We were 42F last night - our first night below 50 this winter.

And another laugh. We are forecasted to be 27 here Friday night with winds gusts to 40 mph and wind chill of 14 degrees.

Chilly.  Our first bit of cold is forecast for this weekend I guess.  Lows in the upper 30's.  

Well well well. How the tables have turned!

How's that paradise thing working for you Jon?  You can always move to Michigan.

December 19th 2012; and still no sign of a real winter here in NJ ?!
I may soon be growing oranges too...

George,

You will, in time you will grow coconuts too.
I will ask Cathy to send a few cockatoos for the backyard.

Someone will have to show Jon how to shovel snow.

40 now with wind gusts.  Forcast for tonight is 25.  Got my smallest trees and berries covered, and extra mulch around my favorite larger trees.   brrrrr......

In central coastal NJ we have had crazy swings to say the least.
12/7- 24F
12/8- 53F
12/14- 24F
12/16- 52 F
12/18- 57F
The figs have been away since 10/27 so I hope for the best.

I wonder how many peeps on here have not seen snow. or know of the joys of driving on black ice.

Dave - I've seen the snow in UT, NH, PA and NY and ran like h - e - double hockey sticks when I had the chance.  See below.

Jon - I'm not amuzed : )  75F here right now in the Houston area and humid like the summer : (  Not to worry though, supposed to get down to 32F here tomorrow night.  Will have to bring in the fig cuttings!

  Here  in zip code 59254 , Plentywood,MT .Out in the flat lands, along the Missouri breaks. We had a high today of 8*F or / -18*C for our Canadian friends. I just looked at the thermo on the front porch. it reads -4*F and it's 8:18 PM Mountain time. Its supposed to drop down to -15*F tonight. 

Rafed. I heard that my snow is coming your way real soon. Might even send some gorgi's way.

I'm in central Texas and I'm not laughing either.  Early in November it looked like my trees were going to be lulled to sleep... no such luck.  The weather got warmer and the trees began growing again.  Last week we had three days of low temps in the mid to upper-20s.  Despite being covered, just about all of my trees have cold damage already.  The worst of it is LSU Purple.  They were largely hardened off before the cold, but all of them look like they are damaged to the ground.  Golden Celeste, Aldo, Armenian, and Genoa are about 50% damaged.  Most of the rest have about 25% of the tops damaged. 

Tomorrow night we are back in the mid-20s.  The trees are already covered again.

Dawgdrvr - Wow, that's getting cold! -15* F  (-26*C) is pretty crazy for December. We'll hit mid -30* C (-22*F) temps most years, but those days are very limited, and usually not until January or February.

As an aside, our high tomorrow is 33*F - but I just checked the weather, and Jon is right, I see your system is headed my way! Oh well, the kids are angry about no snow right now anyways.....family in Manitoba haven't seen green for weeks, and family in Vancouver even got snow!  East coast of Canada got lots of snow recently too.  Going our turn soon enough....

Jon, it's going to be colder for sure tonight.  My Davis weather station is reading 38 degrees right now.  Dragged in a few young citrus into the house.  This is really, really cold for us here in San Diego county.  Dave, plenty of black ice experience.  As well as feet of snow experience, having lived in N. Indiana for 10 years, right in the system snow belt.  Then, 3 years in Maryland, which actually had more wicked ice storms than Indiana had, that was horrid.  SO glad to be back home in sunny, but chilly S. California.  Hope my Solo Papaya makes it through the night without cover!

It's supposed to get into the high or mid 30s in our part of Coastal SoCal tonight, then get warmer again. Brrrrrrrrr

I hate to say it but the cold is welcome........my blueberries are blooming and the peaches keep popping buds and blooming..need some cold to push them back.  Last year it stayed warm and made the blueberries go in to full bloom too early and 60% of the crop was lost when we had a cold snap.  I do feel bad as I have 2 bunches of bananas that will be ruined but such is life.  They have now changed our forecast low to 29.

77 here today , but tomorrow and a couple more days will be in low 50's with overnights in 30's , then warming up again - geesh !!

So busy with guests here last night, didn't make it to the news or forum, but at 2 AM I heard the pool pump go on.  I woke up JD, and he said, "nah!  It's the neighbors."  I didn't think so, so I got up, went to the kitchen and looked at the remote controler.  Switch said "on."  So I scrolled down and shut it off.  Then I get a message:  "Pump will stay on during freeze protection."  Wish I had that for my figs!  I guess they will go dormant soon!

Frost on the Golf Course this morning:



As for snow and ice, most Californians are within an hour or two of ski areas.  I love to ski!  Been skiing for years and years, but driving on ice is a whole new thing!

Suzi

Have our fifth frost of the season this morning, low of 32F, same as yesterday.  Normally don't get below 28F but got down to 22F last winter and 20.4F in January 2007.  I've got my pitaya (dragon fruit) and lychee covered with frost cloth to give a little protection.  I need to build a greenhouse for my pitaya but this weather is fine for everything else.

Patty, I have quite a bit of citrus, including many in 1 gallon pots and 38F is nothing to worry about.  They are fine until quite a ways below 32F.  I don't have any limes but have just about everything else.

Well, I have a couple of very young and rare citrus that put out a very late flush, so they had to come in due to the new tender leaves.  The rest I don't worry about, even my older container citrus.  These two are very young, and almost all tender, so they got hauled in.  Going to be warmer tonight and through the next week, thankfully.