No, I got sunflowers coming up. Can't get cold if there's sunflower plants sprouting.

Forgot to mention, last night it actually warmed up to 62 by 2am. and right now at 2pm it's a frosty 55.

Lee, As always, thanks for sharing your expertise with us. I like the news that we might see improving conditions in the second half of March.

I'm not feeling good about March's weather overall and have been dragging my heels about getting any gardening chores done, other than starting seeds indoors and watering plants in the greenhouse.

Coonx, The exact same thing happened here last night (naturally, since we aren't that far away geographically) only we are further west so we had hit 63 just before midnight and then dropped to 62 right at midnight as the heat began leaving us and moving more towards you. I was expecting it since Steve LaNore had said on both the 5 and 6 pm newscasts that we were going to get warmer for a few hours instead of cooler. It was odd, but we'll take whatever warmth we can get whenever we can get it in February.

I have had sunflowers and squash volunteers sprout periodically since January, but the rabbits, deer, possum and skunks fall upon them and consume them as soon as they find them, so the young sprouts aren't gonna survive long enough here at our house to freeze. Within the fenced garden, there's tons of hollyhocks, malva sylvestris, larkspur and poppies sprouting, and a few early chamomile plants, but they can handle fairly substantial cold so I'm not worried about them.

I'm more worried about being bored out of my mind on Sunday-Tuesday when it is too cold and snowy/sleety/rainy to do anything at all outside. Even if all I do every day is carry out my 4 early tomato plants in gallon pots so they can get sunshine and then carry them inside again, at least I feel like I am doing something that ultimately will lead to a harvest.

I took advantage of the nice sunny day and put down black plastic and soaker hoses today. I live in NE Canadian County and have never planted anything before March 1st. The NWS forecast for Sunday and Monday shows snow. The 10 day at Weather Underground shows snow on Friday and Saturday. I believe I'll wait 10 or 12 days and let the plastic warm up the ground. The tortoise always wins the race.

Dawn, if you're bored, you can come and help clean my shed and look for a copperhead.

Will still clear what I can tomorrow in the area that I'm going to place raised beds at. Then place some firewood on the deck in case the power goes out.

I'll admit, I really don't watch the news that much down here. For weather, I usually just go with WeatherBug.

Did you see that guy last month that did they interviewed about the plane crash?

osuengineer, Our weather is about the same as yours. We haven't had any snow to speak of all winter, but it looks like the winter weather finally found us.

I will plant in February some years if we warm up and stay warm, but that doesn't happen often. We tend to see-saw back and forth from hot to cold and that's also hard on some cops that like more consistent temperatures. I think the last year that we warmed up early and stayed warm down here was in 2012. The older I get, the less inclined I am to plant cool-season crops too early. It just doesn't pay. Inevitably they freeze back and you have to wait for them to regrow, so there's nothing gained from planting early (or even on time).

Even the winter weeds aren't as big as usual this year. They grow well in the hot spells and then freeze back (damaged but not dead) in the cold spells. I guess I should be careful the weather has kept the weeds on the smallish side.

Coonx, The plane that crashed into the lake? I did see that although I don't recall much about the guy. Are we talking about the one who saw the plane go into the water? That was such a sad incident.

Dawn

Dawn, I was the one that they interviewed. I didn't see it go down, but did see it less than a minute before it did crash. Was barely able to see him through the trees. Did talk to some people that knew him, and none of them was surprised that he crashed.

But anyway, I get to have fun now, didn't bring in wood earlier and the furnace decided to quit. So I get to have fun cutting and hauling wood in the dark.

Perfect setup for the pecans. Love the cold early March so we don't get budbreak till April.

Enjoying the cold and snow here in tx. We had a snow day at school so I get to plant more seeds.

kim

Yuck, yuck, yuck. The cold wouldn't be so bad if the sun would just shine. The temp in the greenhouse on a cloudy day is only a few degrees above that outside. On a sunny day with no wind it can gain 30 degrees or more. I want to play in my greenhouse. But instead I will be planting some more seed in the house today. I cut the Yukon Gold seed potatoes yesterday. Now I need to buy some reds and whites next time I'm in town. Haven't bought onion plants yet, but still have some in the greenhouse to eat. This is clearly not going to be a year like 2012 when we got our last frost in midMarch. I just hope it won't be like 13 and 14 when the last frost hit in early May. It would be nice if once this long stretch of cold weather is gone the last frost hits exactly on time in mid-April. So we can all relax and not have to protect our transplanted tomatoes and peppers. What do you think the chances are?

coonx, I hope you got a lot of wood split and hauled in last night because the weather is even worse here this morning.

busy1, He released you? Uh oh. Now, don't you go out there and try to do 4-6 months worth of work the first day.

