Texas Winter=Cancel?

[gboudx]

Easier said than done. The good news is that all I have to worry about is trimming them back, for now. They'll come back.

But if we had a hard freeze and I lost all the tender plants and palms I have, I'd lose several thousand dollars worth. That's not pocket change...

I know what you mean. We bought a model home that had 10k worth of landscaping. Most of the plants are hardy to the cold, i.e. they've survived snow, sleet, ice and temps down to 11, with sub-freezing for about 2 days. They're all dormant right now, so I'm assuming they are fine unless the roots froze over, and I doubt I'll ever have to worry about that.

[Extremeweatherguy]

I emailed Joe Bastardi asking him was there an arctic front anytime soon for the Texas coast. He said late next week.

Yeah I have heard some stuff about a possible shot of arcitc air right around New Years. I remember (I think it was New Years 2000?) when it was snowing in southern Mississippi and Alabama. I was watching football and remember being amazed by the 2-3" that had accumulated on the field! It would be cool if we could see a repeat...except for instead of MS/AL, we would see it for Houston. I'll keep wishing...but as of now there is no forecast for anything like that. Lots to watch, and January should be filled with arctic threats.

Also: I checked and it looks like Alaska will be cooling down over the next few weeks...this could spell trouble for us down the road.

[Portastorm]

Oh ... here comes Lucy with that football again ....

[Kelarie]

That was what I was thinking. Here we go again.

[ETXHAMXYL]

Talked to my sister up in Alaska last night. There warm spell is going away and they got some snow last night. They expect there temps will fall down for the next week or so. Guess it must be reloading for another round in a few weeks.
Ive discovered when they are above normal we get below normal and vise versa.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Here is a list of some of Houston's January snowfalls:

1912 - January 12 - 0.1"
1918 - January 11 - 0.2"
1926 - January 26 - 0.8"
1940 - January 22 - 3.0"
1949 - January 30 - 2.6"
1963 - January 14 - Trace
1973 - January 11 - 2.0"
1978 - January 19-20 - 0.4"
1981 - January 19 - Trace
1985 - January 2 - 1.0"


The greatest January snowfall since 1912 was 3" that fell in 1940. There have been a total of 10 January snowfalls in Houston since 1912, but there has not been one since 1985. If you do the math, Houston averages a January snowfall once every 9.4 years, but we have not seen one since 1985 which means we are WAY overdue. May be we will make-up for it this January. hmmm?

keep in mind: The greatest ever Houston snowfall (over 20") occured in early February, 1895.

[Brent]

Talked to my sister up in Alaska last night. There warm spell is going away and they got some snow last night. They expect there temps will fall down for the next week or so. Guess it must be reloading for another round in a few weeks.
Ive discovered when they are above normal we get below normal and vise versa.

Yes... typically if the West is warm, the East is Cold. Just the way the jet stream sets up.

[MiamiensisWx]

Don't worry. Texas won't get a winter cancel. Florida, however (especially central and southern Florida), will.

[cctxhurricanewatcher]

I emailed Joe Bastardi asking him was there an arctic front anytime soon for the Texas coast. He said late next week.

Yeah I have heard some stuff about a possible shot of arcitc air right around New Years. I remember (I think it was New Years 2000?) when it was snowing in southern Mississippi and Alabama. I was watching football and remember being amazed by the 2-3" that had accumulated on the field! It would be cool if we could see a repeat...except for instead of MS/AL, we would see it for Houston. I'll keep wishing...but as of now there is no forecast for anything like that. Lots to watch, and January should be filled with arctic threats.

Also: I checked and it looks like Alaska will be cooling down over the next few weeks...this could spell trouble for us down the road.

Actually, that was Sherveport and the game was the Indepedence Bowl with A&M vs. Miss State. They had no way of removing the snow in mass because hey, it was Louisianna for crying outloud. They were left with trying to sweep the yard lines with brooms and rakes. It was an amazing site.

[Brent]

Actually, that was Sherveport and the game was the Indepedence Bowl with A&M vs. Miss State. They had no way of removing the snow in mass because hey, it was Louisianna for crying outloud. They were left with trying to sweep the yard lines with brooms and rakes. It was an amazing site.

Yep... I remember watching it. It snowed here the next morning.

