Born in Cookeville and raised in Monterey my whole life. Crazy how different it is in those few short miles from Cookeville to Monterey in temps. Big change in elevation as well.
@TNHunter sounds like you have her fixed up well!
Says 38 here in Nashville, where I am working and still 31 at home according to the Weather Channel app.
We also had a frost this morning but sometimes I am gone before the frost sets in.
Around this area all the apple orchards are up on the ridges (about 600ft higher then the river). During radiational freezes (clear/calm conditions) that elevation makes all the difference as the cold (dense) air settles into the lowest areas. With advective freezes (windy/cold) the air stays mixed mostly so its pretty much cold top to bottom. Being near water also helps since water is such a great store of heat.
@warmwxrules - my Nephew who lives just north of me in the same county… has a 2 acre lake in his front yard. From his front Deck to the Lake, about 60 yards… I was thinking that should have helped last night… but it did not.
I had 34 degrees for a low… he had 29… He does not know for sure what his low was… he just saw 29 as he was leaving for work today… it may have been colder.
On his front deck his dog water bowl had a inch of ice on top… our pets water bowl on my back porch did not freeze at all, not even a thin layer.
Conditions definitely favored me this time. I will take it !
TNHunter
Always hoping for the best but tonight’s forecast for central Alabama not looking good. Blueberries/pears/apples all flowering, mulberries and a few pears already with small fruits. Mother nature keeps us humble. Do you think the “real feel” temperature is a good sign? So many variables…
25°Lo
RealFeel® 31°
4/2
Clear and cold with the temperature breaking the record of 29 set in 1992;
@drusket … they were calling for 26-28 last night for me… but my actual low was 34. Hope you get better than what they are saying.
Ps… last year when I lost all peaches apples grapes… my blueberries showed no signs of injury and still produced some good berries.
I have rabbiteye types…
Good Luck.
TNHunter
Thanks, that’s good to know. I hope that is the last of your bad forecasts this spring. I’ve only had my rabbiteyes lose their crop once in 10 yrs which is not bad at all.
I now look at 5 independent forecasts to see the range. Last night the midpoint of those was 30F and that was what we got. Tonight it looks like 29F is the midpoint. So I should be OK.
There can be an outlier and the midpoint is a bit better guess. Of course sometimes the actual is well off any forecast, either way. More often the actual is above the midpoint, but not always…
32 (uphill)/ 29 (downhill) already, and it’s not even midnight here. We got to 23/20 this morn with 27 forecast for tonight, I have a feeling we’ll be well below that by sunrise 8 hours away. The good news is that it won’t be colder than 40 for the next 9 days.
Five years ago I didn’t care at all about cold weather in the spring, now I wonder if we’ll ever have a decent crop of tree fruit. Seems like an expensive fail. No peaches, two pears, and maybe a couple dozen apples over the years, and most of my trees will be 5th or 6th leaf this year.
The only things that have kept this from a total fruit failure are our blackberries and strawberries.
Our local stations were predicting 31-33 last night…
I went to Walmart yesterday and got me a new merc tempurture guage… or thermometer… accu-rite brand… 2 bucks…
So now I have a digital… and 2 merc’s collecting temps on my back porch.
My other merc is 25 years old or more…
This morn at 530 am.
Accurite. 33
Old merc. 35
Digital. 37
Again most mornings you will see a drop of 1 degree just as the sun comes up. Or at least I normally do here
TNHunter
Ths sun is up here now… changed to…
Accurite 32
Old merc 35
Digital. 36
TNhunter…
Was 25 at 3:30 am. 31 now.
I’m afraid to go out and look.
Unfortunately I had one of those “not always” last night, it got down to 26F. It was also pretty low for a fair stretch, the length of time is also important. Still at that temp I should keep most of my crop, except perhaps the kiwis. The apricots and Japanese plums are in bloom but nothing else is yet.
EDIT: I took a look and things don’t look too bad. There are a few singed bits on the bigger kiwi leaves and no other damage I could see. It was calm, that may have helped. Will know more about the apricots later but so far they are looking OK.
Was 24/21 here this morning, it’s still 28 up here on the hill. It’s been below freezing since 11 last night, so I imagine things got thoroughly fried that didn’t get it Thu night.
The pears and peaches that happened to bloom are prob gone, just hope some apple buds made it. I assume the plum and tart cherries are okay, they weren’t as far along. I do wonder what affect this will have on the blackberry canes that are waking up.
Despite all my best efforts (sheets, hand warmers, propane) I think I lost all the pear and peach blooms. It was just too cold. Colder last night than the previous night and heavy frost early around midnight. Most are black on the tips or turning brown, even those that were covered completely. I lost at least ten or so grafts from all the movement on the trees, although I doubt that will be all.
There is a bit of humor in this (you have to look for it, right?) The accelerator kept sticking and at one point stuck down to the floor on my Cushman ATV. I thought I had gotten it back up, pulled up to a stop and pulled on the brake to check something else. Got off the ATV, walk around to the back of it and to my surprise it kept going. It plowed at a pretty good clip into my Ozark Premier plum. The propane torch was on and as it rammed into the tree it caught the burlap I had wrapped around the tree on fire. There I was about 2am trying to put out the fire and stop the ATV from continuing to ram against the tree. Luckily it was my most sturdy tree and it wasnt going anywhere. Otherwise, it could have just knocked down a tree and continued on through the orchard catching them like a pinball machine. The fire was extinguished and I had to climb back on and reach down with both hands to pull the gas pedal back off the floor. I also ran out of gas once. Not as smooth as the night before, and it was pretty obvious by all of the icing on the buds that things were just not going in my favor.
Time for that drink I’ve been thinking of. I need to decompress.
Regina
Frozen in Virginia
I did some dissection of some of the fruit buds on my trees. To my surprise, a lot of the peach buds/blooms look to be in decent shape, not a lot of black or brown innards. But, It could still be too early to get a really accurate reading. The few pear buds/blooms didn’t look very good, tho. Apple buds looked mostly ok, but they weren’t as far along. So, if we can avoid further freezes, we might do alright.
BTW it’s sunny and 60 now.
Sorry to hear about your losses. I know how you feel. Do you have any berry plants to give you at least some fruit this year?
That was a funny story about your 4 wheeler, sounds like it was possessed. Or maybe doesn’t like plums…
My GlenGlo and PF25 peach are in bloom but look surprisingly ok after a low of 25.
Tomcot apricot is past bloom, we will see if fruitlets were damaged.
Bless your heart Regina and that of your terminator ATV. It sounds awful but you have a great story to tell and you made me laugh. Cheers, you deserve that drink. I on the other hand somehow got off lucky this go round. The leaves on most of my figs are fried but everthing with baby fruit or flowers looks totally fine. But it ain’t over till it’s over.
Yikes, glad you didn’t have worse problems! Sorry to hear about the freeze-out, you did give it a good try though.
@BG1977 I wonder if the lack of wind helped us. I remember in high school chemistry when the teacher made this super-saturated solution which he then dropped one small crystal into and it all froze solid. When there is no wind things are not moving so the “seeding” of crystallization might be held off. Of course lack of wind is generally a bad thing as the cold air pools by the ground and lowers the temperature, and that is why it got down to 26F for me I expect. But compared to windy and 26F, the calm and 26F seems like it is better.
Thanks all. Just checked in and things look a little better than originally thought! Some of those dark buds might just open! The devil ATV has been counseled and is sitting in the corner pouting. No Easter basket for him!
Happy Easter everyone!