I feel for the 49ers...you are so right! I don`t have a dog in that fight, but I can not begin to imagine that cold! I am worried about my roses here in Louisville,KY. I do not winter protect except but some leaf mulch. Oh well.... Lesley

Poor animals in the wild.
Can you imagine what the ice age was like for our ancestors? I wish it wasn't that cold for all of you in those states where winter hits hard

I am hoping all your roses survive the arctic blast. This too shall pass. And if it's any consolation, yesterday it was -47 degrees F in Embarrass, Minnesota (yes, that's the name of the town). It puts the Arctic Circle to shame. Diane

Suppose to drop to near -10 below zero degrees this
coming Monday night into Tuesday here...

Yikes you guys! I feel for ya! We're having almost record highs here. I'm currently loving it, but I know we really NEED the cold and some rain. We're in a drought right now. The governor hasn't declared it so far, but our rainfall is lowest in decades. The nearby reservoirs are lower than ever before. And if we don't get the precip soon, there won't be much snow in the Sierras to provide us with the runoff later. Gonna be rationing I'm afraid. I may have to start collecting grey water this yr!

So, the Packers/Niners game is gonna be interesting. Of course, my husband's team is the Niners, but we like Green Bay too, cuz Aaron Rodgers is from Chico and played at Butte College, where we've all gone to school at one time or another. Gonna be a tough one to call!

Wicked cold here too. Although, today we're going all the way up to 20 something. A heat wave, lol! Then back down into the minuses again. And 6 to 12 more inches of snow on it's way. I just got the last 6 inches off the drive! The roses will be fine though. There'll be lots of "deep pruning" in the spring but they'll survive.

beth - Regular weather and I would predict the Niners. Been a rough season for the Packers this year. I think the weather is a game changer though and will work in favor of the Packers. They've already played a few frigid games at Lambeau this season.

Suppose to be cold here also. No - temps but 7 on Monday morning with snow and 5 on Tuesday morning with sun. Won't be seeing anything above freezing for most of the week. Over 1/2 of my roses are on fortuniana rootstock. I do protect with about 12" of leaf mulch. We will see this spring. As far as the game goes, passing will be funny. Green Bay should have the upper hand in the rushing game. Frank Gore is a "U" product and when he hits that cold air, I want to see the look on his face. If he has any smarts, he'll run between the tackles and let all those big body's bury him to help stay warm.

Seil, thanks for your positive thoughts on this weather :) Deep pruning is what I'm expecting. I guess they are better equipped to handle this than the spring thaw/freeze/thaw/freeze cycle that claimed some of mine last year, right? I think I lost more during that than over the winter.

Andrea

Suppose to get some snow maybe but -9 tomorrow its 40 now. Already had negative temps a couple of times in December, feel like I'm back in Nebraska instead of Kansas. Not worry about the roses outside more worried about my plants in my unheated garage.

Would I be mean if I just told you all that it is 70 degrees here in San Jose today. I was actually out and pruned a few roses! In regards to tomorrows game watch out for our 49ers. They have played for many years at Candlestick Park where it is like winter in the middle of summer. It should be a fun game to watch---Good luck to all of the players and hopefully no injuries to anyone.
Back to roses--I am a senior who lives in a condo with only porches no ground so everything gets planted in pots. I have pulled out most of my old roses that were not doing well and gave myself a gift---I ordered a dozen different floribundas. It has been a wonderful week just planning which ones to purchase and then where they will go. I am ready for spring.
Take care of yourselves all of you living in cold country. I am originally from Michigan and remember several 20 degres below zero days. My body goes out to you all.
Stay warm and look through rose books. Judith

OK, Embarrass, MN, was again the coldest place in the U.S., but this time came in at a balmy -37 degrees F. It makes sense that Embarrass was originally a Finnish settlement. No one else could stand these arctic temps (apologies to the Finns). I'm a little obsessed with upper Minnesota cold temps, since they are worse that Alaska's and fun to track. (Now I need to aplogize to the Minnesotans), two natives of which are currently sitting in my living room. Diane

So now I don't feel so bad about our 2 degrees this morning. It was cold enough for me though. We managed low 20s today, and it actually wasn't too bad being outside after the last couple of days. And it should be warmer tomorrow - going up to high 30s, 40s Monday, and then dropping into the teens that night. What happened to SPRING freeze/thaw? I only have one rose that I'm really worried about, and if the mulch and cover I did already isn't enough, it's pretty much too late to change it now, I guess. This winter has been weird for Boston.

