captainbarbossa19 wrote:Brent wrote:I'm back home but snow last week lightning this week
Thunder in February, frost in April.
On a different note, I am not sure I mentioned this, but I had thundersnow last Monday.
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captainbarbossa19 wrote:Brent wrote:I'm back home but snow last week lightning this week
Thunder in February, frost in April.
rwfromkansas wrote:So I just noticed the quality of the Love Field airport radar on RadarScope is much better than in the past. Did they update it? Also, it seems to update every minute!
bubba hotep wrote:Ntxw wrote:Barring some kind of monstrous heat wave this week, February for DFW is 34.6F so far for the monthly average. It is going to be the first sub 40F month since December 2000. I like to use that as a metric for an exceptionally cold month. Even the cold winters of 09-10 and 13-14 did not feature such a month.
Of modern history here are the few months that have achieved such a status. Some elite winters. One subtle common theme, except for the late 70s..they are more likely to occur in a...La Nina than El Nino. Often accompanied by a severe -EPO or -AO.
February 2021...?December 2000
December 1989
January 1985
January 1984
December 1983
January 1979
February 1978
January 1978 <- 33.8 (record coldest month for DFW)
January 1977
January 1963
January 1962
January 1949
January 1940
January 1930
February 1929
January 1918
December 1914
December 1909
February 1905
January 1905
February 1899
One thing is certain, all of the 0F (there are only 5 including this year) or lower readings have occurred on years exclusive to this list.
Edit: 2021 is also joins 1899, 1918, and 1989 with 2 top 10 lowest temperature readings on record. -2F and 4F.
This will be an elite month when it comes to cold but the Southern Plains were already busting a lot of winter outlooks before this cold snap put the nail in the coffin of the warm & dry Southern Plains winter forecast.
psyclone wrote:Any insight as to the extent of damage to the hardy (and not so hardy) palms and semi tropical plants in coastal/south Texas? That was some insane cold, even for tougher species. I know there are some royal palms down around Brownsville and they really don't like cold.
richtrav wrote:psyclone wrote:Any insight as to the extent of damage to the hardy (and not so hardy) palms and semi tropical plants in coastal/south Texas? That was some insane cold, even for tougher species. I know there are some royal palms down around Brownsville and they really don't like cold.
Yeah I can answer that. It is turning out to be pretty hard on them, you are right they don’t like it. Large royal palms in the middle of Brownsville have the best shot at making it, they had the warmest minima (24 at one downtown site) and were in that critical mid-20s range for less time than the rest of the area. Even there they have badly burned foliage but at least there is more green left in the stems. If they’re too far gone the tissue in the stem dies causing the leaf to collapse. They may or may not recover, we were flirting with what their extermination point was in Florida in the 1980s. Other tropical palms that are not as sturdy are gone, their skinnier trunks are already bleeding sap. Pygmy dates are burned even in Brownsville, I don’t know how many will survive, probably the majority of ones not fully exposed to the elements, they’re a bit tougher. Aside from palms the most tender stuff is going to take a big hit either to the ground or large diameter wood (royal poincianas, ornamental figs, mangoes, avocados, etc).
North of inner Brownsville the damage is extending into more subtropical plants as well. Some plants that are completely safe most winters (such as queen palms) have recently begun to show scorch but it’s variable and uneven, some look decent while others are straw. Same with ponytails and tropical yucca. These should recover. Citrus got scorched in the fields but they hopefully will not have extensive wood damage, in yards they look a lot better except for the limes. All in all this is consistent with some of the hardest freezes from the first half of the 20th century, when the citrus industry in the state was forced south of the King Ranch. Back then frosts were more frequent and true tropicals were planted on a more limited basis, with people preferring subtropicals that could take a little cold. At this time most subtropicals (bottlebrushes, eucalypts, Mexican fan palms, kapoks/shaving brush trees, etc) appear to have survived a brush with death. But tender shrubs like crotons or ixoras will have to be replaced if they weren’t covered. Frost cloth and/or thick painter’s plastic worked wonders on tropicals if they could be covered from top to bottom, no heating was needed.
The good news is that the area doesn’t look post-apocalyptic the way it did after the disaster of the 1983 freeze. This was more like 1930. Now north of the King Ranch the damage to tender and semi-hardy unprotected plants is probably going to be much more extensive given their lows.
richtrav wrote:psyclone wrote:Any insight as to the extent of damage to the hardy (and not so hardy) palms and semi tropical plants in coastal/south Texas? That was some insane cold, even for tougher species. I know there are some royal palms down around Brownsville and they really don't like cold.
Yeah I can answer that. It is turning out to be pretty hard on them, you are right they don’t like it. Large royal palms in the middle of Brownsville have the best shot at making it, they had the warmest minima (24 at one downtown site) and were in that critical mid-20s range for less time than the rest of the area. Even there they have badly burned foliage but at least there is more green left in the stems. If they’re too far gone the tissue in the stem dies causing the leaf to collapse. They may or may not recover, we were flirting with what their extermination point was in Florida in the 1980s. Other tropical palms that are not as sturdy are gone, their skinnier trunks are already bleeding sap. Pygmy dates are burned even in Brownsville, I don’t know how many will survive, probably the majority of ones not fully exposed to the elements, they’re a bit tougher. Aside from palms the most tender stuff is going to take a big hit either to the ground or large diameter wood (royal poincianas, ornamental figs, mangoes, avocados, etc).
North of inner Brownsville the damage is extending into more subtropical plants as well. Some plants that are completely safe most winters (such as queen palms) have recently begun to show scorch but it’s variable and uneven, some look decent while others are straw. Same with ponytails and tropical yucca. These should recover. Citrus got scorched in the fields but they hopefully will not have extensive wood damage, in yards they look a lot better except for the limes. All in all this is consistent with some of the hardest freezes from the first half of the 20th century, when the citrus industry in the state was forced south of the King Ranch. Back then frosts were more frequent and true tropicals were planted on a more limited basis, with people preferring subtropicals that could take a little cold. At this time most subtropicals (bottlebrushes, eucalypts, Mexican fan palms, kapoks/shaving brush trees, etc) appear to have survived a brush with death. But tender shrubs like crotons or ixoras will have to be replaced if they weren’t covered. Frost cloth and/or thick painter’s plastic worked wonders on tropicals if they could be covered from top to bottom, no heating was needed.
The good news is that the area doesn’t look post-apocalyptic the way it did after the disaster of the 1983 freeze. This was more like 1930. Now north of the King Ranch the damage to tender and semi-hardy unprotected plants is probably going to be much more extensive given their lows.
Iceresistance wrote:Damage Estimates from the Extreme (Cold & Storm of the Century) Cold Wave in February (2021) is currently set at $195.6 billion US Dollars . . .
I don't want to see that again . . .
Ntxw wrote:Iceresistance wrote:Damage Estimates from the Extreme (Cold & Storm of the Century) Cold Wave in February (2021) is currently set at $195.6 billion US Dollars . . .
I don't want to see that again . . .
HDD days top out around 2nd behind December 1989. 2021 using the same metric is comparable to the cold snaps of 1983 and 1989 when considering impact to infrastructure, duration, and coverage for the state(s). It was by far, a generational event. It is and will be the benchmark for future cold snaps of the 21st century in the Southern Plains.
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