Sorry to say we have had highs in the 60sF all week. Not even fog, no rain. Those are sad conditions for California's water supply.

Barbara

The snow is beautiful....a rarity here in Atlanta. It did, however, drop to 12F last night.....burrrrrr!!!

oh poor davey ... lol

11 below at 8 am ... with 20 to 30 mph winds.. taking it 25 to 30 below...

expected high today ... -4 F ...

winds expected to continue ...

thanks god i am NOT a zone pusher .... i doubt the winds impact zone ... but i wouldnt bet a conifer on it ...

on top of that.. blistering eye popping sunshine ... thanks god a majority are snow covered from last weeks pic/post ...

really big down side is being trapped in the house with the kids ... 400 school closing in the area ... at least on massive snow days.. they can go outside ... even i wont send them out in this ... my luck daughter will pull out the clarinet.. go practice for hour after hour ...

ken

Same here Ken. Yesterday in the bright sun (which does warm my house a lot, thankfully) still it was -20 below zero. When the sun went away, it was -40. My house temp last night was 59 with the heater being ran full-time. I had to track across half of Iowa yesterday to see an old friend, that was from the westernmost part of Iowa at I-80 at the Mississippi River and I drove 2.5 hours west and saw jack-knifed semi's and cars all over in ditches and I even saw a semi truck that was solidly up against the right side of an overtop bridge's metal support - the truck went perfectly to the right of the metal beam and was stuck right up against it. Kind of hard to describe. All this mess had to have been from the night prior I'm guessing, or two nights prior. It appeared as an auto junkyard.

Dangerous cold. My toes were frozen in five minutes in top of the line Columbia boots today. Freakin' painful.

Saturday night is supposed to warm up and it looks like I'll be going snowboarding if so.

Later,

Dax

Its been ten or more years since we've had a cold snap like this. Yesterday's high (yes, high) was -9F. That's just too frigg'n cold, even for someone who's lived here most of his life. It was supposed to get down to -30 this morning, but "only" reached -26. Warming trend next week into the 30's, which will feel like 60 given what we've just experienced. On the other hand, it does tend to keep the riff-raff out. I'm pretty sure my Bhutan Pine and Sciadopitys are toast. It should be interesting to see which marginal plants I've collected over the last several years survive this artic blast.

Hi guys.I just noticed,looking at my thermometer,that -40°F equals -40°C. Crickey! I don't think I have ever experienced such temps. in all of my life.How on earth do you keep warm??? Hope you have cheap fuel or wood.
PS: Ken,resist burning the clarinet T.

Very mild here lately. The rains finally abated but we've been closed in by fog and light clouds for the entire week. Low 50s and upper 40s for high, so very nice weather for working outside. Making a LOT of progress on my five backyard conifer beds.

Basic had it a bit worse than I did. -2F for a high yesterday and -15F this morning with 20+ mph winds both days. My Sciadopitys is 80% buried so hopefully it's ok.

tj

6°C here today.

Resin

Denver three-day...

Today Jan 16 Mostly Sunny 57°

Sat Jan 17 Mostly Sunny 54°

Sun Jan 18 Sunny 56°

they were WRONG..... it got up to a balmy 6F .... or .. time to convert .... -14.44C

or 258.71K ... lol

ken

-20F last night. And I was out in it, playing a gig in a nearby town. Sure glad I have a good heater in the van.

Up where my land is, it most likely got a little colder. Will be interesting to see the fate of the Green Giants, dawn redwoods, and Nordmann firs. I'd guess those kind of temps are down near these plants lower limits of tolerance.

+oM

In Ohio for the week and depending on where you live in the Cleveland area it was between (-11 and -15F) or (-24 to -26C). And the same is predicted for tonight. It is the coldest in 15 years. Does anyone have any idea what that will do to the following:
Cedrus Atlantica glauca
Abies Pinsapo
Cryptomeria japonica
Calocedrus decurrens
Pinus thunbergii

My predictions:

Cedrus atlantica glauca - expect 20-50% death rate
Abies pinsapo - no problems
Cryptomeria japonica - minor shoot death, unlikely to be serious
Calocedrus decurrens - should be OK, unless from a southern Calif origin
Pinus thunbergii - no problems

Resin

Ah well, a heat wave here, sunny with highs at almost 80, lows at 40+. Plants don't have a clue what to do . . .love looking at all those conifers I can't grow though!

Left my house in Minneapolis at 6am and the thermometer read -19F. Got to work out in the 'burbs southeast of town and the thermometer read -29F. Thankfully there was no wind.

Ken, you're living the high life over dere. It is supposed to finally crack the above zero mark tonight and top out at 2. That calls for a celebratory Guinness. I think this will be the coldest my japanese maples experienced, so hopefully no harm done. We bottomed out at -19F or -29C last night.

Bill

Thank you pineresin for the information. I'm not holding out much hope on the Cedars and I'm just wondering how long it will take before they start to show some serious burn. I had one survive about -22C with very little burn about 10 years ago and it recovered fully but it was a very quick dip and the temps went back above 0C within 2-3 days. This is two nights in a row around -25C. I'm not holding out much hope for Pinus wallichiana either but we shall see. Any thoughts on Cupressus glabra?