Yes, Judith, that's just mean, lol! Enjoy your roses for all of us out here shivering!

grief - we are getting the fallout from the US icestorms....but in a dreadfully watery deluge which is again causing desperate flooding across the UK. A shameful result of under-investment in our decrepit flood defences along with massive lay-offs in the public sector (Tory scum with an evangelistic zeal to 'shrink the state'). Add that to a preponderance of development along floodplains - with all the concrete covering the soil and our little saturated island is literally drowning.

As for english houses, they are legendary in their general rubbishness - shops are predicting a huge rise in sales of hot-water bottles and ridiculous 'onesies'.

Just the mere mention of 70 degree weather made me feel
warmer...lol

Here in the sunny South we have wind chill values of MINUS 25 forecast for Tuesday with subzero temperatures (the first in 25 or 30 years).

I experienced -30 in Wisconsin during the 60s. No fun. One morning the gearshift lever of my Chevy 2 snapped like a matchstick.

But I've been a Packers fan ever since.

Sunny and 77F (25 C) here today. Sorry. Would much rather have rain. Stay warm, everyone!

Over on the fruit and orchards forum there is a big discussion of the cold complete with weather maps.

A bright spot from them is that there is a chance that the Pineapple Express will come to So. CA in late Feb.

* happy pineapple dance*

Crap. Green Bay lost. Well, makes my husband happy!

There will be a river of tears cried into beers across the state tonight...that is...as long as they don't freeze into tiny icicles as they run down the fans' cheeks.

In the 70's here too for quite a while now and with a dry wind blowing constantly. Sounds not so bad but it is. The Sierra snow pack which is the source of much California water is at a 125-year record low at 11%, breaking the record low of last year which was 12%. This is predicted to be another drought-stricken winter. I wish we could siphon off all that excess water from that drowning island across the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that no matter where you are the extreme is becoming the new normal.

Ingrid

Going down to 6 in Hotlanta Tonight!!!!!

It's 9ð right now. Tonight's low, -12ð. Tomorrow's high, -3ð. 13 inches of snow fell yesterday on top of the 6 we already had. I now have a walled driveway, lol!

Climbed up to a "balmy" MINUS 12F at my house today.

It will be -15 to -18 below tonight. At least I have winter protection on the roses PLUS 12" of snow from our Blizzard we had yesterday! We can get out!
This is the coldest we've been in over 15 years!

Take care, all of you, and may your power stay on and your roses endure to see another spring. It all sounds awful and darn dangerous.
To make all of you feel a little better (ha), the low Saturday in the nation was -36 degrees F in Big Black River, Maine; and yesterday, the nation's low was -40 degrees F in Babbit, MN. It's time for Embarrass, MN to get back in the game.
Diane

This is slightly off topic, but related to the thread--

Do you ever feel like the weather reports 'hype' how cold it will get? Here in S. Louisiana a hard freeze is a rare occurrence. Some of the weather people are predicting mid to low teens tonight, but as of 11:15PM, my outdoor thermometer still says 28 degrees. I seriously doubt it's going to drop another 10-15 degrees when it's already been dark 6 hours already. Maybe this is just something that happens here since freezes are so infrequent. It's such a hassle to wrap pipes, stow hoses in the shed and move all those pots--and then find out it really wasn't necessary. But I guess it's better to be prepared than not.

Most of my roses are putting out new growth. I guess that will put a halt to that until February or March.

OH, Jockewing, yes! All the weather has gotten hyped out of proportion since the Weather Channel started. It's the only way they can stay in business, lol. Soon they'll be naming every piddly rain cloud that rolls over head!

They name the fires in CA too

How are all of you doing in this crazy cold weather? We are having cool and cloudy alternating with warm dry winds. All the rose leaves have blown off leaving just the wind frazzled flowers on top like sad pom poms. I want to prune them just to quit looking at that sorry sight. Today was nice sweater weather and the weekend will be back to shorts again.

minus anything is too cold for me