78.8 … inside
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Yah, that’s why it isn’t such a good idea to try zone pushing. I try to plant a good portion of zone three stuff, so I get at least something that handles the cold weather. If the tender stuff fruits, I consider it a bonus.
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We got to 11 last night, but only 25 tonight. We got a dusting of snow this evening, but it was heavier just north of us.
Monday night is supposed to be near 0, but we seem to usually be a bit warmer than the forecast up here on the hill. Still, gonna be in single digits for lows for a few nights next week. And Jan isn’t our coldest month, Feb is.
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That’s the sweet spot, Richard. I woke up to -2.1 
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-22 with a -44 windchill here. Front deadbolt frozen again…oh well. Supposed to get alllllll the way up to -13 for a high today 
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You win the cold!
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my finances fuel line on her new 17’ outlander froze yesterday! had to put a silent glow under the engine with a big tarp over it to get it to thaw! wicked cold with a short 2 mile comute to work is bad for moisture to stay in the engine. took it on a 5mile drive after warming up and its ok now. thru some seafoam in for good measure.
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The high tommorow is 6 degrees F and -10F for the low. We are not talking about windshield those are true temperature. Right now it’s 1 degree F. This is what I consider normal Kansas weather. It sure was a warm December up until lately. January will get colder.
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Wow. Might as well be in Fairbanks AK.
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Temperatures in Maine around 9PM Eastern time. Brrr. But check out the guy in Limestone NB with the sensor (64F) mounted on his chimney!
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They Say we get another week of this, then back up to more moderate temps
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I’m right on the edge to grow Acer palmatum. A winter like this will kill the wood back kind of far. I successfully have grown Acer palmatum x circinatum ‘Herbstfeurer’ for a decade w/o any dieback. Acer japonicum gets some dieback but not much. The exotic palmatum’s with the purples and pink leaves do not survive though. Plain palmatum seedlings do.
Just south of me (well a good 60 miles I guess) a friend in the ‘Florida corner’ of Iowa at the city of Keokuk has all the fancy palmatums. If you look at the state of Iowa the southeast corner looks like the state of FL. He’s up on a bluff with the Missisippi River to one side and another river on the other side of the city. I don’t recall which river. Just that short distance is the make or break of these exotic palmatums or the difference between growing fully hard I would say all jujubes or me only able to grow (I’m going to find out) the cultivars ‘Honey Jar’/‘Candy Cane’. I have a ‘Honey Jar’ in the ground. It is covered this winter and probably good I did. Thanks to all the wisdom Tony has taught many of us I’d assume, it is possible once that bark gets thicker for the hardiness to increase a great deal.
Dax
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It is for sure colder than the last 2 years here. We had -15F last winter in December here, and then warm the rest of the winter. The current cold blast must not be affecting the east too bad, as we aren’t hearing incessant droning on about the “Polar Vortex” in the national news media yet. The snow, though, locks in some of the cold. Positive feedback loops being what they are. So we could go really cold. Or not. Rob (@warmwxrules) is probably more plugged into the long-term forecast. We could get a huge ridge and bake like last winter, too.
The last time something like this happened was 1994. You’ll probably remember assuming you’ve been there at least 5-6 years that about 5-6 years ago we had two winters back to back that were unbelievably mild. I remember it raining all winter one of those two. I remember not wearing a jacket or maybe once or twice December thru January. Maybe one snowfall that year. That was odd. We know that. But, it was great! It’s nice to enjoy something like the folks Ill assume in the southern part of Tennessee may have yearly. The thing with those zone 7b areas is they have the same plants that we do on most occasions but they get spring frosts when their plants are much further along than ours. So really, it’s more difficult for them than it is for us a lot of years.
I looked into living in zone 7b and people told me, you’d be surprised at the difficulty. And, I was.
Last year here in Aledo it was -12 twice. The rest of the winter just as you say was nothing, a complete breeze. I’m used to that here. If I see -15 once it’s just that, once… add in a few -10’s and -8’s and -3’s and that’s my winter.
Dax
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Low of 5 degrees forecasted on New Year’s Day tomorrow. I dont remember last time it’s been this cold here around west KY/TN border.
I’m just above the -2 below the 4. its cold but not unusually so for n. Maine. 10yrs. ago we broke the coldest temp. record just west of me at big black river in the allagash region. hit -50f actual air temp! remember that winter well. jan. and feb. had below 0 temps everyday. -30 --40f at night! most brutal winter i can remember! water mains buried 10ft. down were freezing and rupturing!
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As someone noted upthread, cold is relative. After some downright ugly cold days that left us feeding the cattle by pulling the bales out with the truck because the tractor protested, we woke up to -26 this morning and felt blessed. There is definitely something wrong with that.
On an up note, I will have some good info on what varieties of apples and plum will survive a very sever winter. It is the first one for some of my grafts, the last three winters have been relatively good.
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i hear you. my relatives come up from CT to visit and can’t understand why we walk around in t shirts in 55f weather. to us it feels warm because we know what REAL cold is! when i was stationed in NM in the army, me and a friend from MA went swimming at the base pool xmas day. it was 67f out and the locals thought we were nuts!
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You would have been busted out of that pool this morning. We just went from 67F with no wind at 9:40 am to 38F and 40mph wind at 9:55 am with the sun shining all the time. By noon we’ll likely have freezing drizzle.
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