Melbourne - 30F
Fort Myers - 33F
West Palm Beach - 32F
Miami - 36F
Key West - 47F

[Extremeweatherguy]

Hours below freezing last night...

Tallahassee - 15 to 16 hours
Jacksonville - 13 hours
Ocala - 16.5 hours
Brooksville - 14 to 15 hours
Daytona Beach - 13 hours
Sanford - 12 to 13 hours
Orlando - 11 to 12 hours
Tampa - 12 to 13 hours
Melbourne - 10 to 11 hours
Fort Myers - 0 hours
West Palm Beach - 2 to 3 hours
Miami - 0 hours
Key West - 0 hours

Minimum temperatures last night...

Tallahassee - 20F
Jacksonville - 26F
Ocala - 19F
Brooksville - 17F
Daytona Beach - 27F
Sanford - 25F
Orlando (exec. airport) - 28F
Orlando (intl. airport) - 29F
Tampa - 28F
Melbourne - 26F
Fort Myers - 33F
West Palm Beach - 32F
Miami - 35F
Key West - 46F

[Ntxw]

I'm down in the Harlingen-Brownsville area of deep south Texas and can only report on the damage from last night. We generally had mid-20s in rural areas and upper-20s/low-30s in more urban or protected spots. It's still early and will be weeks before we can get a better picture, but damage is already apparent in rural areas on tender plants like royal palms and poincianas. In town things look better. If the thread stays alive I'll post back in a week or two (or three) on some results. Damage on things that leaf out late, like poinciana, may not be known until late spring.

All in all this is going to be a good freeze for people to use as a benchmark for what a gardener can expect in a "typical" cold (but not exceptionally severe) winter - these types of events used to occur every few winters back 14+ years ago. If you can't bring a plant through this cold snap you probably shouldn't be growing it; if it makes it through this cold (assuming this is the worst of 2009-10) you're either in a warm area or the spot you picked for your tender plant is sufficiently warm or your protection methods were adequate as long as you can keep it up. If I've learned one thing growing plants for 25 years it's that the previous decade of winters is a lousy predictor of the upcoming ones. "They" say warming is the trend and that may well be the case, but this winter is proving that the North American continent is still quite capable of producing cold spells that (for lack of a better word) really suck

Very good post, and it's not just the north American continent. The major population centers of the world (Europe and far east) aren't exactly basking in sun either. It's been very much below normal.

[psyclone]

a quick walk around my neighborhood reveals a delightful lack of damage. the temp here loitered around 31 most of the night and it just didn't get cold enough. i was specifically looking for ornamentals that show immediate damage after a freeze. the freezes last year were worse around here and that damage was negligible. tonight should be colder so we're not off the hook but nws has boosted my point and click low from 25 to 28...so that's a big improvement

[artist]

a quick walk around my neighborhood reveals a delightful lack of damage. the temp here loitered around 31 most of the night and it just didn't get cold enough. i was specifically looking for ornamentals that show immediate damage after a freeze. the freezes last year were worse around here and that damage was negligible. tonight should be colder so we're not off the hook but nws has boosted my point and click low from 25 to 28...so that's a big improvement

unfortunately here myself and a neighbor behind us are were showing signs of damage yesterday and today it is even worse. Most all of our palms leaves, even palmettos are -yellow-reddish as more and more of the leaves show their damage. It was amazing to watch them yesterday as the winds howled you could almost see them turning. I am afraid of what another night of this will do. I am also concerned for my plumerias and gardenias. I did pull some sticks from the plumeria a few days ago just in case.

I do know that we suffered from temps at 31 for more than a couple of hours here just west of north central palm beach county. It was more like 4 to 5.

[psyclone]

hoping for the best for you artist. my walk was quick since it's still cold and windy out but i wanted to look at plants that show immediate responses to freezing temps and on that basis we did well. the january 2003 freeze is the benchmark cold event of the last decade here and it was obvious we were hammered as soon as the sun came up on that morning. last night the temps fell very rapidly in the evening and then leveled off and even rose a notch or two overnight...it was colder here on wednesday morning so that saved us but we need another miracle tonight.

[gatorcane]

I just checked my palms (adonida, coconut, and some small Royal Palms) and I don't see any real signs of damage. Maybe some minor yellowing of the fronds on some of the fronds if you look very close but so far last year's freeze event was worse. Same as true for other tropicals in the neighborhood. Just no sign of any damage. We'll see after tonight though. Of course it may take several weeks to see the true damage.

[Extremeweatherguy]

It looks like Orlando will once again stay in the 40s for a high today. This makes a staggering FIVE TIMES this month that the high temperature has failed to get above 50F in Orlando! Considering that Orlando can sometimes go an entire winter (or two) without ever seeing a 50 degree or colder high, I consider the current 5 out of 10 day stretch to be quite remarkable.

[Scorpion]

Going to be even colder tonight than last. Just incredible. Mid 20's now forecast

[psyclone]

we are cooling rapidly here. this could be a rough night. i saw a couple of adonidias that were exposed that got nuked pretty good but the sheltered ones look ok.