Jay,

Brrr! Keep that super-cold weather up there, ok?

It is pretty chilly here this morning, but warm (mid-40s) compared to how cold you are. Tonight in Love County we're forecast to go down to 37 degrees. We've already been down to 37 degrees one previous night this week. Despite some hot daytime temps, the nights have some cold weather left in them.

I hope all goes as well as possible for the firefighters today. With all this high wind, there's bound to be fire issues.

We had some strong winds yesterday but today's are expected to be much worse. April sure has given us a wide variety of weather this year....everything from near-freezing to highs in the 90s.

With the high wind gusts, I bet I spend more time indoors than I'd like, and I'll cover up the tomatoes and corn plants in the garden tonight if I can keep the row covers from blowing away.

Dawn

No kidding. The subject line pretty much sums it up. When I went this morning to move the tomato crates away from the house and out into the wide open, I had to think twice.

I planned to start hardening off peppers today, but I'm rethinking that as well. Harumph.

I've been intending to post a pic for a couple of years....and post on a hardening off thread. I harden my plants in tomato crates because the tall holey sides give some initial protection from wind until the plants outgrow them. I line the crates up end-to-end, with the handle holes touching. Then I run a skewer of bamboo through the handle holes to anchor many together. This cumulative mass keeps any single crate from blowing away. I don't remember ever testing this in 60 mph gusts. We shall see.

Tomorrow we are planning to till and fence the new garden space. Woo hoo! I hope the wind won't beat us to death.

Seedmama, What a great idea that is for hardening off plants with partial protection!

I don't know about your forecast weather for tomorrow, but ours looks like it will be a perfect, sunny, clear and mild day after starting out in the mid to upper 30s. I hope to get a lot of outside work done tomorrow in weather that should be so much more pleasant than what we're having today.

Not only is it windy here, but it is cold! The last time I checked, our wind chill was in the lower 40s here.

It the new garden space brand new space?

Dawn

It's not that cold here, but is sure is windy. The bank I work at had to close because the wind shattered some of our windows. I'm at home now and it's a good thing, because part of my fence fell. I've got chainlink between the two sides of my yard and I had to run out and close the gate before my dog got out. If I hadn't been home, he would've been gone.

Leslie

Dawn, It is in fact brand new space, space I've dreamed about across the creek. Seedpapa and I had agreed it was more realistic to work on preparing it all summer for a fall garden. The fire gave us a great big head start on clearing out the grass and trees, and wiped out our old garden space, so the accelerated choice was pretty clear. Of course, we're behind, but aren't we always?

Looking forward to seeing you on the 30th!

Leslie, I'm glad you were there to get the dog. It seems like there's nothing but bad news from SW OK today. I hope you aren't blowing away out there.

Seedmama, That's what I was wondering. I guess sometimes a fire is a blessing in diguise, but I'd still rather that y'all never had to go through that experience. Go easy on Seedpapa tomorrow and don't work him too hard.

OkieTim and I are so looking forward to seeing you at the Spring Fling too, and it is getting close!

OK, everybody, double-check your forecast low and cover up (well, if the wind permits) any tender vegetation, if needed. They've lowered our forecast low for tonight from 40 to 37 to 35 to 33. I refuse to look at the forecast again for fear I'll see 31.

I think our wind gusts are getting worse and not better. It will be a miracle if I am able to cover up my corn and tomato plants tonight because it is inconceivable I can keep any covers on top of anything with wind gusting into the 40s through the mid-50s.

Dawn

My young trees are leaning waay more than I'm comfortable with in this wind. I had to stake the silver maple as soon as I got home because it was freaking me out. The tree is about 8 feet tall and is on its third year here, but it's in a very open, exposed spot. I know silver maples tend to break easily, so I didn't want to take any chances. :/

On my way to my current work location around 100 miles mainly east of where I live. I traveled through some zero visibility areas of blowing dirt. Areas where I couldn't see the road and drove by feeling the edge of the road with the right front wheel. We had a few hours of 45-54 sustained winds with gusts recorded 4 miles from my house at 60 with the top one at 61 mph. In Liberal the top reported gust was 73 mph. We lost the plant twice today due to power outages. I felt for the men having to work in the buckets today trying to repair lines and restore power. I worked 3 hours of overtime getting the station back on the second time. On my way home my boss asked what route I intended to take coming home. I told him through Liberal. He said good. As the road I traveled this morning with the zero visibility areas had lots of stranded vehicles and there had been several wrecks. People would get in the bad areas and then stop. Cars coming from behind or even from the front would hit them. The route I traveled home wasn't bad. Also the wind has died down to 10 mph. Doesn't seem like it is even blowing after the earlier winds. There was a lot of wind damage today. Jay

Jay, I don't even know how you stand up in those winds. I thought ours were bad and they were staying at 23-27 most of the day. Of course, we had rain for about half of the day as well. Nothing heavy but just consistent light rain.

