How is your weather? (Part 1)

What kind of lamp is that?

next couple days our highs will be -2 and -15 at night not counting the windshield factor which has been -20 to -30. a cold december but not unusual up here. hopefully i put enough straw/ snow to protect my dwarf Japanese maple!

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Itā€™s just a heating lamp (bulb), runs at 250 watts. I just put it into a porcelain light socket that usually holds a regular light bulb. It ā€œonlyā€ got to 11 this morn (forecast was 8), but the temp inside dropped to 37.

The space is small enough that a bulb like that can make a difference. The cellar is half in ground, and has very good insulation around it. My late father in law built it about 25 years ago, down by the old house. Weā€™re about to run out of space in it, so, Iā€™d like to build a new one up here by us. And, have it deeper into the ground. One day.

Bulb looks like this, I got some of them at Tractor Supply for about $10 for a pair. Theyā€™re used a lot for keeping chicks warm. Also called a brooding lamp.

1045593

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Yeah i remember last spring you having some fun with those local conditions :slight_smile: Hopefully this spring is just as fun right? :wink:

Light snow todayā€¦enough to cover everything. Looks like starting tomorrow night the temp is below 0F every night for at least a weekā€¦ugh. Good week for making ice cubes.

-40Fs across Ontario this morning. Plenty of cold to tap into.

Not seeing any -20Fs yet for me hereā€¦but teens below zero are a lock for now. Should test bud hardiness on some of my trees.

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250 - that should be safe enough

I likely wonā€™t be worrying about peaches this spring. Two days with forecasts at -19F and -17F as the lows. I think I was wrong on the GFS. It looks like it is is close to dead-on for that forecast you posted about a week ago. Most likely I will hit -22 or -23F. That will fry all the peach buds. -15F last year did not do them in, but that was only a single day. Too bad, because peach buds seems hardier in spring than plums for me.

Windchills as low as -42 and -43 forecast for tonight and tomorrow. High of -10 tomorrow. Lows of -21, -25, and -20 the next three nights.

We get this kind of weather most every year, but usually not until well into January.

Reminds me of a FB memeā€¦ā€œThe air hurts my face. Why am I living where the air hurts my face?ā€

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From middle Georgia, Zone 8a:

On the one hand: chilling hours!

On the other hand: if you donā€™t hear from me after this week, just assume Iā€™ve frozen to death. :rofl:

smsmith: My husband tells a similar story about why he joined the Marine Corps. He was about 30 feet in the air on an oil derrick in December in North Texas, everything was icy, it was below freezing, and the wind (as is usual there) whipping at about 25 mph and he says he thought to himself, ā€œThere must be an easier way to earn a living than this.ā€ So he went down to the recruiterā€™s office the next week. It probably says something about the weather in North Texas (and life on the oil fields) that the Marine Corps was the easier way. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Meanwhile out here in Southern California weā€™re having ridiculous daytime temperatures in the low 80ā€™s with no rain in sight.

In the SF Bay Area weā€™ve had the winter that zone pushers like me dream about. Temps hardly dropping below 40 and only the gentlest and briefest of frosts. All of my zone 10 plants should be suffering right now but they are loving life.

We have 432 chill hours (my micro climate) so far, which is very good, according to the UC Davis chill hour calculator. The weather here (SF Bay Area) is nice but too dry, we could use some rain.

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Been pretty cold here in Boise, but not awful. It sure would be nice to be in the 50s again! I think our low this year is around 10 degrees (so far), which is great news for all my plants in the ground. I am pretty envious of all you Californians, your growing season is just around the corner! I still got 3 or 4 monthsā€¦

10 in Boise translates to 8 F in Spokane - about 5 days ago. Light snow off and on the past six days until today, 29 December - about 4 inches of heavy, wet snow and the possibility of rain tonight and tomorrow. Then the temps are supposed to drop to 10F again for several nights. This winter weā€™ll have snow on the ground quite a while, looks like.
Gotta leave the computer screen and get shovelingā€¦

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same here. its a month early.

Itā€™s definitely a month early and colder than Iā€™ve seen in a long time. Weā€™re supposed to be at -16 F on Sunday. I checked Minnesota for what I thought was going to be a giggle and itā€™s going to be warmer there. Iā€™m across the state from Chicago and 60 miles south and right on the Mississippi.

Going to be shoveling for the second time today and snow blowing my drive in a few minutes. We got 8" of snow here.

Dax

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Where in MN? Must be way down in the SE corner. Aledo, IL on NOAA showing about -1 for a low from what I can see?

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I tried to type in Minneapolis but when I clicked whatever came up on Weather Underground it was Minnesota City I believe.

Yes, -1 tonite but Sunday -16.

Crazy. I donā€™t get it. It just doesnā€™t register to me. And Iā€™m thinking whatā€™s going to happen in the coldest month, January???

Dax

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Ya, heckā€¦MN City is almost IA :grin:

Owatonna is showing -19 on Sunday night, but MN Cityā€™s temps are likely moderated a bit by the Mississippi.

Maybe January will be kinder this year? (doubt it)

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Iā€™m thinking itā€™s going to be ugly!

I have a buddy in Farley, IA and I can expect it to be 8-degrees colder almost every time I check his weather. I was thinking Iā€™d call him to let him give me ā€œthe earful.ā€

Sheesh. Gotta go shovel.

Dax

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