[weatherrabbit_tx]

Here is a list of some of Houston's January snowfalls:

1912 - January 12 - 0.1"
1918 - January 11 - 0.2"
1926 - January 26 - 0.8"
1940 - January 22 - 3.0"
1949 - January 30 - 2.6"
1963 - January 14 - Trace
1973 - January 11 - 2.0"
1978 - January 19-20 - 0.4"
1981 - January 19 - Trace
1985 - January 2 - 1.0"


The greatest January snowfall since 1912 was 3" that fell in 1940. There have been a total of 10 January snowfalls in Houston since 1912, but there has not been one since 1985. If you do the math, Houston averages a January snowfall once every 9.4 years, but we have not seen one since 1985 which means we are WAY overdue. May be we will make-up for it this January. hmmm?

keep in mind: The greatest ever Houston snowfall (over 20") occured in early February, 1895.

jan. 1940 was that the year of the all time low for houston is 5 above, and that was taken at hobby field at the time, wonder if bush would have been 0*f or below? well guess we will never know

[richtrav]

No that was Jan 1930, the coldest month ever for many Texas locales

[Extremeweatherguy]

Here is a list of some of Houston's January snowfalls:

1912 - January 12 - 0.1"
1918 - January 11 - 0.2"
1926 - January 26 - 0.8"
1940 - January 22 - 3.0"
1949 - January 30 - 2.6"
1963 - January 14 - Trace
1973 - January 11 - 2.0"
1978 - January 19-20 - 0.4"
1981 - January 19 - Trace
1985 - January 2 - 1.0"




The greatest January snowfall since 1912 was 3" that fell in 1940. There have been a total of 10 January snowfalls in Houston since 1912, but there has not been one since 1985. If you do the math, Houston averages a January snowfall once every 9.4 years, but we have not seen one since 1985 which means we are WAY overdue. May be we will make-up for it this January. hmmm?

keep in mind: The greatest ever Houston snowfall (over 20") occured in early February, 1895.

jan. 1940 was that the year of the all time low for houston is 5 above, and that was taken at hobby field at the time, wonder if bush would have been 0*f or below? well guess we will never know

Bush did not exist at the time (because, well George Bush had not been president yet...and I do not think there was even an airport in that space), but I have found official records of Houston reaching 5 degrees (with 10 degrees at Hobby). I would think it is quite possible that northern Houston could have reached 0-3 degrees during that night. The "official" coldest night in Houston was in January 1930 when Hobby hit 5 degrees. During that night, northern areas of Houston probably reached 0 with some sub-freezing readings. It is very hard to get a good idea of the area-wide temps. from those times, so definite temps. can not be confirmed. Either way, temps. that cold would mean widespread devastation for the area if they were to re-occur today. All palm trees and tropical shrubs wouild surely die as well as all tender vegitation. The landscape of Houston would look a lot different for the years to follow an event like that.

[jasons2k]

If we were to hit 5 degrees the only palms that would survive would be Windmill palms and Sabal/Cabbage palms. They are only a very small percentage of what has been planted.

Houston would indeed look a lot different. All those beautiful Date Palms at Portofino Plaza in The Woodlands would be killed.

[richtrav]

Actually most established palms in Houston would pull through a temperature in the 5-degree range, remember it did get close to that in '89. The Canary dates would have their leaves knocked off but most would come back, though it would take over a year. The California fan palm and Chinese fan palm would also get defoliated but should recover also (except maybe for some old Chinese palms). Mediterranean fan palms should make it, so would blue palms and pindo palms and saw palmettos.

You could expect all the queen palms to be wiped out, probably 2/3 to 4/5 of the true date palms, and most of the Mexican fan palms. People planting a permanent landscape usually know what's hardy enough to make it through a bad winter. Many subtropical trees would freeze to the ground but they usually recover.

[jasons2k]

The Canary Dates, True Dates, Mexican, California and Chinese Fan Palms would all be killed at 5 degrees.

http://tct.netfirms.com/cgi-bin/crdb/cr ... aBank=Palm

http://www.bg-map.com/PLMTBLA.HTML

http://www.junglemusic.net/palmadvice/p ... hardy2.htm

http://www.junglemusic.net/palmadvice/p ... hardy3.htm

http://www.gardenadventures.com/palmspage.htm

[ETXHAMXYL]

Well this is a Texas posting site isn't it...instead of talking snow we are talking palm trees....LOL

[jasons2k]

Well this is a Texas posting site isn't it...instead of talking snow we are talking palm trees....LOL

I may be in the minority, but I'm loving this nice warm spell and sun

[Portastorm]

Just took a look at the Fri 12z run of the GFS. Seems like a possible arctic outbreak could impact Texas the first full weekend of Jan. 5-7. If the full-scale trough backs any further west per what the model is suggesting ... then some mighty cold air will finally hit us.

And yes I know it's only one run and it's the GFS ... but heck, it's 65 degrees and sunny outside ... I'm scraping the bottom of the Barrel of Hope!

Here's the link:

http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod ... /fpc.shtml

[southerngale]

Well, winter did just start 2 days ago, so Lucy has plenty of time to yank that football away from us...