When I planted my broccoli into the garden, I thought it was a little spindly looking so I planted it a little deeper than it was in the pot and prayed it would stand up. I checked it earlier today and it was stiff enough to stand up against all the wind and looks strong, so I guess it will be OK.

Our forecast for the evening is 39 with light rain, and I am hoping this week is the end of the cold weather. I covered all of the tomato plants except one and it was just too muddy to get to it. It may be a good trick to get them all uncovered tomorrow but I think I will just leave the covers beside them since tomorrow night has a forecast of 41, and who knows how many times that will change.

I really feel bad for all those guys fighting fires in this wind and I wish everyone could get a huge rain and put an end to some of the fires. As for those electric guys in the bucket....there is no way I would be up there. You are doing a lot of driving right now, so stay safe.

Jay,

That's crazy wind! It makes our gusts into the mid-50s seem minor by comparison. I'm glad to hear you made it home safely. We have less wind damage here, but had power poles snap, trees come down, power lines arc and start a couple of fires, etc. The wind was blowing my plums and peaches right off the trees, so it doesn't look like this year's harvest (if anything is left) will be big like last year's was---not that I expected two good years in a row anyway.

It was a horrible day in Texas today. One firefighter died fighting a fire in Eastland County west of Fort Worth. They haven't released a lot of details, but I believe he was in a fire vehicle burnover. He'd been a volunteer firefighter for about 20 years, 10 of them in his current dept. There are fires everywhere, lots of homes lost, lots of evacuations. Some Love County firefighters went to Clay County late this afternoon to help fight fires near Henrietta, Texas. When is this wind and fire misery going to end? I feel like Oklahoma was incredibly fortunate to have as few fires as we did today, esp. when compared with how many Texas had. Many of the Texas fires remain burning and completely uncontrolled tonight.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a good day, and I hope the wind behaves itself. We'll be starting out chilly in the morning though.

Carol, We're forecast to be around 33-35 tonight, although it has changed so many times today that I don't know what to expect. We have 'severe clear' here this evening, well, except for all the smoke and dust. Other than that, though, there's no clouds and the moon is shining bright.

I covered up what plants I could, considering the wind was still gusting into the 40s when I was out there. Tomorrow morning, when I wake up, all my floating row covers probably will be flying high in the sky over Madill or Tishomingo or someplace.

I'm hoping we have a nice, pleasant weekend with (a) no strong wind, (b) no severe weather, (c) no extreme fire weather. I wonder if that's too much to ask for?

Dawn

Dawn, I think this same thing happened last year and you had a late freeze or frost that I didn't have. I remember that I planted some things before you did. They say 39 tonight and 41 tomorrow night so I can live with that. I have backup tomatoes if I need them and my peppers are still inside.

I am waiting to add more tomato plants until I see how I can arrange my pepper plants. I'm not sure that I have room for many more toms. I have a lot of Opalka plants and I would like to have a few more in my garden, but I am running out of room fast. I have planted several of the Goliath series, but most of them came from Jay instead of the collection I ordered. So, thanks to our friend Jay, I will have plenty of Goliath seeds for next year as well since I didn't plant the new ones. I did plant the peppers from the collection tho. I like the way Bush Goliath looks and have put five of those into the garden. I could squeeze in several of those since they shouldn't get too large. I was happy with the Cluster Goliath I got from Jay last year, so I planted 2 of those this year. That was the vine I took the picture of that had 42 tomatoes on it at one time. I also remember planting an Early Goliath and a OP Goliath, so I will be trying a lot of Goliaths this year. That's a lot of hybrids for me since some years I don't plant any.

I didn't plant cherry tomatoes with my first seeds so those are still not ready for the garden but I have saved room along the chain link fence for some of them and the little size ones will probably go into pots. I have peas on the trellis where Tess grew last year but I think I will go ahead and start it there again since it shouldn't be too large before the peas will get ripped out, and it takes a strong trellis for Tess, as you know.

On Monday night I planted a lot of herbs and odd ball things and they are germinating so fast that I have to check it twice a day and remove those from the dome covered flat and get them under lights. What I know about growing herbs you could write on the head of a pin with a magic marker, so we'll see how this goes.

As far as planting outside goes, I have just about planted what I can until the weather is warmer......and dries a lot more. I have been watching my rain gauge and I am getting much more rain than the Mesonet station is recording for my county, which is always what I had suspected but not monitored.