If you've got only rain in the weekend forecast, count your blessings. We have snow, but only a relatively low chance each day of mostly 20 or 30%. We finally warm up enough to have rain in Sunday's forecast instead of snow. It took Old Man Winter forever to find us down her in southern OK, but he's here now.

I thawed out a gallon of frozen, chopped tomatoes yesterday and cooked them with a bag of HamBean soup mix, so guess what we're having for lunch and dinner today? The best part of it all was cooking down the tomatoes to reduce the amount of water. As they simmered on the stove, the whole house smelled like summertime. I'm making bacon cornbread to go with the HamBean soup, and I cooked a pound of summer sausage in it, so it will be a nice filling meal. I try to have something hot and filling like that on snow days so Tim and Chris can fill up in between fire calls. Well, all the "fire" calls yesterday and today so far haven't been fires---they've been medical calls or wrecks, and mostly wrecks. It's gonna be a long day.

Scott, It is nice to have the weather's assistance with the tree nuts, isn't it? My fruit trees were so close to blooming that you could see the pink and white of the flower petals....because we'd been in the 70s and even the lower 80s recently. Then, the cold weather swooped in just in time to prevent them from blooming, which was a huge relief. Maybe they won't bloom until March. If so, that would be the first time in a long time that they didn't bloom at the end of February.

Kim, Have fun planting. It is a good thing we can start seeds of some things indoors. Otherwise, we'd just go stir crazy.

It was a great time. Very quiet and I got 7 more flats done, potted up 3 lemon babies and some broccoli. Hope to get the shelf moved tomorrow

kim

My plant shelves are at their limit so I cannot sow any more seeds until it gets warm enough to move out some flats to the greenhouse. Normally, by late February, I've already done that but I didn't want to risk it with lows in the mid to lower 20s. I haven't checked the greenhouse Min-Max thermometer since Sunday because I didn't want to open the door and let in cold air. Usually even in this kind of cold weather, the temperature will stay about 10 degrees warmer than the outside air, but it can lose that heat fast if I open a door.

We have snow in the forecast again for tonight and tomorrow morning and then again near the end of the week. I've only ventured outdoors long enough to feed the birds, bunnies and deer, which are flocking here in plentiful numbers. If I could plant my garden from the living room, where there is no ice and snow and it is nice and warm, I'd be planting. But I can't, so I've been bored beyond belief.

We always need the moisture though, so at least we're getting some moisture out of this round of winter weather.

Today's Hazard Assessment from the Climate Prediction Center doesn't bode well for much warm weather anytime soon.

Well, Alaska doesn't look too bad.

Lee, I usually love March. Right now I am not loving it so much. : )

Robert, I think Alaska generally has been having a great winter compared to what they are used to. Of course, since their wildlife is adapted to the really cold weather, I just bet their warm winter is causing problems for the wild critters.

We have snow in our forecast for tonight and tomorrow. My only real complaint about snow is that we tend to get it in small amounts most of the time---not enough to fully carpet the ground and give us a classic winter wonderland, so snow usually gives us a muddy-whitish landscape and mud. instead of a glistening white landscape. It's all good though. I think this storm, if it doesn't slide south and completely miss us, should bring wet snow, so it will add up to a little more moisture in the rain gauge and in the soil. The wildflowers that were blooming a few days ago are limp and scraggly-looking now with the blossoms closed up and brown, so I guess they haven't been enjoying freezing rain, snow, sleet and temperatures in the 20s and 30s.

I graded the snow off the driveway today and graded a "Potty Path" across the front lawn for our dog. The henbit that I uncovered still had blooms on it. I also placed bird seed along the potty path, the birds and the dog both enjoyed the path.