Dropped to 16 here south of Charlotte, NC last night and is supposed to be 10 tonight. Today's high only reached 31 and tommorrow is only forcast to be a few degrees better. Have never seen it so cold for so long in the four years that I've lived here.
Of the few conifers I have in the ground, my three Sequioa sempervirons are mummy wrapped but had already suffered varying degrees of damage from previous cold nights. Pinus patula fine but has never seen below 15. Monkey puzzle covered as a precaution but has never shown any signs of damage in the past.

"I'm not holding out much hope for Pinus wallichiana either" - agree; that'll likely be toast.

"Any thoughts on Cupressus glabra?" - fair chance it'll be OK.

Resin

Below zero here both Wed & Thursday nights -- I think the lowest we hit was -7. Up to 13 F this morning. I covered a fall planted Cedrus deodara 'Snow Sprite' and am a bit worried about it. Other deodaras - 'Kashmir' and 'Aurea' - are too large to wrap or cover so hope they can withstand their zone 6 rating to -10. I don't like Resin's forecast for Pinus wallichiana. Our 'Zebrina' has been on a slow downward spiral for the last year anyway. These temps may have done it in.

Spring just has to get here soon.

Low temp yesterday morning (Jan 16) was 0F (-18C), high temp yesterday w/some sun was 12F (-11C), then this morning's low was -8F (-22C). This is the coldest air in the local area since Jan 1994, beating out early Feb 1996. -8F isn't near an all-time record, but it's still dang cold -- ice on insides of windows.

It's up to 15F/-9C right now this late morning, 20+F will seem like it's warm now, it's all relative.

Have to work mostly outside 9am to 7pm, was from -5F to 4F yesterday. You get used to it and the sun sure helps, but my fingers sure do get cold when the sun sets.

I know it got very cold in winter of 1977, like this for almost a month it seemed not just two or three days, but I can't remember the details. Somehow I walked to school and lived, unlike what they think the kids can do now.

12.9 here south of Charlotte, NC this morning. Almost 2:00pm now and closing in on 34 degrees. Break out the shorts.

nikkie- Depending on how well established your P. thunbergii is it may brown considerably. I've seen younger plants (less than three years in the ground) look like toast in spring only to bud out normally after similar temps that you listed. Don't give up on it if it looks bad come spring.

tj

Holy Cow! Look at all those cold temps! Climate Change must be a total hoax! It's just so gosh-darned snow-ey everywhere, Wally, I don't know why people listen to that liberal media at all!

Like Barbara, we had temps at 64 degrees yesterday. Today they are calling for 71, but it doesn't feel that warm with this artic wind we have. We are at 65% of normal rainfall. Glad I collect my rain water!
Steven

Yeah it's going to be an awful drought year, again. I'm just wishing for some god-forsaken rain. It's abnormally warm and dry for Northern California this winter. I've got a large backyard filled with cultivars of various sizes. I'm quite worried about my sequoia sempervirens "cracker's fire" along with my taxodium distichum "bush's folly", both of which need much watering-down. I'm not as concerned about my cunninghamia lanceolata "Cheney's Jowels" - it doesn't require much water at all. It's a wonderful specimen, short and squat, but quite sharp and prickly and very much able to draw blood.

How about your Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace'?

Im afraid my miniature sequoia "Little Stiffy" will not make it this winter. It was found and named by a great scientist who named himself after his own genitalia.

Sequoia,

I thought you might appreciate this cartoon.

Here is a link that might be useful: cartoon

Just looked outside and realised "little stiffy" is completely covered by 2 inches of snow. That should help it through this global warming induced cold weather.

I'm just trying to get some information about cold tolerance from some knowledgable people (like Pineresin). Why does every thread about temps have to get hijacked and go down the global warming war path? There is an entire Hot Topics forum to debate global warming and other issues. This is starting to get annoying and a waste of time.

I'm at almost 60 today ... and not much snow at 6500'. So far, this winter has been pretty mild here in Colorado. Snow in the mountains, but not too much in the front range.

Hi Bunkers. I KNEW somebody was living high up in the mountains! I suspect you also have great temp. variation
between day/night.Do you also see this as an advantage for your garden and does it allow you to grow things wich might not do well lower down? T.

Got down to 11 Saturday morning in Raleigh. Nice and refreshing! May see some snow Monday night into Tuesday! Wahoo!

It was 9F a few weeks back! This winter is coldest I can recall. Hope my potted Coastal Redwood survives. Right now, it's looking very discolored and ragged.

Sunday: High 66F, Low 36F

We live in a unique area of inland California where it cools down 30 to 40F in summer due to coastal winds following waterways into the valley. So having a high temperature of 95F with a low of 55F is common. The wind can get tiresome, but the evening temps are worth it!

Barbara

How about your Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace'?

What is this? A reference to our ex-president's secret choice of undergarment? AH HA! I KNEW IT! So repression is the culprit! Repression is the reason that the man felt such need to cause such havok in the world... J. Edgar Hoover, Rock Hudson, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, No matter which way you swing it, repression is never the answer...