Did you wish for too much above.. NO! Well as long as you don't expect it all. LOL Carol

Dawn yes I was relieved when I arrived safely at home last night. When I agreed to the temporary work assignment I felt that the driving especially through the areas I'm commuting through would be the most dangerous part of it. Regardless of the route I take I cross US 54. Which is way too busy to be a 2 lane highway and many of the roads intersect it at angles. It is interesting the weather changes I see from one end to the other on a daily basis.Sure glad I didn't have any plants out yet. Not sure even if the buckets I put around them would of stayed. I know at least some of the mulch I had on my beds and around my onions, garlic and potatoes is gone. Will survey the damage this morning. I had a metal wheel barrow that had several pounds of added weight from being over 1/3 full and it was tipped over last evening. Had survived all of the winds till now.

The temp was 31 when I started checking around 5:45 and is now 28.3 at 5:58. Been dropping fast. With the instant update you can watch it drop. I'm sure it will drop a few more degrees before sunrise. The good part is it won't be that cold for long. I've seen more damage at 30 degrees if there for 5-8 than at 26 if it is a just there for a few minutes. So now the length will be the determining factor. I expect it to level out by 7:30 and then start rising. If so the length of time below freezing won't be that long.

Carol that Jay person must be a real enabler. I will start potting up this weekend. Have 5 72 cell trays most with 2 plants per cell to pot up. Then need to see if anything is ready to graft yet. I have a few cells of peppers I found that were displaced that should be peaking up anytime now. Pepper germination has been slow on some and fast on others. Tomato germination was fast overall and very high. Only had 3 no shows I think and all 3 of them I knew were problem seeds. I should of soaked them in a Clorox solution first. Not too worry I have plenty to choose from.

Better go check things under the grow lights. It is now 25.5 at 6:12. May get colder than I expected. Jay

Carol,

They missed our forecast by a mile and we only went to 43 at our house and 40 at Burneyville, but I'm glad it didn't get close to freezing. I'm still expecting my 'perfect day' today, if not tomorrow (when wind and fire danger surge again).

I almost always have a freeze after you do and I blame the Red River for that, but I'm not mad at the river or anything. : )

Herbs are easy. They take a lot of neglect, practically grow themselves, and grow rampantly in a good rainfall area. I love herbs.

Jay, I think of you out there working every day when I read the Texas Forest Service's daily fire report. There are so many fires in west Texas (and, of course, in all the surrounding dry states as well).

If it doesn't start raining in your area, you're going to have to develop X-ray vision to be able to see through all the continual clouds of smoke and dust.

As bad as the winds were here, I cannot imagine how much worse they must have been there. Here, our winds howled. They just howled. I kept looking at the big old trees whipping around in the wind, leaves blowing off, limbs coming down, etc., and wondering how much longer the trees could stand there without crashing down.

My mulch is mostly in the pathways, but putting it back won't be a big deal. I had tried to put up everything that might blow or tip over, including the wheelbarrow and heavy metal lawn furniture.

I'm glad you are not expecting the cold temps to linger long. The length it stays cold sure does make a difference. I hope you didn't see temps drop much lower than 25. That's too cold for mid-April!

Today, at least here where I live and hopefully up there where you live, is supposed to be really pleasant. Of course, after yesterday, almost any weather we get will seem pleasant by comparison.

Dawn

I had 22 at 7:00 AM this morning. We were in Amarillo yesterday so missed the high winds here. It was very windy in Amarillo but not as bad as the OK panhandle. I only have potatoes, onions and radishes outside, hopefully; they will be OK. Still no rain in our forcast. When it warms up I will spend a good portion of the day cleaning up branches and putting things back in place. DH went out early to clean tumbleweeds out of the electric fences and get cattle back where they belong.
We are one day closer to rain and praying it comes soon.
Jan

Jan,
You were cooler than we were. 25.2 was our lowest recorded reading. It is now back up to 36. Wasn't cold that long. It was bad yesterday. I'm currently working 8 miles east of Forgan and traveling through Hooker most days. It was terrible between Hough and Hooker around 5:30 yesterday morning. As I stated in my earlier post I came home through Liberal to avoid that area. I feel for the farmers whose fields are blowing. Without rain it will only get worse. It is nice here now. Heading outside. Will work some in the garden, pot up some plants, and work on the greenhouse some. Had some bigger plants I had planned on planting this weekend but with 2 possible nights in the 30's next week will just put them in the cold frame and can move them inside when needed. Yes I'm praying also. This is the start of the 4th year for us. We never got the break last summer those around us did. Our official total for last year was 9.8 inches. Jay