Your record-breaking low temps are headline news over here. How are your figs coping? Are they at risk of damage?

Got down to 31.5 here......and while my northern brothers and sisters might not consider that cold we here in Florida sure do.  

That's what I don't get about this freak weather. Your latitudes are well south of ours, yet we've got 50degr + for most of the month (not that I'm complaining, mind). The other day it was 54degrF. I expected to implement emergency protective measures by now for my loquat fruit - bought all the equipment, but totally amazed that so far it's proved redundant.

I have several 5 and 6 year old trees in ground.  We have had a couple 7 F degree nights with daytime temperatures in the teens and low twenties.  From what I can see so far, I do have some minor tip damage. I might have escaped with less damage had we not had a couple of days of 20 degree weather before my plants had gone fully dormant. Celeste and Brunswick/Magnolia will be fine. More questionable are the LSU Purple and the Alma's planted this year. They along with some BTs were small enough to bury under a mound of straw so it will only be when I uncover them that I will be able to assess the damage.  At worst, they will have to spring up from the roots which were planted deep enough to be well below the frost line.  Last but not least, I have some potted babies grouped in a cluster and buried under 12+" of straw on top and 18" on the sides.  Have my fingers crossed there. Will bring them into an unheated sun porch next month and gradually warm it up in the hope of breaking dormancy earlier so those that survived have more growing time to recover this season.

no problem for my figs. they are all in garage protected from the wind. it's about 10-15 degrees F higher than outside. it has south facing brick wall outside, so it also gets warmed up as long as sun is out. 

it's me that doesn't like the freak weather. 

Sounds like a plan Marianna. Good luck with the damage limitation MO.

Pete: I was gonna garage my potted figs, but even that has proved unnecessary so far. Beginning to wonder if I'm being lulled into a false sense of security. Is this the calm before the storm that will bite my bum in Feb?

Well it is 70 today and will be 80 by the weekend but those polar surges sometimes push a long ways south.  I blame the Canadians...but not you Chivas:)  

WillsC - That's more like it. But you needn't worry about Canada - it doesn't exist.

Loquat i have to say compared to the other day when our high of the afternoon was 14F below zero and
with windchill around 40 below now it feels much warmer today as its currently 19F above zero.

The cold air moved out least the real cold air.

Heard on radio it was 110F plus degree's somewhere in Brazil.

Originally Posted by loquat1
WillsC - That's more like it. But you needn't worry about Canada - it doesn't exist


Very soon probably Scotland may not exist either.....

Hey, don't take me too seriously guys. I was just airing an old 'joke' about the typical American's ignorance when it comes to any country outside his own borders. It may be passe now, but I recall vox pop surveys on the small screen in which said Americans revealed an appalling level of ignorance about their neighbour across the border. 

Hi, yes, it's very cold here in Chicago. I have a dozon 1 gallon potted fig trees in the garage, which i hope did not die in the arctic blast we just had.
I work at Ohare airport, we had over 100 call ins and lots of cancelations.

maybe wales. it's sort of stuck there like an appendex. but scotland? noooooooo!!!!!!! think of all the great things Scotland has given us. haggis, meat pie, bagpipes, kilts, scotch snap.... and sean connery. scotland forever!!!

You could blame me Wills but I got a good blast of it myself and I am not happy with the cold, if I never see snow again I would be very happy.

As for Scotland, if we could get some haggis over here in North America that would be fantastic, I can get a pluck, but I never can get the stomach other than cut up and frozen, I don't feel like sowing up a stomach to make some.

i could use some haggis right now. i heard you can get some stomach in chicago. i guess unless you are near stock yard that deals a lot with lamb/mutton, it would be hard to get them.

scotland has been fighting for its independence since god knows when, probably when darned normans came and started calling themselves english and suppressing the highlanders and everyone else around. i guess wales wasn't much of a deal even back then. just a piece of land with bunch of rocks and sheep where people carve love spoons and stuffs like that. 

america is another story altogether. it was an english settlement turned colony where people were english subjects. however, like any other colonies back then, the ones who were born outside of UK were treated as second class subjects. there was no representation. but back then, people actually had balls. they decided they don't want to pay tax when they were not being represented and kicked you guys out. sort of like what's going on now, but people in america have lost gonads sometime ago and the government is just ignoring the folks who voted them into the place in first place. 

ireland is a complete mess. i would be better to give n. ireland back, but then what's going to happen to all the royalists? bad situation made even worse by both side taking arms against each other. but it's been quiet for awhile now. 

as to haggis, please don't come back and say it tasted like cat food, unless you have had side to side comparison with cat food. 

all in good fun :) 

Costas my fellow european! ;-)

Forecast says as long as the cold stays in North America, mild temperatures will remain over europe...wasn't it mild for december/january?!?

It seems like the winter is coming back next week but not comparable to our Canadian and US friends.

We might have kind of bad summers most of the time, but thanks to the gulf stream it is impossible to get that cold over central Europe.

Pete: You knows your 'istory mate. Wales was actually of little interest to the anglo-saxon kings of England, and King Offa even built a 'dyke' to keep the blighters out. It wasn't until the Normans arrived that both Wales and Scotland became fair game. BTW, did you know the Normans are actually descended from the Vikings? 

As for America, yeah, I'm familiar with the taxation without representation gripe you lot had against the Brits. I was grossly oversimplifying for the sake of a little levity -it just ain't possible to squeeze the history of an entire continent in 2 sentences, is it? But you hit the nail on the head. Ironic, isn't it, that history has turned full circle, and there is no longer any real representation now? Probably hasn't been for the last 100+ yrs at least. Your Govt. is first rate at representing vested interests such as the industrial-military complex, Wall Street, the Oil & Gas industries, big corporations, etc. etc. But John Doe? Forget it. John Doe & Plain Jane just don't cut it when it comes to campaign contributions, and no dosh = no representation. It's as simple as that. BTW, colony is another word for stolen land, however else you might like to spin it. 

Royalists? I wouldn't shed too many tears for them. Nobody forced them to relocate. If they don't like being ruled by Dublin they can always upsticks and go back home. After all, we let everybody else in - why wouldn't we welcome back our own?

Haggis: Never tasted cat food, so I assume you speak from personal experience? I can imagine what it might taste like from the smell........sorry, fragrance. But you've got me interested now, & I'm just gonna hafta find out which foodstore sells the most authentic version of this 'delicacy'. I'm hoping it won't smell like cat food at the very least.

Feigenbaum: I really have a hard time recalling when it was this mild. Almost no frosts to date (except for a couple of light ground frosts), and we're fast approaching what is supposed to be the coldest day in the N Hemisphere (Jan 19), yet our forecast for next week averages 48F daytime, & doesn't drop below 35F night time. Haven't even bothered to garage my potted figs yet. And still no sign of snow on the horizon. Amazing. Yes, the Gulf Stream almost certainly the reason, but the experts say this can be turned off if the Polar cap melts. Let's hope that never happens.

Feigenbaum,
Yes,it seems like the winter is coming back in Europe,but not hear on the Balkans and Bulgaria.
We have very mild weather, dry and no snow in mountain .Very unusual.
Sinopticians say no change until end of January (possibly).